Chapter 184: Blocking the Mountain Path; Crown Prince Fails in Robbery

He exhorted over and over to make sure Feng Xin would stay behind to guard the king and the queen while he himself exited the small, dilapidated cottage. As he walked, he kept looking back, his heart racing fast. After walking a long way, he finally relaxed when he was certain Feng Xin didn't follow.

Steadying himself, having walked and stopped for over ten miles, Xie Lian finally found a place he felt was the ideal location – a fairly deserted, secluded mountain road.

Xie Lian scanned his surroundings and there was no one around, then he covered his face with the white silk band, wrapping it tightly and securely around his face before he leapt onto a tree to hide himself. He then held his breath and focused. The next step would to be wait for travelers to pass by.

That's right. His 'way' was the so-called "steal from the rich and give to the poor".

In the past, Xie Lian had only heard of this kind of worldly vigilantes who'd steal from the rich to give to the poor from books and plays; he'd never done it himself, and he never thought to do it, since, his original belief was this: no matter how it was prettied up, no matter how just the reason, robbery was robbery, stealing was stealing. Otherwise, by Xie Lian's physical prowess, nevermind flying across the rooftops to pilfer small things, murdering guards and cleaning out an entire treasury wouldn't be anything difficult.

But now that he'd reached this point, there really was no other way. If he must say so, "to rob" was a teeny bit better than "to steal", probably because the former was still considerably "out in the open". After much internal dilemma, Xie Lian still slapped the face of his former self, and planned to steal others' wealth in order to give to his own poverty.

This was the fastest way!

Xie Lian perched on the tree, the moon hiding the wind bellowing, and it was deserted all around, empty of the living, yet his heart was thumping wildly.

Even when facing the most violent of beasts Xie Lian had never been this nervous. When he dug out a cold and hard bun, he hand was slightly trembling.

If you could still be picky when it came to food, it could only mean you weren't genuinely hungry. When Xie Lian understood this, suddenly he became used to the taste of steamed buns.

Winter was fast approaching and the nights were extremely cold. Xie Lian munched at the cold bun and puffed out mouthfuls of white breaths. Since he didn't want to be seen, Xie Lian never considered a place where there'd be more people, and specifically picked a desolate area. He waited a full four hours before a traveler came strolling slowly from the ends of the mountain road.

Xie Lian was energized, stuffed down that bun in a couple bites, and focused on the traveler who was approaching slowly. Then, he discovered that it was an old man.

Such an elderly old man but he was dressed fresh and bright, so he should be fairly wealthy. However, he was of course not within Xie Lian's scope of consideration. Xie Lian couldn't tell if he was disappointed or relieved, but either way he resolutely decided to ignore the old man and let him go, continuing the wait for the next person.

Two hours later, Xie Lian's feet were going numb from the squatting, his lower half of the body practically frozen before a second person appeared. When he saw that figure was also walking slowly, he wondered, 'Could it be another senior?'

When that figure finally came closer, he discovered it wasn't a senior but a youth.

That youth appeared simple and good-natured, his face covered with smiles, and the reason he was walking so slowly was because he was carrying a heavy bag of rice. Xie Lian's palms were sweating and he said to himself, '...Do I attack?'

After a moment of hesitation, he gave up in the end.

The reason he gave up was because this young man's clothes were patched, the straw shoes on his feet were worn through, exposing his toes, obviously from a poor household. He must've looked so happy because there was finally a bag of rice to fill his stomach, and perhaps his family had starved for many days, and perhaps this bag of rice was bought after selling the only ox in his household. If he was robbed, wouldn't he fall into despair?

Xie Lian imagined all sorts of scenarios on his own, and it wasn't until after did he thought maybe he could've just taken half a bag of rice, but by then that young man was long gone. Thus, Xie Lian resolutely decided that he wouldn't think of it anymore, and continue to wait until the next one.

He perched on this tree like this and waited helplessly for many hours, from the darkened night to the break of day. In that time, there were over a dozen passersby who passed through this mountain road, yet every time when Xie Lian was about to attack, there were always all sorts of reasons why it'd be inappropriate to do so and he'd let them go. Many times he'd thought, nevermind! Just go back! There were no bandits who'd rob like him at all; it'd be a miracle if he was actually fruitful. But, when he thought of how there was no more food nor medicine if he went back, he forced himself to keep waiting.

After almost half a day, finally, far in the distance of the mountain road came the last traveler.

It was a middle aged man, donned in fine clothing, neither wealthy nor noble, his appearance savage and greasy, rather obnoxious, and Xie Lian could tell he wasn't anyone good with just a glance.

But, one mustn't judge a book by its cover, Xie Lian couldn't help but think, 'What if this man only appears savage but he's actually a good person? Even if he's loaded, did that warrant getting robbed?'

