Xie Lian clenched his fists, his breathing going erratic.
One phrase.
It sounded so unbelievable, even laughable. But he couldn't laugh at all.
"There's more besides those monsters," the state preceptor said. "Your Highness, do you remember that child you saved at the city wall? And how I was so shocked when you brought him to the Royal Holy Temple?"
Xie Lian snapped back to his senses and stole a glimpse at Hua Cheng.
"…I remember. What disturbed you about him? You said he was—" "A Star of Solitude!" the state preceptor exclaimed, then continued darkly, "At the time, I sensed that the child was heavily saturated with evil qi;
its abundance was incredibly abnormal. I only learned the truth after I reunited with the other three in the kingdom's domain—not only can the Kiln produce monsters, it can also curse. Just as you were able to disperse your own good fortune, the Kiln can also disperse its accumulated misfortune, releasing it to rampage across the land.
"The hour of the child's birth was already extremely perilous: if his fate was fortunate, it would be the best of fortunes, but if it was unfortunate, it would be the worst of misfortunes. He probably absorbed all the misfortune the Kiln had dispersed on the day he was born, which was how he became so terrifying upon entering the world. Mount Taicang was almost razed to the ground when he set foot upon its soil!"
The longer Xie Lian listened, the more alarmed he became, and he slowly turned to gaze at Hua Cheng. They were clearly discussing Hua Cheng's own affairs, but the man's expression didn't change; he simply gave Xie Lian a smile.
"Under normal circumstances, that child's parents would have died early; if they didn't, they would've scorned or abandoned him," the state preceptor continued. "Better if they did die, as he would've otherwise suffered their endless abuse. He wouldn't have lived past eighteen, and he would have caused those around him to die as well, to separate, to suffer misfortune, as if Disaster itself was reborn. That's why I told you at the time to quickly get rid of him, to not get close—" Xie Lian couldn't listen a moment longer. "Master! Please…don't say any more."
The state preceptor nodded. "I'll stop. I was just giving you an example of how scary the Kiln is."
Xie Lian didn't know what to say, but Hua Cheng chuckled and said, "It's not as scary as it seems, but the state preceptor's fortune-telling really is quite accurate."
"…" When Xie Lian realized that Hua Cheng likely hadn't lived past eighteen, his fingers trembled. Hua Cheng reached out with one arm and gently covered Xie Lian's chilly hands, palm to back. Although their skin was equally icy, there was warmth where their hands touched.
"He set many tests for you," the state preceptor said. "The Human Face Disease epidemic of Xianle was the first. By his judgment, you would've passed if you chose to unleash the plague upon Yong'an; he would not have banished you, and he even would have helped you cover it up. He would have made you into his trusted heir, one who would reach the top in your first step and defy the heavens in your second. But your answer was wrong.
"He should've given you another elaborate trial during your banishment, but you still didn't give him a satisfactory answer. And so you were immediately beaten back down the moment you ascended."
A pale, smiling mask appeared in Xie Lian's mind. After a pause, he said quietly, "That was actually my own request."
"Gege, trust me. Even if you didn't request it, he had thousands of ways to send you back down," Hua Cheng said.
"But he defeated White No-Face," Xie Lian said.
"Who didn't actually die," Hua Cheng noted.
"Then why go through all that trouble?" Xie Lian asked.
"Of course, White No-Face could've just killed you," the state preceptor said. "But killing you was not what he wanted. Just as I already said, he really likes you—he doesn't want you to die at all. He only wanted you to become the person he had been trying to forge you into."
"Killing you wouldn't achieve that end," Hua Cheng added. "You would never change if you had died in that state—and he'd be able to accept that even less. But White No-Face had no reason to let you off the hook so easily. What better way to solve this dilemma than to have the Heavenly Emperor descend to the Mortal Realm to vanquish evil and save you from the brink of death? Your trust and gratitude for him would only grow. But he still failed to change you twice. He must've been extremely vexed."
"The second time you were banished, he had countless opportunities to 'educate' you as you drifted in the Mortal Realm, and to lie in wait until you changed your mind," the state preceptor said. "Based on my observations, he calmed down during that time, but his calm was disrupted recently…by your third ascension.
