Wei Zhiruo found herself quite at peace as she stepped inside the very first door in the gallery.

She knew she was entering something unexpected; surprising even for those people awaiting something to happen to her once she steps inside the seventh door, which with all the best considerations she had not taken. She couldn't find what the end of this matter would be once she was behind the closed doors, but right now, she wasn't too careful in her steps either way. Anyway, it wouldn't be boring, she could rest assured of that.

Many people in this hall had some expectations of her, as she was pretty much 'made aware of' – but, even in these forthcoming scenarios she would lie if she said she felt any responsibility over them. They were people she didn't know. As she had said, she was indifferent to her bones. Until she was dragged into the mire of ignoring but unable to ignore her pulsing conscience, she could gladly pass through the worst hit tragedy without turning a side-eye – she was, what was that word, yes, indifferent.

And because of this any sudden feelings originating too suddenly usually only made her alert or aware of some interference in her mood. Though she had not started cultivating yet, she knew it all too well what interference in the Sea of Consciousness amounted to. There were many Charming Creatures in the world, and many liked to seduce its prey through charm and grace, lulling them into security and then after playing with it till their hearts content - they showed their original faces. It was something very popular in the wild. Mesmerizing its prey through beauty, such creatures were the possessors of some of highest intelligence in their peers. Even more temperate and wise than a human being. As was made clear in the hall. But the Lady in White was no simple 'creature', she was too innocent, yet too beguiling for a seductress. Her only offence inside the audience hall had been to make herself more welcoming and agreeable, a trait many can see in their hosts when they make a call. And as such, she wasn't quite perturbed by this acquaintance. It would have been only harmful if the said well-wisher had secretly tried to pry some good-will from her. That not being the case, it was all quite innocent.  

She wasn't puzzled how she had found that woman pleasing to her eye, and worried for her; or rather came close to worrying for her. No, she was very clear of that Lady's charming manner and appearance. Neither was she flattered by the attention, nor displeased with the attack on her mind. If she really fell for it, she would even praise that White woman for being so ingeniously endowed with a gift in her charms and magic, which was as much a part of her as were a certain Blood-kins blood. In fact, after millennials of intermarriage with a race called 'Elves', which Wei Zhiruo had only heard about being talked about in books, a certain Askarse Clan of the Blood-kin had even adapted the inherent charm of the blood. Though learning it was quite difficult for someone not born in the Askarse clan, but it was never an impossibility. Wei Zhiruo would never blame someone for using their inherent advantages and strength. If she died, it was her own fault for being ignorant and weak.  

As soon as Wei Zhiruo stepped inside the ink like darkened room, she felt that attachment, the concern for that woman in white fade away in waves. 'A charm enchantment of a spirit clan, what kind of being, still unknown.'

Wei Zhiruo coursed through the corridor emerging in the blinding darkness, while filtering her understanding about the temple. Till now she had been constantly bombarded with new knowledge she had no inkling of, many customs and cultures that she was totally unaware about. If the "Common Land" could be accessed she would have gladly went in to make herself more adaptable in here. But the issue was that, with the many arrangements she had seen being made about for her, Wei Zhiruo's, sake - she couldn't access it, or else she might become the next example of leading the wolf into the house like her father. Wasn't he too pretty sure that his dear wife will keep the secret to himself, but what was the result? Once every secret came out in the open, the woman had ran back to her 'lover' and began the grand-plan of entering the "Common Land". There were many risks at this moment. Though this Temple might be safe from the prying eyes of the outside, who could tell whether the oracle of this temple himself didn't have a hand of his own? She wasn't sure, and she wouldn't alarm any creature as much as possible.

The whole corridor felt as blinding as a day with white snow all around and no colors to demark it from peripheral visions. But in here it was black snow in a blackened night, with no demarcating lines in the darkness. It wasn't threatening though, at this moment it was as safe as anywhere in the walls. But she could feel the heavy wheels turning somewhere, as if setting into motions some special mechanism that could start at any moment.

