Far north of Fujian province.

On the eighth day of the eighth month of the year of the Dragon.

...

Feng Xue watched the preparations with a serene gaze. Before him, a great wooden edifice on the east side of the main building was being decorated at beguiling speed, a worship altar erected in the middle. Poles were erected, and upon them, young maidens planted spring flowers to balance out the metal-heavy feng shui in the air. The calming smell of water lilies intermingled with the edgy scent of polishing oil and sharpened steel.

Servants busied themselves, arranging the decorations and preparing the items for the occasion. Feng Xue stood quietly at the entrance. To his left—on the door—hung two bows and a yin sword. A musky yang aura with an undertone of yin wafted of the objects. Behind him, deep within the main building, one could faintly hear the distressed moans of a woman suffering the throes of childbirth.

The father-to-be waited, staring silently at the proceedings in a bid to distract himself from the nervous fluttering in his stomach.

“Master,” a soft male voice called from the side. Feng Xue didn’t need to turn around, having long noticed the mortal servant walk up behind him, instead he beckoned to the eunuch to speak with a wave of his hand.

“An elder Taoist monk just arrived,” the servant said, bowing deeply in reverence. “They requested an audience with you, sire.”

“Oh,” Feng Xue made a sound of surprise, “did the virtuous teacher mention what is it they seek?”

“No, sire,” the eunuch said with a small shake of his head.

“They only requested the presence of the lord of the household and a place to acknowledge indebtedness to the Dao for journey mercy.”

Feng Xue fell silent for a moment.

“And how was this virtuous teacher received?” he asked.

“Pardon my brashness, sire, but Daoshi(1) awaits your arrival in meditation at the holy grounds,” the eunuch replied.

Feng Xue nodded in approval before turning his gaze to peer into the building, his face creasing into a contemplative frown.

“Except Yu’er and her maidservant, no one enters or leaves until I return,” he said after a momentary pause, before departing for the holy grounds.

With another deep bow, the eunuch replied. “This servant understands.”

...

A minute later, Feng Xue arrived at the holy grounds.

He looked around the garden to see an aged monk standing in solemn meditation before an ancient bonsai tree. A few meters away, a small stream flowed down a small waterfall hanging off the side of the hill. With a meek, trickling sound, it descended before winding its way east, curving teasingly around the bonsai in its path before disappearing down another waterfall.

The soothing, tranquil aura in the air did great wonders easing the inflamed feeling in Feng Xue’s guts. Under the influence of the balanced feng shui, the young patriarch calmed visibly.

Feng Xue stopped a few feet away from the meditating man and waited, opting not to disturb him. Though, he didn’t have to wait for long.

With his forearm raised in a respectful hold fist salute, the monk bowed to the bonsai tree before turning around to face Feng Xue. The monk walked with a hunched limp, his aged gaze squinted into a small slit, the whites of his eyes barely peeking out. His white eyebrows and bread extended well below his chin, his face was wrinkled, weathered by time like the bark of the bonsai behind him.

“May the Dao, protect and guide you, noble youth.” the elderly man said in a slow, amiable tone befitting of his stature.

“Thank you, Daoshi,” Feng Xue replied with a solemn bow.

“How may this lowly one be of assistance to you virtuous self?”

“Do not mind me, young one,” the old man said. “I am but one old vagrant far past his due date.”

“I was wandering the nearby hills when I noticed the formation of these strange clouds,” he said glancing up at the perfectly clear azure sky, “so I came here in search of the cause of this auspicious sign, in hopes of gaining enlightenment and progressing my understanding of the Great Dao.”

Feng Xue glanced skywards but failed to see anything.

“Forgive this lowly one for his stupidity, Daoshi,” Feng Xue said, sceptically turning back to face the older man, “but Feng Xue fails to understand your wise words.”

The elder man turned his gaze back to Feng Xue. For a split second, confusion seemed to appear on his face before clearing the next moment, his features brightening with a light of understanding.

“Ah, forgive this old man, young one,” the elderly man sighed with a rueful chuckle. “I have long reached my limits, there is only so much the heavenly Qi can do to prolong a mortal as ancient as I am. I keep forgetting these days. You must think I must be going senile.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Feng Xue quickly interjected

The elder chuckled at his words.

“Give me your hand, young one.”

Feng Xue pause, hesitating, casting a cautious gaze at the elder’s outstretched hand.

A moment later he gritted his teeth resolutely,  cautiously placing his hand in the elder’s outstretched hand. The older man chuckled lightly, amused at the sight.

