Chapter Text
He knew only two things after stepping out of the Kiln as its sole survivor.
One, his name was He Xuan.
Two, he was dead.
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Did you hear? A new Supreme had emerged from the cradle of all things foul, birthed from bloodshed and bitter resentment. His great hunger had tainted the South Sea as black as his heart. Yes, yes, the waters would devour any and all ships to pass. If he was anything like Crimson Rain, they should all be wary. What chaos would this new Ghost King sow? What did Water Master Wudu have to say about this upstart making his home right beside the East Sea?
Shi Qingxuan snapped open his fan and fluttered it restlessly while he lounged on the divan. He kept one ear on the communication array abuzz with this development but the rest of his attention was on the Tumors huddled over a table in front of him. Their furious, focused mutterings echoed in the Palace of Wind and Water’s marble halls.
“Why is there another Heavenly Tribulation?” Shi Qingxuan asked, finally breaking the tension in the air. “We’ve all ascended already! Shouldn’t that be enough?”
“Qingxuan,” said Shi Wudu, brows furrowed severely, “be quiet.”
Shi Qingxuan sagged and fanned himself faster.
“These trials are part of one’s fate, Lord Wind Master,” Ling Wen said. “We, as gods, must prove our continuing worth in Heaven’s eyes.”
“Heaven only wants victors.” Pei Ming leaned his hands over the table with that cocksure tilt to his lips that Shi Qingxuan despised.
“Not victors,” Shi Qingxuan mumbled to himself but he went unheard.
Shi Wudu was to face his second Heavenly Tribulation. What it was, none of them knew, and it was driving Shi Qingxuan crazy! There must be something he could help with. Ling Wen and Pei Ming were already helping Shi Wudu track all his significant places of worship and which bodies of water were his. To anticipate potential areas of problems. But that was the thing with Tribulations; you never knew what fate would have in store.
If you asked Shi Qingxuan (not that they would), they should spend less time worrying themselves in circles trying to anticipate problems and focus on the aftermath instead. Places would be destroyed and the people would be in danger.
But fussing over mortals wasn’t their concern. Shi Qingxuan couldn’t hold it against his brother. If Shi Wudu failed, all of his hard work would be for nothing and the Heavens would spit him right out or worse. How could he pay attention to anything else with those kinds of stakes?
Shi Qingxuan snapped his fan closed. He couldn’t take it anymore! He leapt off the divan and fled.
“And where are you going?” Shi Wudu asked.
Shi Qingxuan waved over her shoulder, her body completing the shift to her female form. “Don’t you worry about me, Ge! I’ll see you later!”
“Qingxuan!”
The heavy lacquered doors shut behind her.
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In Shi Qingxuan’s restlessness, she monitored her brother’s waterways and it was thanks to this vigilance that she forecasted the arriving typhoon. Even so, nothing could have prepared them for its destruction. It ravaged the North and flooded the great river winding through it, devastating multiple provinces overnight and inundating Heaven with desperate prayers.
Shi Qingxuan descended with her brother and General Pei Ming, considering that the North was his territory. The thick and near-black storm clouds on the way down flashed with successive bolts of lightning and the thunder clapped loud enough to make Shi Qingxuan’s teeth chatter. Even the rain hated everything and sprayed at her face like needles, but a light coat of spiritual energy was thankfully enough to shield her.
Breaking through the clouds revealed the rush of murky water chewing its way through the land, crushing all in its way and consuming them.
All of the deaths from this… Water ghosts would increase for certain.
Shi Wudu’s mouth set into a firm line. “Qingxuan, calm the winds.”
She snapped her fan open and propelled herself skywards while Shi Wudu and Pei Ming continued their descent. Shi Qingxuan swiped her fan and conducted the winds beneath the ominous clouds, but they defied her every step of the way and flung her about.
Relentlessly, Shi Qingxuan calmed the gales and used her powers to dispel as much of the storm clouds as she could. She danced her way across the northern lands, fan and robes aflutter. She saved those she could, using her winds to direct the nearest helpful object to those in need, or guiding mortals with a gust. She even gave some people makeshift floats by snapping sturdy branches off a tree that they could then hold onto until help arrived. That was the extent of what she could do, even if she desperately wished to help more. Gods were not meant to meddle in mortal affairs.