In these moments she usually would like nothing better but to find a semblance of that familiar running thread of reason and daunting emotion that made themselves known to her in her heart, when she recalled why she was striving so hard. She was made to wonder her own incongruity with the rest of the narrow, mildewed sinews of a distant past she never had a hand in, and dusty flakes of rolled gossamer, scattered remains of dead and dried spiders in their sepulchral cobwebs in here. The morose, daunting wanderings of her thought were unfiltered and quite impulsive of her. But she was still within her bounds. She wasn't flirting with unknown at risk of losing herself, of which she knew many walls in here were quite capable of achieving - her cognition of herself, especially.

Or perhaps her own scattered long hair, that fell just over her shoulder, almost sweeping those dusty floors that had seen no visitors in long, long epochs of degrading consciousness and now lay barren of any trace of life or vitality, while sweeping new traces on those floor had given her a right to leave some mark in these walls and as thus create memories. Memories were good. Memories were those edifices that embanked the halo of a person - without them, wouldn't she still remain the ignorant Wei Zhiruo made to walk on a set path that might end at someone's calling. Such humiliation tasted so astringent on her tongue on even these vague notions of that possible future, Wei Zhiruo didn't dare to dwell too much. 

But, even for her this corridor was too empty, and dry. Not even a bug, or animals owing their places in the last tier of hierarchy of consideration – not even their humbleness could be spotted running on walls, on floors or awaiting a visitor over a nook or corner. Only the small footprints she left behind could be seen through Wei Zhiruo's enhanced vision. 

It was all dead. As death could be baring in its coldness, its suddenness or in its full show of soundless timelessness. Everything in that harrowing narrow corridor, that kept getting smaller and smaller in its width and more silent as the time lapsed, and more stagnant than was imagined, growingly effacing the existent footsteps in its narrow contingent path.

Wei Zhiruo felt her eyes give away to light, little by little, in gradients and then suddenly drowning in a jerking darkness that was as dark as the darkest of abyss imagined. And then her footsteps forgot to echo in the four walled and narrow corridor. Then her senses gave way to any feelings, as if the wind that had passed in the beginning had been a fragment of her delirious imagination, and the air she had breathed was but a filament that existed in epochs so far separated from the moment of her present state, that it felt like a past life. She couldn't see, hear, feel or – no, her thoughts never gave way, she was as intact in that faculty. She remained as clear in that power as she had been bountifully obliged with while all of her senses worked together perfectly in harmony.

All this might have been a deterring force enough to create a strand of chaotic disbalance, or a desire for desperate release from such an enforced and faltering disability, or paralyzed by the  mysteriousness enough to raise a nervous weakness in the jumping pulses of vein or a sudden force in the steps – which she had no way to account for if she were any less of what she was – but, if viewed far separated from the countless layers of dark veils, her steps were still as unhurried, as motivated and as deliberate in their raising up and falling, in their falling and raising up that it appeared akin to the moment when she had just started on her journey. Counted in fixed intervals and echoing the same rhythm as was echoed in the earlier wide opening of the chamber, they maintained a strain of quietude.

Wei Zhiruo didn't feel it in herself, but her steps had continued as directed by her thoughts. Though her mind, now completely suspended in the air, giving instructions but never aware of its efficaciousness, or whether she had travelled enough, or travelled long enough to tire her steps and taut her stretched muscles – nothing was presented to her mind clearly, but her steps didn't necessitate a little hesitant stop as they kept a calculated rhythm as if, in actuality they had never lost the precious contact between the mind and the body. But there was still this constant sense of time slipping by as if in decades.

This state wasn't long though, as she soon found even her air cut short. Her heart beat wildly, desperately pumping blood and her lungs stretched for a bout of breath, finding nothing lengthened the wait a little longer in its painful, agonizing struggle. If she had been a mortal, or an immortal in the early steps of cultivation – this moment would be her calling, her end to a journey that she couldn't make out the meaning of.

