"What's so great about that eagle, little sparrow? Does he compare to me?"
Ao Yunxiu stared at Bai Xiaoqiao—fluttering uselessly in her cage—and his expression was deeply displeased. "I, Ao Yunxiu, am a jiaolong. One day I will ascend to a true dragon. Staying by my side would benefit you far more than following some eagle. I met you first—there's an order to these things. On what grounds does someone who showed up later get to be the one you like?"
A few days ago he had emerged from closed cultivation in his underwater cave, looking for his entertaining little sparrow to play with. The moment he reached the water's surface, he heard her confessing her feelings to the eagle. He had discovered her first—that made her his. Some rotten eagle dared lay a hand on what was his? He'd watched the eagle fly off, then seized Bai Xiaoqiao in fury and locked her in a cage.
His reasoning: a few days in a cage would make her obedient. She wouldn't dare run off after that eagle again. And when that eagle dared show his face, he would personally kill him, pluck every feather from his body, and roast him.
"Little sparrow—have you admitted your mistake?"
"I don't like you."
Even caged, even afraid of Ao Yunxiu, Bai Xiaoqiao was unwavering on matters of the heart. "Ao Yunxiu, let me go. You are a noble jiaolong who will one day become a true dragon. I am only a tiny mountain sparrow spirit—I'm not worthy of you. You should look among the jiaolong clans, or the dragon clans, for a girl who suits you—"
"Shut up. I like this kind of little mountain sparrow, and clearly you haven't thought things through yet. So sit in there and think." Ao Yunxiu was incensed—in all his years, he had never been outcompeted by an eagle. "When you finally decide you like me, I'll let you out."
"You can keep me in here as long as you want. I still won't like you." Bai Xiaoqiao's voice was quiet but firm. "Ao Yunxiu, liking someone doesn't work by force. Either you do or you don't. This—" she gestured between them— "isn't a match."
"In what way aren't we a match? In what way am I inferior to that eagle?" Ao Yunxiu was furious. "Tell me. Where exactly don't we match? What is it about me you find lacking?"
"We don't match in any way." Bai Xiaoqiao's voice dropped. "You don't understand what liking someone means. Even if your cultivation level surpasses Dong Ying's, even if your bloodline is nobler, even if every outward thing about you is better—I still won't like you. With me, you feel only curiosity. Amusement. The pleasure of teasing. To you, I'm a plaything. When you're in a good mood, you torment me a little less. When you're in a bad mood, you cast a spell to make me thrash around in the water and laugh at how wretched I look. You have never cared what I think or feel—you only think of yourself. Ao Yunxiu, I'm begging you—let me go. I'll leave this area and never appear before you again."
Ao Yunxiu's expression darkened. "You really paint such an ugly picture of me."
Because it's accurate, Bai Xiaoqiao thought. If she were strong enough to fight back, she'd never have put up with any of this—she'd never have chosen her words so carefully, made herself so small. If she had even a fraction of the power to resist, she'd have acted long ago instead of enduring this pitifully. But a little mountain sparrow was no match for a jiaolong, not even after a few hundred more years of cultivation. The suppression of race and bloodline left her without any recourse.
Ao Yunxiu was so furious the scales along his body trembled. He demanded, "Then what does that eagle do for you? Eagles eat small birds—you know that, right? He doesn't mean well. He's only fattening you up to eat you in one bite."
"He won't. Dong Ying has been eating vegetarian." Bai Xiaoqiao said this with complete sincerity. "Ever since he and I became friends, he hasn't caught a single bird from the mountains for food. He eats the fruit I pick. And he picks the best fruit for me in return. He's different. He—"
"Shut up!!"
Before Ao Yunxiu could say another word, a voice carried in from outside.
"Ao Yunxiu. Release Bai Xiaoqiao."
Bai Xiaoqiao's heart leapt. She fluttered with sudden joy inside the cage.
Ao Yunxiu watched her—and his chest filled with fury. He gave a cold laugh. "Glad he came for you, aren't you? Fine. Then watch how I kill that eagle, pluck out every feather, and roast him on a spit."
He felt Bai Xiaoqiao's terror, and that satisfied him greatly. He went out to meet his opponent.
He vaulted to the river's surface. Dong Ying stood at the bank, shifted into human form—a young man in black robes, sharp-featured, with a cool and collected bearing that radiated from every inch of him.
