After donghua, feng jiu and mo yuan came back, the disciples took their leave and everyone subsequently settled for the breakfast that had been interrupted earlier.

Done with the meal, everyone started dispersing in order to attend to their tasks. As such, donghua turned to fengjiu, "xaio bai, I need to discuss some important matters with lian song and si ming, will you be alright in the meanwhile?"

Feng jiu squeezed the cold hand she held in her warm one and said reassuringly, "I will be perfectly fine, don't worry about me. Go, attend to your tasks, if you want, you can use my study to hold your meetings. No one will disturb you there. Meanwhile, I think I'll get on with the training we talked about earlier."

"Okay, my love. Call for me, when you need me okay."

Nodding her head in confirmation, she pushed donghua in direction of her study.

As he left, he summoned lian song and si ming for a meeting.

Donghua entered and settled down in feng jiu's study, while Zhong lin attended to his needs and arranged for tea and a set of go for him.

Moments later, lian song and si ming appeared as Zhong lin left, bowing, they greeted donghua.

"take a seat, you two." Donghua said as he started playing go alone, against himself.

"now, start from the beginning and don't leave anything out." He commanded.

Nodding their heads, the two generals, began explaining from the time he had fainted to the search for his spirit, how they had found him, the unusual circumstances that surrounded his fate in the mortal realm.

At this point, si ming conjured wen chang's life scroll and presented it to dijun. While dijun read the scroll, he continued explaining,

"as a mortal this time, your majesty had a very serene life, if I may say so. There were no serious trials, as weird as it sounds. Even in death, wen chang was said to have expired in an accidental fire with his little queen by his side, leaving behind a strong and stable kingdom for his eldest son who honored and expanded the legacy left behind by his father."

"elaborate on the death that you speak of." Donghua directed.

Si ming further explained the scenario of the demon attack on the sky kingdom and what it had entailed, to finding wen chang under the spirit eviscerating spell and the way the young fox queen had handled it.

"If I may be so bold, your majesty, when I found your spirit locked and disintegrating, I had given up hope. As without the god of war, there existed no one without the knowledge on undoing that particular spell, as per what your majesty told me. But watching her majesty, I saw something extraordinary at that moment. She seemed to have retreated within herself but few moments later, when her conscience returned, an azure blue ray of light appeared at your majesty's forehead and it grew to overtake the whole body but when it sealed and cleared, your majesty's original immortal form appeared in the place of the mortal form."

As donghua heard this particular set of events, it caused him abundant surprise and pride. His precious xaio bai had not only undone one of the most complex spells ever placed but she had also done with absolutely no harm to his immortal self; this caused his chest to expand with pride for her. At the same time, the fact that at such a young age, she had been able to harness such extreme power with no help from her primordial spirit at that time was astounding. As for the little matter of her knowledge of that spell, he was sure, mo yuan would be the one to explain that to him. He ordered si ming to continue.

After si ming had completed with events of the mortal world and her majesty's order to stay there till dijun woke up, lian song took over for the next part. Lian song expounded upon the reports, he had received on the happenings at the border of sky kingdom that day. With utter glee, he delightfully reported, how her majesty had single-handedly trapped the entire demonic army between two vicious red shields that had laid rest to the whole army without anyone being the wiser. He then went on to explain the taunts and insults the young queen had flung at the ancient demon, expertly trapping him in a circle of spirit fire and when the demon had fruitlessly tried to gain the upper hand, she had seemingly retrieved some hidden power from herself rendering him to nothingness.

"from the reports I read and heard, I believe her majesty may have followed in the footsteps of a certain ancient ruler that likes to tease and infuriate his subjects to the point of oblivion." Lian song said in a singsong voice, getting the once in a lifetime opportunity of teasing donghua.

Donghua, though just smiled at the thought of his little fox following up in his footsteps with those little white paws of her. He was proud of his little fox at not just learning the subtilities of his actions that most people ignored but also at the way she had so effortlessly brought it into practice with her own small touches to it.

But what came out of his mouth was the complete opposite of this. In a hard voice, he questioned, "where was hao de during all this?"

