Chapter: Battle with Red Boy (V)
Now, Little Alligator Dragon was unwilling to take a post in Heaven.
Ao Tu advised him, "Ninth Younger Brother, you're young and hot-blooded. You don't know the advantages of these places."
Little Alligator Dragon said, "Being kept under someone's thumb and ordered about-what advantages could there be?"
Ao Tu said, "Take Tushita Palace, for instance. That is where the Supreme Dao Ancestor refines his pills. If you went there, even as a pot scrubber, the water you washed out would be holy water; as a fire tender, the ashes you raked out would be divine ashes. A single furnace brick from there fell to earth and became the eight-hundred-li Flaming Mountain where the Mighty Bull Demon King now lives. Think about it. Are those not advantages?"
Beside them, Mingniang's eyes filled with longing at his words.
For a river god's daughter like her, reaching Heaven was an opportunity she dreamed of day and night. Even serving as a palace maid would place her among Heaven's immortals, something no life in these muddy mortal waters could compare to. And to go to Tushita Palace-that was a blessing she dared not even imagine.
Yet Little Alligator Dragon said from beside her:
"Fifth Brother, even if Tushita Palace has a thousand advantages, I cannot go there."
Ao Tu said, "Why can't you?"
Little Alligator Dragon said:
"Fifth Brother, think about it. I can't even settle down here in the Black Water River. Would I be able to settle down in Tushita Palace? If I accidentally offended Taishang Laojun, that would only make things worse. Better to stay here in the Black Water River, free and unrestrained, with Mingniang for company."
As he spoke, Little Alligator Dragon looked at Mingniang.
Mingniang lowered her head, her hidden gaze full