Chapter 10: Mortal Heart Part 3

After arriving at the White Jade Palace, Xiao Kun’s anxiety and baleful qi had been imperceptibly resolved—perhaps because spiritual qi abounded here, or due to the personal guidance of the Jumang Divine Child. He looked up at the giant tree and felt that a human life was truly insignificant. Before eternity, it was but a fleeting ripple. In the Book Pavilion, he had seen that emperors and generals who achieved immortal feats, and even Grand Demon-Exorcists who reached the pinnacle of their arts, had all become mere names and a few lines in yellowed ancient scrolls.

A sense of bewilderment arose in his heart.

Chaosheng sat on the throne in the hall and asked, “So, Brother Xiao Kun, are you leaving now?”

Xiao Kun said, “Though the immortal realm is beautiful, I bear heavy mortal duties and cannot stay longer.”

With that, Xiao Kun faced Chaosheng, knelt to the ground, and said, “Thank you, Your Highness, for your guidance and assistance.”

Chaosheng hurriedly said, “I’ll give you the Senluo Blade too, as a memento.”

Xiao Kun wasn’t sure whether to accept it.

“No worries,” Chaosheng said. “After you die, it will naturally return.”

Pi Changge fetched another Tang Dao and solemnly handed it to Xiao Kun, saying, “Do not use it to kill the innocent indiscriminately. Your Exorcism Division surely has such precepts.”

“Yes! I shall remember and never tarnish the prestige of the White Jade Palace.” Xiao Kun hadn’t expected Chaosheng to entrust him with such a supreme treasure.

Yuzhou said, “Then you’ll go down on your own? I won’t see you off.”

Xiao Kun nodded, wanting to say something more, but Chaosheng remained silent. Xiao Kun reached the plaque gate at the main entrance of the White Jade Palace. He looked back toward the palace interior, past the cloud-shrouded gates, at the giant tree.

A moment later, Xiao Kun unleashed the power of the Dragon Soaring Jade, mounted a golden dragon, and flew away from Kunlun Mountain’s barrier, descending into the world.

The blizzard atop the mountain had stopped. At the base of the hall steps, an old dragon and an old pixiu still chatted idly, like two old men basking in the sun.

“He reminds me of my younger days, when I was Chief Historian of the Great Tang Exorcism Department,” Yuzhou said. “One of my subordinates was like that too—always frowning, carrying several thousand jin of burdens.”

“Oh?” Pi Changge said. “Was one of your subordinates a tortoise spirit hauling a stele?”

Yuzhou waved it off, but Pi Changge said, “This little bro looks like an upright fellow. Mortals like him are rare these days.”

Yuzhou: “Back when I was still a carp, there were plenty like that in Tang times. Once entrusted with a task, they’d do it even at the cost of their lives.”

“Mm.” Pi Changge said, “Before you were even born, in pre-Qin times—when the Old Lord passed the passes, and Zhuangzi lived—‘heroes’ were all like that. Some spoke out in righteousness, others kept promises worth a thousand gold. These days, they’re fewer and fewer. But live long enough, and you see everything. Nothing’s surprising.”

“Sigh.” Yuzhou said. “Each generation is worse than the last.”

Pi Changge looked toward the throne in the White Jade Palace and said, “Chaosheng, want some pancakes?”

Yuzhou: “Want big brother to roll one for you?”

“No,” Chaosheng said, lost in thought. “I’m tired of them.”

Yuzhou and Pi Changge exchanged glances.

“What’s so good about the red dust?” Chaosheng suddenly said. “Fighting through scars and wounds to suffer in the world.”

At the White Jade Palace’s height, it housed over a thousand divine servants. They possessed undying, ageless lives; a thousand years in the human world was but a snap of the fingers. Here, they tended plants and animals amid laughter and joy every day. But as time passed and the human world changed seas to mulberry fields, after the Queen Mother of the West departed, a divine servant named Yao Ji was the first to leave Kunlun—and never returned.

In the centuries after Yao Ji set the precedent, divine servants followed one after another to the red dust. Without the sacred tree Jumang’s divine power to protect them, the moment they set foot in Shenzhou, time began to affect them.

The divine servants would experience birth, aging, sickness, and death in the mortal world—the only difference being the spells they had cultivated in the White Jade Palace.

Yet they went one after another, even knowing they would ultimately die. What power called to them? Just like with Xiao Kun?

Pi Changge asked, “Did you try to keep that little bro? You absolutely mustn’t—he bears too great a responsibility.”

“No,” Chaosheng said with a hint of loneliness. “I knew he wouldn’t stay.”

Chaosheng didn’t mention it, but he knew Xiao Kun had his own tasks to accomplish.

Yuzhou sighed. “The red dust is beautiful—full of delicious food, fun things, handsome men, drinking companions, music spreading far and wide, lamps burning day and night. Do you want to go, Chaosheng?”

Chaosheng said nothing.

Pi Changge stopped chewing and locked eyes with Yuzhou for a long time.

“He’s developed a mortal heart,” Pi Changge said.

“I want to go find him,” Chaosheng suddenly stood and declared. “I want to see for myself what this human world is like, that the divine servants preferred death over returning from.”

“Haven’t you seen it?” Pi Changge said. “Six years before I brought you back to the White Jade Palace at age six, you lived in the human world for a full six years.”