Hua Cheng's breath was warm, but his words made Xie Lian's blood run cold.
Could there really be someone hiding in the grand hall?
A thought flashed through Xie Lian's mind, and he quickly returned Hua Cheng's embrace.
He wasn't hugging him because he was afraid, of course. If there truly was someone hiding in the temple whom they hadn't noticed, then they must be a formidable character—and if that person sensed anything off, they might be forced to make a move. It would arouse suspicion if Hua Cheng was the only one hugging him and being so intimate. If the embrace was mutual, it might appear more natural.
Xie Lian began to inconspicuously analyze their surroundings.
"Where do you think they're hiding?" he whispered.
There was only one entrance to the grand hall, which was the huge door they'd come through. The hall itself was completely empty; the whole room could be taken in at a glance, and there wasn't even a table or a chest that would provide a spot for someone to hide. Aside from the two of them, there were only the empty stone shells of the temple's attendants.
"The shells," Xie Lian and Hua Cheng whispered in unison.
Those stone people were hollow inside, which meant they could serve as a hiding spot. A human couldn't get inside, but a ghost certainly could!
When Xie Lian was sure they were both in agreement, he started to speak, but then he inadvertently looked up—and his pupils shrank. There was someone standing six meters behind Hua Cheng.
This person seemed to have been a young man of higher status. These statues each documented a Wuyong citizen's death, so most were curled into balls or hugging their heads and wailing—this statue was one of the very few that was standing.
But what made Xie Lian notice him wasn't his pose—it was his face.
Although the stone person's face was barely distinguishable, Xie Lian could still make out some details. The left side was smiling, and the right side was crying!
"It's that one!" Xie Lian blurted.
He drew his sword and struck just as Hua Cheng called out, "Gege?"
The stone person shattered, and broken fragments of the shell scattered across the floor. Although there was nothing inside, Xie Lian didn't dare drop his guard, and he began turning over every single shard until Hua Cheng caught his hand.
"Gege! What did you see just now?"
Xie Lian gathered a few fragments to show him. "San Lang, that stone person…his face…it was White No-Face's mask."
Hua Cheng's expression changed slightly, but still he said, "Wait a moment."
He gathered and pieced together the shards. When the face was reconstructed, the two fell silent.
Xie Lian had clearly seen a half-crying, half-smiling ghost face. But the face that Hua Cheng had reconstructed had indistinct features, no different from the other stone statues.
Was it a hallucination? Had he been bewitched by an illusion spell?
Sitting around wouldn't get them answers, so they searched the hall, smashing every stone person to ash as they went. But after giving it some thought, they realized that it was more important to deal with the others who were surely rushing to the summit at that moment. They decided not to stick around waiting for Pei Ming to return and left the temple to scale the mountain.
The mountain seemed to have a peculiar gravity—they tried, but the silver butterflies couldn't carry them, and flying on swords was a nonstarter.
They could only climb on foot. The higher they hiked, the steeper the path became and the colder the air grew. The snow was sparse at first, but it became thicker as they ascended until it could swallow almost half a boot.
They were up to their knees in it after four hours of climbing, and their trek was becoming more and more arduous.
Xie Lian didn't feel cold since they had been hiking nonstop. He was instead covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and his red cheeks gave a shock of color to his powdery white face. He wiped away the sweat and looked back, about to speak to Hua Cheng—but suddenly, his step caught nothing, and he dropped half a meter!
His body had sunk into the heavy snow. Thankfully, Hua Cheng had been following him closely and pulled him up quite easily, like he'd been prepared for it.
"Gege, be careful."
Xie Lian stood next to him and looked back at where he'd stumbled.
A large section of snow had caved in, revealing a deep, dark hole that led to somewhere unknown. If Xie Lian hadn't grabbed hold of the edge in time, or if Hua Cheng had moved too slowly, he would've fallen in for sure.
"There are many holes like that in this area. I still remember their general locations, so just stay close to me," Hua Cheng stated. "Take your time and it'll be fine; gege was walking too quickly."