But since she was neither of those, her roots being cut off from its mortal weaknesses, completely molding her body into a body of chaos of a well-awakened blood-kin, she simply felt gripping pain like needles piercing every bit of her skin, the agonizing alarm of her lungs and heart stretching to their limits – which she had now started to feel anew, as her feet and her skin and limbs were once again connected to her at the most embarrassing moments.

She was now crowded in a desperate corner that made it difficult for even her small body to pass through the two parallel walls. But she squeezed through, as if she was adamant on breaking her bones. It was like fitting an elephant inside the ant-hill, yet the possibility of this impossibility didn't stop her struggle. She kept on nudging, pushing and angling her body till she found herself so forcefully squeezed, with two stones increasingly crushing her from both fronts, that she could no longer go on.

Should she have stopped at this moment and thought about a retreats if that was even possible or, perhaps her own death, her end in these walls smelling like many animals have pissed on for ages and that foul smell had penetrated the very center of these rocks? But never minding the trauma to her nose, her whole attempt was like seeking death, a suicidal march that was so brave and firm in what it sought. Or equally idiotic. It was a matter of perspective. And hers didn't want her stepping on some traps too early. And so she was quite clear that this wasn't even the worst that could happen here. Her death wasn't the worst that could happen in the world. As such, all was pretty well.

Again amongst these walls so far removed from the earlier dreams were so starkly contrasted that, one would feel lost in the bewildering distance. Why was she here? To trouble her soul with pain and anguish and be pressed into a human paste by two rocks? She didn't want to own that Temple Palace that deeply - did she? She, in fact had never desired anything very deeply so this was never an exception. So what was she doing so foolishly getting into things that were no matter of concern to her, had no connection to her in the wide stretch of imagination?

No, she wasn't bored enough to seek death. But she had a rare tingling in the back of her mind that what she did might very well be a part of her own future. And the owner of this Temple Hall could never, should never be anyone else than herself!

Her instinct's were rubbing it on her. And she never believed in anything else as she did on them. And now that she was here, she wasn't too concerned with death. That was one constant companion she had no complains about.

She had been more or so pressed to her last breath in many moments even before her actual death in the past life. She had been parrying with its tantalizing smell, its dearth of hope, its always squeezing grip and fear – she had known that emotion so very well, so very well was she acquainted with its cutting edges and grinding, squeezing and burning of her mind and soul – her mind had found a strange tilt and actually began to turn it into a rush of dopamine she could enjoy and feel her ever present existence more densely through, like gazing at a mirror, or more poetically, like Narcissus gazing at his shadow in the lake water.

It was these moments when she silently walked so close to death on her initiative that she felt awakened, cool and so fresh as if laying amidst freshly mowed grass, wafting off astringent smell and with few jars of pressed wine left to ferment, tantalizing its visitor in a languid reverie near her. She could feel her heart jumping anew. And if she chanced upon a mirror, she could admire that glint that floated over her stagnant eyes. She did not turn delirious though; she was more of that matter awakened in those kind of moments, more human than she could ever be.

Wei Zhiruo felt her lungs giving way, her bones crushing, herself running out of air – with no light, no touch to feel secure, as she had once again found herself suspended in thought with no real touch attached, except the gravity of pain in her body that did reach her brain in tumultuous waves rolling and wreaking down her body and mind.

But it was not long, before she was quite free of any ailment once more.

Almost as close as that statement could be true. It was very similar to falling and climbing a cliff constantly. The frequent changes in her mind and soul had left her spirits drained and body wanting rest.  Which she wasn't going to get in this moment, or the next. Wei Zhiruo sighed as she straightened her body.

She looked quite at ease though, not giving away her tiredness. Her eyes flitted through the cave that opened to her view. The concrete floor being solid rock, with no cracks, polished as if by continuous wear and tear under people feet. The age had not left any trace apart from that over the magnificently arching naturally formed cave.

