“I am the emperor of chen dynasty. My name is wen chang.” He gave her his full introduction unaware of the depth of what he had just said.

To say she was shocked would be a huge understatement. Her face went white when said his name. fortunately, though she was turned away from wen chang so he didn’t see the ghostly pale reflection of her. Unaware of the bomb he had just set off, he continued speaking.

“you can call me wen wen, though. It’s been a long time since someone called me that. I miss it.”

Unable to wrap her head around what she had just heard, she found herself unable to continue the conversation. I need to get away from here right now, she thought to herself.

Turning back to wen chang, she gave him the next batch of medicine, one that he wasn’t originally supposed to have for another hour but hard times call for drastic measures.

“here, drink this. It will help regulate your constitution and you will rest easy tonight.”

She watched as he finished the bowl and quietly placed a sleeping spell on him. Taking the bowl from his hand, she placed it on the table and helped him to the bed. Moments later, he was out cold.
Now I need to get some answers, she told herself. Leaving her hut, she went further deep into the forest. Once in a safe secluded place, she sent out a call with her aura. She knew he would be around here somewhere. If that man in her house was donghua than he would not be too far away. And her doubts proved true indeed.

Seconds later, si ming appeared in front of her. He curtsied, “star lord, si ming greets queen of quing qui, bai feng jiu.”

“you want to tell me what is going on star lord?”

“I don’t know what you are asking, your majesty.”

“oh is that right? Then I guess I can only go ask heavenly lord since this matter relates to the realms’ safety after all.” she smiled sweetly but with an ice cold face. Turning around, she pretended to leave but before she could take even one step, si ming kowtowed behind her hitting his forehead on the hard ground beneath.

“forgive me, your majesty. Please forgive me.”

“you can stop now. twice is enough. Now start talking.” She ordered coldly. Under normal circumstances, si ming was a dear friend to her, but right now, she was furious at him for keeping this from her.

Bewared of her the anger rolling off of her in waves, he told her everything from the beginning. He told her about dijun going into seclusion right after her and coming back 600 years later just to find her gone with no clues how to find her. He explained how hard he had tried to find her but to no avail.

“since, none of the conventional measures turned up fruitful. He turned towards the old method of hit and try. He started combing through the mortal worlds one by one, piece by piece. You may not know but sifting through a mortal world takes up a lot of cultivation of an immortal. A normal immortal would not have lasted more than 100 mortal worlds but since this is dijun we are talking about over the past 400 years, he sifted through 400,000 mortal words before he collapsed. Use of so much cultivation continuously for such a tenuous task had left his primordial spirit so badly damaged that it took to the mortal realm to recover itself on its own.” He finished, finally daring to look up at her.

“he…. He was looking for me?” she stammered.

“yes, your majesty.”

“why didn’t he stop after seeing the toll it was taking on his health?”

“his sole focus was on finding you, your highness. and we both know once he sets his mind on something, nothing can change it.”

“but… but why … why is he wen chang?”

“Fate works in mysterious ways, your highness. I have no clue to the workings of the immortal fates.”

“I understand. But now I need you to take him away from here. I will give him forgetful potion; he will not remember me anymore and can go back to his life like nothing happened.” She resolved.

“if I may be so daring, may I ask you why would you want to do such a thing, your highness.”

Looking down at him, she told him to stand before continuing, “I can’t cause problem in his trials again, si ming. We all saw what happened last time but now if his primordial spirit his hurt, if he didn’t pass his trial, I dare not imagine what could happen.”

Now that she was finally calm again and referring him by name, he felt he could talk to her like a friend this time.
“there is no trial this time, feng jiu.”

She was sure she had heard him wrong and asked him to repeat it again but he said the same thing again. this confused her even more.

“how could be there no trial? He is in the mortal realm, is he not? Then how could he not have a trial?”

“like I said before, fate works in mysterious ways. Dijun was not scheduled for the mortal realm, so no trial had been prepared for him. His primordial spirit had left for the mortal realm on its own. We just found him comatose on the floor and we had no idea what a missing primordial spirit could mean. It was the third prince, lian song who finally came up with the idea of looking in the mortal realm. And that is how we found him here. I even had to do a spirit searching spell to make sure it was indeed dijun.”

“but you must have written something for him in his fate scroll, si ming. Since you did not know of my presence here, his life still does not include me. I can not let myself get entangled in his life again, only to see him suffer later because of it. I cannot see him go through so much pain again, si ming.”

Looking at her pitiful state, he tried to pacify her, “you would not be messing with his life this time, your highness. I have not written anything on his fate scroll and nor could I, even if I had wanted to.”

“elaborate.”

“when we were looking for his majesty in the mortal realm, we couldn’t find anything weird or special that normally accompanies an immortals’ birth. But instead we found him through an empty fate scroll. He has an empty fate, feng jiu, in this life he gets to make his own fate, quite literally. The fate scroll writes itself as he goes through life. Text appears on the scroll only after it has happened. When I tried to write his fate down, a protective barrier appeared around the scroll to prevent me from taking ink to it.“

“what does this all mean then, si ming? What should I do, in such unusual circumstances?”

“I do not know what it means but what I do know is that fate is trying to tell us something here. We may not understand what it is right now but we will soon, feng jiu. Right now, you and him are free from all the boundations, you are free to make your own decisions right now. so do what your heart tell you to do. Do not chain your heart or you just might regret it for the rest of your long immortal life.”

“not all boundations, si ming. We have never been free from fate and its workings. There is still something at work here that you do not know about, si ming.”

“if your highness were to tell me, I would try my best to help her with it.”

“you know I tried to write dijun’s name beside mine on the three lives rock but what you don't know is that to write a new name you need to remove the old one first. That day I saw the name beside mine. I paid no attention to it since no one could be above dong hua in my heart. How could anyone, all my heart is donghua’s after all. but do you want to know what that name was si ming?”

A sense of foreboding surrounded him, hearing her say that, “who is it, feng jiu?”

“wen chang dijun” she said solemnly.

He was confused as to whether he should smile in relief at this news or cry tears over it. On one hand wen chang was the mortal incarnation of donghua dijun himself, so in a twisted curve of fate, they were somehow fated for each other. On the other hand, if this relationship was to come to fruition then he was scared to imagine what would happen to donghua and feng jiu later on. This was indeed puzzling and he told her so.

“feng jiu, what you just said is indeed very puzzling. It tangles up the strings a bit more. But the facts still remain the same in fact a lot stronger now. wen chang is still the mortal incarnation of donghua dijun himself and his fate still remains very empty. That empty scroll is your key to the door that had been long closed by dijun millenias back when he removed his name. also, wen chang’s name beside yours prove that even with an empty fate he is still very much tied to you. So, no matter how much you run or where, fate will intervene on his behalf. So, let yourself enjoy this ride while it lasts. Take it a day at a time, go where your heart takes you. If a problem arises in future, we will see to it then. There is no point in loosing out on the present in worry of the future.“

After reassuring her again, he finally took her leave and disappeared.