As he was fighting his internal struggles, a sudden growling sound from his stomach woke him from his stupor, and Xie Lian sighed inwardly, 'Nevermind, I can't bother with that much. You're it!'

Making up his mind, he leapt down from the tree and shouted, "STAND STILL!"

To have a masked man cutting off the road halfway, that man was surprised and he cried in alarm, "Who are you? Hiding here sneakily with your face hidden, what are you planning??"

Xie Lian forced himself to say, "...GIVE... GIVE..." But in the end there was a hurdle in his mind, and he stammered a couple times before finally squeezing out – "GIVE ME ALL THE MONEY ON YOUR PERSON!"

That man widened his mouth, leapt three feet high, and screamed, "SOMEBODY! HELP! ROBBERS!" Then he turned and ran. More than his escape, Xie Lian was even more worried that his cries would alert others, and while the place was in fact already a desolate, barren mountain and there was a low chance of anyone showing up, even if anyone did show up he could just flee, but thieves had guilty conscience after all, and Xie Lian immediately yelled, "STOP! DON'T YELL ANYMORE!"

As if that man would listen to him. He fled and fled and ran into the woods, then yelped "AIYOH!" tragically. Xie Lian was afraid there were beasts in the woods attacking the man and quickly cried, "WAIT! Watch out!..." Yet unexpectedly, when he caught up and saw, he was instantly stupefied, his face blanching rapidly.

Within the woods were already a group of people, and they were all looking in his direction. When Xie Lian looked closer, he noticed something off. They weren't people at all. That middle aged man didn't see them at all, and was still in a panic, and, within that group, there seemed to be some familiar faces.

Of course they were familiar. He had seen a number of them in the Heavenly Capital before in the past, some from the Upper Court, some from the Lower Court. They were all heavenly officials!

That man yelped tragically earlier because he tripped and fell, and his hands were gripping a large bundle of protection charms while he chanted to himself, "My god, my god! Come save me! Come save me quick!" And the 'gods' that he was crying for really came as he wished.

Right at this moment, countless heavenly officials' eyes were all staring at Xie Lian intently, freezing him on the spot with their gaze. When that man saw the strange masked robber was frozen in a daze, he quickly crawled up and ran off. Xie Lian couldn't move a step to go give chase; his entire body was stiff, drenched in cold sweat, his heart filled with horror.

That's right. Horror.

He could only pray this white silk band was wrapped around his face tightly enough that those little heavenly officials he'd acquainted in the past wouldn't recognize him. However, things would never go as one hoped, and one of the heavenly officials looked him up and down before he said in surprise, "...Isn't this... your royal highness?"

"..."

Another heavenly official was even more shocked, "Ah, it really is! Why is Your Highness here? And dressed like this too?"

Xie Lian's heart was sinking deeper and deeper, it was going to sink into the bottom of the earth.

"That man earlier was screaming 'help' 'robbery' 'robber'? A robber is chasing him? That robber is... Your Highness?!"

"My heavens! Your Highness.. You would actually do something like this?!"

Hearing this, Xie Lian almost fainted on the spot. He didn't know how much time went by before he croaked, "I..."

He wanted to say something but words were not coming out, stuck in his throat. The faces of those heavenly officials were also unreadable. A moment later, one of the heavenly officials patted his shoulder,"Don't worry, don't worry, Your Highness, we understand."

Xie Lian received those pats on the shoulder, they weren't hard, but he almost lost his balance, and he tried again, "I..."

That heavenly official laughed out loud, "You're only doing this because you've got it really hard, it's understandable. Don't you worry, we won't tell anyone about this."

The reason why things were so hard to say was also because of this reason. Since the other party said it out loud first, then he completely didn't know what else he could add. It was a moment later before he mumbled, "...Alright, thank you. Then, I'm... I'm going to head back now. I'm leaving."

He didn't know how he left either. Either way, when he was finally conscious of himself, he was already standing at an empty mountain road again, and it was the cold night breeze of winter that snapped him out.

Only then did Xie Lian finally realize just what a horrifying thing had happened just now.

He, Xie Lian, the Crown Prince of XianLe – a robber?!

How did it come to this?!

The Xie Lian at this moment was filled with regrets; the him of the past must've been mad to have thought of robbing on the roads, and now things were out of control. Why was he so unlucky that while nothing was accomplished, he'd get caught red handed?

Xie Lian had never encountered something like this in his past life so he was at a complete loss on what to do. He was burning up from head to toe, his mind completely muddled, and he hid his face in his hands. If time could go backwards, he was even willing to use his bountiful health and cultivation to exchange for it. Just as he was deep in distraught, in his peripheral vision there was suddenly a blurry white silhouette up ahead, and Xie Lian was instantly startled, whipping his head up, "WHO GOES THERE?!"

When he looked up, that figure instantly disappeared, and cold sweat covered his body again.

Although he didn't see that man's face, but, he still felt, on the face of that man seemed to have been a mask!

