In legends, the places that these generals retired to were the best mountain ranges in the Lower Realm. - pillowbook 2, page 11

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Heavenly Realm, Jiuchongtian, Taichen Palace - Mid Morning
Day 3 since Fengjius death
Bai Chen (A-Li) —-------------------------------

After sending people to investigate the sighting of a monstrously large beast on the Heavenly Realms side of the Ruoshui, Bai Chen along with his father had returned to Xiwu Palace's Chengsheng Hall to the unexpected sight of his mother seated at a table with Mo Yuan and Zhe Yan seated at the centre table in deep discussion. This was understandably quite alarming, Bai Chen's father Ye Hua immediately went to be by his mothers side.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Ye Hua noticed she was more agitated than when he'd left her.

Bai Chen's mother swiftly reassured his father, then turned to him and said, "Why don't you go visit Gungun and Xueyu in the right side hall for a while. Nai Nai is watching over Fuzan, he's sleeping." was the 'suggestion', though it was really an order.

Bai Chen kept Gunguns words from a few days ago in mind, about not causing more trouble and worry for the adults. So he didn't make a fuss at once again being shuffled away while the adults discussed things, instead he bowed politely to everyone and walked to the side hall on the right.

He was at a loss at how to help his younger cousin, while also trying very hard to battle his own anger and grief, it was hard. He'd been much younger than Gungun was now when he'd gone through the same thing, but in reverse.

Back when he was still a young sprout and called A-Li, his father had 'died', and his mother had been very sad and lost herself in dreams for years. He'd not been old enough to understand why she had not visited him even once since his father 'died'. He'd been hurt and confused, and convinced himself that it was because he'd done something wrong. So when his great-grandfather, Hao De Tianjun, and his grandfather Yang Cuo had pushed heavy expectations and strictly forced him to study, even though he wasn't a genius he'd studied very hard. He'd hoped that if he behaved very well and did everything expected of him, perhaps his mother would visit him once she heard that he was a good child?

It hadn't worked, for three years he wasn't even allowed the time to visit his fathers grave, and the only physical affection he received was from Nai Nai. For three years he'd been an orphan in all but name, just like Gungun was now.

Bai Chen's father had been 'dead', and his mothers heart was too injured to bear it. For Gungun it was the opposite, his mother was dead, and his father had sealed away his heart to spare the world from destruction.

He was the only family member who could offer empathy to Gungun at this time, not just sympathy, but as good with emotions as he was, he did not know what to do or say to help his younger cousin through this.

He'd craved physical affection and supportive and kind words when he'd gone through this similar situation, but that wouldn't work for Gungun. For his younger but far more mature and responsible cousin, an offer of hugs and reassurance or kind words would be answered with a look of horror or forbearance.

As he stood outside the closed door to the side hall, Bai Chen realised all he could really do for Gungun was try and offer support in other ways. Such as making sure to contain his emotions as best he could, and not do anything stupid or rash and cause trouble for anyone.

With these thoughts in mind he opened the door.

"Woah!" he exclaimed without thought.

It wasn't pitch black, but it was very dim. It wasn't anything like he'd expected to find, it was always bright in Jiuchongtian, an endless sea of stars was slowly travelling across the ceiling.

Bai Chen placed a hand over his mouth, as he belatedly realised he'd just made a loud noise with that sensitive tiny bean Xueyu inside...

In the dim light his eyes met Gunguns and swiftly sent his silver haired cousin a panicked look of apology, and waited for the shrill but quiet cry of the tiny Xueyu to make the fact he'd woken them known. Bai Chen's baby brother Fuzan slept through anything, so it was a challenge for Bai Chen to remember to be quiet around this very tiny, delicate baby.

Seconds passed, but there was only merciful silence, he blinked in surprise and sent Gungun a querying look.

Gungun answered his unspoken question, "I set a sound-blocking barrier."

Gungun was sat at a high table filled with books, paper and ink, all that was very normal with Gungun, but there were some interesting wooden pieces and other objects that did not look boring.

"I thought magic was too risky to use, isn't that why you said I couldn't hold her?" Bai Chen accused his silver haired cousin.

"High Deity Zhe Yan helped to design this barrier; and it still needed to be this three metre radius away to be safe." Gungun explained, then asked a question of his own, "Why are you speaking from the doorway?"

Bai Chen swiftly offered an excuse, "Oh, well. Perhaps I want to admire this star enchantment from here." and made a pointed effort to look at the star enchantment around the room, but mostly on the ceiling.

Bai Chen's real reason was that he was trying not to put more strain on Gungun, and his newly awakened emotional sense, skill...thing. Gungun was already having to deal with everyone else's powerful and fluctuating emotions, Bai Chen was trying to be considerate and at least offer the buffer of distance to his cousin.

"I've explained you don't need to do that, act normally." Gungun's request almost sounded like an order, but the tone was slightly off.

Gungun clearly didn't want anyone worrying about him, this cousin of his could be so very dense sometimes. Still, Bai Chen was happy to go along with whatever Gungun felt more content and comfortable with so he swiftly moved to join Gungun at the low table.

