Chapter Ninety-Three: The Huaxu Clan

“Little Chang’e, we are leaving.”

After spending two or three days on the Moon Star, Li Tian was ready to depart with Xi He and Chang Xi. Although the Moon Star now possessed a Palace of Cold and Clear Moon, in truth it was not much different from before. His visit had chiefly been to see Chang’e, and now that he had done so, it was time to return.

“Mm. Sister Chang Xi is welcome to come by often in the future,” Chang’e said as she followed them out with a smile.

Though Chang’e found it a little odd to address someone who looked younger than herself as “sister,” once she thought of Chang Xi’s true age and status, her objections vanished at once.

“Then let’s go.”

Li Tian smiled, and under Chang’e’s and the maids of the Palace of Cold and Clear Moon’s respectful farewell, he departed slowly from the Moon Star with Xi He and Chang Xi, returning to the Heavenly Court.

Watching them leave, Chang’e finally let out a quiet breath. During these past few days, Li Tian had not made things difficult for her in the slightest; on the contrary, he had been remarkably gentle and easy to get along with. Yet his position was such that Chang’e had found it hard not to remain tense in his presence.

...

In the blink of an eye, several more months passed. At last, the Underworld, built with tremendous labor and wealth, was declared complete.

At the same time, Di Jiang and the others finished constructing the Underworld’s administrative system. In addition to the personnel supplied by the Heavenly Court, they also recruited many powerful spirits to serve as low-ranking ghost officers, tasked with capturing the souls throughout the primordial lands who refused to be reborn.

After all, the primordial realm was far too vast for the Heavenly Court’s people alone.

To make life easier for these lower-level ghost officers, they also expended a great deal of spiritual materials to mass-produce many magical implements designed specifically for dealing with ghosts, such as Soul-Chain Shackles and the Death-Intimidating Staff.

Of course, these were all rather mediocre items, not even worthy of being called acquired spiritual treasures. For great experts, they were little different from pebbles by the roadside.

After the Underworld was completed, Li Tian also made an inspection tour as usual.

Though it differed somewhat from the legends, it was broadly sound and well-ordered. Li Tian saw no need to tear it down and rebuild it. He merely made a few requests, bestowed the Register of Life and Death upon them, and left the rest alone.

At present, most of his attention, together with Nuwa’s, was focused on Fu Xi’s and Hou Tu’s reincarnations.

After all, both Fu Xi’s and Hou Tu’s memories were presently sealed. If they were not carefully watched, who could say what mishap might occur?

By now, Hou Tu had already been reborn as the daughter of a chieftain from a large human tribe. Her circumstances were fairly good. Fu Xi’s reincarnation, however, was somewhat awkward.

He had been reborn as the only daughter of the chieftain of the Hua Xu tribe. In terms of status, that was not bad at all. The awkward part was that Hua Xu was still an unwed maiden.

Reincarnation through the Six Paths was, in truth, somewhat coercive. If someone maliciously altered matters through the Register of Life and Death, it would even be possible for a soul to be reborn as a man.

Naturally, forcibly altering the natural order would incur karmic retribution, and much more severely than merely shortening someone’s lifespan. Presumably no one would be foolish enough to do such a thing.

Li Tian guessed that Fu Xi’s being reborn through the maiden Hua Xu was likely due to the destiny of the Human Emperor.

In a certain sense, a married woman had already lost her virginity and was therefore impure.

How could one who was impure give birth to a Human Emperor?

Yet this, in turn, brought Fu Xi no small amount of trouble. Although the human race had not yet developed a complete system of ritual propriety, an unmarried pregnancy would certainly invite endless gossip.

Fortunately, the chieftain of the Hua Xu tribe still loved his daughter dearly. After several inquiries failed to reveal who the child’s father was, he thought long and hard and finally had Hua Xu sent to live by the bank of the Yu River.

Hua Xu was naturally kind-hearted. Though she did not know why she had become pregnant, she still met the life growing within her with goodwill.

But as time passed little by little, she could not help growing anxious.

Human pregnancy usually lasted ten months, and even among the witchfolk it was only twelve. Yet now several years had gone by. Her belly had grown larger and larger, but there was still no sign of delivery.

Fire cannot be hidden under paper forever. As time went on, the story of Hua Xu’s unwed pregnancy and three years without giving birth quickly spread through the entire Hua Xu tribe. Many people believed she was carrying a monster and should be done away with.

Fortunately, the chieftain could not bear to lose his daughter. In the end, he forcefully suppressed the matter.

Even so, he no longer dared send anyone to deliver food to Hua Xu. In the end, with a heavy heart, he could only let his daughter live alone by the Yu River, left to fate.

Though he was the chieftain of the Hua Xu tribe, in the human race of that era he was still far from being able to cover the sky with one hand.

Thus Hua Xu was forced to face the problem of finding food, for her belly had become so large that it severely hindered her movements.

Yet just as she was worrying over the lack of food, a small sparrow flew down from the sky, a fruit clenched in its beak. It landed in Hua Xu’s hand.

Hua Xu was astonished.

“Little bird, have you come to bring me fruit to eat?”

The sparrow chirped and, with a spirited nod, placed the fruit in her hand before flapping its wings and flying away.

Hua Xu watched it from afar, greatly amazed. After hesitating again and again, she finally ate the fruit.

From that day on, her life changed.

Whenever she went to the water’s edge, fish would swim up to the shore of their own accord, willingly letting her catch them.

Whenever she entered the forest, pheasants would offer her fresh eggs, wild rabbits the most tender mushrooms, and wild cattle and deer the sweetest milk...

Even those beasts that were usually fierce would, upon seeing Hua Xu, take the prey they had caught and present it to her without prompting.

At first, Hua Xu felt most uneasy living this way, but after a long time, she simply went on living like that.

Still, she never once caught fish from the river herself, nor would she accept pheasants, rabbits, or other wild game offered by the beasts.

For she could not be sure whether those pheasants and rabbits had once helped her before.

Thus Hua Xu lived by the Yu River for twelve full years, accompanied day after day by the myriad beasts, while outsiders knew neither whether she lived nor died.

One day, Hua Xu suddenly felt intense pain in her abdomen. Then she gave birth to a child. The moment the child was born, a streak of purple light suddenly descended from the sky, immense in momentum, with faint dragon roars and phoenix cries seeming to echo within it.

“What is that?”

The residents of the Hua Xu tribe were all struck with amazement at the sight.

“This is... an omen of great auspiciousness!”

An elder of the Hua Xu tribe looked at it with excitement.

“Quickly, report this to the chieftain!”

...

At the same time, the sages throughout the primordial world also sensed something and all turned in unison toward the place where Fu Xi had been born.

Upon learning that a Human Emperor had come into the world, they could not help but begin weighing their calculations.

Each of them felt that as long as they took part, they would surely gain great merit and vast fortune.

However, after discovering that it was Fu Xi, they all shook their heads in tacit agreement.

After all, Fu Xi was Nuwa’s elder brother.

Moreover, it remained uncertain how much merit and fortune could ultimately be obtained. It was hardly worth offending the Heavenly Court over such a matter.

Besides, it seemed the Human Emperor was not just one person... time was on their side. Better to wait for the next Human Emperor to be born and plan more carefully then.

...