Shi Qingxuan violently choked as Shi Wudu squeezed his jaw and force-fed him the contents of the bowl. He spat and sputtered out more than half the stuff, dirtying the front of his robes. Screaming, he slammed his head into the bowl to knock it from his brother's hands. Shi Wudu fumed.
"Go ahead! Keep breaking them!" he yelled. "There's plenty of medicine where that came from. Break one bowl and I'll bring twenty more! I'll keep forcing it down your throat until you drink it all!"
"Aaaaaah! Can't you just leave me alone?! Just let me die!" Shi Qingxuan screamed.
"I'm your brother!" Shi Wudu snapped. "If I don't take care of you, who will?!"
Shi Qingxuan ceased his screams and settled for twisting his head away. Shi Wudu sat down on the side of the bed and softened his tone.
"I'll have your fan fixed."
"I don't want it anymore," Shi Qingxuan said.
The Wind Master loved that rare spiritual device of his, his Wind Master fan; he'd often bring it out just to play with.
Even at the height of winter with snow choking the skies, he would flutter that fan undaunted. But now he'd said he didn't want it anymore. Xie Lian was only growing more and more curious.
"If you don't want it, that's fine as well. We'll use the opportunity to forge you a new spiritual device."
Shi Qingxuan turned his head back to look at his brother.
"I don't want a new one either! Just let me descend."
Shi Wudu peered at him. "Descend? Descend where?"
"Descend to the Mortal Realm," Shi Qingxuan replied. "I don't want to stay in the Upper Court anymore. I don't want to be a god anymore!"
Veins bulged on Shi Wudu's fair brow. "What a joke!
Throw away your godhood and return to the Mortal Realm?
Do you think the Mortal Realm is some kind of wonderful place? Stop embarrassing yourself! I don't think you understand just how many people in the world want to ascend or how many officials in the Middle Court would die to join the Upper Court!"
"That's right! I don't know!" Shi Qingxuan shouted, his anger obvious. "I just want to be a carefree drifting vagabond! Is that so wrong?!"
"I won't permit it!" Shi Wudu snapped. "A carefree drifting vagabond? Dream on! I…" The color of his face changed abruptly; it seemed he'd received a private message that passed on worrisome news.
With two fingers pressed against his temple, Shi Wudu rose to his feet at once and listened intently. His face grew more and more serious, and he turned to Shi Qingxuan.
"Stop adding to my troubles. I've been busy, I've no time to mind you! Once I return from my third Heavenly Tribulation, you won't be able to act out like this any longer!"
Then, with a whirl of his sleeves, he swiftly left the bedchamber.
Once it was clear that he was gone, Xie Lian silently flipped down. He pushed at the window, hoping to sneak in, but it wouldn't budge. Some sort of seal of restriction must have been cast on it. He dared not force it open, lest he trip any alarms associated with that spell.
And so he could only call out in a quiet voice: "Lord Wind Master. Lord Wind Master?"
Shi Qingxuan jerked on the bed. He turned his head, joy clear on his face. "Your Highness?!"
"It's me," Xie Lian responded. "What happened to you? I can't open this window. May I try coming in another way?"
When confronted with a window that couldn't be opened by normal means, it was easy to guess the entry method a martial god would choose.
"Don't, don't, don't! Don't destroy anything!" Shi Qingxuan said hurriedly. "There are spells on all the windows and doors. If you force your way in, the whole Palace of Wind and Water will know someone's here. They can only be opened from the inside, unless you're me or my brother."
"But you're all tied up," Xie Lian pointed out.
Shi Qingxuan started to struggle like mad. "Your Highness, wait a sec! Watch me flex these ropes right off…" "..."
Xie Lian watched as he rolled around the bed in an immense struggle to break free, alternating between curling up like a shrimp and straightening out like an iron board. Xie Lian softly cheered him on.
"Keep at it, My Lord!"
He could tell with a cursory glance that the rope binding Shi Qingxuan wasn't a spiritual device. With Lord Wind Master's considerable power, it should've snapped with but a hook of his finger. Why was he having such trouble? Was Shi Qingxuan really so seriously hurt that he couldn't break free of simple bindings?
All of a sudden, an odd movement came from under Shi Qingxuan's bed, and a hand stretched out from below. Xie Lian was startled, and his heart raced in alarm.
"Lord Wind Master, watch out! Someone's hiding underneath your bed!"
Shi Qingxuan's expression also changed. "What?!"
Just as he spoke, a black figure swiftly crawled from under the bed.
Staring down commandingly at him from above was a man dressed in black and wearing a ghost mask. It was hard to tell how long he'd been hiding there or what he was about to do. Shi Qingxuan writhed desperately, unable to escape his bonds, and Xie Lian remained locked outside—it was truly a dire situation. But before Xie Lian could put his thoughts of smashing the window into action, he saw the man push up his ghost mask.