As it turned out, the mountain's body was quite weak. There were holes everywhere beneath the snow, large and small—but how many and how deep was unknown. But as they climbed, it seemed Hua Cheng really did remember where all of them were.
Xie Lian puffed a breath. "All right. Let's stick closer together," he suggested. "In any event, we can't yell or make loud noises on a snowy mountain like this, so it wouldn't be easy to call for help if anything happened…" He stopped when they heard angry roars coming from up ahead.
"Are you done?!"
"…" Which good brother dared to yell like that on such a steep and perilous snowy mountain?!
Xie Lian was dumbfounded as he looked toward the source of the noise. Amidst the snow-covered landscape, he saw two little black dots engaged in a fight, their weapons clinking and clanking. One of them held a longbow and was shooting arrows nonstop. The other held a zhanmadao1 and swung with the vigor of a tiger; they struck down every single arrow.
Both the blade and the arrows had a sheen of spiritual light, and both parties were shouting curses at each other.
"I already said I didn't kill that little bastard; I'm looking for them too!" the man wielding the blade yelled.
It was Nan Feng and Fu Yao!
Without even trying to guess why they had come here too, Xie Lian very nearly let out a shout of "Shut up!" However, he caught himself in time and swallowed it before he added to the noise. If he started roaring the same way they were, and the three of them all began screaming at each other, could the snow on the mountain really remain still?
Hua Cheng hugged his arms and cocked an eyebrow. "Don't they know that they'll cause an avalanche if they yell like that?"
"They…can't be that foolish?!" Xie Lian said. "Maybe they do know.
But that's just the way they are—they forget everything else when they're angry!"
Nan Feng and Fu Yao were both furious and cursed at each other as they fought, but they were too far away from Xie Lian—he couldn't tell what they were fighting over from their broken, muffled phrases, and for their part, they completely failed to notice that anyone else had arrived.
Xie Lian wanted to rush over and pull them apart, but there was no way he could make it there in time to stop them with the heavy snow dragging down his pace and the deep holes lurking beneath. He only managed to run two steps before he stumbled over another hole, and he came to a stop.
"We can't just let them keep fighting like this! We have to stop them!"
As soon as he said so, a silver butterfly darted past like an arrow. Xie Lian was startled but relaxed a moment later.
Good idea! If neither of them could make it in time, why not just use a wraith butterfly to fly over and transmit communication?
As expected, the silver butterfly's speed was miraculously fast—it made it over to the brawling duo after only three more shouts. But before Xie Lian could try to speak through it, he saw Hua Cheng's expression turn cold.
Xie Lian noticed something was amiss. "What's wrong?"
The smile on Hua Cheng's lips had disappeared completely, replaced by a look that was as frigid as the snowy mountain upon which they stood.
"San Lang, what's going on?" Xie Lian pressed.
Hua Cheng's lips twitched, but he didn't manage to answer before Xie Lian suddenly felt an inexplicable wave of panic. His head shot up to look at the top of the mountain, and his eyes widened.
Giant chunks of the snowy white bluffs were trembling. And then they collapsed.
Even engrossed in their heated fight, Nan Feng and Fu Yao also sensed that soundless pressure. Both looked up, and they finally realized what was about to happen.
The snowy mass was like an enormous embankment that stretched for a thousand miles. And when in the next second it broke, it carried a snow tsunami along with it. It rumbled, rolled, and pushed down toward them!
They had caused an avalanche!
Xie Lian grabbed Hua Cheng's hand, turned, and ran. But after dashing a few steps, he remembered that the other two were much closer to the avalanche's charge. He stopped abruptly, looking back. Sure enough, they had ceased their aggression to flee together. Fu Yao didn't get very far before stumbling into a hole and sinking down more than halfway; he was buried up to his chest in snow. Although Nan Feng ran faster than him, he hesitated for a moment and looked back, seeming like he wanted to save him. But the wave of snow was already bearing down!
Xie Lian released Ruoye the moment before they were swallowed.
