Six : The Pagoda
Note: Please be warned that descriptions in this chapter can be really 'OOC' and different from the actual drama or novel, as they are based on my own imagination.
Of all the immortals in the Sky Kingdom, Liansong could be considered one of the kindest. It was said that he had intervened in the sentencing of his older brother's concubine, the snake Shao Xin, and pleaded with his father, the Tianjun Hao De, for a more lenient sentence. Shao Xin had been held at the demon-sealing pagoda, at a more lethal level as compared to the mortal woman. There had been seven levels of the pagoda in total, with the bottom-most containing the extremely powerful Guardian, whereas the higher levels had contained prisoners and monsters of different cultivation and sentences. The mortal woman was held at the fifth level, along with some other immortal prisoners who had committed minor offences. The prison on the fifth level had not contained any demons or monsters. Shao Xin had been held at the third level in the past, before she was freed after serving her sentence. With the number of demons terrifying her, it was fortunate she recovered from her ordeal after some months upon Sangji's exile as a river immortal.
Liansong heard the junior immortals grouped outside the springs talking about the arrival of High Goddess Bai Qian at the Nine Heavens, stemming a bout of curiosity in his heart. At the same time, he was concerned about his nephew and whether it would be further trouble for him now that 'Bai Qian' was in the Sky Kingdom. Then, when he was with Dong Hua, he had overheard Cheng Yu and her fox friend talk about their plans for her fox friend to infiltrate the pagoda, and he couldn't help but feel everything was connected. Dong Hua had already instructed him to lower the defenses of the pagoda to allow the fox to enter. He pondered on the meaning of Dong Hua's last words to him, "I doubt the young immortal will even last a minute inside, before she rushes out and runs for her life." Was he trying to play a game with the fox? Did it meant he knew the fox princess? Liansong questioned Dong Hua in his mind. Of course, by no means was he ever going to receive a direct answer from the unreadable Dong Hua, whose thoughts would always remain a mystery.
Nevertheless, as he had learnt from mistakes in the past, Dong Hua's words were orders, and would remain orders. While cold and emotionless, it was against his written rules to go against them, and anyone who defied them would be severely punished. This included his own adoptive sister, the Princess Zhihe, the person who was considered to be his closest relative alive, and even his loyal subordinates Chong Lin and Si Ming were not exempted from this rule. As how he put it, Liansong could not afford to incur his best friend's wrath. He did not want to become a guinea pig for Dong Hua's culinary experiments or one of his laboratory test subjects. While Dong Hua was the most powerful immortal in the Sky Kingdom and the universe, respected and feared by all immortals and even demon lords all over the realms, he had a strong passion for studying languages and obtaining knowledge from the mortal realm. These studies included biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, astrology, and even civil law and engineering. He had spent so much time in the mortal realm that he could even operate complicated machines and fly a plane. While he loved to invent robotic machines, sadly he possessed no luck with chemistry, and had burned down his mortal laboratories more than once due to his misfortune. Poor Chong Lin had to clean up the mess he left behind, and that even meant a high amount of compensation to his so-called victims and landlords that had lost properties from the blaze. The fact that he had studied law in the mortal world also meant that the agreements that he had made for the newly ascended immortals were binding, and many fainted on the spot upon reading the terms that they had been expected to sign.
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Fengjiu groaned upon seeing the numbers of levels that she had to bypass to reach the mortal woman. The deception that she would be using would again be her aunt's image, and so the fearful guards immediately allowed her entry, believing she was checking up on Yehua's mortal lover in anger. Her aunt wasn't called the 'Aunt of the Realms' for no reason. Though she had ascended to a High Goddess only at an older age, she was extremely feared due to her fierceness when she was angry. In addition, she was one of the God of War's favoured disciples, and the guards didn't want to be blown to smithereens should she suddenly lose her temper.
Once she had entered the pagoda, she was appalled to discover that in contrary to what Cheng Yu had informed her about the tight security measures of the internal system of the pagoda, somehow the system had been left unlocked without the need for a password or hacking into the system. Perhaps someone had forgotten to arm the system, the little fox thought as she carefully stepped into the pagoda. Apparently, it looked like even the CCTV cameras inside the pagoda had been turned off or was out of power. She avoided the elevators and instead took the manual spiraling staircases. On each floor, the staircases were located at different positions, and different manual mechanisms were required to advance to the next stage.
The Guardian was on the first level, so to avoid triggering it, she had to be extremely stealthy. There was no better way to do it than to slip into black leather 'thief clothes', or to simply turn into her fox form. She chose the former for a challenge without having to reveal her natural form as she was a red fox and hence turning back into a fox would reveal that she was an impostor since her aunt was a white fox. With her advanced skills in hiding in shadows, she was able to pass the Guardian unnoticed. The next level involved turning on a switch to gain access to the third floor. There guarding the switch had been a Zhuyan Ape and a Zhujian Leopard. A Feiyi Snake also existed on this floor, but fortunately for Fengjiu's fear of snakes, she could safely ignore it as it wasn't close to the switch.
