Chapter 16: Meeting of the Four Great Divine

Daiyu and Nezha arrived in a forest clearing that was completely different than where she was before them. Shortly afterward, the portal closed behind them. They stood at an area that had grass all around them. There was a tree that fell over beside them that formed a perfect place to sit. The stump of the tree also marked a spot where one could sit.

Nezha called his spear in which he used to stab into the ground and turn it into a leaning post to perch while standing. Daiyu went and tied up her bag to her belt as she went and had a seat on the fallen tree.

Nezha broke the silence of the forest. “Now we wait for them to arrive. They should be here relatively soon.”

“Ok.”

Daiyu went and gave a good look at the teenage god that stood before her. He smiled as he watched her looking at him. Nezha himself blushed a bit.

“You are attracted to me?” he asked.

“Well ... not as much as I felt when I was younger. I admit I do feel a wave of nostalgia when I look at you, though. I guess I am still trying to get my feelings in order. I am sorry I did not mean to...”

“I am not insulted, Daiyu,” Nezha said with a laugh. “I am sorry, though, but I don’t feel that way in turn. You are good company, though.”

She nodded, “It’s ok; it was just young attraction for me.”

He nodded as well. “If you have a thing for gods, trust me, there are some single bachelors right now that are always looking for a mortal for a mate.”

“Really? ... Why?”

“For simple reasons, one, they have lost the ones they love and searching for someone to take that place. Another reason is that mortals have short life spans. Hundred years for you is a speck of time for us. We enjoy our time with you through your life and move on afterward. I know Taweret, for example, has married and taken on so many suitors during her whole time that she lost count. Tiamat is another that is happy to take a mate. The Dragons like humans. I ... well, I might need a break for a few decades. Some of us immortals are just real party animals when you really think about it.”

She took a look at the surrounding environment again. Trees were abounding them. Some areas were sealed entirely from getting through at the edge of the forest, clearing the brush was so thick. The setting was pretty with the smell of trees, just like she lived in the cabin with Shin Yi.

“So tell me about you,” she continued the conversation. “I know the story about you fought Li Jing, but what happened after that?”

He shifted his stance as he explained, “So long ago ... It is difficult to remember everything. Yes, I fought Li Jing, and he had help from Randeng Daoren. I managed to subdue Randeng Daoren, but the combined force of both of them was too much for me. I was forced to retreat from the fight. I never returned to fight them after that, but I became a traveler helping those every once in a while with their travels ... like you. Cataclysm was almost the end of me. The Deities felt that I was too ‘young’ even though I was the same age as them. I stated my protests, but I decided to go ahead and stay behind on Earth while they fought and died going against Cataclysm. I joined the Coalition of Deities and help in the search of the Lintarsha shards like everyone else. To be honest, I wish I did fight the great battle, but on the other hand, I might not be here helping you out. Lifeworks out that way, doesn’t it?”

She nodded, “Thank you for everything in helping me back there ten years ago. You have been a great self-defense instructor too.”

“That is what I do. I enjoy helping others. It is too bad that things are going in China the way things happened, but they will be alright in the end.” He pointed at her, “Did you improve your upper block? You were a little slow with those overhead blocks three years ago.”

She scratched the back of her head, “Well ... I did try to improve my fighting ability, but you were not there enough.”

Nezha nodded, “I agree, I should have been there more than I was, I was actu...”

He was interrupted by a sound from the edge of the clearing as a large animal came slowly towards it.

“Sounds like they are coming ... do not be afraid Daiyu.”

A pair of large cat eyes appeared from the clearing as a large white tiger walked out of it. It was much larger than any typical tiger. The white, striped fur was a clear indicator of who he was.

“Baihu, it is good to see you,” Nezha greeted him. He walked on all fours as he reached the center of the clearing. He was not alarmed, seeing the two individuals before him.

Baihu’s tail twitched. “It is good to see you too, Nezha. Who is this ... mortal woman doing here?”

“She is a friend of mine, her name is Daiyu, and she needs to see Fenghuang.”

The tiger looked at Daiyu. “Well then, Daiyu, you are at the right place.”

“The four divine animals! You are the White Tiger of the West.”

Baihu nodded but didn’t smile. “You are correct, Daiyu.”

On another side of the clearing, there felt like a small tremor as the ground shook. The apparent footsteps followed them from their distance.

“That would be our big friend Xuanwu coming up,” Nezha explained. “She always likes to make a big appearance when humans are not around. She might get a little surprise when she sees you.”

Daiyu watched as a large silhouette appeared at the edge of the clearing. It was huge. Something that walked on two legs slowly was emerging from the bushes. It looked like she could push the very trees down just by leaning on them.

“Looks like she is using her in-between form. She always avoids using her regular tortoise form. I guess it makes her feel more ... intimidating.”

“Here comes Big-X here to rumble the forest down! Yeah!” she yelled. A large bipedal tortoise walked out of the clearing.

A large club slammed on the grass ground by the silhouette shaking the earth around them. Daiyu almost leaped from her seat.

Xuanwu walked out of the clearing. She stood at almost ten feet in height, with massive muscles that held a giant club in her hand that could crush a small house if she wanted to. She had a shell that protected the front part of her and her back like any typical tortoise. She was mainly walking armor that could take on an army with pure ease.

