Venerated Venomous Consort

Gu Xijiu was getting bored, so she patted Long Siye on the shoulder and reminded him, “Remember to notify me when you are about to achieve level ten.” Swiftly, she turned and disappeared.

A hundred leagues were locked in ice,

Whirling snow traveled far and wide,

The Great Wall, both inside and outside,

Was covered only in a vast expanse of white.

The entire river had come to rest,

The mountains were dancing with silver snakes,

The plateau hills were filled with wild elephants in white.

(Adapted from ‘Snow,’ To the tune of Chin Yuan Chun by Mao Zedong.)

The Firmament Stone was distraught, so it decided to read the poem to Gu Xijiu. “Master, take a look at this place. The land has been locked in ice for a year now. It cannot continue like that,” the Firmament Stone commented.

Gu Xijiu had a clear view from above. The entire world appeared to be in the ice age once again with a series of glacial episodes, filled with whirling snow and howling wind. The four seasons no longer existed. Every day, there was only winter.

The sky was overcast with dark clouds almost every day. They started to forget how warm they used to be under the sun. Every corner on earth was equally bitterly cold.

The frost damaged the crops. Throughout the year, there was no harvest at all. Many people from the three kingdoms started to starve. The government began to offer food aid from the granaries, but the temporary solution would not be able to solve the long-term problem.

If the situation remained unsolved, more than half of the people on earth would be starved to death within three years. Some places were plagued by violence from the famine victims.

“Master, you are The Lord. Your mood can easily affect the weather. All these people are your children. They adore you tremendously. Can you watch them as they die from the cold and hunger? Can you watch as the world slowly comes to an end? Master, you cannot go on like this,” the Firmament Stone remonstrated earnestly in her head.

Gu Xijiu pinched her lips into a thin line and said nothing. Her eyes were as dark as the clear night sky. The Firmament Stone had been grumbling on about the same topic every other day.

Those were the innocent, everyday people. She certainly did not want the world to be covered in ice and snow, but her heart was in a constant state of desolation as if a vast, deserted snow land. There was no way she could keep her spirit up.

“Master, you will be punished by God!” The Firmament Stone felt apprehensive about Gu Xijiu’s fate.

Gu Xijiu swung her sleeve to dismiss its concern. “I am not worried about the punishment.” She was not even worried about death, let alone the punishment.

As her Kung Fu had achieved an unbeatable level, her appearance slowly changed and she became more stunning. Her beauty was overwhelming. Every time she made an appearance in public, she would certainly create quite a stir. Many men were besotted and fell under the spell of her beauty.

Her beauty came as a shock to many women as well, but at the same time, they were a little unhappy about it when they saw their man being so swept away by her charm.

To save herself from unnecessary trouble, she started to wear a mask. The mask that she chose was a vile visage. Her beautiful body was completely covered under the huge piece of black cloth, so people could not tell her real gender or identity.

Since then, no one had ever fallen for her beauty again. Soon, she gradually enveloped herself in a shroud of mystery. There was a vein of immense melancholy in her character, so her friends would not get too close to her anymore. Her temperament was so cold that they were afraid to get any closer.

From a distance, two slipshod children could be seen walking a very long journey. They held onto each other to get warm. In their hands, there was a tiny rabbit. Desperately, they were looking for a shelter to get out of the wind and light up the wood so they could grill the meat.

The cold weather came as a torture for the rabbit too. It was thin and weak. It had been surviving solely under the roots of a tree in the thick snow.