Ch.193: White-Clothed Ghost Appoints Black Warrior as General 2

"Your Highness, I will go open the path," Wuming said.

However, Xie Lian stopped him. "No need, I'll do it myself."

Then, he leapt down like a white blossom blown off the tip of a branch by a breeze, and soundlessly landed before the palace hall.

Just as he was about to push open the gates, within the hall came the wailing of a baby.

Lang Ying didn't have any consorts, and his son had died a long time ago, so where did the baby inside the palace come from?

Xie Lian didn't pay it any further mind. Nevermind a baby, even if an army of millions was hidden inside, he wasn't afraid. He raised a leg and kicked open the palace door!

Yet the strange thing was, there was only one person within the great hall; not another soul present, and there certainly was no baby. When that person saw who it was that had come, he raised his head.

"You've come? I've been searching for you."

The one within the palace was Lang Ying.

Although he was now an esteemed king, he wasn't donned in lavish robes, and he sat stiff as a board upon the throne. Xie Lian was puzzled for a moment that this was his reaction, before he realized he was currently wearing funeral garb with a mask on his face. Lang Ying had taken him for White No-Face.

There were arrays set up within this palace hall too, and when Xie Lian crossed the threshold to enter, he could sense there was something blocking his entry. However, he only needed to push his foot down a little heavily before was able to easily step onto the floors within the hall, and the sound of something shattering rang in the air.

The chill of winter and the evening air came pouring in from outside the palace hall, filling Xie Lian's sleeves full of wild winds. He said chillingly, "Why were you searching for me?"

When he heard his voice, Lang Ying's expression changed slightly. "It's you?"

Xie Lian approached slowly, his snow-white boots stepping on the frozen stone floors, step by step. "It is I."

Lang Ying, a brute commoner, led an army and destroyed Xianle. With the aura of the king enveloping his body, ordinary evil wouldn't be able to come close to his person. However, at this moment, what Xie Lian brought with him were millions of souls of those who died on the battlefield!

He refused to believe that Lang Ying would be able to defend himself against such an immense number of ghosts, with such powerful resentment. Sure enough, the resentful spirits were agitated, impatiently ready to break free to seize the fresh new flesh of the enemy as host. It was impossible for anyone to not have heard the sound of their agitation, but Lang Ying didn't appear to be in shock, nor panicking.

"You've come to kill me?"

Xie Lian didn't answer. The next moment, he blitzed right before Lang Yin and gripped his hair, pressing him down onto the ground.

Success!

Under the cry-smiling mask, Xie Lian's lips unconsciously curled up.

He knew it! He knew it! He could now defeat Lang Ying!

Without the bondage of his heavenly official status that made him powerless before this man with the fortune of a king, the him who had thrown away the body of a god could finally defeat Lang Ying. Xie Lian's heart was thumping, and he was just about to move on to the next step when his face dropped abruptly.

"What's that sound?"

Yiieee, wuuuu, he heard that tiny cry of a baby again. But, there was clearly no baby within this great hall!

He listened again. That wasn't right. That crying was coming from the lips of Lang Ying, who was currently subdued under his hand!

Or more accurately, it was from Lang Ying's body. Xie Lian ripped off Lang Ying's robe, and his eyes widened in an instant, jumping to his feet.

"…WHAT IS THIS?!"

Lang Ying slowly flipped over and sat up. "Don't be scared."

Those words weren't directed at Xie Lian, but to the thing on his body.

Upon Lang Ying's chest were two distinct faces, each one about the same size as a real person's face, like two protruding tumours. The big face was elegant and beautiful, easily identified as the appearance of a woman; the small one was a little shriveled, like a baby, and the halting cries had been coming from this baby's lips.

The Human Face Disease!

Xie Lian was dumbfounded. "How are you infected with the Human Face Disease??"

"This isn't the Human Face Disease," Lang Ying said.

"How is this not the Human Face Disease? What is this, if not the Human Face Disease?" Xie Lian exclaimed.

