Heaven Official’s Blessing - Chapter 22
Ch.22: Shortened Distance; Adrift in Sandstorms 3 The scorpion tail! Yet because of the sting, Xie Lian was able to grab hold of the tail and capture the snake properly. He squeezed it down hard until it became unconscious. Even having been stung, Xie Lian’s face never changed, and tossed it to the ground indifferently, “Everyone be careful, there may be more snakes around…” He felt a tightening on his wrist before he finished his words, and looked to see it was San Lang who caught hold of him. “San Lang?” Xie Lian looked at the boy puzzled. The reason he sounded confused was because at this very moment, the expression on this youth’s face was quite off; it was indescribably frosty to the point of frightening. His eyes were focused intently on the wound on the back of Xie Lian’s hand that had now ballooned thanks to the vicious venom. The small puncture wound became visibly enlarged to the size of a knife cut because of the angry swelling. With a dark expression and, San Lang wordlessly snatched Ruoye from Xie Lian’s arm and immediately knotted it firmly on his wrist, preventing the venom from advancing. While Ruoye enjoyed snuggling up to Xie Lian, it wasn’t that well-behaved either, yet in San lang’s hands it was so compliant it was like it was dead. Ever since they had known each other, Xie Lian had never seen San Lang looking like this. He opened his mouth to speak but San Lang turnedto pull a dagger from the waist of one of the merchants. Nan Feng saw and knew instantly what San Lang was about to do, and ignited a palm torch. Without sparing any looks, San Lang burned the tip of the dagger to disinfect it before turning back to Xie Lian and drew a cross on the mouth of the puncture wound. Just as he was about to lower his head to the hand, Xie Lian hurriedly said, “It’s ok. The venom is aggressive, sucking it won’t do much. I don’t want you to get poisoned…” San Lang ignored him, tightened the hold on Xie Lian’s hand and placed his lips upon it. His hand trembled slightly and Xie Lian couldn’t explain why. Next to him, Fu Yao said in disdain, “I can’t believe you went and got yourself pricked. What are you doing catching the snake when the kid might not even get bitten? You’re just making trouble needlessly.” His words were probably true. Xie Lian recalled the airy way San Lang played with the snake in the cave; he probably wouldn’t have even cared for any attacks and wouldn’t have gotten bitten. But just in case. Just in case San Lang didn’t notice the snake and get bitten, it’d be too late then. Xie Lian waved his good hand, “Don’t mind it. It’s not like it hurts, and I won’t die from it.” “You’re really not in pain?” Fu Yao asked. “Really. I don’t feel pain anymore.” Xie Lian answered truthfully. Since Xie Lian possessed the worst of luck, every time he ventured deep into the mountains, eight times out of ten he would step onto vipers or run into poisonous insects, and get bitten, stung, jabbed, or poisoned in thousands of ways. Perhaps it was because of his heavenly status, he couldn’t die, so at most he’d run a fever. After three days and three nights of fevers, he’d be right as rain when he woke and continue on as if nothing happened. Gradually he became less and less sensitive to pain, and just lived with it. Right after the words had left his mouth San Lang finally looked up. The red swelling on the back of Xie Lian’s hand had gone down, a stain of blood red on San Lang’s lips. His eyes were extremely cold, and he moved his glare to the unconscious snake on the ground. BOOM! The snake abruptly exploded into a pool of blood and flesh. The sudden blast surprised everyone, but no one knew who did it. Even if the blood didn’t splatter onto anyone, there was still a blanket of unease. Tian Sheng who still remembered that Xie Lian also got stung, asked worriedly, “Gege, you got pricked too! What will you do?” Xie Lian felt the bandage on his wrist and smiled, “Don’t worry, little one. We’ll still stick to the plan of going to the BanYue ruins and search for the ShanYue fern.” Another merchant asked, “You guys are going? What about us? Should we also send someone to go with you?” “You can all stay here. BanYue territory is a dangerous place, the more people there the more mishaps that can happen. We will find the fern and bring it back to you within twenty-four hours.” Xie Lian said. “For… for real? Thank you so much! –” “How can we possibly ever…” A number of merchants started stuttering their thanks, but then their faces changed when Xie Lian continued to speak, “In order to reach BanYue as soon as possible, I want to borrow your guide temporarily, if that’s alright.” Naturally, Xie Lian meant A-Zhao. The merchants went from grateful and relief to hesitation. Xie Lian knew where they’re coming from. They were afraid that Xie Lian might run off with their guide once he finds the ShanYue fern; and even if A-Zhao didn’t run away, timing would still be delayed. Nevertheless, none of them wanted to venture into that wicked place where ‘at least half goes missing’. Their worries were entirely understandable, so Xie Lian added, “And just in case anything else comes to attack you, Fu Yao will stay until we return.” A man for a man, now there was insurance that Xie Lian would come back. The merchants finally agreed and nodded, “Alright. As long as A-Zhao is willing.” Xie Lian turned to A-Zhao, “Are you open to giving us a hand, my friend? If not that’s ok too.” A-Zhao nodded and said, “Yes. But the BanYue ruins is actually not hard to get to; just keep heading in this direction.” After bidding the merchants farewell, A-Zhao took the lead with Xie Lian, San Lang, and Nan Feng following right behind. A while later, Xie Lian inquired, “A-Zhao, do the scorpion snakes appear frequently in this area?” “Not frequently. This was my first time seeing them too.” A-Zhao replied. Xie Lian nodded and had no more questions. Truthfully, he did live in the BanYue area for a number of years, and this was also his first time seeing a scorpion snake. A-Zhao’s answer was not out of place. Nan Feng realized Xie Lian’s intentions and asked in a low voice, “You’re suspicious of this A-Zhao?” Xie Lian responded in a whisper, “Either way we’ve brought him out. Just keep an eye on him.” In the past it was usually San Lang who would talk to him first, but since the incident earlier the boy hadn’t looked approachable, walking stoically and silent. Xie Lian couldn’t figure out what’s going on and didn’t know how to talk to him, so he kept on walking too. The four continued to trek through the vast Gobi desert; the windstorm had long passed, and without any obstructions they advanced quickly, and soon they could see ragged weeds here and there growing in the cracks of rocks and sand. By the time the sun was setting, Xie Lian finally spotted an ancient fortress in the horizon. The fortress was difficult to see because it was the colour of sand, camouflaged in the yellowness and becoming one with the desert. Some parts of the fortress walls were also caved in and buried. As they approached, they found the fortress walls were extremely high, towering at over hundreds of feet. It wasn’t hard to imagine its past magnificence, how grand it must’ve been. Passing through the barbican, the four formally entered the Kingdom of BanYue. Past the gates was a wide and empty city street, dilapidated houses on each side; rotten beams, broken bricks strewn about. Out of habit, A-Zhao cautioned the others, “Please be careful and don’t leave the group on your own.” The other three didn’t need that reminder. The actual BanYue fortress was probably different than imagined, and Nan Feng wondered, “This is the Kingdom of BanYue? It’s smaller than a capital!” “A desert country is only as big as the oasis it’s built on.” Xie Lian explained. “At its peak, the population was only just about ten thousand. It’s actually pretty lively in a small fortress like this.” Nan Feng continued to observe the surroundings, “It would probably only take a few days to siege a country of this size.” Xie Lian shook his head, “Not necessarily. Don’t underestimate the people of BanYue, Nan Feng. Even if their population wasn’t more than ten thousand, they kept the number of soldiers at an average of four thousand. There were more males than females; aside from the sick and old, and the farmers, most men joined the army. Besides, most of those soldiers were over nine feet tall, each more violent than the next. With a mace in hand, they would keep fighting even with swords through their chests. They’re very hard to fight.” A-Zhao was surprised and glanced at Xie Lian, “This young master seems to know a lot.” Xie Lian maintained his smile and was about to converse some more when Nan Feng posed a question, “What’s that wall?” He was indicating a giant mud yellow building in the far distance. Building wasn’t quite the right word to describe it, because it was a giant enclosure formed by four massive mud coloured walls without neither doors nor roofs. Each wall was over a hundred feet, and on the very top there was a pole, with something tattered attached, flying in the wind. It was a chilling image. Xie Lian turned his head and took a look, then said simply, “That’s the Sinners Pit.” By the sound of the name alone it was obvious it wasn’t anything good. “Sinner’s Pit?” Nan Feng frowned. Humming gravely, Xie Lian explained, “You can think of it as a jail. It’s made specifically for imprisoning criminals.” “How does it imprison if there isn’t even a door? Throw them in from the top?” Nan Feng wondered. Xie Lian was just hesitating in answering when San Lang suddenly spoke up, “They get thrown in. And the pit is full of poisonous snakes and starving beasts.” Hearing him finally speak, Xie Lian felt relieved, but when he looked over to San Lang, the boy met his gaze and turned away. Nan Feng swore, “That’s no fuckin’ jail?! That’s torture! How cruel! Those people of BanYue were either sick in the head or savage psychos!” Xie Lian rubbed his forehead, “Not all of them. Some of them were quite endearing…” He paused suddenly, his brows stiffening, “Wait.” The other three stopped, and Xie Lian pointed upwards, “Look at that pole up on the pit. Is that a person hanging from it?” In the dimming light of the setting sun and with such distance, it was difficult to see what exactly was hung on the pole. But going closer and scrutinizing the shape, it became obvious it was a scrawny little person in black, their clothes unkempt, dangling in the wind like a ragdoll. “It’s a person,” San Lang confirmed. When A-Zhao saw the hanging person, his face paled. This was such a chilling and peculiar display that even a calm individual like him couldn’t bear the sight of it. Just then, San Lang tilted hi head, and said in a low voice, “Someone’s here.” He wasn’t the only one who noticed. Xie Lian also heard featherlight footsteps approaching. The four immediately moved to hide in the many decaying houses on the roadside. Xie Lian and San Lang entered one house, and Nan Feng and A-Zhao hid in the one across the street. Soon after, at the end of the broken street, revealed the woman cultivator in white. The woman was dressed in a light white robe, a whisk in her arm, roaming along the street, peering here and there, eyes bright and observant, as if she was in her own backyard garden, and not the BanYue ruins. Strolling right after her was another woman clad in black, her hands behind her back. The black clad woman was beautiful yet cold, her eyes piercing, her raven hair long and free, as if radiating chill from her very person. Although she was walking behind the woman cultivator, no one would have mistaken her as a subordinate. It was the same two women they saw outside the abandoned inn at noon time. At the time they passed by too fast and Xie Lian couldn’t make out the details of the lady in black, but he now saw clearly that she was indeed a woman. If the one in white was the Witch of BanYue, then who was the one in black? The witch swished her whisk leisurely and spoke, “Now where did those people go? We were careless for one moment and they all disappeared. Do I have to dig them out and kill them one by one?” As Xie Lian had thought, they were watched the moment they stepped foot into the fortress. The lady in black approached and stoically said, “You can call your friends to help you kill them.” Those ‘friends’ must have meant the soldiers of BanYue. The Guoshi of BanYue laughed, “Ha! I don’t like calling other people. I like calling you. Aren’t you glad?” The lady in black ignored her completely and said cooly, “There’s nothing agreeable about being called out by the likes of you for something like this. Just go.” The Guoshi of BanYue arched her brows but still sped away. Listening to them it sounded as if they were close. They were no ordinary folks, so the lady in black must have some renown. Someone who would be close to the Guoshi of BanYue? A mysterious fellow cultivator? Or was there a queen or general they didn’t know about? Xie Lian was trying to connect the dots rapidly in his mind, but held his breath. Now wasn’t the time to be discovered. It looked like the guoshi had an unpredictable personality; if she should find them and excitedly summon her legendary, 9 feet tall, mace-wielding BanYue soldiers, then more time would be wasted fighting them. Twenty-four hours. One hour wasted was another hour they’d sink deeper into danger. But, there was no helping his bad luck; whatever he didn’t want happening would always happen. The lady in black was passing the house Xie Lian hid in, but stopped mid step, and her piercing gaze came sweeping over the decayed shelter. The Guoshi of BanYue was already further ahead but noticed that she had stopped