But when the other half of the mask crumbled and Qi Rong's entire face was revealed, it became obvious that he didn't look that much like Xie Lian after all. Their noses, lips, and the contour of their lower jaws were similar in shape, but their brows and eyes were quite different. Xie Lian's eyes were serene and gentle. Qi Rong's brows were high and sharp; his eyes were also much thinner and more slanted. While he was certainly still a good-looking young man, it was easy to tell from his face alone that he wasn't one to be messed with. After having been beaten to a bloody pulp, he could finally squint open his eyes and blearily see that the one who had seized him had changed form into what appeared to be a youth dressed in red. Qi Rong had never seen Hua Cheng's real face, but the moment he saw the red robes, he was both shocked and furious.
"It's you. IT'S YOU!"
Hua Cheng had changed back to his true form. "You haven't answered my question. How did Prince An Le die?"
Because of how frightening his glare was, Xie Lian rushed forward and cried, "San Lang!"
Humans and ghosts alike had already cleared out from the cave, and Xie Lian ran to his side.
"What's wrong? Don't be angry, please don't be angry, everything's all right. Calm down, everything's all right…"
He gently rubbed Hua Cheng's shoulders a few times, his voice growing soothingly soft. When Xie Lian was younger, whenever he got angry or upset, his parents would always stroke his back like this and comfort him with their gentle voices; thus, he used the same method on Hua Cheng. It turned out to be quite effective—Hua Cheng's eye was turbulent before, but after being soothed, his lip quivered for only a second before he slowly but finally calmed, and his gaze cleared once more.
Xie Lian let out a breath of relief at this sight. But suddenly, before he had fully relaxed, Hua Cheng swiftly reached out and gave Xie Lian's shoulder a gentle tap in return.
This tap instantly petrified Xie Lian's body.
He had not expected Hua Cheng to do anything to him at all, which was how he'd been petrified so easily. He didn't know what Hua Cheng was up to, but he wasn't worried about himself; rather, he was worried for Hua Cheng, afraid that he might lose control again. He was about to open his mouth to ask when he realized that he not only couldn't move, he also couldn't speak. This made him somewhat uneasy.
Qi Rong might have been weak when it came to fistfights, but his mouth was certainly tough, and he started cursing while still covered in blood. "You damned crazy one-eyed snake! Did I piss you off while eating in my own house?!"
Hua Cheng smiled, then smacked his head down onto the ground again before yanking it back up. "How did Prince AnLe die?"
"What the fuck does that have to do with you—?" Qi Rong cried, and Hua Cheng slammed him down again.
"How did Prince An Le die?"
This process repeated for a while. Hua Cheng maintained his cool smile the whole time as he dribbled Qi Rong's head like a bouncing ball, brutally smashing it down over a dozen times. Although it was violent, Qi Rong couldn't die—but it was precisely because he couldn't die that it was so unbearable. Even a skull made of iron couldn't stand this kind of torture, and Qi Rong finally changed his tune.
"If you're so free, why don't you go read a history book?!"
Hua Cheng sneered. "If history books recorded the truth, why would I come and ask it of useless trash like you?"
He raised his hand again, and Qi Rong yelled, "IT'S LANG QIANQIU! HE WAS KILLED BY LANG QIANQIU!!"
The budaoweng doll in Xie Lian's arms jerked and started shaking vigorously.
It was shaking so hard that Xie Lian couldn't keep a hold on it; he could only watch helplessly as the Lang Qianqiu budaoweng doll fell out of his arms and onto the ground, spinning wildly back and forth. Hua Cheng didn't spare it a look, but he undid the spell. There was a blast of red smoke, and Lang Qianqiu's form leapt out from within.
Raised as royalty, high and mighty, he had never been wronged like this in his entire life. He pointed at Qi Rong in rage.
"How could you slander me so easily?! An Le and I were friends! Just who are you accusing of killing him?!"
Qi Rong was also shocked to see him jump out. "You're Lang Qianqiu? Why the fuck are you here too?!"
Lang Qianqiu still didn't understand why he had been brought to this lair. He was simply enraged by Qi Rong's accusations and felt compelled to clear things up.
"Prince An Le died of illness, so why would you randomly accuse me of killing him?!"
Hua Cheng looked on coolly and stopped dribbling Qi Rong's head, so Qi Rong got pulled into the argument.
"Died of an illness my ass, only you would believe that shit. He died soon after the Gilded Banquet, so he must've been assassinated by your lot! If not you, then those old withering Yong'an dogs in court."
He was muddying the waters with the garbage he was spewing; Lang Qianqiu's face was steely with anger.
"No wonder everyone says the Green Ghost Qi Rong is vulgar and crass. Now that I've met you, you are indeed disgusting."
