The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 43

[That day, the little peacock did not wait until her little black snake came.]
[The little black snake was one step too late. She had been atoning, searching, and always… waiting for the little peacock to forgive her.]
*
Time hurried by. Three hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. Everything seemed no different from before.
But only Yun Su herself knew that for three hundred years, she had kept having the same dream.
In the dream, she was a peacock who thought day and night about completing her tribulation and ascending. On a snowy winter night, she searched everywhere for a little black snake.
She searched and searched, searched and searched, for a very, very long time. She searched until she had grown human hands and feet. Only then did she see a figure in the distance.
She could not see that person’s face clearly. She only knew it was a woman. Yet she still faintly felt that the scene of that black-clothed figure walking through the snow was so beautiful. Curiosity pushed her to chase after her, but the more she chased, the farther that woman moved from her…
In a haze, she heard someone beside her ear making promises to her.
Every time she heard those promises, she would wake from the dream with a start, her eyes always wet.
That mortal dream had long been forgotten cleanly by her. Yet for some reason, she always felt there was something she had never been able to put down.
“Looking at the human world again?”
“Mm.” Yun Su came back to herself, turned to look at Ciyin, who had arrived at some unknown time, and smiled. “Why are you here?”
“I do not know what happened today, but the Heavenly Emperor summoned all the immortal officials to Lingxiao Hall for discussion. The whole heavenly realm is quiet and empty, so I came to chat with you.” As Ciyin spoke, she sat beside Yun Su and opened her mind’s eye with spiritual power. Through the spirit pool’s water mirror, past the layers of clouds below, she looked at the winter human world. “It is all white. What is so nice to look at?”
“Do you not think it is beautiful?” Yun Su smiled.
Immortals and gods lived high above the nine heavens and never saw rain or snow. Because of this, when Yun Su used to sit alone in a daze, she mostly looked at clouds, stars, the moon, the Heavenly River, or the flowers planted in the heavenly realm by the Flower God and the flower fairies.
But at some unknown time, she had suddenly fallen in love with the snow in the human world.
Perhaps one day, she had glanced toward the human world by chance and been washed clean inside by that field of white. From then on, every winter, she always loved sitting in her Qingyu Cottage, looking through the water in the pool at the snowy white mountains and rivers far away in the human world.
Ciyin pouted. “Susu, you really have changed a lot.”
“Mm? How am I different from before?” Yun Su could not help feeling confused. Ciyin said she had changed a lot, but she did not know how she was different from before.
“Very different. You did not like red before. When I planted scarlet hibiscus in your courtyard, you told me to change to another flower and said red was too bright.” As Ciyin spoke, she turned back to look at the phoenix tree planted beside the spirit pool and made a face at Yun Su. “I wonder who saw a phoenix tree at Molan’s place and, after coming back, insisted that I help plant one in her Qingyu Cottage…”
“I really do think scarlet hibiscus is not as pretty as phoenix flowers. If you had planted this for me from the start, I would not have refused,” Yun Su said.
Ciyin looked unconvinced. “Really?”
Yun Su tilted her head. “What else?”
Ciyin rolled her eyes, pouted, and said, “Then I also wonder who it was who always used to say that people who wear black are cold and have no warmth. Even if they are handsome, they make people lose the mood to admire them. But some time ago, someone changed her words and said, ‘Do not look at how Divine Lord Zhiming is always stern and unsmiling. He is actually very good, careful, and considerate.’ Every word and sentence was defending the Divine Lord…”
“That is because I did not spend proper time with Zhiming before, so I did not know his good points.” Yun Su said seriously, “When I went down for my tribulation back then, he even descended with me. It was only that, through a twist of fate, we did not meet…”
“Yes, yes, I know. He descended with you. How many times have you said that?” Ciyin smiled. Then, as if remembering something, she suddenly asked, “Speaking of that, it has already been three hundred years since you returned from your tribulation. Your marriage with the Divine Lord should finally be put on the schedule! I am anxious for you two!”
