A Temporary Shrine, But Still Your Name

He Zhuoming felt her second rendition was better than the first, so after finishing the piece, she looked at Xu Feixian with eager, expectant eyes, catching her breath.

Xu Feixian was clearly better at reading expressions than He Zhuoming—she immediately understood what He Zhuoming was waiting for and clapped. "Mm, well played."

He Zhuoming: "How was it compared to last time?"

Xu Feixian: "You played longer than last time. Your breathing technique is good—what cultivation method do you practice? Is it from the Pear Garden?"

He Zhuoming: "I don't know. A friend taught me, but he didn't tell me its name. Still, I memorized the incantation perfectly. I could recite it for you—"

Xu Feixian raised a hand to stop her. "Don't recite it for me—sect techniques are never to be shared with outsiders. Especially for the major sects, casually leaking your own sect's core method usually results in having your meridians severed."

He Zhuoming was startled. "That serious?"

Xu Feixian nodded, then added, "I practice the core method of Xuanhua Cave myself, and I won't tell you that incantation either."

He Zhuoming let out an "oh" and, since she had no interest in cultivation, didn't press further. Instead, she fiddled with the flute and asked Xu Feixian to listen to her practice the tune once more.

With instruments, unless someone was particularly slow or clumsy, most people with average talent could improve through repeated practice.

By the sixth time, He Zhuoming could play the entire tune smoothly and lightly, and her fingers no longer tangled with each other in a rush to hit the holes.

By the sixth listen, Xu Feixian finally realized He Zhuoming had been playing the same song the whole time, and she secretly admired He Zhuoming's patience in practicing the flute. She herself couldn't have repeated the same tune over and over—it would drive her anxious, feeling like she was wasting time.

The crabapple tree in the courtyard was of some unknown variety; its petals were light and fell easily. Even without a breeze, they drifted down in steady waves on their own.

The petals covered both of them. When He Zhuoming stood up and spun around, the petals clinging to her clothes and hair rustled off, piling into a thin layer at her feet.

Xu Feixian couldn't help glancing at her a few extra times; even though petals had fallen on both of them, she felt He Zhuoming had somehow ended up with several times more than her.

...Probably just her imagination. A tree shedding petals couldn't possibly aim at specific people. It was likely because He Zhuoming sat closer to the trunk.

He Zhuoming sneezed from the thick floral fragrance and complained, "Why is there crabapple blossom everywhere here?"

Xu Feixian: "Because the Earth Immortal likes crabapple blossom."

He Zhuoming: "But does that justify planting only crabapple trees over such a huge area? It's called the Pear Garden... Why not plant some pear trees? After the flowering season, they'd bear fruit, and you could eat them."

Xu Feixian said, "It's not all crabapple trees. The eastern quarters, where disciples from other sects stay, have other flowers planted. Xuanhua Cave worships two True Deities, so the lodging area is planted with many white lotuses and weeping bottlebrush—those are the plants favored by the True Deities that Xuanhua Cave worships."

"But once the Day of Divine Celebration is over and we leave, the servants of the Pear Garden Divine Palace will pull them all out."

He Zhuoming: "Why pull them out?"

Xu Feixian: "Pull them out and plant more crabapple trees. Although the eastern quarters are for guests, when guests have no special requests, the True Deity's preferences take precedence. Are you still playing the flute? I'm hungry."

He Zhuoming tucked the flute into her sash. "No more practicing—I'm tired. Let's go eat. Have you ever been outside the Pear Garden? I'll treat you to a meal at a restaurant... an inn outside."

Xu Feixian: "Outside?"

He Zhuoming: "Mm, outside the Divine Palace. I came here through a teleportation array, so I've never seen the outside of the palace."

Xu Feixian frowned. "I've never been outside the palace either."

He Zhuoming: "Huh?!"

Xu Feixian: "We all entered the Pear Garden Divine Palace through teleportation arrays near the Xia Kingdom. I've never even been inside the Xia Kingdom's borders. The palace attendants who received us said we cannot enter the main hall or the west wing, nor can we leave the palace without permission. It's said the Pear Garden Divine Palace is located in Moyi, the capital of Xia, which is a very prosperous city."

"But Xia is a kingdom that believes in the Earth Immortal. For disciples of sects that don't worship him, entering the country is very difficult... Ordinary people find it easier to get in."

He Zhuoming: "Then how do you all get your meals? Do you wait for the Pear Garden people to bring them?"

Xu Feixian shook her head. "Only for the elders of major sects whose True Deities have their own divine palaces do servants deliver meals. Other ordinary disciples and affiliated sects like us either bring our own food or buy from the vendors in the Pear Garden."

As she spoke, the two walked out of the courtyard and onto a spacious long street.

Tall gray-brick walls lined both sides of the street, with the crowns of crabapple trees peeking over the tops, their crimson blossoms blazing like fire.

Along the bases of the walls stretched a row of stalls selling everything imaginable: all kinds of food, writing brushes and paper, books, ornaments, musical instruments...

