Xie Lian instantly grabbed hold of him, demanding in alarm, "San Lang?! What's going on?"
Hua Cheng was still considerably at ease and replied, "It's nothing. I've just overdone it a little."
Xie Lian was dumbfounded, "...Why didn't you tell me this sooner, how can this be nothing??"
It's the spiritual powers, it was all those spiritual powers!
When Hua Cheng transferred spiritual power to Xie Lian, it had always been as if it was an infinite source, endlessly all for his taking, smiling cheerfully like it was never a burden. But, it wasn't like his own spiritual power was a mountain of sand carried in by the rolling waves, so how could it actually be infinite and endless?
This couldn't be blamed on Hua Cheng for not saying anything sooner at all, but on Xie Lian himself who hadn't realized this sooner. Xie Lian was both panicking and feeling remorseful, "I'll return it to you."
He cupped Hua Cheng's face and kissed. Feng Xin and Mu Qing had originally planned on coming over, but when they saw this scene, they instantly pulled back dozens of feet away, keeping their distance, letting the two of them do what they needed themselves.
The cursed shackles were removed, so he desperately tried to transfer all the spiritual power he could muster to Hua Cheng, hoping he'd recover soon. But, after kissing him for a good while, when he let go, the sleeves of Hua Cheng's red robes and that pair of silver vambraces were still translucent, half transparent even!
Xie Lian was shaken for a long while, fear overtaking his mind, and he subconsciously reached for Hua Cheng's face, cupping it ready to kiss again when Hua Cheng, swift with his hands, cradled his instead and gave him a small peck, smiling, "Although I'm happy gege is so forward, but there's still no need to give me any spiritual powers anymore. But, if gege isn't just lending spiritual powers and just simply wanted to kiss me, I don't mind at all. In fact, the more the better, I welcome it with open arms."
"..."
Xie Lian gripped him tightly, on the brink of falling apart, "What's going on?"
"Just taking a little break, that's all. Gege, don't be scared." Hua Cheng replied,
Xie Lian clutched his head, "How can I not be scared? I'm gonna go crazy!"
By Hua Cheng's personality, if it wasn't a severe problem, serious to the point where he could no longer hide it, why would he allow Xie Lian to see him like this at all?
Spiritual power so abundant it could shatter two cursed shackles, just how much was that exactly? To say it was as bountiful as the sea wouldn't be an exaggeration, so how could he not be affected in the slightest?
They went through so much hardship before all this mess was sorted, and all the knots tied. Communication was opened between him, Feng Xin and Mu Qing. The cursed shackles that had bound him for eight hundred some years had also been released. Everything he had always wanted to confess to Hua Cheng had all been confessed.
Yet when he turned back to run into his arms face full of smiles, what greeted him was a Hua Cheng who had become like this, so how could he not be frightened? He just might go mad!
Feng Xin and Mu Qing noticed something was wrong, and called out from afar, "Your Highness? What's happened?" They jogged a couple steps this way, but then for some reason or another they paused halfway, feeling like they shouldn't get close so rashly. In this moment, Xie Lian had stopped caring for anyone else. He gripped Hua Cheng, his heart almost stopping, looking as if he was terrified, "WHAT DO I DO?"
Hua Cheng quietly sighed, extended his arms, and once again folded him into his embrace, "Your Highness, I've always watched you."
This was the second time he said this, but his voice was softer than before. Xie Lian clutched the red robes at his chest, asking, his mind blank, "I know, I know. But... What should I do now?"
Hua Cheng's long and slender fingers gently combed through Xie Lian's mussed hair, "Then, Your Highness, do you know why I refuse to leave this world?"
Xie Lian couldn't understand why Hua Cheng could still be so calm at a time like this, as he was panicking so hard he was trembling. But while feeling lost, he still simple-mindedly asked, "Why?"
Hua Cheng replied quietly, "Because I have a beloved who is still in this world."
Hearing this, Xie Lian was slightly stunned.
He seemed to have heard this somewhere before.
Hua Cheng continued, "My beloved is a brave, noble and gracious special someone. He's saved my life, I've looked up to him ever since I was young. But, I wanted to catch up to him more, and become an even stronger person for him. Although, he might not remember me well. We never really talked. I want to protect him."
