Xie Lian's gaze moved back to Qi Rong. After staring at him for a moment, Xie Lian said, "Qi Rong, it looks like you've been living colourfully these past few years."
Right after he finished his words Hua Cheng removed his fake skin. Qi Rong's eyes widened as each three of the intruders revealed themselves. Lang Qianqiu was bewildered, "Cousin?"
Even if earlier when he heard Qi Rong say "Us Xianle" and could guess the identity of the Green Ghost's past life was one from the kingdom of Xianle, he hadn't imagined that he and Xie Lian were actually related on a personal level. Qi Rong stared at Xie Lian's face, and looked him up and down; it was a gaze hungry with curiosity and fascination. When his eyes stopped at the sword Fang Xin on Xie Lian's back, he suddenly burst out laughing, "SO THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT! FANG XIN WAS YOU! YOU WERE FANG XIN! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHA!!!"
Although he couldn't understand why he was laughing, Lang Qianqiu's guts told him it wasn't anything appropriate, and demanded angrily, "What's so funny?"
"I'm laughing at my good ol' cousin, what's it to you!" Qi Rong bit back in a fit. "Just now I said my lord's stupidity spanned hundreds of years. I'm sorry. I apologize. The best way to learn is to learn from the best; look at your master, no wonder you're so fucking stupid!" He turned to Xie Lian, "You went to YongAn and became their Guoshi, and ended up stabbed to death by your own disciple, is that not exciting? Is it not hilarious? You deserved it; making a fool of yourself!"
The moment he uttered the word "fool" Hua Cheng smashed his head down again violently. Qi Rong had always been tough skinned, and for some reason, seeing Xie Lian made him ten times more excited than usual. Even with his face bashed into the ground he yelled unceasingly, "A FOOL! A FOOL! A FOOL!"
Each time he said it, Hua Cheng would smash his head down again. It was a bloody scene and Xie Lian stopped the hand that was about to strike again, "San Lang, let it go!"
"Why should I?!" Hua Cheng said sharply.
"It's nothing, don't let any of it get to you." Xie Lian said, "He has problems and is extremely troublesome. I can take care of him. You just sit back and ignore him."
He gently rubbed Hua Cheng's shoulder, and it was a long time before Hua Cheng finally replied in a low voice, "Fine."
Qi Rong plucked his own head from the ground and rolled to the side with difficulties.
He spat, "Why play pretend false kindness? If you really didn't want him to hit me, then you should've stopped him from the beginning! Faking indifference and only telling him to let it go now, no one's gonna praise you for your generosity!"
"I stopped him because I don't want him to dirty his hands, did you misunderstand something?" Xie Lian said.
A trace of anger flashed through Qi Rong's bloodied face, but then he started giggling,
"Yooo, cousin Crown Prince, you're getting along pretty well with Hua Cheng. And here I was just wondering why none of the underlings this little brother of yours sent to greet you on ZhongYuan ever returned, so it was because they ran into Hua Cheng!"
Xie Lian had no idea that Qi Rong had actually sent any underlings to go find him. That night of the ZhongYuan festival, it was a coincidence to have bumped into Hua Cheng, and taking him back to Puqi Shrine wasn't in the plans. It seemed that all of Qi Rong's underlings had been taken cared of by Hua Cheng. Xie Lian couldn't help but steal a glance at the person next to him.
Qi Rong continued, "Calling him 'San Lang', tsk tsk tsk, so familiar! Cousin, you're a big shot heavenly official, how can you hang out with ghosts and demons? Aren't you worried about your reputation? You're so perfect after all, so pure and flawless, your halo shines upon all on this earth, hahahahahahaha..."
Many in the Heavenly Court had more or less thought the way Mu Qing spoke was sarcastic, but if they were to listen and compare, they will learn what is truly sarcastic.
Truly, they had wronged Mu Qing. Qi Rong didn't just speak, he'd act too. He folded his hands over his heart and exclaimed, "Cousin Crown Prince, this little brother had constantly thought of you over the years. Look, I even meticulously carved this statue to keep you by my side, so I can gaze upon your heroic form every waking moment of every day. What do you think? It's pretty well done, right? Do you like it? Don't worry, if you don't like it then even better, I'll carve more, hahahahaha..."