In the midst of which lay– with the overarching stoned walls covering it in shelter, and some weeds and trees taking root in cracks and corners - inside the cave, bubbling in its cheer and mirth, a spring, pooling in a square pool like structure made of white marble, carved elegantly with swirling patterns of vines and flowers, with few golden pitchers stacked nearby to fetch water.

She took a deeper look at that place for a while then moved towards the two small stools and table placed quite adjacent to the spring, supporting a teapot and some overturned porcelain cups.

Time had not touched these articles for some while now, as one could see the trace of the spilled tea-water from the overturned cup as it laid splayed on the wooden table, and several scattered Go-pieces with no board in sight.

Wei Zhiruo took in all these small details but never took a step from the place she stood at. She was on alert of any change that might take her by surprise, her eyes prowling each corner looking for any signal to launch herself at. She wasn't pleased by the sudden teleportation, but it had been one of the possibilities in her consideration, so she ignored the tingling in her broken bones, her distressed mind and soul and looked deeply through the traces.

Kept looking, obsessively, finding proofs whether by any chance the current state was a falsehood, or an illusion. But seeing everything so pristine, so still, so very like the state of chamber recalling the taste of death in its underlying state of quietness and its restless inquiry, she slovenly placed her raised hands close to her heart, as if to confirm if it were really performing its usual duty.

"Thump, thump"

It did go as usual, she was not dreaming, nor in an illusion. It was quite familiar sound, that thumping. After she had finally confirmed that she really reached her destinations, or somewhere in her journey at least, she eased down her shoulders.

Without any mortal injury, apart from some broken bones sticking awkwardly out of their positions and a lung overstretched, she was really unharmed. She run her eye through the calluses, and bruises which had formed on her body. She traced her palm over her aching ribcage to gauge the damage and finding things to be not too much out of hand - she once again turned her attention to her surroundings. She looked again at the black and white Go chess pieces and the overturned porcelain. The spring bubbled as cheeringly as before, the only sound that echoed in the cave.

After a long while of searching and probing, while she stood unmoving in her place, she found a place quite detached from elsewhere. It was a small hidden corner, shaded under vines of some wild plant that fell over it like a curtain, hiding a small opening behind itself. She had garnered its presence there through the shadows that fell so very unnaturally in that place. The cave had little light to serve her in her ponderings, as if it were night outside and a small crack had very gently allowed a moonlight ray to pierce through the heavily guarded walls. Not by that crack though, there it seemed a force was constantly eating away the moonlight.

Wei Zhiruo decisively took a deep breath and stepped over. Nothing happened. She tentatively took several steps, similarly, looking for any changes in the Formation – as she had long spotted the deep 'Killing Formation' running its course over the floor. She was really stepping in the tiger's den at this point.

But soon she found that none of her steps triggered any formation.

She had finally ascertained that the current formation was not the usual killing formation as well. As the 'Myriad steps Formation' that was laid out in the earlier corridor, it too was linked with a 'Grasping steps' trigger. These triggers were specifically designed as alerts. Any movement that was not in the calculation of the Array would trigger an alarm. But one must have a key to go past these type of formations without triggering any response. Wei Zhiruo tried to recall if the Lady in White had given her something. She took out the ring, and started inspecting it for runes. There really was something! Yes, it was the very insignia of the approval, that was now etched deeply over the dark obsidian, shining in the moonlight. This might have been the key to get through the corridor. That also meant, the style of construction, obstructions and trials had the same opening corridor as the one she had just past through.  

Like the many other formations, which she had experienced inside the corridor, as there were several convoluting ones intertwined so complexly that simply walking through it would be far wiser than trying to counterattack. It was not that she hadn't heard of that kind of formations in her study before– she was quite aware of the underlying principles – but it was because of this particularly, because of her insights in the 'Myriad Steps Formation' that she knew that she was stepping over some very sensitive Array formations that could trigger a 'Killing Array' at any moment. She hadn't taken any decisive step rather, simply bore through it, a very blunt strategy. But now that she had the key for entering it was a different matter altogether. But still, how she had triggered a 'Teleportation Array' before the calculated time, she wasn't too clear even by herself. She was quite busy maintaining her sanity at that point to take notice of any changes in her surroundings.

