On The Self-Cultivation Of A Favored Concubine - Chapter 72

The scenery of the common world was vastly different from that of the Imperial Palace. Carrying the small bundle prepared for her by her beautiful Empress, Liu Qinglan traveled westward.

Along the way, her eyes were truly opened by what she saw and heard. Liu Qinglan finally witnessed the local customs and folkways of this land. It was only a pity that she was on a mission; she could only pass through these places in a hurry, catching mere glimpses of their beauty.

One day, Xie Xuanzhao suddenly heard a sound coming from the communication bell. Ding-dong, dang-dang, it was quite lively. With great interest, she set down her ink brush, propped her head on her hand, and began to listen.

From within came the sound of a long, moving aria accompanied by music, it seemed to be a Qingyi (lead female role in Chinese opera) singing lyrics on a theater stage.

At that moment, Liu Qinglan was sitting above the stage. She was passing through this place and, feeling hungry, had stopped to eat before heading out again.

Not long after she sat down, she saw a young lady in elaborate, distinctive makeup emerge. Flicking her water sleeves, the performer stood in the center of the stage and opened her lips to reveal a voice like heavenly music.

Liu Qinglan found it very interesting and opened the communication bell, wanting Xie Xuanzhao to hear it too.

At this time, on Xie Xuanzhao’s desk, three little Feifei (mythical cat like creatures) were sitting neatly in a row. They huddled around the bell, listening with rapt attention.

“Does it sound good?” Once the performer finished a long passage, Liu Qinglan sat on the eaves of the theater roof, swinging her legs back and forth as she asked impatiently.

“Meow, meow, meow~” The answer came from the cheerful cries of the cubs, indicating they loved it!

Liu Qinglan giggled. “I wasn’t asking you lot, I was asking my wife~”

“Ahem, naturally, I like it,” Xie Xuanzhao said with a smile, reaching out to rub the cubs’ heads in comfort.

The little fox spirit Liu was very satisfied. She brushed away the sesame seeds scattered on her skirt and stood up. She had just finished a local large sesame flatbread, a flavor not found in the palace. She liked it very much and silently made a note of it, planning to enjoy it with her wife when they traveled together in the future.

Throughout the journey, she used her rest periods to frantically describe the local customs to the palace bound Xie Xuanzhao, what was fun, what was delicious, what was beautiful. She told her everything in meticulous detail. “I’ve picked out a few of each kind and put them in my cosmic bag. When I return, you’ll be able to see them for yourself.”

Xie Xuanzhao reminded her, “There’s no need for the food. By the time you bring it back, I’m afraid it will have gone sour.”

“Oh, oh, right! Then I’ll bring back the fun things, the children will surely love them.” As Liu Qinglan spoke, she looked down and desperately began digging the local food specialties out of the bag, sticking her tongue out sheepishly.

“Qinglan.”

From the other side of the bell, Xie Xuanzhao’s voice suddenly came through, filled with tender affection.

“Hmm?”

“Once I am finished with the matters at hand, and after A-Yin is able to stand on her own, let us wander the world together. We will walk the paths you are walking now, see the scenery you see now, and listen to the songs you hear now. We will travel and do good deeds, walking slowly, at a pace where we stop to appreciate even a single falling leaf. We will visit every corner, alright?”

Squatting in a Phoenix tree while clutching her small bundle, Liu Qinglan clapped her hands in excitement. “That would be absolutely wonderful!”

Following her words came a crash-tumble sound.

“What happened?” Xie Xuanzhao asked hastily.

Liu Qinglan tumbled down from the tree and said gloomily, “I got excited and forgot I was holding the bundle…”

Xie Xuanzhao let out a low laugh. “It seems you really do need me by your side to look after you.”

Amidst such sweet talk, even though Liu Qinglan was traveling alone, the journey wasn’t lonely at all, it was quite fun. In this manner, she arrived smoothly at the Kunlun Snow Mountains.

“Wife, I’ve reached my destination. I need to focus on gathering the divine herb, so I can’t use the bell for a bit. Wait for me to finish and come out~” Liu Qinglan looked at the snowscape ahead, shrouded in enchantments, and became serious.

Xie Xuanzhao gave her a few more reminders, finally saying: “I will wait for you to return. You must be safe.”

Liu Qinglan promised her, tucked the bell away, took a moment to recover her strength, and then began to walk into the boundless snow.