and came back around. “Hey, are you not coming?” The lady in black didn’t look at her. “You. Step back.” “Alright.” The guoshi responded obediently and actually retreated. The lady in black was about to raise her hand when suddenly, a loud rumble blasted from across the street! Across on the other side, it was the house Nan Feng and A-Zhao hid in that collapsed! The crumpling of one house led the entire strip to cave in. Dust and sand rolled into the air and clouded the whole street. Within, a black shadow leapt out, shot a streaming flame towards the gushi, but the lady in black rushed forward and blocked the guoshi from harm. With her left hand still behind her, she flipped her right palm and easily absorbed the flames before rebounding it right back. The black shadow parried with her while escaping, and soon disappeared. The guoshi immediately chased after it, but the lady in black gave the house behind another sweeping look before following after the guosi. ‘Bless you, Nan Feng,’ Xie Lian thankedmentally. All of this happened so quickly, but Nan Feng had no doubt known somehow that they were about to get in trouble and created a diversion to lead enemies astray. He was the only one who leapt out, so A-Zhao must still be inside the collapsed house. After making sure the guoshi and the lady in black were indeed gone, Xie Lian dragged San Lang out of their hiding and called out, “A-Zhao are you still alive? Are you hurt anywhere?” A moment later, a sulky voice came from under the ruins, “…I’m fine.” Xie Lian was relieved. “Thank goodness.” Although Xie Lian trusted in Nan Feng’s ability to control the crash and would no doubt leave enough space for A-Zhao to stay safe, it was still more reassuring to see it with his own eyes. He raised one of the rotten beams with one hand, and after a moment A-Zhou emerged from under, covered in dust from head to toe. He patted himself down a bit and returned to his stoic expression. “Now there’s only three of us left,” Xie Lian said. “Nan Feng is running a diversion so we must move faster. Do you know where we can find the ShanYue fern, A-Zhao?” The young man shook his head and said, “Sorry. I only know where the fortress was, but I’ve never been here before, so I don’t know where the fern can be found.” San Lang spoke up, “They say the ShanYue fern prefers shade, is small, its roots thin but leaves large, like a heart-shaped peach. Why don’t you search near a large building?” “A large building?” Xie Lian contemplated. If they were talking big, there was no building larger than the palace. In the legend, it was after the festivities that the queen picked a ShanYue leaf, which could mean the fern grew in the palace grounds. The three moved their gaze to afar, and to the centre of the fortress was indeed a palace built of brick and wood. From the distance, the palace had a grandiose aura, but from a closer look, it was not in much better shape than the dilapidated houses on the streets. Through the palace gates was a massive garden; perhaps in the past it wasn’t a garden but a palace square, but with years of neglect, weeds had flourished and spread. Indeed, it wasn’t sand beneath their feet but mud. This was most likely the last sign of an oasis that once was; ShanYue could very well be growing amongst all the other plants. “Let’s not waste time,” Xie Lian said, “We only have twenty-four hours, but be careful of the scorpion snakes.” A-Zhao and San Lang both hummed in acknowledgement and lowered their heads to start searching through the plants. As they rummaged, it suddenly came to Xie Lian that if the Witch of BanYue could control scorpion snakes, there should be an abundance of them slithering about in her territory. Ever since they entered the fortress they had not seen a single snake. He straightened up and was about to speak when one of his hands felt up a long object. Looking down again, he found that it was a human leg. Ch.23: Shortened Distance; Adrift in Sandstorms 4 “WAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Xie Lian took his hand back and was speechless. It came to him that every time he saw or touched anything thrilling in the dark, it was always the other party that’d scream first while he remained silent. But shouldn’t it be him the one who should be the most scared? The plants in this garden were tall and thick; it was someone who was already hiding and crawling in the weeds whose leg Xie Lian felt. The moment they touched the leg recoiled and the weeds in front of him bustled, and someone called out, “Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! Gege, it’s me!” Xie Lian scrutinized the wild grass and saw that the one emerged crying “Don’t hit me!” was the thick browed large eyed Tian Sheng. The boy in turn saw that Xie Lian recognized himself and sighed a breath in relief. Xie Lian on the other hand wasn’t relieved, but became even more alert, and raised his good arm in a defensive stance. In circumstances like these, it was usually more likely that this was an illusion created by something evil. “Weren’t you with the others back at the desert? How are you here? Are you really Tian Sheng?” Tian Sheng explained hurriedly, “It’s me! I’m the real thing! I’m not the only one; three other uncles also came. They’re just inside. Look if you don’t believe me!” He pointed towards inside the palace, and sure enough, three men came running out and they were indeed the men from the caravan. When they saw Xie Lian they froze in their steps and looked awkward. Xie Lian puffed a breath before finally rising to his feet and dusted his white sleeves, “What’s going on?” The merchants looked at each other and no one made any noise. It was Tian Sheng who spoke up after an awkward silence, “…Gege, after you guys left, Uncle Zheng’s pain flared and was really miserable. We didn’t know how much longer to expect you to return and were afraid that you guys might’ve gotten lost. A-Zhao-ge said to go straight to get to the Kingdom of BanYue, so we thought the more hands to help the better so…” So what he really meant is the merchants regretted letting them go after all. They were afraid that Xie Lian would rob them of their guide after finding the ShanYue ferm for themselves, so they sent people to come follow after them. Xie Lian imagined the Fu Yao couldn’t hold them back, and was probably too lazy to hold them back. It was impossible to stop stubborn people who refused to listen to reason. Xie Lian felt rather exasperated, “You’re all too reckless. Who knows what there might be, and what might happen in a fortress like this and you still came?” Tian Sheng himself knew that what they’d done made it obvious they didn’t trust Xie Lian and felt bad, so he didn’t make a sound while hiding in the weeds earlier, as awkward as it was. “Sorry, this concerned a man’s life and we couldn’t sit still, so…” No matter. This was a life and death situation and to be wary was entirely natural. To go so far in danger for an antidote also proved them to be worthy companions. Xie Lian couldn’t berate them for this and sighed. “If you didn’t bump into anything weird when entering the territory then it’s your good fortune. But how did you know to come to the palace to search for the ShanYue fern?” Tian Sheng scratched his head and replied, “We didn’t know where to start, but in the story the red clothed gege told it was the queen who picked the leaves, right? The queen couldn’t possibly leave the palace grounds, so I thought we’d come and try our luck.” Well this kid’s mind could certain spin, and it spun right on target, Xie Lian thought. Just then, San Lang spoke up from the side, “I found it.” Xie Lian turned to see San Lang strode with his lithe long legs towards him. In his hands was a few turquoise leaves still with roots attached at the stems. The leaves were about the size of a baby’s palm, in the shape of peaches, slightly pointy at the ends, and its roots thin and tiny. Without A-Zhao to confirm, Xie Lian knew without a doubt that it must be the ShanYue fern. Without waiting for Xie Lian to say a word, San Lang grabbed onto his wounded hand and lifted it. The hand that had been pricked was originally frighteningly swollen, but after San Lang had sucked out poison from the wound, the swelling had gone down significantly despite it not fully cleaned out of venom. With Xie Lian’s wrist in one hand and the ShanYue fern in the other, San Lang closed his palm on the plant, and in a second when he reopened his palm, the fern had been crushed into powder without him appearing to have exerted any force. San Lang gently and firmly rubbed the powder onto Xie Lian’s hand, and he could feel strings of coolness and relief on his skin. “Thanks, San Lang.” Xie Lian said. San Lang didn’t respond however, and after applying the powder he let go of Xie Lian’s hand. Xie Lian couldn’t help but think his attitude and this weird atmosphere between the two of them was really peculiar, but didn’t know how to ask about it without sounding weird. This wasn’t something anyone else would notice either and couldn’t possibly understand. “Gege,are you feeling better? Is the herb working?” Tian Sheng asked anxiously. Xie Lian snapped out of it and replied, “Much better. It should be the right herb.” Hearing this, everyone became excited, “Hurry! Let’s find more!” Soon, A-Zhao also raised a handful of leaves crying, “There’s more here!” The ShanYue leaves in A-Zhao’s hands were much bigger and fuller than the small, pitiful one San Lang had used earlier, but the shape and marks were all correct, so everyone crowded over and happily exclaimed: “There’s an entire field here!” “So many!” “Pick lots! Let’s pick a bunch! Do you think we can sell this?” The merchants were busy picking the herbs noisily, and Xie Lian turned his head over, examined his hand for a moment, then tried to start a conversation with San Lang, “You searched the same area they’re at now before, right? Didn’t you find any at the time?” It was obvious Xie Lian was trying to force a conversation, and after having asked the question, he himself felt rather pathetic. But San Lang shook his head, “You shouldn’t use the ferns over there.” “Why? Xie Lian was curious. Before San Lang could answer, they heard someone scream “GO AWAY!” Everyone stopped, their movements halting. “Who said that? Who’s screaming?” “It wasn’t me?” “It wasn’t me either…” Then they heard that sharp voice again, “Go away! You’re stepping on me…” Only then did the group notice – the voice came from next to their feet! In a flash, the crowd dispersed from that small field of fern. Seeing this, Xie Lian walked over. He was used to being the one in the lead when it comes to those things. He approached the bush where the shrieking came from and stripped away the thick weeds. Everyone’s breathing hitched. Under the weeds, in the mud, was a man’s face. In a field such as this, a live human being was buried in the mud with only a face showing on the surface! It was a nightmarish picture, and a couple of merchants held onto each and screamed. Xie Lian comforted them in a skilled and practiced manner, “Don’t panic. Everyone calm down. It’s only a face, nothing extraordinary. We all have faces, no?” That face chuckled, “Oh, did I scare you? Sigh. I frequently scare myself too.” After reassuring the others, Xie Lian half crouched down and examined this face in the mud. It’s a man’s face without a doubt; quite flat when he wasn’t not smiling, but full of wrinkles when he did. Xie Lian couldn’t tell whether if he was old or young, and couldn’t say whether if he was handsome or not. He couldn’t make much out of this face, so he simply asked directly, “Who are you?” The face in the mud asked back, “Who are you?” “We’re merchants passing through.” Xie Lian replied. The mud face breathed a long sigh, “Merchant passersby. I used to be part of a caravan too, but that was fifty-sixty years ago.” The situation just became freakier. Was a man buried in the grounds of an old fortress ruin for over fifty to sixty years still human? One of the merchants shakily asked in trepidation, “Then… then.. How did a senior like yourself… come… here?” The mud face cleared his throat and screwed up his face. “I… I was captured by the BanYue soldiers. I accidentally entered the city. They caught me and buried me here, and made me the fertilizer for their ShanYue ferns…” No wonder the herbs in their hands were big and full! They were fed with live humans! The merchants immediately dropped all the plants in their hands, feeling as though they were touching corpses. Xie Lian couldn’t help but glance at his hand too, but heard San Lang say, “That one was fine.” It dawned on Xie Lian. That was why even though San Lang had looked through this field earlier, he left it to pick a small, almost withered fern from elsewhere. He probably already saw what was in the soil but ignored the face completely. The herb he applied on Xie Lian’s hand was one he found in an area much more remote but clean of corruption. “San Lang was considerate and careful, thank you, truly.” Xie Lian said. San Lang shook his head but his face was still gloomy. Ever since Xie Lian had gotten stung by the scorpion snake, San Lang had behaved like this. A couple days ago it was all gege this, gege that, but now he barely called him gege anymore. When they first met, San Lang had avoided his touch and seemed wary of contact with Xie Lian, but that seemed to have gone away after spending so much time together. Now, besides sucking poison and applying herbs, San Lang was once again avoiding touching him, and that made Xie Lian feel unsettled. Just then, the mud face began to speak again, “I haven’t seen real people in so many years. Can… can you come closer and let me see you all properly?” The merchants all looked at each