Goddess sneaks into the Purple Palace at night
“Yuan’e,” Xie Jinhui wrapped his arms around my back, pulling me down by bending my waist.
I lost my balance and fell towards him, landing directly on his smooth, icy silver fish.
Xie Jinhui smiled softly, turned his head slightly to avoid my kiss, which showed signs of invasion, attack, and forceful takeover.
My lips slid across his moist face, kissing my way up to his ears, my head sinking into the swirling mass of dark clouds around his neck and shoulders.
Xie Jinhui pressed my head down with one hand, and two strands of hair fell down. One strand was tangled with his hair, and the other strand must have replaced mine, covering his lips.
I heard him turn his head and breathe into my ear, and for some reason, there was a layer of shade behind me that the sunlight couldn't penetrate.
Even the eyes buried in the pile of black hair could feel the light turning from bright to dim, and could even smell the lingering fragrance of a warm tent, like the scent of spring, seeping out from between the cracks in the stone.
I sensed something was amiss, but this was the first time I had ever been so closely intertwined with the deity beneath me, forming a turtle-like shape.
This first time was deadly.
My breathing became disordered, and my heart swayed like scattered stars in the sky.
The more he shines, the more I want to pluck every single star from his body, boil them into candy, and lick them so sweet they're unbearable.
Xie Jinhui's chest heaved like a fishing boat in a storm. I am the wind, he is the wave, but our storms could not capsize the fishing boat, nor could they tear off the immortal robes and raise the sails for our journey.
"Yuan'e." Xie Jinhui's soft, deep-sea voice whispered in my ear, his lips brushing against my earlobe, reaching me through the cage of my hair.
I trembled slightly and hugged him tighter.
I don't know when, but he finally released my head with his very restrained hand, allowing us to look at each other again.
Then, everything changed completely, erasing all his worries and fears about the unfinished business.
He wouldn't let me go, yet I remained adrift at sea with him.
Silently, the heartbeats of two people, one as heaven and the other as earth, intertwine to create a war drum that is enough to make their souls embrace tightly.
We are at war—against ourselves, against the other side, against the false Heavenly Emperor, and against Heaven and Earth.
The waterbed was rocking, trying to lure us into the battlefield, but Xie Jinhui simply slipped his fingers into my hair and lightly pecked the tip of my ear.
"Yuan'e," he called me again, and I felt his tone had changed from infatuation to clarity.
"This place is not conducive to doing things."
Later, you try turning around suddenly.
Xie Jinhui's voice was very soft; if it weren't for a lover's whisper, no one could hear it.
These thought-provoking words have made me much clearer.
I gave a soft "hmm" from my hair and then lay low to the ground.
After a few breaths, Xie Jinhui released his hand. I remained silent for a moment, then suddenly turned my head and looked up at the sky!
Where is the sky? The watery rocks on our bodies turned into giant scallop shells, encasing Xie Jinhui and me in their stone caves.
Perhaps they want to hatch us into pearls, or perhaps they want to lure us into a pearl-bursting duel?
What are you all thinking? Does my relationship with Xie Jinhui need so many eyes to get involved?
Just as I turned my head, I saw that all the water droplets on the clamshell-shaped ceiling, which should have been teetering on the edge, were frozen in place.
I was stunned.
Those were millions of eyes that had somehow managed to peek in and peer through, and I had wanted to retreat to the ends of the earth all at once.
She was suddenly at a loss for what to do and felt extremely embarrassed.
They stood there dumbfounded, hurriedly pressing their eyeballs back into their sockets, and then covering the eyes of each family hidden behind the curtain.
I pretended to be someone who shouldn't look at them inappropriately.
Once the stunned hard water droplets realized what was happening, they stopped pretending to be uniform.
On the clam shell, there are reflective mirrors, pinholes, universe beads, dragon-hidden trumpets, starlight dream eyes, and incense that entices you to enter the realm of illusion...
All sorts of things revealed their true forms, flying out of the clam shell one by one like needles being pulled out.
The sound of something piercing the air outside, peeking at the magical artifacts, rang out as it burst through the water mist bubbles, leaving behind a series of suggestive sound effects.
Kiss kiss kiss kiss...
I gritted my teeth in hatred. Those kissing sounds, how passionate they were! How many immortals were watching us, following countless vines?
Not only is monitoring every move not allowed, but even entering the bridal chamber requires the entire celestial realm to share it?
I'm so angry! I'm so angry! Now I've lost all interest in anything.
I held on to the waterbed, barely daring to utter a sound, so angry that I forgot I had a celestial body beneath me.
Without hesitation, I plopped down on Xie Jinhui, whom I had assumed was a cushion when my mind went blank.
