Poking the Ghost King, The Crown Prince Seeks Truth

Xie Lian, "Blood Rain Seeking Flower?"

Hua Cheng, "Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Xie Lian turned around with a smile. "It's the first time I've heard you address me this way."

The youth in red sat on the straw woven mat, one leg casually bent before him. Likewise, he was also smiling. "How does it feel?"

Xie Lian thought for a moment, then admitted frankly, "It feels.... rather different from when others call me that."

"Hm, how is it different?" Hua Cheng asked.

Xie Lian tilted his head, his eyes narrowed contemplatively as he said, "I'm not too sure, it's just..."

When others greet him as 'Your Royal Highness', it was either perfunctory and detached in nature, such as Ling Wen¹. Or, like the vast majority, the title 'Your Royal Highness' would be squeezed out between smiles which contained more teeth than sincerity. Such as when one called a hag a beauty, their seemingly courteous greetings were deliberate and carried a heavy flavour of mockery and derision.

But when Hua Cheng called him 'Your Royal Highness', there was a deep sense of reverence in it. Therefore, Xie Lian could not help but think that Hua Cheng's way of addressing him as 'Your Royal Highness' sounded markedly different, although he was hard-pressed to put this feeling into words.

"At Mount Yu Jun," Xie Lian said. "The bridegroom who led me away was you, right?"

Hua Cheng's lips curled up in a smirk. Xie Lian then realized how ambiguous his words seemed and hastened to correct himself. "I mean, the one who posed as the bridegroom at Mount Yu Jun to lead me away was you right?"

But Hua Cheng said, "I did not pose as a bridegroom."

Well, he wasn't exactly wrong. At that time, the youth indeed did not try to deceive Xie Lian by claiming to be the bridegroom. In fact, he didn't say a single word at all. He only stopped in front of the wedding sedan and stretched out his hand. It was Xie Lian himself who had willingly followed him!

Xie Lian said, "Alright. Why were you at Mount Yu Jun then?"

Hua Cheng said, "There can only be two possible answers to your question: First, I went there expressly to seek out Your Royal Highness; second, I was just passing by and felt bored. Which do you think is more likely?"

Considering the number of days the youth had spent idling by his side, Xie Lian said, "I would not presume to say which is more likely... but you really do seem to have much free time on your hands."

His eyes traveled over Hua Cheng, then flitted back up. After a long while, he nodded. "You... are somewhat different from how the legends portray you."

Hua Cheng changed his posture but his cheek remained propped on one hand as he gazed at Xie Lian attentively. "Oh? Then how did Your Royal Highness deduce that I am Blood Rain Seeking Flower?"

Xie Lian's mind conjured the memories of the bloody rain pattering down on the parasol, the silvery chimes of metal on metal, and the icy cold touch of the vambraces. You weren't exactly taking pains to conceal your identity, he thought.

What he said was, "No matter how we tested you, you were absolutely foolproof. That must mean you have already reached the 'Devastation' state. You're clad entirely in crimson, like maple leaves, like blood. You seemed omniscient and omnipotent, absolutely fearless. With such a bearing, asides from the 'Blood Rain Seeking Flower' who could make the Heavenly Officials' faces fall at the mere mention of his name, I can't really think of anyone else."

Hua Cheng laughed. "Should I take your words as flattery?"

Xie Lian thought, Isn't it already obvious?

Hua Cheng's smile faded a little. "Your Highness, pretty words aside, aren't you going to ask about my purpose for approaching you?"

Xie Lian shook his head. "If you do not mean to tell me, it would be no use for me to ask. That, or you may not be telling me the truth."

But Hua Cheng said, "Not necessarily. Moreover, you can always drive me away."

Xie Lian replied, "With someone as powerful as yourself, even if I were to drive you away, should you really mean me harm, you could simply change your appearance and approach me again, no?"

