The next day breakfast was brought to his room. Xiao Shè and Xianhe had not returned from their respective missions. He didn’t want to waste the food so he stored them away in his space. He was still as fresh as the second he had stepped out from his bath yesterday.

He avoided the people inside the mansion and went out to walk in the garden; it was still quite early in the morning. He could feel the gazes of the maids on him and so he subdued his presence. He walked around the mansion and reached a small pavilion which overlooked a pond that was filled with little clusters of blooming tiny lotus flowers. He liked the cosy atmosphere of the pavilion and decided to spend his morning looking at the serene scenery around him.

It wasn’t long before he heard the running footsteps of Xia Feng. The little boy had come searching for him. For some reason, the boy was growing on him.

“Brother Hua, I came to check on you in your room but you weren’t there. Some maids told me that they saw you in the garden, so I have come searching for you. My brother returned to the mansion last night and he wants to meet you!” he said without a pause.

“Oh, I decided to take a walk because you seemed to have quite a lovely garden here and then I stopped by the pond to enjoy the morning calmness until you came and disturbed me just now,” he said pretending to be a little annoyed.

“But, but... I want you to meet my brother! Let’s go back to the mansion. I swear I will leave you alone after you meet my elder brother. He’s been waiting to meet you ever since I told him about yesterday’s incident,” he said pulling Bai Hua’s sleeves.

“I don’t think it will be necessary. Look, he’s coming here right now,” Bai Hua said as he turned to look at the newcomer.

It was a young man who seemed to be around 18 that was lazily walking towards them. He had sharp eyebrows and looked similar to Xia Feng except that he looked more matured and there was a wildness about him like someone who was closer to the wild than to human beings. He was wearing a brown robe with the darker shade of stripped prints like those of a zebra. His black hair was tied in a knot and he was wearing a similar jade pendant that Xia Feng was wearing. He had a roguish handsome look.

“I hear that my brother was quite a handful for you, Mr Hua. I heard that you had to carry him all the way to the imperial city. This idiot doesn’t even know how to handle life-threatening situations. He’s told me everything about the incident. Our Xia family owes you a life debt to you Mr Hua,” he said solemnly as opposed to his lazy demeanour as he joined his hands and gave a deep bow.

Bai Hua was shocked. The mortals were really taking a life debt seriously when they have the chances to be reincarnated again.

“Mr Xia Sheng, please. you don’t need to take it that far. Anyone would have saved Xia Feng if they saw him like I did.”

“And our enemy would have finished the job if it wasn’t for you. I believe in your theory. It couldn’t be as easy as what Dong Chen said. He’s naive. My brother wouldn’t have sleep-walked to his death without external influence.”

The three of them were now sitting around the small table inside the pavilion discussing yesterday’s incident. There weren’t any maids around and they talked without inhibitions. They were expecting the sixth-prince as he had promised to visit them this morning.

And he also came as in on cue after some moments. Many theories were born inside the pavilion regarding Xia Feng’s assassination attempt. Because after much discussion they had concluded that it was an assassination attempt but luckily Bai Hua had saved him.

Unknown to the other three mortals, it was actually only Bai Hua who could have saved Xia Feng. No mortal doctor or martial artist could have saved him. The soul was only lingering inside the body but Xia Feng’s body had already given up on him. Bai Hua had managed to bring him back to life. But the other three mortals didn’t know this. They just thought that Bai Hua had saved Xia Feng luckily and that he couldn’t have protected Xia Feng if enemies actually attacked them as he was just a mere musician.

Bai Hua had declined all forms of rewards and gifts for saving Xia Feng. He had just managed to let them agree on letting him stay in the mansion which was not even necessary for him but he had to pretend to like it to make them stop their nagging.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Later on, the conversations diverted to the competition for the visiting immortal. With the prince in their company now he had more information regarding the competition. The public notice was out that morning and the competition was going to be held within a week. Many people who live far away from the imperial city were going o miss this opportunity. Some were even happy to get the pills as prizes even though they would not be able to become his disciple. The imperial city had burst into a cacophony of people discussing the event. Some people had even hurried to take the initiative to send messengers outside the city.

