"Wh... what perk?" Xie Lian asked.
Hua Cheng asked back, "What do you think?"
Xie Lian could practically imagine just how his brow was raised and how his lips were curled when he asked this question, so what could he say to that?
Hua Cheng continued, "Speaking of which, gege still owes me for quite a bit of spiritual powers, am I wrong?"
"No." Xie Lian replied cautiously.
"Then has gege thought of how you'll repay me?" Hua Cheng asked.
"...Not really." Xie Lian said.
Hua Cheng seemed to have sniffed a laugh, "Since you haven't thought of anything, then why don't you let me decide? After this affair is over and done with and you got your vacation, gege can take your time to pay me back for everything, how's that sound?"
Xie Lian was fending against his attacks while sneaking glimpses at Jun Wu like a guilty thief at the same time, and answered randomly , "Oh, en, yea..."
After guiding him slyly to this point step by step and receiving the answer he wanted to hear, Hua Cheng was finally pleased and satisfied, and temporarily let him off the hook, "And so? It's so rare for gege to seek me out through spiritual communication, what is it?"
Jun Wu eyed Xie Lian.
The reason he allowed Xie Lian to communicate with Hua Cheng was to hold Hua Cheng down, and make him think nothing was wrong, staying obediently down in the lower realm. Of course Xie Lian knew what kind of answer Jun Wu wanted to hear, so he replied slowly, "Actually, it's not really anything, I was just afraid that having been gone for so long you'd worry."
"Hm?" Hua Cheng wondered, "Didn't gege say so yourself? You haven't even left for over two hours, so why would you worry that I'd worry?"
Xie Lian was getting dizzy from going around in circles with him, feeling a little anxious but also a little funny. Suddenly, Hua Cheng said, "Oh, I get it."
Xie Lian's breath hitched, "What did you get?"
There seemed to be a bit of light laughter on the other end. A moment later, Hua Cheng replied leisurely, "Gege, maybe it's you who missed me so much after separating for only so long?"
"..."
If before Xie Lian could still cover things up with vaguity, then this line was truly too honest and exposed, and he couldn't pretend to be normal at all. Under Jun Wu's watchful eyes, Xie Lian's face still grew hot. A moment later, he replied softly, "...en."
Hua Cheng's voice was also soft, "Me too. I really want to go up there and whisk you away."
While Xie Lian's heart was warmed, at the same time it was strung high up, and his eyes met Jun Wu's.
If Hua Cheng really did come to the Heavenly Capital, how would things end? How would Jun Wu handle him?
Xie Lian suppressed his surge of emotions and did his best to sound natural, "Nah, it's okay. It's a mess up here in the heavens right now. If you came, they'll probably lose their heads. Just wait a bit longer."
Hua Cheng replied lazily, "I understand, gege, I won't go up to scare them. I hate that blinding light up in the Heavenly Capital, and I still have to guard the circle of people here, so I'll just wait here sagely for gege to come back."
Xie Lian couldn't tell if he sighed in relief or broke out in cold sweat, and said, "Yes, be good."
"But," Hua Cheng said, "If I'm going to be good, gege can't come back empty handed. I need rewards."
"Of course, of course." Xie Lian replied.
Then the two said a few more casual words, ambiguous and dubious, going on and off, repeatedly bidding farewells before the communication finally ended.
Xie Lian huffed a breath softly and Jun Wu said, "It seems, Xian Le has been living an exciting life down below."
Xie Lian didn't know how to answer to that. After Jun Wu patted Xie Lian's shoulder, he turned around and was about to leave the Palace of Xian Le when Xie Lian called out from behind him, "My Lord!"
Jun Wu's form paused. Xie Lian asked, "Just who are you? Are you the emperor? Or something else?"
It was already difficult for him to accept the truth when he suspected a connection between the Guoshi and White No-Face. If even Jun Wu and White No-Face shared a connection, then he felt as if his entire person was going to flip upside down.
Jun Wu was the number one martial god of the three realms that he both respected and looked up to after all!
