Shi Qingxuan's Dragrace

7. Auditions are held in Puqi Shrine

The following days passed with headache-inducing meetings in a special spiritual communication array created by Shi Qingxuan specifically for the festival. Some roles were established among the contestants, and auditions soon started to take place in Puqi Shrine.

With The Wind and Water Temple being redecorated, they needed another space, and although Puqi Shrine was small, no other gods offered their big and magnificent temples, not wanting their devotees to witness an unfinished product such as auditions. They remembered too well the 33 gods challenged by Hua Cheng, who showed their fights in their devotees' dreams, only to lose said fights, and said devotees.

It wasn't the first time Puqi Village received esteemed guests such as heaven officials, ghost kings, bands of cultivators and beggars from the Royal Capital; its inhabitants rather used to it, having for instance Hua Cheng, whose name made all in the heavens tremble in fear, coming around and fixing ploughs and help with the harvest, and even being called Xiao Hua.

Some youths, coincidentally the same ones who wanted Xie Lian to offer his shrine to General Nan Yang, even wanted to start an all-singing-all-dancing group they called Puqi Village People. Shi Qingxuan was all the more supportive, his festival truly becoming the talk of town in all The Three Realms.

Shi Qingxuan left Ling Wen Palace's junior officials in charge of The Wind and Water Temple, and went to Puqi Shrine exclusively to choose the contestants in the dragrace. Some officials thought they could present a bad act and so be excused; however, there was a rumour circulating that the most untalented would be kept as comic relief, so all the officials were forced to do their best.

The former Wind Master was also displaying signs of a sadistic personality towards the remaining members of The Three Tumours. Pei Ming was charged to be one of the contest's judges; he wanted to decline such honour, but Shi Qingxuan insinuated that in this case, he would invite the Rain Master instead.

Now doing drag and being judged by the Rain Master was too much for Pei Ming, so he helplessly accepted the appointment, even though seeing men dressed as women for a whole evening seemed for him a fate worse than death.

Ling Wen wasn't shown any mercy either; as mentioned before, she was taking part as a contestant in her male form. She was a civil god, bureaucratic and efficient, fond of wearing dark and discreet robes, so wearing conspicuous clothing and makeup and making a spectacle of herself would be rather challenging.

As the general director, Shi Qingxuan was quite perfectionist and ruthless, so he chose carefully his support directors. In charge of choreography he chose His Highness The Crown Prince of XianLe and General Xuan Zhen, as Xie Lian and Mu Qing's presentation at the Shangyuan Festival of 800 years ago was legendary, even becoming the tale of The Crown Prince Who Pleased The Gods.

The director of ceremonial and etiquette would be none other than Ling Wen, having already in her possession all the scrolls regarding scripted parts, pageantry, and indeed already knowing by heart most of their content.

What shook everyone to the core was the choice of lights and special effects director and also a contestant, He Xuan, or the Supreme Ghost King Black Water Sinking Boats. He had returned from who knows where and was hanging out with Shi Qingxuan again, who even called him "Ming-xiong", even though he rolled his eyes at that.

Some even thought there was something going on between the two, and even His Highness The Crown Prince who was Shi Qinxuan's friend couldn't say anything on the matter. When tactfully asked about He Xuan, Shi Qingxuan waved his hands and said, "Too much water under the bridge."

Not to mention he would be a strong contestant indeed, having resorted to a female form in the past, even though not by his own will. This certainly gave him extra skills in the drag arts; also being a fierce ghost king and the organiser's best friend made the other officials somewhat uneasy.

So after careful consideration and much deliberation, Shi Qingxuan, as the organiser of Shi Qingxuan's Dragrace and its general artistic director, chose ten mighty contestants.

Thank you for reading! That was a long chapter, I hope you liked it. 🙂🙂🙂