other, everyone thinking they best not do what he asked. After a while, seeing no one stepped forward, the mud face muttered, “What? What. You don’t want to? Sigh… what a shame…” “Why is it a shame?” Xie Lian turned over and asked. “There’s something that’s been bothering me ever since you all arrived,” The mud face said, “So I wanted to confirm with my own two eyes. I want to see each and everyone of you clearly to make sure.” “To make sure of what?” Xie Lian pressed. The mud face replied, “There’s someone amongst you I’ve seen before… fifty to sixty years ago.” A shiver went down everyone’s back and made their hairs stand. No mortal in present company should be aged over fifty. That means whoever this person was that was here then was not human. Xie Lian gave a sweeping look across everyone there, from A-Zhao to Tian Sheng. Some in shock, some in fear, some shaking in anxiety, some speechless and confused. Everyone’s reaction was normal and within reason. If one must pinpoint the odd one out, it’d be San Lang. But for him, no reaction was probably the normal reaction. Xie Lian turned back to the mud face, “Who is this person you speak of?” The face muscles of that mud face twitched and it gave an exceedingly freaky smile, as if it was using its all to make itself look more reliable, but it couldn’t fully conceal the sinister smirk hiding beneath. He beckoned mysteriously, “You… come closer, and I’ll tell you.” Xie Lian believed him eighty percent the first time the mud face asked. The second time Xie Lian was less than inclined to. Who knows if this monster was only luring them closer before committing some evil deed? There was no way Xie Lian would pay attention to the likes of him. Xie Lian pushed himself off the ground about to walk away before the mud face raised his voice, “Do you really not want to know who it is? He will kill all of you.” Ch.24: Dallying HuaLian; Night-Fall in Sinner’s Pit The more the mud face tried to entice them, the more Xie Lian became alarmed. “Everyone stand back, don’t go near him, and don’t listen to a single word he says.” The crowd broke up and hurriedly moved away. The mud face continued to chuckle, “There’s no need to be so mean. I’m a human too, I won’t hurt you.” ‘Oh you’re mistaken, you look nothing like a human!’ Xie Lian thought. Just then, one of the merchants suddenly snuck back to the field, perhaps thinking he must still bring back some herbs for the wounded. He bent down to pick up the bushel of ferns he dropped in fright earlier but the mud face spun and spotted him, a glint in its spinning eyes. Oh no! Xie Lian thought, rushing towards the man, “Don’t pick that up! Come back!” But it was too late. The mud face opened its mouth and a long, blood red thing slithered out. What a long tongue! Xie Lian grabbed the merchant by his collar and backed up, but the tongue that flew out was freakishly lengthy and barged right into the merchant’s ear! Xie Lian felt the body in his hold convulse violently, the merchant’s limbs writhed nonstop, and the man let out a short agonizing scream before falling to the ground. That long tongue dug out a large chunk of something bloody from his ear and and brought it back to the mud face’s mouth. The mud face happily chewed and cackled, his laugh so disturbingly loud it filled the entire palace grounds. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!! SO GOOD SO GOOD SO DELICIOUS SO DELICIOUS SO DELICIOUS!! I WAS SO HUNGRY, SO HUNGRY!” His voice was sharp and shrill, both eyeballs bulging and bloodshot, horrid and obnoxious. This man who had been buried for over fifty years in the grounds of an evil-filled kingdom had already been moulded into its soil and became something other than human. Xie Lian loosened his hold on the deceased merchant, his entire arm shaking. He was about to attack the repulsive monster when the mud face screamed again, “GENERAL! GENERAL! THEY’RE HERE! THEY’RE HERE!” A deafening cry more savage than beasts blared in the distance. A dark shadow dropped from the sky, and landed heavily in front of Xie Lian. The entire palace grounds quaked in its landing. When it slowly stood up, the crowd was jailed in its enormous shadow. This ‘man’ was gigantic. His face was as grim as steel, his expression ferocious and turbulent, like the face of a beast. A thin layer of armour draped from his shoulders and reached down at least nine feet. Rather than a man, one could say he’s more like a walking wolf. Behind him, more and more similar forms appeared. One, two, three… over ten of these ‘men’ jumped off the roofs of the palace and surrounded them. Each one of these ‘men’ were large like horses, built like beasts, and carried a sharp teeth-filled mace on their shoulders. They might as well be werewolves. When they encircled around the intruders in the garden, it was as if a large steel cage had fallen upon them. They were the soldiers of BanYue! These soldiers emanated a black aura, undoubtedly no longer alive. Xie Lian was tense, Ruoye in position ready to attack. However, when those BanYue soldiers saw them they didn’t rush in to kill. Instead they raised their heads and roared in crazed laughter, and howled in a foreign language. The sound of their words were ghastly, guttural and heavy in tongue rolling. It was the language of BanYue. Although it had been two hundred years and Xie Lian had pretty much forgotten the language, he did review it with San Lang earlier in the General’s Tomb, and the words uttered by those soldiers were loud, simple and vulgar, so they weren’t difficult to understand. He heard the soldiers call the first man ‘general’, their conversations filled with words such as ‘take them away’ and ‘won’t kill for now’, and Xie Lian took a deep breath to force himself to relax. He said in a low voice, “Everyone, don’t panic. These BanYue soldiers won’t kill us for now. It seems they want to take us somewhere else. Don’t do anything rash, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to fight them. We’ll figure this out as we go.” It was clear that those soldiers would be hard to fight, each of them thicker than the next; even with Ruoye in hand, suffocating one would probably take a lot out of him, nevermind ten. With mortals with him, Xie Lian couldn’t do anything bold and could only remain vigilant and protect them the best he could. San Lang didn’t say anything, and the others had already lost all nerves. Even if they want to do anything rash, they wouldn’t know how, and could only nod tearfully. Next to them, the mud face screamed again, “General! General! Please let me out! I detained your enemies, let me go home! I want to go home!” Seeing the BanYue soldiers, the mud face became hysterical, screaming and crying, blabbering nonsense, with some BanYue words mixed in, no doubt learned from the many years he spent buried here. The massive nine feet man they called ‘general’ seemed to have found the squirming mud face deeply disgusting, and swung his mace towards him, smashing his face into a bloody mess, the teeth of his mace piercing his brains. When he pulled up his mace again, the entire body was pulled out with it, fulfilling his wish of “let me out!”. However, the body that was unearthed was not a full human body, but a chilling skeleton! The merchants screamed in fright. The mud face, having crumpled off the mace all bloody, seemed to have frozen in fear too after seeing his own body, “What’s this? WHAT’S THIS?” “It’s your body.” Xie Lian reminded him, seeing that the mud face was numbed in disbelief. This man had been buried in the desert for over fifty to sixty years; his body fertilized the ShanYue ferns and cleaned him of his flesh with only bones remaining. “How can this be?” The mud face cried, “My body isn’t like this! THIS IS NOT MY BODY!!!” His cries were trilling but Xie Lian only thought him tragic and terrifying, shook his head and turned away. Next to him, San Lang laughed mockingly, “Is it only now you’re not used to your body? What was that thing that came out of your mouth earlier? You didn’t think that odd?” The mud face countered immediately, “That wasn’t odd! It was just… a tongue a bit longer than average!” “Yea. Sure. Just that much longer, maybe. Haha.” San Lang’s voice was full of ridicule. “That’s right!” The mud face cried, “It’s only just that much longer! It’s all because I spent decades trying to live off of insects, forcing my tongue to extend. That must be how it came to be like this!” Perhaps he was indeed still human when he was first buried, and did his best to survive by swallowing insects with his tongue, but he became less human over time, and his tongue grew longer, eating more than just insects but worse things. Having been buried for so long however, he couldn’t see his own true form, and couldn’t accept nor believe that he was no longer human. The mud face kept trying to assure a non-listening audience, “There are other people who have long tongues, not just me!” San Lang laughed again. Watching him, Xie Lian could feel chills listening to him laugh. Xie Lian thought that sometimes when this boy smiles, there’s a certain cruelty hidden beneath the skin, a coldness that could rip off flesh. “Do you think you’re still human?” San Lang asked. Hearing the question, the mud face became agitated, “Of course I’m human! I’m human!” The mud face screamed and tried to move his white, boney limbs at the same time, as if trying to crawl away. Finally unearthed, he was mad with joy, cackling, “I’m going home! I’m going home! Hahahahahah–” Crack. The BanYue ‘general’ seemed to finally have had enough of this monster’s shrills, and crushed his bones in one step, killing any more of his “I’m human!”. After trampling the mud face, that ‘general’ roared to the others. Then, the BanYue soldiers all raised their maces and growled to Xie Lian’s group, and started herding them out of the palace. Xie Lian walked up front with San Lang still following close behind. Despite being ushered by ruthless BanYue soldiers, the boy’s step was still light and casual, as if taking a stroll. Xie Lian had been meaning to find opportunities to talk to him, and after a while when the BanYue soldiers went back to conversing amongst themselves, Xie Lian talked in a low voice, “Those BanYue soldiers call their leader ‘general’. I wonder who it is.” As expected, San Lang had answers to all of his questions. “When the Kingdom of BanYue fell, there was only one general. His name, translated to Hanzi1, is Ke Mo.” “Ke Mo?” Xie Lian wondered at the odd name. “That’s right.” San Lang said. “Apparently it was because he was awfully weak when he was young and was often bullied. He rallied, and built his strength training with large stone mortar plates, and got his name thus.” Xie Lian rubbed his forehead and thought, “So he’s a hulk…” San Lang continued, “Legends have it that Ke Mo was the strongest warrior in the history of BanYue, nine feet tall and extremely powerful. He was a loyal supporter of the Guoshi.” “Even after death? Is he taking us to the BanYue Guoshi now then?” Xie Lian asked. “Perhaps.” San Lang replied. If there were more BanYue soldiers there how could they escape? Who knows how Nan Feng who had lured the other two away was doing? The ShanYue fern was now in their hands, but how were they going to deliver the ferns to the wounded within twenty-four hours? All they could do now was go with the flow and adapt to any situation that arises. Xie Lian walked and mulled, and noticed that General Ke Mo had been leading them to a remote place at the far end of the fortress. When they stopped and Xie Lian looked up, a colossal wall stood before him like a giant. Their destination was the Sinner’s Pit! Although Xie Lian had lived in the BanYue area for a time, he rarely entered town, and had never gotten near the Sinner’s Pit. Seeing it this close Xie Lian’s heart started pounding. The mud yellow walls had a set of stairs along the outside, and while climbing up to the top, Xie Lian scrutinized the pit and tried to look over the depths until he finally understood why his heart was pounding. It wasn’t that this was a place of torture and cruelty, and it wasn’t his worry over everyone getting pushed in. It was feeling the palpitations of a very powerful array at work. There was a strong array drawn around the entire Sinner’s Pit, and this array only has one purpose – to prevent the fallen from ever surfacing! That meant even if a rope or a ladder was set down into the pit, whoever tried to climb up from the bottom would get cut off halfway through and get thrown right back into the bottom. Xie Lian impassively used the wall as support to climb up the stairs, but was really feeling up the make of the wall. He found that although it looked like the wall was built with mud or concrete, it was actually a much stronger stone, probably enforced with a layer of magic. When they reached the end of the stairs and came to the top of the pit, standing along the wall eaves the only word to describe the sight was ‘awe’. The entire Sinner’s Pit was formed by four encircling great walls. Each wall was about 30 feet in length, twenty feet in height, and four feet in thickness. At the very top of each wall there was nothing, neither gazebos nor railings. Within the enclosure was a deep abyss without a bottom in sight, and with the growing night, there was only blackness and a chilling smell of blood wafting in the air coming from below. No one dared looking down whilst walking along the railingless eaves that’s tens of feet above ground. After a while they could see the pole that stood in the centre, and atop the pole hung a corpse. It was the same one they spotted earlier. The corpse was of a small, black clad girl, tattered and head bowed. Xie Lian had known that this pole was used especially for hanging criminals that deserved shame and humiliation. Usually the prison guards would strip the criminals of their clothing and hang the body naked. The criminals would die from starvation or dehydration, and after death the corpse would be left to flail in the wind, burn under the sun, and rot in the rain. When the corpse had rotten completely through, it would fall into the pit itself, an exceedingly ugly sight. The corpse of that girl didn’t seem to be rotten, so it must’ve not been long since she died. Perhaps it was a local girl that the soldiers captured. To do such a vulgar thing to a young girl, Xie Lian felt thoroughly disgusted. A-Zhao, Tian Sheng and the others’ faces turned white seeing the sight, and paused in their steps, afraid to go forward. Ke Mo didn’t bother pushing them onwards either, but turned toward the pit and howled. ‘Why is he howling?’ Xie Lian wondered, but his question was soon answered. From the bottom of the dark pit came a chain of growls in response to the howling. It was like the roars of beasts, bellows of tsunamis, wails of monsters, hundreds and thousands of cries exploding in the ear. The walls trembled with the noise and made those standing on the eaves lose balance. Xie Lian could clearly hear the sounds of rocks and debris falling within. Only criminals get thrown into the Sinner’s Pit. Were those the souls of the dead answering Ke Mo? Ke Mo howled again and Xie Lian paid more attention to listen. This time, Ke Mo wasn’t making meaningless noise, and it wasn’t curses either. Instead, it was encouragement. Xie Lian was very sure he heard the words: “My brothers”. After howling, Ke Mo turned to the soldiers watching Xie Lian and the others, and roared another command. Xie Lian understood. He had said “Just throw in two and detain the rest.” The others might not have understood what was being said, but the actions of those soldiers were not hard to guess, and everyone looked pale like ghosts. Xie Lian saw that a couple couldn’t even stand up right anymore, shaking from fear, and stepped forward. He said in a small voice, “Don’t worry. If anything happens I will go forward first.” Xie Lian thought if they must all fall, then he might as well be the first one to check things out. It couldn’t be worse than venomous snakes and beasts or menacing ghosts. He couldn’t die from falling, he couldn’t die from poison, he couldn’t die from bites, and he couldn’t die from getting hit. As long as it wasn’t some pool of corpse dissolving water, his body shouldn’t be damaged too horribly. Besides, He had Ruoye with him. Even if he might not be able to escape from the array, he could still use it to catch the others that’d fall after him. Ke Mo had said “Detain the rest”, meaning that most others should be temporarily safe. After all, it wasn’t easy hunting for prey in the Gobi desert, they should rather savour them instead of eating everyone in one go! Xie Lian cleared his thoughts, but next to him, someone else couldn’t hold their breath any longer. Ever since they reached the top of the Sinner’s Pit, besides San Lang who looked like nothing was out of the ordinary, everyone else was shivering in fear, especially A-Zhao. He must’ve thought that if he was to die, he’d go down fighting. He closed his fists and charged towards Ke Mo! This charged looked as if A-Zhao was ready to bring Ke Mo down into the pit with him. Ke Mo was the bigger man, strong like a steel tower, but even he got pushed back three steps from A-Zhao’s desperation. He roared in anger, and instantly threw the young man into the dark void. Everyone started screaming, and Xie Lian called after him too. “A-Zhao!” Just then, from deep within the chasm came a roaring cheer, and sounds of violent ripping of flesh, like starving beasts fighting for their only meal. It was easy to understand from hearing the noises that the young man A-Zhao would never survive. Xie Lian did not expect this development and was dumbstruck too. He was suspicious that A-Zhao was a subordinate of the BanYue Guoshi, purposely leading travelers astray to the ruins. He was also suspicious that the one who was here ‘fifty to sixty years ago’ was him, but the young man ended up being the first to get killed. With this jump, how could he still live? Was he faking his own death? But now that they were all enslaved under the control of the BanYue soldiers, if A-Zhao was the Guoshi’ subordinate, he’d have the upper hand and could very well reveal his true identity in glory without doing anything extra and fake his own death. But why would A-Zhao rush towards Ke Mo and die a meaningless death? Xie Lian’s thoughts were in knots again, and the BanYue soldiers began searching for the next victim. Ke Mo sized them up and pointed at Tian Sheng. Another soldier then moved up and opened his palm, ready to push. Terrified, Tian Sheng fell to the ground on his knees and cried, “AH! HELP! DON’T TAKE ME! I’M…” Without anymore time to think, Xie Lian stepped forward and said using BanYuenese, “Hold on, General.” Ke Mo was shocked to hear the words from Xie Lian’s mouth and waved his hand, stopping the soldiers. “You know how to speak our tongue? Where are you from?” “I’m from the Midlands.” Xie Lian replied. He wouldn’t have minded lying and say he was also a citizen of BanYue, but with how rusty his fluency was there was no way he could keep up the lie if he conversed too much. Besides, it was also obvious from his looks that he was a Midlander. Ke Mo’s question was only from simple confusion. The people of BanYue also detests liars more than anything, if Xie Lian was found out the results would be worse. “Midlands?” Ke Mo questioned, “Descendants of YongAn?” “No.” Xie Lian replied, “The Kingdom of YongAn had long since fallen. There’s no more YongAn now.” But, to those of BanYue, all those who came from the Midlands were pretty much the same. They were all relatives of the descendants of YongAn. They were annihilated by the army of YongAn, so the moment he heard where Xie Lian was from, Ke Mo’s black face immediately flashed with rage, and many of the BanYue soldiers also started growling, cursing vulgarly at him. It wasn’t much more than “vile Midlanders!” and “throw him down”, and Xie Lian couldn’t care less. Ke Mo demanded, “Our kingdom had disappeared in the Gobi for over two hundred years. You are not of our people, why do you know our tongue? Who are you?” Xie Lian couldn’t help but steal a glance at the calm boy behind him, mentally hoping that if his lies fall apart later, maybe he could shamelessly ask San Lang to save him. He cleared his throat and was ready to start gabbering nonsense when just then, another series of enraged growls sounded from below. It seemed that whatever it was down in the pit had finished ripping apart A-Zhao but was still hungry for more, using their cries to convey their thirst for fresh blood. Ke Mo waved his hand again, ready to have Tian Sheng thrown over, so Xie Lian spoke up, “General, please take me first.” Ke Mo had never heard anyone request to go first and his eyes bulged like bells. He asked in disbelief, “You go first? Why??” Xie Lian couldn’t tell him the truth and say because he wasn’t scared. He thought for a second and came up with a logical answer, “General, those are innocent merchants. There’s even a child!” Ke Mo sneered, “When your army annihilated my kingdom, did you not think we also had innocent merchants and children?” The fall of the Kingdom of BanYue was over two hundred years ago and dynasties in YongAn had changed already, but they were the dead whose time had stopped, and hatred and grudges would not fade with the change in dynasties. Ke Mo continued, “You’re very suspicious, I will need to question you. You are not going down. Throw in another one!” There was no helping it. Xie Lian was ready to jump if all else fails anyway. Behind him San Lang stepped forward. Xie Lian’s heart lurched and turned around. With his arms crossed, the boy was nonchalantly looking over the dark, bottomless pit with an air of intrigue. This wasn’t a good sign, and Xie Lian called out, “San Lang?” Hearing his call, San Lang looked over and smiled softly, “It’s fine.” San Lang took another step forward and was teetering dangerously on the edge. Both Xie Lian’s head and heart started pounding, and he called again, “Wait, San Lang, don’t move!” At such height at the brink, the boy’s red clothes danced in the night breeze. San Lang glanced at him again with a smile, “Don’t be scared.” “You… Come back here first. Come back here and I won’t be scared.” Xie Lian said. “Don’t worry, I’m just going to leave for a bit. We’ll see each other again soon.” San Lang said. “Don’t–” Before he finished, the boy took another step forward, his arms still crossed, then with a light leap, he disappeared into the abyss. The moment he jumped, Ruoye shot out from Xie Lian’s wrist, a stream of white flash trying to grab hold of the boy’s form. Yet the drop was too swift, and Ruoye returned without even a sleeve corner. Xie Lian fell to his knees at the edge of the wall and yelled, “SAN LANG!!!” No response. No noise. After the boy jumped there was not a single noise! Next to him, many of the BanYue soldiers started yelling instead, all dumbfounded and bewildered. What was with today? In the past they had to catch their prey and throw them into the pit before they fall, but tonight their prey took turns fighting to jump down themselves, and when held back, they jump anyway?? General Ke Mo yelled to get his soldiers under control. As for Xie Lian, when he saw Ruoye didn’t catch San Lang, he didn’t take the time to think before taking a leap off the wall himself. But when his body was still in midair, he felt his collar tighten, and he stayed in midair. Turns out when General Ke Mo saw he also jumped, he stretched out his arm and nabbed Xie Lian by the collar and prevented his fall. ‘If you want to join me, that’s fine too!’ Xie Lian thought, and like a snake, Ruoye shot out once more and wrapped itself up the arm of Ke Mo, and roped his body whole. Ke Mo saw that white silk band was unpredictably deadly and spirited, contorted his face and popped his veins, his muscles instantly burst in size, trying to rip apart the fabric tying him down. Xie Lian was at a standstill with Ke Mo when he saw something peculiar from the corners of his eyes. The corpse that was hung on the pole suddenly jerked, and raised her head slightly. The band of BanYue soldiers also saw the corpse move and started yelling, swinging their maces to attack it. But the black clad girl somehow un-tied herself and hopped off the pole, then sped over towards the them. She was like a black wind blowing through the eaves, fast and wicked. The soldiers couldn’t maintain their balance and soon were swept into the Sinner’s Pit one by one, screaming. Enraged, Ke Mo screamed all sorts of vulgarities at her, many of which were street slangs that Xie Lian couldn’t understand well, but he did understand the first words: “It’s that bitch again!” The swearing ceased in the next moment because Xie Lian suddenly pulled, and brought Ke Mo to fall into the pit together. Into the inescapable Sinner’s Pit! Whilst falling, Ke Mo roared with such violence, killing Xie Lian’s eardrums, he had to call Ruoye back and gave Ke Mo a kick to get the general further away from himself and protect his ears. Then he urged Ruoye to fly upwards to try and grab hold of anything that can prevent him from falling further, or if anything, grab hold of something so that when he falls it wouldn’t be too painful. But the Sinner’s Pit was not built to save; and with such a powerful array at work, there was nothing Xie Lian could find to hold. He thought he was going to crater and flatten like a pancake like many times before when suddenly, in the darkness, there was a flash of silver. The next moment, a pair of hands lightly caught him. Whoever it was caught him perfectly, as if this person was made just to catch him at the bottom. With a hand across his back to grasp his shoulders, another under his knees to support his weight, the dreadful gravity of the fall was dissolved to nothing. Still dazed and confounded from falling at such a height, Xie Lian unconsciously held on tight to that person’s shoulders and called, “San Lang?” The pit was filled with darkness, nothing could be seen, including the person. But Xie Lian still called that name. The other didn’t respond so Xie Lian patted and squeezed the chest and shoulders just to make sure. “San Lang, is that you?” Maybe it was because here at the bottom of the pit the stench of blood was heavy and disorienting, Xie Lian dazedly continued to feel up the person holding him, until he reached a strong, hard adam’s apple. He came to in shock and immediately reprimanded himself, pulling his hands back. What was he doing?? “It’s San Lang, right? Are you alright? Are you hurt?” It took a moment before he heard the boy’s low voice from somewhere very close to him, “I’m fine.” For some reason, Xie Lian felt this voice was curiously different than before.