The two of them looked at each other and smiled. Suddenly, a rattling sound shattered the brief moment of silence that had fallen in the Pu Qi Shrine. The two of them turned towards the source of the noise, only to see a small, black clay pot rolling around on the ground.

It was the small clay pot in which Ban Yue had been housed. Xie Lian had originally placed it by the straw mat, but now it had somehow toppled over and was rolling towards the door. The wooden door which Hua Cheng made blocked its path, and the clay pot began knocking against it. Worried that it would knock itself to pieces, Xie Lian opened the door. The little clay pot then rolled itself all the way out till it reached the grass.

Xie Lian followed the pot. When the pot reached the grassy turf, it righted itself. Despite being nothing more than a pot, it somehow gave one the impression that it was gazing up at the starry night sky.

Hua Cheng also followed him out of the Pu Qi Shrine. Xie Lian spoke to the pot, "Ban Yue, you're awake?"

Fortunately, it was already very late when they returned from the desert. Otherwise, there would be people witnessing Xie Lian standing outside in the middle of the night, asking a clay pot if it was feeling alright. No doubt such a peculiar sight would have stirred them to a tizzy.

After a beat, a muffled voice came from the little clay pot. "General Hua."

Xie Lian settled himself down beside the pot. "Ban Yue, did you come out to look at the stars? How about you come out of the pot first."

Hua Cheng stood nearby, leaning against a tree. "She just left Ban Yue City, it's better if she stays inside a little while longer," he said.

After all, Ban Yue had been staying within the confines of the Ban Yue City for over two hundred years. It may be difficult for her to adapt to the sudden change in surroundings.

"Then it's best if you stay inside for a bit longer," Xie Lian agreed. "Rest and recuperate. This place is my sanctum, you don't have to worry about anything else."

The pot shook twice in reply. After a moment's consideration, Xie Lian added, "Ban Yue, none of what happened was actually your fault. Your Scorpion-Tailed snakes were..."

Ban Yue said, "General Hua. I couldn't move previously, but I could hear everything."

Xie Lian went still at her words. Then he realized that Pei Su had only sealed her ability to move, but had not sealed her consciousness. "Alright then."

It's just as well that she'd heard everything.

The pot asked, "General Hua, what will happen to General Pei Junior?"

Xie Lian tucked his hands into his sleeves, sighing, "I don't know. But... one should accept the punishment for one's crimes."

The pot was silent for a long while, then it shook twice again. This time, Xie Lian finally figured out that this wobble was meant to convey a nod.

"Actually, General Pei Junior is not as bad as you think," Ban Yue offered.

"Is that so?"

"En²," Ban Yue said. "He's helped me before."

And suddenly, more memories flooded into Xie Lian's mind.

Ban Yue had been frequently beaten up. To quote the words of some Yong'an children, she "has a face that's just asking for it".

Xie Lian only found out about this long after getting to know her. Because no matter how many beatings Ban Yue had suffered, she would never tell anyone. It wasn't until Xie Lian happened to come across a group of children shoving her face down into the mud that he realized how the bruises on her face came to be.

But after a while, when he asked her about the incident again, she could only remember the boy who had pulled her out of the mud pit and lent her a handkerchief to wipe her face, and that she must wash the handkerchief before returning it to him. The rest had all been forgotten.

She could not remember those who had hit her. But anyone who has helped her would be engraved in her memory for a lifetime.

Ban Yue added, "Ke Mo accused me of being charmed by him, that I was but a tool used by others. But regardless of whether I had been used or not, I had willingly opened the city gates."

Xie Lian did not know what to say, but he felt a corner of his heart suddenly soften.

He hurriedly patted the pot consolingly and said, "Alright, it's all in the past now. By the way, Ban Yue. 'Hua Xie' was just a name I made up, and I have not been a general for a very long time. You don't have to keep calling me General Hua."

Ban Yue asked, "What should I call you then?"

