Immortal Connections - Chapter 4 preview

Chapter 4 - Wu Ying

As Guardian Chu rode away from the gate with his troops, returning to his regular patrols around the massive Heavenly Palace complex, Minister Yu cocked her head to the side, regarding Wu Ying. He felt a flicker of pressure, like a warm cloud pressing upon his aura and spirit itself before it disappeared. Unlike Guardian Chu's incisive scan of him, hers was faster and more complete he was certain.

"Wind body, very weak dragon bloodline." She grunted. "Explains Lord Shui's interest in you at least. Long." A small snort of amusement, before she continued. "Well, it could be worse. You could have called yourself Huang. Or Yu."

Yellow - the Emperor's color and in some kingdoms, their taken surname, reserved for the imperial family only and those they were related to. Yu - jade - was obvious, considering he was to meet the Jade Emperor himself, though at least in the Middle Kingdom, was less precious. Obviously, that might be different here, in the Heavens. 

Before he could ask for clarification, she walked over to Wu Ying, turning her hand over and making a small octagonal seal appear in hand. The words for Lesser Harmony stamped on the seal above a stylized background of rather recognisable structures. "Keep this on you at all times. It will allow you access to the public areas in the palace. Do not forget it, nor put it in a non-certified storage ring." She glanced at Wu Ying's fingers, nose wrinkling a little. "None of yours will do."

"What happens if I put it in one?" Wu Ying asked.

Before she answered, she turned and thanked Ya Wen before spinning about and walking into the palace. Falling in behind her, he passed under the gates and felt a brief pressure on his body and aura as the walls enchantments interacted with his own. A miniscule warming of the seal spoke of its own interaction, as the energies passed through both immortal and enchantment.

"It will destroy your ring. Your mortal rings are, for the most part, insufficiently developed to contain immortal materials." A slight snort. "Do not lose the seal or misplace it. If you're found without the seal, you will be punished."

"I see." He looked to the gates and the guards and added. "I take it that I am not to leave the palace?"

"Exactly. Until you have been taught the basics of immortal life and been presented to the Emperor, your presence in the immortal realms are a disruption that will not be kindly looked upon."

"And how long will all that take?"

"Do you have somewhere to be?" A single graceful eyebrow rose.

"Actually, I-"

"Have no sense of being an immortal, if you feel still the need to rush," she cut him off. "All of you newly ascended are like this. Rushing, rushing, rushing to become immortals, fearful that you will run out of time. Especially prodigies like you."

"I'm not-"

"Don't play with false modesty. You are not the youngest to ascend, but you certainly are among their number. Few cross the barrier before fifty, even fewer with such close integration of soul and body."

“I did not know.”

“Then you’re more of a fool than you look.”

“Then you’re more of a fool than you look.” She looked back at Wu Ying, continuing. "Every one of the ascended in these walls will have grasped such things by now. You will be judged by the age of your ascent, the integration of your soul and body, the stability of your immortal form and more. Your rankings and how well you do in the immortal tests will all dictate your position in the celestial bureaucracy."

"And if I do not wish to join the bureaucracy?" Wu Ying said.

Those words halted her movement, stopping her mid-stride as she turned to stare at Wu Ying. Her gaze roved over his body more carefully, picking out the callouses on his hands, the cut of his robes and the material, his boots that he had yet to change out, everything that told a story of who he was and what he valued.

"That is your prerogative." The unspoken you fool was quite clear in the tone of her voice. "However, doing well in the tests will still provide you a number of benefits, from access to certain armories and libraries and individuals to respect among those of us who choose to do more than spend their eternity lulling themselves to insenseness."

Spinning on her heel, she returned to guiding Wu Ying deeper into the complex. As they traversed the massive building, she listed out its features, naming the multiple gates that they passed through, the courtyards and gardens, the various kitchens - meant for servants and guards and the ministers that made up this lesser court - as well as the libraries, armories and lounges that were available for use.

Even having approached the building from the air, Wu Ying found that his judgment of the size and immensity of the palace of lesser harmonies to have been sorely lacking. When they had passed through the third massive courtyard complex that was two li long with multiple gazebos, a garden maze bisected by a hillside garden and flowing river did he understand why.

Rubbing at his temples, the final clue that had left him with an understanding, he had to confirm during a momentary lull in her words. “There’s a powerful spatial dao in play, is there not?”

“We have the best formation masters in the thirty six heavens working for us,” Vice Minister Yu said. “They work hard to ensure that all the enchantments and formations – natural and scripted – are up to date. It is also why the concentration of immortal chi is so strong in the vicinity.”

“Of course.” Now that they were no longer on the ‘official tour monologue’, Wu Ying had to ask about an area of interest to him. “I noticed there are numerous kitchens, but few fields…”

“How much do you know of the cosmology of the heavens?” she asked.

