Chapter 58 Su Ziqi IV

　　—Life and death are themselves a cycle of reincarnation. Beginning implies ending; ending implies beginning. Reincarnation is destiny; destiny is reincarnation.

　　After the HalfFish departed the island immediately grew quiet again; only Su Ziqi and Gongkong remained standing dazed upon the spot.

　　The two turned their backs to each other, hurriedly changed into their clothes, and sat stiffly upon the beach.

　　The earlier harmonious and pleasant atmosphere seemed frozen; the scene was utterly silent. The two sat there awkwardly like strangers who did not know each other, not knowing what to say.

　　Gongkong was the first to break the silence: “Sister Ziqi, why do you not speak?”

　　“How do you expect me to speak with you? You are a lofty celestial god; I am only a lowly, cowardly human woman. Must I kneel upon the ground like those monsters just now and shout ‘Celestial God’ at you?”

　　“Sister Ziqi, you may resent that I did not tell you the truth. There is truly a reason for this. My origins are complicated; I must conceal my identity within the clan.”

　　Thereafter Gongkong related to Su Ziqi his origins and experiences. When she heard how tragic Gongkong’s origins had been, Su Ziqi could not help being moved and shed tears.

　　“I never imagined your origins were so tragic. Gongkong—you have truly suffered.”

　　“Sister Ziqi, I have always wanted to explain my origins to you clearly, yet I could never find a suitable opportunity. Even within the Gongyou Clan only my adoptive father Gongdian and one or two others know of my origins.”

　　“You wish me hereafter to continue concealing it for you? No problem—I will not tell the others.”

　　“Thank you, Sister Ziqi. Yet you seem also to have secrets; you too are different from ordinary humans.”

　　“What do you mean?” Su Ziqi listened as though in a fog.

　　“Within the celestial court of your mind there is also a celestial eye. For an ordinary human that eye should long since have atrophied at your age, yet your celestial eye has not only failed to atrophy but is extremely full and filled with spiritual power. Sister Ziqi, you must also have cultivated.”

　　Gongkong had long discovered that the pineal gland within Su Ziqi’s mind was unlike that of ordinary people. He had always been curious about it and conjectured that Su Ziqi, like the people of the Tianyou Clan, was cultivating secret arts.

　　Today, while the two of them rode the little phoenix, when Gongkong secretly infused spiritual power into Su Ziqi’s pineal gland he had tested her spiritual power. As he had expected, Su Ziqi’s spiritual power was profound, even far surpassing that of ordinary members of the Tianyou Clan—only that Su Ziqi did not yet know how to use it.

　　“I also possess spiritual power?” The moment Su Ziqi heard this her interest was aroused. “I have cultivated? Are you joking? How is it even I myself do not know?”

　　“Have you from childhood been different from other children, doing things other children never did?”

　　“Different from other children? Doing things other children never did?” Su Ziqi recalled her childhood. “From childhood my father taught me to sit in meditation for a while upon the bed before sleeping at night. I once asked children of my own age; none of them had this habit.”

　　“Was the method of sitting meditation taught by your father?”

　　“Yes. Each time after I finished sitting in meditation the quality of my sleep was excellent; the next day I was refreshed and full of energy. No matter how tired I was that day I would persist in sitting for a while; this habit I have maintained until now.”

　　“That explains it. It seems your father must be a master. He taught you this method of cultivation; you have persisted for many years and now your spiritual power is already very high—only that you still do not understand how to use it.”

　　When Su Ziqi was small she had lived for a time with her parents in the United States. Her father was a professor at Harvard University and a member of the Illuminati.

　　She remembered that in his youth her father had investigated the Sumerian civilization in the region of the Two Rivers and had brought back large numbers of clay tablets of Sumerian cuneiform writing, translating the contents of the tablets into English and Chinese.

　　As a child Su Ziqi had ADHD and difficulty concentrating; her father therefore taught her the method of sitting, regulating the breath, and meditating. Through daily meditation she completely corrected the habit of ADHD. According to her father, these methods were all translated from the cuneiform writing upon the clay tablets of the Sumerian civilization.