Wei Zhiruo reached the small opening she had found. Raising her hands, she removed the heavily falling vines and roots, revealing out a dark corridor, very similar to the one she had been in before. Without thinking about anything she took a sturdy step inside. Wei Zhiruo realized, as soon as she took that step, that she was being watched closely.

The penetrating gaze observed her each and every move. She sturdied her untoward mind and keenly noticed the directions. It was a gaze coming from some thirty miles away, somewhere from the depth of that corridor and reaching almost the end of her own peripheral vision. Still, after knowing that she was right under the nose of some very unwelcome host – her feet hadn't stopped even just for a while and had kept her a-going into the deeper folds of that corridor, deeper, farther and farther away from the open and moonlit space of the cave; till the dust-free smell changed once more into mildewed ones, with dust falling on her hair, falling on her shoulder in big snowy flakes; through it all her feet kept her a-moving and sturdy, and quite at peace.

The distance between her and her host was decreasing by each step. Finally, when she reached the mark of thirty mile – she stayed her feet and waited. She wasn't made to wait much longer. She heard a footstep echoing, as if silently answering her call for audience. Soon a black shadow came in front of her eyes and then –

Then the darkness melted away. The dust became something settled. The foul-smelling chambers were opened into an overreaching valley, the brooks breaking the eternal silence in its playful frolicking ways meandering about, mountain peaks surrounding the small valley in its arm heavily swarmed with cold and untouchable purity of white misty cloud – and the green, lush and breathtaking grass, carpeting her feet, with daffodils and wild yellow blossoms, and white blossoms too, all peeking through the lush grass being combed by gentle breeze. If her dream was synthetic, then now was an actuality. She was really present at a place that looked as pleasant as a merry nostalgic emotion evoking the greatest conviction of beauty.

"I felt you might like this space. Every tired traveler does. It looks like it is very much to your taste. It wasn't too a difficult a travel my child? But I can never be sure of that. I can only hope, the path you took, or more easily explained, the test left by my master was not difficult to go through? And the guards didn't make it difficult to go past the entrance?"

A kind old face looked down at the small girl, as she raised her neck to catch a glimpse of the haunch-backed, kindly looking man with his silver hair knotted on his head appropriately in the head crown. His wrinkled face, and crinkling eyes were as easy going as the breeze that swept through Wei Zhiruo's face. She gently curtseyed, bowing her hand raising a corner of her gown and falteringly bending her twig like knees.

"It wasn't Master. It was all in –kind order; though I wouldn't call it a test, if you could ask me. I stumbled over a lake and fell to this place, then walked in a corridor till I reached another one."

"Oh, that really sounds like a pretty nice adventure one could retell with some tea and cookies – you like sweets? Yes, fine or else we might have to make do with some freshly salted sardines and beans. Lets go! Little dear, let me lead you to my house and then we can talk all about what had happened outside, or about your little adventure. Come, come along. It's not that far. I see you're hurt as well?"

If the voice of that Lady in White was charming and soothing, appearing to be kindly and nice, then the voice of this old man had the careless worry in his voice that was simply heartwarming in its tone and truthfulness. And truer it rang in Wei Zhiruo's love starved ears as she sensitively took in the artlessness of that soul. She wasn't beguiled or charmed. Perhaps some people really were kind, and she might have found one of them here in deep trenches of mystery.

She was even a little startled to find that her feet had unconsciously followed the chirping old man, humming to his enquiries as they made their way past the blooming fields of lavender, and of many other neatly trimmed billowing farms of curling flowers, past the fields of many unknown herbs and flower fields, she followed as the old man trotted his way along the narrow stream flowing opposite the widely stretching fields.