Lian song answered in a somber voice, "when ye hua and I left, he was discussing battle strategies and escape routes for the civilians with the court. But from the reports of the subsequent events I received, says that when all the high gods had been pulled away from the borders and the army was struggling to keep the demons at bay, tianjun had given shelter to the civilians in the royal court under the full supervision of his personal battalion and had then disappeared from there with his courtiers. The reports said that he was about to leave for the northern seawater palace, sang ji's palace, when feng jiu's shield snapped into place, effectively trapping him inside. After he heard, those barriers belonged to the young fox queen that was then fighting the ancient demon alone, he waited for the barriers to collapse so that he could escape, not believing that the young queen would be able to conquer the demon alone."

"and do you believe the reports, third prince?" Donghua asked referring to lian song with his title, to highlight that he was asking a prince, if his father, the king was capable of something like that. Donghua, didn't have the need to ask that, he was already well aware of haode's cowardice but he needed to be sure that his general also understood the implications of the heavenly rulers' actions.

Shamefully, bowing his head, lian song nodded, "I fully believe those reports. If it were not for the barriers, he would have left everyone to die at the hands of the demon army."

"His actions do not reflect upon you, lian song. Do not carry the shame for his actions. It is only his to carry. Now tell me, what did he do after fengjiu solitarily defeated hei an?"

"the reports say that after the news of the queens' victory and subsequent trial along with your involvement in it made the rounds, tian jun was caught unawares. He tried to come to qingqui to ask questions and claim your body believing you to be dead but with the shields still in place, he was unable to do so. He tried all his power and resources to undo the shields to no effect. One informant even said that he saw a trapped demon trying to attack tianjun and get swallowed up the shield. He said tianjun was then so scared of the shields that he stayed far away from them. As ye hua and I were still in qingqui, we began receiving thousand of missives and commands to get the barriers undone."

Lian song then explained how mo yuan had helped them to left up the demon seal of the barriers for a little while and that it would be coming back down again soon.

"after the safe passage was ensured, he called us back to the sky kingdom and promptly handed over all the workings to ye hua. He knows that you are very much alive but we didn't saw it wise to tell him that you had woken up and retreated again for something we know nothing about. As of now, he has no idea about your return and the truth about the queens' powers. We await your instruction as to how we are to proceed."

"let it remain that way. Tomorrow, I believe, is the annual heavenly meeting?"

The annual heavenly meeting dong hua referred to was a gathering of envoys from all realms to discuss interstate matters and renew peace treaties.

"it is but with the things as they are right now, tianjun will not want to host guests from all the realms." Lian song replied.

"then, it is your task to make sure that the annual heavenly meeting. Envoys from every realm is to be present no matter if they have an issue to settle or not. I have a couple of gifts for hao de, I wonder what he will think about them." Donghua smiled as he said this. This smile of his was reminiscent of the times before feng jiu when dijun's smile was famous for bringing misfortune. Lian song understood donghua's reference the moment he saw his cold smile. I definitely hadn't missed this smile, he thought to himself.

"There is another matter that needs your attention, your majesty." Lian song continued.

"speak," Donghua ordered.

"this morning, I received a report from our spy in the black demon clan. There has been some disturbance on the secluded island of ash in the black sea. Nothing of importance was seen but a storm had been circling the island since yesterday."

"monitor it for now. I will personally go to check the source after the meeting tomorrow. If that is all, you may leave and send mo yuan, zhe yan and bai zhi in after you." Donghua said, dismissing them.

A few moments after they left, mo yuan entered and bowed, greeting donghua.

"take a seat."

Mo yuan was still getting himself settled, when zhe yan, also came in. After both sat down, donghua ignored them for a while, playing go and drinking tea. Soon, bai zhi also rushed in.

"now, explain everything since xaio bai's coronation and do not leave anything out." He said in a hard-cold voice.

Bai zhi started the story with the point that it was feng jiu, herself that came to him asking to go to the human realm for experience and since, in qingqui, that was a common rite of passage for every ruler, he allowed and didn't think much of it.

Zhe yan continued from that point by stating that he was worried for xaio jiu since she had never been alone for such a long period of time so to keep in touch with her, he devised the plan of teaching her medicine and spirit. But for what he had assumed would take thousands of years, she had done in just a handful of years. Seeing her talent, he hadn't wanted to stop her education, so he had requested mo yuan to take over her education.

