The three of us walked quickly for a while, until we found ourselves in the shadow of a giant circular stage that floated in the sky. For as for as my eyes could see, spirals extended from the stage that was held up by flocks of little birds. The collective fluttering of their wings created a pleasant hum.

Awestruck, I followed Barette and Shangtian to the center of the shadow.

“I’ll be so glad when this is all over,” moaned the fairy, looking above. “I had to resweep my section of the sky nine times this morning because my cloud pattern wasn’t pretty enough! It was good enough every other year.”

“Don’t mention it,” the other fairy exclaimed, looking down. “I spent all night lugging stars. Look at my hands! I’ll need to soak them in rehydrating balm. It’s because the Mojie dieties are coming.”

“I’d rather do that than my task! Foliage, ponds, and anything not meeting the new standards were ordered to be beautified with illusions. I’m so exhausted—”

“Perhaps you can show us in first and then chit chat,” Barette suggested.

The fairies apologized, but when Barette was out of earshot, they directed their anger at Shangtian and me.

“Who knows if you will even find a shifu,” the first fairy sneered.

“I don’t know if I will find a shifu, but I know you weren’t able to find one,” I retortly.

The fairies fell silent, and I felt remorseful for my sharp tongue. As they casted a fiery cloud for us, a voice inside my head asked the same question. Would I find a shifu?

The cloud lifted us to the edge of the circular stage. As we emerged from the shadow, I understood why the fairies complained. Clouds of all colors and patterns decorated the landscape. Some were thinly spread in the form of paintings; other clouds became sculptures of famous deities. Stars, normally concealed by sunlight, now flickered in the blue sky.

Hundreds of plates of peaches floated above the stage. The pink fruits, still glistening from morning dew, were a tease. Because according to Barette, only those who found a shifu would have the honor of consuming one.

Several hundred candidates already kneeled on the stage. All of the candidates wore the same white robe, and all of them looked nervous. Some mumbled soundlessly. Others read rapidly from scrolls, papers, and handkerchiefs. Every now and then, someone would suddenly lean over the cloud and retch. I shuddered to think where the contents of their stomachs would land.

“Shen on the outside. Xian on the inside.” The Goddess of Propriety ordered when she saw us.

Feeling like sheep, we tried to follow her orders. But there was no more room on the inside or even to the side. I tried to squeeze between two bodies but only managed to get a leg in.

A fairy hurried over.

“Miss Barette, there is one seat over there,” she said, emphasizing the word “one” and pretending Shangtian and I were statues.

"No thank you," Barette replied. When the fairy left, she crouched on the ground and began whispering to a twig.

“Barette?” Shangtian said nervously.

“Hold on, just trust me,” Barette mumbled.

Those around us were beginning to snicker, annoying me greatly. I checked to see whether the Goddess of Propriety was around before making a hand gesture that should have made gods faint… if they knew what it meant.

“Does she want me to look up?” A candidate who was laughing squinted at my middle finger.

“I think she wants to poke you…” His friend suggested. “Upwards?”

I turned back to the ground holding back laughs. That was when I saw. As if someone had sped up time, the twig springing into a tree, until it towered above everything around us.

Barette placed one foot onto the trunk and swung onto a branch. We copied her.

“STOP!”

I nearly fell off my leaf.

Two marshals appeared in front of us.

“ENCHANTMENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED,” one marshal bellowed.

“Sirs, no enchantment was performed,” Barette replied coolly.

The marshal grunted in disbelief and shot a red spark towards the tree. Nothing happened. He tried again, and the tree only swayed in the breeze.

“How did you do that?” Shangtian asked when the marshals left.

“My friend, Xiaoshu, is a tree about to become a yao. He still can’t change forms, but he can change sizes. So I asked him to shrink himself before we arrived so that no one else would sit on him. It isn’t ‘enchantment’ if he reverts to his original size. And now the judges have a great view of us,” Barette explained with a shrug.

Shangtian stared at Barette in awe. I, too, applauded Barette’s foresight. In addition, I wanted to thank the Shenjie Code of Conduct. For without it, we would have surely been killed given the scathing glares we were receiving from the candidates below us who were even more squeezed.

“How are you so amazing?” Shangtian demanded. “The fairies respect you. Sylvestris listens to you. Dragon, marshals, and now even a tree obey you!”

Barette gave a wry smile.