"You like it here. Yes, you do. I can see it shining in your eyes. Here, I have spent amongst these valleys and flowers and mountain peaks, trekking, trimming hedges, hunting, and frolicking – there is not much you can do, you know, with few strangers coming to visit and many never returning once they do go out. My master for one, it has been epochs. Countless and he has not found his way back. But I am afraid, he must have simply gone and died somewhere if he hadn't even found it till now – and with you finding me here now too, it all tells he might have really fallen."

"No, no! My dear don't feel sorry for me, little one, or for him. My master he had always wanted to find what happened after death you know? The neverlands under the veil of death had always clutched his ever so gentle mind, you might wonder why he didn't lay his heavy hands on himself and throttled out of consciousness, ugly business however that is. But he was equally brave, as he was curious. Had there been a war in the Immortal realm since I – no, how could you know when I was brought in these inheritance place – no! my lovely, it would be more appropriate to ask if there had been any famous wars in the Immortal realm after the War of Gods and Demons? I remember it was some ten million years earlier that war occurred when I dwelt the realm of Pinglai? Yes, precisely! Not any common battles can take his life, he was a hard stubble, he used to say, more difficult to erase than a 'cockroach' though I never found of which creature he thought so highly of. Here, we are here. Do you see the smoke coming out? Yes, there is the home. And you might stay as long as you like - even forever if you can spare your time."

Hidden amongst the leaves of blooming trees and fruit laden ones, there was a trace of black smoke billowing out of the chimney, a very quaint looking cottage made up of stones and mud made itself apparent to two visitors. It was a well looking, homely and warm cottage. Prettily situated amongst fruit laden trees and homely front-garden with its many shrubberies and beans hanging in vine-lofts and pumpkins laying in their huge, ripened visage. There were many other berries in red and blacks, peeking through the trellis especially set for them. Few chickens cucked followed by feathery little chicks, and crows could be seen settled on the rooftop as if eyeing for a perfect time to launch and attack and carry one of it in its claws. There was even a small dirty pond beside the house, with ripples constantly forming and few fishes jumping playfully. It was a picturesque countryside house – without any pretense, in all its unbaked bricks, its stone and mud walls, with ivy climbing to its roof and covering much of the side walls and beautiful flower vines intertwined in those climbing ivy, peeking shyly in their lavender, or seldom, white hues.

"It's beautiful." It was Wei Zhiruo's heartfelt impression. She wasn't really pretending here. In fact, she found that when faced with those crinkled corners of the old man's eyes, it was tiring to put a front before those all-knowing depth. She hadn't felt the need to show her true emotions before people since a long way back. It was nice change though. She didn't shy away from it.

"I am glad you do like it; I am glad. Come, come inside. We can go to the back garden, and have our afternoon tea break, but before that, let me serve you some food? Bread, some goat milk cheese and curd, and a glass of milk, with eggs. Yes, children like to eat milk and eggs. Is it not so? Yes, come here. The kitchen is this way."

"Grandfather, it is really nice in here."

"Is that so? You will like it better after some warm food in your stomach. It might have been tough, my little adventurous friend. Come, take a seat. Make yourself as comfortable as home. I will warm you some milk."

"Can I help with something?"

"Oh no! that might not be needed. Take a seat, child, warm your feet in the fire or better go inside the other room – yes, that one, and freshen yourself up. You will find some clothes in the chamber besides the washing room, there might be some old clothes of your size, let me find those for you – if you are not uncomfortable wearing them that is. Yes, go up and wash yourself. Your grandma will be here soon. You can ask her once she is here if you might need something else. In the meantime, I can make some hot milk and fry some eggs for you."

"Thank you, grandpa. I don't mind." Wei Zhiruo gently removed the soggy wet shoes with dirt clinging to its soles and embroidered threads and freed her feet from two equally soggy socks or rather something akin to it used to wrap feet and keep it warm, which she had been donning.

