The fated ones

Chapter 48

In the tao zhu valley, the wedding guests had already arrived. The invitation to the wedding was given only to certain handpicked immortals from all the realms by dong hua and bai zhi. But the irony here was that as the realms clamored for the invitation to this exclusive and unparalleled wedding, the entry to the people of Qing qui was unrestricted. People from any and every part of Qing qui were welcome to the wedding of the fox queen, bai feng jiu, and the unifier of the realms, dong hua dijun. This was done on feng jiu's wishes. She wanted the people to know and feel comfortable under her reign. She didn't want to restrict their freedom and put chains around them. Resultantly, the expansive tao zhu valley was filled to capacity with the people of Qing qui. Whereas the invited nobility stood in a small bordered off area, near the raised dais at the bottom of the tao zhu mountain.

As the wedding procession emerged, at the main opening of the valley, the generals, the lords, and the nobility at the rear end of this procession dissolved into the crowd of the waiting wedding guests to acquire their places.

From the entrance, at the opening of the valley till the stairs, at the bottom of the wedding stage, a dark green carpet had been rolled out. Dividing the valley in half, this regal green carpet was lined with interwoven, flowing bunches of multi-colored flowers from end to end, and equidistant banners were placed on both its sides. While dark green and white banners of Qing qui adorned one side of the carpet, the dark violet and gold banners of tai chen palace adorned the other side.

Donghua, along with his entourage of four, strode forward towards the stage. While the bride's carriage and the bai family stopped before the entrance. After the carriage was safely placed down, zhe yan knocked at its roof before parting the curtains. Feng jiu had been waiting anxiously for this long ride to end, so the knock came as a huge relief. Opening the curtains, zhe yan offered his hand to help her out of the carriage. Zhe yan escorted her to the entrance where he handed her over to bai yi. Bai yi walked her down the carpeted pathway as the entire bai family stepped in behind them.

Dong hua stood on the stage with mo yuan, lian song, si ming and Zhong lin behind him. He watched as feng jiu was escorted down the aisle on the arm of her father with her family walking in the backdrop. When the father-daughter duo reached the steps, bai zhi appeared at her other side. Together her father and her grandfather helped her up the stairs. Stepping onto the stage, the trio stopped in the middle waiting for dong hua to approach them.

With a single-minded focus, dong hua strode forward, feeling ecstatic that he would finally get to see her face then. He stopped at an appropriate distance before he reached out for her veil and painstakingly, lifted it up. Donghua gazed steadily as the veil slowly rose up, displaying inch by inch of her exquisite face. By the time his eyes met hers, he was lost in the deep love and compassion he saw there. Lost in her, he just went through the motions. If anyone asked, what happened to the veil afterward, he wouldn't have the slightest clue on how to answer that. It wasn't until feng jiu blinked that their connection got broken.

Bai zhi swallowed up the chuckle that came up at seeing the couples arrested faces. In order to bring them back to reality, he pinched feng jiu slightly on the arm. As expected, feng jiu blushed the color of her fox fur, at being caught while dong hua had his usual impassive, expressionless face albeit the slight softness at the edges. He cleared his throat to hide the small chuckle that had escaped on witnessing their reactions before he turned serious again. He looked dong hua in the eye as he and bai yi placed feng jiu's hands in both of his. With a hard, gruff voice he said, "we are handing you our precious daughter. Take care of her, always." The 'else' part in the statement was implied.

Donghua gave an affirmative and solemn nod to both the men in front of him. That one sincere nod from the master of the universe was more reassuring than any number of words could ever be. The sincerity that he allowed them to see in his eyes, soothed all their qualms and worries. The two high gods stepped back towards their family as feng jiu's grandmother and si ming arrived beside the couple to proceed with the wedding customs.

Feng jiu turned towards her grandmother with her hands open ahead of her. Her grandmother opened the lantern for feng jiu to retrieve the flame from within. Reaching inside with a gentle hand, she coaxed out the flame and into her palm. After the flame was out and in everyone's view, she added her own flame to it. With the addition of her power, the flame turned red from yellow and burned brighter.

Meanwhile, dong hua faced si ming with the slab from bihai cangling in his hands. Dong hua extended his hands, placing the tips of his fingers against the center of the slab. As he drew his hands back, long threads of pale blue fire emerged clinging from his fingers to the slab. Donghua drew his hand far back before cutting off the threads of fire from the slab. Placing his hand ahead of him, in plain sight, he channeled the pale blue flames from his fingers to the center of his palm. Gradually, a single pale blue flame burned in the center of his palm. Donghua spread out his other hand and called up his own azure blue fire in it. He placed his palms together, incorporating the two flames. This assimilation of powers made a single blue flame that burned higher and darker.

With both their flames burning strong, dong hua and feng jiu shifted towards each other. Taking small steps, they came face to face in the center of the stage. Behind them, on a raised stand, there was placed a grey stone with a rounded bottom and edges that flared upwards. This firepot was formed from the nethermost stone of tao zhu mountain. It had been used for every royal wedding since before bai zhi. This particular pot was a sacrosanct object of the bai's that held raw power that purified and merged the spiritual fires of the bride and groom.

As dong hua and feng jiu approached the fire pot, they brought their hands together with precise, controlled movements.

Before mixing the flames, as the bride, feng jui said aloud her vows, "with the blessings of my ancestors, the grace of my family and of my own true love, I accept you, dong hua, as my husband for eternity."

Donghua vowed in a clear, powerful voice, "with the grace from my creation, the divine sanction and of my own true love, I accept you, bai feng jiu, as my wife for eternity."

Feng jiu slowly slipped her hands inside the cupped palms of dong hua, bringing the two flames together. They watched as the red and blue flames started rotating around each other steadily gaining speed. Through the continuous whirl of the red and blue flames, came out a large purple flame. Together, they cupped this purple flame and moved it towards the firepot. They settled it in the middle of the pot and stepped back to wait for the result of the merging flames.

According to the past royal weddings of Qing qui, when the combined flame was put inside the pot, it would grow in size and burn robustly in the center. The saying goes that the brighter the flame burnt, the purer love is and more auspicious the marriage would be. The turnout of the final flame was the ultimate test of the heavens' acceptance of a couple's bond.

While everyone waited with bated breath, inside the pot, the purple flame started to move in a circular motion. With the continuous circular movement, the flames started leaving a trail all across the pot because of its high speed. The flames showed no signs of slowing down as the pot became fully covered in burning purple spirals which eventually started to merge together. The merging and moving processes were so intense that the two clashed against each other and erupted in a brilliant white flame.

Bai zhi was getting nervous as the flame took longer than expected to grow in size. He was contemplating the possible scenarios for the delay when a dazzling white fire exploded from the pot. The burst was so powerful that it pushed him back by a few steps. Getting his feet back under him, he began to search for feng jiu since she was standing nearest to the pot. Only to find her firmly secured in dong hua's arms as they continued watching the fire.

Turning his attention back to the pot, he gaped as two blazes rose from the top of the bursting white fire. These sparkling white blazes surfaced from two opposite sides of the pot and flew up towards the sky. They rose high above before suddenly, twirling down around dong hua and feng jiu like ribbons. The two winding and coiling flares enveloped them in a glittering white sphere that burst with power. Slowly, the sphere lifted off the ground. As it floated in the air, the sphere started contracting in size. In the face of such enormous raw power, everyone watched, completely stupefied, and clueless to what was happening. After contracting to the smallest possible size, considering the two immortals inside the sphere, the white ball of fire blew out.