Xie Lian couldn't tell of he was awake or asleep.
If he was awake, then he was reacting to nothing in the outside world and had no memory of anything. If he was asleep, his eyes had been open the whole time.
By the time he came back to himself, White No-Face had strapped the black sword to his waist like an elder giving a reward to a child.
"This is my gift to you." He patted the hilt. His voice was gentle and thick with deeper meaning. "It will certainly prove much sharper than any of the others you collected, even the ones from Jun Wu."
Xie Lian let him hang the sword as he willed, neither speaking nor retaliating. Retaliation would be pointless.
He put on a new set of robes in that state. Armed with a new sword, he dragged himself outside in what felt like a newly born body. He walked out of the Temple of the Crown Prince and toward the darkness.
White No-Face called after him. "Wait."
Xie Lian paused in his step. White No-Face soundlessly came to his side and placed a white silk band in his hands.
"You forgot this."
It was the silk band he had once used to cover his face…the one that had also been used to bind him.
Xie Lian wobbled down the mountain alone.
Day had already broken. The sun had come out, but Xie Lian didn't feel warm at all when it shined on him.
On his way down the mountain, he saw a little trickling stream, clear and lively. He approached the stream's banks. The water reflected his appearance. Xie Lian stared at his pale face.
The face was smooth and fair without a single cut to be seen. The neck was the same, which meant the chest and the abdomen and other places were all healed. He only looked for a while before he couldn't bear the sight any longer. Lowering his head, he cupped some stream water in his hands to wash his face and drink a few mouthfuls. He drank and drank…until he happened to notice something nearby.
Slowly, he looked up. Not far upstream, there was a corpse lying on the shore, slumped next to a giant boulder. Judging by the clothes, it was the corpse of the buff street performer.
The man hadn't descended the mountain—he'd died on the road.
There was a particularly obvious bloodstain on the giant boulder—whether from pain or fear, it looked like he had smashed himself against it until he died. The corpse was already rotten and emitted a foul stench. Half of the body was soaking in the water of the stream. Although the body didn't move, the little deformed faces growing on its half-rotten face were still squirming.
Xie Lian knelt by the stream and puked his guts out for over an hour, heaving until blood came up.
After descending the mountain, he walked through the city for a long time, aimlessly wandering the main streets without a destination in mind.
Suddenly, a hand gripped his shoulder and yanked him into an alley. Xie Lian looked around and saw an incoming fist before he even glimpsed the other's face.
"Where did you run off to for so long?!"
Behind the fist was Feng Xin's furious expression, but by the time Xie Lian saw, he'd already been knocked to the ground by the punch.
Feng Xin hadn't expected to knock him down so easily. Confused, he looked at his own fist, then at Xie Lian on the ground. Before he could think to help him up, Xie Lian had already crawled back up by himself.
Feng Xin's face changed, but in the end, his temper was still flaring.
"You've got such an attitude! Dropping only a word before running away and disappearing for two months! Do you know how worried Their Majesties have been?!"
Xie Lian wiped away the splattered blood on his face from his nosebleed. "I'm sorry."
Seeing that he was making things worse by wiping, Feng Xin heaved a heavy sigh.
"Your Highness! Forget it with the apology, there's no need between us. But you… What happened to you? Why were you gone for so long?
Can't you tell me?" He noticed the black sword hanging at Xie Lian's waist.
"And where did you get that sword?"
Xie Lian wanted to tell him. But then he remembered the argument he'd had with Feng Xin before he left, and the doubtful expression on Feng Xin's face—and that brought to mind the experience he never wanted to think about again. So he just repeated, "I'm sorry."
The two returned to the hideout, and when the queen saw Xie Lian, she hugged him and wept. The king looked like he'd aged quite a bit again —before, it was a matter of finding white hair among the black, but now it was a search for black strands among all the white. However, he wasn't blowing his top for some reason, and he only spoke a few words before falling silent. The three of them were probably afraid that Xie Lian would run away for another two months if he was provoked again, so they were very careful with their words and gestures around him.
***
"Feng Xin."
After a meal so simple it was crude, Xie Lian untied the black sword on his waist and passed it over.
