Upon Barren Hills; Rioting the Black Hearted Inn 3

Fu Yao blurted, "…YOU?!"

Hua Cheng humphed coldly and ignored him. As for Lan Chang, the moment she saw them, she turned to bolt. Fu Yao noticed and whipped around.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

He hadn't yet stepped out when a long white silk band flew out and strapped her ankle. Lan Chang immediately tumbled to the ground, hugging her belly as she flipped over. It seemed that the fetus spirit was hidden in her belly again.

Xie Lian said as he pulled Ruoye back, "If you wanted her to stop, you should've done this…just shouting is pointless. By the way, you were talking about your general earlier, what's happened to him?"

Fu Yao didn't respond. He humphed and went up to seize Lan Chang's arm, looking like he really was furious now. Not only did he forcefully grab a woman, his action unforgiving and hard, but he actually cursed "fuck" earlier; this was not the Fu Yao they knew from before. Yet unexpectedly, before he was able to pull Lan Chang up, her belly suddenly swelled up like a balloon, and a white figure shot out and shrieked as it lunged at Fu Yao's face.

It was the fetus spirit!

Every time it returned to its mother's womb it would save up another round of energy. Thus, this strike was treacherous, and Fu Yao had to focus to fight it, whipping up his hand to smack. That fetus spirit was beaten back like a ball and hit the wall with a bang, then it shot towards Xie Lian.

"Catch it! Don't let it run away!" Fu Yao shouted.

Before Xie Lian had even moved, Hua Cheng was already shielding in front of him. That ball-like fetus spirit braked abruptly in front of him, and charged Fu Yao once again. This ghost ball was ricocheting and rampaging about the upstairs corridor, but it was also complete mayhem downstairs. They could hear down below the cries of those "attendants" begging for mercy.

"My Lords, please be magnanimous! Us lowly ones are also only doing this for a bite to eat!"

"Yeah, we won't do this anymore! Truth to be told, at most we'd only steal some chickens nearby to eat, it's all that green…Green Old Master, who forced us to be his underlings that we did this, he's in the kitchen right now!"

Seeing that the situation had now fallen into complete chaos, Xie Lian suddenly remembered something, and leapt down from the second floor. Qi Rong was in the kitchen, his legs crossed, picking at his teeth cheerfully while waiting for his "meal" to serve themselves. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound; a figure had kicked through the wall and leapt in aggressively.

"Qi Rong! Where's Guzi?"

This classic martial god entrance shocked Qi Rong to his feet. "YOU?! Why are you here? CAN'T YOU KNOCK LIKE A NORMAL PERSON?!"

Without missing a beat, Xie Lian went up and smacked him down, pressing him over the top of the chopping board like a duck.

"Cut the nonsense! What did you do to the child?"

Qi Rong grinned a smile full of teeth. "Hehehe, look, isn't the ground piled with them?"

What's the ground piled with? Human bones!

Fury blazed in Xie Lian's heart, and he squeezed harder with force. Qi Rong then started wailing and howling.

"OW OW OW OW ARM! MY ARM'S BROKEN! BROKEN BROKEN! COUSIN CROWN PRINCE WAIT! OKAY, OKAY, OKAY, I'LL BE HONEST, I LIED, I DIDN'T EAT HIM! I DIDN'T! I WAS GOING TO BUT I HAVEN'T YET!"

"Where is he now?" Xie Lian demanded.

"STOP CRUSHING, STOP CRUSHING! I'll tell you, that little Feet-Dragger is locked up in the shed on the side, JUST TAKE A LOOK AND YOU'LL SEE!"

Xie Lian ordered Ruoye to bind Qi Rong, and opened a small door on the side of the kitchen. Sure enough, Guzi was curled up inside. Xie Lian felt his breath under his nose and his breathing was steady, his little face red and flushed, looking to be sound asleep. However, when Xie Lian lifted the child up, he could feel the child's body was hot to touch like he was feverish, and Xie Lian's heart tensed.

Just then, those monks and cultivators poured in too. The moment they entered the kitchen they stepped on that ground piled with human bones and almost slipped. The scene was shocking and horrifying, and they all cried out.

"HUH? IT'S A SHADY ESTABLISHMENT!"

"SO ALL THOSE DISHES OUTSIDE…THEY'RE ALL…MADE OF HUMAN FLESH?!"

"I told you I've never seen chicken feet that long!"

Right at the same time, there was another loud rumbling, and a new hole was punched through the ceiling, a white ball crashing down.

"WHAT'S THAT?!" the mob cried.

Soon after, Fu Yao jumped down from that hole too, hurling out over ten yellow talismans from one swing of his hand, yelling, "GET LOST! DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF MY WORK!"

"AH! IT'S THE SKILLED MASTER!" the mob cried.

Then, Lan Chang dragged herself and rolled down too. "STOP HITTING HIM!"

"WHA—! A WOMAN!" the mob cried again.

Those yellow talismans were shooting like iron nails, like flying blades, and while Xie Lian dodged with just a slight shift of his body, Qi Rong couldn't get away, and they all stabbed squarely onto his back.