"You're the eagle?" Ao Yunxiu also took human form—silk robes, richly embroidered—and looked down at Dong Ying from a position of relaxed arrogance. "Bai Xiaoqiao has my eye on her. If you have any sense, leave now and spare your life."
"Then let's fight."
Dong Ying didn't waste words. He knew his own cultivation was weaker than Ao Yunxiu's, but he didn't flinch. He had Kong Li at his back. He was confident.
Ao Yunxiu scoffed. "Fine. The sky is your territory, isn't it? Then let's take this to the air." He shifted into his true form—a massive jiaolong, surging up through the clouds into the open sky. Dong Ying followed, shifting into a great eagle and launching himself into the cloud layer above.
In an instant, the two were locked in furious combat in the sky. The birds of the surrounding mountains dared not come within miles; even a glancing blow from either of them would send a creature plummeting from the air, dead or gravely wounded.
Inside the cave, Bai Xiaoqiao heard the commotion and struggled frantically against the bars of her cage. When Kong Li arrived, she found the little white mountain sparrow so exhausted from struggling that she had collapsed flat on the cage floor—and burst out laughing.
"Look at you, scatterbrain. You could tire yourself to death in there and still not break that cage."
Bai Xiaoqiao heard an unfamiliar voice—melodious, and tinged with amusement—and scrambled unsteadily to her feet, eyes full of hope. "Miss—could you let me out?"
"Want out, do you?" Kong Li pressed her lips together with a smile, her tone teasing. "And do what?"
"Dong Ying is no match for Ao Yunxiu. I have to stop them."
Kong Li looked her over from head to toe with a laugh. "That little body of yours? You'd last about three seconds out there before you ended up a plucked, roasted mountain sparrow."
"I can't stand by and watch Dong Ying die for my sake. If I'm going to die, I'd rather die with him." Bai Xiaoqiao's voice carried a trace of sorrow. "I never even got his answer. I have to go ask."
Kong Li watched the little sparrow's wholehearted devotion—and thought of her own years in a world without A-Xin. Something stirred in her chest.
Then Bai Xiaoqiao actually started crying.
Kong Li waved her hand, and the cage fell open. "Alright, come out. I'll take you." But she swept her sleeve and tucked Bai Xiaoqiao inside it. Better not to release her yet. With Ao Yunxiu's temperament, the moment he spotted a fragile target, he'd use her as a hostage to threaten both sides. No need to make an amateur mistake like that.
"Don't make a sound. Stay in my sleeve. I promise nothing will happen to your Dong Ying." Kong Li's tone was flat. "Make one peep and I'll leave him to his fate."
"I won't say a word. Not one."
Bai Xiaoqiao was no fool. She could feel the extraordinary power radiating off this woman—the kind that made her instinctively want to bow. This was clearly someone worth holding on to. As long as Dong Ying was safe, she could keep quiet forever if she had to.
Kong Li reached the riverbank just as, high above, Dong Ying lost ground to Ao Yunxiu and was slammed hard into the earth below. Ao Yunxiu descended in his true jiaolong form, fully intending to finish him.
He hadn't gotten halfway to Dong Ying when a staff came down on his body—hard.
Ao Yunxiu's true form was formidable; ordinary magical weapons couldn't harm him. But this stick—utterly plain to look at—struck him, and he let out a wretched howl of pain, crashing to the ground. The earth shook.
Before he could make sense of what had hit him, Kong Li's second blow landed squarely on his midsection. She gave him no time to react. As the third blow came down, he finally managed to see her clearly. "Who are you?!"
"Your ancestor."
Kong Li beamed. The third blow came down directly on the jiaolong's massive skull. He saw stars, his great body rolling across the ground. Beyond the pain was something worse: humiliation. He had been beaten senselessly by a stranger, and who knew how many of the mountain spirits were watching.
Furious, he let out a roar, reared up, and swept his body toward Kong Li. Kong Li snorted. Today's the day you learn. She had been waiting centuries for this.
From the crater, Dong Ying watched Kong Li—not even in her true form, armed with nothing but a wooden stick—beat Ao Yunxiu into complete helplessness. A grim satisfaction rose in him, alongside something else: he swallowed quietly. When had peacocks gotten this formidable? And that golden plumage, that aura she carried—she was no ordinary peacock. Her form, too, seemed different from any peacock he had encountered.
Only when Ao Yunxiu lay motionless on the ground did Kong Li stop. She glanced at the defeated jiaolong, then shook Bai Xiaoqiao loose from her sleeve.