The moment he mentioned the statue, Hua Cheng's face immediately darkened, and if it wasn't for Xie Lian holding him back, he would've stepped on Qi Rong's face by now.
However, Xie Lian knew perfectly well the kind of person Qi Rong was; he's a little mad in the head, and the more extreme the reaction, the more excited he'd get, and the more outrageous he'd become. Reverse psychology would be the most effective, so Xie Lian only smiled faintly, "It's only alright. Sorry, but the craftsmanship is kind of low class."
As expected, Qi Rong's face immediately fell. He said coldly, "Enough. If it wasn't for my past affections and carved you a couple statues, who would even worship you? You probably sniveled and whined at Jun Wu's feet and hugged til your knees busted in order to ascend this time. Go around the heavens and see for yourself, which official isn't more dignified than you? Even a two hundred year old ascendee can walk all over you. You're pretty much eight hundred years old but only got so far. What a failure."
Xie Lian smiled, "I am quite the failure, not like cousin, already a 'Savage' after eight hundred years."
Xie Lian knew way too well how to put Qi Rong down. Next to him, Hua Cheng snorted, and Qi Rong's face darkened. He looked between all those present and suddenly said, "This stance... did you beg Hua Cheng to fuck with me today to settle our differences?"
Xie Lian was taken aback, and thought about the current picture they painted, and actually couldn't argue back.
Qi Rong continued, "Look at you all. The moment I say anything bad about you, wow! Look how mad he'd get. Was he blinded by that holy light from your halo? My fucking god, I forgot! Wasn't he already blind in one eye? HAHAhahaha..."
Before he could finish, his eyes went dark again, and his cheek exploded in agony, spewing blood from his mouth – he got punched again! However, this punch wasn't from Hua Cheng but from Xie Lian.
Xie Lian's fist was faster than the eye could see, and he said coldly, "Just because I've never hit you before in the past, doesn't mean I would never hit you."
That punch was a solid one, and it was a long while before Qi Rong could make any sounds. He laid on the ground like a mangy dog, clubbing the ground with his fists as he cackled, "Cousin Crown Prince, you hit me! You actually hit me! Heavens, our noble, kind, compassionate, charitable Crown Prince who's scared of stepping on even a small ant, actually got pissed, and swung a fist! HE'S HITTING PEOPLE! INCREDIBLE! AMAZING!!!"
He was unbelievably excited, going insane with elation. Lang Qianqiu had never seen anyone whose words and actions were so mad, and was shocked into bemusement after witnessing this singular act. He mumbled, "Is... is he crazy?"
Xie Lian was used to seeing Qi Rong's madness, and didn't think much of it, "You've heard it. He's insane. His heart and mind are unbalanced, so nothing he said is believable."
Qi Rong's laughter came to a sudden stop. He schooled his face and sneered, "Don't be so quick to tell people I'm psycho. Let me ask you, how did Prince An Le die!?"
This was the question Hua Cheng had posed to him, and now he asked it to Xie Lian instead. Lang Qianqiu's attention was suddenly focused on it again.
Xie Lian's heart culled, and couldn't immediately respond. Qi Rong on the other hand, slowly pulled himself up, and sat while leaning on the kneeling statue, "After An Le died, I cut open his corpse to inspect it, and all of his organs were pulverized by the vibrations of an exceedingly powerful sword, which was why he didn't have any external injuries but couldn't stop hacking up blood. This was something no regular swordsman could do. At first I thought YongAn thugs had brought in some strange hitman so as to fake An Le's death as illness. But now that I think about it, there's another person who can do this, and it's none other than my good ol' cousin, defender of justice. After all, our Flower-Crowned Martial God, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is a holy, pure, one and only, snow white lotus of the heavenly mountains..."
Hua Cheng stomped on him, and Qi Rong yelped miserably. Lang Qianqiu felt like his head was going to explode; he held his head, his eyes laced with red, "Shut up! Just tell me what you know! Who's the real murderer? What happened at the Gilded Banquet? And what happened to Prince An Le? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED???"
"Lang Qianqiu why are you still confused?" Qi Rong said, "Even I pretty much figured out what happened. Looks like you really don't understand the kind of person your master is! Come, come, come, let me dissect my good ol' cousin for you: this former Crown Prince of Xianle went and became YongAn's Guoshi, and taught you swordsmanship for five years..."