Nevertheless, after scanning his surroundings, he didn't see traces of anyone, and Xie Lian couldn't help but suspect perhaps the figure he saw was nothing but a hallucination in his moment of panic. Whether if it was, he didn't dare to stay there any longer and hurried down the mountain.

After he returned, Feng Xin had already waited up for him for almost half a day, and the moment he saw him he exclaimed, "Your Highness, where did you run off to? What ideas did you come up with?"

Xie Lian didn't dare tell him. He couldn't tell anyone, especially Feng Xin. Xie Lian couldn't imagine at all what Feng Xin, who had believed so faithfully in his utmost righteousness and morals, would think if he should find out. He could only hope that that incident would be forever buried in his heart and rot in his stomach. Thus, Xie Lian replied ambiguously, "Nothing."

Feng Xin was astonished, "Huh? Then why have you gone for so long?"

Xie Lian's mind was going numb, "Don't ask anymore. I didn't do anything,"

Feng Xin was bewildered, but no matter how he questioned Xie Lian refused to answer, so as the servant it wasn't his place to push and could only say in a whisper, "So do we still go busk tomorrow?"

"I'm not going out anymore." Xie Lian replied.

He was now thrown in complete chaos, his mind filled with impossible worries: What if he bumped into that middle aged man? What if the entire city was now searching for him? Feng Xin also noticed him looking off, and said, "You must be tired? Then how about this, Your Highness, just stay in. I'll go myself. You just focus on training."

However, he didn't know that Xie Lian now had no mind to train and cultivate either.

Xie Lian was focused on cultivation at first, because that was the only way there might be a chance of returning to the Upper Court. Yet now, he was terrified of the prospect of returning to the Upper Court.

Although those junior officials said they wouldn't tell anyone, but would they really not tell? Could this affair have already reached the ears of everyone in the heavens?

When he thought this was a possibility, Xie Lian couldn't breathe. There was absolutely no way he could endure being branded with this, to be pointed at by the entire upper and lower court, by the entire mortal realm, even!

In his exhaustion, Xie Lian passed out heavily. This slumber was unsettled, and he turned back and forth, invaded by unknown nightmares, and when he jolted awake in shock and looked outside the window, the skies were already dark.

Feng Xin wasn't around; he must've went out to busk on his own and hadn't yet returned, and in the room next to him came the hushed voices and soft coughing of the king and queen. Xie Lian laid on the floor. Now that he was awake, he couldn't help keep thinking, if that incident really was spread around, how would his parents react if they found out? How shocked would they be? The king might stomp his feet in outrage, yelling as he spat blood that he was the shame of XianLe. The queen on the other hand would definitely not yell at him, but she would for sure be extremely anguished, because the child she loved most brought them shame.

Having thought this, Xie Lian was having trouble breathing again. He needed to find somewhere where he can be by himself and be calm, so he rolled off of the straw mat and charged out, running blindly for over ten miles with the frigid winds blowing at his face.

He didn't dare stop anywhere where there were people, because he constantly felt the others were staring at him, judging him for how unkempt he was. Finally, he came to a graveyard with not a single soul before he stopped in his step,

This night was colder than the night before, and only having come here did Xie Lian notice that his cheeks and hands were practically frostbitten, his body shivering. It wasn't just the cold; there was also horror and panic. Xie Lian hugged his arms unconsciously, puffed a few mouthfuls of hot air, swept his eyes and discovered right before a tombstone were two jars of wine being offered.

It seemed, the master of this tombstone was someone who loved wine when they were alive, so after death, the others would bring them wine when they came to sweep the grave. Xie Lian crouched down. He had never drunken wine before, but he had heard people say that wine could warm the body and could help forget. After a moment's hesitation, he suddenly reached for a wine jar, yanked the clog off and started dunking the contents down his throat.

This wine wasn't any fine wines, cheap and large in quantity, the taste pungent and strong. Xie Lian swallowed a few large mouthfuls and started choking on it, coughing, but he really did seem to have gotten a bit warmer. Thus, Xie Lian wiped at his cheek and sat himself down on the ground, hugged the jar and continued to chug the wine in large mouthfuls.

In his daze, he seemed to have noticed a small ball of haunting little ghost fire come flying out, going around in circles around him twirling about, looking quite anxious. Xie Lian only cared to focus on his drinking and didn't look like he saw at all. That ball of ghost fire appeared to be using all of its might to come close to him, but because it was nothing but hollowed flames, every time it came near, it would always just pass right through his body, never able to actually touch him.

Upon finishing a jar, Xie Lian was already tipsy and groggy, his drunken eyes slackened. When he saw it darting here and there, looking rather pitiful but also really funny, he couldn't help but "pfft" and laugh out loud, his arm resting on the edges of the wine jar, "What are you doing?"

That ball of ghost fire instantly froze in mid air.