Jun Wu didn't answer him and left prepensely. Now that Xie Lian was left to his own devices, he brainstormed for retaliation plans as he dragged his exhausted body to the back chambers of the Palace of Xian Le.
Although the Palace of Xian Le had now become a prison cage, it was still a beautiful cage, and there was even a bathing pool made of white jade in the back hall. In the recent days, Xie Lian battled the white ghost, entered the Kiln, crawled tumbled rolled and fought, and now, he was exhausted in both body and mind. He couldn't go anywhere for the next little while anyway, so he might as well bathe and refresh himself.
After removing his clothes and soaking in the warm waters, Xie Lian rested against the edge of the white jaded pool, and folded his clothes absentmindedly. Suddenly, from his pile of robes, two little things came tumbling out, clacking crisply. Xie Lian looked closely and it was two clever and cute little dice.
He picked the two dice up and held it in his palm, remembering the words Hua Cheng said to him: "If you wanted to see me, it wouldn't matter what you roll. I will appear."
However, that he connected with Hua Cheng through spiritual communication was already largely unnatural, so perhaps Hua Cheng had noticed. But, even if Hua Cheng noticed something was wrong, he wouldn't be able to come up, since the Heavenly Capital was now isolated from the world, completely under Jun Wu's control.
Nonetheless, even if he was well aware of the situation and knew even if he rolled two sixes he wouldn't be able to see Hua Cheng, Xie Lian still tried. Clack clack, the dice rolled on top of the jaded rocks next to the edge of the bathing pool. His luck was terrible as always; snake eyes. And sure enough, there was not a single stir of movement.
Xie Lian sighed and turned around, and was just about to bury both his face and body into the waters when suddenly, he heard a voice: "Gege."
Xie Lian instantly rose from the waters, splooshing as the waters splashed, "San Lang?"
Did he actually summon Hua Cheng???
However, aftering scanning his surroundings, he didn't see the shadows of anyone. Still, that voice earlier was definitely not a hallucination caused by his hopefulness. Xie Lian's heart thumped when he heard another voice call out, "Your Highness!"
"..."
Only then did Xie Lian realize that that voice had come from his own mouth!
It was his own voice, only, amidst the hot air of this spacious bathing pool and the sound of splashing water, the sound wasn't clear. Xie Lian was stunned for a moment before it dawned on him – the Soul Shifting Spell!
Xie Lian was both surprised and delighted, "Lord Wind Master??"
Then, from his lips came the voice of another who was overly excited, "Yes, it's me! HAHAHAHA, AMAZING, RIGHT? This Wind Master- no, I have spiritual powers again!!!"
Before it was mentioned that the Soul Shifting Spell wasn't used often because it exhausted spiritual powers rapidly, much more wicked and rare than typical spiritual communication spells, so usually, concealment barriers wouldn't think to block this spell. Later, when Shi Qing Xuan lost all of his spiritual powers, the door that connected him to Xie Lian was blocked one sidedly, yet Xie Lian hadn't imagined it'd come to use now.
"Qing Xuan, the Soul Shifting Spell burns a lot of spiritual powers, where did you get your
powers from?" Xie Lian asked, but he soon figured it out. Where else could he get his powers from?
Sure enough, Shi Qing Xuan replied, "It's a long story! Uh, well it's not actually that long. That Crimson Rain Sough Flower of yours gave me a few black candies to eat, they're incredibly magical! My spiritual powers exploded after I ate them! Even though it's only temporary, but it could still hang on for some time. Communication wouldn't be a problem. Just, the taste is really bad, p'tui p'tui p'tui!"
"..."
Xie Lian couldn't help but recall the Ghost Essence Candy Pei Ming consumed from before, but the candies from Hua Cheng should be high quality spiritual powers candies. Xie Lian asked, "Who called me gege just now?"
"It was me!" Shi Qing Xuan said,
Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Why did you call me that? And here I thought..."
