"General Pei...that array is defending the capital against the vengeful spirits that poured out of the Kiln," Xie Lian explained. "There will be a third outbreak of Human Face Disease if it's broken, and that would…" A third outbreak would bring disaster to the world. It might annihilate all living things.
Pei Ming rubbed his nose. "Let me verify one thing. My Lord… is giving me no other choice, right?"
"Of course I am providing a choice," Jun Wu said. "If you descend, I will let you go. If you do not, I will let them go."
Who was "them"? Xuan Ji, Rong Guang, and Kemo!
A green, hungry glint flashed in the three ghosts' eyes. It was easy to imagine what they would do to Pei Ming once they were set loose: strangle him to death, scratch him to death, stab him to death, punch him to death— choose one or all of the above.
"Little Pei is also here," Jun Wu added. "I presume you think very highly of your descendant—after all, when he was discovered luring people to their deaths at Banyue Pass, you were willing to cover up his crimes to keep him in the heavens. You even planned to pin the blame on another."
This reminder made Rong Guang's grievances well up anew.
He furiously cursed Pei Ming for being a terrible friend and valuing his great-great-great-great grandson over his brothers-in-arms.
Xuan Ji grumbled and griped about her own grievances from the side.
Pei Ming endured all the demonic noise swarming around his head, and after much thought, he sighed.
"Will My Lord allow me to think more on this?"
"My patience is limited, so I don't care to give you too much time," Jun Wu said.
As soon as he spoke, delight appeared on the three ghosts' faces—they could move now! And in an instant, they pounced!
The gates of the Palace of Ming Guang closed. Xie Lian could hear someone's tortured screams from inside and the sound of ripping and tearing.
His face dropped, and he cried, "General Pei! Banyue!"
Although he wanted to go back inside to check on them, Jun Wu's hand on his shoulder dragged him away and steered him to the other end of the street. Xie Lian kept looking back, but he had no say where he went.
"What are you planning?!" he cried angrily.
"Next," Jun Wu said.
Next? What was next? They walked for another stretch before stopping once more. Xie Lian's breath nearly stopped when he saw.
Lang Qianqiu's Palace of Tai Hua!
Qi Rong sauntered over from the opposite end of the street with Guzi tucked under his arm. He looked refreshed and rejuvenated—and very satisfied with himself for having trampled all the major divine palaces.
"Why did you call me over?" he asked.
Jun Wu had actually summoned Qi Rong to the Palace of Tai Hua. A sense of foreboding seized Xie Lian.
"There's nothing to concern yourself with here! Leave now!" he scolded.
Qi Rong's face fell, but before he could snap at Xie Lian, Jun Wu gave an order.
"Go inside."
And just as quickly, Qi Rong was smiling smugly once more. "Hee hee! Your words don't matter 'round these parts!"
And then he strutted inside the Palace of Tai Hua with his head raised and his spirits high.
Lang Qianqiu was pacing back and forth inside the palace with his hands behind his back, his face dark and gloomy. When he saw that Xie Lian and Jun Wu had come, he demanded suspiciously, "What are you doing here?" He then saw Qi Rong behind them, and his face changed color in an instant.
"You!" he cried angrily.
Guzi shrank away in the face of his angry roar, but Qi Rong certainly wasn't afraid of him right now. He sat down cross-legged on a chair outside the hall, jiggling one leg, so cocky that he was drunk on it.
"Nothing to fear, my good son! That's right, it's me! Lang Qianqiu, haven't you been hunting me down hoping to kill me for so long? And yet you still fell into my clutches in the end!"
Lang Qianqiu was outraged. Veins popped on his forehead and on the backs of his hands, yet he was locked within his palace and couldn't take a single step outside. He turned to Xie Lian furiously.
"What the hell are you doing?! Did you bring him here to show him off?!"
"No!" Xie Lian cried. "Calm down!"
"I am calm!" Lang Qianqiu exclaimed. "I don't even know what's going on!"
Jun Wu issued the terms of his order. "Tai Hua, descend and break the human array in the royal capital. Do so and I will hand over your enemy, the Green Ghost Qi Rong, for you to manage."
