Smoke and Fire [GL] - Chapter 24

Long, long ago, all Flower Immortals held equal status, each fulfilling their own duties, managing their respective flowers.

However, because their statuses were equal, small conflicts often erupted. Today, the Peony reported that the Rose’s season was five days too long. Tomorrow, the Daisy accused the Azalea of attracting too many butterflies. The day after, the Rose complained that she had to bloom every month, making her workload too heavy… The Celestial Realm often found this troublesome and could only constantly mediate.

If—if there was a deity whose status was higher than all Flower Immortals, who could unify the management of all blooming and fading, then things would be better.

All the gods and immortals in the Celestial Realm thought this way.

The Buddha heard the pleas of the masses and selected the one He favored most, the Epiphyllum (Queen of the Night flower), granting it divine power. Thus, the Flower Goddess was born.

Born from a single thought of joy from the Buddha, the Epiphyllum was surrounded by colorful streams of light at birth, possessing seventy-seven petals, blooming at every moment. Rumor had it that medicine made from the dew on the Epiphyllum’s petals at dawn could instantly cure any illness, having many beneficial effects.

But there was one catch: the newborn Flower Goddess had no physical form, her power was weak, and she was unable to protect herself.

So the Buddha entrusted this task to the most favored divine bird at the time, the Azure Luan. However, even though the Azure Luan was not yet a High God, she already bore numerous responsibilities—especially since a plague was rampant in the mortal world at the time, and the Azure Luan had to sing day and night to ensure the retreat of evil entities.

In short, the Azure Luan had no time to look after a small flower.

Helpless, the Buddha had to reselect a candidate. Although the Buddha had forty-eight thousand methods, and there were many paths for humans to attain divinity, Buddhist cultivators were always more highly regarded. Coincidentally, an unattached immortal entered the Buddhist Hall at that time. The Buddha examined him repeatedly and was very satisfied, finally granting him the name Veda and appointing him as the Flower Goddess’s attendant.

Thus, beside the Flower Goddess’s flowerpot, there was now a busy figure tending to her day and night.

The Flower Goddess was headstrong, somewhat spoiled by favor, and dared to talk back to everyone except the Azure Luan. Veda was only an immortal, naturally unworthy of her attention, and she took his words as wind in her ear every time.

On one occasion, a small-scale conflict erupted between the Celestial and Demon Realms. Veda warned her absolutely not to leave the Formless Heaven, but the Flower Goddess selectively deafened herself once again and rolled into the Glazed Terrace Flower Sea—the boundary between the Celestial and Demon Realms.

By the time Veda discovered her absence, it was too late. Demonic aura was fatal to the Flower Goddess at the time. When he arrived, three of the Flower Goddess’s petals had already withered.

Later, the Flower Goddess fainted. When she woke up, she found her seventy-seven petals as snowy white as before.

People later told her that Veda had risked dissipating five hundred years of his cultivation to transfer the demonic aura from her body into his own.

From that day on, the number of people the Flower Goddess didn’t talk back to changed from one to two. One was still the Azure Luan, and the other was Veda.

Recognizing Veda’s kindness, their relationship progressed very quickly. The Flower Goddess also gradually developed small habits, such as going from letting anyone hold her to only letting Veda hold her, and bringing Veda wherever she went.

Finally, another five hundred years later, the Flower Goddess took human form.

The image of the young woman she transformed into was legendary even in the mortal world. For a time, her popularity even showed a slight trend of surpassing the Azure Luan. As for exactly how beautiful she was, we won’t elaborate here. You only need to know that Veda fell in love with her at first sight.

The rest of the story probably has worn your ears raw, so it won’t be repeated.

It is worth mentioning that the reason their private relationship was exposed was because a petal accidentally fell from Veda’s person during a gathering of immortals. Certified by authoritative figures, it was a petal of the Flower Goddess’s true form, commonly known as a token of love.

The Buddha is the symbol of compassion, but if an unattached immortal profaned the Supreme Deity, it was another matter entirely.

Thus, on that day, the Buddha was enraged.

At first, the Buddha did not intend to punish the Flower Goddess. But when He prepared to demote Veda, the Flower Goddess gathered the Flower Soul Array at the cost of exhausting her Yuanshen (original spirit) and threatened death, saying all the sin was hers, begging the Buddha to spare Veda.

The Flower Soul Array was the Flower Goddess’s unique divine power. It could instantly summon all Flower Immortals across the six realms to gather and serve her command. Thus, in an instant, the Buddhist Hall in the Celestial Realm was crowded with all the Flower Immortals in service. They all knelt together, their momentum immense, much like a mortal palace coup.

Following this was the Buddha’s thunderous wrath. He directly demoted the Flower Goddess to the mortal world, stripping her of almost all her divine power, and punishing her to bloom for only a split second once a year. Veda was sent to the Western Buddhist Land for severe asceticism. He was forbidden to return to the Celestial Realm unless his cultivation reached great mastery.

From that day on, whether in the heavens or the mortal world, the Epiphyllum could only bloom for an instant once a year.

Even after being demoted, the Flower Goddess still wholeheartedly thought of Veda, the young man who watered her day and night. She could only bloom for a few minutes each year, but every time she bloomed, he never came.

Later, the Azure Luan couldn’t bear to watch and personally descended to her side, saying, Stop waiting. Let’s go.

The Flower Goddess replied, No, I must wait for him.

Ten years later, the Azure Luan came again and said, He won’t come. The Buddha has forgiven your mistakes. Come back with me.

The Flower Goddess was silent for a long time, but still shook her head.