"Take this sword. Pawn it."
Feng Xin noticed that the hand holding the sword was shaking, but he couldn't guess what was causing it. "Why?"
"Didn't you ask for money before?" Xie Lian said.
A flash of hurt suddenly crossed Feng Xin's face, and he shook his head soon after. "I don't need it anymore."
Xie Lian didn't speak another word. He tossed the black sword to the side and stopped caring about it, then he flopped over and fell asleep.
When Xie Lian came back this time, he tried to act like nothing had happened in the hope that everything would return to normal as soon as possible—in the hope that he could return to the person he once was.
Soon, he and Feng Xin went out to perform in the street. Feng Xin was still worried at first and told him, "Forget it, just rest for a couple more days."
"I've already rested for almost two months," Xie Lian said. "If those street performers keep coming to cause trouble, it'll be easier to handle it with two people."
"They stopped coming a while ago," Feng Xin explained.
It wasn't because the buff street performer had died and there was no one to lead but because Feng Xin had been settled here for a while now.
When he first arrived, everyone had regarded him as a novelty. But that novelty had worn away with the passage of time, and watching him was now no different from watching the other local buskers. Feng Xin had lost his competitive edge, and the other street performers stopped looking for trouble now that he wasn't a threat. Since everyone made about the same amount of money, it was fine.
But now, no matter how hard Feng Xin shot his arrows, no matter how expert his skill, the audience, and the reward they paid for his efforts, was less than half of what it once was—in fact, it was less than ten percent.
After working for over half the day, Feng Xin was exhausted and sweating profusely as he sat down on the roadside.
"Let me go up," Xie Lian said.
"Nah, don't worry about it," Feng Xin replied.
However, Xie Lian didn't bother listening to him. The passersby became interested again at the sight of a new face.
"And what special skills do you have, lad?"
Xie Lian didn't respond. He picked up a branch and started to perform a swordplay routine. Though he wielded a mere branch, the technique was beautifully performed, and the sound of wind being cut carried the sharpness of the sword's intent. A few audience members did him the honor and cheered. Feng Xin looked on from one side, his expression complicated. He only watched for a bit before he turned his gaze away.
Xie Lian didn't feel shame at all, nor did he feel any burden. He just kept deliberately and gracefully swinging his branch.
Suddenly, someone in the crowd began to jeer. "It's so boring! What a pathetic act! Who wants to watch you fucking poking around blindly with a tree branch?!"
Feng Xin immediately jumped to his feet and shouted, "You watch your language!"
Xie Lian faltered and looked over. There was a man in the crowd who was munching on a melon and spitting out the seeds—he was obviously there to watch a show.
"This ancestor's here to watch a street performance! I'll say whatever I wanna say. You're here to earn our reward, so what do you care what I say?" the man yelled back at Feng Xin. "Switch to a real sword! Use a real one and granddaddy will consider granting you some seeds!"
As soon as he started yelling, others in the audience followed suit.
Feng Xin was furious and just about to strike out when a white shadow flashed past.
Xie Lian was already standing next to the heckler. He grabbed the man and threw him high into the air.
The strength he exhibited was incredible, and the heckler's melon rinds tumbled to the ground as he was thrown meters away. The crowd was left to gape in open-mouthed shock. The man landed with a heavy thud, bleeding from his orifices and screaming horribly.
However, Xie Lian wasn't done, and he went over to seize the man once again. His voice was flat and emotionless. "There are no real swords here, but I can really take your life. Do you want to see that act?"
The audience broke away and fled in terror. "Somebody! Help!
Murder!"
Feng Xin was even more shocked. "Your Highness!"
Xie Lian ignored him and prepared to throw the heckler another several meters away and let him fall wherever. But Feng Xin hurried over and held Xie Lian down, even forgetting to hide his identity as he roared.
"Your Highness! Snap out of it! You're going to kill him!"
Xie Lian's eyes were burning with black flames. He smacked Feng Xin's hand away and pressed the man to the ground. The heckler passed out cold. Feng Xin bent down and was just about to check whether he was breathing when he heard someone yelling sharply at the end of the street.