The Zhuyan Ape was a mythical ape with a white head and red legs. It wouldn't take her long to defeat it, but the Zhujian Leopard, a leopard with a single eye, long tail and the ears of an ox, was harder work for her as it had a very swift pounce. Coolly, she recited a spell to summon her magical bow, and an arrow of disruption neatly and accurately pierced through the centre of both monsters, causing them to vanish from sight immediately. She flicked the switch, and quickly retreated back to the stairs to advance to the next floor.
On the third floor, a Yaksha and Nian dominated the floor, barring her route to the stairs. They were huge animals, so she summoned some rogue wolves to distract them away from the opening to the stairs. This time, a key was required to unlock the stairs, and she applied her rogue skills to pick the lock to advance to the next stage. She breathed a sigh of relief as she approached the fourth floor. One more floor before she reached her destination, she reminded herself.
The Kaiming Shou, a beast that possessed the body of a large tiger and nine human heads was the major concern here, along with other minor beasts that proved a difficult challenge to Fengjiu, should they attack all at once. Fengjiu was already extremely fatigued from climbing the high stairs and had already used the bulk of her memorised magical spells to combat the creatures of the lower floors. Due to her young age, she had a slim chance of prevailing over this extremely powerful monster, which was accompanied by several, less powerful minions. Fengjiu scratched the side of her head. There was no safe spot to rest on the floor, and doing that had the accompanying risk that she was prone to be attacked while in a vulnerable resting condition. She sighed and utilised the last of the powerful spells she had memorised - an area of effect spell. Lightning flashed in a circle around the creatures, but to her shock, some of them evaded her spell as there were too many of them.
The spell barely scathed the Kaiming Shou. She cast as many small fireballs as she could at the beast as fatigue spread through her veins. She needed to rest. The beast was lunging towards her and she immediately fled the scene, but she wasn't fast enough. It was so large and powerful, that she knew one strike from its paw would claim her little life. Just how many lives did she have?
Her heart thudded deeply as she ran, but the beast caught up with her extremely quickly. Pain gushed through her body as she felt the impact of the beast's ferocious paw strike on her, sending her flying metres away. Just as she thought it was the end for her pitiful life, she saw a man descend in front of her, landing between her and the beast. His silky-looking long straight hair reached to his back, bound by a single braid. Rays of purple light radiated around him. As he turned to face her, she recognised the ethereal beauty of his face immediately. Dong Hua! Had he come to the immortal realm to save her?
"You little fox, you don't know the meaning of danger?" he said with a yawn. His eyes sparkled as he spoke. "Danger lurks everywhere in the realms." The Kaiming Shou was glued to the floor, stationary in a bowing-like stance, as if frozen. The man removed his purple robe and it flew towards Fengjiu who was lying on the floor, slightly bloodied and aching all over. As the material of the robe enveloped her, she felt the pain lessening and a cooling and slightly numb sensation over her abdomen, as if she was submerged in a swimming pool, like how she usually swam in the weekends at the club. The man gathered her in his arms, lifting her as if she was as light as a feather, and headed in a relaxed mood, towards the elevator.
"We can't use the elevators," Fengjiu mumbled, feeling the heaviness of her head. Still, she resisted the desire for herself to fall asleep, and forced her eyes to stay open.
"Why? Are you afraid of elevators?" Dong Hua asked. Fengjiu was embarrassed to admit it, but she had run into an 'accident' in the mortal realm where she had confused the 'close door' button for the 'open door' button and had been trapped inside a moving elevator for a long time but was unable to open the door, as the elevator ascended hundreds of floors rapidly. She had been rendered to a crying mess when she was eventually rescued by a maintenance engineer. Even though she lived in an apartment, she would rather climb flights of stairs to get to her unit on the fourteenth floor than use the elevator.
"I don't have access," Fengjiu said weakly, watching as the man, who remained indifferent to her bleeding state, reached into his pocket and drew out an access card. Instead of photographs like the access cards in the mortal realm, there was a huge purple crown-like symbol on the front of the card. Fengjiu knew a crown symbolised a superior or VVIP status in the mortal world. This man had to be a VVIP in the Nine Heavens, she thought to herself.
"For someone injured, you sure have a lot to say," the man commented. "You should rest." He laid a hand on her forehead, and Fengjiu instantaneously felt her eyes getting heavy, and closed them. She heard the man say, "Rest, little fox. You will recover very soon." With that, she drifted into a deep slumber.