The smile on Yun Su’s face froze. She suddenly felt as if her heart were empty, as if something were about to burst out. But when she thought carefully, she found her heart was blank. After a long silence, she said, “There is nothing to rush.”
After asking, Ciyin had become a little distracted and did not notice anything wrong with Yun Su. Only when she heard Yun Su answer like this did she come back to herself. She pressed her lips together and said, “I am just anxious.”
Yun Su reached out and tapped Ciyin’s nose, teasing, “If you are so eager, why not marry him for me?”
“What are you saying? I am anxious because I have waited three hundred years for your wedding wine!” Ciyin saw that Yun Su did not seem very happy and could not help asking softly, “Susu, do you not like the Divine Lord?”
“I…” Yun Su instinctively avoided Ciyin’s gaze. After thinking for a moment, she answered, “I only feel that the Divine Lord does not like me… Why he treats me well, others may not know, but do you not know?”
Ciyin thought about it and advised, “The way the Divine Lord treats you now is different from before. I think he sincerely wants to accompany you and care for you for the rest of your life. Besides… two people together do not have to be glued together. Respecting each other politely and living in harmony is not bad either, right?”
Yun Su had just wanted to say something when she heard two immortal officials nearby angrily discussing something. Curious, she made a gesture for silence and pricked up her ears to listen.
“The devil clan has become more and more arrogant these past three hundred years. They have even caused chaos on the west bank of the River of Forgetfulness. They also said that if the heavenly realm does not remove the devil-locking barrier in the Nai River Spiritual Territory, they will visit the underworld. Truly arrogant!”
“Of course they are arrogant. The devil clan has become more arrogant since three hundred years ago, isn’t it because they took in that black flood dragon who has always looked down on everyone? The leader this time is that wicked beast too, isn’t she? She even shouted that she wants to fight Divine Lord Zhiming again. She truly does not know her own strength.”
“It really is a pity Divine Lord Zhiming did not kill that wicked beast three hundred years ago.”
“She is only a long worm in a ditch, not a dragon. What is she being arrogant for? When Divine Lord Zhiming goes to the earth realm tomorrow, he can take that wicked beast’s life no matter what.”
“Exactly, hahaha…”
Their voices grew farther and farther away until she gradually could not hear them. Yun Su could not help falling into thought.
“Black flood dragon…”
“What is it?” Worry flashed through Ciyin’s eyes.
Yun Su shook her head and said, “I heard that three hundred years ago, the Heavenly Emperor once ordered the Divine Lord to go to the earth realm and flatten the flood dragon clan. Later, the flood dragon clan was protected by the devil clan. That black flood dragon… truly has a hard life.”
Speaking of it, her ability to ascend as an upper god was closely tied to that black flood dragon. But all of that was from eight hundred years ago. She could no longer remember what that black flood dragon looked like. Yet for some reason, whenever she heard those two words, an extremely hard-to-describe complicated feeling rose in her heart.
After Yun Su forgot everything, Zhiming no longer allowed anyone in the immortal realm to discuss any topic related to Yun Su’s tribulation. Even when matters involved the black flood dragon, Yun Su’s name was no longer brought into it. It was as if, during the five hundred years Yun Su descended to the mortal world, she had never had any connection with that black flood dragon.
Because of this, Yun Su’s knowledge of the black flood dragon was left with only two points. First, eight hundred years ago, she had stabbed the black flood dragon with a sword. Second, Zhiming had once been ordered to kill the black flood dragon but had failed.
Seeing that Yun Su had no strange reaction, Ciyin let out a breath of relief and casually sighed. “The Divine Lord is going to the earth realm again.”
“Will there be danger?”
“The Divine Lord is so powerful. Who can hurt him?”
“True.” As Yun Su spoke, a thought suddenly moved in her heart. She turned to look at Ciyin and asked, “A-Yin, do you think Zhiming would agree if I wanted to go with him and look around?”
