“You really are lucky,” Shangtian exclaimed as she dabbed her eyes with her crumpled handkerchief while I lay on a canopy bed lined with blue fabric. The fur pad was much softer than my old hearth bed.

The Goddess of Propriety had led me here after our conversation. The candidates were given rooms to rest in until the ceremony tomorrow, two to a room, and Shangtian was my buddy. The room was large and airy. A soft breeze filled with the scent of flowers flowed in through lattice windows that spanned the walls. Large columns supported the stucco ceiling. I had never known that rooms could be so beautiful. In the village, all houses were made from mud and functioned simply as places to sleep.

I turned my eyes to the furniture in the room. Two desks faced each other in the center of the room. To their left was another round table. They were wooden but shone like water. On the round table stood a teapot that resembled a giant peach. Colored pictures of peaches also decorated the walls. I looked down at the cup of water in my hand and realized that it too, was in the shape of a peach.

Barette, Vivi, and Yu sat in front of the bed. I had just told them what happened.

“Shangtian is right,” Barette was saying, “I perused the Shenjie Code of Conduct after Divination. You must’ve broken about—”

“—fifty rules,” I said. “It’s fortunate that the Goddess of Propriety is so in love with herself.”

At that moment, a magpie flew through the window.

“Dinner will be served,” it chirped.

I had barely recovered from the shock of seeing a talking bird that wasn’t a parrot when two fairies entered with a steaming tray of food. They set down a red lacquer food box and began taking plates from it. The fragrance of food assaulted my senses. I had never seen so much food, not even during New Year’s! Back in village, everyone ate only two buns a day, or one bowl of rice. It was enough to keep a girl of fifteen from starving, but certainly not enough to sustain farm work. I remembered how often my legs shook when I pulled the plow.

As I jumped out of the bed, I saw Shangtian glancing at me furtively.

I had told her about the name-change. We both decided that someone was watching out for me. She thought it was the spirits of my unknown parents. I figured it was that god. It had to be him, I thought with a smile. He must have found out that I didn’t go to town. He must have seen that I came to Shenjie instead. He changed my name so I could stay. He wanted me to stay!

The fairies laid five pairs of chopsticks for all of us. I immediately scooped the entire contents of a dish into my mouth. Chicken, I smacked my lips. I had a taste of it once when I was sick. Then I ate minced something stuffed in cherries, a dish of vegetables with a special sauce that I didn’t recognize, and washed it all down with a bowl of clear soup—

The two fairies gasped.

I glanced at their shocked faces. It wasn’t until Barette spat the bowl of “clear soup” into a spittoon that I realized it was for rinsing the mouth.

“Where I come from, we like to rinse our stomach too,” I quickly said.

The fairies giggled and began distributing food from the dishes. Anything I laid my eyes on, they arranged in my bowl.

“Sit down and have some with us,” I said as I tried to sip, not slurp, some porridge. I felt uneasy having everything I could do myself done for me.

“It is etiquette that fairies attend to our needs,” Barette reminded. “Anyway, do you know Yuanshi Tianzun has been highly stressed?”

“You mean he usually isn’t a piece of cow dung?” I snorted.

Barette glanced at me disapprovingly.

“Yuanshi Tianzun is responsible for the security of Shenjie. He predicts and prevents thousands of dangers that we aren’t even aware of. You just see a shifu lashing out on students, but I see a god who is terrified of the impending Purple Omen.”

“What is the Purple Omen?” Shangtian gaped but quickly covered her open mouth with a fan.

Barette lowered her voice mysteriously.

“Not many know this, but as a hairpin, you end up overhearing many things. The Purple Omen refers to the recent shift in the stars. Under this alignment, Yuanshi Tianzun predicted that lost things would be found.”

“That’s good right? Why would Yuanshi Tianzun be worried?” Yu wondered.

“鳳蝶隨香寶叢棲, 千金散去還復來。Have you guys ever heard of that?” Barette asked.

“Phoenix butterflies follow fragrance to rest among treasures, all that is lost shall turn up again,” Vivi murmured.

“You know the saying?” Barette asked in surprise.

“No, I just deduced,” Vivi replied with a blush. “I like analyzing poems.”

Yu beamed at her proudly.

“Well, you deduced correctly,” Barette said with a slight disappointment. “After the demon king was defeated at Tonitrum, these are the words that he uttered. There is debate about the first phrase. Some believe that phoenixes and butterflies hold the clue to the location of the treasure. Others believe that phoenix refers to his daughter of Arum and butterflies to her ability to attract them. But the second part is straightforward, whoever acquires the treasure shall regain everything the demon king lost.”

Barette’s face lit with excitement. She continued.

“The demon king was known to possess talismans, elixirs, manuals, and items of infinite abundance that gave rise to his power, all of which disappeared after he died. So these phrases lead to a mania in search of the treasure. 75 years have passed, but no one has found what the demon king left behind. With the Mojie deities accepting the invitation to Shenjie Championship for the first time in years, specifically during the Purple Omen, you can’t blame Yuanshi Tianzun for being worried.”

Shangtian and I exchanged glances. That was why those men were trying to catch butterflies. They feared me because they thought I was the demon king’s daughter. This also explained why Shenjie didn’t like the word “Zi” or anything else related to purple.