"Well if you are just going to scold me, then i'll just have to annoy you until you agree to shoo me away." Bai Chen retorted.

Gungun was sitting properly, of course he was, but Bai Chen wasn't inclined to do so when there were no adults around to chide him for it. He skillfully ignored Gungun's eyes flicking to his informal seating posture in disapproval.

Before Gungun could scold him for his posture, Bai Chen pointed to the darkened room and stars travelling overhead and asked, "How did you make this sky-enchantment...thing?"

Clearly it was utterly safe, or else Gungun would never have placed it anywhere near their tiny bean of a sister.

Gungun tilted his head toward the table near Xueyus crib, Bai Chen turned and saw a large glowing stone was placed there. "I created the initial enchantment, shaped it into an orb, then encased it inside a pure crystal, that way no magic can escape." Gungun explained simply, as if creating a magic object that emitted no magic was extremely simple.

"That brain of yours is too powerful." He praised his genius cousin.

Gungun reported with a glimmer of triumph in his eyes, "Xueyu has been asleep for an hour now."

"An hour?!" Bai Chen exclaimed, then panicked and put his hands over his mouth and looked toward the crib, but then let out a sigh of relief, and removed them, he'd forgotten about the sound-blocking barrier.

That tiny bean hadn't slept for more than half an hour since they'd returned to Jiuchongtian, whenever they were not eating or sleeping, they were crying, the silence was actually really nice.

"Does this mean I can finally hold the tiny bean when they wake up?" Bai Chen half-asked, half-pleaded as he looked curiously at the neatly stacked papers, and the design Gugnun was working on, some sort of...beast?

The tiny bean Xueyu was quite delicate to magic fluctuations, and Bai Chen would be the first to admit he wasn't diligent when it came to studying and practising magic techniques, meditating or cultivating, he preferred focusing on sword fighting, or writing plays. He definitely did not want to accidently harm the tiny bean, so he would wait patiently until it was safe for him to hold her.

"If High Deity Zhe Yan has time to check on her, I'll be sure to ask him then." Gungun promised.

"I'm excited to hold this new little sister." Bai Chen said.

Gungun blinked in surprise before he replied, "She's my little sister." their tone was ever-so-slightly possessive.

Bai Chen was happy to have found this new topic to explore. Was there a better method to distract Gungun from grief than poking at their newly acquired big brother protective feelings?

"Family is supposed to share all the good things in life with each other." Bai Chen replied, feigning confusion. "We've been raised as siblings, I call you brother, surely this means we get to share our little siblings too?"

"Absolutely not." Gungun rejected flatly.

Bai Chen replied with more cheer than was really necessary, as if to push his own grief away with excess sunniness, "Don't be stingy! You get a little brother, I get a little sister, we both can have two little siblings to spoil, it's perfect!"

"If you intended that sentence to be reassuring and received in a positive manner; you failed." Gungun said.

"When the little ball Fuzan starts learning to speak, i'll definitely teach him to call you brother, I promise," He held out a pinky finger and sent his cousin a pleading, pitiful look, "so it wouldn't be fair if you don't teach the tiny bean to call me brother in return."

Gungun looked at his hand and the proffered pinky finger warily, as if he was holding a particularly venomous snake, well, it wasn't that serious. Perhaps it was more of a mildly offended look? That was it! Gungun was looking at him like he was holding a ragged, dirt covered book. Gungun simultaneously wanted to rescue the book from ill-treatment, but was aware of the fact it was covered in dirt, and Gungun abhorred dirt.

"I address you using the correct formal and polite terms, and I'll teach my little sister to do the same." Gungun refuted.

Bai Chen let his pinky finger droop in exaggeratedly sad fashion, Gungun simply looked at him in long suffering silence, and Bai Chen relented and rested his hands in his lap politely.

"It's likely my parents and uncles will insist on it anyway; it's not like you to fight a battle that's already lost." Bai Chen said.

He watched as the miniscule flickers of emotion played out in Gungun's face, he was one of the few who was able to read his cousin so well. Gunguns eyes widened ever so slightly in recognition, narrowed as he clearly pondered how to overcome the challenge, then returned to normal as his cousin clearly realised he wasn't going to win the 'address each other as siblings' battle.

He quickly spoke to placate Gungun, "You've spent more time with my own little brother than I have," Bai Chen pointed out, "What happened to equality?"

"That is because you have lessons to attend, I do not." Gungun replied factually.

Bai Chen sighed with excessive self-pity, "Isn't that so?"

When Gungun did not reply, Bai Chen grabbed the ruler that was lying on top of some design-in-progress, and started trying to balance it horizontally on his finger.

"I really did try very hard to convince my parents to let me skip them, but apparently education is important, for some reason." Bai Chen waved a hand in the air dismissively, but this caused the ruler he'd been balancing in his other hand to fall; he grabbed it before it hit the table.

Gungun looked at the just-caught ruler, then sent him a look that was very clearly saying 'That is why I am wary'.

Bai Chen's reply was a sheepish smile, as he placed the ruler back on the table and nudged it toward Gungun. He didn't mention the times he'd actually skipped lessons and the consequences thereof, Gungun already thought he was going to be a bad influence, best not add fuel to the fire.