Qi Rong laughed wildly. "HA HA HA HA HA! LANG QIANQIU, YOU YONG'AN DUMBASS—huh? What did you say? Hand me over to him? What do you mean?!"
He'd cackled for a good while before he processed Jun Wu's words, but when he did, he leapt directly to his feet. What a joke—hand him over to Lang Qianqiu? He'd murdered the entire Lang clan; Lang Qianqiu would slaughter him!
Jun Wu didn't acknowledge him whatsoever, just continued to speak leisurely. "Otherwise, I will hand you over to be managed by the Green Ghost Qi Rong, and another life can be added to the list of Yong'an royalty who died by his hand."
Lang Qianqiu's face was growing darker and more terrifying, and Qi Rong cried, "Wait!"
Xie Lian couldn't take this anymore. "Are you mad?!" he cried. "Why are you forcing them to make such choices? What are you trying to show me?!"
Lang Qianqiu had been hunting Qi Rong down to kill him, and considering Qi Rong's character, of course he'd pounce on an opportunity to eliminate Lang Qianqiu first! But if Lang Qianqiu really did choose to set out and break the human array…well, Xie Lian definitely did not want to see that!
"If you do not want to watch them make such decisions, then why not take their place?" Jun Wu asked.
"What?" Xie Lian gaped.
"Xianle, all of this is the result of your stubborn caprice," Jun Wu said.
"If you had followed my direction from the start, they would not have to face these choices now."
"Are you saying that this is my fault?" Xie Lian was so angry his voice was shaking. "Why must you force all of this on me?!"
"Do you hate me?" Jun Wu asked. "Hatred alone is pointless. Defeat me if you have what it takes—but do you?"
Xie Lian clenched his fists tight, his knuckles cracking.
"Naturally, you do not at the moment," Jun Wu continued. "But you might become capable of the feat if you break the human array. If you break it, I will remove those two shackles on your body."
"…" The two cursed shackles had sealed his power for over eight hundred years. What would happen if he was released from their fetters?
Anxiety ramping high, Qi Rong stared cautiously into the Palace of Tai Hua, scared that Lang Qianqiu would choose to break the array at any moment and he'd be left in the lurch, doomed to be snuffed out. Lang Qianqiu's eyes darted rapidly between Xie Lian and Qi Rong.
Suddenly, Jun Wu's hand on Xie Lian's shoulder loosened.
Xie Lian jolted and whipped his head back. Jun Wu's expression was calm and cold, his chin slightly lowered to inspect the curved silver blade that was hooked around his neck.
Eming's blade.
Behind him, Hua Cheng's eyes flashed with animosity. "Move your hand," he said frostily.
"San Lang!" Xie Lian cried.
Hua Cheng had followed after all.
Jun Wu breathed in, then smiled at Xie Lian. "Xianle, you dared to have an affair with the ghost king right under my nose. What audacity."
Hua Cheng scoffed. "Why don't you take a look in the mirror? Do you have the right to say anything on the subject?"
Qi Rong hadn't even settled in his chair before he leapt up again, his face changing into a rainbow of terrified colors. "D-D-D-DOG…HUA CHENG?! How did you get up here?!"
Xie Lian unsheathed Fangxin from where it hung at his waist and swung, cutting through the barrier that was locking Lang Qianqiu inside.
"Qianqiu, run!"
However, Lang Qianqiu was still burning with rage, and he charged toward Qi Rong to seize him. He grabbed the greatsword on his back, looking like he was going to chop Qi Rong into half a dozen pieces—but Guzi hopped down from Qi Rong's shoulders and opened his arms in front of him to shield him.
"Don't…don't kill my dad!" he cried out to Lang Qianqiu.
"Move! Your dad is possessed! And he's not even your dad!" Lang Qianqiu shouted back at him.
Seizing the opportunity, Qi Rong flipped out of his grip and leapt away, catching Guzi as he did. "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! I'm warning you, don't come near me! Do it and I'll chomp this kid to death! I'll rip him open and devour his guts right in front of you!"
Lang Qianqiu stopped, then yelled angrily, "Isn't he your son? He protected you, and you still treat him as nothing but a shield? You despicable, dirty ghost trash!"
