Side Hall of Wudu Palace

Wind Master waited impatiently while pacing in the side hall. She had heard about the ruckus of last night from a maid and was worried sick, 'The hell is a fourth-rank ghost doing here? And he even bit a little girl.' she thought, right then Jade entered the room with a basket of gifts that Wind Master had asked her to prepare the day before they were to see Earth Master, they were visiting her palace for the first time and it would be rude to turn up empty-handed, one must be wondering why they had never visited the Palace of Shù Zìrán if they worked together. The simple answer was that the Wind and Fire Master worked together often, and the Earth and Water Master didn't like interacting with each other, so they sent off information through servants, thus the formality.

Yìfēi noticed that Jade looked upset for some reason. She was a very lively and warm young girl who was very curious; Yìfēi loved her personality. They were pretty similar, "Jade, what's wrong?" she asked Jade, who couldn't look anyone in the eye. She shook her head, Yìfēi sighed, gently lifting her chin. She looked her in the eyes, "What's wrong? Did someone scold you? Tell me I'll beat them up." Yìfēi asked gently.

Jade's brown eyes watered, and she buried her face in Wind Master's chest, who rubbed her shoulders soothingly. She cried for a long time and when finally the tears came to a stop all she managed to say was, "I entered Miss Bài's bathroom accidentally. I promise I wasn't aware she was there. I saw the door open and got suspicious, so I went in to look and saw that she was there." she looked away, tears brimming her eyes again.

Yìfēi stared at her, 'YueYue must have scolded her badly.' Yìfēi thought before speaking, "It's okay, she won't do anything to you," she assured, "Are you alright? Don't worry anymore."

"She won't kill me?" Jade asked timidly

"Goodness! People make her sound like she's a bloodthirsty killer when she is the most caring person in the world," Yìfēi grumbled to Jade with annoyance, "Of course, she won't kill you, she doesn't like it when people invade her privacy and you straight up saw her in the bathtub, of course, she is going to be angry about it but she won't kill you Jade so stop worrying." Wind Master explained, exasperated with the maid's fear.

Jade seemed to calm down hearing that they waited for another ten minutes until Water Master arrived dressed in a black hanfu with a cold expressionless face,
'She might as well be called the symbol of darkness. Is this how you go to visit someone's place for the first time? dressed so dully.' Yìfēi thought bitterly, but today, no amount of persuasion would work on her; ShuîYuê already looked angry as it was, and Yìfēi had no intention of being the outlet for this, so she kept quiet.

"Let's go," was all Water Master said; without batting an eye, Wind Master followed her with Jade behind as they reached the palace gates to leave. ShuîYuê turned around to probably ask Yìfēi something, but those half-parted lips shut into a pursed line as soon as she saw Jade. She glared daggers at the poor girl who hid behind Yìfēi as their eyes met.

"YueYue let's leave already. We are late as it is." Yìfēi urged, pushing ShuîYuê out.

They walked silently through a dense forest they had entered the North already, thanks to Yìfēi's knowledge of the North territory distance shortening array. The forest was too dark to see, it wasn't easy to walk through it, and Yìfēi had her hand latched to ShuîYuê's in case she lost balance and fell, wouldn't be nice if she showed up covered in mud at Earth Master's Palace, they walked ahead of Jade who struggled in the back with the big gift basket, they crossed a big hole by jumping on it but Jade couldn't she was a simple girl who had no magic she wasn't like these gods who could jump from roof to roof while looking beautiful as ever. Yìfēi went back to get Jade while ShuîYuê complained about being late and bringing gifts along.

"Shut up, you don't have social skills as it is, so if I decide to do something stop trying to sabotage them as well." Yìfēi scolded as she placed a hand on ShuîYuê's shoulder, who hissed but quickly pretended she hadn't and tried to look cool, but Yìfēi had sharp eyes; she pushed ShuîYuê's hanfu aside and saw bright red marks which had a dry green medicine applied to them.

"What are you doing?" ShuîYuê swatted Yìfēi's hand away, trying to cover her shoulder, but Wind Master truly was stubborn.

"Shut up. Who did this?" Yìfēi asked while examining the marks. They were nail marks if she wasn't wrong. She found ShuîYuê glaring at Jade, who looked extremely guilty.

Yìfēi pieced it together and tried to resolve the situation for now. She can't have ShuîYuê return to the Wudu Palace after bringing her here so close because of a poor maid who saw her in the bath and dug her nails into her skin but before she could say anything, ShuîYuê's icy voice accused, "Some people can't help but poke their nose in other people's business!" ShuîYuê walked forward angrily; Yìfēi could imagine smoke coming out of her ears. She gave a pat to the maid, and they followed Water Master with a sigh.

