In the Cannibal's Lair, Ghost King Faces Heavenly Officials 2
Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but was still immensely grateful, "Lord Wind Master, you're mistaken. It actually..."
He wanted to explain that Hua Cheng didn't come looking for paybacks because of Paradise Manor, but Shi Qingxuan was throwing him guileful looks, as if telling him to not speak a word. Hua Cheng didn't argue either, and raised his voice, "I haven't even counted the whole incident with Jun Wu setting up a spy under my eyes, so there's nothing to talk about."
Xie Lian finally understood. Shi Qingxuan could already see that Hua Cheng had no bad intentions, and all this was but an act using Hua Cheng's kidnapping him as his seeking revenge, so the heavens wouldn't talk and say instead it was Xie Lian who had run away. Hua Cheng had understood Shi Qingxuan's intent too, and cooperated. However, Xie Lian didn't want to go this route, "Alright, stop acting. He only came to the heavens to save me. San Lang had good intentions, so why hide it?"
"No more acting." Shi Qingxuan replied, "I already sent those two exchanges to the communication array. You don't understand; no matter how good the intention, after being passed around, words will always end up becoming negative, so they might as well be negative from the start."
"You get it." Hua Cheng commented.
"Of course! Otherwise how could I, the Lord Wind Master, be so popular in the heavens?" Shi Qingxuan preened, "General Nan Yang, lower your bow."
However Feng Xin still had the bow pulled at almost full strength, holding his breath and not saying a word. Shi Qingxuan smacked him, "Put it down, can't you see they're close? Nothing bad's gonna happen."
Feng Xin said in a low voice, "Your Highness, the one next to you is a 'Supreme'..."
Seeing that his tension wouldn't drop, his bow unlowered, Shi Qingxuan suddenly rammed herself into his arm.
Instantly, Feng Xin's face paled, worse than if he were to see a ghost by a million fold, and screamed, the string of spiritual arrow dissipating powerlessly like clouds. He opened his mouth and a long string of loud curses came out, distressed to the core,
"WHAT THE FUCK!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!!!!"
Turns out, Shi Qingxuan had used her bosoms to ram into his arm, the one holding the arrow. That blow had thoroughly terrified Feng Xin. Shi Qingxuan swung her whisk back, elegantly carefree, looking as if she hadn't just done anything inappropriate. "I haven't even asked you what YOU are doing. I just said that Crimson Rain Sought Flower came to save His Highness, and you still point at him with your arrow. If you want to fight him so badly, well I won't help you."
Feng Xin had already backed away for a million miles, looking like he would never approach her again, and cried in dismay, "DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT EVER AGAIN!!! EVER!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!"
Watching him avoid her like snakes, Shi Qingxuan, who was so confident about her ethereal beauty, actually felt rather depressed, "Ok, ok, ok. I won't do it again. It's not like you suffered any loss, what's with that reaction?" As if feeling she'd lost face, Shi Qingxuan changed back to a man and turned around, "Eh? Where's Qianqiu?"
Hearing his words, Feng Xin finally composed himself somewhat, and looked around too. Xie Lian "Ah"-ed and said, "He's not in the communication array?"
"No?" Shi Qingxuan answered, "After he rolled the dice and left, we haven't heard a single peep. I asked him multiple times what the correct roll was but he never responded. Before when I talk to Qianqiu he'd always respond really fast, and not just to me but to all other officials regardless of ranking. So weird."
Xie Lian huffed a sigh, "His Highness Tai Hua left to chase after Qi Rong."
The other two were taken aback, "Qi Rong?"
"Yea." Xie Lian replied, "This place here is Qi Rong's lair. Sigh, in any case..."
Feng Xin cut in, "Wait. Why did His Highness Tai Hua go pursue Qi Rong? Didn't he come chasing after you?"
"No reason," Hua Cheng answered from behind, "He was chasing the real mastermind behind the Gilded Banquet bloodshed, and the only thing his royal highness did was wipe after that murderer's ass. Lang Qianqiu found out the truth, and went chasing after the real culprit. That's all."
Feng Xin was shocked, "The real culprit? Is this the truth?!"