"If you had become nothing but a puddle of rotten mud, then he wouldn't have cared. But you… Even though you've fallen to such lows, even though you've completely ignored everything he planned for you, you were still able to ascend for the third time—and still the same as you always were, completely unchanged… I don't know what was on his mind when he saw you again, but I'm certain he planned to set out more tests for you."
"It's obvious, seeing all that he's done recently," Hua Cheng said.
"Gege, think back: what happened after you ascended for the third time?"
Xie Lian quickly pulled himself together, and after a moment of contemplation, he said, "The first incident was Mount Yujun, when I was dispatched to take down the female ghost Xuan Ji. I couldn't find the Ghost Groom at first; it was the fetus spirit who guided me with a nursery rhyme halfway through. I assume he told it to do so. But I just thought he was helping me with the case."
"Helping you finish the mission, that's all," Hua Cheng said. "The direct result was Xuan Ji's arrest, but what about the indirect results?"
"…I stabbed the hornet's nest that is General Pei's old relationship drama and brought him a bit of trouble?" Xie Lian ventured.
"I suppose that could be considered a small test," the state preceptor said. "If you had known you'd offend Pei Ming, would you have managed the Ghost Groom case differently? For example, would you have secretly informed Pei Ming so he could suppress the affair, or let Xuan Ji continue to cause petty trouble in that remote place but kept it from getting out of hand— something like that?"
Xie Lian sweated. "Well… To be honest, it was a while before I learned that it had anything to do with General Pei. That ghost woman was taking hostages, and there were so many people present at the time. The arrow on the bow had to be loosed—there was no time to think about who might be offended."
"Then, gege, you had already made a decision," said Hua Cheng with a smile, and he continued to analyze the matter. "As for the second incident, an empty-shelled fake came to Puqi Shrine in the form of a cultivator and lured you to Banyue Pass. Let's temporarily skip the matter of who sent that fake.
What consequences did that mission cause?"
"General Pei Junior was booted from heaven, and thus General Pei's right hand was severed," Xie Lian answered.
"Gege, your work in those two incidents helped him greatly weaken Pei Ming, and you also thoroughly offended Pei Ming himself," Hua Cheng said. "His involvement went completely undetected. You received all the backlash, but you still had to be grateful to him."
"…" "If I'm not wrong, he's kept a close eye on you through the past eight hundred years," Hua Cheng added. "Gege, he probably also knows that you were once a state preceptor in Yong'an, and that you taught Lang Qianqiu, yet he still sent you two on a mission together. The way I see it, he must have done that with bad intentions."
"Wait a second," the state preceptor said, his surprise apparent. "Your Highness, you went to Yong'an and took up the position of state preceptor?
You taught Lang Qianqiu?"
"Yeah…" Xie Lian replied.
"You were the State Preceptor Fangxin?!" the state preceptor asked.
"Mmm, yes… Is something the matter?" Xie Lian asked.
Xie Lian gave a brief account of his service, and the state preceptor replied, "He would definitely be furious with you if he knew about this."
"Gege, regarding the Reverend of Empty Words," Hua Cheng continued, "at first you didn't want to get involved in that case, but you were still pulled in—though thankfully not too deeply. Neither Black Water nor Shi Wudu dragged those hundreds of fishermen into the Heavenly Tribulation in the South Sea. If not those two, who is most capable of something like that?"
Only after each incident had been laid out before him did Xie Lian realize the truth—every step he'd taken since his return had been made under Jun Wu's close watch and guided by his hand.
Hua Cheng crossed his arms. "I'm assuming that he's doing this for two reasons. First, his sick mentality drives him to throw test after test at you to see what path you'll choose—endlessly hoping that you'll go down the one he paved for you. Second, he was probably using you as a sword to cut down other heavenly officials' power.
"The heavenly officials of the previous dynasty must've traumatized him deeply. Now he's hypervigilant and requires absolute control over everything—he tolerates no threats to his power or status and allows no heavenly officials to catch up to him. And I think…" Xie Lian was also mulling over the same points. "Think what?"