The white silk bandage instantly stretched far into the distance, lassoed Fu Yao and Nan Feng with sharp precision, and yanked them up.
"Gege! Leave them—don't bother!" Hua Cheng said darkly.
Xie Lian held Ruoye tightly, dragging the two as he ran. "I can't!
They might end up buried for a hundred years if this goes wrong!"
"Too late!" Hua Cheng said, his voice dire.
"What?!" Xie Lian cried.
He looked up, and the enveloping shadow bearing down overhead came crashing in.
Nan Feng and Fu Yao had stalled Xie Lian after all. The thick, icy wave of snow surged relentlessly and swallowed him whole, separating him from Hua Cheng. The force knocked Xie Lian everywhere, and he tumbled along with the coursing snow—although he somehow managed to keep struggling, there was just too much snow and the force was too powerful.
Xie Lian was buried again and again, suffocating over and over each time his head went under.
In the end, Xie Lian couldn't hang on. With a final shout of "San Lang!" he was devoured by the icy snow current.
***
An unknown amount of time passed before the snowy mountain finally calmed.
A long moment later, somewhere in the field, a pile of snow shifted a few times before a hand burst out from underneath!
The hand felt around randomly, then an arm poked out. Then a shoulder and then, finally, a head. Face covered in chunks of snow, he took a deep breath the instant he broke free, then let loose a flurry of coughing.
Soon after and with some difficulty, the man crawled his way out, shaking his head as he sat down on the snow.
It was Xie Lian.
Digging himself out from beneath that heavy layer of snow was not unlike his prior experience digging himself free of a grave. Xie Lian's face and hands were chapped red from frostbite and essentially numb, but he only bothered to rub his face a few times and huff some hot breaths on his hands before looking up with a lost expression.
There was not a trace of that captivating red in the sprawling blanket of white.
And Xie Lian couldn't even call out for him—it would be all over if he caused another avalanche. He could only rise to his feet and wander aimlessly, all alone in that snowy world.
He called out in a small voice as he walked. "San Lang? San Lang?
Nan Feng? Fu Yao?"
It was strange. Although he was walking the same path they had been hiking before, the air seemed so much colder than when he and Hua Cheng had been together. Ruoye was also gone from his hand. Xie Lian was puzzled, as Ruoye shouldn't have slipped off—it would still wrap itself around him even if he let go of it, so what happened?
He knew something was wrong but couldn't put his finger on what, so he continued to wander in confusion.
Suddenly, someone emerged from within the billowing snow ahead.
His white robes and black hair flapped in the wind, and he kept his head down as he slowly approached.
Xie Lian was delighted at the sight of this traveler and pushed forward. "My friend! You…" But just as he spoke, the man looked up. He was wearing a chilling white mask, half of it smiling, the other half crying.
Xie Lian screamed at the sight of it as though he'd been stabbed.
His eyes flew open at the sound of his own scream, and he shot upright. He panted harshly for several moments before his shaken mind could process that he wasn't standing on the snowy mountain at all—he was lying in a dark, shadowy place.
So it had been a dream.
No wonder something had felt off. Xie Lian exhaled a long breath as he relaxed, wiping away the cold sweat on his forehead. After feeling around for a bit, he determined that there was flat stone beneath him, covered with a blanket of grass. Fangxin hung from his waist and Ruoye was wrapped snugly around his arm. Xie Lian steadied himself and ignited a palm torch to illuminate the room. He sat up immediately and called out.
"San Lang? Are you there?"
The moment the flames brightened the room, Xie Lian discovered that there was a person standing right next to him in the darkness, soundless and silent.
This was no small shock, and Xie Lian was awash in cold sweat as his hand flew to Fangxin. There was no way he wouldn't have noticed someone lurking so close by!
However, the cold sweat dissipated when he looked closer. It wasn't a living person but rather a stone statue—and not one of the many stone statues of the victims of the volcano's eruption. This was clearly a man-made sculpture.
Palm torch in hand, Xie Lian scanned the room and was soon certain of where he found himself.
