Ice Sea Queen: Yu's Incarnation
This is an incarnation story of Yu Menglong that he shared with us himself, through one of his secondary souls.
Beneath the bone-chilling cold of the Arctic, buried under layers of ice and snow, lies a vast and boundless frozen sea. Though the cold reaches an extreme, rich and abundant life still exists within these icy waters, all governed by dragon deities. And so, deep in the lightless, frigid ocean floor, there stands a Dragon Palace built of divine ice — home to the Ice Sea Queen, a dragon deity ruler of that realm.
The Ice Sea Queen's name was Chione (Χιόνη), a name meaning "icy" or "snow," with connotations of distance and detachment.
Queen Chione was extraordinarily beautiful — long golden hair, snow-white skin, and water-blue eyes, with a tall and commanding presence. Her temperament was as cold and unyielding as frost itself: domineering and merciless, she issued orders that her subjects were required to carry out without question, and she neither tolerated disobedience nor heeded counsel. Those who failed her faced her fury and severe punishment. Her subjects lived in great fear of her, yet for the sake of their own survival, they had no choice but to comply with her commands.
Word of the Queen's domineering ways spread far and wide, eventually reaching the Heavenly Court.
It should be noted that the dragon deities of the West — such as those of Atlantis — did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Jade Emperor, who governed the dragon deities of the East. The deity overseeing the Western dragon deities at that time was Zeus, a supremely powerful and energetic great god. One day, Zeus transformed himself into a large fish and swam to the Ice Sea Dragon Palace, curious to observe this formidable and beautiful dragon deity queen.
Upon arriving at the Dragon Palace, Zeus shed his fish form and appeared as a strikingly handsome man. He knelt on one knee before the Queen and asked her for one of her earrings as a token of love.
The Queen felt insulted. In the ice sea, fish were merely one category of life under her domain — hardly a superior species. What standing or dignity did a fish have that would entitle it to her earring, let alone her affection?
Queen Chione rejected the advances of the man that Zeus had disguised himself as and ordered her guards to drive him away.
Those earrings — semi-transparent, shimmering with a water-blue glow — had been gifted to her by a great god she deeply admired, carved from rare celestial gemstones, designed to remain securely on her even as she moved through the depths of the sea.
That great god was none other than Zeus himself, who was at that time already married to the beautiful goddess Hera.
The Ice Sea Queen kept her earrings, and from that point forward devoted herself wholly to fulfilling her duties as Queen. Yet deep within her heart, she still held proudly to the belief that only the most powerful of divine beings could ever be worthy of her noble self.
Zeus, swimming away from the Dragon Palace once more in his fish form, felt wounded. Could it be that because he had not come in his true form as the god Zeus, Queen Chione had simply not recognized him?
In truth, the Ice Sea Queen sighed quietly to herself. Her powers were formidable — she had of course seen through the disguise and recognized that the handsome man was none other than the god Zeus, whom she had long admired. But she had to turn him away.
For whether judged by the moral standards of the divine realm or the human world, pursuing a relationship with a married man was a transgression. She could not allow herself to diminish her own divine standing.
News of the incident quickly reached Hera, Zeus's wife. When Zeus returned to the heavenly realm, Hera confronted him in a fit of jealousy: "It was I who won your favor over Queen Chione — that is why you married me! What now? Do you regret it? Do you wish to leave me and take the Ice Sea Queen as your wife? Don't even think about it — absolutely not!"
In truth, Zeus was not a frivolous or unfaithful god who chased after every beauty he encountered. His actions were, in fact, part of his work: testing the moral character of the gods. On this occasion, he had set out to test both the moral integrity of the Ice Sea Queen and his wife Hera's trust in him. And crucially, he could not reveal this to anyone, lest it ruin the carefully laid plan he had devised.
Why did Zeus test the gods in this way? Because only through the elevation of their moral character could a deity's divine rank be raised. In other words, whenever Zeus wished to promote a deity, he would first test their character. And the beautiful Ice Sea Queen had passed.
Having passed the first round of testing, a second round naturally followed. Zeus came to the Ice Sea Dragon Palace in his true form. Upon hearing of his arrival, the Queen immediately went to receive him. Zeus stepped forward to embrace her — but to his surprise, the Queen stepped back and evaded him.
"My wife, as you know, Hera is fierce and terrible, jealous beyond measure — being at her side is truly misery. Chione, I must have been out of my mind back then…"
Hearing Zeus complain about his own wife, the Queen stepped back coldly and said: "Goddess Hera holds the highest power and status. Long ago, I competed with her and the other goddesses for the title of Queen of Heaven. I lost to Hera, and I accepted that defeat willingly. Now that you are with such a magnificent goddess, how can you possibly speak of her with contempt?"