“It isn’t me they respect, but his highness. I used to be the Goddess of Flower’s hairpin. She was his fiancé. He loved her, and everyone loves him. So they treat me well by association. But I’d rather be known for my accomplishments,” Barette said. “Anyway, they just started announcing deities.”

She pointed at the seats above us that are beginning to fill with gods and goddesses. Clouds descended and evaporated. Deities paid obeisances to each other and filed into seats. Fairies and pages hustled about tending to their needs.

“His axe had split open Peach Mountain when he rescued his mother, His bow had killed the Twin Phoenixes of Zongluo. Widespread was his fame for killing the Eight Bogies. To top it off, he became one of Plum Hill's Seven Immortals. Here is the Compassionate and Venerable Sage of Mount Kunlun!” A page announced. A man with unruly facial hair sauntered in. Many gods rose to greet him.

Another page picked up as soon as the other stopped reading. “Her grace the Worthy and Enlightened, the Principled and Righteous Enchantress of Fu Lake…”

Just then, there was a stir in the crowd.

“His highness, General of the Blue, White, and Black Battalions, Huayu!”

I saw a scramble among goddesses and fairies to smooth hair, powder faces, and cast filters. Some of these filters were over an inch thick!

“What is happening?” I asked incredulously.

“His highness will be arriving shortly. He is the god I was talking about, the most eligible bachelor in Shenjie. In fact, our lovely ‘friend’ Sylvestris has been chasing after him as well,” Barette said with a smile, pointing in the distance where Sylvestris was sticking a stalk of flower in her bun.

I snickered. Good luck to her. Nothing was more annoying than a man who was desirable and knew it. I stared at the bright blue skies and began to ponder about last night.

That tortoise shell was definitely being used for Oracles. From the lengths that Yuanshi Tianzun had gone to hide it, it probably had the calculations that those men were looking for. He had carved questions and diagrams on there, and the resulting cracks were the answers.

I ripped a small piece from the bottom of my dress and broke off a twig from Xiaoshu (he yelped). Slowly, I traced the diagram from memory.

“Then is he handsome?” Shangtian was still asking about this “his highness” god.

“A finer god you will not find,” Barette replied.

“I disagree,” I murmured, thinking of my god.

“His highness is a military genius, the youngest god to lead two armies,” Barette continued. “At age three, he could read. By age ten, he had completed training of basic chi. By age thirteen, he won his first battle against demons. From his battle accounts, he particularly enjoyed bold but calculative sieges. There hasn’t been a battle he lost yet.”

This finally impressed me. I scooted to the edge of my leaf and extended my neck over the heads of other rubber-neckers. A procession soon came into sight. They marched in neat rows, each warrior holding his weapon in the same fashion. The god at the front rode on a dragon. He held the reins with one hand; the other was behind his back. Although the creature galloped, the god’s back remained pin straight. I tore my eyes away. I already had my god to fawn over, and this god certainly didn’t need another fangirl.

“Fan me, I’m about to faint!”

“Did you see? His highness looked in my direction!”

“He absolutely did not, he looked in MY direction!”

“We are all equal. His highness has looked at no one since the Goddess of Flower died.”

“She didn’t die, she vanished. My cousin told me. Her fairy was friends with the fairy who attended to her.”

“A goddess can’t vanish! I heard his highness had something to do with it…”

“No way! He loved her, still does…”

Their chatter continued in low whispers.

I glanced around at the love-struck females. “Why are they so obsessed?

“He is his highness,” Barette repeated incredulously. “The general of three heavenly armies, protector of Shenjie, heir to the throne.”

“You can’t see their faces at all with those ugly masks,” Shangtian lamented.

“The masks are used to scare enemies into submission,” Barette explained. “They must have returned from the battlefield. I heard his highness was sent to quell the riot of some butterflies.”

“Wh-What?” I sputtered.

“There was an upsurge of chi in one of the worlds a couple of days ago. Many butterflies became yao. But without guidance, some became yaoguai. He had to obliterate the evil ones,” Barette said.

I felt a wave of relief. The butterflies that Mojie so desperately needed were gone. This “his highness” was foiling Mojie’s plans. He was one step ahead of them! Thank heavens the protection of Shenjie was not solely upon my shoulders.

“Check out the “Investiture of Gods.”

