[Mythology] Planting a Lotus in the Fire

[Announcement: The author is busy with real-life work at least until next year and cannot guarantee a regular update schedule. I feel awful leaving the story open to subscriptions, so I’ve already applied to make it free. I’ll update whenever I have time after it becomes free. Little cuties, don’t waste your nutrient solution! If you’ve subscribed, please leave a comment in the first chapter. I’ll send everyone a red envelope as compensation. I’m truly sorry!] Blurb: #Primordial Three Thousand Worlds Forum > General Discussion > *Anonymous: [Question] Everyone says the God of Slaughter has descended, but who remembers the Spirit Pearl in the Zixiao Palace? Nuwa, do you regret it?* *Answer from [Nuwa V]: 99,999, 9,999, 9.99 million beings agreed with this answer Thanks for the invitation. I just got out of the Underworld and am slacking off in Nuwa’s Palace. As for the matter at hand, the people who were supposed to look after the Pearl all vanished. Some ran away, some went into hibernation, and some fell in love. They dumped that giant hot potato on me and Yuqing. You might as well ask them if they regret it. Besides, as long as the Spirit Pearl is having fun, that’s all that matters. *View all 999,999+ comments *Answer from [Nezha V]: 99,999, 9,999, 9.99 million beings agreed with this answer In the Thousand Seven Hundred Slaughter Tribulation, no one could put up a fight. *Answer from [Spirit Pearl V]: 99,999, 9,999, 9.99 million beings agreed with this answer Got a problem with that? *Answer from [Bull Demon King V]: 99,999, 9,999, 9,999, 9.99 million beings agreed with this answer Questioner, run! [Reader’s Guide] 1. This is part of a series, filling in the Investiture of the Gods journey from the Spirit Pearl to Nezha, along with the everyday life of heavenly bureaucrats. It’s a short, slice-of-life story and won’t be long. 2. The author is a hardcore Nezha fan [important], with a 1,700-meter-tall filter. This story’s protagonist is completely no-CP [important again]. This is the author’s personal take on mythology, with countless original additions. The characters are all out of character to varying degrees, so please don’t read if that bothers you. 3. “Lotus Blossoms in Fire” is a Taoist term, though the phrase also appears in Confucian and Buddhist texts. The one-line blurb is taken from Li He’s “Song of the False Dragon’s Cry.” #Coming Soon: Original No-CP Story, [Quick Transmigration] Wandering Through My Homeland. Blurb: A thousand years pass, and I seek immortals in my homeland, where I meet you and watch your stunning dance. Cold light ripples over the river and moon. Returning to the mortal world, I walk the human realm once more, still young. * After coming off the production line, System 2107 bound itself to a young swordsman. Beneath a ginkgo tree, the swordsman drank alone. His green robe, leaf-carved sword, and wine accompanied his white hair and bright eyes in a desolate scene. After learning why the System had come, the swordsman sheathed his sword and sealed his wine away, then set off with the System on a new journey. And so In an ancient world where people believed there were no gods watching from above, evil bandits found the gates of the underworld flung open beneath their feet, and strange gods of the dead arrived with brushes and ledgers to judge their crimes; In a highly advanced interstellar world, humanity, stranded among the stars, saw someone outside their starship sweeping through the insectoid aliens with an obsolete cold weapon. The newcomer claimed to be a cultivator; In the ancient ruins of a Western fantasy world, the hero was powerless against an ancient god chanting a spell. Before the god could release its magic, the team’s bard recited an obscure poem: “The east wind at night lets a thousand flowers bloom, then blows them down, stars scattering like rain, ” After traveling through several worlds, the System looked at the mission list, complete at 100 percent, and asked in confusion, “Host, you seem very happy.” The swordsman laughed aloud. “When I look back upon the mortal realm, I see my homeland in all its mountains, rivers, moonlight, and breeze. How could that not soothe my loneliness?” #Check out the romance story by my dear friend Yi Bu Zhi, Five Thousand Days Until the Fall of the Kingdom. It’s so good: In the third month of the thirty-sixth year of Tianyou in the Great Yue dynasty, Northern Yan invaded the south, seizing cities and territory as it advanced, unstoppable. In the end, its army reached the capital and laid siege to Yujing. With the realm on the verge of collapse, the emperor hurriedly abdicated. The princes all tried to avoid taking the throne, until the nineteen-year-old Princess Shaoyi, Zhong Fanwei, ascended to the throne, becoming the only empress in 174 years. As the land trembled and the people panicked, almost no one in the realm had faith in this princess, whose name had barely been known in her early years. Yet on the day the new ruler was enthroned, an army arrived from the princess’s fief, defeated Northern Yan’s cavalry, and saved Yujing from danger. The empress stood atop the city wall, her calm gaze hidden beneath a twelve-strand imperial crown. Outside Yujing, the elite army she had built stood in solemn formation, weapons and armor gleaming. The world was left speechless. Where had this princess, exiled from the capital and banished to her fief years ago for angering her father, gotten her soldiers? And where had she gotten the food and money? The people of the realm had no idea that this was only the beginning of their surprises. Throughout her life, the empress reclaimed lost territory, drove out foreign invaders, strengthened the court, reformed corrupt policies, and ushered in an age of peace and prosperity. Her achievements were known as the Tian Sheng Restoration, a feat without equal. Later generations were just as baffled. Who had taught this empress, raised in the palace as a child with no right to enter the court, and nearly pushed forward to take the blame for the kingdom’s fall, how to command an army and govern a realm? No one knew the answer. The history books recorded only the empress’s cryptic words: “I received the teachings of the wise ancestors.” . When Zhong Fanwei was seven, she saw in a dream the future in which her country fell and her family was destroyed when she was twenty-two. With no one to turn to, she could only save herself. Fortunately, she had the aid of a treasure that could protect the realm, and the chance to dream of nine lifetimes. In those long dreams, emperors conquered the land and brought peace; generals made their names among the Qiang and Yi and returned victorious; members of the imperial clan cleared the clouds and restored peace; an empress dowager governed from behind the curtain, bringing peace to the nation; a ruler endured hardship to put down a rebellion; an emperor ushered in a new golden age and brought peace to the four seas; a princess spoke up for her people and country; a princess traveled a thousand miles to marry for peace and end a war; and a descendant of the imperial family rose from nothing to save the country... Across eight thousand miles of mountains and rivers and three hundred years of history, she accompanied the ancestors whose names would be remembered through the ages. She walked through their momentous lives and witnessed every rise and fall of the Great Yue dynasty since its founding. When she returned to the beginning, she was only seven years old, with a little over fourteen years until the fall of her country. The legends of her ancestors had come to an end. Her own legend would begin now. Theme: A lotus remains a lotus, even when it grows in the mud.