He'd only spoken a few words, and Xie Lian reached for his sword, but before he could charge forward, Lang Qianqiu's longsword was blocked before him, "Let him finish!"
"You know he's insane and yet you still listen to his mad conjecture!"
Fang Xin was swung, and even though it's a slender blade, its shockwave almost made Lang Qianqiu loosen his grip on his longsword. But just then, a silver curved blade knocked Fang Xin, hooked it up and pulled it aside. Xie Lian was startled and cried,
"San Lang!"
Qi Rong saw how much Xie Lian didn't want him to speak and how desperately he didn't want Lang Qianqiu to hear the story, so Qi Rong had to do the opposite, and grabbed this chance, "Prince An Le was our good Xianle boy, very obedient! He heeded my instructions to be false friends with you, but your master bumped into us cleaning out the YongAn rat nest at the Gilded Banquet so An Le escaped. You got to the Gilded Banquet, saw what happened, and the Guoshi Fang Xin became the most wanted man in the kingdom. This was the previous story, not a word of lie..."
Xie Lian tried to charge forward to shut his mouth a few times, but each time Hua Cheng stopped him. Xie Lian cried again, "San Lang!" However, Hua Cheng didn't say a single word and only continued to block Xie Lian.
The more Xie Lian wanted to charge over, the faster Qi Rong's lips moved. "This saintly cousin of mine, when he saw with his own eyes the people of Xianle committing murder, he must've thought: How can this be? That's not right! So he went to find Prince An Le to educate him a little, but when he sought him out – my GOD what did he discover? An Le's major plot! It wasn't only just assassinating some thugs! There's no way cousin could educate him, so he hardened his heart and killed the last blood of our royal house with his own hands! – Afterwards you caught your master, and nailed him dead in that coffin, and so ends my cousin's magnificent life as Guoshi. Cousin, am I wrong?"
He spat a mouthful of blood next to the feet of the statue, "I know you too well. You love
doing shit like this. Ancestors above, look at what a good descendant you gave birth to!
Not only has the Xianle Xie clan lost everything, even the bloodline is cut! XIE LIAN! YOU OMINOUS STAR, YOU GOD OF MISFORTUNE! YOUR EXISTENCE IS XIANLE'S GREATEST TRAGEDY! WHY WON'T YOU DIE? HOW DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE FACE TO KEEP LIVING???"
"But I saw with my own eyes he killed my father with his sword!" Lang Qianqiu said, "How do you explain that?"
"If it's not water getting into your fucking senior eyes and ruining your sight, then I can only think of one reason." Qi Rong replied, "Which is An Le for sure stabbed your old man, but he didn't die."
"Did... did he drive the blow home?"
Qi Rong howled, "What are you saying! My good cousin is such a kind soul, how could he drive any attacks home? When he arrived, he wouldn't have attacked right away, he'd have to do a little show of trying to save the poor guy first. But, heh, your old man probably killed himself."
"What do you mean he killed himself?" Lang Qianqiu demanded.
"What's the first thing someone saved from the brink of murder will do?" Qi Rong asked, "After seeing so many massacred at the Gilded Banquet, what's your first reaction?"
Lang Qianqiu still hadn't completely deduced it, "...Find the murderer."
"WRONG!" Qi Rong cried, "After my good cousin saved your old man and he revived his breath, he would've certainly said: 'Quick! Guoshi! It was Prince An Le who'd done it! Go and kill Prince An Le!' No, no, no, not just that, he must've said something worse, like: 'Guoshi! Bring forth Qianqiu! Call upon everyone! I want the entire population of Xianle wiped out! I want to bury them all with the dead!!!'"
His imitative tone of despair and fury was disturbing to listen to, and Lang Qianqiu was growing paler by the minute. Qi Rong continued, "Even if he wasn't killed on the spot, your old hag had an entire nest of thug relatives that were all killed before him. He'd have to open fire on the people of Xianle sooner or later. Your good master realized this, considered his options, and decided, no, the old man couldn't be saved, so PLORK and the old man's heart goes cold. That's the kind of person my good cousin is, a saint who can't have sand in his eyes, always doing shit that harms others and hurts himself; he wanted to please both sides but succeeded with neither, hehehehe, hahaHAHAHAhahah..."