"You may corrupt your own sibling as you wish, not mine." was Gunguns stoic refusal.

"Corrupted is such a strong word, I feel wronged." Bai Chen grabbed his heart in an exaggerated fashion, after all, he enjoyed acting in plays almost as much as he enjoyed writing them, "Broadening our siblings' views on life and its joys, rather than being stuck reading books all day is what a good big brother should do."

The stony face, silence and tangible aura of disapproval were things Bai Chen was used to, so he brushed them aside and continued his 'distract Gungun from grief by poking his new big brother instricts' plan.

"Brother," Bai Chen addressed Gungun deliberately, "I'm older than you, and i've been an older brother for longer too, that means i'm more qualified, so you should listen to my advice." Bai Chen suggested.

Even if he was only a few hundred years older, and only been an older brother for three years, Bai Chen was happy to be shameless if it meant Gungun could be distracted from his grief, and it helped him try and manage his own too.

Gunguns eyes narrowed slightly before he replied, "You giving advice is what concerns me."

That look was so unnervingly similar to Dong Hua Dijun that Bai Chen could not help but shudder in unease, "Could you not do the 'lofty and austere look of disapproval' face...look, thing? Please? It's too scary." Bai Chen pleaded, only half-joking.

Gunguns face returned to his usual reserved blank look, but Bai Chen could sense this cousin of his was mildly wary, but not in a serious way.

Bai Chen wasn't a genius like Gungun, his only outstanding talents were that he was very good at writing plays because he was pretty smart when it came to understanding people and their emotions; he knew what Gungun was getting at.

Bai Chen was the latest Bai family member in an unbroken line of mischievousness. Bai Zhen had guided Bai Qian, who had guided Bai Fengjiu, who had in turn guided him. Though he'd failed to teach Gungun the joys of disobeying rules and doing what you wanted, he'd definitely try his best to pass on these ancient teachings to these baby siblings.

Gungun was already being so protective, not wanting his little sister to get into trouble, but where was the joy in life with that? Though the rules in Jiuchongtian were many, convoluted and extremely strict, he was quite proud of the various tricks and ways he'd created to mostly avoid or mitigate punishment; though he'd have to admit sometimes his plans failed spectacularly, and he wasn't a stranger to pain.

Bai Chen placed his elbows on the table and propped his chin up with both hands, "Are you still upset about that last time I dragged you into trouble? Isn't it a bit petty of you to still be angry?" Bai Chen asked.

They were both just over 30,000 years old, and in all that time Bai Chen had only managed to drag Gungun into serious trouble three times. The first time he'd taken advantage of Gungun not knowing much about the Immortal Realms at the time to drag him to see a sacred treasure of the glazed-wing bird tribe. Because of some ancient feud he had not known about, they'd almost caused a battle to break out between that tribe and the blue dragon clan.

But really, how was he to know those glaze-wing birds had a fierce feud with the dragons, to the extent that they'd created alarms to sense dragons near their treasure? His true form was a black dragon, so he'd set off these warding alarms. He had panicked, transformed into his true form, grabbed Gungun and flew back to Xiwu Palace. Bai Chen had planned not to say a single word about their misadventure, but the instant he'd transformed back into human form, Gungun the ever-rule abiding had already flown off to report what had happened to Bai Chen's father, Crown Prince Ye Hua.

Bai Chen hadn't known at the time, but the sight of a dragon flying away had caused the glazed-wing birds to think the blue dragon clan had broken their peace treaty. Bai Chens father, the Crown Prince Ye Hua, had been able to settle things down before blood was spilled, but before he'd returned to Jiucghontian, Hao De Tianjun had already found out about it, and was furious. Only Gunguns father Dong Hua Dijun arriving and insisting both be punished equally had saved Bai Chen from severe consequences. Tianjun didn't dare to think of punishing Dijun's son, so he'd changed his mind and insisted that as they were both young children, their punishment was more a family matter for their fathers to decide upon, rather than an official matter, then left.

The second time he'd used Gungun's curiosity against him, and the third, his pride. It had been over five thousand years since that third time, and Bai Chen hadn't managed to drag his cousin into mischief since then, he was just too...genuis-y and mature. Even Bai Chen's considerable skill in talking people into doing what he wanted, or at least allowing him to do what he wanted, had no effect on Gungun anymore.

"I am not angry, I am cautious. 'He who stays near vermilion is stained red; he who stays near ink is stained black.'" Gungun explained his feelings with an idiom.

So those three events might not have ended well for him or Gungun, and with hindsight were definitely not worth the consequences, but wasn't going on adventures and experiencing things the way people learned best?

Bai Chen tried to refute Gungun using an idiom in return, "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as walking ten thousand miles."

Gunguns reply was immediate, "Of the three methods of learning wisdom, experience is the bitterest."

Bai Chen needed two seconds to come up with his idiomatic reply, "A fall into a ditch makes you wiser." This had the meaning of 'mistakes are opportunities to learn'.

"So you admit that your influence would be a mistake?" Gungun asked rhetorically before replying with, "The bird flies higher with the phoenix."

