Having heard him say so, a chill instantly went down Xie Lian's back, and each of his hairs was raised.
It was as if he could feel what it was like that night Guoshi had snuck into Jun Wu's room and removed that mask, and he heard Jun Wu rise to his feet from the tableside, coming this way slowly.
Hua Cheng was just standing behind the curtains next to the bed! When Xie Lian got onto the bed he had hidden Fang Xin underneath the pillow, and at this moment, the hand on the hilt clenched it tight, waiting for the right moment, but at the same time, doubtful if there really would be the right opportune moment. Yet unexpectedly, Jun Wu didn't go to the curtains, but instead came to the bedside and lifted the cover on his body directly. Xie Lian felt his body go chill and shot up, glaring at him, but Jun Wu only eyed him calculatingly and said quietly, "This robe doesn't suit you."
"..."
Only then did Xie Lian remember that he was still wearing the Brocade Immortal! Although the Brocade Immortal had now turned into a white cultivation robe, but of course Jun Wu wouldn't have missed it. He watched Xie Lian calculatingly for a moment, sighed, and said, "You just wouldn't listen to me. You went out to cause trouble again, didn't you?"
Xie Lian watched him anxiously when suddenly, his eyes swept onto the table, and upon it was a gift box. The gift box was already unwrapped, and inside it was a few cabbages, several potatoes and some carrots.
"..."
So it turns out when the Rain Master stopped Jun Wu just now and said she forgot to give him something, she meant the souvenirs from YuShi Country...
Behind Jun Wu, Hua Cheng soundlessly used a hand and raised a corner of the curtain, revealing his face behind, and met his eyes with Xie Lian's through Jun Wu. His hand slowly rested on the silver scimitar hilt hung on his waist, seeming to be deliberating on whether to make a move immediately. Xie Lian didn't think it was the right moment, and whilst pretending to not want to talk to Jun Wu, he shook his head.
"Where did you hide Ling Wen?" Jun Wu asked.
Of course he couldn't give him Ling Wen. The moment he saw Ling Wen there wouldn't be any need to ask her what was going on; just take a look at her daruma doll form and one could guess Hua Cheng must've snuck into the Heavenly Capital.
But, Xie Lian couldn't help but wonder – had Jun Wu really not suspected Hua Cheng had
already snuck in at all?
Just then, Jun Wu spoke again, "Xian Le, your expression seems to say, "wrong". What's wrong? Could it be, that other than the Brocade Immortal, you've hidden someone else?"
Xie Lian's expression just now didn't change at all. Jun Wu really knew him very well. Silently exchanging a look with the Hua Cheng behind Jun Wu, Xie Lian steadied himself and said coldly, "Think whatever you want. Either way no one can leave right now, so there's nothing I can do. Do what pleases you, you old fart." Then he laid down again, pulling the covers over his head. As for Jun Wu, he turned around and started pacing about leisurely within the chamber, searching.
Taking his time and searching for a while, nothing was found, Jun Wu then pondered for a moment, and sure enough, still turned towards those curtains and reached out.
When the curtain was lifted, there was nothing.
Pausing for a moment, Jun Wu dropped the curtain and returned to the table anew. As for Xie Lian who was still lying in bed, his lurched heart still hadn't relaxed. Under the covers, Hua Cheng was lying right next to him, their faces pressed extremely close. Xie Lian's heart was thumping really hard, his entire person was tense and taut. Hua Cheng smiled, mouthing soundlessly, "Don't be afraid, Your Highness."
Just now, the moment Jun Wu turned around, Hua Cheng easily dropped the curtains. Then after Jun Wu walked past him, he then easily slipped out from behind the curtains, and soundlessly blitzed to Xie Lian's bedside. Xie Lian yanked him onto the bed and stuffed him inside, and just as Hua Cheng had rolled in, Jun Wu turned around again.
The timing was seamless, plus the positioning was intricate, so other than a bunch of messy blankets, Jun Wu saw nothing.
Finally, Jun Wu said, "Xian Le, stop sleeping. You can't sleep anyway. Get up and come with me."
Xie Lian actually really wanted to slack off in bed and not get up, but he was afraid that Jun Wu would come over again to lift the covers, so he could only shuffle out of bed, and hide the blue daruma doll inside his sleeve by the pillowside.