"This is my wife and my son," Lang Ying explained. "They're not the things you described."

He explained in a soft voice as he raised his hand to gently caress the two faces on his body, truly looking like a husband and a father caressing his wife and child. However, those two faces couldn't even open their eyes, and could only open their mouths to cry and sob; they had the shape of humans, but not the form.

A moment later, Lang Ying looked up. "Where's White No-Face? He said my wife would return if I did this, but it's been so long, how come she still can't talk? Just what is going on? Tell him to come find me, quick!"

Hearing this, Xie Lian understood. "You let White No-Face plant the resentful spirits of your wife and son on your body?"

So that was it. All those spells and arrays along the way to the palace weren't to impede anything from intruding, but were to prevent the things hiding within to escape! Lang Ying, who had already become king, was using his own flesh and blood to secretly raise those two resentful spirits!

Xie Lian was here to seek vengeance at first, yet who knew that he didn't even need to do anything, and Lang Ying had already planted the Human Face Disease on himself. Those two faces must've been on his body for a long time now; even tiny arms and feet had grown out, heavily drooping down, deformed and horrifying. Moreover, they had already sucked dry their host's nutrients; Lang Ying's ribs were poking out abnormally, his gut shrunken in, his skin wax-yellow, his form wan and sallow, looking like he didn't have much longer to live. He was no longer the same person as that brave and savage warrior on the battlefield.

It seemed, while he had won the war and became a king, he didn't live that well. Xie Lian didn't feel gratified at all, and he seized Lang Ying.

He exclaimed angrily, "WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS?!"

He hadn't even taken his enemy's life yet, and the enemy was going to die off on his own! What the heck! What should he do??

With this grab, something tumbled down from Lang Ying's person, shimmering red, bounce and bounce, it rolled away. Lang Ying clutched Xie Lian's hands, looking as if such a simple gesture was already something difficult.

He panted, "Pearl…That pearl."

Xie Lian looked over, and what was rolling on the floor was that red coral pearl he had gifted Lang Ying.

Lang Ying said, "I've always wanted to say this to you: thank you for the pearl."

Hearing this, Xie Lian was taken aback. He hadn't thought he'd suddenly say such a thing.

Something within his heart was about to be unearthed, but he forced it down.

"YOU!…"

Lang Ying said softly, "Things would've been better had you given it to me sooner. Unfortunately…"

Before he finished, the body gripped in Xie Lian's hand slackened, and Lang Ying fell just like that with his eyes wide open.

Xie Lian hadn't had the chance to react yet before Wuming said, "Your Highness, he's dead."

"…"

"Dead?" Xie Lian wondered.

He looked down, and Lang Ying's pupils were already going dim. He really did die.

Xie Lian mumbled, "How did he just die?"

He hadn't done anything to Lang Ying yet, how did he just die?

And, now that he thought about it, Lang Ying died fairly happily too. He completed his revenge against Xianle, and carrying his immediate family on his body, he was prepared to go meet them in the underworld. He had suffered enough torment in the living world, so dying was actually a form of release, ending it all. On the contrary, Xie Lian now didn't have anything to avenge against!

His chest was filled with grievance and fury, and in the end they transformed to one single emotion—hate. How despicable! How absolutely despicable!

Lang Ying fell and stopped moving, but the two faces on his chest seemed to have sensed their host was dead, and suddenly started crying. WOO WOO YIIEE YIEE, extremely sharp to the ears, worse than the sound of nails scratching on gold and silver plates. Xie Lian was already going mad from fury. He pulled out that black sword, ready to strike down to shut them up when that black-clad warrior SCHWING, pulled his sabre. The light of the sabre flashed past, and Lang Ying's corpse was instantly chopped into pieces, tens of pieces, hundreds of pieces…flesh and blood splattered.

Xie Lian hadn't yet moved before he was overtaken, and he said cooly, "Who told you to do that?"