That comment stabbed Qi Rong exactly where it hurt, and his face dropped immediately. After achieving fame, he'd been mocked for his vulgarity by all manner of gods and ghosts for centuries, both behind his back and directly to his face. He truly hated it.
"I may be vulgar, but that's much better than your ignorance. Friends this, friends that; what peaceful coexistence? Xianle and Yong'an can be friends? Can coexist in peace? You're as fake as your parents—how revolting!"
Hearing him insult his parents, Lang Qianqiu was furious. "Shut up! My parents were sincere and genuine, not fake! I won't let you spit on their names and humiliate them!"
Qi Rong spat. "You're all nothing more than the descendants of some rebels, so who gave you any damned right?! What sincerity? Granting titles and land to us, the people of Xianle? So shameless, gifting them their own property that you stole! Everything you owned belonged to Xianle!"
Lang Qianqiu was never good at arguing. He stammered, stumped. "You! You—"
Qi Rong saw that he had been angered to stuttering and felt a rush of satisfaction, and he resolved to aggravate him even more. He laughed. "Even if you guys killed An Le, that child had a profitable death. Xianle lost one man, but Yong'an paid an entire Gilded Banquet. Too bad we didn't kill you too, so you could all taste what it's like when your entire bloodline is ended!"
Lang Qianqiu was bewildered by this. "…What did you say?"
Xie Lian groaned inwardly.
He so desperately wanted to smash Qi Rong into the ground to shut him up the same way Hua Cheng had. But with this petrification spell, he couldn't move a single muscle no matter how he struggled.
"What do you mean, 'you didn't kill me too'?"
Qi Rong only cared about avenging himself for the "vulgar" comment, so he continued to boast. "The fruit really doesn't fall far from the tree! Sir, your stupidity has spanned so many hundreds of years that it's opened my eyes! Think about it: we Xianle are thoroughly disgusted with you Yong'an; whoever doesn't hate you is unfit to be called a citizen of Xianle! Did you honestly think the royal descendants of Xianle would be friendly with the royalty of Yong'an? It was all to coax out information for future plots and to paint your gilded birthday banquet with blood!"
Xie Lian was still struggling to break free, while Lang Qianqiu was frozen where he stood. It took a moment before he stammered, "…Prince An Le and the State Preceptor were…were on the same side?"
Lang Qianqiu was filled with anguish, thinking that his beloved teacher and his beloved friend had conspired against him together.
However, Qi Rong said, "State Preceptor? That evil cultivator Fangxin or whatever? Who the hell is on the same side as him?"
Lang Qianqiu heard his question and was puzzled again.
"You…you said An Le wanted to spill blood at the Gilded Banquet, but the one who did it was the State Preceptor? Were they not on the same side? I…" he trailed off, thoroughly confused.
"Hell knows where that evil cultivator came from," Qi Rong replied. "It had nothing to do with him! Listen up, Lang Qianqiu—the slaughter at the Yong'an Gilded Banquet was the work of the people of Xianle! An Le had already planned to kill off every single damn rebel at the banquet, but then that weirdo State Preceptor suddenly busted in. An Le thought the plan had gone ass-up and ran to me for help, asking me what to do if his involvement was discovered. But that very night it was announced that the one who committed the Gilded Banquet Massacre was your State Preceptor, and he was the one who became the most wanted man in the entire kingdom."
It took Lang Qianqiu a while to process that information. "If that was true, then why didn't you say anything?"
Qi Rong clicked his tongue. "Are you fucking stupid? Why would I say anything? Why wouldn't I want to have someone else take the blame? Can I get leveled up to a supreme for pulling off this lie?" He was relishing this more and more the longer he spoke. "Yoooo, I get it. You just can't believe what I'm saying, right? I heard you nailed your own shifu into a coffin over this! Ha ha ha ha HA HA HA, you dumbass! You killed the wrong person!"
Listening to that vile, hearty laughter, Xie Lian closed his eyes and cursed inwardly again.
Lang Qianqiu cracked his knuckles as he raged. "…You're wrong!" He then whipped around and shouted toward Xie Lian. "If this is true, even if he didn't say anything, why didn't you?!"
Qi Rong spat out a broken tooth. "And who the fuck is that? What, are you all here to have a party in my cave?"
Everyone ignored him. Lang Qianqiu demanded, "If you didn't do it…if you didn't kill them, then why did you admit your guilt?!"
Just then, Xie Lian's body relaxed. Hua Cheng had undone the petrification spell. It might've been too late, though. Lang Qianqiu was waiting for answers, and Xie Lian stood up slowly, working out the kinks in his wrists and joints.
