"It's not that His Highness didn't know this, but, he didn't know what to do about it." Guoshi said.
Xie Lian inclined his head slightly and commented, "He's a god, of course he couldn't say to the devotees that I won't allow you to worship a god other than me. He probably felt disdain for such a demand too."
"Naturally, you understand him very well." Guoshi said.
Xie Lian added, "But, this just had to be when he can't afford to lose devotees and spiritual powers, otherwise the construction of the Cross Heaven Bridge would be affected."
"That's exactly it." Guoshi said, "So, it was up to the four of us to relay to the people what the stakes were."
"And how did that go?" Xie Lian asked.
"Probably nothing remarkable," Hua Cheng said.
"Nothing remarkable indeed," Guoshi replied, "At least, nothing that met our expectations. A part of the people worried the construction of the bridge might fall apart and returned, but there was a larger part of the people who thought instead His Highness was being domineering. Their prayers were not fulfilled, so it couldn't be helped that they turned around to worship other gods that could fulfill their wishes. They were free devotees, they could believe in whatever they wanted to believe, it's all more than natural."
"It wasn't that he didn't want to please everyone, it's just he really was..."
Xie Lian sighed and whispered, "...He had the heart but not the strength."
Guoshi continued, "After His Highness learned of this, he stopped us, and said if they wanted to go then let them go. If they were forcefully kept, they wouldn't be believing in him wholeheartedly anyway. That certainly was the case, and even though we've warned them over and over again, the hearts of the devotees had already dispersed. Even if they forced themselves to come back, they were only placating us."
"He couldn't be angry at the devotees and he couldn't request the help of other heavenly officials either." Xie Lian commented.
"Even if he went and asked, the other heavenly officials would never help him anyway." Guoshi said, "If they were actually willing to give a hand, then they wouldn't have opposed this in the first place, and they wouldn't have taken advantage of the opportunity to lure away his devotees later either."
"His Highness became more and more silent and closed up, using his own powers to construct that bridge and supported it up. I watched him everyday, and while he said nothing, but I could tell just how much he suffered inside. And this suffering could only be bore by him on his own; no matter how much the four of us wanted to help him we couldn't lighten his burden."
"Finally, after enduring arduously for three years, the volcano was about to erupt."
"The moment the news broke out, the people fought to swarm the bridge, and the four of us directed the hustling crowd while worrying over His Highness who was supporting this up all by himself.
Guoshi sighed, "In the past we would never have worried he wouldn't be able to do anything, but at that time, we actually started worrying."
"At first, the bridge was still considerably stable. However, when the swarming crowd grew and grew, the time it took to support the bridge became longer and longer, and His Highness' hands started shaking, his face also growing paler and paler."
"No one else could see, only we could see. I sensed things weren't right and told the people to please wait a moment to give him a little bit of time, and not to swarm towards him all at once, just let him catch a breath, he will definitely save all of you. But the volcano was about to erupt, lives were in danger, and no one was willing to wait. They all rushed onto the bridge like mad, some were even trampled to death, and we couldn't hold them back at all!"
"In the end, what we feared the most still happened."
"During those three years, because we kept losing devotees, His Highness' spiritual powers were no longer as strong as before. As over hundreds of thousands of people swarmed that bridge, celebrating their salvation, and was just cheerfully walking towards the heavenly realm, the bridge collapsed."
Xie Lian's breathing hitched.
Guoshi continued, "The heavenly rainbow was ripped, and millions of people, a dense and crammed crowd suddenly dropped from the sky in an instant, wailing and screaming heart-wrenchingly as they fell into a sea of fire, and burnt to ashes right before the eyes of His Highness!"
"I was completely stupefied at the time, and didn't dare to look at His Highness' face at all. The bridge couldn't be repaired, the people couldn't be pulled up, and the fires couldn't be extinguished – there was no way to help at all! And there were many more who hadn't yet climbed onto the bridge; they were entombed by lava, sealed by flying ashes. Screeching, wailing, cursing. That scene was truly too horrible... I had never seen anything as horrid since."
Xie Lian tried to imagine it for a bit and his heart chilled. Guoshi continued his tale.
"The bridge collapsed. The people of WuYong also went mad."
"They set fires to burn down His Highness' temples, toppled his divine statues, used blades to pierce his heart until it was mush, cursing that he was a useless creature, a bullshit god. He was a god, and gods should've been mighty and strong; gods couldn't fail."
"But he did fail. And so, he could no longer be positioned above."
