Before Yuan Xia knew it, he and Deng QiuShi had boarded a wagon alongside a crowd of cultivators to the portal of Heaven’s Law Sect. Just one out of the many children there, Yuan Xia sat hugging his knees and reflected on his visit with the Doctor.

  So the Yu family had survived. And they had two descendants, Yu Gu and Yu Shui. Somehow, Yuan Xia felt relieved.

  He sank into the straw hay bale at his back. The weather felt nice—a soothing breeze brushed against Yuan Xia’s cheek. As he bounced along in the wheelbarrow, hiding from the Sun under fleeting branches and leaves, a conversation nearby caught his attention.

  “We might be able to meet Hua ChunMing! The Righteous Leader of all of the JiangHu! Can you believe it?” A skinny boy whispered to the girl next to him.

  “I know! I want to learn how to drink from him. He must have a liver of steel.” The girl made a fist in determination.

  Yuan Xia’s eyes widened, and he shook his head.

  Just what are you teaching the new generation, Hua ChunMing….

  “Yuan Xia, don’t follow that drunkard’s example. Drinking isn’t good for you.” Deng QiuShi’s brisk lesson followed, and she put a hand on Yuan Xia’s shoulder. “I don’t like that ‘Righteous Leader’.”

  Her hand squeezed Yuan Xia’s shoulder for a bit too long. The wagon bumped over a stone, making both of them jump. Yuan Xia tilted his head, fighting the urge to shake her off, then feigned ignorance and turned away.

  I know.

  —

  Soon, the mule lugging the wheelbarrow stopped at a small path hidden by the dense forest. At first gnce, it was nothing special: Just a simple trail bordered by a stone gateway. Birds chittered all around, singing for the newcomers.

  Following the crowd, Yuan Xia noticed a rge gss-like portal at the centre of the stone gateway. As it shimmered in a deep hue of indigo, Yuan Xia felt a wave of familiarity. He heard the thudding of feet—the skinny boy had dragged his friend to the arch.

  “Let’s go see Hua ChunMing!!” The boy hollered, jumping twice before leaping into the portal.

  “Let’s go get drunk!” His friend cheered, and her voice gradually dissipated into the indigo fog.

  In a fsh, they had both disappeared.

  The rest of the cultivators followed the two into the gateway. As soon as they stepped forwards, their figures would vanish, leaving nothing but the rustling of leaves. Only Deng QiuShi and Yuan Xia stayed behind.

  “You’d best hurry in. Hua ChunMing could close the portal at any minute.” The wagoner spat out the wheat in his mouth, and the mule underneath him stirred with irritation. “That Righteous Leader is so fickle.”

  “Alright…. We’ll be on our way, then.” Deng QiuShi reached out to hold Yuan Xia’s arms.

  But before she could lift him, he leapt out of her grasp, dashing towards the gss-like portal. Almost immediately, he tripped over his own feet and toppled over just inches from the gateway. He’d rather take the fall than be picked up again.

  With a helpless sigh, Deng QiuShi knelt next to Yuan Xia.

  “Are you ok?” She reached out a hand.

  This was acceptable. Yuan Xia took it, steadied himself, then entered the portal alongside Deng QiuShi.

  —

  Yuan Xia dropped onto a thick yer of clouds. The entire teleportation trip had stifled the breath right out of his small body, and he took greedy breaths. His eyes inadvertently lifted as he tried to grasp his surroundings.

  Everywhere he looked, he felt he’d ascended to Heaven. The scenery of white and light blinded him, but through the searing brilliance, Yuan Xia could still make out numerous quartz statues and marble buildings. In the distance, thick tree branches rose to the sky and disappeared beyond.

  After a couple seconds of staring, Yuan Xia thought he’d really gone blind. He closed his eyes, only to be met with more white. He brought his hands up to rub the afterimage of light away, though before he could, a soft cloth fell onto his face.

  “I know you’re sensitive to light… so I brought this.” Deng QiuShi’s soft voice carried over the clouds. She held her robes above Yuan Xia, preventing as much sunburn and eye-ache as she could.

  Yuan Xia could not see through the blindfold, but he found it better than facing the scorching summer sun. The corners of his lips teased upwards, and he reached his arms out to Deng QiuShi, hoping to catch the edges of her robe.

  Though Deng QiuShi appeared to have misunderstood—she instead picked him up with one arm and held the cloth with the other, carrying Yuan Xia to the registration desk, leaving him bewildered.

  Deng QiuShi first shuffled left, then right, walking for far too long of a time. Yuan Xia pulled on her sleeve, suspicious, and she let out a delighted ugh.

  “Confused?” She patted him on the back. “Me too. Well, all of the stalls lining the streets look exactly the same. I think the registration desk might be a little bit hard to find….”

  A cicada chirped, and each screech sent a throb through Yuan Xia’s temples. It was too hot. He y limp in Deng QiuShi’s arms, sweat sticking to his white robes. All around, he heard footsteps, light, heavy, quick, slow.

  Gradually, a specific stride grew louder, closer, like an immortal stepping over clouds, stopping inches away from Deng QiuShi. She tilted his head towards the stranger, and Yuan Xia listened to his long breaths.

  “Do you need help finding registration? I can take you two there.” A slight nasal voice, mixed with hints of elegance. Yuan Xia committed this voice to memory.

  Her suspicions dispelled, Deng QiuShi nodded. Her exhale paused slightly, before she followed after the stranger’s gentle footsteps.

