Fanfiction: Mo Yuan and Shao Wan - Chapter 4 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)
Chapter 4
written by kakashiedited by JoAnne
Stepping outside into the light, Shao Wan breathed in the crisp, cold air. What a delight! It would be spring soon, her favorite season. Today the low sun only offered some feeble warmth, but Shao Wan did not mind, she was never cold anyway. She remembered learning that there were no seasons in the Heavens when she was relatively newly hatched and how much she had pitied the Heavens Clan for it.
After her eyes had fully adjusted, she saw that lesser immortals had gathered outside the cave, rows upon rows of them. They bowed deeply, awed by the presence of someone from the Founding Age.
Legend has it that after the Heavens were built, the Heavenly Queen felt lonely and - Shao Wan was sure - bored. Thus, Father Immortal and his Queen used their bracelets and created the eight realms. Afterwards, they created the Heavenly clan and the Demon clan. In addition, there was life that burst out from rocks, like Dong Hua, there was life that came from fiery burning fireballs, like Zhe Yan, and then there was life that crawled out of an egg - like Shao Wan. She used to have endless fights with Zhe Yan about who was the older. Sure, he came to life a few hundred years before her, but! She always argued that when the dawn of life was created, her egg was already put in the Zhang Mei Mountains, way before he even existed as an idea. If they calculated the time she was an egg, she would be the oldest of them all. She just took a bit longer to cultivate and take human form, that was all.
Zhe Yan said she was crazy and nobody ever took her side in this.
There were never any fights about who was the luckiest among them. That was Mo Yuan, the only being coming from Mother Deity’s belly. He was the youngest, born a few hundred years after Shao Wan, but still had the highest status. This made many creatures jealous and garnered hate towards Mo Yuan. Some said he was to be pitied because he never had it easy afterwards, but Shao Wan was of a different opinion. He was born into this world effortlessly with a lot of cultivation and thus, the golden boy deserved every bit of hate and difficulty that came his way afterwards.
The demons that bowed to her on this day knew nothing about the dawn of time and how hard she had fought for status and power (while others just had it). Naturally, they swooned and jittered at the mere sight of her, the Mother of the Demon clan. She had to remember to be gracious or else she would scare them.
She scanned the crowd and spotted a woman of similar build. She quickly strode towards her.
“I want your clothes”, Shao Wan said and held out her hand.
Soon, she was dressed in a dark blue gown with black ornaments that sufficiently resembled what she had been accustomed to wearing before her demise. Shao Wan told Fong Hung to wait there and humor the worshipers, and then made her way to Zhe Yan’s Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms. It was neutral ground. She was very pleased with this decision - checking her temper was never easy, but this time, she would be sly and cunning like a Celestial.
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"That was demonic power", one of his disciples whispered behind Mo Yuan.
Mo Yuan turned his head and nodded.
“Indeed so”, he said, “and of the highest order”.
“Please explain, Shifu”, said his disciples.
Explain? How could he explain something he did not understand himself.
“A very long time ago”, he began … and paused. They all knew of the Demon wars of course.
He remembered the first time he had ever seen Shao Wan. She had come to his father’s school that day. After endless, bloody wars between the clans, everyone was exhausted. Thus, Father Immortal had opened a school, inviting the brightest members of the clans to come and learn the art of non-fighting. It was a hopeful, exciting time full of possibilities.
For whatever reason, the first Demon Queen had decided to join this school as well. Some said she was challenged to do it by the ruling Demon King, who was afraid of her and wanted her tamed. She came with eighteen maids and one mount instead of one servant as was the rule.
Mo Yuan had met her at the gates and had tried to argue with her about the rules. She had laughed in his face and had looked at him with arrogance and contempt - and yet, she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. The powers of creation flowed through her, always threatening to rip her apart, as he later learned, and she was more alive than anything he had ever encountered. He stood no chance against her. After creating a spectacle that humiliated him greatly, she managed to be admitted with all her maids in tow.
She had hated him instantly and with a vehemence he never fully understood - but he was used to people hating him for being Father Immortal’s only son. He just had to be the best to live up to the expectations of both the admirers and the haters. He spent his days with endless reading and studying, always staying up longer and sleeping less than anyone else. He trained in martial arts until his hands and feet were bloody but kept going even then. He followed every rule with zeal and took utmost care to dress and appear immaculate at all times. He learned to fully quench all low desires and achieved the status of High God at an unprecedented young age.
Naturally, he took Shao Wan’s harsh insults stoically. He never lost his composure in front of her, even though it often was an immense struggle. She broke every single rule there was, repeatedly, just to anger him. She was extremely lazy when it came to studying because she got bored easily and did not see the point in learning tedious things like philosophy or strategy, but she was a formidable warrior. She challenged him countless times, but never beat him. Their martial arts battles were brutal and many of them ended with both of them severely injured. After his father forbade them to fight on the school grounds they had continued outside, sometimes for days, until they collapsed from exhaustion and had to be rescued by their friends.
After his Father followed his Mother into the realm of nothingness and Dong Hua was chosen to be the next Ruler, Mo Yuan had gone to Kunlun Mountain to meditate and work on his cultivation. He had done so for a very long time, turning his back on the realms, trusting Dong Hua to handle the mess that ensued.
Dong Hua did handle it, until Shao Wan got involved. When she got out of control and threatened to destroy all Existence, Dong Hua called Mo Yuan out of his cave.
It was the last time Mo Yuan saw her, on that battlefield. She was like life itself, but the ultimate evil. He did not have a choice back then, he thought, but did he?
What could he tell his disciples, his brother, Si Yin about this? They all looked at him, expectantly.
“A very old, very dangerous life-form has returned”, he finally said. “We all thought she was dead. I killed her, 190’000 years ago, when she was about to destroy the world”.
Somebody asked a question, probably Ye Hua, but Mo Yuan was distracted. He sensed that Shao Wan was moving away from Jingmei Mountain. He knew she wouldn’t come here, the divine energy at Kunlun was too unpleasant for her. Indeed, she went into the other direction. Toward Zhe Yan’s.
“Do not follow me”, Mo Yuan warned and disappeared.
Chapter 5