In the far east of the world, under the sacred tree Fusang.
Bai Qiuran stepped on the sea, walking on the waves, and soon came here.
He was Jiang Lan’s husband (though in name only), the sea beasts in the sea still knew how powerful he was, so seeing him going out to sea, these sea beasts also evaded.
Bai Qiuran walked under the towering sacred tree, arched his hands to the top of the tree, and shouted:
“Goddess Xihe, Bai Qiuran begs to see you.”
There was no response from the sacred tree. After a pause, Bai Qiuran added:
“At the words of my wife Jiang Lan, Bai Qiuran came to see you.”
This time, there was finally a response from the top of the tree, and a crack appeared at the center, allowing him to enter.
Bai Qiuran entered the sacred tree, and after a round of climbing, he came to the top of the sacred tree, where the branch junction of the wooden house was established.
A beautiful woman in a big red dress was facing away from him, looking at the sea of clouds in the distance. After a while, she turned her head and looked at Bai Qiuran with a smile:
“Welcome the majestic commander who rules the eastern land. This is your first visit to the humble house, right?”
“That’s just a fictitious name.”
Bai Qiuran said to Xihe:
“Bai Qiuran has seen the goddess Xihe.”
“Please sit down.”
Xihe smiled slightly and invited Bai Qiuran to sit down at the table and chair. The table was filled with tea made from some unknown flowers and plants, overflowing with fragrance.
After both parties sat down, Xi He looked at Bai Qiuran and smiled:
“Little Lan has already informed me of your intentions. Under this sacred tree Fusang, there are indeed a group of humans hidden. I can accompany you to see them later.”
“Thank you, Goddess.”
He did not urge, as Xihe looked like she had something to say to him. Anyway, he came here, and Xihe seemed to be an elder who was closely related to Jiang Lan, so Bai Qiuran politely listened to her words.
“You have been married in the past few years, I have seen it in my eyes. I also know about you and Little Lan’s agreement. You are a person who firmly keeps your words, in the past few years, you didn’t try to touch her authority.”
After a while, Xihe really started to joke:
“I heard that Marshal Bai is a womanizing guy. You must have endured very hard during these years, right?”
Bai Qiuran’s face was a little embarrassed. He was clearly an old virgin over 3,000 years old.
And thinking about it carefully, he now had a wife, but he was still a virgin. Whenever he thought of this, he would feel a little sad.
Bai Qiuran’s reaction was taken as default by Xi He. After a while, she said quietly:
“Having three wives and four concubines is natural for men. My husband Dijun is also the same, so Marshal Bai Dashuai doesn’t need to self-blame. On the contrary, I think you are the man worthy of Little Lan.”
“The goddess Xihe’s praise is too much for me.”
Bai Qiuran said ashamed:
“Bai Qiuran is just a normal man.”
“At least in the past few years of living with you, Little Lan has been much happier than in the previous few thousand years.”
Xihe interrupted:
“After her mother died, she hadn’t been so happy for a long time.”
“Even so, Bai Qiuran is not the one worthy of Jiang… my wife.”
At this moment, Bai Qiuran thought of Su Xiangxue, Tang Ruowei, everyone in Qingming Sword Sect, Li Jinyao who had ventured into the land of the gods with him, and the people and things of that era.
He believed that responsibility was more important than temporary love. To Jiang Lan, he could not take on the responsibility of her husband. He did not belong to this era. Someday he had to go back.
Being with Jiang Lan now was just an expedient measure due to the situation. If they became a real couple, did he really want Jiang Lan to wait for him for tens of thousands of years?
“If Little Lan really meets the man worthy of her love in the future, Bai Qiuran will also find a way to make it happen.”
“no, I can not.”
Xihe shook his head and said:
“You don’t understand, Little Lan will only have one marriage in her life. That’s the temperament she inherited from her mother, so I can only ask you to love her.”
“Why?”
Bai Qiuran asked unclearly:
“Goddess Xihe, you seem to be quite familiar with Little Lan’s family. Can you tell me something in detail?”