After a pause, Xie Lian blurted, "Complete nonsense."
Lang Qianqiu had fully expected him to say "It's true, just as he said." Yet those words Xie Lian uttered so coldly completely rejected any relief of guilt from Qi Rong's recounting of events.
Qi Rong was pissed. "Complete nonsense?! Says who?"
"Says me," Xie Lian replied. "All these empty words. What proof do you have that the ones who spilled blood at the Gilded Banquet were the royal descendants of Xianle?"
Qi Rong seemed to find this funny and replied, "All those who were killed are dead, so what proof is there to give? Besides, it's been hundreds of years. What proof is left?"
"Which is why I say this is all complete nonsense," Xie Lian replied. "Xianle and Yong'an are dynasties of the past, long lost to time. Is there any point in you stirring up trouble with nothing but baseless bits of ancient history?"
The tone of his voice startled Qi Rong, and he narrowed his eyes as if remembering something.
Xie Lian turned to Lang Qianqiu and said calmly, "I killed your father; you saw it yourself. This was not long after my second banishment. I was filled with frustration and caused a great wrong. This is all my fault. There's no need to drag anyone else down with me. This man is a deceiver; dragging Prince An Le's name through the mud was only his revenge for you calling him vulgar."
If any bystander listened in on this conversation, they would find it hilarious. A fight over the title of murderer? One would think massacring the Gilded Banquet was some sort of glorious achievement.
Lang Qianqiu was in turmoil and profoundly confused. He held his head and thought for a long while before he slowly stated, "That's right…it was you and no one else."
He had seen it with his own eyes. That night, he ran to the Gilded Palace excitedly, only to see the black-clad State Preceptor pull a long, thin sword from the chest of his father, splattering blood everywhere. And at that moment, his father, the king of Yong'an, had reached a hand out toward him, still breathing. It was only after he'd rushed over that the hand dropped limply.
Just then, Qi Rong, who was lying on the ground, suddenly spoke up. "Cousin Crown Prince, is that you?"
Xie Lian's gaze moved back to Qi Rong. After staring coldly at him for a moment, Xie Lian stated, "Qi Rong, it seems you've been living colorfully over the years."
As Xie Lian spoke, Hua Cheng removed his fake skin. Qi Rong's eyes widened as the last of the intruders finally revealed himself.
Lang Qianqiu was dumbfounded by Qi Rong's question. "Cousin?"
Even when he heard Qi Rong say "we Xianle" and guessed the identity of the Green Ghost's past life as a citizen of the Kingdom of Xianle, he hadn't imagined that Qi Rong and Xie Lian were actually related on a personal level.
Qi Rong stared at Xie Lian's face and looked him up and down; it was a peculiar gaze, hungry with curiosity and fascination. When his eyes stopped at the sword Fangxin on Xie Lian's back, he suddenly burst out laughing.
"SO THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT! FANGXIN WAS YOU! YOU WERE FANGXIN! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
Although Lang Qianqiu couldn't understand why Qi Rong was laughing, it made him feel immensely uncomfortable. He demanded angrily, "What's so funny?"
"I'm laughing at my good ol' cousin, what's it to you?!" Qi Rong snapped back in a fit. "Just now I said that your stupidity spanned hundreds of years. I'm sorry. I apologize. The best way to learn is to learn from the best—look at your shifu, no wonder you're so stupid!" He turned to Xie Lian. "You went to Yong'an, became their State Preceptor, and ended up stabbed to death by your own disciple, isn't that exciting? Isn't it hilarious? You deserved it, you pathetic fool!"
The moment he uttered the word "pathetic," Hua Cheng wrathfully struck once more. Qi Rong had always been tough-skinned, and for some reason seeing Xie Lian made him ten times more excitable than usual. Even with his face struck to the ground, he continued his indomitable shrieking.
"PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC!"
Each time he said it, Hua Cheng smashed his head down again. It was an extremely gory scene, and Xie Lian stopped the hand that was about to strike again.
"San Lang, just leave it!"
"Why should I?!" Hua Cheng demanded sharply.
"It's nothing, don't let any of it get to you," Xie Lian said. "He's just mental and extremely troublesome. I can take care of him. You just sit back and ignore him."
He gently rubbed Hua Cheng's shoulder, and it was a long time before Hua Cheng finally uttered in a low voice, "Fine."
Qi Rong plucked his own head from the ground and arduously rolled to the side. He then spat, "Why play pretend with that false kindness? If you really didn't want him to hit me, then you would've stopped him at the beginning! Faking indifference now, telling him to forget it, no one's gonna praise you for bein' merciful!"
"I stopped him because I don't want him to dirty his hands. Did you misunderstand something?" Xie Lian said.