The place where he lay was a cavern for cultivation. He had once gone into seclusion to cultivate in a place like this, so he was familiar with this type of chamber. It meant that the sculpture inside the cavern was not a regular statue but a divine icon for worship.
The divine statue had been erected in a cavern with an arched ceiling.
Its figure was long and slender, its bearing was natural and relaxed, and its pose was graceful. Its right hand rested on the hilt of the sword at its waist.
It had been sculpted with sublime skill; even the flowing lines and folds of its robes were exquisite.
However, there was something peculiar about it—the face of this divine figure was covered by a light veil.
The veil was light as flowing smoke. While it was quite strange to see a divine statue with its face obscured like this, it wasn't ugly. Instead, it added a mysterious sort of beauty. Xie Lian had never seen a divine statue like this, displayed with its face covered. He unconsciously reached out to pull the veil off but was interrupted by a voice from behind.
"Gege."
Xie Lian's head whipped around. A figure in red had appeared at the entrance of the cavern without him realizing. It was Hua Cheng. The mysterious face of that divine statue instantly went to the back of Xie Lian's mind, and he rushed over to him.
"San Lang! Thank goodness, I was wondering where you were. Are you all right? Are you hurt? That avalanche was so sudden."
Hua Cheng entered the room. "I'm fine. How's gege?"
"I'm always fine," Xie Lian said. "What is this place?"
Once he left the cavern, it became clear that this place was far more expansive than expected—the corridor he found himself in seemed quite long, and who knew where it led?
Xie Lian had long ago gotten used to Hua Cheng having the answers to everything, yet this time he replied, "I don't know. Most likely under the snowy mountain."
Xie Lian was amazed. "And I'd thought it was a shelter San Lang had found. I can't believe even you don't know where we are."
Well, this was a first. Hua Cheng had memorized the location of every ditch on the mountain path, but he wasn't familiar with this place.
The cave network clearly wasn't small—had he really never stumbled upon it before?
Xie Lian couldn't help but find it a bit strange, but he didn't press the matter and instead raised his palm torch higher. "How did we get here?"
Hua Cheng summoned a few silver butterflies and let them flutter about to shine their faint light. "Maybe we stepped wrong and fell into a ditch," he replied evenly.
That was the only logical explanation, as the alternative was that someone had intentionally put them here. Xie Lian couldn't help but recall the dream he'd just had, and a slight shiver went down his spine.
Remembering something else, he asked, "We're here, so where are Nan Feng and Fu Yao?"
At the mention of those two, a trace of hostility flashed across Hua Cheng's face. "Probably buried in the snow. Who cares? They're heavenly officials; this won't kill them," he replied unsympathetically.
Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Even if they can't die, it still won't feel great to be buried for decades if no one helps dig them out.
Maybe they fell in here too, so let's search for them. By the way, San Lang, what did you hear them say when your silver butterfly flew over?"
Hua Cheng snorted. "Just some meaningless argument. As if it could have been anything pleasant."
Xie Lian doubted it was that simple, otherwise he couldn't explain Hua Cheng's sudden change of expression when the wraith butterfly overheard the fight. Even now, Hua Cheng's eye was extremely unkind as he snorted. But if he wasn't going to tell, then Xie Lian wasn't going to pry.
The two continued down the cave's long corridor. After walking for a while, they discovered this stone tunnel beneath the snow was much more complex than they had initially thought—there wasn't just one path straight through but many forks that branched off into various other caverns, large and small.
And every one of those caverns held a divine statue. Some of the figures were teenagers, others were young men. The statues were all in unique poses: in lazy repose, leaning as though intoxicated, sitting poised, dancing with a sword… The clothing was also ever-changing: magnificent ceremonial robes, plain clothes, rags, half-naked, and more. The level of skill differed between sculptures as well—some of the work was rough and unrefined, while some was so extraordinarily exquisite and detailed it was astonishing. They probably hadn't all been sculpted by the same person, but the sheer number of them and the wealth of varieties made this a spectacular sight.