"I know." Shi Qing Xuan said, "You thought it was Crimson Rain Sought Flower who came seeking you, right?"
Xie Lian cleared his throat lightly and Shi Qing Xuan continued, "It was him who told me to call you that. He said if I called you that you'd know he'd come, and you'd feel better."
He supposed that was true. Earlier when he heard "gege", while surprised, he felt more so reassured. Xie Lian said, "Is he right next to you right now? Is everything alright over at the royal capital? The resentful spirits didn't suddenly start anything did they?"
"Everything's fine here at the capital." Shi Qing Xuan said, "The resentful spirits are also still being cleaned out. It's just, earlier when you were having your communication with Crimson Rain Sought Flower, he was happily chuckling away talking about who knows what with you one second, and the next, after the communication's ended, his face suddenly turned so dark it was terrifying. And then he called me over to see if I could shift my soul over to you. Oh yea, by the way, Your Highness, he wants me to pass on this message to you: "Your Highness, please dress first". He's been nagging me for a while now, what's the problem? It's not like you'd catch a cold in the heavens."
"..."
Xie Lian was almost going to faint, and he swiftly, using the speed of lightning, grabbed a robe to wrap around himself, "H-H-H-HE, SAN LANG CAN SEE???"
"Yea." Shi Qing Xuan replied, "It's pretty annoying to keep reiterating so I just transmitted everything I see and hear directly to him, so he knows everything that you do or say. He just can't talk to you or control your body directly, that's all."
...
DEAR LORD WIND MASTER, YOU'RE WAY TOO OPEN!!!
If he'd known he wouldn't have bathed! He thought he had to think some more before an opportunity would show up!
"It's fine, Your Highness." Shi Qing Xuan said, "I didn't think you'd mind so much about matters like these. We're all men here, haven't you seen Hua Chengzhu before? Besides, I didn't see that much anyway..."
He really was too open. Xie Lian slapped a hand on his forehead and rapidly dressed himself, then he grabbed the dice before leaving the hall, quickly changing the subject, "San Lang, how did you discover something was wrong?"
After a pause, Shi Qing Xuan replied, "Crimson Rain Sought Flower said, the moment you sought him he knew. Oh, Hua Chengzhu wants me to tell you this: "Gege is so shy, if it wasn't anything major why would you take the initiative to recite my verbal password?""
"..."
So it really was that reason. Shi Qing Xuan seemed to be talking to Hua Cheng, "Okay okay okay, I won't waste anymore time on nonsense, we'll talk business." Then, he said, "Your Highness, what exactly is the situation over there? Is the emperor not around?"
Xie Lian really didn't know where he to start, and said, "It's precisely because he's around that things turned out like this!"
Telling only the key points, Shi Qing Xuan was already shaken, "My god, my god, my god! Your Highness, you're not sleeptalking are you?? It's the emperor! We're talking about the emperor here!"
"I can't be sure if it's him anymore." Xie Lian said, "San Lang, what do you make of all this?"
A moment later, Shi Qing Xuan replied, "Crimson Rain Sought Flower didn't seem too surprised and only said: "Not surprised. I already can't stand him.""
Xie Lian was speechless and choked out a laugh, "Can you not stand anyone?"
That line was directed to Hua Cheng. Shi Qing Xuan replied, "He said: "Other than you, no." I say, Hua Chengzhu, that's not very nice, I'm standing right here, yanno! You can't stand me either??? What's wrong with me???"
"Alright, alright, it's all just jokes. In any case, all the martial gods have been beaten down, and every heavenly official is confined in their own palaces. The entire Heavenly Capital is isolated from the world now so there's no way to come to the heavens."
Shi Qing Xuan said, "Crimson Rain Sought Flower said, there is a way to go up to the heavens, but we'll need to enlist the help of someone."
"Who?" Xie Lian asked, but right after, he shouted, "WHO IS IT??"
The latter "who is it" wasn't directed to Hua Cheng or Shi Qing Xuan. It was voiced because from behind him, there was an unusual movement.
Someone had come!