The story of the banished and disgraced prince was well-known in Heaven after all.
Upon reaching the coast of the East Sea where the river drained, she tried to work her way back to where Shi Wudu and Pei Ming were, but the winds grew vicious and almost blew the fan right out of her hand. She couldn’t even wave it!
“I am the Lady Wind Master!” she called out imperiously. “Let. Me. Pass!”
The storm answered by swatting her back like she was no better than a fly.
She shrieked and went tumbling across the air.
“You rude thing! Look what you’ve done to my hair!”
No matter how she tried, she couldn’t break through. It was as though the air had formed a wall! This was unheard of. The winds always answered her.
“Qingxuan,” Shi Wudu said in her private array.
“Ge! I’m trying to get back to you, but the storm won’t let me!” She raised her fan high and struck down. A burst of spiritual power tore through the winds and rain and she dashed through, but the storm spat her right out yet again and she hit a few low-lying clouds. Pinpricks of pain stabbed into her cheeks.
Shi Qingxuan hated clouds! Clouds were the worst!
“Don’t bother with it. This is the Tribulation. Legions of water ghosts are crawling like insects out of the river. Just help General Pei near the boundaries.”
She righted herself and eyed her drenched robes with dismay. “Okay… Okay. Be safe. Don’t you dare fail or I’ll be mad! I won’t ever speak to you again.”
“You brat. See how long you last.”
She huffed and made sure he could hear it. His chuckle echoed in the array before his voice faded and she was left to stare out at the unseen boundary within the storm in worry. She snapped herself out of it and turned the other way.
For three days and three nights, Shi Qingxuan tended to the skies and its howling winds to aid the mortals while Pei Ming battled the hungry creatures in the floodwaters below. She didn’t dare contact her brother again in fear that she would distract him. How long was she meant to keep this up? Her reserves of spiritual energy weren’t infinite! Certainly nothing like Pei Ming’s.
“General Pei, is it supposed to take this long?” she demanded over the communication array. She wiped rainwater out of her eyes and didn’t bother consulting the state of her hair. There was no salvaging it.
“Have some patience, Lord Wind Master. Go back to Heaven and rest if you’re tired.”
No way she could do that. Her stomach was all twisted up and her sole source of comfort came from the longevity locket resting over her sternum. Oh, but what if he was too far for the locket to respond to?
She returned to the coastal town a little further south of the river’s delta and wrangled the storm clouds and the winds that had turned the waves biting. It worked for a moment and the storm calmed.
Shi Qingxuan sighed to herself and rested a while on the cliff overlooking the town. She closed her eyes and tapped back into Heaven’s spiritual array, unsurprised to find it in chaos since Ling Wen wasn’t there to corral everyone as she normally would. No doubt swamped with duties back at her palace because of the floods.
“What if it’s that new Supreme’s doing?”
“Do you think so?”
“Crimson Rain dared to point his sword at Heaven the moment he emerged! Is it so farfetched to think this Black Water hasn’t done the same?”
“That’s right, that’s right, he’s a water ghost!”
“What are we waiting for then? We confront him before it grows out of hand!”
“Alright, alright,” said Shi Qingxuan and sent out a burst into the array that would have been a clap were it a physical conversation. “Let’s all calm down, my Lords and Ladies.”
“Lady Wind Master!”
“Speculation won’t do us any good. My brother is undergoing his Tribulation, and if you were to charge this ghost, you may interfere. Besides, we mustn’t blame what is most convenient. This Wind Master humbly requests we all continue working hard and this will all be over soon. I’ll give merits to those who answer the most prayers!”
“Lady Wind Master is as wise as always!”
“Yes, yes, let’s work hard everybody!”
Shi Qingxuan retreated from the array but she didn’t even have time to breathe before the alarmed cries from the harbour caught her attention. She sprung to her feet and paused at the wall of near-black clouds pursuing the small fishing boats racing back to the coast. Why had they gone sailing out? Didn’t they know not to trust fair weather in the middle of a storm? They must have thought it was finished and hurried to restore their stores of food! Or maybe they did know and risked it anyway.
