The water god finally stops chanting his spell and moves closer to Qian Lan. Grabbing her by the hand, he pulls her towards his chest. Just as Jiang was about to snap his fingers; to return them to the surface, Qian Lan breaks free of the water gods hold and places both her hands on his cheeks.
"Jiang, look at me."
Finally staring into each other's eyes.
"You need to free Julong. You can't continue to punish him when you know he was also a victim of what Chenguang did. Can you continue to sleep every night knowing you're punishing someone so loyal to you for being loyal?"
The water god grabs Qian Lan's hands and removes it from his face. Quickly moving his gaze away from Qian Lan's passionate stares, he looks to Julong.
"The chains are just plain chains. With no incantation to empower it, someone of Julong's abilities could easily break from it."
"Then…...why hasn't he left in the past two hundred years?"
Qian Lan walks over to Julong who was cowering away from the water god.
"Julong, is what Jiang say true? If so, why didn't you just leave? The chains aren't even binding you to this place."
Julong whimpers and whispers.
"Because this is my punishment for hurting master."
At that moment, Qian Lan finally understood why Julong continued to stay chained up. The water god wasn't the only one that felt responsible for the death of his first wife. Julong probably felt the worse seeing as he was the one to send her off. Qian Lan sighs and pities the creature. Falling to her knees Qian Lan quickly hugs Julong.
"Julong, you did nothing wrong. You've repented for the past two centuries already. Please forgive yourself and free yourself."
"I…I can't. I betrayed master and took his most precious person away."
Qian Lan continues to hold onto Julong. With a heavy sigh she turns around and walks over to Jiang who was standing a few feet away. Qian Lan grabs onto Jiang's right hand and drags him towards Julong.
"You have to free Julong. He refuses to leave on his own, so you have to break the chain on him. If you don't, I'm going to keep coming down here every day and ignore whatever duties you give me."
"Is that a threat?"
"No, I'm asking you for a favor."
Qian Lan smiles as she motions for Jiang to hurry and break the chain off of Julong's neck.
"Go on."
"Sigh, I can't believe I'm being threatened into doing this."
Jiang sighs before kneeling down on his right knee in front of Julong. Julong stares at Jiang with hope and anticipation.
"Master?"
"You heard her Julong. You're free. For the past two hundred years…. I've wronged you. You're free to leave and find a new master if you wish."
Jiang grabs onto the chain and breaks it off with his bare hands. Julong cries from happiness as he could feel the weight of the chains fall off. As the water god stood up, Julong quickly runs to the front and kneels.
"Master! Please allow me to serve under you."
Qian Lan was surprised to see Julong so dedicated to Jiang even after everything he had been through. The water god smiles and pats Julong on the head as he leaves to grab onto Qian Lan.
"Do as you wish. We're leaving."
With Qian Lan inside his embrace, and Julong standing by his other side; the water god snaps his fingers and teleports them out of the damp dungeon like cave.
"You can open your eyes now."
Qian Lan quickly opens her eyes and glances around her. Realizing she was now back inside the palace and in front of the water gods bedroom; she quickly breaks away from his hold.
"Ah! I didn't mean to hold onto you like that."
The water god chuckles as he opens his door and heads back inside his room.
"Wait! Jiang! What about my duties?!"
Without looking back once, the water god yells out.
"The head maid will inform you of your duties! Julong will be your personal guard for the time being!"
With a snap of his fingers he slams his bedroom doors right in Qian Lan's face.
"Gasp! How rude! Come along Julong. Let's go!"
Qian Lan huffs and puffs all the way to her room. Quickly propping her door open she asks for Julong to head in fist; to her surprise the head maid was inside cleaning.
"Head maid! I'm back!"
Qian Lan says happily as she moves to sit on her brown table in the center. Meanwhile, the head maid finally turns around; with her right hand on her waist she sighs as she stares at the oblivious Qian Lan.
"Sigh, welcome back my lady."
"Geez, what's with that dead reply?"
"Thanks to a certain someone here, I nearly died."