　　“Sister Ziqi, I have always wanted to ask you—where did the redphoenix jade pendant you wear about your neck come from?” When Su Ziqi was swimming in the sea Gongkong had already noticed the jade pendant about her neck.

　　“It was purchased by my father from an antiquities dealer while he was conducting archaeology in the region of the Two Rivers upon Earth. According to that dealer the pendant came from an ancient tomb complex. My father felt that the pendant carved with a fieryred phoenix was extremely auspicious, so he bought it and gave it to me as a birthday gift.”

　　“Is that so? I also have a jade pendant of similar shape about my neck, only that upon it is carved an Azure Dragon.”

　　With that Gongkong drew from beneath his clothing the jade pendant he wore about his neck: “The first time I met Sister Ziqi I felt especially familiar, as though we had met before. At that time this pendant was as excited as a true dragon just awakened. It seems Sister Ziqi and I must have been linked by fate in a previous life.”

　　“Are you flirting with me? Yet the method is too oldfashioned.” Although Su Ziqi spoke teasingly on the surface, deep in her heart she felt the same.

　　The first time Su Ziqi met Gongkong she had already felt a sense of familiarity; at the same time she could clearly sense that the pendant within her bosom was leaping with joy like a little rabbit.

　　“Gongkong, you still have one secret you have not told me. Why do you always carry this leather case upon your back no matter where you go? What treasure is inside it?”

　　“Sister Ziqi, of course there is a treasure inside this leather case. Yet before I tell you, you must agree to one request of mine.”

　　“What request?”

　　“Look—I always call you Sister, yet every time you simply address me by name; it is too distant. If hereafter you call me more intimately I shall tell you what is inside this leather case.”

　　“You… then what shall I call you? Mm—how about calling you Kong’er?”

　　“Mm—that form of address is not bad. Hereafter I shall call you Sister Ziqi and you shall call me Kong’er.”

　　Gongkong therefore related in full detail the matter of his previous abduction to the Misty Mountains. While chatting the two mounted the phoenix and returned to Wangqiu City.

　　When they met Zheng Ya and the others Su Ziqi told them they had discovered a PeachBlossom Spring. Thereafter for many days Zheng Ya and the others, led by Gongkong and Su Ziqi, every day piloted the motorcycle flying craft to this small island they called “Mangrove Island” to play.

　　Upon the entire island there were only the several of them; it became their exclusive domain. They swam freely in the sea and sunbathed upon the beach, as though they had returned to the beautiful times upon Earth.

　　Ever since Su Ziqi learned that her sitting meditation was also a form of cultivation, whenever Gongkong and Jiang Er came she would pull the two of them aside to a secluded place and together exchange and compare methods of cultivation.

　　Su Ziqi was astonished to discover that the methods of sitting, regulating the breath, and meditating transmitted by her father shared many similarities with the content Gongkong and Jiang Er had learned.

　　With Gongkong’s help Su Ziqi’s spiritual power not only advanced by leaps and bounds but she was soon able to employ skillfully several simple arts.

　　When Su Ziqi was alone she often quietly pondered why her method of sitting meditation should so closely resemble the cultivation methods of Gongkong and Jiang Er.

　　Her methods of practice and breath regulation came from the clay tablets recorded by the ancient Sumerian civilization, yet the civilization of Mu Star was far earlier than the Sumerian civilization; therefore it indicated that the ancient civilizations of Earth and the civilization of Mu Star stood in some relationship of transmission.

　　Mars, Mu Star, and Earth—what exactly was the relationship among the three? The civilization of the Martian lava cave and the civilization of Mu Star shared the same religious worship, while the civilization of Mu Star in turn stood in a relationship of transmission with the civilization of Earth; the three seemed linked by countless threads, leaving Su Ziqi deeply puzzled.

　　In Su Ziqi’s era Mars still existed, yet Mu Star alone was nowhere to be seen. This mysterious planet Mu Star had never appeared in the historical records of Earth’s humanity, nor had it ever been observed by modern human astronomy.

　　Mu Star seemed to have sprung overnight from a crack in a stone and thereafter suddenly vanished into thin air. Su Ziqi was filled with questions about the planet beneath her feet; she looked forward to finding answers through future scientific investigation.