"Bai Xiaoqiao is my little sister. You had the nerve to bully her." She looked down at Ao Yunxiu. "From now on: lay one finger on her, torment her one more time, and I'll make sure you relive today in full. I won't kill you—killing you would be too easy, and where's the fun in that?" She gave her staff a lazy toss. "This is called a pest-beating stick. It's for beating the sort of pest who is arrogant, unreasonable, and preys on those weaker than themselves. Ring any bells?"
Ao Yunxiu did not accept this gracefully. On the surface he conceded—inwardly, he returned to the river bottom and cultivated in secret. He had identified who had struck him: the golden peacock from the mountain across the river. One day, he swore, he would tear every feather from that peacock and roast her.
Every time he believed himself a match for Kong Li, he was beaten until he was covered in wounds and forced to flee.
Bai Xiaoqiao and Dong Ying were deeply grateful to Kong Li. Bai Xiaoqiao, quick and clever, began calling her "Elder Sister" from that day forward. Knowing Kong Li lived alone, she made a habit of bringing her the sweetest fruit from the mountains.
"Elder Sister." Bai Xiaoqiao gazed at Kong Li with bright, earnest eyes, voice soft and sweet.
"Out with it."
Bai Xiaoqiao flushed and tugged at Kong Li's sleeve. "Elder Sister—would you be willing to officiate at our wedding?"
"Of course."
Kong Li's eyes narrowed with satisfaction. If Ao Yunxiu showed up to cause trouble—and he would—she'd get to hit him again.
Bai Xiaoqiao went home beaming. Word spread quickly through the mountain spirits: Bai Xiaoqiao and Dong Ying were to be wed, and the noble, radiant golden peacock Kong Li would serve as their witness. From the day Bai Xiaoqiao had taken Kong Li as her elder sister, not a single spirit in the mountains dared harass her again. She herself never lorded it over anyone—she lived as she always had, warmhearted and easy to like.
The wedding day came. Ao Yunxiu arrived, intent on disrupting it. He failed to take the bride, and received a very public beating for his trouble. What little dignity remained to a jiaolong that day, he lost entirely.
"Bai Xiaoqiao. Dong Ying." Kong Li's voice was clear and formal. "Do you take each other as husband and wife, to cherish one another for this life, never to part?"
Together, they vowed: "We do—for this life, never to part."
Watching them clasp hands, eyes full of love for each other—Kong Li felt a pang of something sharp and wistful. But seeing their happiness, she felt a deep, quiet sense of completion.
The mountain spirits cheered. And in that moment of perfect fullness, Kong Li's gaze drifted somewhere far away. The divine power within her surged without warning, flowing outward uncontrolled—flowers and grasses rioted across the entire mountainside, blooming in an instant.
The mountain spirits cried out in alarm. Staring at Kong Li—wreathed in brilliant golden light, divine power pouring from her without restraint—they felt a force so overwhelming they dropped to their knees without meaning to. Even Ao Yunxiu, back at the river bottom, was startled badly enough to lose his footing and tumble into the current.
All the world filled with golden light. Then, in the sight of every spirit and creature present, it all flowed back into Kong Li. When it settled, she looked different—more luminous, more extraordinary. Her presence was almost too much to face.
When she closed her eyes, it was as though she weren't there. When she opened them, she was simply herself again, standing in front of them.
Kong Li opened her eyes, took in the scene around her, and broke into a brilliant smile. So that's how it is.
She glanced at Bai Xiaoqiao. "I have to go. See you around."
"Elder Sister—"
"No need for a tearful goodbye. We'll see each other plenty—I have somewhere important to be right now." She cast a pointed, slightly envious look at Bai Xiaoqiao and Dong Ying. "Your union is complete. Mine isn't. If anything, I'm the one who's come out of this behind."
Bai Xiaoqiao didn't entirely follow—but she understood enough. Her elder sister was going to find someone she loved. She quickly said, "Then go, Elder Sister—quickly!"
Kong Li didn't hesitate. A flash of gold, and she shifted into her true form, launching herself from the earth into the sky and flying directly toward the sun. In the span of a single blink, she was gone. If the mountainside hadn't erupted into flowers, the spirits might have wondered if she'd been there at all.
"Welcome back, Your Highness."
"Congratulations on your greatly increased divine power, Your Highness."
Kong Li returned to the celestial realm, to the palace that had always been hers. Countless peacock attendants had gathered outside, all of them beaming, offering their congratulations on her return and her swelling power.
