Not allowed in principle!

Chen Wei's plan had two steps.

The spirit fruits on Flower-Fruit Mountain had recovered, and the overall situation was settled. All that remained was inventory and registration. He would leave this easy assignment, with its ready-made merit ripe for the picking, to Yang Niansan, letting her familiarize herself with the sights and customs of the lower realm.

As for the arduous business of visiting the Jade Pool and smoothing the way, that would inevitably take a great deal of persuasion.

It was a sacred retreat for the Heavenly Court's female immortals, with strict rules where the slightest misstep invited blame.

Going there meant playing the humble grandson. He and Ma Muzhi could handle that.

The arrangements were watertight.

He had given Yang Niansan plenty of face and generously handed over merit already there for the taking.

Any ordinary immortal official would have gone with the current, accepted the assignment with heartfelt gratitude, and descended to the lower realm.

Who could have guessed?

After hearing him out, Yang Niansan frowned slightly. "Lord Chen, I have long yearned to see the immortal sights of the Jade Pool. Might I accompany you there?"

Her words had barely fallen.

"My lord!" Ma Muzhi rose and cupped his hands. "Lord Yang is absolutely right! I am coarse by nature and clumsy of tongue. Dealing with the Jade Pool's female officials is precisely what I do worst. If I misspoke, I would needlessly damage our office's reputation. Tedious, rough work like counting fruit is my specialty! Leave Flower-Fruit Mountain to me. There will not be a single mishap!"

What a deputy-trimming his sails to the wind and fleeing before battle.

Chen Wei could see that Yang Niansan was brimming with enthusiasm, determined to join the excitement at the Jade Pool.

Scions of the powerful descended to gain experience chiefly for the novelty. Forcing her to stay away would only be a poor move.

An immortal aristocrat could simply be allowed to play as she pleased.

Perhaps her heaven-reaching connections might even prove useful at the Jade Pool?

With that thought, Chen Wei's mind cleared, and he immediately settled the matter. "Then we shall do as Lord Yang suggests. Lord Ma, descend at once to inventory the fruit. Lord Yang and I will proceed to the Jade Pool shortly. Meeting adjourned!"

With that, he turned to leave.

Ma Muzhi, as though granted a grand pardon, was even more eager to slip away.

"Wait!" Yang Niansan's clear voice rang out as she smilingly stopped the two departing immortals.

Chen Wei and Ma Muzhi both stiffened.

Yang Niansan extended a fair finger toward the three still-steaming Purple Bamboo Food Boxes, her face full of anticipation. "My lords, we have finished discussing business, but we have not finished the tangyuan. Eat them while they are hot, while they are hot."

"Oh dear, I nearly forgot. Thank you for reminding us, Lord Yang!" Chen Wei slowly turned back, smiling.

There was no escape.

A blessing bestowed by a high immortal had to be swallowed whole, even if it refused to go down.

The Heavenly Court's sea of clouds stretched vast and boundless.

An Auspicious Cloud rose from the Bright Hall and sped northwest toward the immortal realm of the Jade Pool.

In principle, setting foot in the Jade Pool was no easy matter for Chen Wei.

The Bright Hall oversaw the Heavenly Court's documents and records, while the Jade Pool managed the rolls of female immortals and the Heavenly Court's inner treasury.

Neither office answered to the other, and access was strictly controlled.

Under the regulations, he first had to submit an official document, have it reported up through successive levels, and await approval from a Jade Pool female official before he could enter for an audience.

Yet Yang Niansan assured him emphatically that no advance notice was necessary. They could simply go straight there.

Chen Wei privately considered this. An immortal second-generation really is useful. With someone backing you from above, the paperwork goes much faster.

It was hardly surprising that the Jade Pool was difficult to enter.

There were simply too many female immortals there. Without cumbersome procedures, male immortals would long since have trampled its threshold to pieces.

Chen Wei could not help recalling the Heavenly Court histories he had copied. According to the texts, the Jade Pool was the Queen Mother's sanctuary for secluded cultivation.

The Queen Mother had not attained the Dao from mortal flesh. At the dawn of creation, she had arisen from a Primordial Jade Stone formed from the condensed essence of heaven and earth. On the day the jade took human form, fragments shed from its edges became seven colored stones: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple.

The Seven-Colored Stones absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and after ten thousand years, finally transformed into seven female immortals.

They shared one root and one source, all born of jade.

From then on, the Queen Mother and the Seven Fairies called one another mother and daughters, wielding authority over the Jade Pool.

That was the origin of the Queen Mother and the Seven Fairies, told in only a few sparse lines in the histories.

As for the true story behind that ancient Dao lineage, no immortal dared investigate.