A trace of anger flashed across Qi Rong's bloodied face, but then he started giggling.
"Yooo, Cousin Crown Prince, you're getting along pretty well with Hua Cheng, aren't you? This little brother of yours was wondering why none of the underlings he sent to greet you on Zhongyuan ever returned— now I see it's because you've been clinging to Hua Cheng!"
Xie Lian had no idea that Qi Rong had sent any underlings to find him. On the night of the Zhongyuan Festival, it was a coincidence that he bumped into Hua Cheng, and taking him back to Puqi Shrine also wasn't something he'd planned. It seemed that Hua Cheng had taken care of all of Qi Rong's underlings. At the thought of this, Xie Lian unconsciously stole a glance at the person next to him.
Qi Rong continued, "Calling him 'San Lang,' tsk tsk tsk, so familiar! Cousin, you're a big-shot heavenly official, how can you hang out with ghosts and demons? Aren't you worried about him tainting your reputation? You're so perfect after all, so pure and flawless, your saintly halo shines upon all of us on this earth, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…"
Many in the Heavenly Court thought the way Mu Qing spoke was sarcastic, but if they were to listen here and compare, they would witness sarcasm in its primal form. Truly, they had wronged Mu Qing.
Qi Rong didn't just talk shit, he acted the part as well. He folded his hands over his heart and exclaimed, "Cousin Crown Prince, this little brother has thought of you constantly through the years. Look, I even meticulously carved this statue to keep you by my side, so I can gaze upon your valiant form every waking moment of every day. What do you think? It's pretty well done, right? Do you like it? Don't worry, it's better if you don't. I'll carve some more, ha ha ha ha ha…"
The moment he mentioned the statue, coldness suffused Hua Cheng's darkened expression; if it wasn't for Xie Lian holding him back, he probably would've gone over and stomped on Qi Rong's face some more. However, Xie Lian knew perfectly well what kind of person Qi Rong was: he was a little sick in the head, and the more extreme the reaction, the more excited he'd get and the more outrageous he'd become. Reverse psychology was the most effective strategy, so Xie Lian only smiled faintly.
He said, unconcerned, "It's only so-so. Sorry, but the craftsmanship is rather inferior."
As expected, Qi Rong's face immediately fell. He said coldly, "Be content with what you've got. If it wasn't for my affection of old urging me to carve you a couple of statues, who would even worship you? You probably sniveled and whined at Jun
Wu's feet and hugged his legs 'til your knees were busted to ascend this time. Go around the Upper Court and see for yourself; which official isn't more dignified than you? Even a two-hundred-year-old ascendee could walk all over you. Over eight hundred years old and this is the state you're in? What a failure."
Xie Lian smiled. "I am quite the failure. Not like my cousin, already a wrath after eight hundred years."
Xie Lian knew way too well how to put Qi Rong down. Next to him, Hua Cheng snorted, and Qi Rong's face darkened for real. He looked between all those present and suddenly spoke.
"This attitude… Did you beg Hua Cheng to kick me around today to settle our differences?"
Xie Lian was taken aback. He thought about the current picture they painted and actually couldn't argue back.
Qi Rong continued, "Look at you both. The moment I say anything bad about you, whoa! Look how mad he gets. Was he blinded by that holy light from your halo? Yooo, I forgot! Isn't he already blind in one eye? HA HA ha ha ha…"
Before he could finish, Qi Rong's own sight went dark again, and his cheek exploded in agony as he spewed blood from his mout —he got himself socked again! However, this punch wasn't from Hua Cheng, it was from Xie Lian.
Xie Lian's fist was faster than the eye could possibly track, and he said coldly, "Just because I've never hit you before, it doesn't mean I would never hit you."
His punch was a brutal one, and it was a long while before Qi Rong could say anything. He lay on the ground like a mangy dog, pounding the ground as he cackled.
"Cousin Crown Prince, you hit me! You actually hit me! Heavens, our noble, kind, compassionate, charitable crown prince, who's scared of stepping on even a tiny ant, actually copped an attitude and swung at me! HE'S HITTING PEOPLE! INCREDIBLE! AMAZING!!"
He was outrageously excited to the point of insanity. Lang Qianqiu had never seen anyone whose words and actions were so mad, and he was shocked into stupefaction after witnessing this singular act.
He mumbled, "Is…is he crazy?"
Xie Lian was used to seeing Qi Rong's madness and didn't think much of it. "You've heard him. He's insane. He's unbalanced, so you can't believe anything he says."
Qi Rong's laughter came to an abrupt stop. He schooled his face and sneered. "Don't be so quick to tell people I'm psycho. Let me ask you: How did Prince An Le die?!"
