Book 5: Heaven Official's Blessing
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Xie Lian laid on that cold ground, his face still covered with that half crying half smiling cry-smiling mask, and White No-Face was next to him, seeming to be admiring this appearance that looked exactly like his.
That cry-smiling mask was pressed tightly against Xie Lian's face with some sort of peculiar force, and he couldn't pull it off no matter how he tried. White No-Face said, "Just keep it on. Stop wasting your strength on pointless struggles. You want to leave this place? As long as you follow my directions, you can easily break out of the Kiln."
Xie Lian pretended he didn't exist.
White No-Face always sought contempt from Xie Lian and he wouldn't give up. He sighed, "We could've become the strongest master and disciple, and the bestest of friends, why must you be so rebellious?"
Xie Lian finally stopped what he was doing and replied in disgust, "Stop using that tone like you've been through all the vicissitudes of life and have seen through the hearts of men. I really don't want to have a teacher and a friend the likes of you."
His repulsion was undeniably obvious, and White No-Face sneered, "I know, in your heart, the only ones who can guide you are Guoshi and Jun Wu, am I right?"
His tone was odd, full of disdain and ridicule. Xie Lian didn't care to tangle himself up with that subject and decided to ask something else, "Lang Ying, was he the first Crown Prince of YongAn?"
Lang Ying was from YongAn, had contracted the human face disease, and that little crown prince was the only one Xie Lian could think of who might be a possibility. White No-Face replied, "That's right. He was that crown prince you knocked out and ditched in the Palace of YongAn then set fire to after having butchered Lang Ying's corpse to millions of pieces."
That Crown Prince of YongAn was Lang Ying's only nephew, so it was probably then when the remains of that human face disease infected him. Xie Lian then asked, "Why didn't his disease affect anyone else?"
White No-Face replied, "Because the people at the Palace of YongAn discovered he got infected. In order not to have anyone else affected, the order was given to suffocate him with a blanket in secret, but he struggled and fought back, then fled."
And then YongAn announced to the outside world that both the King of YongAn and the Crown Prince passed away from illness. Through whatever internal conflict, another one of Lang Ying's nephews was established as the Crown Prince, and that was Lang Qian Qiu's ancestor.
"How did you manage to deceive him?" Xie Lian asked.
"I didn't deceive him." White No-Face replied. "I only told him the truth, of who was the criminal responsible for him becoming such a monster. As long as he lent me a bit of him, I would help avenge him."
"You call that "a bit"?" Xie Lian was incredulous, "You swallowed all of him as nutrients!"
White No-Face replied quietly, "With his appearance, neither man nor ghost, no one would treat him with sincerity, so staying in this world is suffering in itself."
Suddenly, Xie Lian said, "Your Royal Highness?"
"..."
In that instant, Xie Lian could tell, that creature probably wanted to answer to that address, but he held back.
Thus, Xie Lian tried again, "You. You're the Crown Prince of WuYong, aren't you?"
Once the words left his lips, he could feel the stifling heat within the Kiln had solidified.
The moment Xie Lian had fallen in he had been considering this question.
The reason why he could understand the language spewed from the mouths of those Corpse Eating Rats must be because among Jun Wu, Guoshi, and White No-Face, someone had transplanted a part of their memories and feelings unto him. Which also meant, someone among the three of them, at least one was from WuYong. Jun Wu was born later than the fall of the Kingdom of WuYong, so Guoshi and White No-Face were the most suspicious.
Why was Hua Cheng shunned out of the kiln? It wouldn't be because he was a Supreme, because Xie Lian had confirmed it with him that even Ghost Kings who had become Supremes could re-enter the Kiln, just as how a heavenly official could go through another Heavenly Calamity after ascension. Yet, he still vanished halfway. The most straightforward explanation Xie Lian could think of was this Kiln obeyed the command of White No-Face!
Then, what was White No-Face's identity the most likely to be?
A moment later, it was dead silence within the darkness, and Xie Lian repeated with certainty, "You are the Crown Prince of WuYong."
Finally, White No-Face was no longer silent.