She went a little closer to fire cracking in the grate, giving plentiful heat. She remained there for quite some while warming her frozen hands and feet, trying to reinstate the usual temperature in her blood. She didn't move into the cleaning room till she had unfrozen her limbs and blood had flown back into her check, blooming into two full blown blushes. By the time she was ready to clean herself, the busy old man had found some old clothes and prepared for her a warm bath. There still wasn't trace of any other occupant coming back in the house. The sun was still shining as brightly as ever outside the window. There were random birds breaking into birdsongs on heavily laden boughs as they chipped on the flesh of juicy red fruits on the go. The crow might have not received the chance to attack, and soon was altogether removed from any advances as soon as, from nowhere a black cat came around, posting her body over the mud wall fences standing as boundary walls for the cottage, licking its paw and then straightening its nose whiskers. It took great care in grooming itself, unhurriedly, with all the time in the world.

All of this and many such scenes full of vitality and solace, fell in the Wei Zhiruo's eyes as she warmed herself seated at not so far distance from the window which opened in the front yard. After she was done with the warming, she gratefully found the washing chamber and the things which had been prepared so kindly for her. She took a wash hastily as she didn't want the kind grandfather to wait long for her.

"You are done, come sit over the chair. You can reach it, or should I help you over. You can call me grandpa Shui, I am a field mouse. It comes as a surprise, right? I was already enlightened when master took me in - here your milk, just the right amount of warmth - and I grew up with him since. Your grandmother will be here soon, she might be on her way back already. Now tell me something about yourself, my little adventurer. Because its time I myself get acquainted with the kind guest who has graced my humble dwelling in so much of an unexpected surprise."

Two figures sat beside the newly refueled grate, with few fresh wood logs added in the burning embers. The table was a large, wooden table with no remarkable bearing, a very simple craft. And the chairs were heavy, girth-full, as if crafted by the same hands as the wooden table but a little more simpler in essence. But the supported crocheted table pieces, were made so elegantly from white fabric, laying under the woven basket for breads and cakes, gave it all a nice touch and comfortable look altogether lifting the appearance and brightening the room. As did the small vase with bright flowers tucked inside it adding color to the table. There were plates, and cutleries and chopsticks made of metal in a common holders as well as loaves of baked breads and cookies in tin boxes. There was a huge water jug, made of similar porcelain as the cups and crockeries, shaped like a pouting kettle but serving just to pour the porcelain cups with water, through its spout. Besides it laid mugs big enough to be held in both hands of Wei Zhiruo.

"I am Wei Zhiruo. I don't know who my parents are because I found out that my actual parents were not mine. Nor do I know anything about my linage, or the world to which I belong, and also – what grandpa Shui called, the Immortal realm. I was born among humans and you and the lady in white which I met after falling inside this pond were the only entities, I met that were not humans. She told me that I can cultivate. Though she appeared to behave as if I must know what cultivation already is, which only made me more puzzled, as I do not - I have never heard of it. She thought I had broken some enchantment, or an array when I stepped inside the Palace Temple."

"From mortal realm, is it? You said Temple Palace and Lady in white?"

"Yes, when I did fall inside the pond in my home, I was led through the stairs into a beautiful looking palace temple, it had statues of some men I couldn't recognized and empty seats and then there was another chamber with images of very sad women, and I was asked to enter one of the doors. But I didn't like to follow what she said so instead of entering the seventh, I stepped in the first one which I liked better. You won't think bad of me for not keeping my words, grandfather? I really didn't like the feeling of going inside the seventh door."

Wei Zhiruo took a sip and started to tell the man before her the details she could easily share without appearing out of ordinary – because she realized, the mouse-grandpa with his kindly eyes had also failed to realize that she was not human.

This was beginning to look strange. Because when she had recognized her bloodline in her past life it wasn't this easy. She had been constantly ostracized by human monks as some heathenish demon for a while, till she had finally gained an artifact that veiled her physique and then went to learn the "Seven Souls Eye Retention" to completely eliminate the fate of being recognized or divined. But at this moment, though she still understands "Seven Souls Eye Retention", but it will not hide her physique of non-human. There was no extra Artifact for that. She pondered on this for a while then left the rest for later consideration.