Jun Wu had already left the bedchamber, and Xie Lian looked back. Hua Cheng had already gotten out of bed, his eyes dark, ready to come over. Xie Lian hurriedly waved, gesturing for him to absolutely not be exposed, that everything was fine. Jun Wu who had already exited called out, "What's wrong? Why aren't you coming? Is there something in bed that's keeping you
behind?"
Xie Lian instantly returned to the chamber, grabbed that box of souvenirs on the table, then went back out, closing the door behind him. He then picked up a carrot inside the box and took a chomp, replying drily, "It's nothing. Can't I be hungry?"
Jun Wu glanced at the thing in his hand and said warmly, "If you like this, I've got more. I'll send them to you another time."
Xie Lian, "..."
They walked a few blocks, and from afar they could hear a voice was making a ruckus, "HAHAHHAHAHAHA! FENG XIN! YOU DOG! THIS DEMON KING IS TRAMPLING YOUR PALACE RIGHT NOW, WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT? WHAT! COME FIGHT ME! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
It's Qi Rong again!
As they approached, they could see all around the golden palace was under his attack, the giant and ugly "QI RONG WAS HERE" was all over the place. Qi Rong even hopped onto the roofs to uncover the shingles, hollering and screaming at the heavenly officials inside. Gu Zi was by his side, looking greatly aggrieved, wanting to speak but stopped himself. He was currently jumping and stomping on the Palace of Nan Yang, and Feng Xin was troubled so he ignored him completely; Qi Rong yelled for a while but got bored, so he went to Mu Qing's palace and screamed the exact same things. Mu Qing seemed to have rolled his eyes a few times at his antics, and Qi Rong stomped his feet in anger, hopping all over the place, and hopped on top of Quan Yi Zhen's palace. Yet before he even opened his mouth, a divine statue with a head full of curly hair suddenly blasted out of the room and came flying, smashing him off the roof with his head crashing first. It was the enraged Quan Yi Zhen who had used his own
divine statue as a weapon and flung it at him directly! Gu Zi was stupefied, and he clung onto the edge of the roof and cried, "DAD! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
Qi Rong was furious, "QUAN YI ZHEN YOU SHAMELESS IDIOT! YOU DARE USE UNDERHANDED AMBUSH AGAINST ME!"
Gu Zi hesitated for a moment, then asked confusedly, "Dad, how was that underhanded?" Didn't Quan Yi Zhen openly throw the divine statue over?
Qi Rong yelled, "YOU STUPID SON! As long as he wins against me, no matter how he did it, it's all underhanded! Otherwise how could he possibly win against this ancestor??"
"Oh..." Gu Zi replied.
"..."
Qi Rong was his little cousin no matter what, so Xie Lian couldn't help but cover his face. Jun Wu paused in his step, "Green Ghost." When Qi Rong heard this voice, his face stiffened, and crawled up, looking over cautiously, seeming to be very wary of Jun Wu. With this gaze, both the 'father and son' naturally saw Xie Lian, and Gu Zi exclaimed happily, "Scrap Cultivator ge ge!"
Qi Rong on the other hand, only snorted derisively, "My! Who's this? Ain't this Cousin Crown Prince!"
Xie Lian didn't want to acknowledge him in the slightest, but he still came over to harass him, going around Xie Lian in circles, taunting, "Weren't you very high-spirited before? With two mountains behind your back, looking down on me, why do you look like a lost dog now?"
Xie Lian was puzzled, "two mountains behind his back?", then he realized, one was Hua Cheng, the other was Jun Wu. He glanced at Jun Wu who was standing in front of him, and couldn't help but feel all sorts of things. Suddenly, he remembered a long time ago, he asked Hua Cheng what Jun Wu was like. At the time, Hua Cheng's response was, Jun Wu must really hate him.
Qi Rong continued, "Hehehe, before you'd use Hua Cheng that fucker as backing and ambushed me, I haven't even sought vengeance against you and someone else got to you first, truly what good karma!"
Jun Wu spoke up quietly, "Green Ghost, stop talking nonsense to Xian Le. You can let your subordinates out now."