This question posed another problem. If Ban Yue calls him 'Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince' with her usual earnest fervour, it would definitely feel more than a little peculiar. Xie Lian is not a stickler for titles, and had only been trying to change the subject. He backtracked, "Never mind, it's up to you. General Hua is fine too."

It's just that, there really is someone with the surname 'Hua' here as well, so things may get confusing if she goes about calling 'General Hua'. Xie Lian's brows furrowed lightly. 'Hua Xie' was a name he made up by taking the first word from ' Flower³ Crown Martial God' as his surname. Could 'Hua Cheng' be a pseudonym as well? For the both of them to pick the same word as their surnames seems a rather strange and quirky coincidence.

He heard Ban Yue say again, "I'm sorry, General Hua."

Xie Lian reined back his wandering thoughts and said a little glumly, "Ban Yue, why do you keep apologizing to me?" Does his appearance somehow evoke too much pity in people?

Ban Yue said, "I wanted to save the common people."

Xie Lian: "........."

Ban Yue, "General Hua, these were your words back then."

Xie Lian: "? ? ?"

He immediately clutched the pot, flustered. "Wait, wait!"

Ban Yue, "Wait for what?"

Xie Lian snuck a quick peek at Hua Cheng who was still leaning against the tree with his arms crossed, before lowering his voice in a whisper, "Did I really say something like that?"

Such pompous words were certainly something that he had loved to recite back when he was in his teens, but after a couple hundred years it should never have crossed his lips again. Hearing this sentence again out of the blue felt too incredible for him to accept.

But Ban Yue insisted, "General, these were your words."

Xie Lian protested weakly, "I didn't..."

Ban Yue continued mercilessly, "Oh yes, you did. Once, you asked me what I wanted to do once I grew up. I said I didn't know, and you said, How could that be? I asked, What about you? And you said, When I was a kid, my dream was to save the common people!"

"..."

So that's how it was. Xie Lian was horrified. "This! Ban Yue, why would you still remember such nonsense!"

Ban Yue said, "Was it nonsense? But General Hua, I think you meant every word you said."

Xie Lian looked up at the moon helplessly. "Haha... is that so. Maybe. I can't really remember what I said back then."

Ban Yue added helpfully, "You also said, 'Always do what you think is right!', 'Nothing can stand in your way!', 'Even if you fall a hundred times, you must get back up a hundred times!'. And many more."

"Pfft..."

Xie Lian didn't have to turn around to know that Hua Cheng was definitely laughing at him under the tree.

It's too late for Xie Lian to stopper up the pot now anyway. He thought, ...what utter nonsense... why did I like saying such things? ...I'm not that kind of person... am I that kind of person? ?

"But, I don't know what is right and what is wrong anymore," Ban Yue said.

Xie Lian went still at her words.

"I dreamed of saving the common people, like what General Hua said. But I ended up destroying the Ban Yue nation."

Ban Yue sounded bewildered and lost. "And it seemed like no matter what I did... the outcomes were always terrible. General Hua, I know what I did was wrong, but can you tell me where I went wrong? What must I do before I can accomplish what you said... to save the common people?"

"..."

"I'm sorry Ban Yue," Xie Lian murmured. "How to save the common people... I didn't have the answer to this back then, and I still don't have the answer now."

Ban Yue was silent for a moment, then said, "To be honest General Hua, I don't really know what I've been doing these two hundred years. I'm such a failure."

Xie Lian felt even more depressed. He thought, I've been muddling along blindly for eight hundred years, am I not a bigger failure...?

Leaving Ban Yue to calm down and quietly contemplate the stars alone in the pot, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng went back into the Pu Qi Shrine.

After closing the door, Xie Lian suddenly spoke up, "Ban Yue stayed willingly in the Ban Yue pass, not because she had turned into a Wrath⁴. That's why she was trapped there."

From the start, she could not forget that she was the one who had opened the city gates, and had never tried to justify her actions with excuses such as 'for the good of the people'. In order to help the soldiers of the Ban Yue nation vent their grievances and move on sooner, she allowed Ke Mo and his soldiers to capture and kill her over and over again.

