Portal

"So is she… one of us?" Alex turned back to look at Meihua-gu.

"Meihua-gu is an ancient being like Jiuwei. Unlike the rest, all these plant beings are in a league of their own," Kanghui replied. "Humans don't know it yet, but the plant beings can bestow a lot of luck or misfortune on them."

"What do you mean by league of their own?"

"Meihua-gu is far stronger than Jiuwei, yet she is younger by three thousand years," Kanghui replied.

In his human past, Alex never cared for plants. They lingered the background, never noticed, yet the plants are essential for humans.

In fact, Alex resented his mother's large flower garden full of thorny roses and forget-me-nots. He wished he could turn back time and perhaps garden together with his mother for more good luck. Who knows?

With good luck and blessings from his mom's flower plants, Alex wouldn't be here now but living life in the human world.

"Old plum trees - now I know why Sugawara no Michizane likes them," Arahabaki muttered.

"The Heian period Japanese politician enshrined as Tenjin? In the 9th century?"

Arahabaki nodded. "None other. He is like you, from human to final evolution."

Alex remembered how all the Tenmangu shrines, Sugawara no Michizane's shrine, where he had been to, planted plum trees. Takeshi once told him that plum flowers blossoming in February were the best in Tenmangu shrines.

"Still, the plum tree didn't bring him much luck. The Heian court exiled him to Kyushu," Alex pointed out.

"Oh, those plum trees did much more out of love shared between them - they made him a god."

"I thought that the Heian imperial court enshrined him because they believed Tenjin was so angry that his death brought disasters and epidemics."

Arahabaki chuckled. "Oh, those were the plum trees, the ones they uprooted in his residence after his exile to the Northern Court of Dazaifu, Kyushu, well… they went to Yaso."

"I thought you said anyone with intelligence won't approach Yasomagatsuhi." Alex looked at him quizzically.

"Unique situation and times then. That's why Tenjin was, at first, the Kami of disasters before he turned more benign as a Kami of scholars."

"Hey, can you introduce me to him?" Alex asked Arahabaki.

He had many questions for Sugawara no Michizane, especially about the reasons to cut off diplomatic exchanges with Tang Dynasty China.

Arahabaki shook his head. "Pity you are a scholar in your past and the both of you will get along talking about your bookworm shit. Find another one to do the introductions."

"Why?"

"He runs from me," Arahabaki replied with a shrug. "He still regards me as a scary Emishi god of the people in Tohoku whom the Kyoto Imperial court used to wage wars against during his time as a human."

Alex sighed at the answer. He should have seen this coming.

"How about any stories about roses that made the final evolution?"

"Why roses?" Arahabaki asked.

"My mother used to plant a lot of them."

"Roses? Rare," Kanghui replied, "peonies and lotuses, a couple of them downstairs. Those are the more common flowers that have made the final evolution."

"Nothing… just thinking of my mother's garden."

"Humans often disregard plants and trees, but they are powerful because they are the foundation of lives on the planet in the human world and others, too. Those rose plants will bless your mother if any of them makes it to final evolution," Kanghui said, while Alex quickened his pace to match her speed past the second-floor rooms with Arahabaki trudging behind him, quite unwilling to leave.

"Have any of them in her garden reached that stage?"

"Any dead rose plant in her garden yet?"

Alex shook his head. His mother had the rose plants in his former home since his birth. His mother used to brag about how long lived her plants were under her care. Now the rose plants outlived him.

"Thought so. So, no."

Sounds of laughter and amorous sounds emanated from behind the closed doors. Kanghui stopped at the last room at the end and pushed open the doors.

Ordinary, Alex thought as he glanced at the neat placement of rosewood furniture; a round table with wooden lacquered stools to match; and at the far side, a canopy bed stood with plain red silk curtains drawn to the side.

Nothing unusual to Alex until he looked down upon on the wooden floor. There was a circular formation of archaic bone scripts carved into it.

Alex pointed at the formation. "That's the portal?"

"Not the portal. That's only a sign that this room is for my private use."

"Private use?"

Why would Kanghui need one in an entertainment house? A smile appeared on Alex's face as Arahabaki wandered in behind them.

"Nothing too kinky, the rooms are for guests like…," Kanghui tilted her head at Arahabaki, "him."

"Hey now…," Arahabaki stopped in his tracks, surprised by her words.

"I wasn't the one flirting…," Kanghui said.

"Shut up, females can't resist me," Arahabaki cut her off and to change the topic, he asked. "So, this is the portal chamber?"

"I am female. How can I resist you?" Kanghui asked in monotonous sarcasm as she leaned against the pillar with her arms folded.

Both Alex and Arahabaki cringed at the sight of her. Pretty as Kanghui was, somehow they just couldn't see her as an attractive female.

Her eyes glowed red at them while she went to close the doors. Arahabaki took a few steps backwards, pushing Alex further behind him.

"Relax. I am opening the portal."

She placed her hand on the doors and golden archaic symbols appeared in sequence from the top along on the edges as Alex gasped. Then there was silence when the symbols disappeared. They couldn't hear the noises of the Plum House.

"Here." Kanghui pushed the doors open, revealing a new place.

"The portal's end to the Courts of Hell."

Alex and Arahabaki popped their heads outside after Kanghui exited. Instead of the scenes in the entertainment house, a white marble interior of a cavernous passageway with gold dragons entwined around the pillars greeted their sight.

"Why place a portal in that brothel?" Alex asked. "Why not at the start of Youdu somewhere?"

Arahabaki's smack landed on the back of his head. "You are either a moron or an amnesiac."

Right, the buildings at the start of Youdu kept disappearing and appearing.

"Like the buildings, portals are not permanent. They have to be summoned in the hidden dimension and you need stability of the location to connect the point of origin and destination," she replied.

Kanghui continued leading them through the smooth stone passageway where eerie luminescent lights on the ground lighted their path each step of the way.

Then she stopped before a towering gargantuan marble statue of a snake-like being with a human head that stood in front of the entryway into a large hall.

"Uh oh," Arahabaki muttered.

"What is it?" Alex mouthed.

Arahabaki grimaced. "Nüwa."

Alex gasped. That was one of the founding gods of Chinese civilisation.

According to the legend, Nüwa and Fuxi created humans out of clay. Then Alex recalled the story of Gonggong and Zhurong's fight. Nüwa, in the story, repaired Earth after the damage from the fight. Alex judged Kanghui's reaction enough to gauge that there was some bad blood between Nüwa and her.

"Enemies?" Alex asked.

Arahabaki shook his head and lifted a finger to his lips.

Alex spotted the blackish wisps flowing out of Kanghui's hands like a deluge, engulfing her body.

"FOOL!" Arahabaki grabbed and pulled Alex back several paces away. "That is NOT a good sign with your marker."

The emotionless Kanghui with her usual poker face betrayed no emotion to Alex until now. He felt the raw wrath emanating from her. So much rage that her human form disappeared in the large, rapid swirling mass of darkness.

"Ho ho ho, a wonderful show to see," Chongli's whisper entered his mind in glee. "Portal to the Courts, and a portal to the real rage within Kanghui."