We wandered through the Heavenly Palace, passing by the many abodes of the gods. There was Li Jing’s pagoda, which he shrank and placed on his hand when we went out to capture unruly gods, but now functioned as a home for him and his son, Nezha. Mostly golden in colour, the pagoda had 12 storeys and gleamed in the light. The many dragons that were stationed on the roof acted as a lookout. Chang E turned her nose up at the palace.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Would the monkey be in there? What would he steal?”
“Li jing doesn’t have anything valuable at all,” Chang E scoffed. I wanted to find out how she knew that, but I thought of something else.
“Let’s try the treasury,” I told Chang E, and we flew there as quickly as we could. The treasury was located at the back of the Jade Emperor’s palace, and was guarded by two very fierce warriors with dark faces.
“Did you see a monkey pass by?” Chang E asked.
They shook their heads sternly.
“Even if we saw one, we would know,” the one on the left replied.
“He’s very sneaky. He moves as quick as lightning—”
“So I think we should search the treasure room, anyway,” Chang E interrupted. She had the most determined look on her face and that made her more attractive to me.
“We will accompany you,” both guards said in unison.
All of us stepped into the treasure room. Porcelain vases and bowls were placed on pedestals and it felt like some of the beautiful women in these vases were moving, or perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me. Jade bracelets and bagles were also on display as well. There were also drawers that, when opened, showed the Queen Mother’s bright blue kingfisher pins.
“They’d look good in your hair,” I whispered to Chang E. She sniffed, but there was a hint of a smile on her face. She didn’t push me away. This was a good sign.
“Don’t touch anything. They belong to the Queen Mother of the West,” the guards whispered. I huffed. Although the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother encouraged us not to lust after material possessions, there were palaces to house all of them. Why were so many of them here? We also strolled past piles of gold ingots and a stack of red lacquer bowls, but the monkey was nowhere to be found.
What did he want? More than anything in the world? We made more than a few rounds in the treasure room but everything was in place. Without further ado, we thanked the two guards and left. Our next destination was, well, it could be anywhere, but I saw that there was a plume of greyish smoke in the sky.
Chang E and I looked at each other. The only place that was burning was Laozi’s furnace.
The beautiful fairy and I raced towards the source of the smoke. As we did so, the Heavenly palace was covered in dark, sooty clouds. More immortals had ventured out from their abodes to see what was going on, and some of them, like us, were headed towards Laozi’s temple. His abode was a simple house with teal tiled roofs and a courtyard in the centre, Behind the courtyard was his main hall. That was where his treasure lay.
The treasure was a gold giant brazier and in it contained the elixir pills that took a thousand years to boil. Legend had said that these pills would grant true immortality and that one could not perish. The brazier’s iron door was open and out tumbled out the hot coals that the monkey had probably stuffed into it. Laozi was staring blankly at the floor, too shocked to comprehend what had happened. The deities who had arrived just after us were murmuring, with some shaking their heads.
“Are—are you all right?” I asked.
“That monkey will pay,” Chang E gritted her teeth.
“M—m—my p—pills…” Laozi trailed off. “They were almost done… and th—th—this ape…”
“Come, let’s report this to the Jade Emperor,” I said, hefting him up.
“The monkey will not get away with this,” Chang E growled as she helped me. This was going well. If we could spend more time together, then…who knew? Maybe Chang E would really see me as somebody. It took a while for Laozi to be able to walk properly, but soon, we ambled to the Jade Emperor’s office. The other immortals followed us. It seemed like everyone wanted to air their grievances, too.
Image by the awesome Shelley Low