He gazed at Xie Lian, "If your dream is to save the common people, then, my dream, is only you."
"..."
Relying on his memory, Xie Lian asked with a trembling voice, "...But.... You won't, be able to rest in peace.... Like this...?"
Hua Cheng answered, "I pray to never rest in peace."
In that instant, all of Xie Lian's breathing stopped, frozen in this moment. He could faintly hear two voices, one questioning the other answering.
"If your beloved knew you couldn't rest in peace because of him, he might feel guilty and troubled."
"Then I just won't let him know why I haven't gone."
"After having seen so much, it'd be known sooner or later." Xie Lian said.
"Then I won't let him find out I'm protecting him either."
That ball of ghost fire. In that lantern night, that weak little ghost fire he bought with a few pennies. That ghost fire who wanted to pull him up from the burial graves in a frozen winter night. That ghost fire who blocked in front of him before White No-Face and wouldn't let him go near danger. That ghost fire who had screamed in torment for him during the time when a hundred swords pierced his heart!
Hua Cheng said quietly, "Your Highness, I understand your everything."
"Your courage, your despair; your kindness, your pain; your resentment, your hate; your intelligence, your foolishness."
"If I could, I would have you use me as your stepping stone, the bridge you take apart after crossing, the corpse bones you need to trample to climb up, the sinner who deserved the butchering of a million knives. But I know you wouldn't allow it."
He said as the maple red of his robes slowly faded away.
Xie Lian's shaking hands tried to grab hold of him, and he never stopped transferring spiritual powers, but even then he couldn't prevent Hua Cheng's form from fading slowly.
His eyes were going blurry, his speech staggered, and he stammered, "...Alright don't say anymore, I get it... but, but don't be like this, alright? San Lang? I... I've borrowed so much spiritual powers from you that I haven't returned yet. And, I'm actually not done saying all that I wanted to say earlier, there's still so much. It's been so long since anyone listened to me talk, won't you stay? Don't... actually do this. I won't be able to take it. Twice, it's been twice already! I really don't want there to be a third time!!!"
Hua Cheng had already vanished from this world twice because of him!
However, Hua Cheng only replied, "To die in battle for you is my greatest honour."
"..."
Those words were like a fatal blow. The tears in Xie Lian's eyes could no longer be restrained, and they came pouring out.
Like he was hanging on to the last straw of his life, he pleaded, "You said you would never leave me."
However, Hua Cheng replied, "There is no banquet in this world that doesn't come to an end."
Xie Lian bowed his head and buried it deep into his chest, his heart and throat in constricted agony, unable to speak.
Yet soon after, he heard Hua Cheng say above him, "But I will never leave you."
Hearing this, Xie Lian's head shot up.
Hua Cheng said to him, "I will come back. Your highness, believe me."
Although his voice was firm, still his pale face was dimming, becoming transparent. Xie Lian reached out, wanting to touch his face, but his fingertips went through air. He was startled, then looked up.
Hua Cheng's eyes were gentle and blazing, that remaining eye was filled with love, and it gazed at him silently. He seemed to have said something, but there was no sound. Xie Lian wouldn't give up, reaching out with both hands, trying to snatch him deeper into his arms, wanting to hear better.
But before he could exert force, the one he was holding, and the one holding him, had disappeared.
In an instant, before him, Hua Cheng shattered into thousands of silver butterflies, transforming into a breeze of twinkling stars he could neither embrace nor hold.
Xie Lian's arms came empty, still maintaining an hugging position, moving not a limb. He couldn't tell if it was because he hadn't yet come to his senses or because he couldn't move at all, and he knelt there within that dream-like array of butterflies, his eyes widening.
Further down, Feng Xin and Mu Qing had never imagined a scene like this would play out, and both their faces paled, rushing forward, "YOUR HIGHNESS!"
Feng Xin was the first to charge over, "HOW DID IT SUDDENLY BECOME LIKE THIS?! WASN'T HE FINE JUST NOW? WAS IT BECAUSE OF THE CURSED SHACKLES??"
Mu Qing hopped and hobbled over, but he couldn't jump up, so he looked up, yelling at those silver butterflies, "CRIMSON RAIN SOUGHT FLOWER! DON'T BE JOKING AROUND, IF YOU'RE NOT DEAD THEN COME THE HELL OUT!"
