Chapter 237: Banquet of the Gods
Well, after living for so long, one really could witness just about anything. Now even gods were holding banquets?
The Well Palace Lady suspiciously examined the invitation in her hands over and over.
Its appearance was indeed dazzling, covered in brilliant golden light. If she hadn’t been a god, merely looking at it would probably have made her eyes ache painfully.
—Imperial Decree of the Supreme Great Emperor of the Golden Palace of Blue Sea, Lingxiao:
—You preside over the springs and waterways of your region and protect the wells of your local community. Your diligent service is commendable. You are hereby specially invited to attend the banquet at the Qionghua Immortal Terrace, where you shall join us for a celestial feast.
—You may appoint a subordinate official to temporarily take over your duties. Three days from now, at the hour of Chen, bring this invitation and enter through the Southern Heavenly Gate to take your seat.
—So decreed!
Even “So decreed!”?
The Well Palace Lady had always been even-tempered, but seeing phrases like ‘Imperial Decree of the Supreme Great Emperor’, ‘Your diligent service is commendable’, and ‘So decreed!’ on the invitation, her anger suddenly flared.
This inexplicable Heavenly Court really thought it was some sort of divine imperial court?
It wasn’t enough that they had deceived the mortal emperor into adding a Heavenly Court prefix to her title. Now they were even imitating mortals by issuing imperial edicts!
“An outrageous insult to the gods!”
The Well Palace Lady slammed the invitation down onto the table in front of her.
She had always been calm and gentle. This was the first time she had ever lost her temper so badly, and the water soldiers around her couldn’t help shuddering in fright.
“My Lady, please don’t be angry. Just ignore them. It’s only a change of title. Don’t you still go about your daily business as usual, doing whatever you please?”
After one quick-witted water soldier finished trying to console her, he exchanged a glance with another soldier, who hurriedly chimed in:
“That’s right, My Lady. The imperial court has merely been misled for the time being. Perhaps they’ll change their minds again after a while.”
The Well Palace Lady let out a cold laugh before gradually calming down.
“Judging by this, this so-called Great Luo Heavenly Court really is nothing more than a group of mortals who have cultivated a little spiritual ability and are putting on a supernatural act.”
She picked up the invitation again and carefully ran her fingers over it. She had no idea what kind of cultivation technique the person behind this had used to make the invitation glow with golden light and descend from the heavens. At first glance, it really was quite convincing.
But even the most carefully planned deception had its flaws.
“Which god doesn’t know that a deity can only move about within their own jurisdiction?”
The Well Palace Lady felt as though she had just discovered the three pairs of mandibles on a mitten crab, the abdominal swimmerets of a freshwater prawn, or the pharyngeal teeth of a grass carp.
‘Trying to keep up the act, are you? You’ve given yourself away now, haven’t you?!’
Anyone who could say something like inviting gods to travel to another place to attend a banquet could only be someone who knew absolutely nothing about gods.
The whole thing was so absurd that, once she realized the people behind it really were nothing more than mortals, she quickly calmed down again.
It was true that some gods, when blasphemed by mortals, would become so enraged that they retaliated with divine power. But there had been far too many demons and monsters around lately. Even the pure water in her wells had begun accumulating an increasing amount of baleful energy.
To protect her own territory, Quanjiang Prefecture, she had already expended a great deal of divine power and was busy every single day. She had very little energy left to spare, and certainly didn’t want to waste it dealing with something this ridiculous.
The Well Palace Lady casually tossed the invitation aside.
“Forget it. They’re nothing more than mortals who have learned a few minor spells and are now pretending to be gods. Mortals have short lifespans. At most, they live for a hundred or two hundred years. The same goes for the Yun Kingdom. In a few hundred years, there’s no telling whether this place will even still be called the Yun Kingdom. Let them do as they please.”
The water soldiers naturally agreed enthusiastically.
“My Lady is wise!”
“Exactly, exactly! My Lady is absolutely right!”
Watching the water soldiers hop about as they tried to cheer her up, the Well Palace Lady’s mood improved once more.
Most of the water soldiers were small creatures known as water sprites. From the moment they were born, they had the appearance of five-year-old children. Since they had come into existence within the Well Palace Lady’s territory, they were naturally her subordinates from birth.
Apart from these water sprites, who weren’t particularly intelligent but knew a few water-based spells and could handle combat and patrol duties, the Well Palace Lady also had a small number of water soldiers who were the souls of mortals who had drowned in Quanjiang Prefecture. Their primary responsibility was handling clerical work.