1.Hanzi is the chinese equivalent of Kanji, recognized as the formal chinese character writing but originated from YongAn. ↩ Ch.25: Dallying HuaLian; Night-Fall in Sinner’s Pit 2 “San Lang, are you really alright? Put me down.” Xie Lian said. “No.” San Lang replied. Xie Lian was taken aback by the response. What’s going on? Was there something on the ground? That pair of arms were still holding him tightly without any intention of letting him go. Xie Lian was going to raise his hand and gently push himself away, but just as he laid his hand on San Lang’s chest, he abruptly remembered how he was randomly touching him all over just now, even feeling up his adam’s apple, and quietly withdrew his hand again. It’s been hundreds of years since the last time Xie Lian cared to learn what ‘awkward’ meant, but now there was a voice in his head telling him that he better stay still and stay decent. Just then, an enraged, sorrowful wail roared from the other side of the pit, and a voice cried, “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?” Those words were shouted in BanYuenese, and hearing the voice, it was General Ke Mo that Xie Lian had dragged down with him. Since he was already dead, the fall wouldn’t have killed him, only blasting a human crater in the ground when he crashed. But when he climbed up from his hole, he started screaming, “What’s going on? My brothers, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” When he howled into the pit earlier from the top of the wall, there were hundreds and thousands of voices that answered his call, as if the pit was filled to the brim with angry, menacing ghosts. But right then and there, other than Ke Mo’s cries, Xie Lian could only hear dead silence. There wasn’t even any sounds of breathing or heartbeat from the San Lang who’s next to him. Xie Lian’s breathing hitched, suddenly realizing what was amiss. That’s right. Even though Xie Lian was pressed against San Lang, he couldn’t detect any sounds of his heart beating or his breathing! Ke Mo roared, “WHO KILLED YOU? WHO KILLED ALL OF YOU!!!” When A-Zhao first fell, there were still horrifying sounds of flesh being ripped apart, but after San Lang jumped, there were no more sounds. Who else could it be? Ke Mo himself must have realized this, and shouted towards them, “Killing my soldiers, you’re dead! I’m gonna kill you!” Although he couldn’t see, Xie Lian could still sense danger rapidly approaching, and jerked his body, “San Lang, watch out!” “Don’t worry about him.” San Lang said, still holding him tight. He made a small sidestep and spun around. In the dark, Xie Lian heard a series of broken clanking sounds, clear and intense, swishing here and there. Ke Mo rushed to capture them but missed the first time, and turned around to attack again, but San Lang also easily side stepped again and avoided him. Xie Lian’s arms involuntarily climbed up San Lang’s chest again and held on tight to his shoulders, unconsciously clutching his clothes. But the arms carrying him were steady, even with all the spinning and side stepping, the hold was still strong and secure. Just, Xie Lian could feel something cold and hard on those arms that would poke at him every so often, and was a little confused. In the endless blackness, streaks of silver shimmers flashed everywhere, and sounds of a sharp metal inflicting wounds were accompanied by Ke Mo’s angry roars. It was obvious that BanYue General is heavily wounded by now, but as tough as he was, he refused to admit defeat, and once again rushed towards them. Xie Lian called out, “Ruoye!” The silk band answered his call and shot out, a large ‘snap’ sounded in the air, and Ke Mo seemed to have fallen over from getting smacked by Ruoye. Ke Mo shouted from the ground, “You two! Two against one! Unfair!” ‘You were gonna kill us, who cares if it’s two against two against one, or if it’s fair or unfair? Saving my life is more important, I’ll kill you dead first.’ Xie Lian thought. San Lang on the other hand, only sneered, “Even on one on one you won’t win. You don’t have to fight.” The last line was directed to Xie Lian, and the words had none of the gibe tones. “Alright.” Xie Lian responded, but also prompted, “San Lang, why don’t you put me down. I’ll be in your way like this.” “You’re not in the way. Don’t come down.” San Lang said. “Why can’t I come down” Xie Lian asked curiously. This guy couldn’t possibly enjoy fighting while carrying someone? San Lang’s answer only had two words: “It’s dirty.” “…” Xie Lian had never imagined that to be the answer, in such seriousness too, and thought it was kind of funny, but it also made him feel kind of strange, the feeling hard to describe, only that his heart was warm. “You can’t possibly keep holding me like this?” “I could.” San Lang replied. Xie Lian was only joking, but San Lang’s words had no trace of half heartedness, and suddenly Xie Lian didn’t know what to say. In the time they were talking, Ke Mo had never ceased to attack. Both of San Lang’s hands were firmly holding him, but something else was keeping Ke Mo at bay, whipping him to defeat. He shouted while slowly backing off, “That bitch made you two…” He hadn’t finished his words before a large boom sounded off, and the massive man fell to the ground, no longer able to stand. Xie Lian hurriedly said, “San Lang, don’t kill him! We’ll still need to question him if we want to get out of here.” San Lang heeded his words and stopped. “I wasn’t planning on killing him anyway, otherwise he wouldn’t have lasted til now.” A dead silence ensued anew in the Sinner’s Pit. After a moment, Xie Lian asked, “San Lang, did you do all of this down here?” Even if nothing was visible in the dark, with such an overpowering stench of blood and bloodlust covering the pit, plus the enraged madness of Ke Mo, it was obvious what had happened down here. It was another momentary silence before Xie Lian heard San Lang’s response. “Yes.” He said. It was an expected answer. Xie Lian sighed, “How should I say this…” Xie Lian chewed on his words and organized his thoughts before speaking up in a serious tone, “San Lang, next time you see a pit like this, don’t just jump in randomly. I couldn’t even stop you. Really, I didn’t know what to do.” San Lang didn’t seem to expect this kind of response and let out a confused “eh?” When he spoke again, he sounded a bit odd, “You don’t want to ask anything else?” “What else do you want me to ask?” Xie Lian said. “For example, whether if I’m human.” San Lang replied. Xie Lian rubbed his forehead, “Hmm. I don’t think that’s necessary.” “Is it not?” “Is it? It’s not important whether if you’re human or not.” Xie Lian said. “Oh?” Xie Lian crossed his arms while in San Lang’s arms and said, “Relationships should depend on chance and whether if we’re on the same wavelength, not on identity. If I like you, you can be a beggar and I’ll still like you. If I dislike you, you can be the emperor and I’ll still dislike you. Shouldn’t it be like that? It’s simple logic. So, whether if you’re human is irrelevant.” San Lang laughed out loud, “Yea. You’re very right.” “Right?” Xie Lian said, laughing along too. But the more he laughed the more he felt something was off, and it came to him suddenly. He was still letting San Lang carry him, and the scary thing was, he had gotten used to being in this position without realizing it! What kind of situation was this?? Xie Lian cleared his throat quietly and said, “Um, San Lang. We can talk about that later. How about you put me down first?” San Lang seemed to have chuckled and said, “Hold on.” He carried Xie Lian and walked on for a bit before gently letting him down. Touching ground, Xie Lian could feel hard, flat ground. “Thanks!” San Lang made no gestures in response, and after thanking him, Xie Lian looked to the sky. Above them the navy blue sky hung a crescent moon, bright and beautiful. Just that, watching the view from a square frame made it feel like they’re a frog in a well. Xie Lian commanded Ruoye to try and reach for the top, but expectedly it was stopped halfway as if it bumped into an invisible wall, and Ruoye rebounded, unable to go higher. “There’s an array drawn around the Sinner’s Pit.” San Lang said. “I know, but I wanted to try anyway.” Xie Lian said, “I couldn’t give up until I’ve tried, you know. I wonder how the others are up there. Would the girl in black also sweep them down?” He retold of how the girl hung on the pole suddenly came alive and swept all the BanYue soldiers down into the pit to San Lang, and while talking he stepped on something on the ground, appearing to be an arm, and Xie Lian almost tripped. He steadied himself immediately, but San Lang still reached out and helped to support him, chiding, “Be careful.” “I told you the ground was dirty,” San Lang added nonchalantly. Xie Lian now understood what “dirty” meant, and said, “Don’t worry. I want to ignite a palm torch; see what’s happened down here and go from there.” San Lang didn’t say anything. Just then, from afar, Ke Mo’s cold voice cried again, “You two doing the deeds of that bitch, all of the thousands of dead souls of this kingdom will curse you. CURSE YOU!” Xie Lian turned towards Ke Mo and asked using BanYuenese, “General Ke Mo, who is that … that person you speak of?” Ke Mo responded with hatred, “Why pretend to ask? That wicked witch!” “Is it the woman cultivator roaming in the city streets?” Ke Mo spat angrily on the ground, and Xie Lian took that as a yes. He continued to question, “Weren’t you a loyal supporter of the BanYue Guoshi?” Ke Mo was provoked by his words and yelled, “I, KE MO, WILL NEVER AGAIN BE LOYAL TO HER! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THAT BITCH!!!” Afterwards he started uttering a string of curses, inflamed and hysterical, his words rapid and incomprehensible, and Xie Lian blanked, unable to follow. He looked to San Lang and quietly called, “San Lang, San Lang.” San Lang translated, “He’s cursing. He said that woman betrayed his country, opened the fortress gates and let in YongAn army to slaughter the city. She’s got the blood of her people on her hands, and his brothers whom she pushed into this pit. He will hang her dead a thousand times. Ten thousand times.” “Wait, hold on!” Xie Lian quickly exclaimed. How could this be? There were two things that didn’t match! First, ‘the woman cultivator roaming in the city streets’ Xie Lian spoke of earlier was supposed to be the lady in white. But now, Ke Mo continuously called the BanYue Guoshi ‘bitch’, saying she pushed his brothers into the Sinner’s Pit, and earlier when the black clad girl swept the soldiers into the pit, Ke Mo swore and cursed her the same thing. Plus the last bit, “to hang her dead a thousand times” – Xie Lian suddenly realized that they weren possibly not talking about the same person. Second, it was BanYue Guoshi who had betrayed the Kingdom of BanYue?! Xie Lian interrupted Ke Mo, “General, the BanYue Guoshi you speak of, was it the girl in black hung on the pole of the Sinner’s Pit?” “WHO ELSE COULD IT BE IF NOT HER?” Ke Mo shouted. “…” The scrawny, corpse like little girl in black was the real Guoshi of BanYue! But if that’s the case, who was the lady cultivator and her black clad companion, strolling through the streets looking to kill them? The girl in black obviously had unmeasurable powers, and could easily sweep dozens of hostile BanYue soldiers off the wall, so why was she hung above the Sinner’s Pit? Ch.26: Dallying HuaLian; Night-Fall in Sinner’s Pit 3 The story was getting more complex and convoluted, Xie Lian thought, and asked, “General, I want to ask…” “Don’t ask anymore!” Ke Mo said instead, “You killed my soldiers, what more would you want to know? I won’t answer. Now fight me!” “I killed them. He didn’t do anything,” San Lang said, “You can answer his questions, and fight me.” Well that was irrefutable logic. Ke Mo yelled angrily, “You’re both taking orders from her, there is no difference!” Xie Lian immediately said, “General Ke Mo, I think you’ve mistaken something. We’ve traveled across the Gobi desert to get rid of the Guoshi of BanYue, how can we be the helpers she sent for?” Hearing that Xie Lian was actually there to destroy the Guoshi, Ke Mo fell silent. He then asked, “If you weren’t helping her, then why did you kill my soldiers?” Xie Lian explained, “Isn’t it because you were throwing us into the pit and we had to defend ourselves?” Ke Mo yelled angrily, “Nonsense! I didn’t throw any one of you! I even caught you! You all jumped down yourselves!!” “Yes yes yes, we were jumping into the pit ourselves. General, we’re all trapped at the bottom of this pit right now, let’s just call it a truce for now, alright? Why did that BanYue Guoshi open the fortress gates to let the enemies in?” As if Ke Mo would listen to him reason, and he said, unrelenting, “The two of you are sly and unjust, fighting me two on one.” Xie Lian felt a little exasperated, “I only smacked you once. I didn’t do much.” He didn’t mind being called sly or unjust. If the situation called for it, nevermind two on one, he could bring a hundred to beat one down, who cared about one on one. But earlier, San Lang obviously had the upper hand even while carrying him, and told Xie Lian not to fight too. Ke Mo seemed to think he could’ve won if it had been just him and San Lang though, and Xie Lian felt bad for him. Ke Mo was incredibly uncooperative, but Xie Lian wasn’t worried. Ke Mo seemed to be the type that could easily be made to spill his beans, and they’ve got time, not a problem. San Lang on the other hand, didn’t have the same patience, and lazily said, “You better answer his questions, for the sake of your soldiers.” “You already killed them,” Ke Mo said, “It’s pointless using them to threaten me.” “They are dead, but their corpses are still around.” San Lang replied. Ke Mo became alarmed, unable to remain sprawled on the ground anymore, “What are you going to do?” San Lang smirked, “That depends on what you want to do.” Just by his voice, Xie Lian could imagine San Lang cocking his eye, “Do you want their next lives to be fortuitous or be reborn as a pool of blood?” Ke Mo stopped, but soon understood what San Lang meant, and exploded, “YOU?!” The people of BanYue took death and funerals extremely seriously. They believed that however the deceased looked at their death will be how they shall be reborn. For instance, if the deceased was missing an arm, then they shall be reborn handicapped. If the corpses in this