"It's them! Over there!"
Oh no! The Yong'an soldiers had come!
Feng Xin bolted instantly, but Xie Lian still stood there staring at the Yong'an soldiers like he was contemplating starting a fight with them.
Feng Xin turned around and pulled him away. "What are you still standing there for? Run!"
The two of them ducked and hid under cover until they could make an escape and return to their little safehouse. The moment they passed through the door, Feng Xin started yelling right in front of the queen.
"Why would you do something like that?!"
Once, Feng Xin would have never dared to be so unruly before the two Majesties. But a lot had changed. They had all been ground down for so long.
Xie Lian turned to the queen. "Go to your room."
"My son, what—" the queen started.
"Go to your room!" Xie Lian shouted.
The queen didn't dare press further and retreated to her room. Xie Lian turned to Feng Xin.
"What did I do?"
"You were going to kill that man!" Feng Xin said angrily.
"He didn't die," Xie Lian countered. "And so what if he had?"
Feng Xin was dumbfounded. "What did you say? What do you mean, 'so what if he died'?"
"That filthy peasant was asking for it," Xie Lian said. "And since he asked for it, I gave it to him. Was I wrong?"
Stunned by Xie Lian's new vocabulary, it was a good moment before Feng Xin said, "He…was causing trouble, but you didn't need to kill him!
Smack him around and let it go. He didn't deserve to die over some petty words!"
Xie Lian cut him off. "Of course he did. He dared to say it, so he had to pay the price."
"How could you say something like that?" Feng Xin asked, voice thick with disbelief.
"Like what?" Xie Lian asked.
"I've never heard you call someone a peasant like that before," Feng Xin said.
"What are you trying to say?" Xie Lian said. "It's not like I'm a god.
Can't I be angry? Can't I hate?"
Feng Xin didn't know how to respond. A moment later, he arduously squeezed out a few words. "That's not what I meant. But still, you didn't need to—" Xie Lian didn't want to listen anymore and stopped talking to him.
He stomped into his own room and slammed the door.
The moment the door was shut, he screamed and threw himself onto the bed.
He was fooling himself! Utterly fooling himself!
No matter what, it was impossible to pretend nothing had happened!
It was impossible for him to return to who he once was!
That evening, someone knocked on his door. Xie Lian assumed it was Feng Xin, so he ignored it. The queen's voice sounded from the other side a moment later.
"My son, it's your mother. Let Mother come in and take a look at you, all right?"
Xie Lian had just wanted to lie there without moving, but after staying there for one more moment, he still got up and opened the door.
"What?" he asked tiredly.
The queen stood at the door holding a plate. "My son, you haven't eaten yet, have you?"
Xie Lian stared at her and endured the urge to speak for a long time before he finally, forcefully swallowed the words that were already rolling up his throat: "Even though I haven't eaten, I don't want to eat anything you made." He moved aside to allow his mother into his room, and the queen placed the plate on the table.
"Look."
Xie Lian looked, and he got so angry he wanted to laugh. "What is that?"
The queen spoke as if she were offering him treasure. "This is 'Lovebirds Upon a Branch Meatballs,' and this is 'Blooming Flowers and Full Moon Stew'—" The "Lovebirds" looked like they were dead, and the "Full Moon" was full of craters. Xie Lian had to interrupt her. "Why did you name these things?"
"Don't dishes always have names?" the queen said.
"That's for imperial dining, in a palace," Xie Lian said. "Ordinary people don't give names to dishes."
Imperial dining. Palace. Ordinary people. The queen remained quiet for a while, then smiled.
"Well, no one ever said you have to dine imperially to give a dish a name. So just take this as a wish for good fortune. Come, try some? Mother spent a long time making this for you."
And then she passed a pair of chopsticks over. Xie Lian didn't smile, nor did he touch the chopsticks.
The queen sat there smiling for a while before her face gradually fell.
"My son."
Xie Lian's tone was brusque. "What."
"Why are you fighting with Feng Xin again?" the queen asked.
Xie Lian didn't want to explain, and he didn't have the energy to do so regardless. "You two just stay in your room and relax. You don't need to worry about these things."