Xie Lian admired them as they walked, and he couldn't help but exclaim in awe, "This is a Cave of Ten Thousand Gods! I wonder who chose to build one in this place. They must have been an incredibly devout believer."
However, all the divine statues shared the same peculiarity: their faces were covered by light veils. Some of the veils were large enough to cover the statue's whole body, revealing only the hem of its robes or its feet.
Xie Lian really was quite curious and wanted to pull the veil from a divine statue to see its face, but Hua Cheng spoke up behind him.
"Gege, I suggest you don't."
Xie Lian looked back. "Why not? Doesn't San Lang think these statues are odd?"
Hua Cheng approached him with hands clasped behind and explained. "It's precisely because they're odd that it's best that you don't uncover them. If someone covered their faces, they must have had a reason.
Spiritual energy gathers in the head, and we can't be certain how the spiritual energy these strange statues have gathered would react if a veil is removed." He paused for a moment, then continued.
"Gege, weren't you searching for your two servants? Since we haven't found them yet, it'd be better not to touch these statues. Best to avoid any unexpected complications."
While his explanation sounded slightly far-fetched, it made logical sense. It wouldn't be a laughing matter if removing a veil awakened something within these statues. Xie Lian wasn't prone to touching what he shouldn't. He thought it over and, in the end, dropped his hand.
"I was only curious which deity these sculptures depict. That's all."
There was something else strange—Hua Cheng was not the kind of person who feared unexpected complications; if they saw what the veil covered, so be it. Xie Lian hadn't expected him to use that as the reason not to touch them.
"This is the Kingdom of Wuyong, so they're probably the Crown Prince of Wuyong," Hua Cheng said dismissively. "Nothing notable."
Xie Lian countered, "I don't think so."
"Oh? What do you mean?" Hua Cheng asked.
Xie Lian gazed at him. "Judging by the murals we saw along the way, the clothing worn by the Crown Prince of Wuyong and the Wuyong people was particularly bright in color. As the country existed two millennia ago, the prevailing style of dress was ancient and coarse—and a little wild. The clothing on these divine statues is quite different, though. I don't think these statues have anything to do with the Crown Prince of Wuyong; in fact, the sculptor might not have been from Wuyong at all."
Hua Cheng smiled brightly at him. "Is that right? Gege really has an eye for detail."
Xie Lian also smiled. "Ah, no. It's simply that the style of these statues—the sculpting work, the clothing design, and the way details such as the flow of dress are handled—all looks like something from a later period. And it's one I'm more familiar with too…the style of Xianle."
Hua Cheng quirked his eyebrows. "It seems gege is also deeply gifted in this topic."
"Nah, it's nothing. You'd naturally gain a bit of knowledge after seeing a lot of something, and that includes divine statues," Xie Lian said.
Although he couldn't quite put his finger on it, his instincts told him that there was something off with Hua Cheng since he'd awoken. It was only now that he finally realized what was amiss.
There was a subtle sort of nervousness about him.
However, Xie Lian still didn't pry. He said instead, "Since San Lang thinks it's best to not inspect them, let's stay cautious."
Hua Cheng gave a light nod, and the pair continued onward. Soon they came to another fork in the road, and Hua Cheng headed left without hesitation. Xie Lian paused and didn't follow.
Hua Cheng looked back. "What is it?"
"San Lang's never been in this cave before, right?" Xie Lian asked.
"Of course not."
"Then why are you so sure that we should go left?"
"Not sure, necessarily," Hua Cheng said. "I'm just choosing blindly."
"Since you've never been here before, how can you charge forward blindly? Shouldn't we consider which way to go more carefully?"
Hua Cheng smiled. "We should go blindly precisely because I've never been here before. No matter how cautious we are, we know nothing about this place's layout, so we might as well boldly bet on our luck. And my luck has always been better."
Although that certainly made sense, Hua Cheng had always let Xie Lian choose the way when they went out; it wasn't often that he took the initiative and led. Xie Lian nodded.