Although Qi Rong cursed Jun Wu madly behind his back in the past, but when he really came before Jun Wu, he glumly tucked in his tail. Even while his expression showed how unwilling he was, without another word, he hopped onto the roof, picked Gu Zi up, and ran off to do his errands. Jun Wu then turned to Xie Lian, "Let's go."
Xie Lian looked at the path Jun Wu was taking him down and pondered inwardly, 'This direction, it's headed to... Qi Rong's subordinates? Could it be...' After a while, they turned a corner, and sure enough, a sumptuous martial palace appeared before the two.
The Palace of Ming Guang! And at the palace, there were already angry roars and incoherent shouting coming from the inside. Xie Lian was alarmed and stopped caring to follow behind Jun Wu, running ahead to go inside.
It certainly was a mess inside the palace! Pei Ming's face was steely dark, and Xuan Ji was like a viper, clinging onto him in a chokehold, wrapping around and around just short of tying a knot, her long hair spread, her face green, her teeth red, her eyes savage and glaring. It looked as if she wanted to bite through Pei Ming's neck, but she herself had her neck choked and pulled away by Ban Yue; on the other side, a broken sword was pointed right at Pei Ming's neck, like it was about to pierce through but was firmly held down by Pei Su's hands so the blade didn't move forward; and behind Ban Yue and Pei Su, Ke Mo was swinging his fists about to punch, and if it wasn't the ashen faced Pei Ming who dragged him down, Ke Mo's two giant fists bigger than iron hammers would probably already squashed Pei Su and Ban Yue flat.
Xuan Ji and Rong Guang were arguing who was going to choke or stab Pei Ming dead first, and they were screaming and ripping at each other. Xuan Ji shrieked, "GET LOST! PEI MING'S SHIT LIFE IS MINE, MINE, IT'S ALL MINE!!!"
Rong Guang who was possessing the Ming Guang sword yelled back, "YOU GET LOST! WHAT AN IGNORANT WENCH! THERE'S AT LEAST EIGHT HUNDRED IF NOT A THOUSAND WOMEN PEI MING DOESN'T WANT, THINK YOU RANK HIGH? THE ONE WHO WILL TAKE PEI MING'S SHIT LIFE IS ME!!!"
Veins popped violently on Pei Ming's forehead, "...YOU'RE... BOTH... MENTAL!!! GET LOST, ALL OF YOU!!!"
"..."
Xie Lian felt endless sympathies. In some sense, this was probably considered the misfortune of over-popularity. He called out, "General Pei, hang on!" And was just about to go rescue him, when unexpectedly, before he even moved a hand rested on his shoulder.
Behind him, Jun Wu spoke up, "Xian Le, did you actually think I've called you here just so you can help do good deeds?"
In the midst of getting bruised and battered, Pei Ming and company also noticed them, and Ban Yue called out joyously, "General Hua!"
With that hand pressed down, Xie Lian suddenly couldn't move a muscle, "Then why did you bring me over here?"
Jun Wu maintained the position of his hand on his shoulder, and pushed him into the palace. The moment he entered, the mob that was entangled together in a bunch all fell to the ground in an instant, as if their strengths were sucked away, and only a couple could still flop around.
"Ming Guang." Jun Wu said.
Xuan Ji wasn't strangling him anymore, and Pei Ming's face finally recovered. He sighed a breath of relief and replied, "My lord, really... thank you for this."
While his tone wasn't sarcastic, the words themselves were rather ironic. Jun Wu didn't seem to mind and smiled, "No need to thank me so early, Ming Guang, I've come to have you help me do something."
"What?" Pei Ming asked.
"In the royal capital down in the lower realms," Jun Wu said, "There's currently a human array."
He knew it!
Jun Wu said quietly, "Break the human array, and I'll return your status of Martial God of the North."
Pei Ming glanced at Xie Lian and chuckled drily, "Isn't it that Crimson Rain Sought Flower who's guarding that array? I may not be able to break it forcefully."
"Of course you cannot break it forcefully," Jun Wu said, "But I didn't say you have to break it
forcefully."
If it was Pei Ming, it would actually be very easy to break this array. As long as he pretended to go to help, Shi Qing Xuan would let him in for sure. And once he entered the array then unexpectedly break away, then the array would be ruined!
Besides, Hua Cheng wasn't even guarding the royal capital right now, so he wouldn't be able to fix it at all!