Caught in Qi Rong's grip, Guzi was blinking in confusion.
"A cheap son! I'll just sire another one!" Qi Rong countered.
"If that's the case…" Jun Wu said lightly.
Hearing his tone, Xie Lian instinctively sensed danger. Sure enough, he soon heard surprised shouting from outside the palace.
"Fire! There's a fire!"
"Everything's burning up!"
Xie Lian rushed out of the Palace of Tai Hua to look. Night was falling, but the Heavenly Capital's skies were flaming red above a sea of fire. Many palaces had already been overtaken by the blaze!
Whirling back around, Xie Lian demanded, "What are you doing, setting fire to the Heavenly Capital?! All the heavenly officials are still locked inside their palaces on your orders!"
They'd also had their spiritual powers sealed—if this situation was allowed to continue, wouldn't they all burn to death in their own palaces?
"It's not like he cares whether they're alive or dead," Hua Cheng said.
Lang Qianqiu was shocked too, and Qi Rong seized the opportunity.
He tucked Guzi under his arm and fled, crawling and scuttling as he went.
"Stop!" Lang Qianqiu cried.
As if Qi Rong would do any such thing!
"Qianqiu!" Xie Lian yelled. "Go free the other heavenly officials first!"
"Yes, Master!" Lang Qianqiu answered on reflex.
They both paused. Lang Qianqiu gave Xie Lian a look before dashing out.
As he withdrew Eming's blade, Hua Cheng summoned a whirling storm of silver butterflies. The thousand-strong swarm wrapped Jun Wu in a chrysalis. Hua Cheng grabbed Xie Lian's hand and pulled.
"Let's go!"
The silver butterflies wouldn't hold Jun Wu for long. The two ran off into the street and saw that Lang Qianqiu had already knocked down a great number of guards. Many of the heavenly officials had been released from their palaces and were pouring onto the Grand Avenue of Divine Might.
Their panic was palpable.
"Why is everything burning? Who set a fire?!"
"It's not a normal fire—it can't be extinguished!"
From a distance, they could still hear Qi Rong howling as he fled.
"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! Jun Wu, that motherfucker, he's gone crazy; this ancestor is still here! He's really fucking nuts if he's setting his own domain on fire!"
Feng Xin had come out of the Palace of Nan Yang and seemed to be looking for someone as he stood on the main street.
From one side, Mu Qing asked, "How do we leave?"
But there was no way to leave!
"Can we fly?"
"Everyone's injured and their spiritual power is still restricted. We can't fly out of here…" So even though everyone had been released from their palaces, they were still trapped in the sea of fire that had overtaken the Heavenly Capital!
Just then, a wild tremor shook the ground, and the officials began to panic. "What's going on?! An earthquake?!"
"How can that be?" Lang Qianqiu shouted. "This is the Heavenly Capital—it's a city in the sky! How can there be earthquakes?"
"Then what—" Any further comments died in the officials' throats. A long moment later, they began to point at something.
"What is that thing…?" someone mumbled.
Beneath the firelit sky, a giant head had appeared at the end of the long main avenue of the Heavenly Capital. It was staring at the hundreds of heavenly officials on the street.
The head was truly enormous, many times the size of a golden palace.
And furthermore, it was smiling—although it was a very peaceful and benevolent smile, it looked quite sinister against the backdrop of the endlessly dark night and bloodred flames.
"…" Someone clutched at their head. "Am I…hallucinating?"
"His Highness is so big!"
It was the giant divine statue—and it had flown to the heavens!
Xie Lian was dumbfounded. Wasn't that divine statue supposed to be lying dormant in Mount Tonglu territory? And it shouldn't have been able to fly without him at the controls. How had it gotten here without his commands or any spiritual power?
Then Xie Lian noticed that the giant divine statue was surrounded by glittering, sparkling lights, stark against the blackness of the night. Looking closer, he discovered that the light wasn't coming from the statue itself but from the millions of silver butterflies and Blessings Lanterns that wreathed it from head to toe.
The silver butterflies and Blessings Lanterns had flown it to the heavens!