Xie Lian shook his head. "In fact, if General Pei Junior had really wanted to get rid of those Ban Yue soldiers and avoid discovery by the Upper Court of Heaven, he could have just quietly sent a puppet down to clean up those Ban Yue soldiers. Why did he have to use such a method instead."

Hua Cheng said, "The powers of a puppet are greatly decreased. You've seen that puppet that Pei Su created, Ah Zhao. It wasn't able to eliminate that many Ban Yue soldiers in one go. Feeding them with living flesh and blood to disperse their resentment is simpler and a great deal quicker."

Xie Lian asked, "Why was it so important to be quick?"

Hua Cheng replied, "Maybe he wants your little friend Ban Yue to suffer fewer hangings."

Xie Lian was silent for a moment. "What about those mortals then?"

Hua Cheng's voice dipped. "To Heavenly Officials, the lives of mortals are insignificant. Pei Su is a typical example of a Heavenly Official from the Upper Court. As long as he is not discovered, snuffing out the lives of a few hundred people is no different from trampling a few hundred ants."

Xie Lian gazed at him quietly. He recalled how after San Lang had jumped down into the Sinners' Pit, the Ban Yue soldiers inside had been wiped out in the span of a single breath. He turned around, saying, "A puppet's powers will be decreased, you say? From what I've seen though, this puppet of yours is pretty incredible."

San Lang quirked a brow at him. "Of course. You're looking at the real thing."

Shocked, Xie Lian spun back around. "Huh? This is your true self?"

Hua Cheng deadpanned, "Guaranteed genuine, otherwise returnable."

If anyone was to blame for what happened next, it was that Hua Cheng's words and expression seemed to be inviting a potential buyer to verify the authenticity of his goods. And so, before Xie Lian even realized what he was doing, he had already lifted a finger and given Hua Cheng's cheek a poke.

Then Xie Lian came to himself with a horrified start.

He had only been overly curious about what the skin of a Ghost King would feel like, and his body had not consulted with his brain first before acting. After the poke, he was mortified.

Hua Cheng seemed faintly startled by the poke to his face as well, but he remained calm and his expression quickly smoothed out again. He said nothing, his brows lifted even higher as he looked at Xie Lian expectantly, as if waiting for an explanation, amusement evident in his eyes.

Of course, Xie Lian was not able to come up with a plausible excuse for his behavior. He stared at his own finger for a long moment, then tucked it away out of sight. "...Not bad."

Hua Cheng finally burst out laughing. Folding his arms over his chest, he tilted his head at Xie Lian. "What's not bad? Do you mean that this skin is not bad?"

Xie Lian said sincerely, "Yea, it's pretty good. But..."

Hua Cheng, "But?"

Xie Lian gazed at his face fixedly and hesitated. Finally, he said, "But can I see what you really look like?"

Since Hua Cheng had said "this skin" just now, it shows that even though his presence was genuine, he was wearing a different skin. This appearance of a youngster is not his true form.

This time, Hua Cheng did not answer immediately. He lowered his arms by his sides. It may be Xie Lian's imagination, but his eyes seemed to grow darker. Xie Lian's heart tightened.

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Translator Notes:

¹Quick reminder. Ling Wen is one of the Civil goddesses, and the first person to greet Xie Lian during his third ascension.

²En is a sound of agreement or affirmation. If there is a question mark before it, En?, then it's a sound of inquiry.

³Huā means Flower, General Hua = General Flower. In Chapter 4, it is stated that XL's statues of worship were sculpted with lots and lots of flowers because.... he is pretty. So he ended up with the sobriquet "Flower Crown Martial God". Hua Cheng = Flower City

⁴Ghosts are ranked as Fierce, Severe, Wrath, and Devastation. In this context, it infers that Ban Yue was not shackled by her grievances, but her desire for atonement.