The Heavenly Court's waters ran deep. What the books recorded was often merely the surface the high immortals wished their fellows to see.

While he was pondering this-

"Lord Chen, we are here." Yang Niansan closed her folding fan and pointed into the distance.

The Auspicious Cloud descended.

The clouds and mist receded, and the view suddenly opened up.

Chen Wei looked up and marveled inwardly. What a blessed place!

The Jade Pool was not a single pond of immortal water, but an undulating expanse of immortal palaces. A long flight of white-jade steps reached straight into the clouds, flanked by dozens of golden pillars entwined with dragons. Glazed roof tiles glittered in the immortal radiance.

Spiritual mist curled between the palaces, and immortal cranes flew low.

The two immortals climbed the steps and reached the Jade Pool's main entrance.

Beneath the towering Heavenly Gate archway, two ranks of Gate-Guarding Heavenly Generals stood like statues, clad in silver armor and holding long halberds.

Their gazes flashed like lightning, their armor cold and forbidding.

At the sight of the approaching immortals, the heavenly generals immediately lowered their halberds in a cross to block the way and were about to challenge them.

"I have a token!" Yang Niansan casually drew a lustrous jade token from her sleeve and waved it before the heavenly generals.

A faint gleam flowed across the token.

Once the two ranks of silver-armored heavenly generals saw it clearly, they did not utter so much as a single question. In perfect unison, they withdrew their halberds and stood aside, opening a broad path.

Chen Wei took it all in, unable to conceal his inward shock.

No announcement was required, nor any verification of identity.

She merely showed a token, and the Jade Pool's heavenly generals gave way.

Such unrestricted privilege was beyond the reach of any ordinary scion of an immortal family.

After passing beneath the Heavenly Gate archway, Chen Wei fell half a step behind and ventured, "Lord Yang, what remarkable means you possess. You have truly opened my eyes. The Jade Pool is forbidden ground with strict rules, yet you come and go freely, and even the Gate-Guarding Heavenly Generals dare not ask a single question. I am truly impressed."

"That is nothing."

Yang Niansan gave a soft snort and raised her chin slightly. "It is only the Jade Pool. Even the Lingxiao Pal-"

Before she could finish-

Yang Niansan's expression abruptly changed. Apparently realizing something, she swallowed the rest of her words. "Never mind, never mind. We are here on the Star Lord's business. Let us finish the tribute register early and return to the office to report."

With that, she quickened her pace and headed deeper into the palace complex without looking back.

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart.

Chen Wei had heard her clearly. What sort of immortal could stroll through the Lingxiao Palace as leisurely as through her own back garden?

She strolled freely through the Holy Mother Temple on Mount Hua, passed unhindered through the Jade Pool, and came and went at will in the Lingxiao Palace.

Just what kind of mighty immortal was this ramshackle Censorate enshrining?

Could it be?

Niansan, Niansan! So that is it! Yang Niansan is the Holy Mother's...?

A flash of insight crossed Chen Wei's mind. Viewed that way, it explained why this young woman could freely enter and leave the Heavenly Court's forbidden grounds.

The Heavenly Laws had always been rigid and severe. Immortals were forbidden to harbor mortal desires, much less engage in romance.

Once private affection stirred, fate became unstable.

It could all too easily trigger a catastrophe across the Three Realms, leaving disaster in its wake for all living beings.

Those who defied the Heavenly Laws would, at the least, be stripped from the Immortal Register and cast into the mortal world. At worst, lightning tribulation would descend upon them, annihilating both spirit and soul.

But though the Heavenly Laws were rigid, those who administered them were not unyielding stones.

Everything, in the end, came with a "but."

In principle, such a thing was absolutely forbidden. But if principle nodded its tacit approval, no immortal remained forbidden from doing it.

As for which august personage constituted the principle capable of swaying the Heavenly Laws, one needed only to ponder their deepest workings to see it as clearly as a blazing fire.

The Great Heavenly Venerable had always lavished affection on Mount Hua's Third Holy Mother. The gods and buddhas throughout heaven tacitly understood the extent of that favor. The Mount Hua Luan Chariot exceeded the permitted ceremonial standards, with Fairy Scattering Flowers and Strongmen Clearing the Way, yet not one immortal in the Lingxiao Palace dared impeach her.

If Yang Niansan truly was the immortal lover to whom the Holy Mother had secretly given her heart, it would hardly be surprising for the Great Heavenly Venerable to keep one eye open and the other shut.

Not allowed in principle!

When even the supreme principle had already given tacit consent, what immortal would dare utter so much as half a word of refusal?

Having worked it out-

Chen Wei's mind cleared, and he sighed inwardly. Being a pretty face kept by a woman really is the better life!