"Shut up!" he hissed in a hushed voice.
Shi Qingxuan's eyes widened. "Ming-xiong? Ming-xiong!
My god, Ming-xiong, my good pal, quick! Help me loosen these ropes!"
With just one hand, Ming Yi snapped the rope that bound Shi Qingxuan. Shi Qingxuan worked out the kinks in his limbs, then crawled out of bed and rushed over to the window. He clutched Xie Lian's hands and shook them in earnest gratitude.
"Your Highness! Thank you for remembering me!"
Xie Lian patted his shoulders and then hopped into the bedchamber with nimble feather lightness.
"Wasn't there a restriction seal on the chamber? How did Lord Earth Master get in?"
"It was hardly a feat, considering my profession," Ming Yi said.
After saying this, he seemed to notice something amiss.
He picked up the rope on the ground and inspected it before asking Shi Qingxuan, "Why couldn't you break free of something as trivial as this?"
Xie Lian looked closely as well. This was a completely ordinary rope. With such strong spiritual power at his command, why did the Wind Master remain bound for so long by nothing but coarse twine?
Shi Qingxuan's face froze, and Ming Yi grabbed his left wrist. As he felt his pulse, his expression turned grim.
"What's going on?!"
Xie Lian reached out and took hold of Shi Qingxuan's right wrist. After a moment, his discovery dumbfounded him.
"Lord Wind Master, how did this happen?"
There was not a trace of spiritual power in Shi Qingxuan's body!
"Was it that bowl of medicine?" Xie Lian guessed.
Recalling the bowl of medicine Shi Wudu was trying to force down Shi Qingxuan's throat earlier, Xie Lian crouched to check the spillage.
However, Shi Qingxuan replied, "No."
It truly wasn't the medicine. Xie Lian was somewhat familiar with the healing arts; judging by its smell, the medicinal broth was likely an anesthetic meant to calm him.
At most, it might cause drowsiness. Thinking back to the T errace of Cascading Wine and the frightening look that crossed his face, Shi Wudu must have noticed his younger brother's condition when he grabbed his wrist. He was likely making his brother drink such a broth for his own good, so why was Shi Qingxuan so adamant in refusing it?
No wonder Shi Qingxuan wasn't answering any private communications. With all his spiritual power completely gone, he was no different from a mortal.
"Lord Wind Master, you've been banished?" Xie Lian blurted without thinking.
How else could this have happened? But there were no cursed shackles on him, and there was no way a banishment could be kept under wraps. The Upper and Middle Courts would've caught wind of it in no time. Shi Qingxuan's face was pale, and he seemed unable to stand any longer.
Xie Lian helped support him. "Why did Lord Water Master tie you up?"
Only then did Shi Qingxuan snap out of it. "Right. My brother. Let's hurry out of here while he's still gone. Let's talk after we've escaped!"
Then he dropped to the floor and crawled under the bed.
Xie Lian bent down and called after him.
"Lord Wind Master!"
There was actually a hole under the bed, leading to somewhere unknown. Shi Qingxuan disappeared into it, and Ming Yi lowered himself down as well, ready to follow him.
After a moment of thought, Xie Lian decided to follow them too. However, Ming Yi came back out.
"Your Highness, don't involve yourself anymore."
Xie Lian was taken aback by his rebuff. "Lord Wind Master has given me generous assistance on many occasions. Now that he's in trouble, I can't just sit back and watch."
"He's generous to everyone. But when there's real trouble, most people don't return the favor," Ming Yi said.
"How others behave has nothing to do with me," Xie Lian stated. "After we've figured out what's going on, I will of course take my leave if my assistance is unnecessary."
Shi Qingxuan's voice came from under the bed. "Are you two coming? The hole is closing!"
Sure enough, the hole under the bed was gradually growing smaller. Seeing this, Ming Yi leapt inside, and Xie Lian followed. As they crawled through the tunnel Ming Yi dug, Xie Lian looked back to find that the entrance to the hole had closed on its own. How absolutely magical.
"Lord Earth Master, how did you dig this out?" he asked in a hushed voice. "I thought it was impossible to burrow beneath the Heavenly Capital."
It must be known that the foundation of the Heavenly Capital was not the same as the earth of the Mortal Realm.
In response to Xie Lian's question, he learned the Earth Master Ming Yi was a skilled tradesman prior to his ascension.
In his mortal lifetime, he repaired bridges, fixed roads, opened mountain paths, constructed houses, and bestowed prosperity to countless common folk—these astounding feats of service were what allowed him to ascend. Before any major construction projects began in the Mortal Realm, before any earth was broken, the people first prayed to the Earth Master for the blessing of successful labor.