Look at his delicate face, all scrunched up like tamarind skin, his teeth bared, and his eyes squinted.
His expression was a mix of pain and ecstasy, but I felt incredibly awkward.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I apologized as I removed the pressure from the hard object I had accidentally run over and jumped out of bed.
Xie Jinhui regained his composure, then with a twist of his long legs, he suddenly sat up from the waterbed, reached out and grabbed me, the mudfish that had taken the bait and tried to escape, and pulled me back into his arms.
A retaliatory light kiss.
“Yuan’e, from now on, you must cherish me.”
If you accidentally hurt me again, I'll never be able to fall in love with you again. What am I going to do?
I raised my hands to cover my face, clearly embarrassed, but still stubborn.
"I like Xie Jinhui, so much so that I'd even be friends with him."
"sisters?"
Xie Jinhui, all bark and no bite, grabbed my wrist and placed it against his chest.
"Yuan'e, shall we go to Moxu Chenyuan, or return to Qunshan Garden?"
I rested my head on his arm, playing with a strand of his hair with my fingers.
Looking up, I met a pair of eyes that held little desire, yet possessed a depth as profound as a distant mountain pool.
I smiled and used the end of my hair to gently touch the corner of his mouth.
"Thank you, Jinhui. Take me back to Qunshan Garden. We will be together forever."
He bent down and placed a mark on my forehead.
"I like Yuanhe so much that I can be her brother."
I also believe that we will have a long future together.
*
When love and desire intertwine, who can emerge unscathed, and still feel so light and carefree after all the twists and turns, both physically and mentally at ease?
I, the goddess Yuan'e, actually let go of a bewitching god who was madly in love with me and obsessed with me.
Haha, I've finally come to understand the wonder of how, after overcoming the tribulation of lust, those with feelings and those without feelings ultimately arrive at the same destination.
Xie Jinhui stood at the entrance of the Demon Cave. As we waved goodbye, we looked at each other with knowing eyes and simultaneously uttered, "Thank you."
At that moment, I saw him smile, a smile as melodious as the echoing Dharma in an empty mountain, as refreshing as sweet nectar.
I realized that we had found a certain familiarity between us, something that lingered beyond love, hate, infatuation, and lust.
What is it? I don't know. It's like the wind fell in love with the ripples on the water, and the ripples are its masterpiece with the water.
A fleeting love, like ripples on water; if the ripples disappear, the bond is broken, and the connection dissipates.
What, then, is the love between wind and water?
Water flows, wind blows east and west, they are always there.
As for the "love" with a reason, it is not even as old as these.
I feel that Xie Jinhui and I have a very long history, so long that even if we were to turn to dust, we would still be able to say with a quiet and heavy heart: "Never changed."
Love is one possibility we choose; it cannot fully represent the deeper things between us.
That's roughly how it feels.
I sat cross-legged on the couch, watching the raindrops in the basin, like musical notes leaping from a dusty abyss.
"Xie Jinhui, tonight, I want to give it a try."
The ethereal music emanating from the basin filled the air. Xie Jinhui, standing on the other side of the basin, remained silent for a long while before calmly saying, "Go and return quickly, and stop when you've had enough."
With him as my support, I feel at ease.
But I also know that the best course of action next is to keep my backing hidden.
As I sat cross-legged in meditation, a ethereal celestial spirit left my body and instantly arrived beneath the Tai Su Wu Nian Stone in the Zi Ji Palace.
The black, gleaming stone was extremely dazzling in the night. It was the most sleepy immortal creature in the entire immortal realm, and I had never seen it awake with its transparent, spotless white color.
Under its gaze, I tried to sense and summon the immortal power of the Holy Emperor.
For 320,000 years, the Holy Emperor Shengsheng has lived here. Even if he is replaced, his memories and traces will remain here.
I had no ulterior motives. No matter how the Tai Su Wu Nian Stone stared at me and its chilling aura disturbed my spirit, I remained focused and searched quietly.
The aura of the Holy Emperor was still very strong, which comforted me.
"The Heavenly Emperor is still here, so he must still exist."
But where is he? Is the real him suppressed near the Purple Palace?
I searched the area around the Purple Palace again and again, and the heavy aura was the same everywhere, as if proclaiming a fact.
The Holy Emperor has always been inside the Purple Extreme Palace, and this has never changed.
I frowned. Had that fake Emperor Shengsheng really managed to pull it off flawlessly?
The Purple Palace is sealed by multiple Dharma realms, making it difficult for me, as a spirit, to rashly intrude and explore its secrets.
Hesitantly, I risked gently touching one of the array's key points with my fingertips. Unexpectedly, it opened the barrier for me, allowing me to enter.
My mind races; could this be a trap, a snare to lure me in?