This one held the meaning of 'Good company yields better improvement', there wasn't much he could say to that, Gungun was undoubtedly the best role model of this generation, and probably a few generations above too.

After a good ten seconds, Bai Chen managed to remember a good idiom to reply with, "A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month's study of books." The meaning was that 'wisdom is sometimes more important than knowledge'.

Gungun sent him an incredulous look, and Bai Chen pretended to be greatly offended, "What? You can refer to yourself as a phoenix, but I can't refer to myself as wise? every person has things that he can do and those that he cannot do."

Gungun was so offended he didn't bother replying with an idiom, "Wise in what manner exactly? Methods of causing mischief?"

"It's a type of wisdom." Bai Chen replied smugly, he'd been thinking of using that one since the beginning, "And you didn't reply with an idiom, that means I win."

Gungun sent him a withering look, "I was not aware we were competing, Outside noisy, inside empty.".

Bai Chen looked at Gungun in wonder, "That is the first time you've ever insulted me properly! Well it wasn't a direct insult, but that is still a first."

If his silver haired cousin was any less mature, he'd definitely have blushed in embarrassment. But as he was a very dignified soul, Bai Chen got just as much glee out of them seemingly analysing the half-finished designs to avoid his gaze.

"I apologise, it will not happen again." Gungun even bowed as much as a table being in front of them allowed.

"Ah, no, no! Don't do that! I've been trying to get you to insult me for half a lifetime, literally! Who knew all it would take was that tiny bean to have you bare your fangs for once! In future i'll definitely be able to have you insult me again!" Bai Chen promised joyfully.

"You shall not." Gungun replied, and the tiniest hint of amusement curled his lips, for Gungun such a thing was practically a full toothy smile.

At least he and Gungun were now talking about things in the future, rather than dwelling on the sad present. Bai Chen was talented in the art of distractions, Fengjiu had taught him that skill too.

Suddenly a great wave crashed over him, at the reminder that Fengjiu was gone and he gasped at the weight of it, grief.

It hurt.

Fengjiu who he'd first called 'sister' then later 'aunt' had been the family member he was closest to, and who'd taught him so many amusing things, like gambling, how to get into and out of a fight, and every mischievous trick that she knew. His eyes filled with tears so quickly they fell before he could raise his sleeve to wipe them.

Anger swiftly followed, it wasn't FAIR!

His breath hitched for a second before he refocused his breathing. He was sitting right next to Gungun, and his weird emotion-sensing ability, so he swiftly tried to bury the feeling for both their sakes.

"I've already said you don't need to do that." Gungun said, but his face was pale and even more stony than normal, clearly affected.

"I'm not doing it for your sake," Bai Chen lied, "I'm just sick of crying."

Gungun kindly did not point out his obvious lie, instead he simply said, "I need to check on Xueyu, one moment."

Bai Chen watched as Gungun rose from the table, entered the barrier and checked on the tiny bean. This gave Bai Chen a minute to stop his tears and control his breathing.

Bai Chen wasn't embarrassed to cry in front of family, crying wasn't the problem, it was anger he was having issues with, it just...wasn't fair, all of this, everything. Maybe he could ask Gungun to practise sword fighting with him today, he'd probably lose, but at least he could vent his anger that way.

When Gungun returned he changed the subject, "You didn't cause trouble at Ruoshui?"

Gungun had clearly picked up on his anger, and it wasn't an odd question to ask, his father had taken him to the border between the Heavenly Realm and the Ghost Realm. His father had only taken him along because his mother had her hands full with the little ball Fuzan and the tiny bean Xueyu, even with Nai Nai and Gunguns help.

"Even my own mother didn't nag me about that," Bai Chen complained, but at the annoyingly blank and knowing stare from Gungun he admitted, "Father had Tian Shu watch me."

Bai Chen wouldn't have tried to go across the border anyway, it was just as Gungun told him a few days ago, all the adults had enough things to deal with without adding more things, troubles or people for them to worry about.

"Uncle is wise." Gungun replied.

"The report said the beast was dead, and it was!" Bai Chen reassured, but his father wouldn't have taken him to a live battlefield anyway, "But that wasn't the interesting bit."

Bai Chen waited for a few seconds, hoping for Gunguns extreme sense of curiosity to overwhelm his pride, but not even this worked anymore.

"Aren't you curious?" Bai Chen prompted.

Gunguns reply was simply, "Patience is a virtue."

Bai Chen and Gungun were then locked in a staring contest for almost a minute, but Bai Chen eventually had to admit defeat. His desire to tell the tale outweighed Gunguns curiosity, and too long in silence could give him or Gungun time to be sad again.

"Okay fine!" Bai Chen threw his hands up in the air, admitting defeat, "It was all wrapped around a spike of rock as tall as a mountain, someone put it there, and I found this."

He pulled a silk handkerchief from his sleeve and unwrapped it, which revealed a small rectangular object, with chipped sides and a corner sliced off.

Bai Chen shuffled across the floor to sit closer to Gungun, who decided to ignore his improper and childish way of doing so in favour of looking at the item he was holding. Bai Chen wordlessly passed the object to Gungun, who took it politely with two hands.