This was the question Hua Cheng had posed to him, and now he was turning it to Xie Lian instead. Lang Qianqiu's attention was suddenly focused on it again.
Xie Lian's mind was collected, but he couldn't immediately answer. Qi Rong, on the other hand, slowly crawled to his feet and sat, leaning against the kneeling statue.
"After An Le died, I cut open his corpse to inspect it, and all of his organs were pulverized by the vibrations of an exceedingly powerful sword. That's why, despite not having any external injuries, he couldn't stop hacking up blood. This was something no ordinary swordsman could do. At first, I thought Yong'an thugs had brought in a special hit man to frame An Le's death as illness, but now that I think about it, there's another who has the ability, and who is that, hmm?! Of course, my good ol' cousin, defender of justice! After all, our Flower-Crowned Martial God, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, is a holy, pure, one and only, snow-white lotus of the heavenly mountains…"
Hua Cheng stomped on him, and Qi Rong yelped miserably. Lang Qianqiu felt like his mind was going to explode; he held his head, his eyes bloodshot.
"Shut up! Just tell me what you know! Who's the real murderer? What happened at the Gilded Banquet? And what happened to Prince An Le? What happened?!"
"Lang Qianqiu, why are you still confused?" Qi Rong asked. "Even I've pretty much figured out what happened by now. Looks like you really don't understand the kind of person your shifu is! Come, come, come, let me dissect my good ol' cousin for you: this former Crown Prince of Xianle went and became Yong'an's State Preceptor, taught you swordsmanship for five years…"
He'd only spoken a few words when Xie Lian brandished his sword. But before he could charge forward, Lang Qianqiu's greatsword stopped him.
"Let him finish!"
"You know he's insane, but you'll still listen to his nonsense?!"
Fangxin was swung, and even though it was a slender blade, its shock wave almost loosened Lang Qianqiu's grip on his massive greatsword. But just then, a silver, curved blade flicked Fangxin, hooked it, and pulled it aside.
Xie Lian was startled and cried, "San Lang!"
Qi Rong could see how badly Xie Lian didn't want him to speak and how desperately he didn't want Lang Qianqiu to hear the story, so Qi Rong had to do the opposite. He grabbed this chance.
"Prince An Le was our good Xianle boy, very obedient! He heeded my instructions to become false friends with you, but your shifu bumped into us cleaning out the Yong'an rat's nest at the Gilded Banquet. An Le escaped, you rushed to the Gilded Banquet and saw what happened, and State Preceptor Fangxin became the most wanted man in the kingdom. That's the story, not a word of it a lie…"
Xie Lian tried to charge forward to shut his mouth a few times, but he was stopped by Hua Cheng every time.
Xie Lian cried again, "San Lang!"
However, Hua Cheng didn't say a single word as he continued to block Xie Lian. The more Xie Lian wanted to charge over, the faster Qi Rong's lips moved.
"But you know this saintly cousin of mine, when he saw with his own eyes the people of Xianle committing murder, he must've thought: 'How can this be? That's not right!' So, he went to find Prince An Le to educate him a little, but when he sought him out—my GOD, what did he discover? An Le's massive plot! The plans didn't stop with assassinating some thugs! There was no way cousin could educate him, so he hardened his heart and killed the last scion of our royal house with his own hands! Afterward, you caught your shifu and nailed him dead in that coffin, and so ended my cousin's magnificent life as a State Preceptor. Cousin, am I right?"
Qi Rong spat a mouthful of blood next to the feet of the statue.
"I know you too well. You love doing shit like this. Ancestors above, look at what a good descendant you gave birth to! Not only has the Xie Clan of Xianle lost everything, now even the bloodline is cut! XIE LIAN! YOU UNLUCKY STAR, YOU GOD OF MISFORTUNE! YOUR EXISTENCE IS XIANLE'S GREATEST TRAGEDY! WHY WON'T YOU DIE? HOW DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE FACE TO KEEP LIVING?!"
"But I saw with my own eyes that he killed my father with his sword!" Lang Qianqiu said. "How do you explain that?"
"If it's not your blind, elderly eyes or water getting into your brain, then I can only think of one reason," Qi Rong replied. "Which is that An Le indeed stabbed your old man, but he didn't die."
"Then…did he finish him off?"
Qi Rong howled, "What are you saying?! My good cousin is such a kind soul—as if he would do that straight off! When he arrived, he'd be too abashed to finish the king off right away—he'd have to do a little show of trying to save the poor guy first. But, heh, your dad probably killed himself."
"What do you mean he killed himself?" Lang Qianqiu demanded.
"What's the first thing someone saved from an attempt on their life would do?" Qi Rong asked. "After seeing so many massacred at the Gilded Banquet, what would your first reaction be?"
