Sending the Tao Te Ching (Seeking Subscriptions! Seeking Monthly Votes!)

Lu Dongbin looked up and saw a figure drifting down amid flower petals dancing across the sky.

She sang softly and danced slowly in midair, her every pose impossibly enchanting.

It was White Peony, whom he had glimpsed earlier.

When she landed upon the flower stage, the people around her went even madder, showering down gold, silver, pearls, and treasures like rain.

The moment she reached the flower stage, it transformed into White Peonies swirling through the air. In an instant, the entire stage became an enormous white peony blossom.

And White Peony was like a fairy dancing within the flower.

As Lu Dongbin watched, he suddenly heard someone beside him say, "Flowers are more delicate than people, people more bewitching than flowers—a peerless beauty of the mortal world, beauty fit to topple a kingdom."

He turned to look, calling out in surprise and delight, "Dao Qing, what are you doing here?"

Ling Qing smiled at him. "I came to have a look at half of my disciple."

Lu Dongbin clapped him on the shoulder. "Disciple? You took on a disciple? Where is she? Hurry and bring her for me to see. As her uncle, I ought to give her a meeting gift no matter what."

Ling Qing tilted his chin toward White Peony on the stage. "There. The one below."

"Peony Fairy?" The smile vanished from Lu Dongbin's face. "How could you take her as your disciple? You now... and she is..."

Ling Qing asked, "What am I now? And what is she?"

Lu Dongbin fell silent.

Ling Qing pressed, "Is it that she wishes to become an immortal and therefore should not be mixing with a devil like me? Or that she should have become my sister-in-law and ought not become my disciple?"

Lu Dongbin shook his head.