Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chang Yuan was easy to fool when he was a hatchling; I spent that time pretending to be ‘human.’
But the adult version was a different story.
He had lost his memories and taken me for his wife, believing that we had always lived a ‘human’ life together in the mountains.
Look, smoke from a cooking fire now rises from the thatched hut beneath the old Peach Tree on Kunlun Mountain.
That was because I was forced to learn how to make roujiamo.
The crispy kind.
For a while, rumors of a ghost haunted the small town at the foot of the mountain-a ghost with a penchant for peeping on couples during their intimate moments.
That wasn’t a ghost!
It was me!
In order to play the part better, I had to know how humans actually did the deed!
I even got caught red-handed by Chang Yuan once. Apparently, some mortals had prayed to him, begging him to descend the mountain to ‘exterminate the ghost’!
That night, he led me away with a face flushed crimson.
“Wife,” he said, “you mustn’t do that. Humans are very timid; they get shy…”
Pah. The union of all things is natural; what is there to be shy about?
Nasty mortals.
Chang Yuan was the guardian of the Kunlun Water Spirit Lineage.
The spirits and monsters cultivating in the mountains would pray to him for stable peaks and calm waters.
The mortals below would pray to him for favorable weather, a peaceful home, promotions, wealth, a beautiful wife or a handsome husband, a stout son, and even dark little wishes like the early death of an enemy.
I really loathed humans.
But he treated humans and demons with equal impartiality.
There was even a time when I was almost moved by his influence!
I actually found myself capable of feeling pity for mortals!
Look at me, Heavenly Dao-I, Ling Yun, have developed a heart of mercy.
I never expected that I would fail my ‘ascent exam’ yet again!
However, I finally found the answer to the question that had always puzzled me.
Ever since I was young, I found it strange.
Why are jiao dragons reviled by everyone, yet worshipped with the deepest reverence once they become a Dragon?
Why did the world create our Jiao Clan, giving us the instinct for Zoujiao, only for the Heavenly Dao to deem it an unpardonable sin-even striking my kin with a Lightning Tribulation when they attempt the crossing?
We are clearly spirits of the Great Marsh, living and breathing in harmony with it.
Why were we created this way-powerful and beautiful, yet destined for suffering and doomed to be hated by all living things?
Now I know, though the answer is somewhat laughable.
I was made perfect only because my providence was destined to be stripped away.
It turns out that the things I have been proud of since childhood-the spirit bone and spirit marrow supported by ten thousand years of the Jiao Clan’s heritage, the inner core I painstakingly cultivated for five thousand years, and even the husband I spent over two thousand years trying to please…
They were all just preparations made for another woman I have never even met.
The ancestors of my clan always loved to say, “The will of Heaven is inscrutable.”
In truth, the Heavenly Dao was never on the side of the Jiao Clan.