In the twentieth year, the Azure Luan stood beside her without speaking.

This time, the Flower Goddess asked calmly: He won’t come, will he?

The Azure Luan sighed and nodded.

So the Flower Goddess also nodded and said, Let’s go back.

The Flower Goddess returned to the Celestial Realm in a demoted state, which naturally led to gossip. The Azure Luan, who had already been promoted to High God, dealt with the gossip one by one, and life gradually settled down peacefully.

This tragic and beautiful love story was recorded by the immortal official in charge of love and spread to the mortal world, becoming a famous storybook tale. The mortal world even named this story:

“The Ephemeral Bloom, Only for Veda.”

The story finished, and the moon was high in the sky.

The two stared silently at the moon for a long time. Luo Yao suddenly said, “Tan Tan is truly strong. She could endure everything I said, but what finally broke her was that after going through so much, she finally saw Veda, only to realize that in what was originally a story of two, suddenly only one person remembered it.”

“The Buddha wanted her to be the Flower Goddess because He hoped she would be innocent and carefree. As things stand… it has long been contrary to His wishes.”

Yi An stared blankly at her profile.

If everything they said was true, Luo Yao also went from being the glorious Chief of all Deities to the convicted deity she is now, all because of Shang Mian.

—So, did Luo Yao also feel that things turned out contrary to her wishes?

—Did she regret it?

But Yi An didn’t have time to ask these questions, because Luo Yao suddenly looked towards the northwest sky, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Yi An followed her gaze and saw a fast-moving shooting star beneath the huge, cold cliff-moon. Judging by the trajectory, it seemed to be heading straight here!

“What is that!” Yi An was terrified, instinctively thinking of things like missiles. She was about to run but stopped, turning back to shield Luo Yao.

Luo Yao patted her shoulder, shaking her head to signal that she was fine, though her expression was also somewhat serious.

It turned out it wasn’t a missile, but a fist-sized point of light. It approached the Demon Palace quickly but didn’t trigger any warning spells. As it neared the covered walkway, its speed slowly decreased, finally hovering perfectly in front of Luo Yao.

Luo Yao slightly frowned, raising her hand and reaching into the point of light.

Yi An quickly leaned in and saw Luo Yao pull out a very small object—it looked like a pendant but wasn’t exactly one. The outside was a silver filigree, teardrop-shaped casing, and the inside was dark red, seemingly still liquid, shining with a faint golden light as it flowed.

What is that thing??

Yi An was about to ask, but she accidentally saw Luo Yao’s face and instantly froze.

She had been with Luo Yao for a long time. Luo Yao was usually very steady and thorough in her actions. Even with major events, she would reassure others first. Yi An had almost never seen Luo Yao look panicked.

—But now, Luo Yao was staring fixedly at the pendant in her hand, the color drained from her face, her eyes filled with unprecedented astonishment and disbelief, as if she were holding a ticking time bomb.

“……”

Luo Yao’s breathing was shaky.

She naturally recognized this object.

But… how could it be…?!

After she took the pendant, the point of light didn’t immediately disappear. Instead, it automatically descended and transformed into a note.

Luo Yao took it, scanned the contents of the note, and her fingers slowly tightened. Her gaze was gradually replaced by another kind of extreme emotion.

Rage.

And, killing intent.

When Yi An realized this, she was so shocked she forgot how to speak: “Luo, Luo Yao…”

Luo Yao raised a hand to interrupt her, closed her eyes to adjust her emotions, and when she opened them again, she was as calm as she usually was.

“You must not mention me receiving this object to anyone, do you understand?” she said slowly to Yi An.

“N-not even your wife?”

“She can know. But I will tell her myself, you don’t need to. I mean Si Yin and Junxuan.” Luo Yao paused at the latter name, warning and advising her: “Junxuan only seems gentle and easy to talk to. You should avoid getting too close to him.”

Yi An pursed her lips: “Understood.”

Luo Yao sighed slightly, untied a string of prayer beads from her right wrist, then lowered her eyes and put them on Yi An.

Yi An: “You…”

“Shh.” Luo Yao covered Yi An’s mouth, looking deeply into her eyes, her voice soft but allowing no room for questioning. “Listen to me. Tomorrow morning, I will find a way for Si Yin to return to the Celestial Realm. You must wear my prayer beads and not let anyone see them. Return to Baihua University as quickly as possible, nod if you understand.”

Yi An nodded. After a moment, she shook her head again.

“Mmm mmm mmm?” Why?

Luo Yao frowned: “No why. Knowing will put you in danger. Don’t worry about things at the school. I have already set up an array for you. You will now be in an ‘always present’ status at school, and no one will find anything unusual. As for the three of us, I have erased everyone in the school’s memory of us. You will probably have new roommates.”

Yi An was instantly shocked, then shook her head desperately, her eyes slightly red.

Luo Yao’s gaze wavered for an instant. She raised her hand and gently hugged Yi An, stroking her hair, and whispered, “Our An An is the most obedient. Be good, okay?”

“Only if you promise not to lie to me and promise to come find me when this is over.” Yi An buried her head in Luo Yao’s shoulder, her tone very stubborn, implying a threat of ‘If you don’t agree, I’ll die right here.’

Luo Yao held up three fingers:

“I swear, I will never lie to you.”

…

Even long afterward, when everything had turned to dust and stone, when Yi An was revered in the shrine by thousands of people, raising her sword and pointing it at the person before her, finally turning against her past self—

She would still see the Demon Realm’s eternal cliff-moon, and the words spoken to her by the person before her would often echo in her ears.

At that time, she had said:

“I swear”

“I will never lie to you.”