Kong Li swept her gaze over them. "Do any of you know where A-Xin has gone?"
Blank faces all around. One attendant ventured, "Your Highness—who is A-Xin?"
"Never mind. You may go." Kong Li thought it over. A-Xin rarely left that place, and the few times she had ventured out, almost no one had known her. Asking these little peacocks would yield nothing. If A-Xin had moved, she would have done so quietly—she wouldn't have announced it to the entire celestial realm.
Kong Li's heart was quietly frantic, but panic would help nothing. She flew away from the palace and began searching every place she and A-Xin had ever been. Along the way she encountered many celestial beings, and she stopped more than a few to ask—none of them recognized A-Xin's name. She gradually stopped asking.
A-Xin rarely appeared. Of course they wouldn't know her.
She searched for a full month. By the end, there was a hollow feeling in her chest. She stood on the barren, spiritless earth and felt, once again, that the whole world had abandoned her. The tears she'd been holding back finally came—sliding silently down her face. She crouched by the dried-up riverbank, crying quietly, wiping her face, only for her eyes to fill again before she'd even finished. She couldn't wipe them dry.
She stared at the desolate, yellowed earth, her eyes unfocused, and said in a low voice: "A-Xin, where are you? Do you think I'm so foolish that you ran out of patience waiting for me to understand? We agreed—you're not allowed to leave me behind."
"A-Xin..."
Her crying grew from quiet sniffling into something ragged and wretched. It was a good thing there were no spirits nearby to be frightened by the sound.
"What are you crying about? You're so loud the spirits are afraid to fly overhead."
The voice came out of nowhere. Kong Li went still.
She would know that voice anywhere.
She scrambled to her feet, scrubbing at her face with her sleeve—laughing and crying at the same time, until she managed to arrange herself into something like a radiant smile.
"A-Xin. I'm back."
"Who are you?"
The voice was clear as air—and utterly without feeling. Kong Li's heart clenched. She thought of the small worlds. She breathed out slowly. Of course A-Xin had forgotten her.
"I'm Kong Li."
A-Xin was silent.
Kong Li?
"Who is Kong Li?"
The smile on Kong Li's face looked worse than crying. She had no patience left. She raised her voice: "A-Xin, I'm Kong Li. I am your wife. Your other half. Your heart—the person you like, the person you love."
A-Xin: "…" What on earth was this half-blooded peacock going on about.
"A-Xin, where are you?" Kong Li's voice pitched upward. "I can't see you. Did you move? Where are you speaking to me from?"
She felt the silence stretch on the other end and began to panic. Then she remembered something, and spoke quickly: "A-Xin—I've finally worked it out. I like you. I love you. I can't be without you. Come out—I finally understand my own heart. I've liked you all along. I just didn't know it." A breath. "Back then I was too proud. When I heard Ao Yunxiu was going to take Bai Xiaoqiao into a small world, I thought he was humiliating me—that he would throw over our engagement for a little mountain sparrow. So I went along. But A-Xin, I promise you: if I had understood sooner that my heart was yours, I never would have interfered with them at all. I would have let them be."
"The only person I have ever liked is you. Following Ao Yunxiu down there—that was nothing but wounded pride."
Kong Li said it all in one breath. The full history of what had happened.
Ao Yunxiu had an arranged betrothal with her—but she had never cared for him. When she heard he had fallen for a little mountain sparrow and meant to take her into a small world to test their feelings, she felt it as a slap to the face. She was Kong Li, a princess of the celestial realm, daughter of the Golden Crow Emperor and the Peacock King. And Ao Yunxiu was prepared to break their engagement for a mountain sparrow? She was furious.
Her first instinct had been to have her parents dissolve the engagement and deal Ao Yunxiu a proper thrashing. But then the Dragon Mother came to her with a different proposition: she said she wanted Kong Li's help sabotaging Ao Yunxiu and Bai Xiaoqiao's trial in the small world. Prideful and stung, feeling outdone by a little sparrow, Kong Li agreed—foolishly.
What she hadn't known: the Dragon Mother was scheming for her divine power and bloodline. Kong Li carried the Golden Crow bloodline. Ao Yunxiu was a four-clawed golden dragon, and ascending to a fifth claw was extraordinarily difficult—but if he could absorb Kong Li's divine power and bloodline during the small-world trial, his odds of cultivating that fifth claw were nine in ten.
"A-Xin—I've confessed. You should be remembering me by now, shouldn't you?"
