From the Ashes of Love

Chapter 83

Guihua emerged from the doors of Zifangyun Palace, feeling thoughtful, her fingers brushing over her lips.

Yanyou the Snake Spirit waited impatiently in the front garden.

"What took you so long?" he asked. "You know it is imperative that we return to the Flower Realm as soon as possible. We have to go, my Beauty!" he cajoled her.

She turned back to the doors. "My baby!" she exclaimed in alarm.

Yanyou put his hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

"If you go to her now, you will never leave her, and the Flower Realm will cease to exist" he warned her. "I hate having to say that" he admitted. "I have my own egg at home, waiting to hatch, and my First Wife is still pregnant. Who knows if I will ever see them again?"

She wavered for a long moment. Then she sighed, her shoulders slumped. She turned back around to face him, then nodded resolutely. The two of them took off in flight, leaving behind streaks of green and golden light.

They arrived at the Flower Realm, Yanyou parted the Water Mirror, and they landed in front of the three shrines.

As they walked towards Flower Palace, Guihua was struck by how eerily quiet the Flower Realm was. The houses were all dark at this late hour. They entered the Flower Palace uncontested, making their way to the throne room. No one was there.

"Are we too late?" Yanyou asked aloud nervously.

"Shhhh" came a voice from the hallway. The Moon Immortal came into view, holding a lantern above his head, and a finger to his lips.

"Fox Spirit?" said Yanyou behind her.

"The Flower Spirits are very ill" whispered the Moon Immortal. "You must come quickly."

Yanyou and Guihua followed him to the infirmary. The Three Chiefs of the Flower Realm were all in beds there. Guihua gasped and ran over to Chief Peony. Her hands splayed over Chief Peony's body and golden yellow light emanated downwards onto the unconscious figure.

"I've never been able to scan this deeply before" Guihua thought to herself. "It must be the magical prowess that the Emperor gave me."

She was stricken by the amount of damage she was seeing. She scanned all the way down to the Primordial Spirit. The branches were warped and twisted with bitterness and grief. There was a curious white sheen that looked like some kind of burn.

"Frost Damage!" Guihua exclaimed aloud.

In the corner of her eye, she could see the Moon Immortal and Yanyou look at each other in fear.

"How could they have frost damage?" asked the Fox Spirit. "The Water Mirror protects the plants here from seasonal changes, like a greenhouse."

Guihua shook her head. She would have to figure that out later. Right now she was trying to find the source of the hemorrhaging of Chief Peony's life essence. It was flowing out of her body at a steady rate.

Guihua looked up at the other two Floral Chiefs. Quickly, she ran over to Chief Magnolia, performing the same scan. She also had frost damage. She also was hemorrhaging her life essence in a steady stream.

Guihua backed up, trying to see where the streams of essence were going. They were floating upward, through the ceiling. She took off running, yelling for Yanyou to follow her. Once outside the Palace, she looked at the sky with her new ability. Three streams of pink life essence ran into and merged with the Water Mirror.

"Destroy the Water Mirror!" she commanded desperately.

She waved her hands in the intricate movements to summon her chi, and then pointed her two fingers at the Water Mirror. A steady stream of golden light left her fingers like a spear, trying to shatter it.

"Help me!" she called out to Yanyou. "It's killing them!"

A stream of green light joined hers. The Moon Immortal then caught up to them.

"What are you doing?" he gasped in shock.

"We must destroy it" Guihua said through clenched teeth, straining to bring it down.

Something in her face must have convinced him, because he raised his arm and shot a pillar of flame into the Water Mirror. It shattered, sending pink crystalline shards raining down over the whole Flower Realm.

Guihua doubled over, trying to catch her breath. Then she scanned the sky again. The three pink streams no longer emanated out of the palace roof. She sighed in relief.

Yanyou gave her a worried look. "What did we just do?" he asked.

"Yes" the Fox Spirit chimed in. "Please explain why we did that."

Guihua nodded. "Let me tell you on the way back to the Floral Chiefs" she replied, still winded.

"The Water Mirror required a continuous source of energy to be maintained" she explained. "As the Floral Chiefs weakened, their magical energy was depleted by it. Once the magical energy was gone, it started draining their life essence."

The Fox Spirit and Yanyou looked at her in amazement.

"Something must have happened to them to suddenly weaken them. Were there any incidents while I was gone?" she asked the Moon Immortal.

Just then Lianqiao came running up to them, demanding to know how the Water Mirror had broken, and Guihua realized what had happened.

"Did the Water Immortal visit while I was gone?" she asked with a sinking feeling.

"Why, yes!" replied the Fox Spirit. "Why do you ask?"

Guihua reached a horrible conclusion. "Frost Damage!" she exclaimed. "The Water Immortal is a Frost Flower!"

"You can't think..." the Moon Immortal spluttered. "She would never harm them!"

Yanyou was looking at her in disbelief.

"What happens to hothouse flowers?" she asked them.

Yanyou shrugged. The Moon Immortal shook his head, he didn't know. Lianqiao looked at her with wide eyes.

"They become weak, losing all resistance to disease, and all hardiness to cold" Guihua answered her own question.

"The Water Mirror has been like a greenhouse roof, insulating the Flower Realm from seasonal changes for thousands of years. It's no wonder the Flower Spirits have grown weak and sickly. Now they can't even stand to be in the presence of the Water Immortal, who radiates extreme cold."

They arrived back at the infirmary. Guihua went back to Chief Peony, performing a deep scan again. The hemorrhaging had stopped. That was good. However, so much of her life essence had been depleted, that she wouldn't awaken.

Guihua did what she could to repair the frost damage, but the Floral Chiefs required intensive therapy. She looked at Yanyou and the Fox Spirit with a grave expression.

"We have to plant them" she told the two Spirits. They looked at her in bafflement.

Guihua closed her eyes, concentrating, and waved her hands over the supine form of Chief Peony. The body shimmered in the golden light that emanated from her hands, condensing down into the twisted form of an unhealthy Peony bush.

She repeated this process on Chief Magnolia and Chief Begonia. She potted the bushes, and then handed the Magnolia to Yanyou.

"Plant this at the top of the Sacred West Mountain, Hua Shan" she ordered him.

She then handed the pot containing Begonia to the Fox Spirit.

"Plant this at the top of the Sacred Center Mountain, Song Shan" she directed.

She picked up the pot holding Peony reverently. "I will plant this at the top of the Sacred East Mountain, Tai Shan."

She looked at them resolutely. "Let's go!" she exclaimed.

Three streaks of red, green, and golden light departed the Flower Realm, heading in different directions.