For example, they recorded cases of wells in various locations becoming cloudy on certain dates, investigated the possible causes, and determined how the problems should be resolved.
However, lately, because there had been so many demons and monsters around, the water sprites had been unable to keep up with the workload. As a result, even these water soldiers responsible for paperwork had been assigned patrol duties.
At times like this, the Well Palace Lady was truly grateful that she wasn’t the only powerful deity in Quanjiang Prefecture. The City God of the prefectural capital, who had been appointed by imperial decree, was quite capable as well.
Ever since the changes in the Heavenly Dao, the two gods had reached an agreement. Each would patrol half the city with their respective subordinates, allowing them to look out for one another.
Oh, right. The City God’s title must have had the Blue Sea Heavenly Court prefix added to it as well.
After all, he was an official deity appointed by the imperial court. It would be even harder for him to refuse.
Thinking of this, the Well Palace Lady felt a little sympathetic toward the City God. Being a deity appointed by imperial decree was already a difficult job, with the constant risk of having one’s temple torn down by the people. And now, of all things, he had happened to encounter this particular foolish emperor.
Thinking of the City God, then looking at her own situation, the Well Palace Lady finally felt that she had nothing left to complain about.
She stood up and said, “All right, we’ve rested enough. Let’s continue today’s patrol.”
For the next three days, she remained just as busy. Every day, she expended most of her divine power, leaving the well at the bottom of which she had made her dwelling early in the morning, and only returning with her water soldiers at midnight.
Lately, the Well Palace Lady had not only been driving away the demons and monsters that had newly sprung up throughout the prefectural city, but also keeping an eye out for those wicked mortals who wanted to poison the water supply.
At present, an unsettling phenomenon had emerged between Heaven and Earth: baleful energy seemed to be gaining the upper hand over righteousness.
Gods could still resist it to some extent, but ordinary mortals, with their fragile human bodies, were far too susceptible to its influence.
Every person harbored more or less some evil thoughts. In the past, they had been able to suppress them. Now, however, those dark impulses seemed to be growing unchecked.
Regardless of how these people had fallen into depravity, the method they most commonly resorted to was poisoning the water supply.
What could the Well Palace Lady do?
All she could do was rush from place to place, purifying the water sources. Even as a god, she was utterly exhausted.
Time always seemed to pass quickly when one was busy.
Three days flew by in the blink of an eye, and the Well Palace Lady had completely forgotten about the invitation.
She was simply too busy!
These days, even accepting incense offerings was something she had to squeeze into her spare time.
The third day. Hour of Chen.
Early that morning, the Well Palace Lady had sensed that several little demons had appeared in the half of the city under her jurisdiction. These creatures liked to hide in piles of garbage and spread minor illnesses and misfortunes. She had immediately hurried over with her water soldiers to exterminate them.
This was one of the most troublesome aspects of the current situation. Aside from the little demons that spontaneously came into existence, Quanjiang Prefecture was also plagued by numerous demons they had fought before but failed to kill. Some had escaped, while others had fought them to a stalemate.
These demons not only fled immediately after committing their misdeeds, making it impossible for the Well Palace Lady to track them down, but also deliberately raised batches of little demons just to cause her trouble.
The little demons themselves weren’t particularly difficult to deal with, but eliminating them required a great deal of manpower. As a result, the Well Palace Lady and her water soldiers were constantly running themselves ragged.
Having just finished dealing with those little demons, the Well Palace Lady summoned a supply of clean water and gave the garbage heap in front of her a quick rinse, just to make sure no lingering hazards remained.
While she was busy, she suddenly sensed an immense surge of divine power behind her. It erupted upward like water gushing violently from a freshly dug well.
What had happened?
The Well Palace Lady hurriedly turned around, only to discover that the source was in the direction of her own dwelling.
Above it, a golden pillar of light, wide enough for three people to stand abreast, shot straight upward. It extended from the location of her dwelling, pierced through the clouds, and continued so far into the sky that she couldn’t see where it ended.
“What in the world is that?”
The Well Palace Lady was utterly astonished. Before she could even react, another pillar of golden light burst forth in the distance.
That direction was precisely where the City God’s temple stood.
Then several more, smaller pillars of golden light appeared throughout Quanjiang Prefecture. Looking at their approximate locations, the Well Palace Lady could already guess that they were all places where the various gods of Quanjiang Prefecture carried out their duties.
