Read Online Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell by Kylie Chan - Free Book Online

discussion became heated, although still whispered. Bai Hu raised his voice and glanced at me, then lowered it again. Mr Wong shut the discussion off and stormed out.
    Bai Hu thundered over to us, his face raw with fury. ‘I do not believe this!’
    ‘They can’t do this to her,’ Simone said. ‘It’s not fair .’
    ‘The Celestial does as he wills,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘It is traditional.’
    ‘But it isn’t her True Form,’ Bai Hu hissed. ‘They’re doing this deliberately to shame her.’
    ‘Oh my God,’ I said, and they all looked at me. ‘He’s going to make me go in as a snake, isn’t he?’
    Ms Kwan’s voice was full of compassion. ‘Everybody takes True Form in front of the Jade Emperor. Nobody hides anything. But you were born human, Emma. I have already discussed this with the Celestial, and he agreed to see you as a human. He has just, in this last hour, changed his mind.’
    I sighed with feeling. ‘This could cost me everything. I hope he protects me when everybody goes after my head.’
    ‘You have to take Celestial Form too, Simone,’ Bai Hu said.
    Simone’s face closed up tight.
    ‘You have a Celestial Form?’ I said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you could do it?’
    ‘How the hell does he know about that?’ Simone said.
    ‘The Celestial knows all, Simone,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘It appears that Mr Li’s time was wasted.’
    ‘Why’d you keep it a secret, Simone?’ I said.
    ‘When you see it you’ll know.’
    ‘Is it that bad?’
    She didn’t reply. Her face was still closed up tight.
    ‘Well, whatever,’ Bai Hu said. ‘Drop your stuff and we’ll go on. Mr Wong says we have ten minutes to prepare, to change into the forms, and he’ll take us up to the main chamber.’
    ‘I’m still wearing my armour and carrying the sword,’ I said. ‘I’ll change when I’m there.’
    ‘That is unusual but permissible,’ Kwan Yin said.
    ‘Is Mr Wong the Jade Emperor, Bai Hu?’ I asked. ‘“Wong” means “King” in Cantonese.’
    ‘Of course he is. Isn’t it obvious?’
    The Murasame’s scabbard had a strap that telescoped out from the top and clipped to the bottom so that I could carry it over my shoulder with it resting diagonally across my back. I hefted it on and returned to the living room.
    Kwan Yin and Bai Hu were waiting there in True Form. Kwan Yin’s white robes flowed around her, and a glowing aura surrounded her serene face. She stood more than two metres tall. Bai Hu’s tiger form was about four metres long.
    Simone hadn’t taken Celestial Form; she wore the robes Mr Li had made for her, the same as I did. She saw my face. ‘I’ll do it when I’m there, same as you.’
    ‘Is it reptilian?’ I asked.
    ‘No, the problem is entirely in the other direction.’
    Mr Wong returned and we all saluted him again. While he was acting as this minor official, we were expected to treat him as such. Everybody had to pretend that we didn’t know he was the Jade Emperor, and he pretended that he didn’t know we knew. The duplicity made my head ache.
    He led us back into the main part of the hall, then towards the centre of the Palace. We entered a courtyard with a single huge tree in its centre.
    ‘Grand Audience Hall, Main Entrance,’ Mr Wong said, and disappeared.
    Bai Hu stepped forward. ‘I’ll go first.’ He repeated the words and disappeared.
    ‘JK Rowling did something like this in Harry Potter,’ I said.
    ‘Well, she can sue the Jade Emperor,’ Simone said, recited the words and disappeared.

CHAPTER 6
    T he Grand Audience Hall was massive, about a hundred metres to a side and a good fifty metres high. Enormous doors glided open before us. A set of stairs led up to them separated down the middle by a sloping ramp of marble carved with dragons. Whenever the Jade Emperor went up he floated over the marble; everybody else had to take the stairs.
    Mr Wong had vanished.
    ‘Gone off to turn into the Jade Emperor and embarrass the hell out of us,’ Simone