Since he wanted to return with her after a year in the mortal realm had passed, there was not much time. As soon as they arrived at the palace, they had to bid farewell.
Taking her hands, An Hei gave her a smile. "Don’t worry. Since we are in the immortal realm now time will pass by slowly. I will already return today."
Ling Ling nodded. At this time, she did not know that she would see her mother and sister again soon as well so her thoughts were only on when she could reunite with her husband. When he had left, she turned to Xu Fu. "Madam Xu, my husband, he will not be in danger, will he?" She would have liked to ask An Hei but she did not want to worry him further.
Xu Fu pondered for a moment. The place that His Majesty wanted to go should not be guarded that tightly and with his skills, there should be no problems. The old injuries from his fight with Gang Jie had also healed by now after being nursed not only in the demon king’s palace but also for several years in the mortal realm. "I don’t think you need to worry. In any case, His Majesty is very strong. Previously, he only got injured because he was not alone and was worried that the other three and I would be taken captive and injured if he did not pull the attention onto himself. Now, he is going alone. What would the gods use against him in that case?"
Ling Ling couldn’t help but worry though. "He told me that the demons and the gods were not on amicable terms. Will they not try to hurt him?"
"Try as they may, they still can’t do it." Xu Fu laughed and then motioned to the side. "Never mind that. We have a few hours before His Majesty returns. You should use the time to have a look at the palace. This is where you will live in the future. You must be curious."
Even though Ling Ling was still ill-at-ease with the prospect of her husband venturing into his enemies’ territory, she could not deny that she indeed wanted to see more of this place. Thus, she nodded and then followed Xu Fu through the rooms, soon realizing that while this was not even the realm of the mortals, there were still quite a few similarities. In fact, had she not been told that this was the demon realm, she would have thought they had just traveled to a neighboring kingdom.
While Ling Ling explored her new surroundings, An Hei had made his way over to the realm of the gods. He stood on top of a mountain, looking down at a valley where several acres of trees stood in full bloom. The corners of his lips hooked up when he saw this place.
"You provoked me and made use of my concern for my people to injure me. I guess you could call this paying reparation." He chuckled and then changed his form into that of a snake, slithering down the mountain and into the valley below.
In this form, he could hardly be seen in the grass. Even if there was one of the gods nearby, they likely wouldn’t spot him. He wasn’t actually concerned about having a fight. In fact, he was sure that he could win against most of them. But … he had a wife now and sometime soon, they would even have a child together. Putting himself into entirely avoidable danger would be wrong if there was such an easy way to keep safe.
He slithered up until the first line of trees and then lay in the grass for a moment, surveying his surroundings. He still couldn’t see any of the gods but looking up to the branches of the trees, he could see the peaches of immortality hanging there. He stared at them for a while but finally did not go up to pluck one and instead slithered further into the garden. He was not quite sure but he felt as if he had heard that there were different peaches in this place. Some would grant you a longer life but not an immortal one. Considering the current circumstances, he had to make sure that he got the right kind. Otherwise, he might still lose Ling Ling in the future.
Making his way to the middle of the garden, he once again stopped to survey the peaches up above. Just as expected, there was a faint shimmer to them, showing that they were indeed different from the ones he had seen so far.
An Hei inwardly heaved a sigh of relief and then looked around again to ascertain whether anybody was there. Only when he had made sure did he slither up the tree, coiled around one of the branches, and plucked the fruit right off. He held it tight and then made his way back down. He did not stop on the ground and just continued to wave through the grass, slithering back the way he had come. Finally, he reached the edge of the forest.
Just when he wanted to slither up the mountain, he heard the cry of a bird. He stopped in his tracks and receded into the shadows, keeping his eyes on the sky. Soon enough, a large figure appeared and descended not far from him.
An Hei quietly waited. He didn’t think that this person would be able to spot him in his hiding place. This thought wasn’t wrong. The bird rushed toward the ground and changed back into his other form. Not quite unexpectedly, it was Gang Jie. An Hei narrowed his eyes and held back a hiss. He still remembered the humiliation from that day. Even though he had made that decision for his people and did not regret it, that didn’t mean that he was that easy to bully. This person had used the circumstances of that day against him and made their fight unfair. Now, would he still be able to do the same on this day as well?
An Hei silently followed Gang Jie when he entered the garden. He wasn’t quite sure what he might want here. In any case, Gang Jie was already immortal and if there had been any developments on that side, Xu Fu would have told him already. Most likely, he hadn’t come for any of the peaches anyway.
Just as An Hei had thought, Gang Jie walked through the garden without even bothering to look at the branches above his head. Instead, he seemed to be looking for somebody between the trees. It was quite clear that he seemed to want to meet somebody here.
Gang Jie finally arrived at the other side of the garden but still hadn’t found who he was looking for. He furrowed his brows and couldn’t help but call out. "Goddess Mei Huang?"