They were just about to enter the tunnel on the left when Xie Lian hastily spoke up. "Wait! San Lang, do you hear that?"
"What?"
"To the right," Xie Lian said. "There are voices."
Hua Cheng's expression changed subtly, and after listening intently for a while, he said, "Gege, I think you're mistaken. There's nothing there."
"There is!" Xie Lian insisted. "Listen closely. It's a man's voice!"
Hua Cheng tried listening again and frowned. "I really don't hear anything."
Xie Lian was taken aback. Am I hallucinating again? he wondered.
"Your Highness, there's something fishy about this; there might be tricks afoot," Hua Cheng said. "I suggest we talk after we get out."
Xie Lian hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he still declared, "No! It might be Nan Feng and Fu Yao. I must go take a look!"
Then he dashed off down the path while Hua Cheng called after him.
"Gege! Don't run off!"
But whoever had been shouting must have fallen into an extremely dangerous situation that allowed no delays, and Xie Lian didn't dare to be careless. He continued to rush down the righthand path. The farther he went down the tunnel, the clearer he could hear a man's angry roars.
Xie Lian was delighted. It really is Nan Feng and Fu Yao!
Xie Lian didn't know how long he'd spent hurrying through the winding tunnel, but he finally found the source of the voices in a giant cave.
There were no divine statues in this cavern but instead a deep pit—and that pit was precisely where Nan Feng and Fu Yao's screaming was coming from. It looked like they were both trapped at the bottom, unable to climb up. But they were still yelling passionately at each other, so their lives likely weren't in danger at the moment.
It was too dark in the depths of the pit to see anything clearly. Xie Lian cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted from above.
"Hey—! What happened to you guys?"
When the two in the pit heard someone up above, they instantly stopped arguing.
Fu Yao's reply came first. "Your Highness? Is that you?! Hurry and pull us up!"
Nan Feng, on the other hand, didn't speak. Xie Lian was puzzled.
"You guys can't climb up on your own? The pit isn't that deep.
What's happening down there?"
Perhaps it was because he'd been fighting the entire way, but Fu Yao was full of fire. "If we could climb up on our own, we would've done it already, duh! Can't you see for yourself, Your Highness?"
Xie Lian squinted. "Well, I can't see much right now. Do you still have spiritual power? Can you light a palm torch so I can see what the situation is down there? If you can't, I'll throw a fireball down…" But before he could finish his sentence, the two at the bottom yelled in unison, "Don't!" Their voices rang with alarm and terror.
"Do not light any fires!" Fu Yao yelled.
If he couldn't light a fire, he'd have to find another way to illuminate the place. Xie Lian's first reaction was to look behind him.
"San Lang…" However, there was no one there—Hua Cheng hadn't followed him.
Xie Lian was surprised; at first he felt slightly uneasy, then confused. There was surely no way Hua Cheng could've lost his way, right…?
Hua Cheng had been acting quite strangely ever since they entered the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, but Xie Lian couldn't quite put his finger on why. He looked to his left and right, then discovered a tiny silver butterfly resting on his shoulder. He touched it tentatively.
"Hello…?"
The wraith butterfly fluttered at his touch but didn't fly away—it seemed to want to show him its wings. Over the course of their journey, Hua Cheng had told Xie Lian that his silver butterflies fell into various categories. Xie Lian didn't know which category this one belonged to or what its duties were, but it could at least shine some light regardless of its purpose.
Thus he asked, "Can you go down and take a look for me?"
Sure enough, the silver butterfly fluttered its wings and flew into the pit. Xie Lian called out his thanks and waited until it reached the bottom.
Once the soft silver light illuminated the situation below, Xie Lian couldn't help but widen his eyes.
The bottom of the dark pit was covered by an eerie field of white.
The entire hole was blanketed with a thick bed of silk!
