Chapter 001.

Plums In The Wind:

Azure Plateau.

On a caressing summer night, atop not-so-tall but yet aloft, up the cloud-covered mountains, washed by the moonlight, the fresh wind bathed the plum orchards. Blue leaves flickered in the wind, and azure peaches clung dear to their branches. That summer night, if anyone were to notice, they would see fruits softly glowing in the now-forming midnight mist.

Although beautiful, it is not natural—neither the wind, the mist, nor the moonshine. Here, a legend was written, in the mute words of destiny, for no one to know.

"

Out of countless millennia before.

From the deepest wounds of the earth up to the vastness of the heavens and beyond—up to ninety-nine realms, far beyond a journey of a thousand miles.

Its wings, insurmountable, towering, its beak and claws unnaturally sharp. A move of onyx wings, Heaven-Defying. A single wingbeat, and in its way, ninety-nine-six worlds turned into dust. Unstoppable and consuming, growing and devouring, a gargantuan mass of destruction, for not even a single speck of light could escape.

Suddenly, towering pearly white fangs, with a single bite. Between its jaws, a crack and a crush, for an infinitesimal moment, a golden glow. Then with a final smash, by its jaw sides lay two giant spirals, newborn worlds yet to be bathed by the mysteries of life. With a grin, the indescribable large serpentine mass calmly breathed creation back in with its scaly lips.

The Heaven-evolving Heavenly Dragon and the Heaven-Defying Phoenix fought.

Without a word, the Heavenly Dragon breathed out a colossal cosmic dust pillar, and the Heaven-Defying Phoenix beat its wings forth. Today it would be different, for none of them would return satisfied with a tie.

As their powers collided and dispersed, the Heavenly Dragon and Heaven-Defying Phoenix grinned at each other. With a leap, crossing nothing short of a million miles, they were soon at each other's necks, clashing their massive bodies with a huge Boom-Crack! Still with grins on their faces, they did not notice the foul plays of destiny as a single scale, bathed in flaming onyx blood.

Suddenly, with disappearing grins, slowly looking down from each other, they saw as that one single petty scale slowly but surely found its way down the cracks of heaven. It was already too late! The Heavenly Dragon and Heaven-Defying Phoenix could only watch as the wheels of destiny started to turn.

Like a blazing meteor, the massive, blood-covered scale descended upon the realms. The void and empty Soul-Realm were now bathed in golden light as a streak of onyx flames flashed across. At that moment, every living soul, from animals to mortals, and up to the highest immortal creatures, flickered. Even the upper entities that dared to look at it were momentarily blinded. They did not pursue, for they knew not to covet what they could not have.

With no landmass in its path, the place one day to be called Ten-Cloud Immortal Peaks of the Seventy-Nine Realm, towering mountains spanning millions of miles, were now reduced to nine. The Heaven-Sea transformed into a nightmare of unending towering waves as striking light crashed down upon it. In every realm it traversed, its light dimmed, dispersed by the lands it consumed, but it not only gave; it also took.

As it presented the world with heaven, it absorbed the earth. Fish in the water rose up to the skies, and the tiniest insects now walked over mountains. The earliest ancestor of a chicken became a lord.

By the moment it hit the lowest of the lower realms, it was but a blood-covered scale, in no way the envoy of heaven and earth. Humanity, who had just barely emerged from caves, had yet to discover the beasts now walking and talking. Luckily or unluckily, the paths of heaven were now open for mortals to turn immortal and then back again. As for the scale, for now, it would digest what it had learned and slumber.

"

Out of countless Millennia After.

Azure Plateau plum orchards.

The flickering of azure-blue leaves had yet to stop when the first rays of dawn bathed the plateau.

By the mountain feet, a city lay at rest. It was mostly composed of red-painted houses and a few markets, decorated with red-golden banners. A striking contrast to the azure mountains it sat upon. Around it, a giant redwood wall, like a fortress, stood. Its gates locked by giant iron bars; no traders, no visitors, nor signals from other cities for months on end. Here, there are no empires nor dynasties, only the mountains and those nurtured by them. It was the Azure Plateau, wild as it can be.

On top of the mountain, the plum orchard was brimming with azure fruits as far as the eye could see, yet small as if they lacked the resources they desperately needed. It was the most basic source of food. In addition to their characteristic color, the plum trees were massive. A single fruit could fill a stomach for half a day, yet they would grow as ordinary plums if planted anywhere else.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Truly a breathtaking vista, the villagers used to say you could see the far sea by the horizon from the highest peaks, but the risk of being snatched by a flying beast made most people avoid the journey up in the mountain. It would be a wonderful day, if not for the fact that no one had a good sleep that night, having the feeling of being observed by a beast festering deep in their dreams. Yet, people got up in the morning and, albeit tiredly, started their usual work.