"A broken piece of tile-scale armour," Gungun immediately identified it, "Last used at the battle of Ruoshui 100,000 years ago."

"That's what my father said."

Gungun refolded the silken handkerchief around the tile carefully, and almost reverently handed it back to him with both hands, "You should treat it with reverence, it is almost certainly from one of our Heavenly Tribes fallen soldiers."

Bai Chen placed the broken tile gently back into his sleeve, "Father said that too."

"I wasn't allowed to get close, and had to stay with those bodyguards and Tian Shu. But the soldiers were discussing on the way back about how there were ancient spears and swords stuck in it, everyone is certain it's the same one that appeared during that battle at Ruoshui." Bai Chen was babbling slightly.

"Considering the Greatwyrms were supposed to be extinct before Ruoshui, that one was likely the last of it's kind." Gungun stated, there was a slightly melancholy and wistful tone to his words.

Gungun was probably sad about the loss of such a creature, even if it was used for evil, it had still been a living thing, a piece of the past now forever gone.

Bai Chen wasn't as interested in history and ancient things, so he carried on with his retelling, "It was all sliced up, in a few places it was almost sliced in two! But that wasn't the most interesting part!"

Gungun patiently waited for him to continue, he was far too dignified to say something like 'go on, what was it', even if curiosity was his only major flaw, that and pride.

"Father said it was all done by the same large blade." Bai Chen said excitedly.

"To single-handedly kill a greatwyrm underground in its own tunnels...," Gungun considered thoughtfully for a second before he continued, "Whoever it was, their skill in combat is likely equal to great-grandfather and High Deity Mo Yuan."

If one were to rank all the beings in the world in terms of power, strength and combat prowess at the undisputed peak was Dong Hua Dijun. As for the second and third rankings, there had always been fierce debate on whether the Fox Emperor Bai Zhi, or Heavenly Tribes God of War Mo Yuan would take the second spot. Now there were these new, or old he supposed, generals from the ancient times to consider.

This was another good distraction, Gungun enjoyed sharing his knowledge almost as much as he liked learning and gathering it.

"Grandpa, Grandma, Zhe-," Gungun sent him a look, and he corrected the address, "High Deity Zhe Yan and Uncle Mo Yuan, weren't they all your fathers generals back then too? So these loyal ones that went away-"

"Into seclusion." Bai Xun corrected.

"Yes, that." Bai Chen noted the correction before he continued, "Do you think those generals are just as strong?"

"It would be logical to assume so." Gungun replied.

Gungun was knowledgeable about practically everything, having read every book worth reading in all the realms, so this cousin of Bai Chen's was more like a walking library than anything else. Besides, if he was pestering Gungun with questions and theoreticals, that meant both of them would have less time to dwell on grief, and in Bai Chen's case, frustrated anger.

"Stronger than my mother?" Bai Chen asked.

Bai Chen had not included his father Ye Hua in his question. At the current time his mother as a High Deity was stronger than his High Immortal father, so if these generals were stronger than his mother and older uncles from the Bai family, then they'd be stronger than his father too. 30,000 years ago his father had used up all his lifetime cultivation to help bring back Mo Yuan sooner, and only had these past 30,000 years to cultivate again.

"Almost certainly." was the confident, but not quite certain reply from Gungun.

Bai Chen's grandmother Ning Shang had once transferred half of her lifetime cultivation to her daughter, Bai Qian, however much of it was used to reseal Qing Cang inside the Donghuang Bell. All four of his mothers older brothers had been adults by the time she was born, even the youngest Bai Zhen was much older than her. His mother was currently youngest High Deity, without the Yuqing Fan of Kunlun, she would predictably be the weakest.

Bai Chen continued his questioning, "What about our uncles?"

His mothers brothers were his uncles, and Gunguns granduncles, but as he and Gungun were playmates and basically siblings, these uncles had requested Gungun also refer to them as uncles too. Even though Gungun disliked addressing them 'incorrectly', as they had requested he do so, Gungun would never not obey his elders.

Gungun considered for a moment before he replied,"That, I can't be sure about. All our uncles were born after the prehistoric era ended, so all these generals would be older than them, but not necessarily stronger."

"Who were the strongest?" Bai Chen asked, swordplay was his second hobby next to writing plays.

Gungun settled quite contently into his lecturing tone, "Before High God Mo Yuan was born, there were thirteen generals that followed Dong Hua Dijun, the Shaoyang Sovereign in battles before the universe was stable; these were later called 'elder generals'."

Bai Chen was going to get a history lesson when he'd just wanted to know who was strong, but if his cousin was lecturing him on ancient history, that was better than dwelling on the present, wasn't it?

Gungun continued, "Great-grandfather and great-grandmother and High God Zhe Yan were also 'elder generals'."

This super ancient history wasn't covered in any of the lessons or subjects his tutors and teachers taught. Even if it had been, Bai Chen wouldn't have paid it much attention, he liked play scripts based on tragedy and romance, not war. He was busy distracting this annoyingly mature but sensitive cousin from depressing thoughts, so he did not pause in his questioning.