Nan Feng and Fu Yao had been tied up in that silk so thoroughly that they'd been bundled into two cocoons, like two little flies stuck in a spider's web. Their faces were battered black and blue, and their heads were covered in blood, but they might've done that to each other during their earlier fight. Xie Lian couldn't help but give himself a pat on the back for his caution; the entire pit might've been set ablaze had he thrown down a torch.
"What's going on?" Xie Lian asked. "Is that a spider's web? Could this be an arachnid spirit's lair?"
"Who knows?!" Fu Yao yelled, desperate to escape. "We can't break free anyway!"
Nan Feng, on the other hand, bore an unreadable expression. At first, he had looked like he also wanted to call for help, but he'd sullenly swallowed his words when he'd seen that Xie Lian was the one who'd come.
"Don't come down yet—the spider silk is really tough," Nan Feng said instead. "It'll be hard to break free once it grabs you."
"I won't come down," Xie Lian said.
After deliberating for a moment, Xie Lian tied one end of Ruoye to the hilt of Fangxin, planning to lower the sword to just see if it'd work. But Ruoye had only crept down halfway before the web discovered it. Tendrils of silk shot upward with violent intent at this interloper. Ruoye coiled away in terror, but it was too late—the webbing snagged the bandage, wrapped around it, and yanked it down, pulling Xie Lian in as well.
Xie Lian had never imagined that this web would be so strong and cunning!
The moment Xie Lian fell into the pit, the white tendrils of silk charged forward and trussed him up. The rest of the silk tendrils crawled along to further secure the "cocoons" that trapped Nan Feng and Fu Yao.
Fu Yao was absolutely furious. "How come you fell in too? Now look at us—three stupid fools! Let's all just die here together!"
"What are you griping about?" Nan Feng shot back. "This only happened because he was trying to save us!"
Xie Lian, on the other hand, was tumbling about and laughing. "Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha…" Nan Feng and Fu Yao looked at him, dumbfounded.
"Did you hit your head on the way down? Have you lost your mind?"
Fu Yao asked.
Tears rolled from the corners of Xie Lian's eyes, and he said with much difficulty, "N-no, ha ha ha… What's with this web…? Why is it…so ticklish?! I can't… Ha ha ha ha…" The silk bed had caught him gently when he fell, and the tendrils that had bound him seemed to touch him with care and love. They brushed softly against Xie Lian's body while they worked, as if they were tickling him.
Xie Lian curled into a ball, fighting back with tenacity. "No, don't, wait! Stop! Stop! I give! Stop!"
Only then did the white silk tendrils bind his hands behind his back and stop their ticklish dance. Nan Feng and Fu Yao stared at him.
A moment later, Fu Yao said grumpily, "How come it was so rough when it tied us up but so lenient with him? It hasn't even covered his face."
Xie Lian finally caught his breath. "Aren't…aren't your faces uncovered too?"
Fu Yao rolled his eyes. "They were covered. We had to use our teeth to tear holes after we woke up. We couldn't have shouted otherwise."
Xie Lian tried struggling a bit, but the silk webbing was tough and unyielding; plus, his ribs faintly hurt from laughing too hard. For now, he was out of commission. He decided to relax a bit, lying down flat.
"So how did you two end up here?"
"Don't know," Fu Yao replied. "When the avalanche hit, snow came crashing down on us. When we woke up, we were already here."
"No, no, no," Xie Lian said. "I mean, why did you come to Mount Tonglu?"
Fu Yao was furious the instant the topic was raised. "I was pursuing that ghost woman Lan Chang and the fetus spirit! Who knows why he's here!"
"Me?! I'm here to chase after that mother and child too…" Nan Feng answered.
"Then why didn't you go after them?" Fu Yao spat. "Why did you hit me?! I… My general already said that he had nothing to do with the fetus spirit. He didn't kill either of them! His goodwill was taken for ill; there's honestly no point in trying to be a good person!"
Xie Lian mediated out of habit. "All right, all right, stop, I understand the situation now. Stop fighting, stop arguing. You're the ones who caused that avalanche, so can you just give it a rest? Let's think of a way out together."