As mo yuan, started with his part of the story, he noticed that donghua was no longer interested in his tea but had directed his full attention to him. The passive non-expressive face of dong hua, made him hesitate for a moment before he continued with explaining that after he heard and saw the unusual talent and power feng jiu had commanded, he decided to teach her in the subjects of sword fighting, magic, Buddhist scriptures, and military stratagems. Again he enunciated the point zhe yan had said about her completing the subjects in a very small period of time. He also made it a point to explain that the training ground he had seen was made for feng jiu to practice magic safely and his cultivation was made a part of it just to allow him access to the grounds so that he could teach her remotely.

After explaining this part of the story, he looked up to see if his explanation had soothed donghua's jealous heart but found no change in his facial expressions.

A few moments later though he heard donghua's voice in his mind. Talking telepathically was not that uncommon but for normal immortals certain rules governed this type of magic since the mind is a very tricky thing. Only with a certain level of power was it possible to talk telepathically but it also required the other person to be present there, physically and to allow entrance to the other person for the conversation to begin. Since donghua was no normal immortal, these rules had never applied to him. Only a handful of people knew that he could actually read minds and talk to any number of people in their minds at will; he needed no invitation to enter someone's mind. Among those few people, mo yuan was included. He was not surprised to find donghua in his mind, so when heard him speak, he sat still so as not to alert others of what was happening.

"if she is your student, then why don't you make her call you shifu?"

"she has not been taken in as a disciple and thus as the queen of qingqui, her station doesn't allow for her to call me anything else. She is my student donghua, nothing else."

"bai qian was also your student, mo yuan. Do I need to remind you of what happened there?"

"Nothing happened there, donghua. Don't include seventeen in this. It was my heart that got carried away, she was not even aware of it."

"then what has stopped your heart from getting away this time or some time in the future."

"apart from the fact that I respect her as an exceptional student, do you need me to list out all the points?"

"I would appreciate that."

"ok then listen. First, she is the niece of the woman I loved; from that point, it is just disgusting to even think about. Second, she is the granddaughter of the man I call brother and I already betrayed his trust when I fell in love with his daughter, I won't do that twice. Third, zhe yan would literally kill me, if that were to happen and I value you my life a lot. But the most important reason is you, donghua. Even if I was not deathly afraid of ending up on the wrong side of canghe, I would never do that to you, brother. I saw the way you felt about her when you came to Kunlun after she cut off her tail. I have seen the feelings that you tried so hard to hide for such a long time. Every time you look at her, there is a softness in your eyes that has never existed before. Others haven't spent their lifetimes trying to just read your eye movements, so they couldn't see what I saw. I would never begrudge you the happiness that you've found after such a long time, brother. You deserve it. And again, if we were to put that aside, that little fox will only ever love you, donghua. No matter what life does to her, she keeps coming back to your side. You are the exceptions and solutions to all her magic, every single thing she does is with you in her mind. And any man who still falls for her is just setting himself up for failure. In her heart, no one can ever measure up to you."

"well enough."

"so, we are back to monosyllables and phrases."

"yes, but first tell me how she knew the spell to undo the soul eviscerating magic?"

"she didn't. I told her. After your spirit had already been chained up, she came to the training ground looking for me. At that time, I was busy trying to seal that ancient demon burial site, so I neither had the cultivation to undo the soul spell nor I could have left the site unsealed. So when she came looking for me, I told her the procedure and spell to undo that soul magic. She already had the power and capability to do it and even if she hadn't, it was your life that was at stake, so she would have done that anyhow. The only problem that I saw then, was if she'll choose to bring back you or wen chang. Again, that was a useless thought, I wonder how I even came up with something that useless."

"good."

"if there's nothing more you want to ask then can I ask something?"

"you may."

"Why did you tell me to make a bottomless container?"

"do you remember what I told you about our true spirits?"

"other than the fact that you are her perfect match?"

"yes, mo yuan"

"you are the source of nature and she is the source of living."

"exactly. Even in my absence, her body needed to be tethered to me somehow to let the power accumulate properly. The ground beneath her body provided that connection."

"I understand."

With that dong hua exited mo yuan's mind. Meanwhile, zhe yan had been explaining about their recovery period after feng jiu's trial but since he already knew about it, he dismissed the three after he finished.

"if that is all, you may leave."

As mo yuan and zhe yan stood up to leave, bai zhi remained seated.

"if I may ask for a private audience with you, your majesty."

"you may."