But then I remembered that during the great calamity at Fei Kong Mountain, I had personally adjusted all the formations of Zi Ji Palace.
It must have been around that time that they began to regard me as one of the array masters.
The spirit of the array master is about to enter, and all nine layers of the array are allowed to pass.
I explored my way through layers of magical arrays and spiritual currents, with the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) and the sun, moon, and stars as their mechanisms.
I always felt that they were like generals leading thousands of troops, bowing to me, calling out to me in a desperate cry for help that I clearly didn't hear, yet which had sunk deep into my heart.
They cried out: "Mountains and rivers are fragile, yet eternally green; gods, gods, save, save..."
My heart was surging with emotion, yet I remained unusually calm.
Walk along the jade steps of the corridor, pass through the floating island waterfall, and between the palaces and pavilions.
I gradually approached him by following the path of immortal power that the Holy Emperor Sheng Sheng left me to use for communication.
The heavier his breathing became, the more uneasy I felt.
I can't be sure if the one I found is real or fake.
If it weren't for the spirit thread that Xie Jinhui tied to his wrist.
I'm afraid I won't have the courage to take another step down the road ahead.
Touching my wrist, I took a deep breath and tiptoed to the front of the bed curtains, which were surrounded by layers of screens and fragrant gauze curtains, and where incense smoke swirled.
Before me, more than ten kinds of incense burned together. The incense burner, carved with various birds and beasts, was like a minister of a noble family attending court, staring at me with intimidating and ferocious eyes.
I found the images of these incense burners to be strangely familiar; I had seen them sleeping somewhere when I was binding spirit threads.
Perhaps it's because I possess Xie Jinhui's immortal power, some of which has had its memories altered by Xie Jinhui, leaving his mark.
Some incense burners glanced at me, then closed their eyes and went back to sleep.
Some scrutinized me with suspicion.
I looked up at the high platform guarded by the incense burner, and the figure behind the curtain completely overlapped with the body in my memory.
coincide?
This discovery caused me great distress, because the purest aura left to me by the Holy Emperor Shengsheng had led me to the monster's bedchamber.
What does this tell us?
Does this mean that the Holy Emperor is inside his body?
Or perhaps the monster has already grown flesh and blood branches inside the body of the Holy Emperor.
I am not giving up. I want to awaken the true Holy Emperor.
Concentrating his divine power, the mark on his forehead revealed a divine seal.
I called out, word by word, "Uncle Heavenly Emperor, Little Yuanhe can't sleep, she wants you to hold her."
When I was a child, I slept for too long during my initial transformation, and after waking up, I couldn't fall asleep all day.
The Holy Emperor once came to the Mountain Garden and hugged me, and I fell asleep peacefully.
Thus, the little goddess, who was not even as tall as the Heavenly Emperor's knee, managed to stay with the busy Heavenly Emperor for hundreds of years.
I brought up the little girl's story again to ask his spirit if it was him.
Just then, as I finished pondering the words and was still examining my incense burner, the figure behind the curtain suddenly stood up.
With a wave of his hand, my spirit gracefully rose and landed beside his bed.
I could clearly see that he was not the Holy Emperor, nor my Heavenly Emperor uncle; his expression and eyes were completely wrong.
The Heavenly Emperor on the bed, his eyes hazy, stared at my spirit body, scrutinizing me from head to toe.
He seemed to be lost in a long dream, still wandering in the long corridor of the dream, so much so that the words he spoke sounded more like sleep talking.
"King Xiang had a dream, but the goddess was indifferent."
Goddess Yuan'e, why did I dream of you...?
He suddenly jumped up in a panic, "You, you are..." and then rushed towards me!
What talk of King Xiang's dream and the goddess's indifference? Let no lewd songs and lascivious tunes be sung to me.
"Mine!" The Emperor was still lost in his dream that day, as if he was about to forcibly take it from me.
I was furious, so I stepped back and shoved him.
"Get away from me, don't touch me."
My body jolted suddenly, and I felt a solid presence. I saw that I had swung my hands out hard, pushing Xie Jinhui to the very center of the demon's lair.
My heart ached, and I quickly pulled my hand away. Xie Jinhui strode over and pulled me into his arms.
"Don't be afraid, I won't let him touch you."
*
Xie Jinhui's comforting words reassured me, and I nestled back into bed, lying on my pillow.
Seeing that I was getting sleepy, he was about to turn back to Moxu Chenyuan when I grabbed his sleeve and moved further into the depths of the bed.
"Xie Jinhui," I said, "stay with me."
He lowered his eyes and chuckled softly. Without hesitation, he climbed onto the bed and pulled me into his arms.
“My Yuanhe, I am here.”
"I'm here, Xie Jinhui."
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