Barette pointed to a billboard with the phrase “Investiture of Gods” carved on the top. There must have been hundreds of thousands of gods’ names, written in fancy Zhuan script. Each name was carved on a piece of jade that hovered in the air. The name plates were organized into nine rows. One jade piece was moving up the rows as we stared.

Huayu, Pious and Honorable

“His highness is now a Supreme One,” Barette lamented.

“What is a Supreme One?” I asked immediately, recognizing the term.

“Supreme One is a title given to the nine most powerful gods in Shenjie, the ones with the most chi.”

“How can we become a Supreme One?” Shangtian asked wistfully.

Barette pointed at the tenth row where thousands of names were squished together.

“Your name is placed here if you find a shifu. Then you rise in rank as you amass chi. Either by harvesting it based on methods our shifu show us, or by doing good deeds in the mortal world and trade the offerings for chi, or through being rewarded by his majesty Emperor Jadeite. To get to the top, I would guess a few million liters of chi is required,” Barette answered.

“Millions of liters?” Shangtian sputtered. “How much did Yuanshi Tianzun give us yesterday?”

“One milliliter,” Barette replied with a sigh.

I didn’t bother to ask how long it took to acquire one liter of Chi. All I could do was stare down at the recreated diagram in my hand. My god… perhaps I could use it to find out who he was.

“I’m never going to get up there,” Shangtian moaned.

“We can, if we strategize,” Barette said in a tone as if she had been strategizing her entire life. “Xian and Yao lack the familial connections the children of ancient gods have. We can only depend on studying under great shifu to learn the fastest ways to acquire Chi and create Dan and Fu. Thus, being of the right pedigree and lineage is vital in Shenjie.”

This topic was of obvious interest to Barette, because she continued without being prompted.

“In fact, all gods of Shenjie belong to three sects. His majesty Emperor Jadeite, her majesty Empress Vesper, and his highness General Huayu.”

“Wow,” Shangtian whispered with glowing eyes.

“His majesty’s sect consists of powerful but ancient gods who are no longer accepting disciples. His highness’s sect consists of warrior gods, generals and ministers—”

“Sylvestris thinks his highness will accept her as disciple,” Shangtian remembered.

“I’m far more…” Barette cleared her throat. “I mean, in the history of Shenjie, his highness has not taken a disciple, but we will see. Anyway, choosing her majesty’s sect gives you the best chances. Personally, I plan to study under her majesty herself.”

“Me too,” Shangtian said quickly.

They turned to look at me.

“Um… I plan to choose the god who saved me,” I said.

“He sounds like a soldier from the Mortal Affairs department,” Barette replied. “They are usually below the Ninth Rank. If that is the case, there likely won’t be any competition to study under him.” After a pause, she asked, “Are you sure you want to study under a minor god?”

“What’s wrong with a minor god?” I said, narrowing my eyes. I was offended that Barette didn’t think much of my god. If he did not hold a high position, then he probably didn’t seek recognition for his good deeds.

Barette and Shangtian exchanged glances.

“I just mean that skills are passed from shifu to disciple. Minor gods simply don’t have as much skills,” Barette replied. “No skills means no chi. No chi means no way to sustain your immortality—”

“I guess I’ll die then,” I replied. I didn’t care about immortality; I just wanted to save my villagers.

Barette shook her head and began to talk to Shangtian about the competition they faced. Perhaps Barette was right, it was better that my god wasn’t highly ranked; it would be easier to have him as shifu.

I leaned against the tree and stared at the blue sky filled with deities. As a mortal, I never wondered about gods. They were too distant, too mythical. My knowledge of gods had been limited to praying to paintings of gods and watching an opera by a traveling troupe depicting the heavenly lifestyle, which I now knew was made up. What was it that they sang? One bushel of rice, two roast pigs, three fat hens, four ducks and geese… How did I ever believe gods ate that? All meat and no vegetables, even gods would get constipated.

The thought of my god unable to use the loo, or the clean room, as they preferred to say in Shenjie made me smile. Then I sighed. It was more important than ever to find him, because Mojie was going to be at the ceremony. Their leader might be the mastermind behind the village massacre. And after what happened last night, they were surely after me.

I looked around for my god, feeling more nervous than when I had to fight three boys all at once. The sheer number of deities was staggering, and after a while, the faces began to resemble one another.

“Oh look at him!” One of my classmates giggled. “He is so handsome!”

I snapped my head to look.