The Kunlun Snow Region was perpetually desolate. Few people, spirits, immortals, or demons ever set foot here. This was because it was once an ancient battlefield of the War between Gods and Demons, filled with many fallen souls. Though their power had dissipated over the long ages, the area remained a cold and lonely place.

Liu Qinglan transformed into her original form. With four paws on the ground, her lithe figure dashed toward the depths. In the vast white world, a small snow white beast could be seen running tirelessly.

With a thud, Liu Qinglan bumped into a transparent mirror. She immediately assumed a defensive battle stance, but the other side was silent. There was only an ice mirror suspended in mid-air, carved with ancient patterns, mysterious and noble.

Confused, Liu Qinglan looked up at the giant ice mirror and saw a sea of red.

This red was the red of a wedding night. High candles burned, and red silken curtains hung. A woman sat on the edge of the bed wearing a phoenix crown and wedding robes, her face was elegant and enchanting, with a tear mole at the corner of her eye looking like a glistening drop. The place where she sat was covered in peach blossom petals, a hazy scene of crimson beauty.

Standing before her was another woman also dressed in wedding robes, though her appearance was different. Her eyes were deep and dark, her lips a vivid red, and her body was shrouded in a terrifying black aura. However, the gaze she directed at the other was incredibly tender, creating a strange contrast with her dark aura.

Liu Qinglan’s mouth hung open slightly. She recognized them, one was the Peach Blossom Spirit, and the other was Tao Xi. However, this Tao Xi looked very different, as if she had been completely “darkened,” which was somewhat frightening.

Inside the ice mirror, the two finished their bows to Heaven and Earth, drank the nuptial wine, and then the gauze curtains fell, obscuring the intimacy of the bed.

Liu Qinglan blinked. She watched their wedding night once. The ice mirror shimmered slightly, and in an instant, it returned to the beginning and played the exact same process again.

Liu Qinglan was now sitting on the snow, hugging her tail and watching with great interest, she only lacked some melon seeds to snack on. She served as the first audience member for this ice mirror in ten thousand years. After watching the cycle three whole times, the slow witted little fox finally realized: this damn mirror was on an infinite loop!

Liu Qinglan quickly let go of her tail, scrambled up, and circled the mirror curiously. She wondered who had left this thing here, playing that wedding night over and over again. She tried to climb the edge to see if she could move it, thinking of taking it back for the Peach Blossom Spirit to see.

But it was futile. The original owner had used profound magical power to fix it there, it would not decay for ten thousand years. Little Liu’s meager cultivation couldn’t budge it at all.

Sigh.

After a few tries, she gave up. Remembering her mission, she bypassed the ice mirror and continued inward.

The further she went, the heavier the snow fell, and the more ice mirrors appeared. Those mirrors showed scenes of the Peach Blossom Spirit and Tao Xi, feeding each other, combing hair, arguing, even fighting but mostly scenes of them being affectionate. As Liu Qinglan walked, she felt as if the world was filled with “pink bubbles” of romance.

Having been “fed” all this secondary romance, Liu Qinglan finally found the divine herb. Her eyes lit up. Clinging to the rocks with her claws, she quickly leaped up.

Sensing an intruder, the divine herb immediately withdrew, turning into a piece of withered grass and hanging its head motionlessly.

Liu Qinglan: “…” So even plants play dead to avoid enemies.

The not so stupid little fox leaned in and nudged it with her paw. The herb remained still. She nudged it again, getting so close she was almost sitting on it.

Provoked by some unknown irritation, the divine herb suddenly flared out its leaves in “anger” and turned back into a lush, translucent little plant.

“Master? You have seen my Master?”

Liu Qinglan was caught off guard. “Master?”

“You have the scent of Peach Blossom on you, it belongs to her.” The tips of the herb’s leaves trembled. It was originally an ordinary grass growing beneath a peach tree. By a stroke of fate, it ascended to divinity along with the first blossom of that tree and was personally taught by the Peach Blossom Goddess. Later, when the Goddess chose to fall and become a demon spirit, the herb lost all hope and came to this desolate place to keep watch.

Liu Qinglan realized the truth. “The Peach Blossom Spirit? She is your Master? Then why did she tell me to come and ‘pluck’ you?”

“Where did this hooligan cat come from!” The divine herb trembled its leaves in a panic.

“How am I a hooligan?” Little Liu was completely baffled, looking at it innocently.

The herb paused, realizing this was a little spirit who didn’t understand the double meaning of “plucking a flower” (a metaphor for taking someone’s virginity or intimacy). It curled its leaves. “To think you are already married with daughters and don’t understand ‘plucking flowers’… who would believe it?”

