Inbox: Ximilia

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// Wei Wuxian

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XIMILIA

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[A beat passes, a dozen thoughts crowd his mind, and then—]

There is a celestial being known as the Jade Emperor, 玉皇, who rules over all of the heavens and the heavenly court. One of his duties in the celestial realm is to create the elixir of immortality that all celestial beings must consume in order to maintain their immortal lives.

It's an important job, but a tedious one, and so there came a time when the Jade Emperor sought someone to help him in this duty. He knew that humans couldn't be trusted with such an important task and would surely use it for selfish gain, and so he decided to find an animal worthy of the task.

The Jade Emperor disguised himself as a starving beggar and came down to the mortal world where he sat himself in a forest and cried out for help. Three animals came to him then; a fox, a monkey, and a rabbit. The disguised emperor told them that he was starving and begged them to help him find some food. All three animals were touched by his need and ventured into the forest to do what they could.

The monkey returned with all of the fruits he could carry, gathered from high within the trees, and the fox returned with an armful of fish, cleverly caught in the stream, but the little rabbit was unable to find anything at all from the forest floor to offer the man.

When the rabbit returned and saw the gifts provided by the monkey and the fox, he felt great sorrow over not being able to help the starving man, though as he gazed upon the fire that the beggar sat at, an idea came upon him. Without a second thought, the rabbit leapt to cast himself into the fire and offer himself up as a sacrifice to fill the man's stomach, but as he leapt the Jade Emperor rose and caught him, transforming back into his celestial form.

"You're certainly the most noble of all the animals in the world," the emperor told the rabbit, and he carried him up in his arms to the heavens. The rabbit became the Jade Emperor's assistant in creating the elixir of immortality and learned all of his duties with wisdom and care. He worked hard and became a master of all medicinal elixirs, and the Jade Emperor was so pleased with the rabbit's goodness and brilliance that he gave him a white coat as beautiful as jade. The rabbit became known as the Jade Rabbit 玉兔 and he still lives on the moon to this day, making the elixir of immortality for all the heavenly court.