The queen hesitated for a moment. "Mother knows she probably shouldn't say this, but…that child Feng Xin was the one who looked after us during the many days that you were gone…" "Mother, what are you trying to say?" Xie Lian demanded.
"My son, don't be angry. I'm not trying to blame you," the queen said quickly. "I'm really not—I know you're having a difficult time as well. I'm only saying that young Feng Xin has always followed us, followed you, and it isn't easy for him. I can sense that he's stayed with us until now not because he didn't want to leave, but because he still cares about your friendship…" Xie Lian leapt to his feet. "Who has had it easy? Has it been easy for me?! Mother, can you please stop asking questions?! Can you please not involve yourself in things that you don't understand?!"
When she saw that he was running out the door, the queen started panicking and got up to chase after him. "My son, where are you going? I'll stop talking, Mother won't say anything else! Come back!"
"I know!" Xie Lian exclaimed sharply. "Everyone's having a hard time, but don't worry! I'll go right now to make things easier for everyone!"
The queen couldn't keep up with him, and it wasn't long before she was left behind.
Xie Lian returned later that night carrying a few sacks. When he opened the door, no one had gone to bed; they were all waiting for him, their expressions sullen.
Xie Lian shut the door with a backhanded push. "What's up?"
It seemed that the king had already lectured the queen, and the rims of her eyes were red. When she saw that Xie Lian had returned, she let out a long sigh of relief and forced a happy smile.
"My son, you've come back! I won't ask you any unnecessary questions from now on. Just don't leave us so suddenly, Mother will definitely listen to you if there's anything—" Everyone was scared. Scared that if he turned around and left again, he'd go missing for another two months.
"You all think too much," Xie Lian said. "I wasn't going to leave.
Just go and rest."
Feng Xin waited until the king and the queen had gone to their room.
After a moment of silence, he began to speak. "Even if I asked where you went, you wouldn't tell me, right?"
Xie Lian didn't reply, just tossed the sacks to the ground. They made crisp clinking sounds as they landed.
"What's this?" Feng Xin asked.
Xie Lian opened the sacks and dumped them out. From within tumbled a large pile of shining gold and silver wares that nearly brightened the entire house.
Feng Xin instantly stood up. "You… Where did these things come from?!"
Xie Lian didn't bother to look up as he replied; he just sat on the ground and counted the haul. "There's no need to be like that. I paid a visit to a big household in the city. Relax, no one saw me."
Feng Xin's eyes were round and bulging. "You—" Remembering just then that the king and queen were in the next room, he lowered his voice.
"You stole them?!"
"You don't need to look at me like that," Xie Lian said. "Everyone's having a hard time. This will make things easier."
"You still shouldn't have stolen them!" Feng Xin exclaimed. "We can just busk!"
"And how much do we earn from killing ourselves performing on the streets?" Xie Lian said.
Feng Xin staggered back a couple of steps. It was the first time Xie Lian saw him look like he was about to faint. He finally steadied himself and took a moment to make sure he hadn't heard wrong. Then he mumbled, "What made you this way?"
Xie Lian looked up. "What way?"
Feng Xin was furious. "I don't want to lecture you, but just look at yourself—at what you've become! I've already stopped asking about the robbery, so how did things get even worse?!"
Xie Lian snorted. "I knew it."
"Knew what?" Feng Xin asked.
Xie Lian rose to his feet. "I knew that robbery thing was still on your mind. You wanted to ask me, but you didn't have the heart. You've thought about it a thousand times, right? Don't obsess about it anymore. I'll tell you."
Step by step, he closed in on Feng Xin. "It's true. I robbed someone."
Feng Xin was forced back a step. "You…" Then he advanced a step and hissed in anger, "We've been passing our days in such hardship, and for what? If you were willing to do those things, then we could've done them already. Why suffer until today?! What are you doing, throwing away all your efforts?! Are you still the same Royal Highness I used to know?!"
"You're right. Why have we suffered until today?" Xie Lian said.
