The First Emperor of Qin squandered an empire on searching for the Elixir of Immortality. Rabbit, a bored architecture student in Hangzhou, found it by accident on one eventful autumn day. But even life among the Feathered Ones on the celestial Mount Penglai can get old for a modern young woman. After getting her fill of poetry, peonies and pandas, she decides to follow in the footsteps of many an immortal and return to Earth for a bit of fun. As for her companion Splinter-of-Jade, ancient champion fighting cricket turned self-appointed Grand Historian, he's just tagging along to watch the inevitable carnage. Time passes quickly in the lower realms, however, and the China they return to isn't quite what it used to be....

This work of Classical Chinese Taoist Sci-Fi was written in the first 20 days of November 2005 through participation in National Novel Writing Month. It was created in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, and assorted planes, trains and buses in between. The story is a loose retelling of the famous Chinese folk tale of Lady White Snake, set in the fragmented, post-People's-Republic Corporate States of the 2040s. It is also a sequel to 2004's Journey to the West Lake, though the two can be read in any order.

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