1 The Divine Depository

"In the distant, age of myth, there was once a divine tower called the Divine Depository. Some say it was once a hundred thousand feet high, so tall that the very tip of it met the sky. It stood right in the center of the Divine Province and was home to countless deities. These great beings would spend centuries, if not more, reading through its immortal techniques and divine books. From the tower, they would watch the world ebb and flow, rise and fall, die and be reborn again. They were at ease, free and unrestrained."

A gray-haired old man sat underneath the withering branches and leaves of a giant tree. His tattered Daoist robe shook as he recounted this great legend.

A young boy, who was only six or seven years old, watched him with bright, intelligent eyes. His face, seeming to have been carved from jade, flushed. He could hardly contain himself beneath his set of threadbare robes as his heart surged at the old man's words.

But the child was as pure as he was smart. He quickly calmed from his initial excitement.

"Grandpa Jiang, are you telling the truth? Was the Divine Depository really so tall?" he asked, blinking up at the old man with great suspicion. He even stood up from the ground and moved his hands about to see if he could measure the height of the tower with them.

Grandpa Jiang let out an awkward smile. But he felt the need to maintain his dignity before the young child. He also hoped for the child to keep his pure nature for as long as possible. So he turned his face flat and said, "Certainly, the fable of the Divine Depository was handed down to me by my grandfather, who got it from his grandfather, and so on and so forth. How can it not be true?"

As he spoke, an expression of yearning appeared on his old face. It was as if he too wanted to experience the fable for himself. The child beside him, convinced by his acrobatics, revealed a look of wonder. His eyes filled with hope and desire.

"But… Grandpa Jiang…" Seeming to think of something, the boy turned his head to look at the old man. He had started to speak, but now he wondered if he should keep going.

He was very short compared to the old man. Their heights remained the same even as the old man continued to sit underneath the great tree. So when he turned to look at him, their eyes inevitably met.

Grandpa Jiang's heart jumped. He was well aware of the boy's smart and inquisitive nature. If his answer didn't please him, he might not get any sleep tonight.

With that thought in mind, he put on a serious face and said, "Speak!"

"Have you seen the Divine Depository?" The young boy grew shy at his own question. But that didn't stop his words. "Has your grandfather? Your grandfather's grandfather? Your grandfather's grandfather's…"

"Stop!"

The old man was already beginning to sweat. He knew that if he didn't stop him now, the boy would no doubt continue well into tomorrow night. He immediately thumped the forehead of the young boy and snorted, "The Divine Depository is the place where the gods live. How could ordinary mortals like us see it?"

At this point, the old man hastily stood up. He feared that the boy would continue to embarrass him with another question. He patted the dirt from his clothing and flung his giant sleeves.

"Tongtong, it's late and you've got to get to bed. You have to get up early tomorrow and sweep the courtyard," he said, running away with a shout.

"Ouch…"

The young boy rubbed his forehead. Then he lowered his head, and murmured, "If our Falling Cloud Abbey had one divine book… no three… five… no ten from the Divine Depository that would be good."

The young boy struggled to count to ten, the highest number he knew how to count to, with his tiny fingers. When he was finally done, he clapped them together and jumped up with excitement. He felt as if he had actually obtained a divine book from the Divine Depository.

"If our Falling Cloud Abbey had ten divine books, Senior Sister Linlin, Senior Brother Huahua, and Senior Brother Fatty could become very fierce. They could stop the bad people from bullying me."

The young boy looked out to the horizon; fists clenched. As he blushed with excitement, the sun began to set, covering the sky with clouds of fire. The mountain's shadows ventured forward in the places the light couldn't reach.

A cool breeze blew, curling the young boy's tattered Daoist robes and his long hair into the wind. Under the fading day, the boy's excitement quickly melted into sadness. He lowered his head and looked to his palm.

"But our Falling Cloud Abbey doesn't have a divine book from the Divine Depository," he said. Regret muddied his clear eyes.

"Says who?" a soft voice asked back.

"Who's there?!"

The boy's head shot up. But when he saw the face of the person approaching, he gave a light sigh. He carefully lowered his stance, placed a palm and fist together, and bowed.

"Tongtong greets Abbey Lord Shen," he said.

"No need to be polite."

The young man who had arrived was a frail-looking youth. His face was red, and his eyes were like the stars. His forehead was bright and clean. His eyebrows were thin and full-bodied. He was tall and as handsome as jade. But for some unknown reason, his pallor was weak, which seemed to dim his features.

'After ten million years, I, Shen Shu, have finally returned.'

Shen Shu's gaze searched the sky. He watched the sun set on its horizon, and the mountain's shadows grow longer. An indescribable look of vicissitudes glimmered in his eyes as he did. Though his body was young, his mind and soul were not. He had seen the transformations of the world and the various changes in human affairs.

"Um… Abbey Lord Shen… did you say that you have a divine book from the Divine Depository?"

A timid sound broke Shen Shu's train of thought. He looked down at the boy in tattered Daoist robes. To his eyes, he seemed a lovable porcelain doll. A gentleness flashed in his eyes as he answered, "Yes, we have."

The young boy was immediately excited. His entire body shook. He felt as if he had touched the myth in legend.

"Abbey Lord Shen, can you show it to me?" he asked, bouncing with unprecedented hope. "I've always wanted to see a divine book from the Divine Depository."

Shen Shu paused for a moment only to give an answer that immediately depressed the boy, "Not yet."

The boy's eyes thickened with disappointment.

"Ah? When?" he began.

"Wait, you aren't trying to trick me like Grandpa Jiang, are you?" he suddenly asked with a scrunched lip and a suspicious look.

"I would never deceive a child." Shen Shu chuckled and rubbed the boy's head. "When you're older, your Brother Shen will show you thousands of divine books from the Divine Depository. I'll even let you have whichever one you like best."

"Oh..."

The boy was not excited upon hearing this. Instead, his head hung low in disappointment. Grandpa Jiang had done much the same as Shen Shu. He had told him more than once that when he grew up, he would show him a divine book from the Divine Depository. He knew Grandpa Jiang had been trying to deceive him. Even so, the young boy refused to lose heart. He was not willing to believe the stories and legends he'd grown up with weren't real.

He raised his small head and looked to Shen Shu, the youngest abbey lord in the history of the Falling Cloud Abbey. At this moment, the man bathed in the afterglow of the sunset. The illumination had turned his green shirt orange, oddly reminding him of the slow-burning flames they often used to keep warm.

Tongtong had always seen the setting sun as representing the end of things and Shen Shu with his weak pallor had always mirrored that image. But today, Shen Shu no longer matched that likeness. Shen Shu stood in front of him straight as a sword and as tall as a pine. No matter how much he searched, he couldn't find that usual dispiritedness Shen Shu carried in his eyes. It had replaced by a vibrancy that resembled a rising sun that promised to bring endless light and life to the world.

"Abbey Lord Shen, do you think the Divine Depository is really a fable?" Tongtong asked, awed by Shen Shu's renewed presence.