Liu Qinglan pondered, thinking she would ask her knowledgeable wife what “plucking flowers” meant when she got back.

“Forget it. What do you want to do with me if you take me back?”

Liu Qinglan said bluntly, “To take you back for my wife to eat.” She hesitated, looking at it. “But I didn’t realize you had a consciousness and had gained intelligence.”

The herb asked again, “Was it truly my Master who told you to come?”

“Yes, she said eating the divine herb allows a human and a spirit to share the same lifespan.”

The herb paused. “You have already tied your fate with that human woman under the peach tree?”

“Of course.” As Liu Qinglan spoke, she worried her mission would fail.

The herb muttered something to itself. Before Liu Qinglan could lean in to hear, the herb pushed her away with a leaf. “I don’t know what kind of luck you have for my Master to treat you so well.”

“But if my wife eats you, won’t you die? I can’t pluck you then.”

“You wanted to dig up the whole plant? Dream on. You only need to take one leaf. I will grow back on my own and return to normal after a while, so there’s no need to worry.” Seeing that she was a “good hearted cat,” the herb’s tone softened, and it explained patiently.

Little Liu clapped her paws and jumped excitedly. “That’s wonderful!”

Amused by her reaction, the herb gave her an extra leaf. “You don’t look very bright, you’re a clumsy little thing. I’ll give you an extra one in case you lose the first. Keep them safe, don’t actually lose them.”

Liu Qinglan was about to say she didn’t need it and definitely wouldn’t lose them, but two leaves had already drifted into her opened bundle. She thanked the herb repeatedly, wishing she could hug this kind “divine herb sister.”

The herb shook its leaves dismissively. “Alright, don’t dawdle. Leave quickly. It’s freezing here, stay too long and your paws might freeze off.”

Only then did Liu Qinglan feel the piercing cold. She didn’t stay a moment longer. With the herb leaves in hand, she sprinted across the snow, trying to get out before dark to avoid the blizzards.

In the front palace hall, Xie Xuanzhao picked up the three little Feifeis who had fallen asleep in a heap on the desk. She carried them to the nearby bed and covered them with a small blanket.

The three had insisted on waiting for news of their mother, but they couldn’t fight off sleep and nodded off right next to the communication bell.

Xie Xuanzhao stroked their furry heads and then looked anxiously at the silent bell on the desk. She didn’t know how Qinglan was doing or if she had encountered any difficult problems.

As she waited, she helped adjust the blankets. She saw one of the cubs move her paw, rhythmically tapping it against the blanket. She moved closer, it was Chu’er. She was sleeping soundly, dreaming of who knows what, her little paw moving so busily.

Xie Xuanzhao suppressed a laugh and poked her daughter’s paw. The pink, soft, plum-blossom shaped pad was exactly like her mother’s, only much smaller.

Thus, she waited in an agony of suspense. Since losing contact with Liu Qinglan, the days felt like years. She had never felt time move so slowly.

Meanwhile, the little fox Liu was carrying the herb leaves, traveling thousands of miles back.

Finally, on a sunny afternoon, Xie Xuanzhao heard familiar footsteps. She stood up so abruptly that she knocked ink onto the paper.

In front of the vermillion wooden door, a travel worn young woman suddenly appeared. She held two faintly glowing leaves in her hands. Her skirt fluttered in the breeze like a cloud, and her ink-black hair was loosely pinned. Having not seen her for many days, the sudden sight of her beloved caused Xie Xuanzhao’s heart to surge with a soul-stirring intoxication.

As their eyes met, Liu Qinglan flew toward her. Xie Xuanzhao reached out, caught her firmly, and hugged her tight.

“Why didn’t you use the bell? I’ve been worried to death these past few days,” the usually calm Xie Xuanzhao said for the first time like a flustered girl, grumbling as she held the little fox.

Liu Qinglan felt sheepish. “I lost the bell in the Kunlun Snow Region. I didn’t have time to go back and get it. I only thought of rushing back as fast as possible. Beautiful sister, I missed you so much!”

Seeing her return safe and sound, Xie Xuanzhao was more than satisfied. She held her hand. “From now on, we will never be apart again, alright?”

Clutching the precious divine herb, Liu Qinglan nodded vigorously. “Mmh! Never apart again.”

The warm afternoon sun shone on the two as they embraced and kissed, and on the cubs sleeping soundly nearby. The years were peaceful, and the world was complete.

The End.