He lunged towards Xie Lian, his palm blasts sharp and powerful, and this time, it was Xie Lian's turn to dodge. He leapt up, and asked as he dodged, "Your Highness, I've got a question for you. How come you never show your true face to anyone?"
White No-Face said darkly, "Your Highness, I'm warning you not to address me with that title."
"You call me "Your Highness", so why can't I address you the same?" Xie Lian rebuked, "You won't answer, so I'll have to guess myself. There are only two reasons why you don't want anyone seeing your true face. Either, you are someone I know, or someone I don't know, but once I see your real face I could easily figure out who you are; or, your true appearance is exceedingly ugly, so ugly you can't stand it yourself! Just like..."
Two whizzing sounds later, a sharp pain charged up his arm, and it was White No-Face who had forcefully seized him, "My dear crown prince, is it because I've been a little too friendly that you felt there's no longer a need to fear me?"
This voice was brimming with frost, and while in pain, Xie Lian still hung on to his consciousness. White No-Face seemed to really have been angered, and he picked up that black sword, forcing it towards Xie Lian, "The name you gave this sword is Fang Xin?"
Watching with unblinking eyes as that chilling blade came closer and closer to his own throat, Xie Lian's expression remained hardened, "Is that a problem?"
White No-Face humphed, "You don't know how to give names. Listen well, the original name of this sword is 'Zhu Xin'*."
Suddenly, Xie Lian widened his eyes, "WHO'S THERE?!"
However, White No-Face didn't bother to look back, "You want to use a child's trick to fight me?"
Xie Lian was perplexed, "You... didn't notice?"
"There is nothing, so what is there to notice?" White No-Face said coldly.
He didn't notice, but Xie Lian sure did.
Earlier, Fang Xin's blade reflected the firelight on the ground, and that firelight flashed past the stone wall above them. It was in that instant that Xie Lian saw a face.
Xie Lian could swear he wasn't mistaken in what he saw. He definitely saw a human face, a gigantic human face!
White No-Face's cultivation could only be stronger than Xie Lian's, so how could he possibly not notice?
Unless... it was something more terrifying than White No-Face!
The time he took to look at that face was too short, but the vision remained in his memory; that face had all five features, and... it looked familiar. Xie Lian felt a slight chill down his back, "There's something else inside this Kiln!"
However, White No-Face replied, "Other than you and me inside the Kiln, there are only rocks and lava."
Xie Lian was about to say more when suddenly, he thought to himself, 'Wait... Rocks? Face? Familiar?'
Lights turned on and it dawned on him, and Xie Lian figured out just what it was he saw.
So that was it!
Once he knew, Xie Lian's hands instantly started forming seals rapidly behind his back. White No-Face noticed his movements and said, "It's pointless, even if you..."
Yet unexpectedly, before he finished, a huge cracking noise came from behind and above them. At the same time, rocks and earth came plunging down like a storm!
White No-Face sensed something was coming for him, and swiftly flashed away to dodge the attack. He certainly blitzed fast enough, no one could be faster than him, and he should've dodged perfectly. Only, unfortunately, the thing attacking him was too gigantic.
It was a giant hand, its fingers balled into a fist and it came crashing down heavily – right over White No-Face!
This hand was a giant hand made of stone.
It really was too big; just a single fist could rival a mansion, and the firelight on the ground could only illuminate this part. Everything above the wrist were all still soaked in darkness.
Amidst the cracking sound of rocks, it flipped over its hand and opened its palm up towards Xie Lian. While gigantic, its fingers were long and slender, the joints exquisite and delicate, able to hold flowers and wield swords. Xie Lian seized the sword, stumbled as he crawled up from the ground, and leapt onto the heart of that palm. Just as that hand was about to hoist him up, Xie Lian suddenly remembered he forgot something and cried hastily, "WAIT!" Then he jumped down to grab his bamboo hat before leaping back up. Then, that giant hand lifted, leaving further and further away from the firelight. Xie Lian could also sense they were going higher and higher, and his hands formed seals once again, "BREAK OUT!"