"What?"
"You wouldn't listen when I told you it wasn't a good idea to visit Julong. You don't know how mad my lord was when he found out. I felt like he was going to kill me on the spot for not stopping you."
"Jiang wouldn't do that."
"You have no idea, my lady."
Qian Lan pours herself some tea as she motions for the head maid to sit next to her.
"Story time!"
"No, I am not telling you another story."
"Boo don't be a hater. If you don't want me to accidentally enrage the water god, then tell me what I should know now."
Although the head maid was reluctant, she knew Qian Lan's word had some truths to it.
"Ahem, as I've mentioned before. Do not bring up his past. My lord may look gentle, but he was in the last heaven's war against the underworlds ruler. Not to mention he is one of the heaven's king favored god. Not many gods are willing to anger him."
"Uh...what about the fire god? Jiang seems to hate him."
"Pffftt…. don't even mention that god. My lord hates him since he always tried to hit on the first lady. Never trust anything that man says, he's nothing but bad luck."
"Hmmm...if you say so."
As Qian Lan listened to the head maid go on and on about what to avoid and gods to ignore, something finally clicked.
"Hey…head maid. Why did the first wife not eat the fruit from the water god's tree? I mean she was here for five years."
The head maid goes silent and turns to look at Julong.
"I believe Julong can tell you that better than me. He was with the mistress and master the most. Ah! Look at the time, I will go fetch your dinner. When I return, we will talk about your duties from now on."
Once the head maid was out of the room, Qian Lan turned her attention to Julong who was laying on his belly like a dog.
"Julong, why don't you tell me what you know?"
"The mistress refused to eat the fruit. Master spent five years trying to convince her to eat it, but she always refused to."
"Well, where's the tree?"
"Locked away in the heaven garden. Only time the gates are opened is when the god requests for it."
"Why did she not want the fruit?"
"Because she didn't love master. Lady Chenguang always told me her life stories from when she lived on earth. She often told me stories about her human lover."
"How do you know all this?"
"I was her personal guard. She trusted no one and often talked to me to past the time."
Qian Lan pauses as she thinks about what Julong had been telling her.
"Wait, did Jiang know that she had a human lover?"
"Of course. He spent years trying to win her over. He could've easily wiped her memory clean with water from the cleansing fountain, but master refused to; saying it was too risky."
"Wait wait wait…. what's this fountain you're talking about?"
"It's a fountain found near the border of life and death. It's where human souls can be found as it's also called the reincarnation pool."
"Holy crap...those really exist? I thought It was just fake from all the drama's I've seen!"
"Drama? I don't know what that is. But master refused to have her memories rewritten as he wanted to win her over naturally. During those five years, Chenguang never once allowed the master into her room nor did she ever enter his, but for some reason randomly one day she entered master bed chambers. The following morning, she had one of master eyes and came running to me saying she needed to leave for the heaven king's palace claiming master ordered it. I thought nothing of it since I was her personal guard and thought maybe she wanted to greet the heavenly king."
"But instead she lied....and jumped through the human portal when you made it to the king's palace."
"That's correct."
"Yikes.....talk about drama."
Qian Lan and Julong continued talking, until the head maid returned.
"Knock Knock."
"I'm back."
"Come in."
The head maid quickly props a side of the door open and carries in trays of food for Qian Lan.
"Wait, Julong. What do you eat?"
"I don't need food to sustain life. How do you think I survived for two hundred years?"
"Uh...I guess that's true."
The head maid quickly lays out plates of stir-fried meat and vegetables. Feeling rather famished, Qian Lan quickly chowed down and finished off with a cup of tea.
"Ahhh! That hit the spot."
"Ahem, my lady. If you're finished, let me tell you of your duties starting tomorrow. Original goal was for you to start today but since you didn't listen to me and nearly got us killed by my lord today, we had to move your duties to tomorrow."
Feeling rather bad about what she did to the head maid, Qian Lan decided she would take her duties seriously.
"Alright.....fine...fine...I'll listen."