Celestial Margin

“So you can be a trouble maker, Xuangui.”

Xuangui turned, surprised to see Fengxiao and Zhenlong standing behind him. He was on his way back to his domain after reporting the success of his nudge to Yulin, and the last two he expected to run into were the Last Ember and the Uncoiling Path.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Yulin’s interference I expected, since that reality was his, but you are quite the surprise,” Zhenlong continued, a toothy grin replacing his usual toothless smile. His pale eyes, soft like old jade, flicked to Xuangui with a brightness that could almost be mistaken for fondness and as usual, his dark hair was flowing loosely around his shoulders. Fengxiao by contrast, had her dark red hair up in a bun and her red eyes were hidden from view as she kept them closed. Xuangui appreciated it. 

“I was the one who asked him to intervene, given his dislike for descending. We had agreed on this plan long before the first soul was reincarnated.” Xuangui shrugged, turning to continue his walk. He wasn’t sure why Zhenlong was interested, or if he was only interested because Fengxiao had been. “After all, it is his former home, so any adjustment should be done with his consent.”

“Haha, you really are one to look out for,” Zhenlong continued and Xuangui was surprised to hear the pair following him. He stopped again, turning to look at the couple, whose expressions hadn’t changed. “But really? Tripping the girl into him?”

“It was enough. I simply needed to close the distance between them and let emotion do the rest,” Xuangui insisted, frowning as he noticed they weren’t leaving. “Did either of you need something?”

“No. Just curious.” Zhenlong admitted and the Remembering Shell sighed heavily. “You know Yulin won’t talk to me. For someone who can’t hold onto his emotions, he sure knows how to hold a grudge. It’s been eons, and yet he still holds that one descent against me.”

Zhenlong let out a dramatic sigh but Xuangui wasn’t buying the act. He may have been relatively new to the Margin, but he had learned to understand Zhenlong quickly. The Uncoiling Path usually did not talk this much, and if he was, it was because he was trying to learn something in a roundabout way. After all, he almost never gave straight answers, and preferred to watch others stumble over their words into the truth. 

But Xuangui had no care for it today.

“Then hopefully I have satiated your curiosity.” Xuangui started to turn away to reach his own domain before they could keep bothering him, but just as he did, he felt the chill run up his spine. Fengxiao had opened her eyes, and she was not in a good mood. 

“Where is Yuhe?” The Last Ember’s voice was calm, but anyone in the Margin knew to read her emotions from the aura she gave off than how she talked. Fengxiao was the closest the Margin got to having weather, and Xuangui knew he was now standing in the middle of the storm. Even Zhenlong’s grin had faded.

“I haven’t seen her. She was not with Yulin when I went to visit.”

“Did he say when she would be back?”

“No, he did not mention her at all.” Xuangui insisted, feeling relief as Fengxiao pouted and closed her eyes again. The oppressive feeling left the air around him, and he noticed as several over immortals nearby breathed quiet sighs of relief. “Perhaps she went on another descent to observe,”

“Maybe.” was Fengxiao’s soft reply and Xuangui decided to take advantage of the distraction. He willed himself back to his domain, wanting to escape the pair as quickly as possible. He didn’t dislike them, after all, Zhenlong was the only one beside Yuhe who could manage Fengxiao given her intense moods. Even now, he was likely trying to convince her back to her domain, making sweet promises of keeping her company. 

Xuangui settled into his couch, reclining as he closed his eyes. Going to the lower realms wasn’t as bad as Yulin had made it sound, but he had to admit, it was… disorienting. He had never descended, and had not known how his form would be compressed, but he had not imagined a turtle. It had taken him a good few minutes to figure out how to swim, but luckily, he still possessed all of his senses and thoughts as he worked his way to the edge of the lake to the soul’s current parents. 

Tripping Jie had been simple and once they began to embrace, Xuangui allowed the form to dissipate, returning him to the Margin. He could both see why Ascendants like Tianma and Luming had no issues with spending more time in lower realities than the Margin, and why ones like Yulin and Fengxiao despised leaving. He had no issue repeating the experience if needed, but… he was not eager to do it constantly. He preferred having his limbs back.

Xuangui allowed his body to sink deeper into the plush curve of the couch, arms draped over the sides, fingers twitching slightly with the lingering sensation of webbed movement. 

A turtle. Of all things.

Xuangui opened one eye, glancing over the many pools darting his domain. He preferred this; he could watch over all the realms, see their stories play out without needing to insert himself onto the stage. After all, most of them were fine; Shizi’s realm was approaching a disaster if it didn’t resolve itself in the next millenia or two, but considering how loud the Crown-of-Voices could be, there was no doubt he would ask for help when the time came. Yuhe’s was fine, Luming’s was far too chaotic to ever face disaster and Zhenlong’s had been stable since that first descent. 

Xuangui rolled onto his stomach, dragging his hand along the surface of the nearest pool. It had been a while since he checked in on his own reality.

The scene that appeared made Xuangui smile. It showed a dim mountain path under a silver dawn, mist curling over the ridges like slow-moving breath. At the edge of a pine-covered slope, an old woman and a child sat together beside a low fire, the smoke threading upward and vanishing into the rising light. The woman’s face was seamed with time, her eyes nearly lost behind the folds of age, but the qi swirling faintly around her was unmistakably cultivated, glowing a faint purple hue. The boy, bright-eyed and curious, was mimicking her breathing pattern, exhaling in short puffs of vapor, trying to draw qi inward the way she'd taught him.

Xuangui wondered how many years had passed since he ascended. He had not meant too, just as none of the other nine had; his intent had been to die and release his qi back into the world. Yet here he was, the first cultivator of his world to reach the Margin. How many eons would pass before another joined him? Before another would accidentally reach his level of ascension and join him in the Margin? 

He turned his hand slightly, the image shifting down the mountain slope, into a small village nestled beside a riverbed. A middle-aged man with a crooked back was tilling a field, pausing now and then to adjust a wooden brace along his arm. His qi flared subtly with each stroke of the hoe, not enough to draw attention, but Xuangui noted the rhythm of it. The energy he released would be returned to the world upon death, but in life, it nourished the soil beneath him. The air around the field shimmered with faint threads of growing qi; wild, feral, and yet subtly touched by the cultivator’s presence.

Xuangui left the image of the pool drift, lazily watching the various stories unfold before him. This is why people were more interesting than ideas. Why he preferred to pour his efforts into preserving individuals rather than institutions. The boy and the woman, the farmer with his brace; they were the measure of his success. 

A ripple of warmth moved through Xuangui’s domain and he looked up. Yuhe stood in front of him, calm and silent as ever. He smiled as he sat up, motioning for her to sit beside him. The Silent Wing did so quietly, glancing into the pool Xuangui had been watching. 

“Where?”

“My own. I was feeling a bit homesick,” Xuangui admitted, closing his eyes fully. “Fengxiao is looking for you.”

Yuhe huffed but said nothing else, and Xuangui didn’t try to force her to speak. He knew she just wanted to see if there was anything worth watching in his pools as she waited for Fengxiao to return to her domain. Once the Last Ember was gone, Yuhe would sneak over to Yulin’s domain to be with him. Xuangui’s was simply a good place to hide for a little while. 

“I could switch to another if you would like.”

“No,” Yuhe insisted, folding her legs as she leaned back into the couch. “I’ll be leaving soon.”

“I know.” Xuangui agreed, turning his attention back to the pool as he reopened his eyes. The scene had drifted to a busy city and the Remembering Shell could only smile.

So many stories. He couldn’t wait until someone arrived to share them with him.