With an expression of complete composure, Queen Chione withdrew toward the Dragon Palace throne hall and sealed the palace gates shut with her divine power. "Forgive me — I cannot continue to listen to you slander your wife. Goddess Hera is, in my eyes, wonderful and great. Should you speak another word to harm her, I will close these gates and receive no visitors, ever again."
Zeus's expression flickered with a moment of alarm, but inwardly he was deeply gratified — she had passed the second round. The Ice Sea Queen had proven herself far more chaste and steadfast than he had even imagined. Zeus knew well that this particular test had caused many goddesses to fail, for his status and appearance made him widely admired among the divine feminine.
At that very moment, Goddess Hera had quietly made her way to the Ice Sea Queen's palace. A jealousy burning like flames had driven her with thoughts of revenge against Chione.
But when she witnessed the Ice Sea Queen once again firmly rejecting her husband, a wave of shame and remorse washed over her. Only then did Goddess Hera truly understand the vast gap between her own moral character and that of Chione.
The Ice Sea Queen summoned her closest attendant, Krya (Κρύα) — a young female member of the dragon clan who was at that moment kneeling on one knee, awaiting the Queen's orders. The rigid, stern lines of the Queen's expression softened suddenly into something warm and gentle. "You must think me domineering and harsh," she said, "cold and inflexible, willful and unyielding — isn't that right?"
Krya could not read the Queen's intent and simply bowed her head in silence.
"In truth," the Queen continued, "I have been training you in the quality of 'detachment from sentiment.' For ordinary humans, sentiment — emotional attachment — is something beautiful and cherished. But for us dragon deities, and even for the heavenly gods, it is something impure and without use. Those who cannot let go of sentiment become susceptible to self-interest, and can never accomplish truly great divine work."
The Queen rested her hand gently upon Krya's head and continued: "I have also trained you in 'unconditional compliance.' In the future, when you face heavenly gods of a rank higher than your own, you must comply with them unconditionally — for the decrees they issue will always carry a benevolent purpose."
"Your Majesty," said Krya, lifting her head slightly but still not daring to meet the Queen's gaze, "and yet you did not comply unconditionally with the god Zeus. You went against his wishes. Why was that?"
The Ice Sea Queen gave a quiet smile. "When a heavenly god of higher rank than yours issues a command that violates goodness and moral principle, it carries one of two meanings."
The first meaning is that the higher god's moral character has slipped. In that case, one may offer counsel — or simply disregard the command — for the divine realm is structured in layers, and if a god at one level falls in character, the gods of an even higher level will naturally take notice and address it.
The second meaning is that the higher god is testing the moral character of those beneath them. Once a lower deity passes the test, their character is elevated, and they may ascend to a higher tier of the divine realm. However, this is extremely difficult — when a great god stands before you, it is very hard for a lower deity to refuse their request.
"I offered counsel to the god Zeus," the Queen said, "and yet he continued. I have therefore decided to pass the throne of the Ice Sea Queen to you — and then I will seal myself within divine ice and enter eternal slumber, to stand guard over this Dragon Palace."
The Ice Sea Queen transferred the scepter of sovereignty and the crown to Krya, who did not refuse — for she knew well the Queen's character and understood there was no arguing with her.
"Now wait — who gave you permission to turn yourself into a block of ice?"
A flash of golden light — and Goddess Hera appeared, smiling radiantly, with the god Zeus standing behind her. "Chione, my greatest rival — I am in absolute awe of your wisdom and your unwavering moral character!"
"Congratulations on passing the test — and what perfect timing with the transfer of the throne!" The smile on Zeus's face shifted to something more solemn. "Chione — you are to leave behind your dragon deity immortal form and be granted a divine position, ascending to become a goddess. Now, please come with us to the Heavenly Court to receive your appointment."
It had all happened so suddenly. Chione stood frozen in place, still trying to make sense of it all. Goddess Hera laughed and took her hand warmly. "All of this was Zeus's test of your moral character — and mine as well. Had you agreed to Zeus's advances, I would have stripped you of your dragon deity immortal standing and cast you down into the mortal world."
"And speaking of which," Zeus said with a tone of mild exasperation, "I used this whole affair to test two deities at once. Chione passed — but you, Hera, did not, and came sneaking down here consumed by jealousy with thoughts of revenge!" Zeus still loved his wife deeply, but he was not pleased that she had slipped away in secret with intent to retaliate against the Ice Sea Queen.
The virtuous and chaste dragon deity Chione ascended to a divine throne, becoming a goddess that all the other gods admired and envied. Much, much later, she made the decision to follow the path of the Creator and descend to be reborn as a human — a path she had arranged for herself long, long ago.
And Yu's Secondary Soul, in that lifetime, was Krya — the heir to the Ice Sea Queen.