The monk’s expression evened out a later moment as he cast a solemn gaze to the heavens. A split second later, his pupils shrunk until they completely disappeared.

Under Feng Xue’s astonished gaze, the shape of the monk’s irises warped, changing form from a perfectly round circle to a four-pointed star that rotated like a pinwheel. The reshaped Iris transitioned from its previous chocolate brown colour to an Icy-blue that glowed with a faint lustre.

Before the younger man could comment on the development he felt a surge of refined Qi, Xuan, pour into his meridian network. The flow crawled up into his eyes. He subconsciously tried to reject it, but the superior Xuan pushed through his own with disturbing ease.

A moment later, Feng Xue’s eyes transformed to mirror the monk’s eye, his pupils disappearing with his now star-shaped iris glowing in an icy blue light. Under the influence of the elder monk’s power, he saw what had been previously hidden from his sights.

Two koi-shaped clouds—one glowing whiter than the purer whites and the other a stormy mass of eternal darkness that sucked away the light around it—twirled around each other as they circled a pillar of azure light that extended from the ground into the sky.

Seven great grey-coloured rings covered in numerous azure runes rotated slowly, bloating out a large portion of the heavens with the pillar of light as their axis.

“A child favoured by the heavens is about to be born,” the monk said calmly as he let go of Feng Xue hand. The astonished gaze of the younger man still glowed with an icy-blue light even as his outstretched hand fell limply to his side.

“A child favoured by the heavens.” Feng Xue repeated dumbly. He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face a moment later.

But his expression was not one of pain or sorrow. There were only tears of joy to be shed.

"...My child?"

“Come along, noble youth,” the elder monk said sagely as he limped away, “it is a bad omen to delay a father from seeing his newborns. I do not need any bad karma at this point in my life.”

...

The two arrived at the courtyard and were welcomed solemnly. A gloomy aura hung in the air.

The originally overjoyed Feng Xue frowned. Something was wrong.

At the entrance, the main building where he originally stood was a young maiden. She was dressed in a white blouse with a blue wrap-around skirt. Her eyes rimmed red as she sobbed silently where she stood.

“Ju’er,” Feng Xue called to the girl, “what happened?”

“Master,” she looked up from her reverie sobbing out loud. She ran towards Feng Xue to fall to her knees before him, “the twins.”

“What happened?” Feng Xue impatiently asked again. He directed his senses into the main hall and heard the cries of a baby. He felt his heart grow cold as if dipped in a basin of cold water when he failed to hear the cries of the other child.

“The Dao is merciful,” the elderly monk said by Feng Xue side. He glanced at the younger man, disappointment marring his features. “You have been granted true sight, even if temporarily, to see the world as it truly is. So why are you still of such little faith?”

“Daoshi,” Feng Xue cried out falling to his knees, “please!”

The elder monk shook his head, sighing disappointedly.

“Take me to see the child.”

And under Feng Xue frantic guidance, the elder monk was ushered into the main hall, the sobbing maid trailing behind.

The trio entered into a large spacious room. On the other side of the room was a bed and upon it was a woman soullessly cradling a silent infant in her hands. By the side of the bed stood two midwives solemnly attending to a crying child in a cradle.

“Yu’er,” Feng Xue called to the woman on the bed.

“Lǎo gong(2),” the woman murmured as she turned to face Feng Xue. Her breathing was laboured and silent tears ran down her pale cheeks.

“Our son,” she said raising the child to Feng Xue. Feng Xue silently received the child, his expression darkening further as he failed to sense the child’s pulse or breathing.

With heavy snagging breaths, he turned to face the monk whose eyes had transformed again.

“Daoshi,”

“Fret not, young one,” the monk said his eyes reverting to normal as he received the infant from Feng Xue’s hands. “Your son is alright, his soul just hasn’t arrived yet.”

“His soul?”

“Patience, young one, he is almost here,” the monk said. With a limping gait, he walked towards the other child crying in the cradle. Gently, he laid the lifeless child in the cradle by its sibling, the crying child falling silent as if sensing the other’s arrival.

The monk took two steps back before performing a salute to the infants in the cradle, his forearms levelled with his right fist in his left palm.

"The Dao is merciful."

A moment later, the ambient Qi in the air stirred, turning visible as it twirled around the cradle. First gentle before growing domineering.

The Qi cyclone thickened, obscuring the infants from sight.

It was then Feng Xue felt it, the primordial weight in the air

Reality trembled as primordial entities as old as the world itself descended into the physical plane.