Xie Lian felt it really wasn't the time and place to explain all the complex details and shook his head, "It's not that simple. I'll explain more when we get back."
Shi Qingxuan, although ignorant of the inside story, was joyous, "I knew there was a misunderstanding in all of this! I've such godly premonitions! Now even if you return you would no longer be detained!"
"Good!" Feng Xin said too, looking like he was greatly relieved. He put away his bow and the tension he had also significantly decreased. Hua Cheng on the other hand, only snorted coldly.
"Had you known?" Xie Lian asked Feng Xin, "That Qi Rong was that Qi Rong?"
Feng Xin asked, "Which Qi Rong? Who?" Then startled, "The one we knew?"
"So you didn't realize it was him either?" Xie Lian remarked.
Feng Xin's face went dark, "No. I've never run into the Green Ghost himself, and had
always assumed the name was just a coincidence. What kind of dumbass would run around with his real name? That's crazy!" But the moment the words left his mouth, he instantly remembered that Qi Rong was indeed crazy, and his eyes met Xie Lian's, both falling silent in mutual understanding.
Long before the two had ascended, Feng Xin had despised Qi Rong. Qi Rong was the son of the younger sister to Xie Lian's mother, the last queen of Xianle. He grew up in the royal palace, spent his days clinging to Xie Lian, and as Xie Lian's personal guard, Feng Xin of course saw Qi Rong frequently. He was young, immature, bullheaded, energetic, extreme, and the worst thing was, as royalty, no one dared to educate or discipline him. It was easy to imagine just how lawless he was.
He used to always hang around on his lips the words: "My cousin the Crown Prince is perfect!" "My cousin something something". If anyone were to be even remotely disrespectful to Xie Lian, or had given him a sliver of a problem, it wouldn't matter who it was, Qi Rong would surely bag that person with a gunny sack and beat them to death.
He had never in his mind any care or respect for the old, the handicapped, or the young.
There was even once Xie Lian saved a child not over ten years of age from under Qi Rong's hands. The poor boy was beaten to a bloody pulp; miserable to the bone. Yet, Xie Lian was mindful of Qi Rong's lineage, plus he was genuinely on Xie Lian's side, so Xie Lian had never disciplined him physically. But if it was only lectures, Qi Rong wouldn't change no matter how many times he was scolded, and caused a lot of headaches.
Feng Xin was a much more straightforward person, not as patient like Xie Lian, and constantly disputed with Qi Rong, disobeying his commands. And so, Qi Rong also despised him, and would always come up with new ways to get him in trouble, forcing him to run unreasonable errands. Moreover, after Xie Lian had ascended, Qi Rong became even more preposterous, like if anyone were to spit before the Palace of the Crown Prince, he would try and force burning hot coal down their throat. To prevent him from going too far, Feng Xin had to descend frequently to clean up after him. Truly aggravating! He'd always tell Xie Lian: "Qi Rong's crazy, and he's gonna incite chaos one day!"
"If it was really him, then it's no surprise that he'd done it." Feng Xin said.
Shi Qingxuan was curious, "What, do you all know the Green Ghost??"
Xie Lian nodded, "He's my little cousin."
Shi Qingxuan was shocked, and crossed his arms, "Well ain't that something else."
"He is quite something else." Xie Lian agreed.
"I'm not talking about him," Shi Qingxuan said, "I'm talking about you! Your Highness, look at you: the Martial gods of the Southeast and Southwest are both your old buddies, the Martial God of the East is your disciple, that Night-Touring Green Lantern is your little cousin, the Crimson Rain Sought Flower is your sworn brother, and I, Lord Wind Master, am your friend. Ain't that something?"
Xie Lian smiled, thinking the Wind Master certainly had a breezy character befitting of his title; the moment the wind blew, all the gloomy clouds dispersed. However, when Hua Cheng and Feng Xin heard "the Crimson Rain Sought Flower is your sworn brother", both showed a disagreeing expression. Hua Cheng raised his brows, and Feng Xin knitted his.
After a moment, Feng Xin turned to Xie Lian, "If there's nothing else, you best hurry back to the Heavenly Court. Many of the heavenly officials still have no idea what happened in that ruckus, and are still waiting above. Jun Wu should be informed by now. You need to report back and give them a proper account."
