The White Dragon's Struggle

The gates of the Dragon Palace of the Western Sea slowly swung open before me. Their heavy rumble was like the sigh of a giant beast waking, grinding through the dark waters. Carved from a single piece of ten-thousand-year-old cold crystal jade, these doors had once seemed to my younger self like an entrance to a splendid immortal paradise. Now, they looked more like a vast mouth slowly opening, bottomless and exhaling cold, stagnant currents. What rushed toward me was the scent of deep-sea silt, accumulated for countless ages and impervious to the sea’s cleansing, mingled with a sweet, fishy stench that was almost rotten, and impossible to describe.

I, Ao Lie, or rather, the newly appointed Bodhisattva Guangli, the Eightfold Heavenly Dragon, stood outside that familiar yet strange threshold. The brand-new Brocade Kasaya on my body was a gift from Spirit Mountain. Its golden threads shimmered in the faint light of the deep sea, while its heavy weight pressed down on my shoulders. The robe’s radiance looked so jarringly out of place in these dark waters, like a drop of boiling oil falling onto an icy surface.

“We respectfully welcome Bodhisattva Guangli, the Eightfold Heavenly Dragon, to the Dragon Palace of the Western Sea!”