Penglai.
Its towers and terraces were all gold and jade, its birds and beasts clad in pure white. Trees of pearl and jade grew in dense clusters, their blossoms and fruits all rich with flavor.
Since she had set foot on Penglai Immortal Island, merely admiring flowers and moonlight would do. That was all empty show. Eating her fill and eating well—that was the greatest gain of this journey.
By the pool stood fruit trees, their long branches laden with little red cherries.
She jumped up, reached out to pull down a branch, then opened her mouth and stripped it clean from end to end.
Then she gave it one last suck.
That was how eating truly had soul. After finishing the fruit, she went to drink from the immortal spring, draining a lotus pond over a dozen zhang wide. She crushed lotus seedpods and ate them like steamed buns, then dug up the lotus roots...
As the morning sun rose and the mist dispersed, Penglai began another day of idleness.
The immortals and gods who had just sobered up stood dumbstruck, blankly staring at bare branches, ponds turned into deep pits, and trembling little deer. Though all these were naturally growing, ownerless things, Penglai had never suffered such a calamity before. Which shameless creature had swept through like a plague of locusts?
Elsewhere.
A certain white dragon carried invitation cards as she searched for the great immortals' cave dwellings.
Fresh shoots sprouted from the fenced wall, and the wooden gate looked newly made. It appeared utterly ordinary, yet was actually concealed by a magic array. Bai Yujun stared for quite some time without finding where the plaque was.
"According to the address... I should not have come to the wrong place, right?"
She knocked lightly on the door.
After