He wailed pathetically, "GHOST MURDER!!!"

The mob swarmed over and gathered around him to examine the talismans, gasping in awe.

"Wow, what incredible skill in shooting talismans…"

The good ol' kitchen was suddenly squished and crowded, loud and noisy. Fu Yao was chasing that fetus spirit leaping up and down, Lan Chang was chasing after Fu Yao like she had gone mad. Half of Qi Rong's face changed shape by the way Xie Lian was pressing him down on the chopping board, his back turning into a target for those yellow talismans Fu Yao hurled while being observed by a crowd, and Lan Chang would step on him from time to time.

He lamented pathetically, "WHY? WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PEOPLE? WHO ARE YOU? AND WHO ARE YOU? IS NO ONE GONNA LET ME FUCKING EAT??? WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS NO MATTER WHERE I GO??? WHAT DO Y'ALL HAVE AGAINST ME??"

As he wailed, his eyes spun and saw through the collapsed wall of the kitchen to the outside of the inn. Hua Cheng looked like he hadn't noticed the mayhem inside, and was sitting calmly under a tree with enough leisure to build a golden foil palace. Who knows how long he'd been playing around, but before him, there was already a sumptuous little mansion made of over ten gold foils.

Qi Rong instantly changed his tune and yelled at the top of his lungs, "EVERYONE LOOK OUTSIDE, QUICK! THE CRIMSON RAIN SOUGHT FLOWER TURNED INTO A BRAT!!! IF YOU HOLD GRUDGES AGAINST HIM GO NOW!!! DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE, IF YOU PASS THROUGH THIS VILLAGE THERE WON'T BE ANOTHER SHOP…!!!"

Before he finished, a chilling, glistening, bloody butcher knife was thrust into his mouth between his teeth. The handle of the butcher knife was gripped in Xie Lian's hand.

Xie Lian smiled. "Hm? What are you yelling about?"

Qi Rong did not see how Xie Lian was able to thrust that knife into his mouth; he could only feel chill on his lips, and the tip of his tongue sensed there was a sudden, new, extremely sharp object. Although he wasn't hurt, if he tried moving even an inch his mouth was going to bleed, and his voice died in his throat.

However, the crowd had already seen Hua Cheng, who was stacking a golden foil palace far outside the inn.

"IS THAT HIM?!"

"PROBABLY!"

With Guzi in one arm and pulling Ruoye with the other, Xie Lian dashed out to get there before the others. Qi Rong was still bound by Ruoye, and he shrieked as he was dragged along on the ground.

"XIE LIAN YOU DOG FUCKER YOU MUST BE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE AS EVIL AS YOU YOU FAKE WHITE LOTUS AAAAAAHHHHHHHH——"

The mob gathered around.

"Do we…charge?"

"Watch out for trickery. How about we observe first?"

Right at the same time, Hua Cheng finished building the little golden palace, and he rose to his feet. He raised his brows as he side-eyed the little building he constructed, and gently kicked.

Flop, flop, flop, the golden palace collapsed.

And that inn also rumbled as it crumbled.

The illusion was broken. Xie Lian turned back and looked, and behind wasn't some inn, but a collapsed little cottage, the kind that was normal in barren hills such as this. The inn earlier was created by an illusionment spell.

That crowd of monks and cultivators who hadn't yet decided whether to charge out were all crushed under, knocked out by rotten logs and ragged straw. Xie Lian jogged to Hua Cheng's side.

"San Lang, won't using powers like this affect you?"

Hua Cheng waved his hand composedly and those gold foils all disappeared into thin air. "Don't worry, gege, something small like this is nothing."

Just then, a piece of a broken roof moved, and Fu Yao poked out. He pushed a batch of hay away, exclaiming angrily, "YOU'RE NOT BOTHERED, I'M BOTHERED!"

He had finally captured that fetus spirit, yet his vision suddenly went dark. When he looked up, that rotten roof was splitting and caving in, crumbling right on top of him, what a disaster! Fu Yao plucked a piece of straw from his hair and stomped out before Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, glaring at the Hua Cheng who was shorter than him for the moment.

He raged, "YOU…You did this on purpose!"

Hua Cheng blinked but didn't rebuke, but he didn't taunt either, only raising his inky black eyes to look at Xie Lian. Xie Lian immediately dropped his arm, grasped his shoulder and pulled him behind his person.

"No no, surely not. Kids don't know how to control themselves…so sorry, Fu Yao."

Fu Yao watched him in disbelief, with his head full of mussed-up hair. "…Kids? You highness, do you really think I'm so blind as to not recognize who this is?"

Xie Lian replied innocently, "What are you talking about? This is a very normal little kid."

"…"

Fu Yao stared at Hua Cheng and narrowed his eyes, but then behind them came faint creaking sounds. It seemed Lan Chang had also pushed up a piece of roof and crawled out. Fu Yao turned back to her. Xie Lian sighed a breath of relief, putting Guzi on the ground, but as he was doing so, a hesitant voice rang by his ears.

