::THE NIGHT BEFORE::

"Jiu'er, I would."  

The Emperor Lord Dong Hua had been honest in his words. But as much as he was telling the truth and they could never be because of the choice he had made in the past, her heart hurt from being rejected by Dong Hua. It was like he had stabbed her with a sharp knife, over and over again.

Her question to Dong Hua had simply been if he would have loved her had he not erased his name from the Rock of Three Incarnations, and hence, wiped out any chance of having any fate with anyone at all.

She had loved him so much, and they had even spent time in the mortal world during his trial. But it all had to end. Tomorrow, she would be crowned Queen of the Qingqiu Kingdom, and perhaps, they would never see each other ever again. Nevertheless, Feng Jiu had to live and be strong in order to lead her people. Qingqiu needed her the most. 

Bai Feng Jiu cried uncontrollably. She could, and would never forget Dong Hua. 

Everyone had said she was just too young, only thirty thousand years old. She would have a long journey to go through and being heartbroken by the cold and emotionless Emperor Dong Hua probably wasn't the end of the world. Her aunt the High Goddess Bai Qian, didn't marry until she was over a hundred thousand years of immortal age. 

Gu-Gu had told her that she would likely grow up and meet someone that was worth her love because Dong Hua had no fate with her. She was fated to someone, as she had seen herself, with her own eyes, on the Rock itself.

Feng Jiu was compelled to go to the place they had first met, and reminisce on their past. Just one last time, she told herself. She closed her eyes and tearfully called upon her immortal magic to cloud-jump to the Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms Orchard. This very orchard, was where she had run into danger with the Ghost Clan's beast, and Dong Hua had saved her without a second thought. She still remembered vividly, the look of those eyes on her. Sadly, he would never be with her, she reminded herself. Amidst her tears, she walked through the orchard. High Immortal Zhe Yan was not around, presumably with her fourth uncle. 

She assumed her natural form, a red nine-tailed fox, and scampered across the orchard, and stopped just before reaching the end of the orchard. This exact spot was where Zhe Yan hid his infinite stash of wines, and immediately, she began digging into the earth furiously with her claws. No magic. She had to use full force, and in no time, she retrieved, with her bleeding paws, a wooden crate where Zhe Yan had stored carefully, the most potent wines in the Four Seas and Eight Deserts. She wouldn't be sleeping tonight until she had drunk her fill.

She transformed back into her human form and indulged in all the alcohol she could until she finally collapsed from her drunkenness. In the serenity of the orchard, she could only hear Dong Hua's voice echoing in her mind, "Jiu'er....Jiu'er...."

"Dong Hua, if only... the Rock of Three Incarnations never existed, and I would give up anything and everything for another chance between us," she said tearfully.

At that time, a sudden flash of lightning enveloped the entire sky, and booming thunder, louder than the oldest of any immortal had ever seen, crackled, stunning the whole of the Four Seas and Eight Deserts. The oldest of the immortals in the Sky Kingdom immediately rushed to witness the phenomenon that had just befallen the Nine Heavens.

Everyone was shaken, excluding Dong Hua, who remained cold and unfeeling, with his eyes centred on a tiny fox-tail, dangling from a thread. Unknown to the others, and like Feng Jiu, he had been drinking.

Nobody knew what he said, and all of a sudden, a myriad of colours formed before the unfated couple's eyes, creating two portals that led to goodness knows where. One such portal materialized before the heavily intoxicated Feng Jiu in the Orchard, and the other, before Dong Hua in his Taichen Palace.

-------------------------------------------------------

~DAY OF THE CORONATION~

The Bai clan members were crowded around the coronation platform awaiting for that extraordinary and special moment in the life of Feng Jiu, where she would finally ascend to the throne.

Hours passed, and Bai Zhi, Feng Jiu's grandfather, entertained himself by playing chess with Zhe Yan, and joking that his granddaughter probably had overslept, or was too nervous for her big day. The auspicious interval was over, and yet, there was no sign of Jiu'er.

"Could something have happened?" Feng Jiu's father, Bai Yi was concerned, and even Bai Qian was meddling with her hair as well, not knowing what to do.

It was at that juncture when a frantic tree spirit came rushing in.

"Your Majesties, The Princess has vanished!" Mi Gu was shouting so hard that he was panting so badly, but the next few sentences he coughed out induced terror in the eyes of all present.

"What is it, Mi Gu?" Bai Yi asked. There were few matters that would make Mi Gu panic like that, and they would be usually related to Feng Jiu.

"Emperor Dong Hua has disappeared too, and it was said, he just faded into thin air. He was in his quarters, and all of a sudden, his steward knocked on the door to bring him tea, and he was gone! But his clothes remained!"

 The Bais exchanged glances. Could it be, that the mighty emperor had feathered? Did it mean, chaos was about to befall the Four Seas and Eight Deserts?  None of them would even dare to imagine, how the world would be in the absence of Emperor Dong Hua. Even a child would know, how incompetent Hao De was as the current Sky Lord of the Nine Heavens, and the Nine Heavens would definitely flounder helplessly with his solo reign!

Finally, Si Ming and the celestial army led by the Third Royal Prince Lian Song, arrived at the coronation grounds and confirmed the news of Dong Hua's disappearance.

Neither Si Ming or Lian Song, were joking, as both of their faces were as grave and solemn as they could ever be. Both immortals were on good terms with Dong Hua, and the fear of him 'feathering' triggered devastation in their hearts. Originally, Si Ming had meant to present a map as a gift to Feng Jiu from Dong Hua, but now, none of them was to be found.

In a world far, far away, a young woman dressed in a light shade of pink was shaking a white-haired man in purple robes. Her first thought had been to question why she had woken up on a big patch of green grass when she had last remembered drinking at Zhe Yan's orchard.

Then, she feasted her eyes on Dong Hua's sleeping figure, and guessed that he must have sneaked her away to play a prank on her!

The Dong Hua she knew was cold, stoic and emotionless. There must be a reason that he had actually played a trick on her. She guessed that it was to make her give up on him, even after everything had been so evident that night, when he had told her, "I would", and she had smiled back happily. Being the almighty powerful god he was, wasn't it blatant that it had been the end for them?

Was there a need for him to prank her? It had to be the work of the Third Prince Lian Song! "Wake up, it's morning!" she shook him earnestly. "You have to send me back, it's my coronation!"

It was her time, and she could not miss her coronation.