"Who were the other ten?" Bai Chen asked, knowing that if anyone would know outside of their family elders, it was Gungun.

Gungun had already completed all the subjects that Qing Qiu and Jiuchongtian offered over ten thousand years ago, and had spent all the time since reading ancient scrolls and records of the Heavenly Tribe and Qing Qiu, having theoretical debates with everyone from Lord Lingbao to Si Ming and collating research on subjects that made even the most learned officials heads spin with their complexity. A motivated genius was truly scary, Bai Chen didn't think the world was quite ready for Gungun.

Gungun looked at him, and Bai Chen was worried that his cousin had figured out what he was doing, but then Gungun started to answer his question and he relaxed.

"The records were incomplete and verifiable information was scarce, but from my research so far, the remaining ones are-."

Bai Chen had leaned forward in interest, and Gungun's face went blank, likely from trying to block out sensing his emotions, so he apologised and shuffled back again, "Sorry!"

"Apologies are unnecessary, it is my issue to solve," Gungun replied, but before Bai Chen could complain about his cousins annoying reserved and stoic manner, Gungun started reciting, "First above all was Meng Hao the Farsighted, then Xin Ho the Resolute-"

"That's my ancestor! How cool!" Bai Chen exclaimed excitedly.

After Dijun had stepped down as supreme ruler of the realms and created the lesser thrones to rule each realm, Xin Ho of the Dragon Clan had been chosen by Dong Hua Dijun to be the first Tianjun, ruler of the heavenly tribe. There had been many Tianjuns since then, and his father Ye Hua would soon become the seventh.

Gungun sent him a blank look of disapproval for interrupting.

"Sorry! Please continue." Bai Chen waved for his cousin to keep going.

Gungun sent him a longsuffering look, but continued, "Third was Xiang Xu," here Gungun paused, "There were too many titles and descriptions for me to infer which one was the most 'correct', most of them translated as things like 'scourge', 'unseen' and 'incorporeal calamity'."

"Sounds like an evil person." Bai Chen couldn't help but say.

Gungun ignored his commentary and continued, "Liu Cai, the Wind Spider, then there is your grandfather, my great-grandfa-"

Bai Chen interrupted Gungun again, "You don't have to be that polite, it's not like you are addressing grandfather by his name to his face, what was grandpa Bai Zhi's title?"

Gungun refused to change his extremely polite address,"Great-grandfathers title was 'the bulwark' and-"

"Grandpa is so cool! Sorry! Shutting up."

"Zhe Yan the first phoenix, Da Kai the shatterer, and then great-grandmother was 'the stalwart'. Those are all the names and titles of the elder generals."

"Maybe inhaling all the dust on those ancient scrolls is worth it sometimes, I'd only heard of High Deity Zhe Yans title of 'first phoenix' before now." Bai Chen mused.

Not that he'd ever go reading such boring stuff, but he was happy to shamelessly use his cousin as a walking book repository.

"This is not easily obtainable information, it took me many years to gather all the fragmented information from ancient scrolls from across the realms, and I could only do that because my father gave me permission use the archives."

"Of course, my genius cousin has already put all the scholars of Jiuchongtian to shame, naturally, but," Bai Chen nodded fervently, but then raised his hand, splayed his fingers and wiggled them, "You said there were thirteen elder generals, you missed five, did you forget?" Bai Chen teased.

Poking at Gungun's prickly pride was one of his favourite pastimes, and at least they were not dwelling on...well, everything that had happened lately.

"I did not forget, there was nothing to find." Gungun replied, slightly defensive.

"Truly? Nothing?" Bai Chen was amazed, if Gungun hadn't been able to find anything, then there truly was nothing to find, how mysterious.

"One of them was perhaps called the Conciliator, but I'm not certain." Gungun admitted.

Bai Chen didn't have Gunguns endless desire for knowledge, so those missing five generals names and titles were not interesting to him, "What about the younger ones, there were seventy two generals total right?"

"I doubt you are interested in me naming the remaining fifty nine generals."

Bai Chen thought that wasn't very fair, maybe to Gungun this was basic information, but normal people didn't live in ancient archives like he did.

"That's true, I just want to know who the strongest one was, Uncle Mo Yuan, right?" Bai Chen asked confidently.

"High Deity Mo Yuan's was the oldest and most successful of the 'younger' generals, yes." Gungun said.

"So these elder generals could be equal to, or maybe even stronger than my grandpa?" Bai Chen asked, he was excited but also not quite believing such a thing could be possible.

He ignored Gunguns look of disapproval at his calling his grandfather, who was Gunguns great-grandfather, the Fox Emperor Bai Zhi, just 'grampa', after a few seconds his silver haired cousin relented and replied to his pondering question, "There is no reason to believe otherwise."

Bai Chen was certain that if his uncle Mo Yuan and grandfather Bai Zhi were to fight one-on-one, his grandfather would win, but if they went to war against each other, then clearly his uncle Mo Yuan would be victorious because his grandfather wasnt exactly a tactical genius like Mo Yuan. In his heart he'd always placed his grandfather Bai Zhi second to Dong Hua Dijun in strength. The idea that there might be anyone else close to equal or greater than his grandfather was quite a scary thought.