pit were to be destroyed, then what would their rebirths be like? General Ke Mo was a purebred BanYuenese and couldn’t help but be afraid. As expected, on the other side of the dark pit, Ke Mo gritted his teeth soundly in rage, but finally relented helplessly, “Don’t touch their bodies. They were good, brave soldiers. It was already a tragedy to be trapped in the pit for so many years. I don’t know if being killed by you is a blessing or not, but I won’t have their corpses be humiliated.” He paused and asked, “Are you really here to kill Ban Yue?” Xie Lian replied warmly, “No lie. The more we know the more chance we’ll have at winning. Not much is known about the Guoshi of BanYue on the outside, we have no idea how to fight her. But you have worked under her before in the past, perhaps you can enlighten some things for us?” Maybe it was because they shared the same enemy - the Guoshi of BanYue - that a sort of bond was developed, or perhaps in an inescapable chasm, atop the dead bodies of his soldiers, Ke Mo became disheartened, but whatever it may be, the general ceased the will to attack them. “You don’t know why she opened the gates? Because she’s against us! She hates us! She hates the Kingdom of BanYue!” “What do you mean she hates the Kingdom of BanYue? Isn’t BanYue Guoshi a citizen of BanYue?” Xie Lian asked. “Yes, but not entirely.” Ke Mo replied, “She’s a mix blood. The other half is from YongAn!” “Ah…” Turns out, that BanYue Guoshi was born of a BanYue woman and a YongAn man. Living on the border with endless hatred and skirmishes, things were difficult, and YongAn man finally had had enough and moved away from the border back to YongAn. Although it was an amicable divorce, the BanYue woman soon passed away from heartache. They left behind a child of six to seven years in age; without any guardians, the child wandered the streets, hungry and desperate. The couple had received cold shoulders everywhere when they were around, and now their daughter too, received contempt wherever she went. The people of BanYue were tall and buff, and saw beauty in strength and liveliness, but this girl was born of mixed blood, and appeared small and scrawny amongst the BanYue children. She grew up being bullied, and became more and more sullen. The BanYue children wouldn’t play with her, but there were some YongAn children who did pay attention to her. When this little mixed blood was about ten something, a riot broke out, and the two armies fought. That battle took many lives, and afterwards, that little mixed blood disappeared. She had no friends nor families in BanYue, so no one noticed or cared when she vanished. The next time she appeared was a different story. In those years, she walked thousands of miles and crossed the Gobi desert to YongAn. No one knew what kind of encounters she had had, but she returned having learned black magic, and could control the venomous creature most feared by the BanYue – the scorpion snakes. Upon her return, besides being impressed, many were also afraid. That was because the girl’s personality never changed, still gloomy and unsociable. There were also many who bullied her in the past; if she were to enter the palace and become a high ranking official, wouldn’t she one day seek revenge against them? “I’m sure there were many who spoke poorly of her.” Xie Lian commented. Ke Mo humphed, “Not just slanders, they went to the palace directly to advise the king, saying that she was an evil messenger from the scorpion snake clan here to bring ruin to the Kingdom of BanYue. But none of them succeeded.” Xie Lian guessed, “Did she rush to have those people hung first?” Ke Mo was even more disgusted, “You, man of YongAn, why is your mind so full of depraved and vile developments? It was none of that! I protected her!” Xie Lian was exasperated, “I already said I’m not from YongAn… Alright, whatever.” At the time, Ke Mo was already a distinguished, fierce warrior. There was once he took his troop out to annihilate the nest of a band of desert bandits, and brought the girl who was the Palace Sorceress along. That band of bandits were strong, building their nest below the sands. In that battle, both sides suffered casualties, and while Ke Mo stole the victory, the battle caused the nest below the sands to collapse, plus with the coming of windstorms, they couldn’t stay. Ke Mo took a number of soldiers to retreat, but, the other group that included the sorceress weren’t able to escape. Once they retreated to the safe point and waited out the sandstorm, Ke Mo returned anew, hoping to dig out the soldiers to bury them properly. Yet who knew that when he got there, he found the sorceress had, by her powers alone, dug out sizable hole, and managed to drag all the surviving, wounded soldiers in to hide away from the winds. All the bodies of the dead were all dug out too, and laid out in a neat order. She had done this all by herself, and when they got there, that sorceress’ body was covered in blood, but was still guarding the entrance to that hole silently, hugging her knees waiting for them like a small, little lone wolf. “After that incident, I thought she was a good woman who does the right things.” Ke Mo said, “I believed that she had never the intention to harm the Kingdom of BanYue, so I became a guarantor with all my might, and fought back all those malicious voices.” Plus, Ke Mo himself grew up bullied and could understand her strife, so naturally he paid more attention to her. The more attention he paid, the more he realized just how powerful this girl was, and thus endorsed her all the way, helping her reach the position of Guoshi, becoming what was later recorded as the most loyal supporter of the Guoshi of BanYue. This lasted until another war broke out, and the Kingdom of YongAn sent armies to annihilate the Kingdom of BanYue. “With the two armies clashing and at a lengthy standstill, she conducted a grand ceremony to pray to the heavens, saying it was to bring blessings unto us BanYue soldiers.” Ke Mo said. Thus, the soldier’s will to kill exploded, their battle spirits significantly raised, and they defended the fortress gates to the death. There were arrows, giant boulders, boiling oil, swords and blades, the slaughtering was incessantly great. Yet unexpectedly, just as the fighting was at its height, this guoshi suddenly opened the fortress gates. With the gates opened wide, millions of enemy troops swarmed into the city all of a sudden like mad. After the trampling of iron steeds, the entire fortress city had instantly become a ritual of blood! Ke Mo, who was fighting hard against the enemies, went mad with rage when he heard the Guoshi had opened the gates. But no matter how tough he was, one could not win alone against so many. Ke Mo gritted his teeth, “I only learned then that she had long since colluded with the enemy general, and agreed to let them in at that moment. BUT EVEN IF I WAS DESTINED TO DIE IN BATTLE, BEFORE I DIE I WAS GOING TO KILL THAT TRAITOR NO MATTER WHAT!!! So I sent a troop of soldiers to charge up the fortress tower and dragged her down, hanging her dead over the Sinner’s Pit. Hung over that pole!” After the enemy troops passed, the Kingdom of BanYue became a kingdom of death. Guoshi and the General who died in this battle also became trapped within the ruins, both watching the other in mutual grudge and hate. Xie Lian followed, “So, General Ke Mo, you led the BanYue soldiers under you to search for the shadows of that guoshi everywhere, and every time you capture her, you’d “hang her head” over the Sinner’s Pit?” “It wouldn’t be anything even if we hung her dead a thousand times, a million times!” Ke Mo exclaimed, “Because she’s been apprehending all my soldiers who have turned ‘Savage’ too, and throwing them into the Sinner’s Pit! She’s set up a powerful array around the pit that only she herself could break, and once you fall you can never climb back up. And us who have been betrayed by her, those soldiers who died wrongfully in battle, hold a deep resentment that only devouring the flesh and blood of those from YongAn could appease, and slowly pass from this earth with our hatred released. Otherwise they can only howl deep into the long nights without absolution!” “So is that why you kept capturing peple to feed them?” Xie Lian asked. “What else can we do?” Ke Mo replied, “Have me listen to them wail down below without doing anything?” “The people you threw down, did you catch them yourselves or?” “We can’t stray too far from the Kingdom of BanYue, but thankfully her snakes like to haunt, and often crawl out of the ruins to bite people. Those caravans who were bitten would then come into the city to look for the ShanYue fern.” “That mud face in the palace, was it you who buried it?” “That’s right. That man buried in the earth was originally planning on robbing the riches of the palace. But, all the treasures our kingdom had were all cleaned out by those YongAn men two hundred years ago.” “Why did you only bury him instead of throwing him down directly?” Xie Lian asked. “There’s gotta be fertilizer to grow the ferns after all,” Ke Mo replied, “Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to hold those scorpion snakes back. We don’t want to run into those creatures either.” ‘That’s not right,’ Xie Lian thought. If Ke Mo and his party consciously knew to grow and fertilize ShanYue ferns, even going as far as using live humans as fertilizer, then it was clear that while they were no longer alive, their fear of those scorpion snakes never lessened. If that was the case, then while they were alive, that fear must’ve been even greater. If that BanYue Guoshi could control a murder weapon as great as those scorpion snakes, then why would she so easily be dragged down the fortress tower by a bunch of soldiers and be hung to death? According to Ke Mo, in the past two hundred some years, he had captured the Guoshi over and over, and had hung her dead repeatedly. Either way Xie Lian felt, if it was him, and he had such a killing weapon in his hands, he would never allow the enemy the chance to come near him. And the snakes that would leave the fortress to prey was also of interest. Was it an accident? Not likely. More like they were purposely trying to lure people into the Pass. Then it was Guoshi’s intentional doing? Wouldn’t it be helping Ke Mo catch live humans to feed his soldiers? ‘Mutual hatred’ wouldn’t make sense then. Were they pretending to be enemies then? What was the point in that? And in all of this mess, there was also the mysterious lady in white and her companion. Xie Lian decided to ask more questions, “General Ke Mo, when we first entered the fortress, we saw two ladies, one in white, and the other in black. Do you know who they are?” Before there was a response, San Lang whispered, “Shhh.” Xie Lian didn’t know what was going on but closed his mouth immediately. A strange hunch made him look up. It was the same framed, navy blue sky with a crescent moon. But, next to the moon, he saw a person; a small, black clad silhouette peered over the edge and was looking down. After watching them for a bit, the little form suddenly grew bigger – it had jumped down. As the figure fell, Xie Lian could see clearly that it was the Guoshi who was hanging on the pole earlier. Ch.27: Dallying HuaLian; Night-Fall in Sinner’s Pit 4 “Ke Mo, what’s going on?” The Guoshi asked in BanYuenese as she landed. The moment she spoke, Xie Lian thought her voice was very different than what he had imagined. Although still cold, her voice was tiny, like the grumblings of a sulky child, not one that’s cool and powerful. If not for his good hearing, he might not even hear her properly. “What’s going on?? THEY’RE ALL DEAD!!!” Ke Mo shouted. “How did they all die?” The Guoshi asked. “Isn’t it because you pushed them all down and trapped them in this godforsaken hell!” “Who’s here? There’s another person.” The Guoshi said. At the bottom of the pit there should be two other ‘people’, but San Lang had no breaths nor heartbeat, so the Guoshi didn’t detect his presence. It was also complete chaos on top of the walls earlier, and no one kept track of who fell and and who ran away, so she thought there was only Xie Lian there. “It was they who killed all of my soldiers, are you happy now? Everyone you wanted to kill are finally dead!” The Guoshi was silent, and suddenly a tiny burst of light flared, illuminating a small, black clad girl with a palm torch. The girl looked to be fifteen or sixteen, both eyes blackened, not unbeautiful, but just unhappy, her forehead and cheeks full of bruises, clear and distinct under the light. The hand controlling the palm torch was shaking, causing the flames to flicker. If it wasn’t confirmed earlier, no one would think this pale little girl was the Guoshi of BanYue. The flames in her hand illuminated herself and her surroundings. Next to her feet was piled with armoured corpses of BanYue soldiers. Xie Lian couldn’t help but sneak a look beside him. That palm torch in the Guoshi’s hand was very small, and did not light up the entire pit, so they were still immersed in darkness. But using the wee light, Xie Lian could still see faintly that the one next to him was dressed in red. It wasn’t clear, and he wasn’t sure, but he could still somewhat distinguish what’s close to him. San Lang was already taller than him, but now, maybe, he seemed taller than before. Xie Lian moved his eyes up, paused at the neck, then continued upward, stopping at an elegantly shaped chin. San Lang’s upper face was still hidden in the shadows, but Xie Lian thought the bottom half was distinctly different than before. Still handsome, but the lines were much more defined. Feeling he was being watched, San Lang tilted his head, and his lips curled upwards