Chapter 41: The Saga of Goddess Baizhi

She was a demon.

A free-roaming, silver-white dog demon, like snow.

She guarded a verdant mountain, a place where the beauty of the seasons endlessly cycled. In spring, flowers bloomed; in summer, sudden rains fell; autumn brought ripe fruits; and winter, tranquil snow. Everything felt intimate and natural.

Later, human settlements gradually gathered at the foot of the mountain. People cleared land, built homes, and eventually formed a small village.

From the mountain, the dog demon often watched them from afar. She observed them toil from dawn to dusk, saw their laughter and tears at weddings and funerals, and witnessed their journey through birth, aging, illness, and death.

Slowly, she learned to shapeshift. She donned rough cloth garments, replaced her four paws with straw sandals, and her fangs with human arms. Whispers spread among the people: a silver-haired demoness, with beast ears and a tail, lived in the mountain south of the village.

She named herself Baizhi, after a white, medicinal herb—a fragrant plant capable of healing, its color mirroring her fur. She believed it was a good name.

Then came the year of ceaseless downpours, when flash floods nearly submerged the village. She revealed her demonic power, saving everyone. From that day on, the villagers revered her as their mountain deity, calling her Goddess Baizhi.

As suns rose and moons set, generations aged and passed, yet their faith in her never wavered.

People offered her food and clothing, and in return, she protected their land, ensuring favorable weather and abundant harvests. Many years passed this way.

Until that day, a handsome youth with sharp, sword-like brows and starry eyes sought her out.

At the time, she was catching plump fish by a mountain stream. The youth appeared silently behind her.

The youth introduced himself as Zhao Mingyuan, the future emperor of Great Chu. He had heard the tales of Goddess Baizhi and had come specifically to visit the mysterious mountain deity.

Baizhi did not know what “Great Chu” was, nor what an “emperor” meant. So, the youth sat beside her and slowly began to explain.

He spoke of Great Chu’s vastness, stretching beyond endless mountain ranges, the nation of humankind.

A nation, he explained, was infinitely larger than the village below the mountain, home to countless people, and her mountain lay within its borders. The emperor, he concluded, was the one who governed this entire nation.

Baizhi understood. The youth was the future alpha wolf, and the pack he led was unbelievably immense.

That day, she listened spellbound, and the youth spoke with great delight. He described the splendor of the human world, the stark differences between the mortal realm and the mountains.

Every word sparked a longing in her heart. They sat by the murmuring stream, one speaking, one listening, until the sun dipped below the horizon.

“Sister Baizhi, I will come back to see you again.”

The youth departed, but he did not break his promise.

Days later, he returned to the mountain, bringing curious pastries from beyond the mountains, exquisite jewelry, and more endless stories.

From then on, he came and went, and she began to anticipate his arrival with each passing day.

One day, the youth returned empty-handed, without pastries, jewelry, or new stories. He simply said:

“Sister Baizhi, come down the mountain with me. There’s a temple fair in a nearby town, it’s incredibly lively. How about I take you to see it?”

She nodded in agreement.

It was the first time she had traveled so far. Though remote, the town buzzed like a dream: steaming street food, deafening gongs and drums, dragons dancing and leaping, and the warbling strains of opera.

The play was titled *The Hegemon King Bids Farewell to His Concubine*, a tragic tale of a hegemon king at his wit’s end, choosing to die by his own sword alongside his beloved concubine.

She could not understand the lyrics or the music, yet tears streamed down her face, her eyes swollen and red from weeping.

“Sister Baizhi, marry me.”

The youth suddenly spoke, his gaze burning with intensity:

“Marry me, and I will show you this human world every day. I am the emperor, above ten thousand people, and you will be my empress.

Trust me, I will never mistreat you, nor will I ever let you become the Yu Ji of that play. I will never be Xiang Yu; I will make Great Chu prosperous and flourishing, becoming a great monarch for generations.”

She gazed into the youth’s earnest eyes. She believed him, and her heart was stirred.

Thus, she left the green mountains with him and stepped into the imperial capital. The palaces were majestic, the markets bustling—everything was as vibrant and interesting as the youth had described.

He took her to meet the old emperor. The old man on the dragon throne merely glanced at her and declared:

“A Great Demon of the Nascent Soul stage as empress… Is this your answer sheet?”

“Good. You are stronger than your brothers. This throne is yours.”

And so, the youth replaced the aging emperor, becoming the new monarch. She, adorned in crimson, became his empress amidst city-wide celebrations and the harmonious clang of bells and drums. From then on, the mountains lost Goddess Baizhi, but Great Chu gained Empress Baizhi.

Life as an empress, however, was not as beautiful as Baizhi had imagined. The palace had countless rules; she had to learn human etiquette from scratch. As empress, she could not go out and play every day.