"So if Uncle Mo Yuan is the oldest of those younger generals, that means they're all weaker than him too, right?" Bai Chen asked.

"Probably, but I can't be certain." Gungun admitted, Bai Chen sent him a questioning look and he elaborated, "Four hundred thousand years have passed since then, that is a long time even for the longest lived immortals."

Bai Chen supposed that was true, his mother had used most of her cultivation to seal and reseal Qing Cang inside the Donghuang Bell. His father had refined all his cultivation into a pill so Mo Yuan could use it to wake up sooner. His uncle Mo Yuan had spent 70,000 years somehow gathering his shattered soul back together, which wasn't a small feat, and he wasn't back to full strength yet either.

Bai Chen placed his elbows on the table and rested his chin in both hands, his favourite thinking pose, "I guess lots of stuff has happened since then."

Gungun sent him a disapproving look because putting elbows on the table was rude, and he swiftly stopped, but not before complaining, "You scold me more than my own mother does."

Bai Chen wasn't too bad with numbers, and roughly managed to calculate that even the very youngest of these generals would be at least double, if not triple his mothers age. Bai Chen's head filled with a bunch of blind white haired old fogies fighting with walking sticks, then surprised himself by laughing at the absurd mental image. It really wasn't that funny, but maybe he just needed to laugh for the sake of it.

Gungun patiently waited for him to stop being weird by taking the triangle shaped ruler and making some lines and measurements on the paper in front of him.

Bai Chen stopped laughing after a few moments, and spent a few more gathering his thoughts before he said, "There was that rain general guy that came to the Fox Den and angered our youngest uncle. He said stuff about Xiang Xu's army and the ghost realm border, so there are at least those two around, right?"

Gungun placed his brush on the stand gracefully as ever before sending him a look that was a mix of disapproving and affronted, "You are talking about elders older than your parents, you should be more respectful," Gungun lectured, "And how do you know that information?"

He might have eavesdropped while in the Fox Den, everyone had been too busy to notice, so he'd learned lots of things. Gungun clearly already suspected him, because he hadn't said 'who told you' but 'how do you know'.

Bai Chen coughed nervously, "Maybe I just happened to hear it accidentally, that's not impossible."

This wasn't what he'd had in mind when he'd planned to distract them both from grief, but he shouldn't be surprised. The longer time he spent around Gungun, the more likely it was that he'd eventually get lectured, nagged or scolded by this younger genius cousin of his.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop on the private conversations of others, especially not any of our family members."

"Easy for you to say, you're the mature, responsible genius, no one tells me anything." He complained.

Gungun ignored his complaint and continued to lecture him, "Unauthorised espionage on another kingdom's ruler is a severe crime, even more so for you."

Bai Chen knew that Gungun's constant nagging and lectures were because he did not want to see him get into serious trouble, and Gungun wasn't wrong. If some gutsy official somehow found out about him eavesdropping on his grandfather Bai Zhi or his uncles, and reported it to the Tianjun, that could carry the death penalty, or worse. This was because even though his grandfather and uncles were family, they were also rulers of the kingdom of Qing Qiu, while he was the eldest son of the next Tianjun of the Heavenly Tribe, a separate kingdom.

Even if it was just reported to his father the crown prince, his father wouldn't be able to let him off too lightly either, as a prince Bai Chen was held to a higher standard, he'd heard the refrain 'you should be upholding the rules and laws, not breaking them' enough to make his ears bleed.

It was easy for him to forget all the politics and considerations that came with his status and rank when interacting with his maternal family, where he was a family member first, and a prince of the heavenly tribe second.

"You're not going to tell on me, right?" He asked nervously.

This was Jiuchongtian, where just last week he'd seen an official punished with sixty years of tribulation in the mortal realm for the crime of 'disrespecting the superior' by not bowing deeply enough to a higher ranked official.

Gungun replied simply, "I will not."

Bai Chen was relieved that Gungun wouldn't inform any of the adults, probably because they had much bigger concerns than having to deal with him eavesdropping. It was a habit he'd never been able to break, no matter how many unpleasant scoldings and canings he'd received for it.

Bai Chen focused on moving the conversation away from his literal crimes, "So what is all this stuff?" he asked, motioning to the various bits of wood, neatly stacked paper, a few differently shaped rulers and the weird beast design that Gungun had been working on.

"I have potentially solved the sleep issue, so I've been going through my research notes and refocusing efforts on developing objects and devices to aid in the development of both infants' motor control, coordination, and other aspects." Gungun replied.

Bai Chen was slightly envious that Gungun's genius meant he could distract himself by thinking about twenty different things at once.

"So you're making toys for the babies?" Bai Chen teased his cousin once more.

Gungun stoically ignored his attempt and continued speaking, "As Fuzan is slightly older than Xueyu, I've created these prototypes that are more suitable for the fact they are three developmental months older."

Gungun waved a hand and the notes, books and various half finished items disappeared, replaced with about twenty different toys, of various shapes, sizes, colours and textures.