Lang Qianqiu still hadn't completely figured it out. "…Find the murderer."
"Wrong!" Qi Rong said. "After my good cousin saved your old man and he found his breath, he would've certainly said, 'Quick, State Preceptor! It was Prince An Le who did it! Go and kill Prince An Le!' No, no, no, not just that, he must've said something worse, like, 'State Preceptor! Call upon everyone! I want the entire population of Xianle wiped out! I want to bury them all with the dead!!'"
His imitative tone of despair and fury was disturbing to listen to, and Lang Qianqiu was growing paler by the minute.
Qi Rong continued, "Even if he doesn't order for their deaths on the spot, An Le also had the entire nest of your old hag's relatives killed in front of the old coot, so sooner or later he would have to open fire on the people of Xianle. Your good shifu realized this, weighed the options, and decided, no, the old man couldn't be saved, so PLORK and the old man's heart goes kaput. That's the kind of person my good cousin is, a saint who can't have sand in his eyes, always doing shit that hurts both others and himself; he wants to please both sides but succeeds with neither, hee hee hee hee, ha ha HA HA HA ha ha h—"
"Qi Rong, you shut your mouth!" Xie Lian shouted.
Lang Qianqiu whipped his head around. "Why do you want him to shut up? Because what he said is the truth?! At that Gilded Banquet, you and An Le both struck; one killed my entire family, and the other finished the act on my father. You're all lying to me?!"
Xie Lian started, "Don't listen to—"
Qi Rong cut in. "OF COURSE WE'RE ALL LYING TO YOU! You're so stupid, who else would we deceive if not you? If not for the interruption that spoiled our plans, Xianle would've already taken your damned life at the age of twelve, instead of giving you the luxury of growing up and ascending!"
"Twelve?" Lang Qianqiu repeated. The biggest incident that happened when he was twelve was that kidnapping, and he was saved by Xie Lian. He demanded, "That year, the culprits who invaded the palace to kidnap me were sent by the people of Xianle?"
"Duh!" Qi Rong spat. "Did you think ordinary assassins could just kidnap the crown prince from under the noses of hundreds of royal palace guards? Please. I was the one who helped An Le with that."
Lang Qianqiu nodded. "Helped? Good. I understand now. So all my friends are fake. The people of Xianle never cared for our amity. Your Prince An Le never had good intentions and instead came for our lives."
He turned to Xie Lian. "So everything you told me was false too."
Qi Rong pretended to look surprised. "Come, come, come, quickly now, tell me what my saintly cousin told you!"
Lang Qianqiu ignored him completely and continued to address Xie Lian, "You said Yong'an and Xianle were but one nation at their roots; whatever conflicts the royals had with each other had nothing to do with civilians. Both sides used to be one family, and under our generation's rule, there could be changes for the better. As long as the people were happy, it
didn't matter what the royal house was named, and both sides could let go of their grudge and unite in time. All that was false. All nonsense, bullshit, lies!"
This was precisely what Xie Lian didn't want to hear. He cried out immediately, "No! It's not false! Think: under your rule, weren't there real changes?"
Lang Qianqiu closed his mouth, and the heaving of his chest faltered.
Xie Lian continued, "Didn't you do really well? Didn't the remnants of Xianle integrate peacefully with the people of Yong'an? There were fewer and fewer conflicts and riots, so how could any of it be false?"
There was a moment of silence. Tears rolled down Lang Qianqiu's cheeks.
"But…but what about my royal parents? Yong'an and Xianle integrating was their greatest wish; that's why they granted the princely title 'An Le' to the last of your royal bloodline. Their wish came true, but what of their end?"
Qi Rong clicked his tongue. "What a whiny crybaby, just like my saintly cousin was once upon a time! You came crying for your old man and old hag; I haven't fucking harassed your ancestors for my old man and old hag! Integrating Yong'an and Xianle was their wish? What pretty words. An Le, An Le, settle first, joy after. You think I can't tell that it means you Yong'an dogs want to walk all over the heads of Xianle for the rest of our lives?"
Xie Lian yelled angrily, "Qi Rong, stop your madness!"
Lang Qianqiu, on the other hand, glowered at Qi Rong with tears still falling from his eyes.
"You're the mastermind behind the massacre of my clan? And you're part of the plot behind the Gilded Banquet too?"
Qi Rong snickered gleefully. "Yes, I'm part of it. An Le was part of it as well. And your shifu! We three people of Xianle all had our part. Ha ha ha ha ha…"
Unexpectedly, midway through his laugh, Lang Qianqiu's greatsword swung down and struck. Qi Rong yelped and was sliced into two!