Hearing his words, Hua Cheng laughed out loud.
"What're you laughing at??" Feng Xin demanded.
"And here I wondered how straightforward you are, but turns out you like to beat around the bush too." Hua Cheng said, "You just don't want His Highness to associate with the likes of demons and ghosts, why not just say so openly? Think it's not your place?"
Xie Lian cleared his throat softly, "San Lang..."
"As long as you're aware that he shouldn't be associating with the likes of demons and ghosts." Feng Xin said coldly.
Hua Cheng made no indication of agreeing or disagreeing with that sentiment, and Xie Lian intercepted, responding to Feng Xin quietly, "I will report in and give a proper account, but right now there are more important things at hand. Qi Rong had hidden in his lair over three hundred humans for feeding. Thanks to San Lang's help, they were all saved. There's currently a number of little ghosts left that needs taken care of. I will return to the heavens as soon as that's done."
"It won't be good to take too long. Let me deal with this." Feng Xin said.
Hua Cheng nodded, "By heaven's efficiency, you'll probably finish this by next month."
"You say that as if you can handle this in a second." Feng Xin said.
The two glared at each other. Shi Qingxuan asked Xie Lian with his eyes: Did something happen between the two of them? But Xie Lian only shook his head. He was about to change the subject when Hua Cheng took out an umbrella from who knows where. The umbrella was crimson red like maple leaves, vivid like fire. Hua Cheng raised it with one hand and covered over himself and Xie Lian, reflecting a blushing red on their faces.
This must be the same umbrella that Hua Cheng used to shield them through the hanging corpse forest at Mount YuJun. However, it wasn't raining at the moment so Xie Lian was curious, "San Lang, why did you open an umbrella?"
Hua Cheng looked to him, and shifted the umbrella more to Xie Lian's side, smiling, "Just wait. The sky's about to change."
Just as he finished his sentence, it suddenly poured from the sky!
The rain thundered down, flecking and flacking. It came so suddenly, Xie Lian was startled. However, he was properly covered under Hua Cheng's umbrella, and not a single drop hit him. Feng Xin, who was standing on the other side though, had not prepared at all. He was drenched from head to toe by this rain.
And the worst thing was, this rain was the colour of blood. By the looks of it, Feng Xin was now covered in blood and dripping; only his wide, bulging eyes were white, the rest of him red. Shi Qingxuan was conveniently standing in the interior of another cave so he wasn't affected, but he was also eyes wide with shock, even forgetting to wave his whisk.
That pouring rain came suddenly, left suddenly, and soon enough everything was quiet once more. It took Feng Xin some time to recover. He wiped at his face, but it was still smeared with red, his attempt useless.
"Wha..." Xie Lian was agape.
Hua Cheng closed the umbrella and laughed, "How's that for show?"
In four short words, he'd already taken a number of leisurely steps, and quite the distance away. Xie Lian was fumbling all over his sleeves looking for some rags, but instead Shi Qingxuan plucked some white strands from his whisk and handed them to the deeply muted Feng Xin. The moment Hua Cheng left, Xie Lian immediately sensed the void behind him and turned around in a rush, running a few steps after Hua Cheng, "San Lang, are you going back to the Ghost City?"
Hua Cheng turned his head, "Aren't you also going back to the Heavenly Court?" He then added half-jokingly, "But if you want to follow me back to the Ghost City, you're very welcome to."
Xie Lian chuckled, "Next time." He said sincerely, "Next time if there's a chance, I'll definitely visit the Ghost City again. I'll help you lay bricks when you rebuild Paradise Manor."
"No need to lay bricks. You can just sit back and watch." Hua Cheng replied.
Xie Lian's smile died a little, "The thing with Qianqiu, no matter how it went down, I should still thank you." He paused and continued, "I don't know what the right thing is to do either, so maybe this wasn't a bad thing."
"You think too much." Hua Cheng said lightly.
Xie Lian was slightly taken aback and inclined his head.
"Just keep doing what you want to do." Hua Cheng said. After that, he turned around and waved his hand.
Soon after, that crimson silhouette gradually, from within the mountains and under the moonlight, disappeared completely from Xie Lian's sight.