She could even see the local Earth God slowly floating upward along one of the golden pillars of light.
“My Lady, what is that?”
The water soldiers were both worried and curious. After all, this was golden light, not some dark, oppressive demonic energy. Instinctively, they felt no fear of it.
The Well Palace Lady quickly realized what was happening.
“It must be that invitation!”
“Come on, back to my residence!”
She hurriedly rode a stream of water toward her dwelling. Along the way, the mortals couldn’t see the golden radiance of the gods and simply carried on with their daily activities.
Street vendors continued hawking their wares, people hurried off to their workplaces, and some had only just gotten out of bed. One person pushed open a wooden window and took a deep breath of fresh air.
As he inhaled, a breath of wonderfully fresh air, seemingly infused with moisture, filled his lungs.
His whole body shuddered. His head, which had felt a little stuffy just moments ago, suddenly became clear and refreshed.
Naturally, he had no idea that the Well Palace Lady, the deity worshipped by the entire prefectural city, had just ridden a stream of water right past him.
The Well Palace Lady expertly descended into the deep well. Since she had made her home at the bottom of it, the divine kingdom she had established there was inevitably somewhat dark and damp.
The dampness wasn’t a problem. Water deities didn’t mind that sort of thing.
But living in a dark place was still rather uncomfortable. Unfortunately, even if she wanted to move, there was nowhere else she could go.
A god’s divine kingdom could only be established at the source of their divine origin. For example, the City God’s divine kingdom was located inside his City God temple.
The Well Palace Lady’s title alone made it clear that her divine origin lay at the bottom of a well. So she had no choice but to gather a large quantity of lamp oil and keep lamps burning throughout the well’s depths. Under normal circumstances, the place was actually quite well-lit.
But now, the light from all those lamps had been completely overwhelmed by an almost blinding golden radiance.
This thing was really bright.
It was hard to say whether the reason the Well Palace Lady had kept the invitation instead of throwing it away, despite believing the so-called Heavenly Court was a scam, was that she had thought it might at least make a decent lamp.
The water soldiers couldn’t get anywhere near the golden pillar of light. Some of the smaller water sprites were so frightened that they scurried around in a panic.
“My Lady! My Lady!”
“Our Lady is back! She can deal with this thing!”
“My Lady, what is this?”
The Well Palace Lady sent out a stream of water to soothe the little water sprites. Then she stepped forward herself, sensing the divine power flowing through the golden passage.
“What powerful divine energy…”
She realized that her earlier judgment had been wrong. Such powerful divine energy was absolutely beyond the capabilities of mortals.
In fact, even a god of her caliber would have to exhaust every ounce of their strength just to achieve something like this.
Could it be that a Heavenly Court really did exist in this world?
For some inexplicable reason, this divine energy gave her a sense of familiarity and affinity. Unable to resist, she cautiously extended a hand and placed it against the edge of the passage to investigate.
But the next moment, her entire body was suddenly sucked inside!
The Well Palace Lady had barely regained her footing when she warily began surveying her surroundings. She saw that divine energy was continuously spiraling upward all around her. Meanwhile, a naturally born little Wood Sprite was hovering overhead.
Wood Sprites were even smaller than Water Sprites, measuring only about the length of an adult’s finger. A pair of wings as thin as cicada wings grew from their backs, fluttering at high speed to keep them suspended in midair.
The Well Palace Lady wasn’t particularly wary of it. There were all kinds of spiritual sprites in the world, just like the Water Sprites she raised. Wood Sprites were also a very gentle species. Their natural characteristics made them incapable of coming into contact with bloodshed, so they unquestionably belonged to the righteous side.
In the little Wood Sprite’s left hand was a tiny notebook made from leaves, while its right hand held an absolutely minuscule writing brush.
It was diligently bent over its notebook, recording something with utmost seriousness. Its voice was soft and delicate:
“Blue Sea Great Luo Heavenly Court, Well Palace Lady of Spring Source and Bountiful Blessings. Identity verified—”
After finishing its entry, the little creature took out an even smaller command token.
It puffed out its cheeks and tensed its entire body. Even the tips of its wings stretched out slightly from the effort. Then, with all its strength, it suddenly hurled the tiny command token upward.
After throwing the token, the little Wood Sprite skillfully found a narrow gap in the passage of divine energy and squeezed itself inside. It spread its little arms and legs out like a starfish, wedging itself firmly into the gap.
