Humans only got one thing right.
That life doesn't end after death.
Even for mortals.
He was once that powerful God they describe in books—the one with amazing power to create and sustain life. Centuries passed before they realized they were living in the early stages of a pending apocalypse.
A supreme immortal black dragon emerged and, with the help of the Great Karmic Energy, brought the four heavens together and formed the great immortal realm. He went into seclusion for one hundred thousand years, somewhere in the Formless Dimension. There, he lost all of the Great Karmic Energy, which dispersed into several forms of tribulation, dooming the existence of the immortal realm.
A prophecy about the existence of a tribulation guardian who would one day wake the sleeping dragon, protecting him with their life during these tribulations to gather every bit of the Great Karmic Energy that was lost and save the immortal realm. This was what some immortals and even the dragons looked forward to manifesting one day. Otherwise, they might as well prepare to go through the vicious cycle of death again, but without any hope of reincarnation.
****
(The Fourth Heaven: Temperance Hall)
Dawn was particularly beautiful that day, especially at the large golden gazebo structure reserved and isolated in the northern part of the Fourth Heaven. The thin golden curtains parted for the wind heading toward the impressive open balcony, directly facing the beautiful rising sun in the east. A blue dragon lay curled in the large space, mostly grounded with soft white clouds and pure white marble floors that sparkled in response to the warm golden rays of the sun.
It was running late for its lessons of the day, but the dream it was currently experiencing behind those closed eyelids was worth every gruesome morning session at the Memory Loss River. When the dream finally ended, the blue dragon, no longer than a standard school bus, disappeared, and she opened her eyes with a sad sigh.
Xueyao rose to a sitting position and was greeted warmly by the sun. She stood straighter, her legs wrapped softly by the floating white clouds. She had always admired how beautiful her home, Temperance Hall, looked in the morning. Her fellow blue dragons would envy her forever—-the weakest getting to live like a dragon queen in this great hall.
Xueyao smiled brightly and returned inside to her room, stopping briefly to greet the green plants in the garden and loving every bit of her home. She was pleased to tell them one or two interesting things about what she remembered from her life when she was still a mortal, and about the peculiar twists the dream had this time—-a strange figure she recalled meeting in her past life but still couldn't tell who he was.
''Zhayo, Ao Yin, what do you think this means?''
The plants responded with a gentle wave of their leaves and branches while she thought about it carefully.
The rule of ascension was very simple: once a dead soul of a mortal has the strong will and strength to live again, it journeys to the immortal realm to be reincarnated. If it becomes a dragon, it stays in the fourth heaven as a beginner dragon—-a Blue dragon. The more it lets go of all earthly attachments and memories of its life as a mortal, along with all joy and resentment, the stronger it becomes and the greater its chance to ascend to a Red dragon, and possibly a White Dragon.
Xueyao sighed when the meaning remained unclear in her mind and continued to her room. Her lovely light blue immortal dress added to her adorable looks. Being a short dragon in appearance, she had never let that be added to her long list of insecurities. Her long, dark silky hair fell all the way down to her lower back, with light blue strands lining the sides beautifully, making her one charismatic little angel. She settled behind her desk on her bed, her legs folded as she straightened a piece of paper on the dark wooden surface, dipped the tip of the pen in the freshly ground ink, and began to write down her latest dream with another dimpled smile.
Loving you was like loving the best version of myself. Soft, sweet, kind.
Determined, willing, and free.
She smiled again as she blushed harder, thinking of how else to pour out all the restless thoughts in her head.
But with an unexpected twist.
Strong, powerful, immortal.
Extremely beautiful, charming, and invincible.
She giggled at the thought of a version of herself being the most powerful immortal dragon instead of the weakest, still holding on to the memories of her previous life more than anyone else.
Life can be seen as a steamy, hot immortal cake.
You labour hard for years to bake it and hate every second of the process, wishing you craved something else.
But once it's done and the sweet taste hits your taste buds, you forget all the aches and pain and want to do it all over again.
She paused from her writing when she noticed something was wrong. She looked around her and finally realized what was missing.
Xueyao quickly stumbled to her feet and called out, ''Sheng Chong!''
She turned around again when the eerie silence of Temperance Hall overwhelmed her. Though she could guess the current whereabouts of her immortal master, her beloved Sheng Chong shouldn't be anywhere far, or anywhere her eyes couldn't reach to protect him.
''Sheng Chong! Sheng Chong! Sheng Chong!''
The soft clouds she ran on while looking for her dearest all over the four rooms of Temperance Hall suddenly grew cold as her hands balled into a tight fist, heart racing and her mind reeling, not wanting to accept Sheng Chong was gone while she was asleep.
But where could he have wandered off alone? Who would have dared take him without her permission?
Xueyao's fist hardened as she stood fixed on the balcony, glossy eyes glaring at the horizon ahead as different possibilities and ugly scenarios of what might have happened to him played in her mind.
Whatever it was, she shouldn't give up on the long promise she made to protect Sheng Chong, even at the cost of her immortal life. She was going to look for him, wherever he was—even if it meant tearing this hopeless realm of immortals down bit by bit to find him.
She was more than ready to lose a few dragon scales for him.