After ascension, he forged a spiritual device: a shovel in the shape of a crescent moon. Rumor had it that there was no mountain this sacred shovel could not flatten, no tunnel that could not be dug, and no building that could not be entered.
This was extremely useful for spying operations in Ghost City —if he wished to enter a secret chamber, he could simply dig his way in, and his tracks would cover themselves. Maybe he could've escaped on his own using his treasured shovel if Hua Cheng hadn't beaten him to a pulp and significantly damaged his spiritual powers.
The Earth Master had never tried using his shovel to tunnel beneath the residence of any heavenly official; he didn't really show the thing off in general. He usually kept it in storage, which was probably for the best—spiritual devices of Upper Court officials were generally elegant and beautiful, like books and brushes, swords and fans, and guqin and flutes. It would completely ruin the court's image if among them was a heavenly official who hauled a shovel around all day.
Once he heard the explanation, Xie Lian couldn't help but wonder: if he wanted his Puqi Shrine to be renovated, maybe he should pray to the Earth Master too?
After crawling for a while, ahead of him, Xie Lian heard Ming Yi ask a question of Shi Qingxuan.
"Was it the Reverend of Empty Words?"
Xie Lian also wanted to know the answer. If the Reverend of Empty Words had injured Shi Qingxuan like this, and if news of the incident got out, it would shake up the Heavenly Realm and cause a huge panic. T o think that a monster could rob a heavenly official of their powers in such a short time, and that it could cause them to fall and become mortal! It wasn't hard to imagine the mayhem that would create.
It was such a serious affair, but after a few moments of silence, Shi Qingxuan replied with a simple statement.
"No matter who did it, this whole thing is over and done with."
His reaction was extremely questionable. He shouldn't have been acting so flippant if he was caught in a trap designed to drain him of his power. Shi Qingxuan wasn't a sucker who'd take a beating lying down.
A sudden dreadful idea dawned upon Xie Lian. Although awful to consider, it would explain everything.
Just then, Ming Yi ordered, "Silence."
They all held their breaths, and Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan looked at him. Ming Yi ignited a palm torch, and the flickering flames illuminated their immediate surroundings.
Ming Yi seemed to want to communicate via the spiritual array, but Shi Qingxuan's power was gone and he couldn't communicate with his mind alone. Thus, Ming Yi changed tactics and used his finger to write words in the air. Wherever his fingertips traced, a black streak trailed behind like drops of thick ink diffusing in clear water.
The other two read what he wrote:
"Don't speak and don't move. Wait."
He waited for everyone to finish reading, then puffed a soundless breath that dispersed those words into the air. Xie Lian still had some spiritual power left, so he raised his hand and replied in writing as well:
"Wait for what? For how long?"
Ming Yi wrote: "Wait until the person above leaves."
Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan both looked up at the same time. It seemed this underground tunnel Ming Yi had dug burrowed beneath some heavenly residences and temples. A heavenly official probably just happened to be above their heads at that very moment.
Listening intently, they could hear the sound of steady footsteps pacing back and forth in the chamber above.
Judging by those footsteps, Xie Lian determined that it had to be a martial god. Martial gods' senses were sharp; if the three of them weren't careful and made any suspicious noises, they might be discovered.
Shi Qingxuan couldn't use the communication array nor write with ink in the air; all he could do was move his lips silently to express his accusations. Xie Lian watched him repeat the phrase twice before he could understand what he said.
"Ming-xiong, why didn't you avoid temples and palaces?! Couldn't you have dug under the Grand Avenue of Divine Might instead?!"
Ming Yi indifferently wrote, "There wasn't anyone in this palace before. The Grand Avenue of Divine Might is full of holes right now."
Xie Lian wrote, "That's right. I saw it on the way over earlier. The avenue is full of holes and craters. Some are even a few meters deep. If we dug into one of those by accident, we might come face-to-face with someone above."
And so the three remained as silent as dull rocks, waiting patiently for the heavenly official above them to leave. After waiting for a while, Shi Qingxuan moved his lips again.
"Are they gone?"
Ming Yi shook his head. Veins popped on Shi Qingxuan's temple, and his angry expression was almost the same as it had been when he was arguing with his brother earlier. He mouthed soundlessly:
"Who the hell is dilly-dallying like this? It's not even the proper hour for sleeping! And what heavenly official needs to sleep, for that matter? Are we under their bathroom or what?!"
Strictly speaking, heavenly officials didn't need to go to the bathroom either. As Shi Qingxuan's lips formed the word "bathroom," Xie Lian felt the hair on the back of his neck stand. In one fluid motion, he shoved the two in front of him down while he backstepped and tumbled away.
A sharp blade penetrated the tunnel from above, bearing down threateningly and roiling with murderous intent —and it stabbed into the ground right between Xie Lian's legs.