“Ah?” Ciyin froze and reached out to grab Yun Su’s wrist. “You, you, why are you joining the excitement? The devil clan is restless now, and the earth realm is so chaotic and dangerous…”
“With the Divine Lord there, what is there to fear?” Yun Su blinked and said, “We can see the human world from the sky, but we can never see into the earth realm. Since childhood, I have never known what the earth realm looks like. A-Yin, are you not curious?”
Ciyin frowned and shook her head. “Divine Lord Zhiming said the earth realm is gloomy, full of heavy turbid air, and has very few flowers. It is not a good place. Susu, did you not say before that ‘life lies in stillness, if you can lie down never sit, if you can sit never stand, and if you can stand still never walk around’?”
Yun Su asked back, “Really? Did I say that?”
Ciyin nodded. “You did!”
Yun Su thought about it, held both of Ciyin’s hands, widened her eyes, and said, “A-Yin, you are right. I have changed. I really have changed! I always feel that the heavenly realm suddenly became smaller. I want to go somewhere else and look around. For three hundred years, this feeling has grown stronger in my heart day by day, as if something is calling me in the dark…”
Ciyin was silent.
“I will go find Zhiming and ask him to take me to see. Chances like this are rare!” Yun Su stood and waved to Ciyin. “Are you really not coming with me?”
Ciyin shook her head. She had just wanted to step forward and advise Yun Su when she saw Yun Su turn into a Blue Luan and fly toward Northern Xuan Palace.
Ciyin fell silent.
Fine. Divine Lord Zhiming probably would not agree, right? It had not been easy to bring Susu back from the lower world. Surely he could not send her back down and let the black flood dragon see her again.
Thinking this, Ciyin felt much more relieved. She simply took a short nap under the phoenix tree.
Not long after, Yun Su returned in low spirits. Ciyin opened her eyes and asked while already knowing the answer, “Did the Divine Lord agree?”
Yun Su glared at Ciyin and said in a bad mood, “I said long ago that people who like wearing all black usually have no warmth at all!”
Ciyin burst out laughing.
*
The silver-haired woman wore black robes. Holding a green lamp in both hands, she slowly walked to the riverbank, placed it in the river, and pushed it into the distance.
Above the River of Forgetfulness, green lamps guided souls. It was a very old legend from the human world.
In the legend, as long as one lit a green lamp on the River of Forgetfulness, the soul of the departed could find the road home.
But after a person died, they went to reincarnation. What road home would they need to walk? It was only a boring story made up by people who knew nothing about the underworld to comfort the living. No one in the earth realm believed it.
“In some matters, you are as stubborn as a child who never grew up.” Chu Yuebai walked behind her and said, “Can one lamp really guide her back?”
“It is only something to hold onto,” Qu Linyan answered. “I have released no fewer than a thousand before and after. I know she will not come back, but I still want to light the road.”
Chu Yuebai lifted her eyes and looked at the empty opposite bank. “The underworld has three thousand ox-head and horse-face ghost guards. Legend says the Yan Lord can also command the fiercest ghosts in hell. You clearly know the heavenly realm will not give way, and we cannot truly disturb the order of reincarnation in this world. Why do you insist on surrounding the west side of the River of Forgetfulness?”
“Making trouble for no reason, I suppose.” As Qu Linyan spoke, she stood. “I only heard that the Black Tortoise Divine Lord from three hundred years ago is getting married in half a month, and the bride happens to be the silly bird who stabbed me eight hundred years ago. Isn’t that perfect for settling new grudges and old hatred together?”
Chu Yuebai understood, but she was still puzzled. “Can you kill him?”
Qu Linyan said, “A twenty percent chance.”
Chu Yuebai said, “With such a small chance, you still dare call him here?”
“I fought him that day. He will surely underestimate me. I am no longer who I was back then. Taking his life will be hard, but taking one of his arms will not be.” After Qu Linyan finished, she smiled. “I have always heard that the silly bird and the Black Tortoise Divine Lord have a good relationship. Then I will give her a one-armed bridegroom as a wedding gift.”