The air around the West Lake in Hangzhou was often thick with a mist that seemed to blur the lines between the mortal world and the realm of spirits. It was here that Bai Suzhen, a white snake who had spent a thousand years in silent meditation and cultivation among the crags of Mount Emei, finally achieved the ability to take human form. She was not merely a creature of scales and cold blood; she was a powerful being who sought the path of the Tao, desiring to understand the nature of humanity and the complexities of the heart. Her companion, Xiaoqing, a green snake spirit of five hundred years, followed her with a fierce, sisterly loyalty. Together, they walked the Broken Bridge, where a chance encounter with a kind-hearted, humble physician named Xu Xian would change the course of their destinies forever. In a previous life, centuries earlier, a young boy had saved a small white snake from a predator, and Bai Suzhen had never forgotten the debt. In Xu Xian, she recognized the soul of her savior, and a deep, forbidden love blossomed between the immortal spirit and the mortal man.
Their life together began with a deceptive peace. They opened the Baohe Tang pharmacy, where they used Bai Suzhen’s supernatural knowledge of herbs to heal the sick, earning the respect of the local community. However, this domestic bliss did not escape the notice of Fa Hai, a dogmatic and powerful monk from the Jinshan Temple. Fa Hai viewed all spirits, regardless of their intentions, as inherently malevolent and a disruption to the natural order. To him, the union of a human and a demon was an abomination that had to be severed. He approached Xu Xian with warnings of his wife’s true nature, but the young man, blinded by love, initially dismissed the monk's words. Undeterred, Fa Hai suggested a test: during the Dragon Boat Festival, a time when the Yang energy of the sun is at its peak, Xu Xian should serve his wife realgar wine, a traditional beverage known to repel pests and spirits alike. Bai Suzhen, aware of the danger but unwilling to rouse her husband's suspicion or appear unfaithful, consumed the wine. The potion’s power was too great even for her thousand-year cultivation. Feeling her form waver, she retreated to their bedchamber, but Xu Xian, concerned for her well-being, pulled back the curtains only to find a massive, white serpent coiled upon the bed. The shock was instantaneous and fatal; his heart seized, and he fell to the floor, his soul departing his body.
When the effects of the wine finally faded and Bai Suzhen returned to her human form, she was met with the cold, lifeless body of her husband. Her grief was a physical force, shaking the very foundations of their home. Xiaoqing urged her to flee before Fa Hai could arrive to finish his work, but Bai Suzhen would not abandon the man she loved. She knew there was only one way to bring him back, a journey so perilous that few spirits dared to speak of it: she had to travel to the Kunlun Mountains, the axis mundi of the world and the home of the Queen Mother of the West. At the peak of these celestial mountains grew the Lingzhi, the mushroom of immortality, a divine herb capable of mending the broken thread of life and recalling a soul from the underworld. Without hesitation, Bai Suzhen took to the clouds, her white silk robes billowing as she transformed into a streak of light, racing toward the frozen, sacred north.