  He led them through light and shadow, under shady arches and over gurgling streams. Through his closed eyes, Yuan Xia observed the intermingling of white and bck shadows.

  Then, his passage came to a halt.

  “I’ll let you in on a little secret.” The stranger smirked as he leaned against what sounded like a hollow puff of cotton. “Only people with a certain level of cultivation can see behind these clouds. This is Heaven’s Law Sect’s first test.”

  Curious, Yuan Xia reached out from underneath Deng QiuShi’s robes. A thicket of mist passed through his fingertips, chilling and condescending down his palms. He’d never touched a cloud before. But before he could admire the sensation any further, the droplets grew heavy. The precipitation on his hands melted, parting into a curtain, letting him in.

  “You two are in the clear.” The nasal and elegant voice held a smile. “Follow me?”

  All of a sudden, the cloth wrapped around Yuan Xia’s eyes lifted and disappeared, soon repced by a sturdier eyewear of bck. He saw a turquoise silhouette before him. The owner of the voice.

  “These are called Dark Clouds. They’re popur nowadays for blocking the sun.” The turquoise boy smiled. “I think ‘sun-gsses’ is a better term, but the JiangHu has been calling them Dark Clouds for the past couple of decades.”

  Wearing these Dark Clouds, the stabbing pain of the Sun disappeared completely. Even though Yuan Xia still couldn’t ‘see’, he felt the illusion that he could suddenly make out more of Heaven’s Law Sect’s strange buildings and statues.

  Not too far away, a line of cultivators waited, hidden behind the veil of mist. This near-infinite line reached the end of the horizon and extended even further. As if to give the cultivators a hint of hope, statues of birds and fauna created a pleasing backdrop.

  Deng QiuShi put Yuan Xia down. She knelt before the green silhouette—a child, taller than Yuan Xia by just over an inch.

  “What’s your name?”

  “You can call me Shuang.” The kid puffed up his chest. The yer of fat on his face made him resemble a smiling Buddha. “Welcome to Heaven’s Law Sect.”

  From his sleeves, he pulled out a box. Inside, small balls of gluttonous rice glistened on bamboo sticks. He offered one each to Yuan Xia and Deng QiuShi.

  Yuan Xia recalled the candied hawthorn he never got to eat. Looking down at the stick of gluttonous rice balls, his expression held a hint of indecipherable thanks.

  But just as he brought it up to his mouth….

  A man dressed in silver and turquoise robes brushed past him, bumping into him with a little too much force. The gluttonous rice balls he’d tried so hard to salvage spttered to the ground. Without even a second gnce back, the man in turquoise rushed off.

  Lightning struck Yuan Xia’s heart. For a second, the world turned bck.

  His eyes turned fierce, and he gred, hard. In the deepest recesses of his mind, he swore to make his role as the resurrected Demon Lord known to the world once more.

  But just as Yuan Xia stepped forwards, a chubby hand rested on his shoulder and restrained his evil thoughts. Yuan Xia turned, meeting Shuang’s verdant green eyes.

  “Are you ok?” Shuang asked with a hint of amusement pying on his lips. “I don’t have any more of those,” he pointed at the mess on the ground, “but when we get into Heaven’s Law Sect, I’ll make sure to get you another.”

  With this promise, Yuan Xia’s mind rexed. He nodded, sighing with injustice.

  Deng QiuShi’s ugh sounded from afar. She strolled over, knelt down on the clouds, and cleaned up the gluttonous rice balls.

  As Yuan Xia watched her, he noticed how the gre of the Sun from the clouds didn’t bother him anymore. The ‘Dark Clouds’ had given him a yer of impenetrable protection, enough to look around.

  First, he observed Shuang. The more he stared, the more he could make out the embroidered gingko leaves on his green robes. Coupled with his near-white hair, which Yuan Xia thought rare for children his age, Shuang looked almost like an immortal.

  But why would an immortal come to the JiangHu? Yuan Xia chuckled to himself.

  Next, he looked towards the unforgivable man who’d knocked his delicacy to the clouds. Although he could only see a blur of turquoise and the man’s long, bck hair, the man’s slouched body reminded Yuan Xia of the curve of a sika deer’s neck.

  Sensing a presence, the sika deer’s head swivelled up, meeting Yuan Xia’s gaze. A shiver immediately ran up his spine.

  As the turquoise-man approached, Yuan Xia noticed a basket in his arms. Filled to the brim with numbered boards, the basket swayed, heavy, burdensome. Upon closer look, the man handing out these boards had deep sunken eyes, encircled by irremovable panda eye-bags.

  A twinge of pity coursed through Yuan Xia’s heart, and he forgave the man for attacking his gluttonous rice balls.

  “Are you here to register?” The man spoke, his voice unrefined and fatigued. He sounded like a ghoul risen from the dead… even more worn than some of the demons Yuan Xia knew during his time as Demon Lord.

  “Yes!” Deng QiuShi answered for Yuan Xia and Shuang, then pointed at the boards in his hands. “What are these?”

  “Registration dates.” He took three, handing them to Deng QiuShi. “If you miss your turn, you’ll have to come back for another board. See you.”

  With a flick of his sleeve, the turquoise-man stalked away.

  “Surely we won’t have to wait that long.” Deng QiuShi smiled, waiting for him to leave before raising the boards to check the times.

  Her expression fell.

  “Tw… Twelve days…?!”