She took to the skies once more and waved her fan, sending a gust of wind to propel the ships forward, before she faced the approaching storm.
The wind whipped at her robes and hair. Lightning flashed ominously within the clouds.
She tucked her fan away momentarily, gathered her hair into a tight bun, and brandished her fan again.
Everything in her ached and exhaustion was squeezing her bones and all she wanted to do was lounge back in her palace with wine and fruit and good music, but her brother was no doubt working so much harder. It was only right that she helped with this.
She dove headfirst at the dark wall of clouds. The wind grew from a howling dog to a wailing child, with Shi Qingxuan as the poor, overworked caretaker trying to appease it. She was thrown this way and that. The rain stabbed into her skin. She kept a tight grip on her fan and swiped at barrages of wind, each strike accompanied by a drum of thunder.
Lightning skated past her shoulder and she yelped, backing away, but that broke her balance and the wind flung her about like cloth yet again.
When was the next Thunder Master going to ascend!? They needed one!
Shi Qingxuan stabilised herself, surrounded by the dark grey gloom.
Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall, she repeated in her head as she swiped and spun and slashed her fan. She couldn’t even see what was below her, but it was guaranteed to be the sea.
“Lord Wind Master, how’s your situation?” General Pei asked.
“Very bad!” She gritted her teeth and fought against the burst of wind shoving her back. “But I’ve got it! What about you?”
“Manageable. The problem is their numbers, not their strength, and they hide in the muddy water.”
“Any word from Ge?”
“No, nothing.”
Shi Qingxuan lost against the wind and it flung her through the clouds yet again. Bolts of lightning zipped at her. She shrieked and dodged.
“Lord Wind Master?”
“I’m fine! I’m fine! Listen, I have to go, I need to focus.”
She didn’t wait for a response and poured all of her attention into the obstacle around her.
Thunder boomed. She yelped and covered her ears, her bones rattling. No, no, she hated this! She was wet and sure she’d bruised from all the wind and rain. She had to fight the storm from below it.
Shi Qingxuan dove but a current slammed into her and veered her off-course. She flailed and let out an outraged yell.
Her own element was beating her! Oh, she would lose so much face if any other Heavenly Official were to see her now. Her brother would yell at her. Qingxuan, quit fooling around! That sort of thing. Honestly, he scolded her too much, he was unbearable! She couldn’t do this anymore, she was going back to Heaven and find herself a set of nice dry robes and drink all the rice wine she wanted.
Ah, but the mortals…
“Argh!” She wildly fanned the gales roaring around her. Come on, come on, calm down! “I’m tired, behave already!”
A savage gust slammed into her back, her left, above her. Shi Qingxuan’s feet went over her head as the storm made a pinwheel out of her and she screamed insults and threats the entire way. Wet locks of hair escaped the bun and smacked against Shi Qingxuan’s face.
A bolt of lightning hit her fan.
She gasped and let go instinctively. Her fingers tingled.
“No!” She made a grab for it before it could fall but a gale whipped her aside and the fan disappeared into the clouds.
Thunder burst all around her and lightning cracked the air in flashes. Without her fan, the storm grew from a child throwing a tantrum to a tiger with its jaws around her neck. She laughed nervously.
“Let’s― Let’s all play n-nice,” she said around her chattering teeth. She hugged herself, her robes soaked. “Jiejie was just having a little fun! No hard feelings?”
Of course, the wind wasn’t sentient and neither was the storm, so it smacked her aside yet again.
She couldn’t lose that fan! Beyond being a powerful spiritual device that doubled as her sword, that was her favourite and it had the prettiest ribs and she was quite proud of the calligraphy and it felt the best in her hand!
Lightning flashed in erratic bursts around her like the lattices of a cage. Shi Qingxuan took that as a sign and dove once more to break free of this storm. She wove between lightning bolts, shrieking when one zapped far too close, and ignored the ringing in her ears from all of that thunder splitting over her head.
She spotted her falling fan through a thin wisp of cloud and gasped. In her haste to reach it, she didn’t notice the approaching bolt until it was too late.
She hastily shielded herself with spiritual energy.
Lightning struck her.
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It began like this:
A wounded god fell from the sky and into frigid black waters.