"…Your Highness?"

Xie Lian immediately straightened up. "…Feng Xin?"

It really was Feng Xin on the other end, and it sounded like he also sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness! Your verbal password hasn't changed after all."

Xie Lian soundlessly gave a dry laugh. Eight hundred years ago when he activated the verbal password for the first time, it was "just recite the Ethics Sutra a thousand times"; even eight hundred years later, it had never changed, and Feng Xin actually remembered. Xie Lian remembered the way Feng Xin laughed until he was hoarse when he first heard that verbal password all those years back, and couldn't help but feel nostalgic, even though it wasn't the right time.

"Yes, it hasn't changed. How is it in the Upper Court? Is the Heavenly Emperor informed of the affair with Ling Wen?"

Hua Cheng heard he was talking to a heavenly official of the Upper Court and consciously stepped away, placing his hand on Guzi's forehead to check if he was sick. On the side, Feng Xin's voice grew serious.

"It's not good. He knows. The entire Upper Court is in chaos right now."

Xie Lian sighed. "All the coordination and arrangement of Upper Court affairs has always been managed by Ling Wen, so it couldn't be helped. Could no other civil gods take her place?"

"They have, but they're not effective," Feng Xin said. "Usually they're the most diligent in scorning the Palace of Ling Wen, like they could do the job way better if they had the position. Now that we need them to take up the task, not a single one can do even half of what she does. Just the organization and management of news and information alone made them dizzy; a number of civil gods all dropped and declined the position."

Xie Lian shook his head, and Feng Xin added, "And not just Ling Wen, but something happened to Mu Qing too. He was locked up at first, but he beat up and injured the guarding official and escaped."

"What?!"

Hearing this, on impulse Xie Lian instantly looked to Fu Yao. That black- clad youth was just saying something to Lan Chang, and while there was displeasure on his face, there was more disquiet. Xie Lian walked further away and lowered his voice.

"What happened to Mu Qing? How did it come to this???"

"He wasn't just locked up, the entire Palace of Xuan Zhen has been suspended awaiting investigation," Feng Xin replied. "It was all because of that fetus spirit."

Xie Lian's voice grew softer. "What happened with the fetus spirit? Was he really related to the case?"

"En," Feng Xin said. "All the demons and monsters sealed everywhere have escaped this time; Mu Qing was responsible for the female ghost Lan Chang and that fetus spirit, but he didn't manage to capture them, letting them get away. But during the pursuit, that fetus had pointedly recognized Mu Qing. It said, the one who carved it out from its mother's womb and molded it into a little ghost was Mu Qing."

"That's impossible!" Xie Lian blurted. "No way! Even though Mu Qing is someone…well, he had no reason to do something like this?"

"Who knows," Feng Xin said. "But apparently, there's a wicked cultivation method involving the use of dead babies to accelerate ascension. Now there's a number of people suspecting whether his ascension was also problematic, so they planned to lock him up at first before taking their time to thoroughly investigate all his past actions, yet who knew he couldn't sit still and ran away himself. Now everyone believes he's guilty and escaped because of the crime."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Xie Lian said. "This really isn't right. If Mu Qing was the perpetrator, then why didn't that fetus spirit and Lan Chang recognize him at the Great Martial Hall at first, and had to accuse him during capture? Isn't this very obviously slander?"

"By the time I found out, things had already progressed to this point, so I'm not sure what's really happened either," Feng Xin said. "It seems Lan Chang and the fetus spirit didn't know who the spellcaster was either, but when the little ghost was first molded and emerged, it had a random moment of clarity, broke free of control, and left a scar on that individual. When that fetus spirit was fighting with Mu Qing, it saw there was also a bite mark on Mu Qing's arm, and it was an old wound of hundreds of years."

"…did this bite mark match the teeth of that fetus spirit?" Xie Lian asked.

"A complete match," Feng Xin replied.

"And how did Mu Qing explain this scar?" Xie Lian asked solemnly.

"He's admitted that he'd seen the fetus spirit before," Feng Xin said. "But he doesn't admit himself to be the perpetrator; he states that he saved that fetus spirit out of benevolence but was bitten by it. A confession like this, he might as well not have tried to explain anything."

That was true, only because "helping out of kindness", "loving and protecting children", "doing good without leaving a name", in everyone's minds, these were all things Mu Qing would never do. Mu Qing had always been "lonesome"; he never showed any unnecessary kindness, and didn't really make any intimate friends in the heavens. Now that something had happened, no one would believe him even if he tried to argue, and naturally there was no one to speak on his behalf. This was probably why he chose to run away and investigate the truth himself.

"Things are still out of control here, Your Highness," Feng Xin said. "Where are you? The Heavenly Emperor said the gathering of ghosts is probably unstoppable by now. Hurry back and join the assembly!"

"I'm currently…" Xie Lian started.

Before he continued however, Fu Yao's cold voice suddenly sounded from behind him.

"Who are you talking to?"