Eternal Love Once Upon a Time

Chapter 7

Fox den.

Bai Qian woke up two days after the battle at Ruoshi river. Zhe Yan's sleeping pill allowed her shocked body a temporary respite as well as much needed sleep for the rest of the plotting crew for what was to happen in the next few days.   When Bai Zhen sensed her awakening in her room, he went inside bringing a pot of fresh tea and sat on her bedside to help her sit up as the recent events once again envelope her entire body in grief.  In her brother's embrace, she let all of her emotions release as wracking sobs wrenched from her small body while he moved his arms up and down her back to give her some comfort.  When it seemed that her tears have dried a bit from her eyes, he pushed himself away from his sister, held her face between his hands and looked at her in the eyes.

"Xiao Wu, I know you are overwhelmed with grief right now but all is not lost.  Some things happened after our battle at the Ruoshi river, one of them is Mo Yuan finally waking up.  You were far too gone in your sorrow when I brought you back home so we let you sleep for a bit."  Then moving his hand forward, palm facing upwards, he conjured a scroll and handed it to her,  "Mo Yuan left this for you, hoping this will shed light on events from the past ninety thousand years that have led to today.  Once you are finished with this letter, come out of your room. Father, Mother, Zhe Yan and I will wait so we all can talk and help you with your questions."

Bai Qian took the scroll from her Fourth brother who quietly left as he entered.  She first took a sip of the tea he brought to her room, set it aside, and took a deep breath before opening the scroll to start reading.

My dearest Seventeen, Qian Qian,
First of all I would like to say thank you for sacrificing not just seventy thousand years of your life to see to my care, but for giving me your heart's blood to make sure my soul returned to a physical body.  When I told you to wait for me, I did not realise that waiting would mean that you had to stab yourself over and over again to nourish my body with blood from your heart, rendering you almost imprisoned in Qing Qiu because of the my body's need.  And while you have my unending gratitude for your sacrifice, I am also deeply sorry for all the things you missed because of me.
I was still a stupid and arrogant young man when I made the Bell of the East Emperor, wanting to prove to my Fuxi that I was capable and powerful enough to take over the protection of the realms when the time came.  When I presented it to him, he was very angry because I did not realise the karmic effect of making something so destructive that I had to pay for it with my life.  Once I understood the ramifications of what I had done, Fuxi helped me find a way to not just pay the price but to ensure that I had the ability to return.  My Fuxi had used an ancient spell that took a piece of my soul from my core and transferred it, along with half of his cultivation, to the to golden lotus.  This soul piece would be the anchor soul that would call on the rest of my soul pieces back should the time come when I have to pay my karmic debt to destroy the bell.  The soul piece that was removed also contained my strongest emotions, and being separated from it allowed me to be more objective and focused in protecting the realms for a very long time.  That was until you came to Kunlun to be my disciple. 
When Zhe Yan brought you to me to be trained, I already knew you were Bai Zhi's only daughter.  Also being friends with your father and Zhe Yan, I have heard of the challenges they faced in raising you.  I never would have accepted you as a disciple of Kunlun since it was a school to train men out of boys had the Fan of Kunlun not chosen you to be its new master.  It was then I realised that fate may have something in store for you so I decided to take you in.  Training in Kunlun would also give me assurance that Qing Qiu's future queen would be more than capable of leading the fox clan and I had a hand in raising her even if it was forced upon me. 
Your coming to the mountain and training with me proved to be my most challenging times because you have awakened feelings that have become dormant over the years, only I could not express them fully because of the soul anchor that housed my strongest emotions were separated from me. While strong feelings escaped me, the golden lotus sparked life when it was near you. It has never come alive unless you were present, and it was then I knew that when the time came for all of my soul pieces to reunite, I would come back to you not wanting to only be your Shifu.