She complained to the emperor, and he gently comforted her:

“This is an empress’s duty, but it’s alright; I will be with you.”

With his companionship, she gradually became a dignified and virtuous empress. He, in turn, was lauded as a brilliant ruler for his effective governance.

Baizhi felt content. Although life was different from what she had imagined, she deeply loved the emperor, and he treated her exceptionally well. She yearned for these moments to last.

Until conflicts between the righteous and demonic paths began to escalate, Great Chu’s trade routes withered, and its national power gradually declined. The emperor’s brow was constantly furrowed, and her heart grew anxious alongside him.

One day, he sought her out:

“Sister Baizhi, I need to mine the mountain forests for resources to preserve Great Chu as it is now. Your mountain is rich in spiritual energy; perhaps it holds a spiritual stone vein. If we mine it, it might extend Great Chu’s destiny… Will you help me?”

She nodded. Though the mountain was important, it was not as precious as his smile.

The green mountain was excavated, and Great Chu regained its prosperity. The emperor’s name for his sagacity continued to spread.

But mountains would eventually be emptied. If trade routes were not revitalized, decline was only a matter of time.

She wanted to persuade him to be more accepting, to remind him that even if the nation’s power waned, she would still be by his side for the rest of their lives.

He, however, suddenly flared in anger:

“What do you know! You are a demon, with a long lifespan, able to cultivate by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth! But what about me? I can only cultivate the ancestral method of national destiny. If the nation declines, my cultivation speed will plummet!”

It was the first time he had ever yelled at her, but it would not be the last.

The emperor’s temper grew increasingly volatile. One day, he found her again:

“Sister Baizhi, I want to take concubines. Taking concubines can secure alliances and strengthen our position. Don’t worry, even if there are others, you will still be the one I love most.”

She agreed once more. Rather than monopolizing his presence, she feared seeing his troubled expression more. She also firmly believed that he still loved her, and no number of concubines could change that.

Yet, on the night she personally escorted the first concubine into his chambers, she hid alone in a corner of the palace wall and cried for a very long time.

The benefits of taking concubines were fleeting. Soon, the emperor once again fell into a state of anxiety and irritability.

Gradually, the emperor stopped confiding in her, while she became increasingly captivated by human opera, especially *The Hegemon King Bids Farewell to His Concubine*, which she watched again and again.

The capital, Yunjing, was often shrouded in mist, frequently dampening her silver-white fur. Previously, she hadn’t noticed it, but now it inexplicably reminded her of the clear skies in her mountain home.

‘But it was only a thought, after all. That mountain was long gone.’

Years flowed by like mist, until one day, he sought her out again, a long-lost light glinting in his eyes:

“Sister Baizhi, I have found a way to perpetually sustain the nation’s destiny! Help me one more time. You only need to pretend to be a demon empress who bewitches the kingdom—I am the emperor, and I must not ruin my reputation.”

The emperor had not called her “Sister Baizhi” in a long time. Her heart swelled with joy, and she immediately agreed.

From then on, she became the “demon empress” of folk legends, a figure who corrupted the court—this was not difficult, for she was a demon by nature. However, the world did not know she was a dog demon; they only spread tales of her as a fox demon.

Simultaneously, the emperor began taking concubines again, though this time, these concubines were not from noble families, but a group of “criminals.”

The emperor explained it thus:

“I am only killing criminals and those on the verge of death. Their deaths can bring prosperity and flourishing to Great Chu; it is worth it!”

Though she felt uneasy, she still chose to believe him, continuing to play the role of the kingdom’s bane, consigning “criminal concubines” to the Cold Palace. He, in turn, under the pretext of being “bewitched by the demon empress,” gradually neglected court affairs.

More and more people died. Her doubts deepened, yet she kept telling herself:

‘Trust him. He said he would never be Xiang Yu, that he would surely become a brilliant monarch.’

Until one day, four young maidens, demon slayers, burst into the opera house and told her:

“The emperor has been lying to you! He stopped loving you long ago! Wake up, please wake up!”

In a daze, she finally awoke. Tears streaming down her face, she agreed to help the maidens eradicate the emperor who had fallen into evil.

Before the emperor’s death, she ultimately could not bear it. Still clinging to a final thread of hope, she asked him in a trembling voice:

“Do you still love me? Do you still remember the *The Hegemon King Bids Farewell to His Concubine* we watched together all those years ago?”

The emperor cursed and denied, his eyes filled only with disgust and hatred.

And so, she personally drew her sword, bidding farewell to the man she had loved her entire life. Afterward, she wished to die by her own hand, like Yu Ji in the play, to follow her hegemon king.

The white-haired immortal stopped her, but she still destroyed her primordial spirit.

This was the life of Baizhi, the dog demon; the life of Goddess Baizhi.