Spring Farewell in Silk and Grace

The Celestial Realm has nine heavens, each with its own transformations, and beyond them lie three more worlds. The Underworld has eighteen levels of hell, each different from the next, and beneath them lies one more layer: purgatory. Above the Celestial Realm, beneath the bodhi tree, the Dao Ancestor smiled as he plucked a flower. A nine-tailed blue fox gave birth to a daughter named Qianjin. Just as Qianjin was about to celebrate her fiftieth-thousand birthday, she was forced into a calamity, and half of her divine consciousness was left behind in the mortal world. Between heaven and earth, among the countless living beings on this vast land, mortals all suffer. More than three thousand volumes of historical records, a mere forty million words, cannot capture the pain of parting from loved ones or save the countless lonely souls. The Five Barbarians ravaged China, and the Western Jin moved east. Prophecies emerged, and from the blue heavens to the Yellow Springs, a thousand sorrows fell away. In Hedong stands a cold mountain. On it lives a warmhearted young woman; at its foot arrives a man who can never be warmed. There is also a Peach Blossom Palace in Jiangnan, where a princess who kills without blinking waits devotedly for her prince consort to marry her and take her home. … The divine soul returns to its place. A phoenix has come to rest in Kunlun's peach grove. The fox is still dreaming. The fox awoke, but the phoenix was gone. Yet after many twists and turns, they will find each other again. The poem says: In spring, I sleep, unaware of dawn; everywhere, clothes come undone. The moon savors spring's beauty, while frost covers the cold plum blossoms.