Little Pink

The soft chirping of birds and the warmth of the morning sunlight pulled Xiang Ling out of the depths of a dreamless sleep. She fluttered her eyes open and was greeted by the familiar sight of the ceiling of her bedroom in the Waterfall Cottage.

"You are finally awake."

The sudden unfamiliar voice had her sitting up on the bed with a jerk that made her body protest. Her gaze searched the room and landed on a little beast that was hovering near the widely opened window while looking straight at her.

Xiang Ling found herself at a complete loss for words as she stared at the creature. Her mind was struggling to understand exactly what sort of spirit/demon beast she was looking at. It looked like a caterpillar but a bright pink one with a huge round head and beautiful big eyes that had shimmers of different colors in them. Not only that but it also had wings - big and transparent.

"What in the five realms-"

Never in her lifetime of ten thousand years, did she ever see or hear about the existence of such a weird but cute creature, and yet, one was present right in front of her eyes.

She hurriedly climbed down from the bed and while keeping her distance from the creature, she quickly used a spell to assess it. Just like she thought, it was a spirit beast with a collected cultivation of three thousand years.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" She asked while looking at the spirit beast with suspicion-filled eyes. Even though she felt no negative aura from it, there was no denying that its sudden appearance inside her space was highly suspicious.

"Little Pink greets Immortal Xing. I'm a young spirit beast of the Divine Golden Peak and am here with an urgent message from the Heavenly Empress." The spirit beast answered while greeting Xiang Ling politely.

Divine Golden Peak?

Xiang Ling was surprised to know that she was looking at a treasure from the most sacred and forbidden place of the Heavenly Realm. Divine Golden Peak was the area in the entire Heavenly Realm that was only accessible to the Royal family and to no other Immortals or mortals, not even the High Immortals or the Elders of the Heavenly Realm were allowed to step inside the forbidden area of Divine Golden Peak. This place was known as the home of some of the rarest treasures that existed in the Five Realms.

Since Little Pink just said that it belonged to the Divine Golden Peak, then it was a rare spirit beast. But why would the Heavenly Empress send such a rare beast just to deliver a message to her?

Xiang Ling stared at the little creature, refusing to let her guard down just yet. "What message?" She asked.

"Immortal Xing, since you are here in the Mortal Realm, you might not know that the entire Heavenly Realm is in chaos at the moment."

This was news to Xiang Ling who had no clue about what could have caused this possible chaos in the powerful Realm of Immortals. "What happened?" She asked curiously.

Little Pink shook its head and let out a small sigh before answering, "After announcing your punishment, Her Majesty went to take a look at the Crown Prince only to find that he had gone missing."

Xiang Ling almost forgot to breathe and her eyes went wide in shock while she tried to digest the news. Her heart was beating fiercely as she asked, "Ho-how did he disappear?" She dreaded the answer but she still hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as she was thinking.

But the pitiful look that Little Pink gave her already answered her question even before it spoke. "For now, you are the one who's being blamed for His Highness' disappearance. The Heavenly Empress is beyond furious. If not for the fact that you are irreplaceable in the Celestial Realm for the time being, Her Majesty was ready to send you to the netherworld."

Xiang Ling wasn't sure if she should cry in frustration or heave a sigh of relief at the news. She started cursing herself silently for being present near the forbidden cultivation chamber of the Crown Prince when her Heavenly tribulation occurred. If not for her wrong location, the heavenly thunders wouldn't have landed in the forbidden area and affected the Crown Prince's Nirvana, nor would he have suddenly disappeared.

"Then what message has Her Majesty sent for me?" She asked with a dejected heart, knowing fully well that she would not be hearing anything pleasing.

Little Pink conjured three scrolls out of thin air and opened the big golden one first. As soon as the scroll opened, it turned into shining golden words that hovered in the air in front of Xiang Ling.

"Since you can't receive the death penalty because of your identity as the sole blue star in the five realms, Her Majesty has added some new conditions to your punishment in the Mortal Realm." Little Pink started explaining the content of the first scroll. "It is predicted that during the disturbance in Nirvana, His Highness the Crown Prince must have fallen into the Mortal Realm to face his life tribulation. Since you are already in the Mortal Realm, you are ordered to find the whereabouts of the Crown Prince and protect him until he completes his tribulation. Keeping this in mind, Her Majesty has decided to not seal your powers."

Xiang Ling stared at Little Pink with her mouth hanging open. She pointed her finger at herself as she asked, "Me? How... How am I going to find that... that... Crown Prince?"

Little Pink gave her a look that said - 'Not my problem.'

A sigh left Xiang Ling's lips as she accepted her fate with a dejected heart. She knew better than to oppose a direct order from the Heavenly Empress. If she wanted to keep access to her powers, she needed to find the Crown Prince of the Heaven Realm.

Pointing at the other two scrolls, she asked - "What about them?"