slightly. Perhaps he wanted to too much to get a better look, to get closer, that without realizing it, Xie Lian took a step closer to him. Just then, Ke Mo wailed in the distance, seeming to be in shock after seeing the bloody tragedy before him. Xie Lian abruptly snapped out of it and turned to look, and saw Ke Mo was clutching his own head, but despite the general’s cries, the Guoshi’ expression remained wooden, and only nodded, “Good.” In the midst of mourning, hearing those words made Ke Mo rage once more, “GOOD? What’s good?? How do you mean?!” “Good means we’re finally freed.” Guoshi said. She turned to Xie Lian who’s still shrouded in the dark, “Were you the one who killed them?” “This… was an accident.” Xie Lian replied. “YOU’RE LYING THROUGH YOUR TEETH!” Ke Mo exclaimed. Xie Lian responded bold facedly, “Life is full of accidents!” Guoshi gave him a look but her expression was unreadable, “Who are you?” Her words were actually spoken in perfect Han dialect*, and it wasn’t in an interrogative tone either. “I’m a heavenly official. This one here is… my friend.” Xie Lian replied. Ke Mo couldn’t understand their words, but could still tell they weren’t fighting, and demanded, “What are you two saying?” The Guoshi looked Xie Lian over, eyed San Lang for a moment before quickly looking away and said, “We’ve never had heavenly officials visit before. I thought you’ve all already abandoned this place.” Xie Lian had thought they would have to fight the Guoshi of BanYue, but was surprised to find she was this despondent, devoid of any will to fight. She spoke up again, “Do you two want to leave?” “Of course we do, but there’s an array set in this pit, so we can’t.” Xie Lian said. Hearing this, the Guoshi walked to one of the walls, raised her hand and drew something, then turned around and said, “There. I released the array. You two can leave now.” “…” This was way too easy! Xie Lian really didn’t know what to say now. Just then came a voice calling from above, “HEY! IS ANYONE DOWN THERE? IF NOT I’M LEAVING!” It was Fu Yao’s voice. Xie Lian heard San Lang ‘tsk’ next to him, and immediately looked up. There was a shadow of a man looking down into the pit, and Xie Lian shouted, “FU YAO! THERE’S PEOPLE DOWN HERE! I’M DOWN HERE!” After Xie Lian shouted he also waved, and Fu Yao shouted back from above, “You’re actually down there? What’s at the bottom besides you?” “Um… a lot of things. Why don’t you come down and see for yourself?” Xie Lian said. Fu Yao probably thought the same, and blew a large ball of fire into the pit. In an instant, the entire Sinner’s Pit was lit up, bright like day, and Xie Lian finally saw clearly the kind of place he’s been standing in. All around him were mountains of bloody corpses piled high; innumerable bodies of the BanYue soldiers stacked on top of each other, faces and limbs blackened, dark blood smearing the bright armours. The corner Xie Lian was standing was the only spot in the entire Sinner’s Pit that did not have a dead body. This was all done in a flash, in the dark, by San Lang after he jumped in. Xie Lian turned to look at the boy next to him again. Before in the dark, he thought San Lang looked taller and was distinctly different in various places, but now, under the bright firelight, the one standing next to him was the same handsome youth he’d known. When he saw Xie Lian looked over, he grinned. Xie Lian looked down to check his wrists and boots, and both were also the same as before, having nothing that would cause any jingling sound. Just then, Xie Lian heard a muffled sound, and it was Fu Yao who had jumped down. “Weren’t you looking after the merchants?” Xie Lian asked. Having just entered the pit, Fu Yao wasn’t yet used to the stench of blood and fanned his hand to make the air flow, the he replied indifferently, “We waited for over six hours and there was still no sight of you, so we figured something had happened. I drew a circle for them to wait in, and came to check things out myself.” Xie Lian frowned, “The circle won’t last long. With you gone, what if they leave the circle thinking you’d left them behind?” Fu Yao shrugged, “Eight horses can’t stop a man who really wants to seek death; I can’t stop stubborn people, so nothing. What’s with those two over there? Who’s who?” Fu Yao was tense, ready to defend against the two unknowns, but soon discovered astonishingly that Ke Mo was already heavily wounded on the ground, barely able to stand, and the Guoshi of BanYue had her head lowered and silent. “That one is the General of BanYue, and the other one is the Guoshi of BanYue. Right now they’re…” Ke Mo suddenly leapt up before Xie Lian could finish. He had been lying on the ground gathering his strength, and was finally able to jump up in a shout, aiming his fists at the Guoshi of BanYue. A large beefy warrior attacking a little girl; in the past Xie Lian would never allow this sort of thing to happen before him. But Ke Mo had every reason to hate the Guoshi, and she could very well defend herself yet she didn’t, letting herself be thrown around like a broken ragdoll. Ke Mo shouted at the Guoshi, “Where are your scorpion snakes? Come on! Let them bite me to death too! Give me that release!” The Guoshi gloomily replied, “Ke Mo, my snakes don’t listen to me anymore.” “Then why don’t they kill you??” He tsked. “…I’m sorry, Ke Mo.” The Guoshi apologized softly. “DO YOU REALLY HATE US THAT MUCH?” The Guoshi shook her head and Ke Mo became angrier, “YOU’RE GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME! IF YOU DON’T HATE US, WHY DID YOU BETRAY US? YOU SHAMELESS SPY, DISGUSTING MOLE, TRAITOR!!” Fu Yao watched him strike harder and harder, and the blows were all single sided, and couldn’t help but frown, “What are they saying? Shouldn’t we go stop them?” Xie Lian couldn’t watch anymore either, and rushed forward to stop Ke Mo, “General! General! Why don’t you tell us who that YongAn thug really is, we’ll…” Suddenly, the Guoshi grabbed his wrist. The grip was hard and came unexpectedly, and Xie Lian’s heart dropped, thinking she was going to ambush him, but when he looked back down at her, the Guoshi was on the ground, a small bruise at the corner of her mouth, her head raised, watching him intently. She didn’t say a single word, but her dark eyes were intense with a flaming sense of life. This demeanour overlapped with an image from a fargone memory. After a pause, Xie Lian blurted, “It’s you?” The Guoshi voice also trembled, “General Hua?” This back and forth stunned everyone in the pit. Fu Yao rushed forward, knocked Ke Mo out with a punch, and demanded, “You two know each other?” Xie Lian didn’t answer him. He knelt down, gripped the shoulders of the Guoshi, and examined her face. Earlier they stood too far apart and he couldn’t see clearly. Plus it had been over two hundred years, this girl had matured in that time, and for many various reasons, he didn’t recognize her at first. But now that he looked again properly, it’s the same face in his memories. Xie Lian couldn’t speak for the longest time, and it was a good moment before sighed, “Ban Yue?” The Guoshi quickly clutched at his sleeves, and the gloomy face suddenly came alive and excited, “It’s me! General Hua, do you still remember me?” “Of course I remember you. But…” Xie Lian gazed at her for a moment and sighed, “But what have you done to yourself?” Hearing his words, her eyes suddenly filled pain. “I’m sorry, Captain… I messed up.” She muttered. In that exchange, there was ‘General’ this, ‘Captain’ that, making it glaringly obvious to the bystanders. Fu Yao was in shock, “Captain? General? YOU? How did this happen? Then the Tomb of the General is?” Fu Yao pushed. “My tomb.” Xie Lian replied. “Didn’t you say you only came to collect junk two hundred years ago???” Fu Yao questioned. “This… is a long story. That was originally the plan.” Xie Lian answered. Around two hundred years ago, due to some reason, Xie Lian couldn’t muck around in the East anymore, and decided to stay out of sight for a while. He had planned to cross the Qing ridge and head to the South to start a brand new life of scraps. Thus, he took up his compass and walked southward. But the more he walked, the more he thought woefully, how come the sceneries were all wrong? There should be an abundance of trees and greeneries, cities and crowds, so how come his path was becoming more desolate? Suspicions aside however, Xie Lian stubbornly continued on, until he walked and walked and came upon the Gobi desert. It took a gust of wind blowing a fistful of sand into his face before Xie Lian finally realized that his compass was broken. The direction it was guiding him this entire journey was wrong! Since there wasn’t anything he could do about the whole thing, he might as well take this chance to visit the desert sceneries, and continued walking. Only, he changed course slightly and traveled northwestward, and finally arrived at the border where he settled nearby the Kingdom of BanYue. “At first, I was just collecting junk around the area.” Xie Lian said, “But the border was troubled, and with so many skirmishes, there were often runaway soldiers, so the army would draft anyone into recruit to make up the numbers.” “So you were forced into the army?” San Lang asked. “Yea,” Xie Lian replied, “But doing anything was more or less the same, so it didn’t matter to me. And then after chasing away some bandits a couple times, I somehow got promoted to Captain. The people gave me face and would call me General too.” “Why did she call you General Hua?” Fu Yao questioned. “Your surname isn’t Hua.” Xie Lian waved his hand and said dismissively, “Don’t worry about it. I randomly made up a fake name at the time. I think it was ‘Hua Xie’2” Hearing the name, San Lang’s expression changed slightly, his lips twitching. Xie Lian didn’t pay attention and continued, “With a battle-torn border came many orphans. When I was free I’d play with them sometimes. One of them… was named Ban Yue.” When there were bandits, Xie Lian was surely the bravest soldier, and no one dared block his way, nor did anyone dared stand beside him even. But when there weren’t, it was as if anyone could order him around. One day he went and sat by a wall to start a campfire, using his own helmet to cook. As he cooked the smell of it drifted out, and a few enraged soldiers came to kick over whatever it was he was cooking. Xie Lian picked up his helmet with a broken heart, but when he looked back, he saw a small disheveled and grimy child crouched behind him, picking at the stuff knocked to the ground with her hands without caring whether if it was too hot, and stuffing it into her mouth. He was shocked, “DON’T! Wait, little kid, you!” As expected, that little kid scarved down a few lumps of the stuff she picked off the ground then dry heaved heavily, crying loudly. Xie Lian was so shaken he picked her up upside down and ran laps until all the stuff she ate came back out. After that was done, he crouched down and wiped away his seat, “Are you alright little kid… I’m so sorry. But don’t ever tell your parents about this, and next time, don’t pick up anymore random stuff off the ground to eat… WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW!” That child was face covered in tears but still went to pick off the ground again, still wanting to eat. It was only after Xie Lian grabbed her before he realize that this child’s tummy skin was practically pressed to the back of her bones. When people starved to this point, anything could be eaten. Even if it was disgusting to the point of tears she would eat. Xie Lian had no choice, and went back to bring her the last of his rations. Then afterwards, he could often see this child stalking him in the shadows nearby. In his memories, the little girl Ban Yue was always gloomy, her body and face full of bruises, and when she looked at him she would stare just so from below. Because she was singled out by the BanYue children, other than Xie Lian, there was only a YongAn boy living at the border who’d sometime pay attention to her, so she’d spend her days tagging along behind the two of them. She rarely spoke, but she was fluent in the Han dialect so Xie Lian didn’t know where she came from, but she was a random wandering child, so he randomly took her in. When he was free sometimes he’d teach them songs, sometimes wrestle, sometimes show off his busker move ‘Shattering Boulders on Chest’, or something, and they got along quite well. Xie Lian shook his head, “I had thought the ‘BanYue’ in the Guoshi’ title was the country, I didn’t realize it was actually the name of the Guoshi.” “And then?” Fu Yao asked. “And then… it’s pretty much the same as what the memorial wrote.” Xie Lian said. After some silence, San Lang spoke up, “The memorial said you died.” On the subject of that memorial, Xie Lian felt quite bummed out. Weren’t memorials usually praises and exaggerate good deeds to glorify the deceased? All those mentions of the demotions aside, why did it have to so solemnly record the embarrassing way he died??? While they were hiding away from the sandstorm and he read to this part, he could barely look at it straight on. If it wasn’t for San Lang who also understood BanYuenese and was watching him, he was going to pretend that segment never existed. Having something like that written down, even he wanted to laugh, nevermind other people? That he had the nerve to ask those seeking shelter in his memorial to not laugh as they commentated and laughed at his epitaph, it made him feel really bummed. Xie Lian’s forehead was becoming red from all the rubbing. “Oh, that. Um. Of course I didn’t die. I faked it.” Fu Yao was a face full of disbelief. Xie Lian explained himself, “I got trampled on too hard and couldn’t get up, so there wasn’t any other way besides faking my death anyway.” Truthfully, Xie Lian couldn’t quite remember exactly how he ‘died’, nor why that battle broke out in the first place, only that it was over something petty. He really didn’t want to fight; victory or defeat was meaningless. But by then his rank could go no lower, and no one would listen to him. In the midst of battle, everyone saw red, so when he rushed out, it was blades and swords coming at him from both sides cutting him down. Fu Yao questioned, “It must be because you’re an eyesore standing the middle that you raised the ire of both sides, right? Otherwise why would people just cut you down when they see you? Besides, I’m sure you knew there were many who hated you, so why didn’t you evade all those people? Why did you have to charge in? I’m sure you could’ve dodge if you wanted to.”