The prices were steep. So before coming to the Pear Garden Divine Palace, Xu Feixian had stocked up on dried rations in her storage artifact and had been eating in her room these past two days.

But today was different—today He Zhuoming was treating her. She bought one of everything that caught her interest and ate it all. By the end, Xu Feixian still wanted more, but He Zhuoming truly couldn't eat another bite and waved her hand, calling it quits.

He Zhuoming had always considered herself a good eater—she could wolf down six popsicles in one summer afternoon.

Little did she expect Xu Feixian could out-eat her—Xu Feixian said cultivation made her easily hungry, and she hadn't yet achieved inedia.

Xu Feixian: "Until I'm certain whether I have a chance to become a deputy deity, I won't decide on inedia. Eating is better."

The moment she mentioned inedia, He Zhuoming thought of Lin Qingyun.

He Zhuoming popped a candied fruit into her mouth. "True, there's nothing good about inedia. I have a good friend who's done it, and every time I eat with him, I'm the only one eating. It feels like such a burden."

But eating with Xu Feixian had no such problem, because Xu Feixian could eat a lot too.

Xu Feixian glanced at the box in her hand and asked, "Are the salty candied fruits good?"

The box she held contained the purely sweet kind.

He Zhuoming said they were good and offered the box toward her, but her hand shot out too fast and bumped into Xu Feixian's arm.

The paper box tilted, and several salty candied fruits rolled out and onto the ground.

Xu Feixian immediately crouched to pick them up, popped them into her mouth without hesitation.

He Zhuoming: "Hey wait! They touched the ground!"

Xu Feixian chewed, mumbling, "If you pick them up right away, they're still edible."

He Zhuoming: "..."

After the meal, Xu Feixian took He Zhuoming to visit the shrine of Two Principles Dao Lord, the True Deity worshiped by the Yuqing Sect—also a primary deity of Xuanhua Cave.

A divine palace dedicated to the Earth Immortal naturally couldn't house shrines for other True Deities. But for the final blessing ceremony of the Heroes' Tournament, during the Day of Divine Celebration, sects that had received protection from their True Deities would set aside space at their residence to build a temporary shrine.

This shrine could serve as a medium for the True Deity's final blessing descent, and also let sect disciples do their morning devotions and burn incense during the fifteen days.

These True Deity shrines, like the flowers and plants other than crabapples in the eastern quarters, would be dismantled entirely after the Day of Divine Celebration ended—not even a wood shaving left. The only difference was that the shrines were torn down by the sect disciples themselves, each piece carefully preserved and transported back to their own territories via teleportation arrays.

Meanwhile, the flowers and plants would be pulled out by the palace attendants.

Although Xu Feixian said it was a temporarily built shrine—and its scale was indeed nowhere near the main hall of the Divine Palace—it was still neat and proper, on par with the Corrupted Deity shrine He Zhuoming had seen before.

It was mid-afternoon, the sunlight bright and baking everything in warm, naked light. The air smelled of warm incense and lamp oil, and before the miniature statue of the deity were offerings of melons, fruits, and lotus flowers dotted with water droplets.

Only a few people were inside the shrine, sitting in a circle around a small round pond, copying scriptures with intense focus.

When someone finished a stack of paper, they threw the sheets into a huge furnace before the statue.

The paper fed the flames, adding a hint of burning wood to the air.

Xu Feixian lowered her voice to explain to He Zhuoming: "They're copying scriptures. They do this every day, then burn them. After ten days, they can exchange them for a protective talisman."

"The protective talismans of Two Principles Dao Lord are especially effective. During the Day of Divine Celebration, since the Dao Lord's essence is also within the Divine Palace, the talismans here are even more potent."

He Zhuoming found it strange: "Don't they have to compete? In that—what was it called—Heroes' something—the one you fought in today."

Xu Feixian shook her head. "Every sect has a quota. The nine major sects protected by True Deities each have ten spots, and affiliated sects have three spots each... The spots are extremely scarce; they won't be given to those lacking skill."

"Though the spots are few, a crowd still shows up every time—to make friends, join the excitement, participate in the ceremonies. The ceremony during the Day of Divine Celebration is very grand. According to people who've been before, there are parade floats, singing and dancing performances, and fireworks that go off all night, from dusk until dawn."

Since she was already there, seeing Xu Feixian go burn incense and make a wish, He Zhuoming also offered three sticks of incense and bowed.

But she didn't know what wish to make. Big wishes were too daring—she feared ending up like those villagers turned into monsters—but small wishes seemed hardly worth making.

He Zhuoming thought it over and secretly wished that she could learn the flute quickly.

After making her wish, she bowed three times, stood up, and opened her eyes to look for Xu Feixian. She saw her standing far off at the shrine's entrance, talking to a young man.

As He Zhuoming approached, the two simultaneously stopped their conversation and turned to look at her.