"There was no need to dirty Your Highness' hands," Wuming replied.

Just then, sounds of urgent footsteps came from outside the door, and the voice of a young man yelled, "UNCLE!"

Who? Xie Lian turned around and saw the doors of the palace hall were wide open, and a young man of ten-something of age was standing at the entrance, gazing over in this direction. He had a face full of smiles at first, but when he came in and saw chunks of gore covering the floor, he was instantly stupefied.

Xie Lian felt indifferent, and demanded, "Who are you?"

That young man started, "I…" Then his eyes turned, and he gazed at the chunks of dead body on the floor. He exclaimed, "UNCLE!"

Just then, there were more people outside, calling. "Your Royal Highness! Don't run around! The king said you can't run around in the palace! Please don't make things difficult for me in the middle of the night…"

Your Royal Highness?

Lang Ying's son was dead already, and this young man called Lang Ying "uncle". So this must be the new crown prince Lang Ying had established, the Crown Prince of Yong'an!

Things seemed to have dawned on the little crown prince too, and he cried in terror. "GHOSTS! THERE ARE GHOSTS! SOM…"

He hadn't screamed more than a few words before that black-clad warrior struck his neck, and that Crown Prince of Yong'an lost consciousness, falling into that pool of blood on the floor. However, the screams had already reached the outside, and clamouring noises started to rise.

"WHAT? DID YOU ALL HEAR THAT?"

"GUARDS! GUARDS!"

Xie Lian's eyes flicked and that black-clad warrior inclined his head, indicating he would take care of it, and he flashed away. In an instant, all the commotion outside was choked off. Crossing out of the hall, a large number of guards were down on the ground, and that black-clad warrior stood at the centre, that delicate thin sabre dripping with blood. He actually finished them all with but one strike. In the far distance came new sounds of commotion, and a new batch of guards had arrived, shouting.

"PROTECT THE KING!"

"PROTECT HIS HIGHNESS!!"

Xie Lian turned around cooly, ignoring them completely. Sure enough, it didn't take a second before those voices were cut down like a harvest by a scythe, vanishing thoroughly. Soon after, that black-clad warrior soundlessly caught up to him.

Xie Lian turned his head slightly. "Burn the palace."

"Yes sir." Wuming bowed his head.

Roaring flames were set ablaze, and two tall and slender black figures stood before the raging fire, their shadows writhing and contorting continuously on the ground, changing shapes, pulling and twisting.

After causing such havoc, all the attendants within the Yong'an Palace were jolted awake, and the air was filled with the cries and curses of those putting out the fires and those making their escape, very much the same scene as when the Palace of Xianle was set ablaze.

"Your Highness, what do you want to do next?" that black-clad warrior asked.

That white-clothed man said icily, "To Lang-Er Bay."

Before the Kingdom of Xianle fell, Xie Lian had visited Lang-Er Bay countless times. Every time he went, it was to create rain to save the people, his body and heart both exhausted, his steps heavy. This time, it was for a completely different reason, and his body was light.

After surviving through the drought and having gained strong support from the new king, Lang-Er Bay had already revived its liveliness. Streets and alleys were bustling with joy, the people cheerful and happy, a complete one-eighty from the misery of several years ago. Only one place was still miserable like before, and that was the Palace of the Crown Prince of Xianle.

No one would come to a broken- down Palace of the Crown Prince, and so Xie Lian chose this place to rest. At this moment, he was meditating within the palace hall.

Those resentful spirits should've quickly found a host, which would also have been the subject of his revenge. Yet because Lang Ying had already died, they were still struggling in agony, wailing and screeching at Xie Lian relentlessly, and Xie Lian waved them away with his eyes closed.

He frowned. "Just wait, don't be impatient. I will allow all of you to find release!"

Just then, a voice called out, "Your Highness."

Xie Lian opened his eyes, and saw that black-clad warrior was before him, bending one knee to the ground.