“Wugang has grown bold,” General Jianyun remarked with distaste. “Few would dare gainsay him now when he, alone, has the emperor’s ear.”

“Wugang?” I repeated uncertainly.

“General Wu,” General Jianyun explained. “Wugang is his rightful name. How I first knew him, though he prefers not to be called so.”

General Wu. Master Gang. He had not lied; both names were his. The devious courtier turned ambitious general. The woodcutter and the thief.

“Why do you think Wugang came to my home?” It gave me a petty satisfaction to use the name he disdained, and a part of me wondered whether the noble general felt the same way.

“It must have been at the emperor’s command. He does nothing without His Celestial Majesty’s permission.” General Jianyun added, “The emperor would send no other there, for Wugang is most familiar with the moon, given his past.”

I stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“It was long before your mother ascended to the skies. Wugang was a mortal then.”

“A mortal? I did not hear of this.” Liwei echoed my surprise.

“As Wugang is the current favorite, His Celestial Majesty prefers that such humble origins be forgotten. Wugang is ever obedient, discarding part of his name to disassociate himself from his past.”

“The mortals would be glad of it,” I said with feeling, smothering my ire at how immortals often disdained those in the world below. In truth, the mortals could teach us far more in resilience and strength of will, as they bore the trials that came their way.

General Jianyun smiled faintly. “I would agree.”

“How did Wugang come to our realm?” Liwei asked.

The corners of General Jianyun’s eyes creased like he was reaching deep into his thoughts. “Wugang was a common man with an uncommon grudge. His wife had an affair with an immortal, the son of a Celestial courtier. When Wugang discovered her infidelity, he did not confront the perpetrators—instead, he set off to Kunlun Mountain.”

I quashed a flash of pity for the hurt he must have felt. “Did he venture there to seek recompense? Was that how he became immortal?” Kunlun Mountain possessed a powerful mystical energy, and was the only place in the Mortal Realm where immortals were permitted to dwell.

General Jianyun shook his head. “The only way a mortal can become immortal is through His Celestial Majesty’s elixir. Wugang’s plans were far more nefarious. In Kunlun, he befriended an immortal and learned our secrets: that we were not invulnerable, that we could be killed by the weapons and magic of our realm. After that, he stole the immortal’s axe, using it to slay his wife and her lover.”