However, Nan Feng was incensed. "Does your general really not realize how he usually acts? He has no right to complain if people are suspicious of him!"
Fu Yao glared. "What did you say?! I dare you to say that again!"
Nan Feng glared even harder. "I do dare, and I will say it again! You never had goodwill for anyone! You just want to show benevolence to people you can't stand so you can secretly feel all smug about it later.
You're after your own satisfaction, and you love to watch everyone else make fools of themselves. Don't give me that 'goodwill taken for ill' garbage, and don't you dare think that you're a good person! Genuinely good people aren't like you—you've never been one!"
Veins popped on Fu Yao's forehead, and his lips began to twitch.
"You've made all that up! It's pure nonsense!"
"You know best whether it's nonsense—as if I don't know you!" Nan Feng shouted.
Those veins now bulged all the way down Fu Yao's neck. "What right do you have to lecture me? Looking down on people from so high up —careful, you might fall and break a leg!"
"I'm better than you at everything!" Nan Feng yelled. "Do you think no one knows about that shitty stunt you pulled back then?!"
The mere mention of this mysterious incident seemed to inflame Fu Yao even more, his fire fueled by shame. "Yes, I admit I did it! But how much better are you than me, really? Acting like you're the model of loyalty—didn't you ditch the boss too when you got a wife? Didn't your wife and son suddenly become more important?! Everyone does things for themselves; everyone makes themselves top priority! Aren't you embarrassed to keep hanging that ancient shitty deed over my head?"
When he heard "wife" and "son," Nan Feng's outrage exploded.
"You fucking… You! I…? You?"
Although neither could move, they were so intent on their argument that they didn't realize the way they addressed each other had slipped. They had dropped "your general" and "my general" in favor of "you" and "me," and in their fury they had completely failed to notice what this exposed.
Only now did they realize their error.
Xie Lian had long since stopped talking. Nan Feng and Fu Yao both whipped their heads over to look in Xie Lian's direction and saw that he'd silently flipped on the silk bed, turning over and only showing them his back.
"Um…I saw nothing. Wait, I mean, I heard nothing."
"…" "…" Xie Lian faced the stone wall as he politely asked, "Are you two going to keep this up? I won't comment on anything else you were discussing, but, um…I do think that someone's wife and son should be most important. There's nothing wrong with that—it's basic human sentiment.
But all this ancient history…let's not stew in it. Let's think of a way to escape—" "You already knew?" Fu Yao cut him off.
Since it didn't seem he could get away with it any longer, Xie Lian could only concede. "Yeah…" "When did you find out? How did you find out?" Fu Yao said in disbelief.
Xie Lian didn't have the heart to tell the truth. Instead he replied, "I forget exactly."
The real answer was that he'd known everything for a very, very long time. He'd already vaguely suspected it on Mount Yujun, and by the time they set foot in Banyue Pass, he'd confirmed it.
These "junior martial officials from the Middle Court"? They didn't actually exist. "Nan Feng" and "Fu Yao" were merely clones created by Feng Xin and Mu Qing!
Fu Yao seemed like he couldn't believe his real identity had been seen through so easily, and he began to relentlessly interrogate Xie Lian.
"When? How? There must've been something that gave it away—what was the flaw?!"
"…" Xie Lian really couldn't bear to tell him the truth. There weren't any secrets to give away because they had flaws all over them!
The three grew up together, after all—how could Xie Lian not recognize the way they behaved and spoke? From the sloppy fake names2 to the completely unchanged personalities, it was too easy to guess. If he hadn't realized who was behind those two skins, he would've lived all these years for nothing.
There were always some things one couldn't say…and some things one couldn't do. For example, one couldn't easily roll their eyes or cuss when minding their behavior as a heavenly official. But they could be much freer and more relaxed while wearing a different identity. Thus, Xie Lian never felt the need to expose them.
Fu Yao—no, now he should be called Mu Qing—gritted his teeth and said coldly, "So…you've known who we are for a long time, but you never said anything. You quietly watched us put on an act. Am I correct?"