It was an exceedingly gory scene. Both halves of his body writhed and rolled around on the ground, and his upper half cried, "IT DOESN'T HURT! IT DOESN'T HURT! IT DOESN'T HURT ONE BIT! COMPARED TO THAT PUNCH FROM COUSIN CROWN PRINCE, YOU'RE NOTHING! HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
Lang Qianqiu didn't say a word, just grabbed him by the head and picked that half up. Qi Rong was still spouting insults, but Xie Lian noticed something off in Lang Qianqiu's expression.
He warned, "Qi Rong, stop talking if you value your life!"
Xie Lian always treated others with kindness and respect, but Qi Rong was not someone who could be faced normally. Xie Lian knew this truth profoundly. Every time he had to face Qi Rong, Xie Lian's normal politeness disappeared, and he unconsciously started being rude himself.
Lang Qianqiu dragged Qi Rong's upper body to the giant, boiling, bubbling cauldron.
"Do you usually use this cauldron to cook humans?"
As Qi Rong's mangled carcass was dragged around, it painted a thick trail of blood on the ground. "Yeah, so?"
Without another word, Lang Qianqiu let go of his hold.
"AAAAAAAAH HA HA HA HA HA—"
It was hard to discern whether Qi Rong was screaming or laughing, and the moment he was dropped into that cauldron, his flesh instantly split and burst open from the scalding heat.
Xie Lian had not expected this development; his pupils shrank and he blurted, "Qianqiu!"
Lang Qianqiu responded sharply, "What? How many people has Green Ghost Qi Rong eaten? Why can't I teach him what it feels like to be cooked? He's the enemy that murdered my clan, am I not allowed to make him suffer?!"
Of course he could. Xie Lian couldn't say anything, and he had no right to say anything either. Yet whether it was as the crown prince of a mortal kingdom or as Heaven's Martial God of the East, Lang Qianqiu had never done something like this before. He had always been straightforward in fights, never cruel. These actions were far from the Lang Qianqiu that Xie Lian knew.
When Qi Rong was fished out of the boiling water, his body no longer retained a human shape. It instead resembled a melted lump of skin and flesh, bones poking out in some areas, terrifying to behold. Yet he still seemed quite pleased and was still guffawing.
"Congratulations, cousin! Look at your good disciple! His wings have hardened! He knows how to use torture now!"
Lang Qianqiu released his hold, and Qi Rong was once again submerged into the bubbling cauldron. This time when he was dropped, it seemed even his bones were dissolved by the boiling broth. Qi Rong didn't float up again, and only the remnants of some green cloth emerged on the surface.
After a while, having still not seen his shadow, Xie Lian couldn't help but call out, "Qi Rong!"
His younger cousin, once upon a time, couldn't shut up about his cousin the crown prince, idolizing and praising him for everything he did. However, after the fall of Xianle, he turned into a complete madman. He led the burning of Xie Lian's temples and the desecration of his palaces, and he commissioned the kneeling crown prince statues everywhere, affixing them as thresholds. To make Xie Lian suffer, he would do anything, at any cost. Xie Lian had done his best to put up with that behavior, and if it involved others, he did his best to obstruct it. Until finally, when he could no longer tolerate it, he had to stay away and practice the idea of "out of sight, out of mind."
Afterward, they lost touch for many years, and Xie Lian thought that Qi Rong had passed away. Who knew that, after so long, he would suddenly meet this figure from his past and see that face that so resembled his own? He couldn't tell whether there were any feelings of nostalgia. The two of them were the only ones left from the royal house of Xianle, but they hadn't even been together for long before Qi Rong died before him—cruelly killed by Lang Qianqiu, who in the past would refuse to even so much as flog someone. So much happened in such a short period of time; Xie Lian hadn't yet sorted the thoughts in his head, and his heart was a mess. Lang Qianqiu stood next to the cauldron with his head hung low, unspeaking.
Just then, Hua Cheng spoke up. "He's not dead."
Lang Qianqiu looked up at him.
Hua Cheng said, "You can't be thinking you've actually had your revenge? You only killed one of his many clones. If you want to exterminate him completely, you need to find his ashes."
"Thanks for reminding me," Lang Qianqiu said coldly. "I will definitely capture him with my own hands and use his ashes to pay my respects to my king father and queen mother. Once that's over, I will come and settle things with you, State Preceptor. Don't you dare think about running away again!"
As soon as he spoke, he gripped his greatsword and struck, slashing the cauldron, then turned abruptly to walk away. Boiling water spilled from the cauldron, and broth filled with slivers of bone poured onto the ground.
Xie Lian wanted to chase after him, but he knew that it wouldn't be of any use.
He halted, standing still, with nothing to say. Hua Cheng approached him.