The Palace of Shú Zìrán 

It was more like a tree house than a palace, covered in vines were its brown walls, and all sorts of trees, and herbs grew here with lots of animals frolicking around. They were brought to the main hall by an old maid; the hall itself was like a forest, with open rooftops and branches hanging from above; it felt like they had entered another forest. The walls were green and brown. Shù Zìrán sat perched on her seat, which was made out of the huge tree whose branches hung from above; she sat on a straw mat while going through some scrolls.

Yìfēi greeted the Earth elemental in hopes of breaking the silence, "Good Morning Earth Master." she greeted brightly.

Shù Zìrán looked up from her scrolls, putting them away. She got up from her tree embedded or more like a seat embedded in the said tree and walked towards the two elementals. Her face had a mature look to it; emerald green eyes pierced through as the sunlight illuminated her dark-coloured face, jet black dreadlocks swayed in the wind along with her brown and green robes, and she had a whip hung to her side, which was made of tree roots.

Towering over the two elementals intimidatingly, who looked quite small as compared to her tall height, Wind Master was below her eyes and Water Master below her chin, but they weren't scared like Jade was; when Earth Master stared at the poor maid, she hid behind Wind Master once again.

ShuîYuê broke the silence, "Please accept this." she said, shoving the gift basket in her hands.

Shù Zìrán stared at the basket, bored; she asked her attendant to take it away and asked the two elementals to sit while she went back and sat in her seat. The attendant from earlier served them tea, which was bright green; it didn't look safe to drink. Earth Master asked for them to have a drink, "Please, it doesn't look very appetising, but it is very nutritious. It helps the skin glow and the hair to shine." she informed, crossing her long legs.

Yìfēi cared about her beautiful appearance as much as Xiàn Fèng did they were the most beautiful and handsome people in the Heavens, they dressed beautifully and because of their bright personalities they were liked by many people, this is how Xiàn Fèng and Yìfēi became friends they were both standing in the Martial hall of Emperor Jun Wu when an official fell because of her hanfu being stuck, they were minding their own business when they started having a conversation about the right hanfu length and then they shared some beauty tips among themselves, this was the start of their beautiful friendship,

So as soon as Yìfēi heard it was good for the skin, she would drink anything. As she picked up the cup, ShuîYuê took it from her hands and drank it instead; Yìfēi frowned at her friend, "This must be the secret to Earth Master's beautiful skin." ShuîYuê complimented, drinking her cup.

"No hurry, Water Master, let Wind Master have a try too." Shù Zìrán's stern voice spoke.

"Oh, it's quite alright. Wind Master is sick and can't drink anything other than medicine right now, so I drank her share as well to not disrespect our lovely host." ShuîYuê said coldly.

"Let's get to business shall we?" Shù Zìrán glared at Water Master before Jade was sent out.

She waited for a long time, and the more she stared at this place, the more it breathed. The vine trees were everywhere as if listening to any talk. She shivered in fear; Wudu Palace, even though it looked like a dungeon, was far better than this place; it felt safe there at the very least, but here, Jade felt as if someone was watching all her movements. She hoped the meeting would end soon and she could go back.

"Please go back inside." an attendant told Jade, so she went back in to see Water Master's and Earth Master's faces close to each other as if they were giving each other farewell hugs.

"You smell of fresh blood, Water Master. Are you injured in your shoulder?" Shù Zìrán asked with a smile, showing her pearly white teeth, which seemed scary to Jade for whatever unknown reasons.

Water Master leaned into Earth Master's ear, who had bent down to be at ear level to Water Master, "Please don't add cyanide to the tea you serve your guests or the rumours of people never being able to leave the North forests would come true." Bài ShuîYuê whispered in Shù Zìrán's ear who clenched her teeth while smiling sweetly. They moved back from each other, and as Shù Zìrán tried to hug Yìfēi, Water Master took her hand firmly bowed to Earth Master and left her palace with Yìfēi looking confused; Jade looked at Earth Master one last time before running back to her Master.

Outside the North Forest

"YueYue! YueYue, answer me! why are you acting strange?" Yìfēi asked while the Water Master dragged her friend by the hand. "Bài ShuîYuê what's wrong with you? Why are you acting strange? Tell me now!"Yìfēi demanded, pulling her hand away from ShuîYuê who looked irritated. 

"Later on, for now, let's go back quickly." was all she said before walking ahead. Yìfēi looked at Jade, who looked clueless as well.
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Word count:1850. I hope you liked it.