An Hei really wanted to laugh when there was no response. He turned into his other form, put the peach for Ling Ling away, and leaned against a tree. "Oh, king of the bird tribe, I am afraid you waiting here will be for naught. You are good enough to chase off an unwanted suitor but you are not good enough to become a welcome one yourself. Now, you are just like me: A person she will find a way to get rid of. Well, she will not need to look for long. I will do her the favor out of my own volition."
Gang Jie whirled around and stared at An Hei, his expression turning wrathful. "An Hei!" He could not even be bothered to use his title. Clearly, he hated him quite a bit.
An Hei just smiled serenely. At this point in time, he did not care about what Gang Jie had to say. It was enough to just get his revenge. Shaking his head at the king of the bird tribe, he finally lunged at him, the first hit immediately connecting. He gave a harrumph, feeling that this really was too easy. Was Gang Jie underestimating him after he had wrested an easy win from him the last time?
No matter what the reason was, An Hei did not intend to slow down and give him any chances. Since they were both here but nobody else had come, it should be safe to have this fight now. As long as it was just one person against the other, with nothing else to take into consideration, then he was sure that he could win.
Gang Jie seemed to realize the same. After taking another hit, he hurriedly retreated. "Even if you win this fight, the goddess Mei Huang still won’t agree to marry you."
"She would never agree to marry what she deems to be a demon." That much was for sure. But An Hei could care less. He had never really been interested in Mei Huang and had only wanted to court her for the sake of his people. Now, he had found somebody he could actually feel for. Why would he still care about Mei Huang at all? She wouldn’t have been willing to help anyway.
Gang Jie furrowed his brows when he saw that An Hei just agreed but wasn’t agitated in the slightest. He had hoped that if he managed to make him lose his calm, he would have a chance at winning. But now, that chance had passed by.
His gaze drifted from side to side and finally, he jumped off the ground, changing his form at once to take off. An Hei just smirked. Just like Gang Jie, he turned into his other form and curled around him as a snake, pulling him back to the ground. This kind of good opportunity, how could he let it fly away?
He curled around him more tightly, making it impossible for Gang Jie to flap his wings. Then, he bit his shoulder, hoping to make sure that this guy wouldn’t try to fly off again.
Gang Jie gave a cry and hurriedly changed back, hoping to use this smaller figure to escape. Unfortunately for him, An Hei had expected as much. He changed back as well and struck out, squarely hitting the king of the bird tribe in the chest.
The fight continued in a similar manner until Gang Jie had collapsed on the ground. An Hei stared at him and then looked around, trying to see if that goddess Mei Huang had still come after all. When he saw that they were still alone, he gave a humorless laugh. "You seem to be out of luck, king of the bird tribe. Well, I will not kill you here. If fate is on your side, I am sure that either that goddess Mei Huang or somebody else who cares about you will come to save you."
With those words, An Hei turned around and left. He did not care about what would happen with Gang Jie going forward. He had gotten his revenge for that fight but he did not intend to directly take this life. He had gotten a chance when he jumped down to the mortal realm and he had even managed to turn his life for the better by doing so and found himself a wife. Now, he would extend the same opportunity to Gang Jie. Whether that man was able to take it or not was no longer his concern.
With this, An Hei returned to the snake tribe’s palace, handing the peach of immortality to Ling Ling.
The mortal woman did not know what this was about but since it was given by her husband, she ate it without question. For a moment, there was a feeling of weightlessness as if all burden was taken off her shoulders. Then, life seemed to resume as normal but, in fact, she had turned into an immortal person as well so that she would be able to share eternity with An Hei just like the two of them had promised each other.
Thus Ensylfera, the famous storyteller of the capital city, spoke:
"This is the end of the tale of An Hei, the snake king who turned misfortune into fortune and found a wife in the mortal realm. It is also the end of the tale of his wife Yang Ling Ling who fell in love with a stranger who she would finally spend eternity with.
In the years to come, those two actually returned to the mortal realm where they lived in the house that Xu Fu had chosen. Since it was a little further from Kishin’s southern capital Sandin they hardly met with people and thus never gave away their secret. But it was still close enough for Madam Yang and her older daughter Jin Jin to visit. Only when Madam Yang had died and Jin Jin’s children themselves had long become adults that were chasing their own children around the courtyard of the Yangs’ estate did they return to the land of the snake people where they henceforth lived as king and queen.
As for the war between the gods and the demons, that would not happen for a long time. And albeit it is an important chapter in the history of the demons, its end had much less to do with the snake tribe, its king, and his wife than one might expect and more with the valiant effort of another member of the demon race and the fruits of a seed that had been planted long, long before either Yang Lin Ling or even An Hei had been born."
Despite this story being a bit short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was really well done.
I'm glad you liked it!
And the spin-off will probably be a bit longer anyway.
I can say that I enjoy the story. Thanks for sharing it here. Looking forward to read more of your works ^^