Shi Qingxuan reached the height of his showmanship, the crowd really going out of control. He continued in the spiritual broadcasting array, "Well this is it, esteemed Lords and Ladies. To win the afterlife and to win this competition, one must be willing to die a thousand deaths and be reborn a thousand times. Please welcome and enjoy our glamorous, fabulous, dazzling, outrageous, exquisite, fascinating, seductive and finally legendary deities drag queens!"
The audience cheered and applauded madly; Shi Qingxuan retired gracefully, while all the lights dimmed, the whole temple becoming devoid of spiritual energy; each competitor would take over in their turn with their own spiritual powers for their presentations. So the noise carried on for a while in the dark, then subdued, everybody's breath hitching.
Suddenly a ray of light, as thin as a silk thread, shot from the back of the main stage. Then another. And another. Hundreds, thousands of spiritual light threads shot, then moved through the air, entangling to one another, then being weaved. Then a presence walked in, breathtakingly beautiful; it was the first queen, Mu Qing, as The Empress Si-Ling, the Goddess of the Silkworm.
And indeed his dress was expertly crafted of pure silk, in tones of red, oranges and purples like a wild sunset, reflecting the lights like it was spiritual silk; his makeup was exquisite, with arched eyebrows and sculpted cheekbones and lips, his hair up on a golden crown then flowing behind; Mu Qing was stunning, proud and noble, high and mighty as The Heavens.
The audience didn't know what to make of it; everything was just too numbing to their senses, its explosion of colours and Mu Qing's extremely alluring presentation, everyone was mesmerised. The judges applauded politely, arching their brows and nodding to one another; even The Guoshi and Hua Cheng were well impressed in spite of themselves.
The following was Feng Xin. His presence lacked the enthralling quality Mu Qing just served, and his dress wasn't that well-crafted; however his presentation with his spiritual powers left the audience in awe. Several red lanterns were lit in the air, as Feng Xin was representing San Shengmu, or Third Mother, The Goddess of Mount Hua and owner of the Magic Lotus Lantern, by the light of which all monsters could be kept at bay and all evil defeated.
Feng Xin's dress was deep indigo blue like a cloudless night, making his tall figure even taller. His face was Feng Xin's handsome face, his makeup not doing much to change it, but rather adding colour for a dreamy effect. His walk was a little stiff, but gracious.
Next one was Lang Qianqiu, as The Queen of the Tung T'Ing Lake who, one day swimming in the shape of a dolphin, was shot with an arrow, her life being saved by a compassionate man. With spiritual dolphins and fishes swimming in the air, Lang Qianqiu's dress was in a majestic pink gauze with a long trail, and an impressive crown of pearls, also didn't fail to stun the crowd.
Ming Guang, being mischievous, chose the tale of The Frog Princess, filling the temple with spiritual frogs jumping everywhere and startling the audience. However their movements were harmonious, and Ming Guang was elegantly dressed in bright green with golden beads looking like water droplets, truly looking like the Frog King's daughter, being worshipped where the Yangtze-kiang has come half-way on its course to the sea.
Then the temple had a fierce summer day's light, and millions of butterflies flew around; not Hua Cheng's wraith butterflies dreaded by many, but bright-coloured real looking ones. Ling Wen walked in solemnly, dressed in a yellow with black strokes dress, truly like a butterfly wing. This was the tale "The Butterfly's Revenge", happened to the magistrate Wang of the district of Ch'anh-Shan.
The crowd and judges applauded, their senses already overwhelmed by only half of the contestants, the switch of presentations with spiritual powers being too much for the brain to make any sense of it, being shut down; only the sense of dreaming carried on, with no beginning and no end. Everyone braced themselves for the next queens.
The stuff dreams are made of. 😍
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