"The heavenly officials in the heavenly realm had long been waiting for this moment. They said, 'We already told you long before that this endeavour was impossible. You've caused a huge problem, so now we have to ask you to leave and go back down below."
"And His Highness asked a very foolish question. He asked: 'Why didn't any of you help me?'
"Why would anyone help for no good reason? Besides, if they allow him to successfully pass this enormous calamity for the Kingdom of WuYong, then wouldn't he never again have a match in the heavenly realm?
"So, that was a very foolish question. I imagine he knew this, yet he still asked.
"Of course no one answered him, and His Highness was banished.
"He had fallen back to the mortal realm, no longer a god, and no longer a crown prince. We followed him and we all told him you can definitely ascend again, and so, he began cultivating anew. But, it was much too difficult. I'm sure you understand."
Of course Xie Lian understood.
The higher one stood, the harder one fell. After falling from the heavens back to the mortal realm, what awaited him would be endless coldness and maliciousness.
Guoshi continued, "The volcano was still blowing, and the Kingdom of WuYong had fallen into a crisis it never had before in history. Refugees, riots, the disorders were incessant, and everyone was at the end of their wits, and their attitude toward His Highness had changed completely, entirely different than before."
"Even then, His Highness still wanted to help them. However, another thing just had to happen right then."
"Many other heavenly officials began to show their graces."
"Even though they weren't willing to prevent the volcano from erupting, but they were quite happy to grant little blessings, deliver a bit of medicine and food, or something. Since at this time His Highness was already banished, what he could do of course couldn't be compared to those heavenly officials at all."
"It was as if the people of WuYong suddenly grabbed onto a lifeline, their parents reborn, and the devotees were lost even faster. Though in truth, there weren't that many left anyway. All the praises and adoration for His Highness from before were all given away to the other heavenly officials without fault, and what was left behind for him was only hate and rejection."
Guoshi closed his eyes, "At the time, we really felt betrayed, that everything was so unfair."
"Those heavenly officials clearly didn't give them that much, and only made appearances after the disaster was over. His Highness was the one who did the most, he gave it his all, and he should've been successful too, it was just one more step! Why, in the end, it was he who was fallen? Why was the one who had given the most ignored, and those who'd only given a little were praised and thanked?
"That was also the time when my thinking began to change.
"I couldn't help but think, if, His Highness had chosen to pretend never to have foreseen the future in his dreams from the start, and chose to sit back and observe under the belief that 'This is fate, the gods can do naught', and only granted blessings after the volcano erupted like the other heavenly officials, then surely the people would also be crying tears of gratitude for him."
Hua Cheng said flatly, "Have you only thought that then? You should've thought that from the beginning. Slicing off a piece of flesh to save one person, the person would be grateful. But the more that's sliced, the more the person would demand, and in the end, even if all is sliced to nothing but bones, the person would still not be satisfied."
"I didn't dare to tell him any of these thoughts," Guoshi said, "But His Highness was becoming more and more somber, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking, if he had thought the same things."
"Day after day, the volcano was still blowing unceasingly, and all of the Kingdom of WuYong was sunken in terror, unable to escape. No one knew how to make it stop, to end this nightmare."
"One day, His Highness suddenly said to us, he found a way to make the volcano stop. However, when he told us the method, we had a huge fight."
"Let me guess," Hua Cheng said, "That method is the sacrifice of the living."
"Correct." Guoshi replied, "His Highness said, find a batch of bad people, use those fiends as sacrifice, throw them into the Kiln, and pacify the fires of fury of the Kiln."
"The four of us all had different thoughts on this, but the general consensus was disagreement. Something like must never be done. In the beginning, His Highness didn't want WuYong to use force to invade other Kingdoms precisely because he didn't want to use a life to save a life. If we were to choose to sacrifice the living to the Kiln, then how is that any different? It'd be even worse, in fact. There were a couple who were extremely opposed to the idea and directly had a huge quarrel with His Highness.
"That quarrel was too great, and they even used their fists. I was against it too at first, but compared to the attacks from the outside, it was harder for me to withstand having internal quarrels. You must know, the four of us had always supported His Highness, but now we are his only pillar of support. Yet that time, not only were blows exchanged in the heat of the moment, someone even accused His Highness that he's changed, that he's forgotten his heart, that he was no longer the highness of the past.
"Those words truly executed the heart, I couldn't stand it. If even we stood against His Highness to berate him, then there was truly no one in this world who stood by his side. So, in the end, I didn't disagree, and only told him to let it go, to stopped minding those affairs. The heavenly realm, the mortal realm, all the refugees, stop caring for everything. It really was too tiresome."