Naturally, those silver butterflies did not answer him, and they fluttered erratically, flapping their wings flying towards the sky. Feng Xin reached out to pull Xie Lian up, but Xie Lian remained sitting on the ground like a stone. Feng Xin didn't know what to do either anymore, "Is there something we can do to help? Do you need spiritual power? Can he be saved? Just what should we do???"
Mu Qing however, had already figured things out by watching, "Drop it, just shut your mouth! – Nothing could be done now."
Shimmering, twinkling glow enveloped the air, the wings of the butterflies sparkling, just like their very first reunion after eight hundred years.
A silver butterfly flew over errantly, lightly brushing the back of his hand, his cheek, his forehead, full of affectionate longing, as if it was whispering goodbyes. Xie Lian extended a hand numbly, and let it rest on his hand.
That silver butterfly seemed to be delighted, flapping its wings, and sure enough it stayed for him. But it couldn't last, and it wasn't long before it scattered with the wind.
However, where it had perched, on Xie Lian's third finger, that red string was still bright and vivid.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"And then?"
"It's done."
"It's done?"
"It's done."
Pei Ming finally couldn't hold back any longer, "That's not possible. How can that be it? Even an amateur like me can tell it's not done?"
Mu Qing dropped that heavy, bookkeeping report journal on the table and said cooly, "That's what I've calculated, and it's done. I can calculate again on the spot right here, will General Pei please listen well: Take away eight million, eight hundred and eighty thousand merits, then add six million, six hundred and sixty million merits, plus another seventeen hundred million and two hundred thousand merits, then minus..."
Feng Xin spoke up, "Alright, that's enough, you don't need to count anymore. The numbers are right, but there must've been quite a bit left out. Because if that's not the case, none of the numbers add up!"
Mu Qing countered, "Then that's not my problem, either way I didn't figure wrong. Maybe if everyone finds someone else to do the accounting? If I had known things were gonna be like this I would've minded my own business."
After the Heavenly Capital was destroyed, the scattered, jumbled up heavenly officials finally regathered, and set up a ward at the summit of Mount TaiCang, a place where no mortals cared for, establishing a temporary Upper Court. Currently, the heavenly officials were in the heat of discussing the rebuilding of a new Heavenly Capital.
However, the unfortunate thing was, not only did that major fire scorched all the glorious and exuberant golden palaces of all the heavenly officials, forcing them to squeeze together and erect tents temporarily to discuss and rest, all the scrolls and reports were lost in great numbers. They bickered and dragged, going on for many days, and even now they still couldn't straighten any accounts!
One of Pei Ming's arms was hung in a sling as the other hand rubbed his chin, "Is it my imagination, or is Xuan Zhen more and more sarcastic these days?"
Feng Xin responded, "Hasn't he always been this sarcastic? He's just too lazy to hide it now."
Mu Qing rolled his eyes and everyone pointed their fingers at him, "DECORUM!"
Mu Qing turned away to leave. Quan Yi Zhen was wrapped completely in bandages, a humanoid sticky rice wrapped in leaves, exposing only a head full of messy curly hair, and his words were mumbled and unclear, "Well what do we do now? Who's going to do the accounting then?"
Everyone looked to each other, each clearing their throats, and quietly backed away. No one wanted to take on this task that was hard labour with little returns. Seeing this, Pei Ming sighed, "Sigh, if only Ling Wen was here. No matter what, no one can complain with the way she managed things. All this mess of reports are all imprinted in her mind, even if the Palace of Ling Wen is burnt down there'd be nothing to be afraid of. She would've definitely shown results within a day."
After having struggled on this godforsaken mountain for so long, most already thought that deep in their minds, they just didn't dare say it out loud. However, now that there's someone taking the lead, they all agreed, "Yeah!"
"I'll never say the Palace of Ling Wen is inefficient again!"
"I've already not said that in a long time..."
Right then, someone outside came to announce, "Everyone, Lord Rain Master has come!"
Hearing this, all the heavenly officials looked cheered, and immediately went out to greet her without prompting, only Pei Ming's expression looked unreadable. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end still chose not to go out. Just then, another voice came, "Your Highness! You've come too!"