Each year during the Lantern Festival, the Capital sets up a lantern market stretching tens of miles. From the eighth day of the first lunar month to the peak at the fifteenth, every night the lanterns and fireworks illuminate the night sky, with the sounds of drums, acrobatics, and revelry lasting until dawn.
From the taverns above, officials, noblemen, and the wealthy youth drink and make merry as they gaze upon the city ablaze with lights.
The lantern market below is so crowded one can hardly turn around.
Although tonight is the fifteenth of the first month, the moon is nowhere to be seen; the sky is filled with innumerable stars, and the lantern market is as bright as daylight, resembling a cluster of stunning and beautiful fireflies.
As men walk through the lantern market, passing by the high-rises with their curtains drawn, they can't help but glance over, knowing that inside are the female relatives of distinguished families—those of the Xun, Qi, Huan, and other prominent households.
This year is different from the past, for behind those curtains, in addition to ladies, there might also be Daoists.
"Ti Yuanzi, you've not stayed in Nanjing at the Heavenly Palace to enjoy your retirement, yet you've come to the capital to wade through this chaos?"
"Who would think of retirement if they could keep on living?"
Two grey-haired Daoists sat facing each other by the window of a high-rise, the only occupants of the entire floor.
Ti Yuanzi, who had achieved true immortality during the Yongle era, became a monk and learned the Dao at Xiangfu Palace in his youth, later apprenticing under Zhao Yuanyang to study the 'Golden Fire Returning Great Pill Technique'; he was the sixth generation successor of the Pure Brightness path and could summon winds and call down lightning.
Ren Ziwan, the fifty-third generation master of the Shangqing Sect.
Ren Ziwan looked out the window and said, "With this visit, I fear I might never again behold the colorful towers within Jinling City or the thousands of water lanterns released upon the Qinhuai River."
Ti Yuanzi said nothing, knowing that at this moment Jinling must be even busier than the capital.
Ren Ziwan withdrew his gaze, drinking and laughing: "What about your disciple? Bringing him along would have given us a bit more assurance."
"Either he didn't come or," Ti Yuanzi looked towards the Wumen, where the ninety-meter-high Five-Colored Turtle Mountain Lantern Pavilion stood, "he died on the way here."
Of the cultivators who made it to the Capital to witness this grand event, one in a hundred made it back.
How many true immortals, who could reach the heavens and penetrate the earth, suppressed by holy decrees, perished under mundane swords.
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The ninety-meter-high lantern mountain.
Lantern light, like serpents and insects, relentlessly twines and ascends the lampstands, every eave and corner aglow with lamps.
The Gale howls, Li Changzhou and the Jiajing Emperor stand atop the Lantern Mountain, overlooking the Capital, the whole city resembling an overturned galaxy, or a blazing inferno.
Not one place is devoid of lanterns; where there's light, there's laughter and mirth, with songs, music of the zither, lute, all manners of singing and playing, unceasingly.
The Jiajing Emperor wears a Taoist robe, its large sleeves fluttering.
With the high place being unbearably cold, were it not for his recent 'cultivation' in the Moon Palace, he would probably have his nose running from the cold by now.
Relying on the improved eyesight he had gained in these past few days, he could make out the continuous throngs of people on the ground.
He couldn't help saying, "These lantern-gazers, once they step into the temple gate, can't look back or turn around; they can only follow the ebb and flow of the crowd, resigning themselves to fate."
Making up one's mind is easy, but when it comes time to act, it's inevitable to feel nervous.
Li Changzhou chuckled, saying, "Your Majesty, please look up at the sky."
The Jiajing Emperor looked up to the heavens.
"Does Your Majesty know of the seven luminaries?"
"Of course," the Jiajing Emperor nodded, "the Sun, Moon, together with Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—the five elements—are called the seven luminaries."
"Each of these luminaries is a celestial body, spherical in shape." Li Changzhou pointed upward, and lantern flames flew up, sketching seven stars over their head.
"The empire Your Majesty rules over resides upon a celestial body; let us call it 'Earth' for the time being, and the Moon orbits around this 'Earth'."
Two specks representing Mars floated up, merging into the seven stars.
"Earth is about 49 times the size of a single moon." As Li Changzhou spoke, the flame symbolizing Earth rapidly grew."
"It's roughly 18 times the size of Mercury, 6.6 times that of Mars." Mercury and Mars grew accordingly, surpassing the Moon but smaller than Earth.
"Venus is nearly the size of Earth, though somewhat smaller."
"Jupiter could fit 2-3 Earths." The inconspicuous Jupiter swelled up swiftly, turning into the largest planet before their eyes.
Before the Jiajing Emperor could react, Li Changzhou added, "Saturn can hold four Earths."
Whoosh!
The flames expanded.
Saturn immediately surpassed Jupiter in size.
"That is the scale of the Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, as well as the Moon," Li Changzhou said, "As for the Sun—"
Boom!
The Jiajing Emperor raised his arm to shield his eyes from the unbearable brilliance.
Once his eyes adjusted, he slowly lowered his hand and saw an enormous fireball. Saturn, previously thought to be massive, was rendered like a tiny bean compared to a watermelon, with Earth merely the size of a sesame seed.
Humans were but a speck upon the sesame seed.
The fireball radiated intense heat; the Jiajing Emperor saw only light and warmth before him, as his shadow behind struggled as if trying to flee.
He was immersed in an unbelievable shock.
"One Sun is equivalent to 1.3 million Earths, and there are many more stars, large and small, that form a complete system—let's call it the 'Solar System,'" Li Changzhou's voice came through.
"Is this the cosmos?!" exclaimed the Jiajing Emperor, his voice a mixture of awe and bewilderment.
Li Changzhou smiled, and the Jiajing Emperor looked at him, perplexed.
He saw behind Li Changzhou, countless fireworks rising like sky lanterns.
The Gale roared, the flames billowed, and he heard Li Changzhou say, "Your Majesty, within this galaxy, there are twenty billion solar systems like ours!"
Amidst the sky full of lantern lights, the previously overwhelming Sun was now as minuscule as a grain of rice.
The lantern fires slowly descended, falling back to the Mortal World, and the sky once more became a clean, dark night.
"Your Majesty, look." Li Changzhou pointed to the star-filled sky above them.
The Jiajing Emperor stared blankly in his direction.
"In this vast night sky before us, every one out of 12.7 million segments contains tens of thousands of galaxies!" Li Changzhou stood with his hands behind his back, gazing across the entire night sky.
"This is far from the limit. Wherever we can see, within each point of darkness, there must be even more celestial bodies larger than a galaxy!"