"However, no one listened to me. After that huge fight, besides me the other three all left."
Xie Lian shook his head, not knowing what to say. Only, to leave at a time like this, it was adding frost to snow.
"Only I stayed behind." Guoshi said, "His Highness didn't say much either, and only asked me, 'Are you leaving?'
"To see the expression on the face of the once prince when he asked me this question, at that moment I genuinely felt, even if he did throw people into the Kiln as sacrifice, I could understand. I said, 'Your Highness, I won't leave.'
"His Highness still didn't say much, but he never mentioned using live sacrifices again and changed his mind. He set up a ritual near the Kiln, and I went with him, enduring the cursing and thrown rocks from the refugees, and conducted services, trying to push down the fury of the volcano.
"I thought that affair was over just like that. Yet who knew, one day, I discovered something that chilled me to the bones."
Having spoken to this point, Guoshi's face had turned terrifying, as if he was once again seeing the same image that chilled him. Xie Lian's heart also felt like it was being squeezed tight by an invisible hand, and he asked, "What was it?"
"He... He suddenly started covering his own face." Guoshi said.
"..."
"His Highness is handsome in appearance and never hid his face." Guoshi said, "And there wasn't anything that could injure his face. It's been so many years and I've never seen him like this, so I was perplexed. I asked him, Your Highness, what's happened to your face? He said, he was accidentally burnt by a fire."
"I didn't know where he suffered this injury at all, and he wouldn't let me examine the wounds, only applying some herbs on his own, and his whereabouts suddenly became unpredictable. That was supposedly unusual, but then, a great thing happened and temporarily distracted my attention – the volcano suddenly stopped blowing.
"The Kiln returned to its dead silence and gradually calmed, and for a long time it stopped blowing. Since it was only His Highness who worked hard on this, many people of WuYong thought it was him who pushed the volcano down, and some began to worship him anew. His Highness' path to cultivation also started becoming more successful. At least, there weren't any more people shaming him or throwing rocks, and the people gradually started smiling at him again.
"Still, I always thought there was something not right,
"There were many things not right. While my three friends all had different personalities, but I at least know them, and know they wouldn't have really just left like that without care. Even if they were really angry against His Highness, they wouldn't be angry with me too, and at the very least, they wouldn't have stopped all communication with me."
"What was the most unusual was his high highness' face. He kept using something to cover his own face; at first it was rags and mantles, later, he started wearing a mask, and wouldn't remove it for any reason.
"At the time I even suspected whether if this person was even His Highness, and was instead actually an impersonator, because the way he spoke and acted, even his personality had completely changed. Sometimes kind and dear, sometimes abruptly enraged. There was once when he was in the house by himself, he smashed all the mirrors. Who knows where the blood was flowing from, but everything was bloody. What was even more horrifying was I'd often hear strange voices."
"What voices?" Xie Lian asked.
"Sometimes, deep in the night, there would be human voices coming from His Highness' room, like a few people were whispering and arguing. But when I'd go in to check, there was only him inside the room. After this happened a few times, His Highness stopped allowing me into his room."
"One night, I heard those strange voices again, and this time, I noticed, they sounded like the voices of my three friends!
"I really couldn't hold back anymore, and thought could they have perhaps snuck back? Why would they hide this from me? So, I got up and ran into His Highness' room.
"What was strange was there really was no one else inside the room, and there was only His Highness lying on the bed, his mask still unremoved. I then stood there and listened for a moment, and heard those voices again, and they seemed to have been coming from His Highness.
"Or more accurately, it was coming from under his mask.
"I slowly walked to His Highness' bedside, and the closer I got the more I was certain that the voices really were coming from underneath the mask. Was His Highness sleeptalking? Could he have missed his friends too much that he'd learned their voices in his dreams?"
"I hesitated for a long time, and in that time His Highness had never moved. I figure he was asleep, so, I gently and lightly took off the mask on his face, then saw something.
Inconcealable terror flowed from Guoshi's eyes.
He said, "I saw my three friends."
"The ones talking wasn't His Highness, it was them. Upon His Highness' face were messy gashes from some sharp weapon, his flesh overturned, blood half dried, and, since who knows when, there grew three more faces, their mouths all moving, opening and closing. It was their faces!!!"
Xie Lian shuddered, "He... threw the three vassals who left him into the Kiln too??"