"These are for aiding in the development of memory, thinking, reasoning, and spatial awareness." Gungun explained as he pointed to each pile of toys.

Gungun then summoned a paper book an inch thick into his hands, "I've summarised the developmental stages and separated them into sections. By next year Fuzan should be at the stage where they are interacting more with their environment, so they should find the puzzles more interesting and mentally stimulating. At the same time they'll be more interested in objects that make noise, as a result i'm-"

Bai Chen's mouth was hanging open in disbelief, was this what his cousin had been up to for the past year? He didn't know why he was surprised, Gungun had probably run out of things to learn, so he'd become an expert on how babies learned?

Bai Chen didn't even have to exaggerate his horrified look or tone even slightly as he responded, "Our little brother isn't even old enough to roll over, and you've already created lesson schedules for him."

"I have done so such thing," Gungun defended himself, "This is just a summary of developmental milestones so I can make sure our siblings have the objects and devices best suited to ensure their optimum development pote-"

Bai Chen interrupted Gungun with an exaggerated exclamation, "Ah! my poor little ball Zan Zan, how will I protect you against this book-tyrant big brother of yours?"

Bai Chen was happy, because Gungun had just said 'our siblings' rather than 'my sister' and 'your brother', or just using their names, he would try not to be too smug about winning that battle.

He continued, "And the tiny bean, A-Yu! This big brother will promise to protect you fro-"

Sadly his brilliant monologue was cut off by the sound of the door opening. The door was behind him, he turned to see Nai Nai enter the room. She was carrying his baby brother Fuzan in her arms, the little ball was awake and making efforts to turn his head and look around.

"Zan Zan! Nai Nai can I hold him?" Bai Chen asked before Nai Nai even had a chance to greet them or speak.

Bai Chen forgot he'd shuffled to sit next to Gungun, so the sharp poke in his arm was unexpected, "Ow!"

Breaking the rules on etiquette and propriety in Gungun's presence was definitely not recommended, he thought ruefully as he rubbed his arm in exaggerated pain. He pouted at Gungun and sent him a look of wounded betrayal.

Gungun just sent in an unimpressed, flat look in return.

Bai Chen knew he was supposed to wait for Nai Nai to bow and greet him first, by speaking first he'd broken about seven rules at once. Superior-subordinate status and rankings, and all the rules surrounding such things covered about half of the rules of Jiuchongtian. If he'd done such a thing in front of his great-grandfather who was the current Tianjun not even his parents would have been able to save him from a beating, the rules applied to everyone, he wasn't excused.

Nai Nai was his mothers personal maidservant, but to him she was family, most of his earliest memories were of Nai Nai taking care of him after all, she was more like a big sister or a nanny than just a servant.

Nai Nai walked over and placed Fuzan in his arms, "Hello little ball! I haven't seen you in forever!" Which wasn't true, he'd held his little brother not even a few hours ago, "Have you grown more hair?" Bai Chen spoke to his baby brother and poked his nose, causing Fuzan to smile.

Nai Nai's arms were now free, so after greeting both Bai Chen and Gungun, she relayed, "Her Highness the Crown Princess has requested the Imperial Prince's presence in the central hall."

Bai Chen was curious about why his mother had requested Gunguns presence, and wondered if his father, Zhe Yan and Mo Yuan were also still there, if so, then it was obviously something important. He would be making plans to sneak into the room and try to eavesdrop, but with Nai

Nai staying in the room and the fact he was currently holding Fuzan, he quickly dropped that idea.

"Understood." Was Gunguns reply as he stood up from the table, "Can you look after Xueyu while I'm gone?" Gungun asked Nai Nai.

"Of course, Imperial Prince." was Nai Nai's reply as they bowed and immediately complied with the order, moving through the shimmering sound-blocking barrier to check on the tiny bean Xueyu.

Bai Chen would have been offended to not have been asked, but it wasn't as if Gungun could have him check on the tiny bean. Nai Nai was a common immortal, her power was low, and she was an adult, her control was far better than his, so it was safe for her to hold the tiny bean.

Gungun watched for a second before he turned and headed toward the door that led into the central hall.

"Hey! Can Zan Zan play with these?" Bai Chen asked as he held up a large squishy cube made of different types of fabric.

Gunguns reply was slightly offended, "I designed them for that purpose, they are all very safe." was his defensive response.

"Okay!" grabbed his little brother's chubby hands and placed them together in a sort of mock bow at Gungun, "Zan Zan says thank you for the toys, isn't that right little ball?" Bai Chen asked, but Fuzan was already staring at the cube, mesmerised.

"There is no need to thank me, we are family." Gungun aimed that reply at him, then bowed slightly, "I'll take my leave."

Bai Chen sighed, Gungun was definitely a lost cause, he'd tried every trick and method he knew to get this younger cousin of his to lighten up and not be so rigid with the rules and respect stuff, with very few results.

"Little ball, I'm afraid that our silver haired brother can't be saved, but don't worry! I'll definitely try my best to make sure you and that tiny bean of a sister grow up knowing how to have fun!" Bai Chen promised while waving the cube in front of Fuzans face.

Fuzans response was a delighted cooing noise, accompanied by drool.