“Little, I admit. Information on the moral realm was confused and often contradictory. It spoke of six and thirty two or thirty six heavens.”

She huffed in annoyance. “A matter of characterization.” Coming to a stop near one of the garden benches that were laid out near the flowing stream, the pleasant sounds of rushing water filling the air and the smell of ripening plums and flowering plants filling the air, she gestured into the sky. Light twisted, and an image conjured itself.

It was a multi-layered projection, like a cake made of lands that split itself in a sprawling rising column of land. Clouds blocked the way between lands, six layers of such clouds, with each sprawling piece of land often aligned along the cardinal directions. 

“This is but a representation of a complex concept,” Vice Minister Yu said. “But I find it is easiest one for newcomers to understand. Thirty six heavens. Six realms – the realms of desire, form and formlessness are the first three. Together, they are known as the Three Realms and are the ones most subject to calamity and invasion. It is from these lands that where the majority of our fields and cities lie and our other needs are met.”

Wu Ying nodded, “The Three Realms – that’s where immortals who grow up immortal come from, is it not?” 

“It is.” A slight nod. “Though birth and natural-born Immortals are rarer than with humanity. The process is deliberate and conception can be difficult. However, given the timeframes, there are a large number of such individuals.”

“I see.”

“The other three realms are known as the Three Pure Heavens. The three realms that make up these three heavens are made of the four Min Heavens, the three Pristine Realms and finally, the great overarching sky that makes up Da Lou Tian where the jade capital lies, the Yu Jing Shan. That is, of course, where the Heavenly Palace abides (1).”

“And where we are?” Wu Ying said.

“Of course not!” She waved a hand and a light bloomed on the spiraling column of lands, two thirds of the way up and at the top of the Three Realms. Even though there were thirty six heavens and six realms, they were not proportioned equally, with twenty eight of the thirty six located in the Three Realms. “The Palace of Lesser Harmonies is located in the formless realm, just before one may enter the Three Pure Realms. This is the highest realm that one of your kind may reach, and even then, the burden upon your bodies is significant.”

“Burden?”

“Do you not feel the pressure upon your spirit? The heaviness in your motion? While the formations and our protective enchantments are arrayed to help reduce the stress, surely you must have noticed it?”

Wu Ying touched his chest. He had, of course, noticed how his breathing had tightened, how his limbs felt like a dozen weights had been added to their ends. “When Cousin Xiao Shui left, I had but I thought…” A slight shake of his head, straightening himself. “Yes. Yes I do.”

Vice Minister Yu offered Wu Ying a considering look at his admission. “You handle the pressure better than what I would have expected, of your soul merging and recent ascension.”

“I am no stranger to pain,” Wu Ying said, softly. Over a year of his body broken, shattered by a failed ascension attempt and the jagged edges of soul and body rubbing against one another had inducted him into the ecosystem of pain, the connected vagaries of agony and burdens of failing bodies.

“Interesting.” Then, she gestured around. “In either case, the presence of the Guardians and the Lesser Harmonies are not just for show. We are here to ease your passage. In time, we will find the most appropriate heaven for you, but to reach the Three Pures, that is the undertaking of a lifetime.”

“An immortal lifetime.”

“Exactly.” She inclined her head. “It is only under our aegis that you might traverse the lands between.”

Looking sideways and upwards now, to where the Heavenly Palace lay, Wu Ying nodded. “The space between, it’s not really as short as it appears, is it?”

“Like the Buddha’s palm, you might leap with all your strength and still not escape it.” (2)

Spatial daos. Wu Ying really hated them. They made his head hurt, the winds tremble and his sense of direction turn in on itself. One could never trust your eyes or even the spiritual senses one had built, not when spatial daos were in play. Unfortunately, it seemed that the entirety of the thirty six heavens were built upon the understanding and conceptualisation of such concepts.

“Now, come. There’s still much to show you.” A wave of her hand dismissed the conjured conceptualization of the thirty six heavens before she turned, once more to the palace and her lessons which Wu Ying did his best to memorise.

It was growing ever more clear that his period of ease and relaxation was in the past. If he was to be of any use to his friends in the Middle Kingdom, he had much to learn. 

Footnotes: 

1 -  I’m drawing heavily from Daoist religion here. The number of heavens and their breakdown have changed over the years and I’m sure, depending on sect. The thirty six mentioned here are the most common beliefs, so expect there to be changes to fit the necessity of fiction and tension.

2 - Reference to a story where the Monkey King wagered with Buddha that he could escape his palm. Leaping as hard as he could, he reached what he thought was the pillars of the heavens, writing his name on them before leaping back. Only to find that he had written his name on the Buddha’s upright fingers.