Despite all the strangeness in the air, the day went on, and night came. A man in his thirties also came walking the road by the plum orchard side, looking around and beating the bushes. He spoke in a low voice, afraid of scaring the ghosts and whatnot lurking in the darkness of the night.

"MaoMao! MaoMao!?"

He, in fact, lived just down the road and was already ready to run if anything truly dared to answer his calls. He looked for MaoMao, his late-wife's blue-eyed, black cat. From her to him, it was all that was left, having had no sons nor daughters.

Then suddenly, he heard a scream, albeit an animal scream, coming from the azure plum orchard - a cat. Even before the scream faded, the man had already hurriedly made his way to the hut down by the road and was about to slam the door shut. With a sudden stop, he took a look at his empty house, only the fire he left ablaze before leaving to look for MaoMao. With a deep breath, he took a torch and ignited it on the dimming fire, making his way to the orchard, scared by the wind and fluttering leaves.

Each single step into the jaws of the orchard took a thousand-mile journey of courage mustering. The soft moon glow, the leaves rustling in the wind clouding his ears. The single torch in his right hand cast shadows over his face as he looked around. When he was about to call for MaoMao, suddenly! Nothing. He put a hand to his mouth, thinking twice about inviting problems and offering it a cup of tea. That was when he took a look at his feet, to see plums, a lot of bitten plums, some fully devoured, some barely grazed, as if a wild animal didn't know which one to eat first.

Ready to take a closer look, the moment he hunched his back, something moved behind him. No, something slithered. Turning back almost gripping his chest, he saw it, leaves and more leaves. Again! Behind him, something flashed past, but before he could turn, a bite! Gash! Something had bitten the back of his head, such a weak bite, but sharp as needles, barely a drop of blood. With a fast reaction to cover his head with both hands, too fast, in fact, to burn his hair with the torch, he turned around, again to find nothing. But he could hear the desperate munching coming from upfront. Pointing his torch, he could finally see. There, festering on the fallen blue plums, sometimes biting on the tree bark itself, laid a bestial, azure serpentine body, no longer than a child's arm. A sudden animal scream and a hurriedly pointed torch revealed a scared cat, twice its normal size due to its flustered hair, intently looking at the "serpent."

It was all too quick. The moment he saw it and caught a glimpse of the beast's eyes, he had already started to pass out. If not for MaoMao's stifled scream, he would not have lasted so long. he had no time to count the seven small wings on the beast's back.

Yet again that night, no one had a good night's sleep, for again they felt observed by wild beasts in their dreams.

When the man woke up shortly after, remembering only entering the orchard with his torch, all he saw was a black-haired child sleeping soundly, barely a year old, it seemed. A half-eaten plum in its small hands. MaoMao the cat, nowhere to be found. Not a fool he knew, something had happened. He looked right and left and then down, but without even noticing, he never dared to look up.

"A Child? What? What...?"

Feeling a sharp yet small pain on the back of his head, he instinctively turned to leave, then stopped. How could he leave a child here? Even if it scared him for some reason! Could he call himself a man!? What would his wife say if they ever met again by the will of the heavens? Even worse, who dared to leave a child here, in the night! Or what... No! He scrapped those silly ideas that popped into his mind. His heart pounding in his chest, barely illuminated by the moonlight, he took the yet-sleeping child in his arms and onto his back. protesting against the sharp pain in his head, he left. Barely avoiding the branches in the dark.

He had neither sons nor daughters, and as now old and alone, maybe the heavens gave him pity one last time? By the road, slowly walking, catching a scent in the wind, he said in a low and calm voice, while looking at the moon, but never straight up.

"You don't smell so bad. I'll call you then... Mao Meifen!

Finding the child might have been nothing more than a chance meeting, but mustering the courage to take the child with him despite his fears might have changed more than just Mao Hui's destiny. Yet unbeknownst to him or the child, all the dreadful beasts around the Azure Plateau and up to the realms above had, from now on, set their eyes on this piece of land and slowly but surely grew the desire to consume and absorb whatever lay rest upon it. That night, the mortals could feel something amiss—an undercurrent of unease that whispered through the air. If they could see and then look up, up through the realms and above, they'd find two gaping and towering eyes, side by side. These eyes pushed each other so they could have a better view, the two vertical pupils that stopped and slowly looked at each other. It was an eerie celestial exchange, hidden from mortal sight but resonating with the cosmic forces that shaped the destiny of the Azure Plateau. Their unseen influence intertwined, casting a mysterious and foreboding shadow over the mortal realm.

Whispering dryly at the same time into each other's ears, they said blankly.

"What?"

"What?"

As the man walked home with the child on his back, from behind Mao Meifen, a small azure tail fluttered in the wind, and a bloody scale birthmark rested on its back. It was as if it, too, was sleeping soundly, oblivious.