Daiyu’s eyes were wide open, gathering the sight of the impressive beast. She had feminine like features for her head. She had a small beak-like nose that stood out with yellow reptilian eyes. Her shell on her back had a blackish color symbolizing her being a black tortoise. Her underside belly was displayed to them. It was a hard tan-colored armor plate. Daiyu noted that she actually had breasts that were covered up by the underside armor plate. The plate itself even protruded to fit her breasts perfectly. She had a large tail behind her. It almost had a snake-like head at the tip of the tail that looked like it could be a third like hand. It looked like it could grab an object and throw it. The tail dragged behind her that she could wrap around herself if she wanted to. Her hands consisted of three fingers, with one serving as a thumb. The scales on her back lined up to her head to almost form spikes giving a slight appearance of hair. All in all, her skin was a green tarnish color that lined through her body and in the shell. The club she wielded was practically the size of a tree log crafted into almost a sizeable wooden bat with metal spikes protruding at the endpoint.

“Wow,” Daiyu added.

Xuanwu saw the human mortal and knew almost immediately that she was mortal. She backed up a bit with her club at the ready. “Ah! A human mortal!” She actually yelped. “What is she doing here?”

“Relax Xuanwu,” Baihu barked. “She is here to see Fenghuang.”

She lowered her club to the ground as she walked up to the center. She was no longer stomping the ground, creating her tremors as before instead walking at a more leisurely tempo and planting her ass on the ground by the fallen tree. As she sat down, she threw her club aside as it accidentally smashed into a tree, stripping some of its bark with a hard thump.

“Whoops!” She said as she looked at the club. “Didn’t mean to do that! Anyways, nice to meet you, human. What is your name?”

“Daiyu.”

“A wonderful name to have.”

Before more could be said, a familiar trail of fire began to appear above Daiyu. The flame trail could only symbolize one thing, and that was the fiery phoenix that was near. She saw the flame trail as it circled around the opening in the forest. A bird engulfed in flames was coming to land.

“Him and those fiery appearances,” Nezha added.

The large firebird that came to help Daiyu so long ago landed on the fallen tree as his flames extinguished, revealing the red bird that stood before them.

“Fenghuang!” Daiyu greeted with surprise.

The bird looked at her with one of his eyes, and you could see a smile appear on his beak. “Well, there you are. Nezha told me about you, Daiyu. It is good to see that you survived all the conflict to make it here eventually. How are you enjoying life?”

Daiyu had a look of anger. “Yeah. You are the one to ask such things. I came back a girl!”

Fenghuang almost chuckled, “Luck of the draw my human companion. I said you would come back to Earth I didn’t say which way. Most humans I bring back usually don’t remember their past lives. It helps in cases ... like this.”

“Ugh ... you know what it’s like when you look down and see that you have breasts and missing a penis, I think you will truly understand.”

“Hey!” Xuanwu interrupted. “I have breasts and a vagina too! There is nothing wrong with it; it’s how you use it. Besides my human mate didn’t have a problem with it.” She looked at the whole group and added, “His son is doing fine by the way.”

“You ... had a child with a human mortal?” Daiyu asked.

“Well, I did have some assistance from a certain goddess of fertility, but yes, I did. I got to admit I didn’t know if I was going to give birth to live young or lay an egg. Trust me, it gets weird at times.”

“It’s good to hear he is doing well,” Nezha commented. “I trust he takes up his mother’s side very well?”

Daiyu decided to drop the conversation and nodded as she turned her head to look at Baihu. She was shocked to see that he changed form to a bipedal white tiger. He was also large that could stand up at eight feet in height. He had muscles covered in white fur with black stripes. He wore a loincloth that covered his lower extremities.

All in all, he looked like a bipedal walking cat. His hands had five fingers with razor-sharp claws that could cut into the strongest of armor. Daiyu herself almost blushed to note his appearance as he looked like a fit man. He could lift a tree himself with pure ease. His tail was wrapped around his legs as he sat cross-legged.

“You have an in-between form too?” she asked.

“Of course,” Baihu replied.

Fenghuang decided to break up the small talk by getting to the point, “Any sign of our dragon?”

“Yeah, isn’t Qīnglóng supposed to show up?” Daiyu asked.

“Umm ... Qīnglóng doesn’t always show up for these meetings, Daiyu,” Xuanwu told her.

“Then,... , who is the fourth divine animal?”

“Actually Qīnglóng is the fourth divine animal of China, but we reached an agreement with the Coalition that a dragon is supposed to show rather than just Qīnglóng,” Fenghuang explained. “It is a random dragon chosen from the Coalition that shows up for these meetings.”

“You will note that human history and written information about us is often not always correct or skewed from the truth,” Baiho added.

“Yeah,” Xuanwu added. “They can’t even get my gender right. They think I am a male in the stories dealing with me.”

“Yeah, well, you do look like a man in human form, and your tortoise form gives no real clues to your gender either,” Nezha told her. “No wonder the humans think you are a guy.”

She balled her fist and hit the dirt below her. “Hey! That is not fair. My human form is screwed up due to my size. So what if I look like a six, seven-foot-tall muscle woman, still allows me to disguise myself as a man easily when I need to. Still, I think looking at me now; you can tell I am a woman.” She looked at the group “Should I lie on my back so you can get a good look at downstairs and know that I am who I say I am?”

Daiyu shook her head, “I get it, you’re a female.”

“I hear something,” said Baiho. “I believe our dragon is coming.”

Daiyu looked at the grass floor and could see a large winged creature overhead. She looked up to see a human-like dragon with wings was flying overhead and trying to come in for a landing.

“Wow,” she said. “My first dragon that I will ever get to see.” She stood up, looking at the sky. She could see a large silhouette of flying creature overhead as it was dropping altitude to land.

A loud voice boomed over the group. It was a voice that was reminiscent of a Hungarian accent that amazingly spoke Chinese very well.