"He just found out the truth, so it'd be better to leave him alone to cool down."
Xie Lian was completely stunned. "Why must he know the truth? Was the truth that important?"
"Very important," Hua Cheng replied. "He needed to know what you did and what you didn't do, and why you had to do it."
Xie Lian turned away and said coldly, "What's the use of knowing everything so clearly? Would I be any more blameless if I killed fewer people? Would things be less hard?!"
Hua Cheng didn't respond.
A blaze of anger flared from Xie Lian's chest, and he didn't even know who it was directed at. He blurted, "And what nonsense hardships have I experienced? His Majesty the king had wanted to integrate the two clans; did I not kill him? Prince An Le was the last of my family's bloodline; did I not kill him? I deserve whatever comes to me—is it so
wrong to count everything as my doing? What's there to be afraid of? No matter what comes at me, I can't die! I did this. I bring misfortune. And now Prince An Le is counted, Qi Rong is counted, everyone in Xianle is counted. Isn't it better to hate one instead of a group? Must he think that everything I taught him was false, nothing more than empty bullshit?!"
Hua Cheng watched him quietly and didn't argue. The two stared at each other, and suddenly Xie Lian covered his face with his hands.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, San Lang. I've gone mad. I'm sorry."
"It's nothing. It's my fault," Hua Cheng said.
"No, it's not your fault. This is my problem." Xie Lian slumped to the ground, holding his head. "What a mess. What a disastrous mess."
After a moment, Hua Cheng sat down next to him. "You weren't wrong."
Xie Lian kept holding his head and said nothing.
Hua Cheng continued, "The Yong'an king was killed to protect the remaining people of Xianle. Prince An Le was killed to prevent the two clans from fighting. In the end, in dying at the hands of Lang Qianqiu, the murderer faced justice. Three lives exchanged for centuries of peace, that's worth it. If it were me, I would've done the same. Listen to me."
His voice was full of conviction, leaving no room for doubt.
"You weren't wrong. No one could've done it better than you."
Xie Lian was quiet. After some time, he finally said, "I just don't think it's right."
He slowly looked up.
"I just don't think it's right for someone to have been kind but still meet a bad end. I don't think it should have ended up this way.
"Even if it was a lie, I wanted Qianqiu to remember that his benevolence toward Xianle was reciprocated. To believe that doing the right thing will open endless paths. Not like now, where he thinks everything I told him and everything he believed in was all false, lies, and deception. That everything was fucking nonsense! I just…"
He raised his right hand and stared at it.
"…I don't want to see anyone go through what I've already had enough of."
Hua Cheng listened quietly. Xie Lian felt self-conscious about the vulgar words he'd uttered and apologized again.
"I'm sorry. But look how absurd things are in this world. The first few generations of Yong'an rule were filled with violence and cruelty, but no one died tragically. But when it came to Lang Qianqiu's parents, all they wanted was to do some good, to do something great, but it ended like this."
The king of Yong'an honored him as the State Preceptor and treated him with the utmost respect for five years. Even at the end of his life, he passed on without any sign that that trust had dispersed. Xie Lian stared far into the distance, his eyes unfocused.
He whispered, "I just can't forget…the look on his face when my sword pierced him."
Hua Cheng said softly, "Forget about it. That was Qi Rong and Prince An Le's fault."
Xie Lian shook his head and buried it between his knees, his voice exhausted. "…Everything was going so well too."
When Lang Qianqiu's father ascended the throne, his very first decree was to break the culture of oppressing the people of Xianle. The people of Xianle and the people of Yong'an finally experienced peace between them for the first time; there were finally winds of change, finally signs of integration, finally hopes that they could leave the conflict behind. And Prince An Le had to pick that time to paint the Gilded Banquet with blood.
That night when he escaped and found Prince An Le, he was originally going to warn him to never start trouble again. Yet after the last descendant of his royal house discovered his true identity, he excitedly grabbed hold of him and asked him to join his grand scheme of revenge and aid the recovery of their kingdom. His eyes were so red with passion and his voice so high with excitement that it made one's hair stand on end. He first vowed to spill blood at the Gilded Banquet, then kill Lang Qianqiu, and then sow havoc in Yong'an. They would do this even at the cost of destroying the growing amity between the two peoples and at the cost of all the lives that remained from Xianle. As long as they could drag everyone of Yong'an, royalty and commoners alike, to the depths of hell, they would not hesitate.
But in the end, who was killed was killed, who was murdered wasmurdered. However just the reason, however compelling the reason, the truth was that he'd killed, with his own hands, an honorable king who had truly wanted to eradicate discrimination, as well as the last blood descendant of his clan in this world.