The competition had three phases:

1. strength and spiritual power testing;

2. combat prowess measurement through group combat; and lastly

3. championship battle from the chosen top 10 contenders from the group combat.

Bai Hua was not interested in the competition but he wanted to see the immortal. This was going to be his first time meeting an immortal of this world and he was curious. The sixth prince had told him that the immortal was given his own quarters as a very special guest and even he was not free to meet him. He had not even seen his face, in fact.

All this mystery surrounding the immortal only piqued their interests. But according to the rumours that the prince had heard from the imperial palace, the immortal didn’t look very young and all his hair were white.

Bai Hua decided to just stay inside the Xia family mansion before the competition as he was not keen on going outside. He liked the bustle of the city life but he saw that there were some very fine books inside the Xia mansion. Xiao Shè had discreetly returned to him later and had stayed on his wrist in his coiled dragon bracelet form. While Xianhe had not returned as time flowed differently in the godly realm.

From that morning, Bai Hua had left the others to their own devices while he had gone to read mortals books from the Xia family collection. Nobody had bothered him thinking that he was a mere musician with no spiritual powers as they could feel no spiritual aura from him. Xia Feng would occasionally come and visit him sweating profusely having been training with others.

Bai Hua liked the mortal books. Some of them were quite moving. The mortals were quite insightful even with their limited knowledge, he realised. He especially liked a poetry that was scrawled on a book of paintings. It read:

“There is a river with your name

That runs from my heart

And turns the entire ocean of my soul lilac.”

He didn’t know if it was written by a man or a woman but he knew that the poet was in love when this was written. He had never fallen in love but he had a feeling it was so. It made him warm in the inside. It reminded him of soft lilac clouds that are seen just before the sun sets. It reminded him of the godly realm.

In this way, a week quickly passed away and the morning of the competition arrived. Bai Hua didn’t feel any change. Time was irrelevant for him; he was a god after all. He had wanted to ask the Xia boys to allow him to go and see the competition but they had practically dragged him off to the arena before he even asked him.

When he reached the arena prepared for the competition he realised that it was a very big affair. Stalls and hawkers were everywhere. The number of people had also increased. The entire arena was packed with audience and competitors.

There were ten big stages raised inside the arena. And there were many gates where people were queuing up for.

“So, they have begun the first phase of the competition,” Xia Sheng observed from inside the carriage.

They all stepped out inside from the carriage one after another. And Xia Sheng handed a token to Bai Hua as soon as he came out of the carriage.

“Show this to the uniformed guards and they will take you to our family seat. We’ll follow you after we get through the first phase. Don’t worry, both of us will make it through it. Our physical strength and spiritual powers are more than the required level.”

“Yes, brother Hua, we’ll be back by the time you find your seat,” Xia Feng added confidently.

“Good luck to both of you then,” said Bai Hua as both of them nodded their heads showing acknowledgement and left for one of the gates for the participants.

Bai Hua easily got help from a guard when he showed his token. He was deferentially taken to a seat that was quite close to all the stages. It was a good vantage point to watch the battles from his seat.

He easily tracked down Xia Sheng and Xia Feng from among the crowd of people. Like both of them said, they had easily passed the first phase. They had to each stand on a white looking flat stone and it glowed green when they passed. Those who got red were rejected.

For the physical test, there was a hammer kept on the ground after the spirit test. Each one of them had to strike on a white boulder the size of a big boulder and if it glowed green it meant the person passed to the next phase. Some contestants could not even lift the hammer and were directly disqualified when the examiners saw that they couldn’t even lift it.

But the Xia boys had passed the second phase easily as well. After observing everything, Bai Hua realised that those two brothers were quite strong as compared to other people. Especially, Xia Feng, he had managed to even shock the examiners when he passed those tests successively.

For some reason, Bai Hua felt pleased to see Xia Feng doing well. And suddenly to Bai Hua’s surprise, he spotted someone else at another gate whom he had met before in his journey.

“It is never a coincidence,” he smiled as he whispered to himself.