Feng Xin was taken aback, and Xie Lian continued, "What was I like in the past? I didn't talk back when I was cursed at, didn't fight back when I was beaten, and always overestimated myself. I was so determined to 'save the common people.' What kind of person does all that? A dumbass! Do you think being a dumbass is better? Do you think that's the kind of person I should be? Are you going to be very shocked if I'm not?"
Feng Xin was stunned. "Are you crazy? Why do you have to say it like that?"
"You're wrong. I'm not crazy," Xie Lian said. "I've just suddenly come to my senses. Now I know that the past me was the crazy one."
"Why are you being like this? When did you become this way?" Feng Xin mumbled. "I…I really don't know… I'm… Why did I follow you all this time—?"
"Then stop following," Xie Lian said.
Feng Xin couldn't wrap his head around that. "What?"
"I said, don't follow me anymore," Xie Lian repeated.
Then he slammed the door.
Four hours later, there was finally some rustling outside the room and low voices speaking.
It seemed Feng Xin was bidding farewell to Xie Lian's mother and father. Feng Xin's voice was extremely low, the queen's voice was choked with sobs, and the king didn't say much, but there was a lot of coughing.
The door opened a moment later, then closed. Feng Xin's voice vanished, and the sound of his footsteps grew more and more distant.
Feng Xin had left.
Xie Lian was still shut in his room, emotionless and expressionless.
A moment later, he closed his eyes.
He'd finally left.
Ever since Mu Qing left them, Xie Lian had been terrified of this possibility—that one day, Feng Xin would leave too. But he'd become so scared of it that he could no longer endure the torment. Rather than dragging it out, slowly grinding away all the kindness and friendship like sharpening a knife until nothing remained—until they loathed the sight of each other—it was better to make it explode now.
Before Feng Xin left, Xie Lian had been afraid. Now that Feng Xin was gone, he wasn't scared anymore.
But even though he no longer felt fear, he felt a deeper agony.
Xie Lian had initially held a one-in-a-million bit of hope at the bottom of his heart. He'd hoped that Feng Xin would still stay even if Xie Lian admitted he had done things he shouldn't have, even if he became the worst version of himself. After all, the two had never left each other's sides since he turned fourteen and Feng Xin was selected to be his personal attendant. They were master and servant, but more than that, they were friends. And Feng Xin had no one to care for aside from the crown prince either—or at most, him, and the king and queen.
But Feng Xin had really left.
Xie Lian had already guessed it would end like this, and he could understand it completely. He just couldn't bear it for the moment.
Just then, the queen's voice came from outside his silent room. "My son, I'm so sorry."
Xie Lian couldn't immediately think of a response. He crawled out of his bed and opened the door, then went out. "It's got nothing to do with you," he said tiredly.
The king and queen were both sitting at the old, creaky table. "Father and Mother dragged you down and made you do bad things for our sake.
We even made you and Feng Xin argue," the queen said.
Xie Lian forced a smile. "What bad things? Aren't tales and legends full of stories about stealing from the rich to help the poor? Since Feng Xin's gone, he's gone. This is good, actually—with him gone, things will be more relaxed. Relaxed on both sides. You two just focus on healing.
Tomorrow, we can buy the best medicine."
However, the king glared at him. "I won't use that money."
The queen tugged at him covertly.
"Then what do you want?" Xie Lian demanded.
The king coughed a few more times. "You… Go chase after Feng Xin and bring him back. I don't want this money."
Although the queen was still tugging at him, she agreed. "Yes, why don't you chase after Feng Xin? He's your most loyal servant and your best friend—" "The loyal servant is no more," Xie Lian said. "We have money, so just use it. Don't ask about anything else. I already told you, you don't understand these things."
After a long silence, the queen said, "I'm so sorry, my son. Mom and Dad can see that you've been struggling very hard on your own. But we're only mortals, so we can't help you at all—you have to take care of us on top of everything else."
Xie Lian was out of energy to say more, so he placated them with empty words of comfort before sending them back to their room. To try to clear his mind, Xie Lian unwrapped his white silk band and stripped off all his clothes, then took a quick bath before passing out in bed.
He slept so deeply that when he woke the next day, he wondered blearily, How come Feng Xin didn't wake me?