I felt a sense of relief. This purple thing had nothing to do with me. I stuck my chopsticks in a meatball and bit in happily.

“Oh dear heavens, you’ve been eating for almost eight incenses of time! Are you not full?” Shangtian exclaimed.

She gestured toward the stand with ninety-six incense sticks. I couldn’t read it. In the village, we measured time with two pegs in a tree. When sunlight passed over the first peg, it was time for lunch. When it passed over the second, we went home.

“I am, but there is still so much food left!” I said. I was more than full, I was about to explode, but the dishes in front of us looked untouched. The fairies had long stopped arranging food for us.

“Were you trying to finish it?” The shorter fairy gasped. “These dishes refill themselves!”

“The thought of having an empty plate! How preposterous!” The taller fairy exclaimed.

I watched as the fairies casually dump all of the food into a bucket and floated out the door. I tried not to think about the amount of labor that went into growing one grain… or that long winter in the village when we almost starved to death.

“Can you imagine if someone found the stash,” Shangtian mused, returning to Arum’s treasure.

“Talismans, weapons, infinite power…” Yu murmured with a faraway look on his face.

“Can the Purple Omen locate…” that god, I finished in my head.

“It won’t be useful to us,” Barette said with a sad shake of her head. “Understanding something as complex as the Purple Omen requires millennia of specialized training. In fact, Yuanshi Tianzun might be the only god in Shenjie who knows how to calculate it.”

“What’s he afraid of then?” I grumbled.

“The gods outside of Shenjie,” Vivi said softly.

“Moj— the demons,” Shangtian whispered with wide eyes.

“They’ll want to overthrow Shenjie rule, destabilize the worlds, enslave mortals, and promote terrorism,” Yu said. He sounded like he was reading from a pamphlet.

“Stressful,” I said with a yawn. “I guess I shouldn’t have spoken to him like that.”

“He is your senior and is right even if wrong. You should’ve controlled yourself,” Barette said emphatically, leaning in. “Etiquette requires you to call on him to apologize, especially since he organized the Baishi ceremony and will be a judge.”

Frankly, I couldn’t care less about etiquette. But it was then that Vivi buried her face in my neck. I tried to pull away but she clung on.

“Thank you! Precisely because of your outburst, Yuanshi Tianzun made no more mention of punishments,” she sobbed.

“Yes Ziyan, thank you for getting me out of that,” Yu said, giving me a curtesy of gratitude.

“Come hell or high water,” Vivi said, her voice was breathless from crying but firm with conviction, “I’ll do anything to pay you back.”

“I should go apologize to Yuanshi Tianzun,” I stood up and announced.

“Now? But it’s getting late,” Shangtian said in surprise.

“I’ll be back soon,” I said, thankful for the excuse to get away from Vivi’s tears.

“You can’t go empty-handed.” Barette thrust something in my hand as I dashed out of the room. “Per Shenjie etiquette, guests should bring gifts when they visit others—”

The doors closed behind me, and the cool night air was upon my face. The last traces of light fled with the sunbird’s descent. The sky transitioned to a dark blue. I stared at the moon cake in my hand. That would be the only “gift” I could give Yuanshi Tianzun. Oh well, I didn’t like him anyway.

I shut my eyes tightly and remembered the instructions for clouding. To my delight, a small tuft of cloud appeared in front of me. I hopped on with excitement, and the cloud jerked into action.

Barette said that Yuanshi Tianzun resided on above easternmost peak of the Emei Mountains. Majestic palaces rose from the fluffy clouds as I flew east. Some were ablaze with gardens of flowers, while others were elegantly simple with just bamboos. I soared over hills and giant rocks that shielded one pavilion from another. I could see holes below me, where the cloud bed occasionally opened up for a glimpse into the mortal world.

A few fairies flew by. I watched as they swept the clouds, until the hole was finally gone. Only a day ago, I was a farmer girl. Now, I was flying in the skies. What a change… I thought of my village and felt a sense of guilt. Shenjie, with its crowds and flurry of activities, appealed to me. But the villagers still suffered in hell. Tomorrow was the ceremony where all deities would be present. Tomorrow, I was going to find the god who could prove my words. Tomorrow, I was going to save my people.

My small cloud moved slowly. Dusk fell. The sky was now littered with twinkling stars. I could no longer see palaces, only the lanterns hanging in front of doors told me when I passed by one. The buildings and gardens grew scarcer and scarcer. Soon, I was flying across vast spans of darkness. I began wondering if I had gone the wrong way until I saw the outline of a mountain that pierced the cloud bed. As I got closer, I noticed the simple hut that perched on the peak of the mountain.

The plaque above the door read: Palace of Jade Purity. It was Yuanshi Tianzun’s residence.

“Slow down,” I muttered.

My cloud slowed, but not enough, and I soared past the top of the doors.

“Stop!” I shouted as I leaned sideways to miss a pillar, a giant fish bowl, then a giant, purple fire! I swerved to avoid it—

CLANG.

A big heap of something buried me. Stiff and sore, I picked myself up from the ground. What appeared to be crushed shells lay in a mess around my feet.

“Thank heavens I didn’t fall on the fire,” I exclaimed, patting myself.

“I wish you did!” Said an angry voice.

I whirled around. In the dim moonlight, I could make out the silhouette of Yuanshi Tianzun. His face blazed as he took in the mess I made.