Fanfiction3: A-Li's Three Lives, Three Worlds - Chapter 19 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)
Chapter 19 - Book One Epilogue
written by LigayaCroftedited by Panda and kakashi
“A-Li was able to come to this… temple?”
“Yes, that’s what Cheng Yu told me, Dong Hua.”
Dong Hua looked around at the intricately-slotted pieces of logs that made up the foundations of where an alleged temple had once stood. A similar structure was set up on top of a hill, and a little to the west was where the gates were. All bare. In some parts, the wood was rotted and mossed by time.
“What do you think happened here?” Si Ming asked, physically vibrating with curiosity.
“An illusion spell. The fact that the caster had to build foundations means the spell was meant to stand for quite some time.”
“But… forgive me for asking this— A-Li is a high immortal of impeccable pedigree. He should have been able to see through this.”
Dong Hua understood Si Ming’s confusion. “He did, which was why he reported to Cheng Yu that something felt off, right?”
“But his cultivation wasn’t enough?”
“I don’t think you would have fared any better, Si Ming,” he corrected with a wry smile as he walked closer to the foundations. “This was very strong magick.”
Dong Hua unsheathed his Cang’he sword from its scabbard and cleanly-sliced through a log post that in the illusion would have supported part of the temple’s covered walkway. The entire structure creaked as it tried to rebalance itself. Dong Hua waited for a few breaths as he admired the building’s foundation’s brilliant engineering. He had no doubt it could withstand any earth-shake.
When he was sure the building was secure, Dong Hua approached the log he had just sliced and pulled away the top half. Si Ming barely had time to jump out of the way when Dong Hua threw it over his head.
“What are we looking at, Dong Hua?” Si Ming asked as soon as he scampered back.
Dong Hua paid no heed to his companion and looked at the log’s bottom half. To Si Ming’s High Immortal eyes, it probably showed nothing. But not to Dong Hua. His eyes saw remnants of pulsing magic that still actively throbbed at the log’s core, both golden and silvery, and very much alive.
“What did you walk into, A-Li?” He murmured as he lifted the log off from where it was buried on the ground. Without waiting for Si Ming, he cloud jumped back to the Thirteenth Sky’s Taichen Palace where he headed for the oldest structure in the area.
***
When Si Ming finally caught up with the Former Heavenly Emperor, he found Dong Hua back at his own desk in Taichen Palace, staring at two pieces of logs. Si Ming, proud to carry a reputation for noticing everything, was pretty sure one of the logs came from the structure that supported a roof over the ritual cleansing area at the back of Taichen Palace.
“Dong Hua, what did we find?” He asked calmly even though his curiosity was killing him.
Dong Hua continued to stare at the two wood cores. Outwardly, he looked relaxed, right elbow rested on a stand while the side of his face rested on his knuckles. But Si Ming had been around Dong Hua for hundreds of millennia and he already knew the signs hidden beneath the former Emperor’s impassive brows and blank eyes. His left hand’s fingers, for one, twitched every now and then on top of the table. There was also that very slight tensing that showed on his jaw every few breaths. And the fact that he didn’t look amused at all as he looked at the wood cores—
“Nothing.”
Si Ming’s brows raised. “Nothing? If we found nothing, Dong Hua, why do you look worried? What’s wrong?”
Dong Hua remained silent as the incense clock behind him burned halfway.
When he spoke again, it was only one word but it carried with it an ominous tone of dread Si Ming had never heard before from the usually imperturbable Former Heavenly Emperor.
“Everything.”
Chapter 20