With that command, he could feel a slight falling sensation, as if the giant holding him had bent its knees and was preparing. The next second, he felt his entire body plunging all of a sudden; that giant launched toward the sky and went straight to crash against that sealed mouth of the volcano of the Kiln!
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Along with violent tremors, Xie Lian heard the extremely obvious sound of cracking.
That was the sound of stone rocks unable to handle such violent crashing, and were about to shatter!
Soon after, a string of white light came leaking in from above.
He had broken out!
The sealed top of the Kiln was broken through, and an immense blinding white light came pouring through as whirlwinds twisted in, shrieking and howling.
Xie Lian stood in the palm of that giant, a hand pressing onto the bamboo hat on his head while another blocked the snowstorm that came blowing onto his face. The stifling hot air was swept away completely, and Xie Lian inhaled deeply a mouthful of freezing and fresh air before shouting, "SAN LANG–!!!"
His first syllable was still echoing when in an instant, he was pulled into an embrace from behind
by a pair of hands. Xie Lian stiffened at first and looked down, but when he saw it was red sleeves and silver vambraces circled around his waist, he relaxed. A deep, forlorn voice came above his ears, "...I was going crazy!"
Hearing this, Xie Lian hurriedly turned around, and cupped those cheeks with his hands and soothed, "Don't go crazy, don't go crazy, I've already come out!"
It was Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng's black hair was mussed up, his eyes a little lost. That cry-smiling mask Xie Lian couldn't remove no matter how hard he tried was easily pulled off by him and tossed away. Xie Lian didn't know why he had to use his hands to cup Hua Cheng's cheeks, but he did so subconsciously, probably so he could comfort him, but also because Xie Lian was afraid Hua Cheng's face would be frostbitten by the snowstorm. After all, however long Xie Lian had stayed inside the Kiln must have been however long Hua Cheng stayed guarding the mouth of the volcano.
They went in together perfectly fine, but one was suddenly thrown out, and knowing nothing of what was going on inside, of course he was going to go crazy!
Hua Cheng hugged Xie Lian tightly, and said despairingly, "...I couldn't go into the Kiln no matter what I did, and you had to come breaking out of it on your own! I'm really so fucking..."
Xie Lian quickly said, "San Lang, it's okay, it really is alright! Besides, I didn't break through on my own!"
Hua Cheng finally calmed down a little and asked, "What? Gege, how did you come out?"
"You helped me break through." Xie Lian replied, "Look."
He said as he pointed upwards, and Hua Cheng gazed towards where he was pointing.
Amidst the snow and winds, a giant sculpture of a man carved by the stones of mountains stood with frost flying about its face, vaguely looking as if it was holding up the heavens and standing down on the earth. And in that moment, the two of them were standing in the heart of the palm of that giant statue.
The contours of the face of that statue was gentle and beautiful, long browed and elegant eyes, the lips refined and its corners curved upwards slightly, like it was smiling but not, affectionate but not frivolous, expressionless but not unkind; it was a face of compassion and beauty.
– It was Xie Lian's face!
Xie Lian raised his head to look at its face, and said softly, "Is this the one you told me about? The best divine statue you've sculpted?"
"..."
Hua Cheng gazed up at it too, and it was a long while before his eyes fell back to Xie Lian who was beside him, "En."
This giant stone divine statue must've been sculpted when Hua Cheng was trapped inside the Kiln, when he was severely hammered down and in intense suffering.
Over the centuries, it had always been hidden inside the deepest darkness of TongLu, and even a part of it was still covered with ivy. The Kiln was its natural and perilous cavern, and it was this most spectacular cavern's only god.
It and the Kiln were of one body, made up of the same material. Otherwise, if it was a divine statue carved from ordinary rocks, it wouldn't have been able to break out of the Kiln at all, and would only shatter into pieces; and if it wasn't Xie Lian himself, or, if before they jumped down, Hua Cheng hadn't given Xie Lian enough spiritual powers, Xie Lian wouldn't have been able to summon and move this divine statue.
Xie Lian turned to Hua Cheng, "So, San Lang, I've come out. We've broken through together."
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●Fang Xin means "Affections of a Young Woman"; Zhu Xin means "Intent
to Execute" OR "Executed Heart"