"When Shi Wudu changed Shi Qingxuan's fate, and when Black Water infiltrated the heavens in the name of investigation," Hua Cheng said, "do you really think he didn't suspect a thing?"
Xie Lian had been wondering about that as well. Could Jun Wu really have seen nothing from his seat on the highest throne? That was hardly plausible. He could directly examine every report and scroll that passed through Ling Wen's hands, so was it truly possible that he never noticed the forgeries? The Water Master committed such a heinous crime and deceived nearly the entire world, but he lived peacefully for many years. He was conveniently only exposed when he started dominating the Upper Court.
"Perhaps he knew everything from the very start, but the Water Master didn't threaten his status back then. So he made no move to expose him," Hua Cheng continued. "Exposing the matter early on wouldn't have necessarily worked to his advantage. A new Water Master would ascend if Shi Wudu was banished, and they might not have such an enormous transgression that could be used against them. I'd have been very displeased with Shi Wudu if I were Jun Wu, but I wouldn't have needed to use my own hands if I wanted to get rid of him—all I'd need to do was wait. I would simply watch quietly as the Water Master grew more and more outrageous, arrogant, and fearless, and when he finally exhausted my tolerance, I'd just leak the fate-switching affair to Black Water."
And Black Water would of course avenge himself and his deceased family.
Hua Cheng continued to explain, "As for him gathering millions of ghosts in the Kiln to birth a new supreme, it was likely in order to…" Xie Lian came to his senses and finished for him. "…Create balance."
"Yeah," Hua Cheng said. "He was probably delighted to welcome the birth of a malicious supreme, one that would cause havoc in the Mortal Realm. As long as there are creatures making trouble, there will be people praying."
And a god's spiritual power was only made stronger by the prayers of their devotees!
The state preceptor sighed. "The four of us set out to stop the gathering every time the Kiln opened, though we weren't always successful. And this time, it's even more… Things have gotten even more out of hand. He killed a few of those vengeful Wuyong spirits, but he sent the majority off with the Teleportation Array. And then he sent the rest of you away while he stayed behind to inspect and destroy some things. He assumed I would try to find you, so he rushed to the capital after taking care of Mount Tonglu, and sure enough, he captured me.
"Things couldn't go on like this for much longer, I thought. The Kingdom of Wuyong's existence had been rediscovered, and considering how cautious he is, it was most likely time for another change in heavenly dynasty. If you'd all continued to suspect nothing, sooner or later you would have been buried, serving as the Heavenly Capital's foundation like the rest.
But that little brat Feng Xin happened to bring Hongjing along, so I gave it my best shot. His spiritual power had grown so strong that Hongjing could no longer reflect the things on his face under normal circumstances, but since he had just battled the three mountain spirits, the lesions were tearing through again.
"I've pretty much covered everything. Do you have anything else you wanted to ask, Your Highness?"
Xie Lian was still thinking things over when Hua Cheng spoke up.
"I do. State Preceptor, do you still remember your Wuyong tongue?"
"The Kingdom of Wuyong has long been forgotten," said the state preceptor, "and no one uses its language anymore. My three friends and I have long since learned a new tongue. We still know the old language, but we rarely use it." He then confessed, "Nor do I really want to."
Xie Lian thought back and realized that the state preceptor hadn't been referring to him when he told the mountain spirit, "His Highness is beyond saving," and "He hasn't fully awakened yet." He'd been talking about White No-Face, who had possessed Lang Ying and was wandering around on a killing spree to gather enough power to recover.
As for the corpse-eating rats that spewed human words, there'd been a match among the possible candidates who could have infected him with their memories—or two matches, in fact: Jun Wu and White No-Face. And the fake skins of Feng Xin and Mu Qing within the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods must have been simple for White No-Face to create, because Jun Wu knew them both so well!
"He…seemed to be leading me to believe that I was the Crown Prince of Wuyong, or that I'm a part of his soul," Xie Lian said.