“There is nothing we can’t say. Above this sacred tree, Tian Ting and Di Shi can’t see or hear anything.”
Xihe looked at the sea of clouds surging outward from the tree, startled in a daze:
“My husband is called Dijun. He is a stalwart god who once ruled this world. He has the same character as you, he likes beauty, and I have many sisters, but at least, he loves me very much. I also love the ten children we had together. Because of our children, he became the god of the sun, but before him, the emperor who ruled the world was also a sun god, that is, Little Lan’s grandfather, and we all call him Emperor Yan .”
“In that case, your husband, Emperor Jun and Emperor Yan, were both heavenly emperors.”
Bai Qiuran asked:
“I don’t understand. In this case, shouldn’t Di Jun and Yan Di be deadly enemies?”
“No, Heavenly Emperor has a lifespan.”
After a pause, Xihe explained:
“The gods have an infinite lifespan, but once they become the emperor, over time, the power of this god will grow to its peak, and then it will gradually decline like the sun is fading to the west, and finally die of old age. So, if the Emperor of Heaven doesn’t want to die, he has no choice but to retreat from the throne in the end.”
“Have you ever thought of using a certain way to carry out hereditary inheritance?”
After asking this sentence, Bai Qiuran felt that he was a little gloomy.
“There is no way. To become the Emperor of Heaven, a god needs to be recognized by Heaven itself. It is only possible to be the strongest god of the age.”
Xihe replied with a face as usual:
“So, my husband’s throne was given to him by Emperor Yan, and after the renunciation, Emperor Yan also became the Southern Red Emperor at that time. So the relationship between our two families has always been good. Later, Emperor Yan died after tasting the herbs, but the godhood of pharmacology was inherited by his youngest daughter – Little Lan’s mother. Her name was Jingwei. The myth [Jingwei Filling the Sea] that was circulated on the earth at the time actually refers to her mother as a goddess who experienced nine deaths and got the authority of the sea.”
“Later, the Eastern Emperor Taiyi rose up and overthrew Emperor Jun’s ascension by bloody means, and massacred the family line of Emperor Yan and Emperor Jun. Little Lan was the only one left in Emperor Yan’s lineage, while you and your children are the only ones left in Emperor Jun’s lineage.”
Bai Qiuran followed Xihe’s words and said.
“In fact, it doesn’t stop there. Although the children of my sister, moon mother Changxi, were forced to combine, they still lived as Wangshu. The Emperor Yan also had a fire god Zhu Rong. After he became soft, he inherited the seat of Emperor Yan and became the Red Emperor of the Southern Sky.”
Xihe added.
“So the relationship was pretty good, and the relationship between you and Little Lan is just like a mother and daughter. I know that.”
Bai Qiuran asked again:
“But why do you say that Little Lan can only have one marriage in his life?”
“Because of her temperament, Little Lan inherited her mother’s stubbornness, and her mother inherited Emperor Yan’s stubbornness. This is like a curse in their blood.”
Xihe smiled bitterly:
“Whether it is Emperor Yan who ate a hundred herbs and died for the sake of the world and the common people, or her mother Jingwei surpassed the limit of life and death to obtain the divine power of the sea, it is this kind of stubbornness. Children of Emperor Yan’s line have only one partner in their lives. Jing Wei only fell in love with a man of the human race, and even died for him under the persecution of the Eastern Emperor Taiyi. Little Lan also inherited this trait. Maybe she did not fall in love with you now, but it is impossible for her to remarry.”
“So Eastern Emperor Taiyi knew this, that’s why he forced her to marry me.”
Bai Qiuran was a little upset when she heard this.
“Then did I harm her?”
“It’s her own decision to marry you. The authority of the Cang Sea is so terrible. The Eastern Emperor Taiyi is always going to force her to marry. It is better to marry you than to marry other gods.”
Xihe persuaded with all his heart:
“So, promise me, take good care of her, can you?”
Bai Qiuran thought hesitantly for a long time, and finally let out a sigh of relief, saying:
“Bai Qiuran will do his best.”