"I remember."
Kong Li heard the warmth in that voice—the depth of feeling in it—and her face broke open. "Then come out, A-Xin! I've already had people start preparing our wedding. Let's get married right now, let's be together right now—is that alright?"
"I'm very far from there."
"Then I'll come to you. A-Xin, I want to see you right now. Can I?" A bad feeling stirred in Kong Li's chest. "Wait—even the farthest distance is nothing to you. A-Xin." Her voice softened. "Something happened to you, didn't it. And—why does the place where you live look like that?"
"A-Xin—can you come out?" she pleaded. "I don't want to lose you. I mean it."
"Kong Li." A-Xin's voice was very serious. "If you choose to be with me, there is no going back. Think carefully."
"I don't need to think. A-Xin, we've been through so much together across so many lives—how could I go back?" Kong Li answered without a moment's hesitation. She meant every word. She wanted nothing more than to be with A-Xin, forever.
"Very well," A-Xin said. "Then come."
A black passage opened before Kong Li. She paused, studying it—then walked forward. Her heart was pounding. All those years in the small worlds—what had happened to A-Xin?
The passage was narrow and dark, with only a faint shimmer of white light at the far end. As she went deeper, she felt it—a cold so profound it pressed against the skin. A chill that had nothing natural about it.
"The Abyss Between Worlds?" Kong Li pressed a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with horror. "A-Xin—how did you end up in the Abyss Between Worlds? What happened? What happened while I was gone?"
"Nothing happened." A-Xin's tone was perfectly even, as though this were of no particular consequence. Sensing Kong Li's mind spiraling, she added, "Stop imagining things. It's not what you think."
Kong Li forced her thoughts still and leapt toward the deepest point of light.
She found A-Xin at last—white-robed, seated on a jade stone that breathed cold air. The surroundings were bare: only the jade, and at its edge, a single small silver flower in bloom. And seated on the stone, looking up at her with a faint smile—A-Xin.
Kong Li ran to her and held on.
All the longing of all those years found its resolution in that single embrace.
"A-Xin."
A-Xin touched her face. "Kong Li—if you choose to be with me, there truly is no turning back. Are you certain?"
"I've never thought about turning back." Kong Li smiled. "The person I've always liked is you. It's always been you."
A-Xin seemed to recall something. "Then why, in the small worlds, did you seem so devoted to the Dragon Prince and the little sparrow?"
"That was an act." Kong Li wanted to reach back through time and shake her past self. "I never had feelings for either of them. I needed a persona to justify interfering—so I performed attachment to one of them. I didn't know the Dragon Mother had arranged the whole thing to get at my divine power and bloodline. That old woman—we're not done, she and I. As for Ao Yunxiu, he's the one who came out worst: his divine power is in ruins, his fifth claw a pipe dream, and he didn't get Bai Xiaoqiao either. Serves him right."
Kong Li settled comfortably against A-Xin on the jade stone, resting her head on her shoulder. "A-Xin—Bai Xiaoqiao never had feelings for Ao Yunxiu. The whole thing was his own delusion. He probably doesn't even realize—I accidentally broke the seal he'd placed on Bai Xiaoqiao's soul. She's most likely remembered who she is by now, and she knows very well she doesn't like Ao Yunxiu. She would never end up with him."
"Now—A-Xin, why did you move to the Abyss Between Worlds? That place you lived before was so beautiful. Mountains, clear water—perfect for living." Kong Li looked at the darkness surrounding them. "There's nothing here, and it's freezing cold. And where is your true form? Why are you appearing only as a divine spirit?"
"Would you like the honest answer, or a comfortable one?"
"The honest one, obviously." Though some part of her already knew it would hurt.
A-Xin flicked her sleeve. The darkness around them gave way—and Kong Li saw, spread across it like a living painting, the ten thousand worlds. The celestial realm in its entirety—great worlds and small worlds interwoven, each one visible from where she stood.
Between them, though, there were cracks. Fractures running through the fabric between worlds. But something was holding those cracks together, keeping them from spreading—and the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth was slowly, steadily mending them.
When Kong Li saw what was doing the holding, she nearly broke apart entirely.
She grabbed A-Xin's sleeve with both hands. Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Spanning the ten thousand worlds, threading through every crack, holding everything together—was A-Xin's true form.
A vine of pure white. The first vine that had ever grown when heaven and earth first came into being.
"Why?" she asked, tears blurring her sight.