"Of course he was," the state preceptor replied. "Wuyong's existence could no longer be hidden, and anyone who learned of the Crown Prince of Xianle and the Crown Prince of Wuyong would think that they were very alike. It was the perfect solution, a way to make it all lead back to you. And if you began to doubt yourself—to doubt your true heart, your actions, and your objectives—and began to harbor the idea that 'I am the Crown Prince of Wuyong,' it became much more likely that you'd repeat his fate.
"He was leading you to purposely make you walk the same road he did. It wasn't that the two of you were somehow destined to have similar paths, he…simply couldn't tolerate the idea that a soul so similar to his own could have a different path."
A long while later, Hua Cheng spoke up. "I told you—they aren't alike at all."
The state preceptor had finally had enough and turned to him. "You.
Young man. What's wrong with you?"
"…?" Hua Cheng had no response.
Xie Lian was startled and thought, What's wrong?
The state preceptor rolled up his sleeves and lectured Hua Cheng with a somber, heavy tone.
"I've been wanting to say this for a while. You, young man—what's with that insincere smile? Don't think you can be impolite toward me just because you're a Supreme Ghost King. Supreme Ghost Kings might be rare, but do you know how old I am? An elder of such exceptional age is far rarer."
"…" Hua Cheng cocked an eyebrow.
Xie Lian rubbed his forehead. "Ah, Master, it's not that San Lang is impolite. He's just…" He's just too used to giving people that fake smile!
The state preceptor gestured to Hua Cheng that he should stay where he was, then pulled Xie Lian aside and spoke to him sternly. "Your Highness, I saw it."
"Huh?" Xie Lian asked. "What did you see?"
"On top of that giant divine statue," the state preceptor said.
The giant divine statue? What happened on top of it? Xie Lian thought for a bit before suddenly, his brain buzzed.
He had borrowed spiritual power!
Xie Lian started hacking and coughing. "No… I was just borrowing spiritual power… No, actually, it wasn't just that. Anyway, I was just…" The state preceptor's voice grew even more somber and earnest. "Your Highness, what's going on? Is it because I was too strict? Or, since you've cultivated for so long and avoided women, have you…changed your ways?"
"…That's not why!" exclaimed Xie Lian, waving wildly.
The state preceptor was doubtful. "Then…could it be…a trait from birth? Well…I never noticed. Hmm… Well, this part of you certainly isn't like him…" "Wait?! That's not it either!" Xie Lian cried.
The state preceptor puffed out a sigh. "Don't worry, Your Highness, I'm not going to lecture you. I won't guide you on a topic in which I myself am not an expert. Besides, you've already been through so much and gotten through it in one piece, so what's there left to worry about? Men or women, it doesn't matter, as long as you're happy."
Xie Lian rubbed his forehead until it turned red, and he said in a small voice, "Yes…I'm very happy."
Still, the state preceptor added with glum confusion, "But…after being single for eight hundred years, how did you end up with a Supreme Ghost King?"
Xie Lian was taken aback.
"I'm not saying you've got bad taste," the state preceptor continued.
"It's not bad; I'm sure mature ladies and young maidens alike are fond of that type too. But a Supreme Ghost King is trouble, I'm telling you. Your Highness, you've got to think these things through, all right? Once somebody like that clings onto you, you can forget about ever ditching them."
"Uh, Master, hold on—" "I'm absolutely correct about this. By the looks of this Crimson Rain Sought Flower, his fortune must be so awful that it's twisted to hell and back —not just bad, worse than bad. His evil qi is so suffocating that it assaults the mind, practically like—" Hua Cheng was right behind them and said lazily, "Practically like the Star of Solitude, right?"
Xie Lian had been desperately trying to stop the state preceptor from talking, but with no success. Covering his face, he silently shuffled behind Hua Cheng, who smiled and circled an arm around him as he raised his brows.
"My smile is certainly quite insincere, but to say to a man's face that he's the Star of Solitude, disaster reborn, the worst of misfortunes, the child of parents who are better off dead, and unable to live past eighteen—that's not very nice, is it?"
The state preceptor was confused at first, then slowly, his eyes widened. "You…are…?"