It took some time before he remembered that Feng Xin had left.
Xie Lian flipped over and sat up, falling into a daze. But there was something else—even if Feng Xin had left, what about his parents? Why hadn't his father and mother come to rouse him either?
Normally, he would've heard the king coughing by now. That sound had never ceased, so why was it so quiet today?
Xie Lian suddenly felt uneasy. He put on his clothes and got out of bed, then reached for his silk band—but it was missing. He pushed open the door to the room next to his.
"Mother, have you seen my—" The moment he opened the door, his pupils instantly shrank to two minuscule dots.
He had found his white silk band.
The silk band was hanging from the beam. Two unmoving figures dangled from it. Their bodies had long since gone stiff.
They were the bodies of his father and mother.
Xie Lian wondered if perhaps he was still dreaming. He staggered, reaching out to support himself on the wall. But he was swaying so badly that he couldn't catch himself and slipped down along the wall instead.
He sat on the ground, hands covering his face. He couldn't breathe— he choked on air. He cried and laughed, laughed and cried.
"I…I…I…I…"
He rambled incoherently to no one, then he added, "It wasn't…no. I, wait…you can't, I…" In the end, he couldn't even form a complete sentence. He turned around and screamed, smashing his head against the wall over and over.
He should've known. His father was such a conservative, traditional king, and his mother couldn't bear the sight of her loved ones suffering, let alone suffering for her sake. They were both nobility, raised in prestige. It was already a miracle that they'd hung on for this long.
Xie Lian smacked his head against the wall hundreds of times. "Feng Xin, my father and mother are gone," he mumbled.
No one was listening.
Only then did he realize he needed to get his parents' corpses down.
After he lowered them, Xie Lian acted like he had nothing left to do and walked around the house. He saw that there were a few plates of horrid-looking food on the table, long gone cold. They were the dishes that Xie Lian had made the queen take away the night before without eating a single bite. Now, he pulled them over absentmindedly and ate everything, not daring to leave behind a single leaf, afraid to miss a single grain of rice.
After he ate, he heaved and began to vomit.
Suddenly, Xie Lian grabbed the white silk band and threw it over the beam, then put his own neck through its knotted loop.
Waves of suffocation assaulted him, yet his mind remained clear.
Even when his eyes filled with blood, even when his collarbones cracked, he still remained conscious. As he hung there, the white silk band abruptly loosened on its own. Xie Lian fell heavily to the ground, and in the midst of his dizziness, he saw that the silk band had actually started moving by itself with no breeze to aid it. It was coiling like a venomous snake.
It had conceived its own spirit!
It had been dyed with Xie Lian's blood, had hung two royals to death —if Xie Lian could die, then it would have been three. Saturated with such deep resentment and evil, it would be stranger if it didn't turn into a spirit.
The little spirit had only just arrived in the world and didn't understand at all that it had been born from such despair. It happily drifted over to the one who had given it a soul like it was hoping for a gesture of affection. However, Xie Lian had no eyes for it, and he clutched his head and roared.
"Somebody! Somebody come kill me!"
He could only pray that someone would come right that second to take his life and help him break free from this endless pain and torture!
Just then, in the far distance, he heard the roaring sounds of gongs and drums. Xie Lian panted harshly, his eyes bloodshot. Who? What is that? he wondered.
Something drove him to his feet, and he stumbled outside to look. He walked for a long time before he finally realized that it was the sounds of celebration—they were commemorating the imperial palace's construction in the newly established royal capital of the newly established kingdom of Yong'an.
The entire nation had joined in jubilation! All the former citizens of Xianle were now cheering for Yong'an. On the main street, everyone's faces bore bright smiles; it was such a familiar sight. Xie Lian remembered now. This was how the people of Xianle's imperial capital had cheered during the Shangyuan Heavenly Ceremonial Procession.
Xie Lian staggered back to the cottage and sat listlessly on the floor.
Why did he have to witness the laughter and cheers of the Yong'an people when the corpses of the king and queen of Xianle lay at his feet?
Xie Lian buried his face in his hands, crying and laughing. Ha ha ha ha…nngh…sob… A moment later, he giggled. "Don't think it'll be that easy for you."
