The fated ones

Chapter 45

As feng jiu stepped in front of her entire family, complete with all four of her uncles and aunts along with zhe yan, the honorary bai, she noticed all their eyes gleaming with unshed tears. Smiling softly, she spoke, "please don't cry or I will cry too. You all know, I am an ugly crier and no one wants to see that today."

Kneeling down in front of her entire family, she bowed and greeted every single person before asking for their blessings for her marriage. As per the qingqui custom, bai zhi as the eldest of the family stepped up to give her their blessings and cover her face with the veil. But as he nudged her face up one last time to look at feng jiu, he saw a request in her eyes. Endeared at his granddaughter's compassionate heart, he gave a pleasant inclusive nod before calling out, "bai yi, zhe yan, bai zhen, come here, will you?" As the three puzzled high gods stepped forward, he continued, "our precious little xaio jiu has a request. She wants all four of us to place this veil on her. What do you think?" Bai zhi materialized crimson red veil, the same material as that of her dress, while the three high gods vigorously nodded their heads in affirmation. All four men spread out the veil, holding one corner each. Before placing the veil on her bowed head, they imbued the veil with their cultivations. Resultantly, three white nine-tailed foxes reminiscent of their immortal forms spread out on three sides while a regal golden phoenix spread its wings at the front end of the veil. In perfect synchronization, the four paternal figures of feng jiu's life placed the veil on her together.

While feng jiu was getting ready in qing qui, donghua began in taichen palace. After soaking in the divine healing spring of the lord of numinous treasures, donghua took hold of the wedding ensemble that Zhong lin had given him. Putting on the inner garment, he felt mo yuan and lian song outside his chamber doors. He knew why they had come but was amused that despite their not so noble motives, they still felt uncomfortable at coming inside his chambers. Calling out their names, he summoned them inside. Before they could utter a word, he commanded, "I know what motives led you to my door but you can forget all about those. Instead, if one of you would like to assist me with these wedding robes, i'll allow that." Deflated at their failed wishes of teasing and ribbing donghua before his wedding, both of them nodded. The depressed expressions of war god mo yuan was quite comical to witness in that instance and donghua took note of that as lian song stepped forward to assist him. Picking up the crimson inner robe made of the finest qingqui silk, he helped donghua into it and crossing it at the front, he secured the inner robe firmly into place with a tight knot.

Lian song then picked up the outer robe. He was amazed at the delicate gauzy nature of the robe. Donghua's outer robe was similar to bai feng jiu's with its fine dark ruby red embroidery and the nine-tailed fox intertwined with the foling flowers, amid the wreath surrounding it. Helping donghua into the robe, he tied it with a thin brocade belt interwoven with threads of pure gold. The belt was made in such a manner that it contained the exact same portion of design where it overlapped the robe underneath it. Securing the robe, lian song stepped behind donghua to admire the robe from its high golden collar, long flowing sleeves, and exquisite ruby red embroidery. It was then he gasped from the realization that characters were embedded inside the embroidery and these characters seemed to form words. On hearing lian song's gasp, mo yuan questioned, "what's wrong?" Pointing towards the robe, lian song explained the little detail he had noticed in the design on it. Mo yuan was also surprised at the cleverly hidden words. But when he looked at donghua, he found only an amused expression gracing his face.

"did you know about this?" He asked.

"I saw it when Zhong lin handed me the robes, hours earlier. I can see that this was xaio bai's doing. The words you see on the robe are the names she calls me and the confessions and promises she made to me. I am sure she must have done the exact same thing on her robes." Donghua answered as he felt excited at the prospect of discovering what she had written on her own robe.

Over his initial surprise, lian song sat him down to comb and bind his long silver hair into an ornate gold crown clasp. The hair clasp was used just to secure his flowing hair and not to bind them completely but still, it held the royal effect with it. Done with the wedding outfit, lian song stepped back, chuckling as he said, "you are ready now, for your wedding. I honestly never thought, I would say that sentence in reference to you."

"it's not complete, yet." Donghua stated as he materialized a blade into his hand. Mo yuan and lian song watched with rapt attention as he swiped his hand over the blade to change it into a long red foxtail with a white tip to it. Again donghua, swirled his hand on top of the tail as a nimble branch, fully laden with foling flowers wrapped itself around the tail, from top to bottom. With another swipe of his hand, a small, old arrowhead dangled itself from the same branch. They both watched in astonishment as donghua tied the red foxtail intertwined with the foling flowers and the dangling arrowhead from the brocade belt at his waist. As lian song looked up to ask him about the tail and the arrowhead, the expressionless face of donghua told him that he can ask but he definitely won't be getting an answer for it. While mo yuan knew the story behind the foxtail, he too was clueless about the arrowhead that hung proudly on donghua's waist. Though it was not hard to decipher that it was somehow related to feng jiu, he decided to let the matter rest for now and broach it some other time.

With the groom now ready, they exited the chambers and moved towards the front gate of tai chen palace. Outside the front gates stood a massive wedding procession. This was not an ordinary wedding procession even by the celestial standards. Dressed in the ancient royal robes of dark violet and gold, stood the 72 generals under dong hua's command during the prehistoric times. These 72 generals were the most formidable warriors of all the realms. When dong hua had started on his campaign to unify the realms, he had handpicked and cultivated all 72 of them with careful precision under his expert hand. Along with the generals, stood the ancient lords and ladies that had faithfully served under donghua's regime. After dong hua had retired to tai chen palace, his generals and most of his faithful court, had also sought seclusion in distant lands, unknown to the new generation.

The presence of these old comrades and retainers gave a pleasant shock to donghua. With an arched eyebrow, he faced Zhong lin, his question clear. Zhong lin bowed his head in reverence as he answered, "your majesty, I did not send invitations to your old generals or the lords present here because I did not know of their residence. The only general I invited was lord ming han. A few days after that, I started receiving inquiries from all of them. Since I couldn't refuse them or turn them away as per your majesty's standing instructions that they are always welcome, I briefed everyone on the details of the wedding. They came here early this morning and wish to be a part of your wedding procession."

Unaware Zhong lin didn't know that the one invitation that he had sent to ming han was accompanied by the news of the current happening of the sky kingdoms. After these generals heard the announcement donghua had made of his wedding and of feng jie's true standing as the queen of all living, they had already been enthused about meeting their empress. The invitation to ming han had just served as a medium to provide the place and time for it. The wedding procession had formed entirely by itself when the generals, lords, and ladies had arrived in such large numbers.

Donghua was honored at their still evident deference and veneration. Originally, he had opted not to take a large wedding entourage with him. Since the wedding was being organized according to qingqui culture, there was no custom mandating him to have a long line of the wedding procession. All the guests had been instructed to gather directly at the venue of the wedding. Only mo yuan, lian song, si ming, Zhong lin, and ye hua were to accompany him as the groom's entourage. But given the situation and his loyal guests' conviction, he agreed to their requests.

Accompanied by mo yuan and lian song on either side, with ye hua, si ming and Zhong lin behind him, and his ancient generals and lords bringing up the rear, donghua left tai chen palace for qingqui to receive his bride.