"Tell me something more of that Lady child? I am sorry to appear of no help here, but this space is nothing more than hereditary place for storing Inheritance from the Immortal Mingyue's Palace – the Seven Cloud Palace that specializes in Alchemy of mind. You appear here because you were found to be good enough to gain entrance and have a chance to inherit his legacy – which we will do with after we have made ourselves comfortable that is. I fail to understand how the inheritance land fell into a mortal realm and also inside a Temple palace? Interesting, there might have been some accidents we mouse-clan had been unaware of. It looks like a work for Grandpa Treasure hunting mouse. Let's us make a trip tomorrow after you have rested your full and ready to go on with humane enough comfort. And look there, she comes, my lady. Lovely as ever. Martha sweet, here's a friend joining us tonight – who has come from very far away."

"A visitor, dear? It has been ages since I saw a fresh face in these woods." A very kindly looking old face joined the table, placing a tray full of berries and juicy tomatoes full to its brim over the table, and moved to remove her cloak and travelling boots. She went gently about her things as she took a quick and probing but still kind look at Wei Zhiruo's face. "Lovely child, you are. And good one it seems. Is she here for Grandmaster's inheritance Li Shuishui? Finally, a face I like. It has been five hundred years since that impolite brat went away with the inheritance – it would have been better if Grandmaster had set some rules against such brats finding their way here, not very bright in mind too."

"This here, Zhiruo is my wife, my other half, Martha Sterling. You wouldn't have heard of that name or surname – she was also found by our master while we travelled through other realms."

"A chance meeting, little lady, that saved my life and placed me under the care of two great men of my life. I was so far from my home, it was a place I recall, called London, somewhere. I wasn't literate enough in my girlhood years, you see and didn't know a letter of any word. But I did make very good of myself even in those difficult times, I got many a gift when I worked for a kind lady who was a seamstress. She taught me a lot. And then one sudden night with a world-shattering storm, I was stranded to some far-off land of which I knew nothing off. I almost starved when your kind grandpa found me with his always twitching nose, dumped beside a kitchen dump in some mortal realm taken for a dirty beggar."

Wei Zhiruo listened and followed keenly as the woman twirled in her petticoat around the house setting things at places, straightening other delicate works, or pushing the burned wood into a better state to burn more fiercely in the grate. She finally sat on the only empty chair as she took a glass of hot milk served by her husband, whispering a gentle thanks, then prayed something over her food and started partaking in the delectable.

"It sounds a very sad adventure, Grandmother Martha."

"You can call me Martha dear; it sounds nicer. Though I have learned a lot of the new worlds and cultures but since my roots are different, I still find something familiar inside all the unfamiliarity. It will be difficult for your small head to wrap around that fact but take it as grandmas preferred title – yes dear, Martha will do. But what were you so engrossed with, old man, you looked pretty unsettled."

"Martha, Grandpa Shui was talking about how I came about here. There was a lady I met earlier who made me feel very good but then when I stepped inside another door, my impressions of her didn't feel good as earlier. That's why I didn't keep my words and went to a different door."

"Oh dear! It looks like a charm creature – that! It didn't do anything to harm you – here have this jam with that bread, freshly picked red fruits (a kind of spiritual fruit dear that you too can consume with your mortal body, in here we seldom make things with potent spiritual plants for daily usage) very nice in its taste, prepared by your grandmother Martha with her special recipe - it didn't do anything harmful to you, did it?"

"No, she was quite civil in her ways."

"Oh, a civil Charm Creature! Don't know much about those. Yes, go on and have some of the cakes too. They are freshly backed and will go finely with the milk. Shuishui, it looks like a major event. We should inform Grandpa Treasure hunting mouse. I am sure master has fallen if it has come to this that even the inheritance place was displaced and thrown over in such a disorder. A charm creature! Dear me, and in the peripherals of inheritance land too!"