Memories flashed in his mind of a voice telling him, "Human Face Disease is resentment… This is how you create Human Face Disease…" A savage light glinted in his eyes, and his voice softened. "I won't let any of you off so easily."
The expression on his face was like he was both crying and laughing, like joy and sadness mixed together. Using the wall as support, he slowly rose to his feet.
"Yong'an, Forever Peace?5 Dream on. Keep dreaming forever! I… curse all of you. I curse all of you! I want all of you to die—all of you, to the last! Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Xie Lian laughed and laughed and rushed forth like a whirlwind.
When he passed the mirror, he suddenly paused and whipped his head around.
His reflection had already changed completely.
He wasn't wearing his white cultivator robes, which were threadbare from the wash. Instead, he was wearing snow-white funeral robes with expansive sleeves. His face was no longer his own, but a half-crying, half-smiling mask!
Xie Lian would have once screamed in horror at the sight of himself like this. However, the Xie Lian of today wasn't scared at all. He laughed maniacally and ignored the change. He stumbled to the door, crashing through it before breaking into a dash.
***
The former imperial capital of Xianle was now nothing more than a field of ruined wreckage.
There were still some who lived near the wreckage—residents who had been lucky enough to survive and refugees who had nowhere else to go.
Ever since the plague of Human Face Disease had erupted and the imperial city had fallen, the once-glamorous capital was subject to frequent sinister, chilling winds. Today they seemed especially cold. The few disheveled beggars who had remained were fleeing, watching the skies as they ran.
They sensed that something ominous was approaching and knew better than to linger in the streets.
The battlefield sprawled in front of the broken imperial city gates.
Not many dared visit it. Now there was only an old cultivator scurrying around trying to catch some lost, wandering souls. He stuffed them into his sack once they were caught, ready to take them and tie them into lanterns.
As he darted around, the old cultivator unexpectedly discovered that a strange, white-clothed figure had appeared at the edge of the battlefield.
Truly strange, truly peculiar. The man was wearing white funeral robes with expansive sleeves, and he had a band of white silk tied to one arm. The white silk band floated in the wind like it was alive. On the man's face was a ghastly white mask, half of it crying, half of it smiling.
The old cultivator shuddered violently, and before he knew why he was fleeing, his legs had already carried him away from the battlefield. He stopped before the fright had left him completely and looked back.
The white-clothed man didn't speak a single word as he strolled across the battlefield. Chilling wind whipped around him, and with every step, he trampled the bones of those who had died in the war.
Countless souls of the dead were struggling and wailing on this soil;
even the air was black from resentment.
"Do you hate?" the white-clothed man asked coldly.
The dead souls wailed and cried. The white-clothed man took another few steps.
"The people you swore to protect, the people for whom you swore to die—they have now become the people of a new kingdom. Do you hate?"
The wails of the dead souls now had shrieking mixed in.
"They've forgotten those who died on the battlefield, forgotten your sacrifices. They are cheering for the ones who stole your lives away," the white-clothed man said slowly. "Do you hate?"
Amidst the shrieking there came howling and snarling.
The white-clothed man called out sharply, "What's the use in screaming? Answer me: do you hate?!"
The battlefield's air began to echo with innumerable voices of resentment and agony.
"I hate…" "I hate…" "Kill…I want to kill them!"
The white-clothed man opened his arms toward them and extended both hands. "Come to my side." He then made this vow, saying the words slowly and clearly: "I promise the people of Yong'an shall never know peace!"
The shrieking, the howling, the snarling—it shook the ground and crashed the heavens. The souls of the dead had answered him; fallen Xianle soldiers mingled with those who had died from Human Face Disease. And in that sky choked by black mist, they took shape!
The old cultivator witnessed the whole thing from afar in terror.
"This… This is…!"
In an instant, only three words appeared in his mind.
White-Clothed Calamity!
Suddenly, the white-clothed man heard a young man's voice.
"Your Highness…" He looked back, only to find that a black-clad young man was already standing there. And then, the young man bowed his head and bent one knee to the ground.