It didn’t forget to remind the Well Palace Lady in its soft, delicate voice:
“The Immortal Stairway has been activated. Esteemed Deity, please stand firm and hold on to avoid falling.”
The Well Palace Lady was utterly bewildered. However, she soon discovered that the command token, which was so tiny it was probably smaller than a grain of rice, had been thrown upward—and then, astonishingly, it began unfolding as though something had been released from a folded state.
Countless streams of divine power poured down, propelling the “Immortal Stairway” sharply upward.
Because it was moving so fast, the Well Palace Lady’s robes billowed upward for a moment under the force of the acceleration. She herself nearly lost her balance and hurriedly used her divine power to anchor her body firmly in place.
Only then did she realize that the Earth God she had previously seen flying upward through one of these passages hadn’t actually been flying under his own power. It was the passage itself that had been carrying him upward!
What kind of divine technique was this?
The Well Palace Lady was utterly astonished. Looking down, she noticed that Quanjiang Prefecture really was laid out before her eyes. Its city walls and rivers, which had once seemed so vast, now looked increasingly tiny.
As the divine passage continued rising higher and higher, the entire prefecture gradually shrank until it looked like nothing more than a small patch of land.
At the same time, she could see other regions of the Yun Kingdom, each with golden pillars of light extending straight into the heavens.
As the pillars continued ascending, they actually entered the clouds. From below, those clouds had looked like fluffy white cotton balls. But once inside them, she discovered that they were filled with raging thunder and dark, turbulent skies. The entire pillar of light shook violently along with the storm, as though it might fling the god riding inside it out at any moment.
Even though the Well Palace Lady didn’t think a fall would kill her, she still couldn’t help pressing her back firmly against the passage to keep herself steady.
The next moment, everything suddenly opened up before her. Brilliant daylight flooded her vision, and the passage’s movement became smooth and level.
They had passed through the clouds.
When the Well Palace Lady looked down again, the clouds had completely obscured the Yun Kingdom below. Not a trace of it could be seen.
Meanwhile, the surroundings had become crystal clear.
Countless pillars of light stretched straight upward. At a glance, there seemed to be at least several thousand of them.
All around her, numerous gods who weren’t riding the Immortal Stairways were flying back and forth through the clouds, moving up and down freely.
In her entire life, the Well Palace Lady had never seen so many gods gathered in one place.
Some carried hammers in their hands. Others led old oxen by the reins. Some rode on clouds, while others traveled in seemingly ordinary horse-drawn carriages. Yet the creatures pulling those carriages were actually flying demon steeds!
Apart from the gods, there were also several dozen dragons, each with long, winding bodies of different colors. Several large rainclouds accompanied each of them, allowing them to effortlessly travel from place to place on the clouds and mist.
The golden pillars of light continued rising. Beside some of them, serpentine dragons happened to be flying upward as well. From a distance, it almost looked as though those dragons were following the pillars of light.
The little Wood Sprite, which had been wedging itself into the gaps with its arms and legs spread wide like a human-shaped “seat belt,” finally managed to squeeze itself out after the Immortal Stairway emerged above the clouds.
It then straightened its clothes and adjusted the wings on its back. Only after making sure it was once again a neat, tidy little Wood Sprite did it fly back up into the air.
“The Immortal Stairway is about to arrive. You will be taken directly to the entrance of the Cloud Steps outside the Southern Heavenly Gate—”
“Please make sure you have all your personal belongings with you. Do not lose anything—”
The Well Palace Lady had already witnessed everything that had happened along the way and felt that everything she was seeing now was beyond belief.
But it wasn’t until she heard the announcement that she instinctively looked toward the little Wood Sprite and caught sight of the scenery outside that she was truly stunned.
Through the golden pillar of light, she could vaguely make out an enormous staircase outside. It was indeed wide and long, and seemingly made entirely of clouds.
Gods were already strolling along the staircase. Some walked with their heads down, minding their own business. Others were clearly visiting for the first time, looking around curiously as they walked. Still others recognized one another and chatted and laughed together along the way.
By now, the Well Palace Lady had completely forgotten to be astonished by just how many gods had gathered here.
Her stunned gaze was fixed on the staircase ahead.
Above it, surrounded by countless streams of divine power that had taken the form of swirling clouds and mist—
Hung an endless expanse of magnificent celestial palaces, layered one above another, each tier towering higher than the one below. They stretched so far into the distance that she couldn’t see where they ended.
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