The young man speaking with Xu Feixian was the same one who had stood next to the arrogant girl earlier—the elegant youth with a somewhat listless expression.

He Zhuoming moved to stand beside Xu Feixian and asked, "Who is he?"

Xu Feixian: "Lin Qingyun. A senior fellow apprentice I once trained with at Xuanhua Cave. He's now passed the exam for a position at the Demon Suppression Bureau in Moyi, so he no longer cultivates within the sect."

"Senior Brother Lin, this is—"

She paused, her mind racing, and after two or three seconds concluded, "A new friend I've made. He Zhuoming."

Lin Qingyun: "A mortal?"

Xu Feixian corrected, "She's been initiated."

Lin Qingyun: "A Pear Garden... attendant?"

His tone was hesitant—because He Zhuoming indeed seemed to fit nowhere.

If she were a musician, then since this was the Pear Garden Divine Palace, any musician residing there long-term would at least have reached the Golden Core stage. But the girl clearly wasn't.

If she were an attendant serving the Earth Immortal, she wasn't dressed in white, nor did she carry the aura of a True Deity's protection.

And she was too young, almost childlike in her youth, her age completely mismatching that of the Xia Kingdom's princesses.

Xu Feixian fell silent at the question and turned her head to look at He Zhuoming—in truth, she'd harbored similar doubts, but she felt that everything about He Zhuoming, from her personality to her origins, seemed troublesome. She believed the less she knew, the better, so she'd never asked.

But now it wasn't her asking, so Xu Feixian was rather curious to hear the answer.

Strangely, He Zhuoming was silent too, and her silence carried shock and bewilderment.

She stared blankly at Lin Qingyun, forgetting even to blink, her expression like a schoolgirl who'd walked into the girls' bathroom and found her male classmate inside.

Lin Qingyun, puzzled by her stare, asked with confusion, "Do you know me?"

He Zhuoming slowly snapped out of it. "Ah... No, I don't. But your name is the same as my friend's... Is it the 'Qing' of azure and the 'Yun' of soaring clouds?"

Lin Qingyun smiled slightly. "It seems my name isn't just pronounced the same as your friend's—it's written the same too."

He Zhuoming muttered to herself, "No way..."

Lin Qingyun, however, took it in stride. "Well, 'Qingyun' is a fairly common name; duplicates are normal. In the Demon Suppression Bureau, I have two colleagues who share my name. But having the same surname, given name, and all three characters match exactly—that's a first for me."

Though he spoke a great deal, the words flowed past He Zhuoming's ears like water, leaving no trace in her mind.

Her heart was filled with nothing but shock: How can even the male lead have a name twin? Then which of these two Lin Qingyuns is the real male lead? Wait—if the male lead can share a name, could the villain I encountered also... Did I even run into the villain at all?!

He Zhuoming suddenly despised herself for having forgotten the original plot. If she remembered it, she could use it to—no! Even if she couldn't remember the plot, remembering a few important supporting characters would be enough!

At least then she could guess the real male lead from the names of the people around her.

Seeing He Zhuoming still dazed and silent, Lin Qingyun simply assumed she wasn't much of a talker. As for He Zhuoming not answering his earlier question, he didn't find that odd either.

Every person in this world had secrets; he himself had secrets he didn't want to answer. To him, He Zhuoming's silence was a polite refusal.

As a reliable adult, one should learn to naturally change the subject when the other party declines to answer, to avoid awkwardness.

Lin Qingyun chose to speak to the more familiar Xu Feixian instead: "Your lodgings are remote. Be careful."

Xu Feixian: "Understood."

Lin Qingyun: "I still need to go on patrol. If you ever need help, come find me at the Demon Suppression Bureau in the eastern quarters—if I'm not there, go straight into my room. There's a jar with a yellow talisman under my bed that has silver coins in it."

Xu Feixian's eyes lit up, and her voice grew livelier. "Alright!"

After his instructions, Lin Qingyun waved to the two and left.

He Zhuoming asked, dazed, "Careful of what?"

Xu Feixian explained: "A Corrupted Deity has been causing trouble in Moyi. The musicians and the Demon Suppression Bureau officers wounded it together, but it escaped and went into hiding. The Bureau suspects it's slipped into the eastern quarters of the palace."

He Zhuoming: "...This is the palace of a True Deity! Would a Corrupted Deity dare come here?"

Xu Feixian glanced back at the statue in the shrine and lowered her voice: "Under normal circumstances, of course it couldn't sneak in."

"But the Day of Divine Celebration... is a bit special. Normally, the entire palace is under its True Deity's complete control. But during the Day of Divine Celebration, the nine True Deities gather to reconcile their karma and expenditure. Even the Earth Immortal himself can't watch and control the palace as thoroughly as usual."

"What's more, the eastern quarters were specifically designated for disciples of other sects—a place the Earth Immortal normally turns a blind eye to. And the temporary shrines built for other True Deities can even shield them from the Earth Immortal's gaze and probing—"