1.Han was the dialect of YongAn. ↩ 2.The name ‘Hua Xie’ is meaningless, but the character for ‘Hua’ is the same as the one in Hua Cheng’s name. ↩ Ch.28: Dallying HuaLian; Night-Fall in Sinner’s Pit 5 “I really don’t remember, alright!” Xie Lian said, Even if he couldn’t die, he couldn’t stand that kind of butchering. Thinking ‘This couldn’t go on!’ in his head, Xie Lian resolutely dropped to the ground to fake his death, but even in ‘death’ he was trampled to the point of passing out. It was water choking him that woke him, because corpses were usually thrown into the rivers after battles. Xie Lian went with the river flow, and floated back to the Kingdom of YongAn like a heap of junk. Afterwards, he took several years to recover from his wounds, picked up an unbroken compass to start off anew, and finally made it to his original destination in the South, and stopped minding what went down in the Kingdom of BanYue. “I’m sorry.” Ban Yue muttered again. Fu Yao furrowed his brows, “Why does she keep apologizing to you?” San Lang suddenly spoke up, “Ke Mo said Guoshi of BanYue left for the Midlands after a clash between the two armies. Were you involved in that?” With his reminder, and recalling what was written on the memorial, some things were coming back to Xie Lian, but only a small bit. “Ah, maybe…” “It was to save me.” Ban Yue said. Everyone turned to look at her and she mumbled, “General Hua entered the fray to save me, and got flattened.” “…” Xie Lian instantly remembered the agony of being trampled by thousands, and he hugged his arms in spite of himself, but when he saw two others watching him with unreadable expressions, he pulled himself back in a hurry and said, “Not flat. Not too flat.” Fu Yao didn’t look so smug anymore, and said awkwardly, “Well, aren’t you a saint.” Xie Lian waved dismissively, “Nothing of the sort. I think I was just going to pick the child up and run away immediately, but we didn’t retreat fast enough and got caught between the two armies…” “If that’s the case,” Fu Yao said, “How can you not remember something like that?” Xie Lian looked at him solemnly, “Do you not know how many hundreds of years old I am? So much can happen in just a decade, there’s no way to remember everything in detail. Besides, some things are best forgotten. Rather than remembering how I was butchered and trampled hundreds of years ago, I’d prefer to remember that I ate a delicious meat bun yesterday, no?” “I’m sorry.” Ban Yue said. Xie Lian sighed, “My dear Ban Yue. Saving you is my own choice, you’re not at fault. If you’re going to apologize, perhaps it should be to others.” Ban Yue was taken aback, and hung her head in silence. “But… maybe it’s because my impression of you was from two hundred years ago, but I don’t think you’re the kind of child who sought revenge and betray others… Will you tell me what exactly happened? Why did you open the fortress gates?” Ban Yue contemplated, shook her head, and continued to remain silent. “Then, why did you let the snakes out to bite people?” Xie Lian asked. This time, Ban Yue answered, “I didn’t release the snakes.” Xie Lian was taken aback, “What?” “I didn’t release the snakes.” Ban Yue said, “They ran off on their own. I don’t know why but they don’t listen to me anymore.” Hearing this, Fu Yao grew impatient. Ban Yue pleaded, “General Hua, I’m not lying.” Before Xie Lian responded Fu Yao cut in rudely, “Anyone would say that after being captured. Even if you say it wasn’t intentional, I’ve heard all that before. All those people cross the Pass were certainly all injured by your snakes. Show me your hands, you’re under arrest.” Ban Yue shut up and extended both arms. Fu Yao immediately took out a God-Binding rope and apprehended both Ban Yue and Ke Mo, then said, “Alright. We’ve accomplished our goal for this trip. It’s all over now.” Just then, San Lang spoke up, “She had no reason to lie.” Xie Lian also felt there was a need to further interrogation and turned to Ban Yue, “Can you not control any of your snakes?” Ban Yue answered, “I can control them, and they’ll obey most of the time. But there are times when they won’t. I don’t know why.” After some thought, Xie Lian said, “Why don’t you call them out and show us?” Ban Yue had knelt down before him earlier, now she finally rose to her feet and nodded.Soon, a wine red scorpion snake slithered out from underneath a corpse, raised its head and curled itself above a pile of dead bodies, and soundlessly flicked its tongue to the group. Xie Lian was about to take a closer look at the snake but saw Ban Yue widen her eyes, face strange. Xie Lian’s heart dropped and thought, “Oh no.” As he thought, after flicking its tongue the snake opened its mouth and pounced towards him in attack. It was a sudden lunge, but Xie Lian was ready, and was about to grab for it when boom! Something exploded. When he opened his eyes again to see, the snake was already a splatter of guts on the ground, having thoroughly blown apart. It was a calculated blast too; none of the venom spilled. Xie Lian immediately remembered another instance where a snake died like this before they entered the BanYue ruins, but there was no need to say who did it at this point. He hadn’t even had the chance to look at San Lang before a red sleeve flashed before him, barring and separating him from Ban Yue. On the other side, Fu Yao also said cooly, “I knew she lied. Did you think this snake can manage to bite him under these circumstances? Foolish.” Ban Yue’s face was already pale when she saw that snake, and when she heard him her head shot up, “I didn’t do it. I said there are some snakes that don’t obey, and that one was one of them just now.” Fu Yao didn’t believe a single word, “Who knows if it was actually disobeying or obeying you?” “That one wasn’t even called forth by me.” Ban Yue said. Xie Lian was about to speak when another two wine red scorpion snakes peeked out from under a different corpse, flicking their tongues and watching them intently. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth… from the mountains of dead bodies, and from all around every corner of the pit, came innumerous scorpion snakes! Everyone stared at Ban Yue who was kneeling on top of pile of corpses, and Fu Yao started spinning a ball of spiritual energy in his palm, shouting towards her, “Make them go away! They can’t all disobey!” Ban Yue scrunched up her brows, looking as if she’s trying to drive them out. Yet more and more scorpion snakes appeared, curling and crawling, slithering ever closer. Bites from one or two snakes might not kill them, but hundreds and thousands was harder to say. Even if they didn’t die it wouldn’t be pretty. Xie Lian raised his wrist about to call forth Ruoye, but saw that when the snakes slithered to a certain distance, they would stop and hesitate, forming a weird circle around him and San Lang. It dawned on Xie Lian and he glanced at the boy next to him. He was watching the snakes condescendingly with immense contempt. The scorpion snakes seemed to be able to read his eyes and didn’t dare approach. They backed off bit by bit, lowering their savage heads as they did so, and pressed against the ground sumbmissively like servants. But there seemed to be another power controlling them, making them unable to abandon attacks and leave completely. Thus, many of the snakes turned around and slithered towards Fu Yao. Fu Yao swung his hand and a blast of flames burst from his sleeve, killing a circle of snakes. That wouldn’t last long, however, and Xie Lian said, “Let’s go up and get out of here first!” Whoosh, Ruoye shot out from Xie Lian’s arm and flew upwards. But soon, another whoosh and it was back on Xie Lian’s arm. Xie Lian was taken aback and raised his wrist, admonishing the silk band, “What are you doing back here? The array was released, hurry and go!” But Ruoye remained wrapped on his arm, trembling, as if he bumped into something terrifying at the top. Xie Lian was still chiding it when suddenly, a long rope of something fell. ‘Plop’, it dropped on Fu Yao’s shoulder. Fu Yao went to grab for it, and his face changed the moment he brought it before his eyes – it was another scorpion snake that fell from the sky! This took Fu Yao off guard, and after getting bitten, he hurled the snake towards Ban Yue. Even with her hands tied, she still unconsciously tried to catch the snake, and having caught it, the dark red snake curled itself up around her arm and did not attack. Just then, another ‘plop’ and a second scorpion snake landed on the ground! Xie Lian could guess why Ruoye refused to go up now. Borrowing the faint light of the moon, Xie Lian raised his head and only just barely saw this sight: hundreds of little wine red dots were falling rapidly into the Sinner’s Pit. A snake deluge! The red dots were coming closer and Xie Lian yelled, “Fu Yao! Fire! Shoot a stream of fire upwards and get rid of them halfway!” Fu Yao bit his palm to break skin, swung his hand, and a series of blood drops shot out, transforming into a curtain of fire, jetting upwards the pit. Those sweeping flames rose to over tens of feet and hung midair, disintegrating all scorpion snakes that’d touch it, turning them into ashes, dissolving the snake deluge. Temporarily safe, Xie Lian let out a breath of relief. “That was good, Fu Yao! Thank goodness for you.” Yet that spell consumed immense powers, and after one round, Fu Yao’s face was pale. He turned around and ignited a ring of fire, dispelling the snakes on the ground, and shouted at Ban Yue, “And you say those snakes don’t obey you? If it weren’t you controlling them, why wouldn’t they attack you?” San Lang laughed, “Maybe it’s because of your bad luck? They didn’t attack us either.” Fu Yao turned to look at him, his eyes sharp and narrowed. Xie Lian could sense trouble. With the ample hints he’d gotten that he hadn’t had time to digest in his head, he didn’t want to see the two start fighting and said, “Let’s figure out what’s going on with those snakes first. Let’s charge out.” Fu Yao sneered, “What’s going on? Either the Guoshi of BanYue is lying, or the one next to you is causing trouble.” Xie Lian looked at Ban Yue, then looked at San Lang, and said, “I don’t think it’s either of them.” His tone was gentle but firm. It was the conclusion he had come to after much thought. However, Fu Yao must have thought he was shielding them intentionally; the face illuminated by the flames was unkind, Xie Lian couldn’t tell if he was angry or laughing. “Your Royal Highness,” Fu Yao said, “Don’t play pretend when you know the truth. Do you still know your place? I’m sure you’re already very aware of what exactly that thing is next to you. I won’t believe you hadn’t realized it at all!” Ch.29: Wind Master in White; Bellowing Sandstorms from Nothing Xie Lian unconsciously stepped forward to stand in front of San Lang, “I know better than anyone where my place is.” Xie Lian replied. “Then how dare you still stand next to him?!” Fu Yao shouted. “Because… If I stand next to him the snakes won’t come.” Xie Lian answered earnestly. “…” Hearing the response, San Lang ‘pfft’-ed and laughed out loud. Fu Yao became grimmer, “YOU–” Grimmer and grimmer, his face suddenly turned completely black, and it wasn’t just his face, but Xie Lian’s entire line of sight dimmed into darkness. The curtain of flames and the ring of fire created by Fu Yao were suddenly completely extinguished! Xie Lian heard San Lang snicker and say “Useless trash!” before gripping his shoulders to pull him close. Soon after, Xie Lian heard a sudden downpour of endless battering above them, like a thunderstorm hitting an umbrella. Needless to say, it was the snake deluge that came pouring down crazedly now that the defense barrier was gone. The open umbrella was blocking the downpour and Xie Lian could smell the thick foul odour of blood. He was about to fight but San Lang stopped him, “Don’t move. No lowlives will dare approach.” His tone was confident; the first sentence was soft and gentle, the latter had a layer of arrogance. Xie Lian wasn’t worried, but hearing Fu Yao’s angry roars at the other end, sounding as if he was getting covered in snakes, he called out, “San Lang!” San Lang instantly replied, “No.” Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “How did you know what I was going to say?” “Don’t worry so much, he can’t die.” San Lang said. Just then, another roar came from a different part of the pit, “BAN YUE! If you want me to die then have them bite and kill me in one go! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??” “It’s not me!” Ban Yue cried. It seemed Ke Mo had woken from all the battering, discovered himself covered by countless snakes, and believed it to be Ban Yue’s doing. “Fu Yao, can you light another fire? Do it again!” Xie Lian shouted. Fu Yao gritted his teeth, “That thing next to you is restricting my powers, I can’t light anything!” Xie Lian felt dread, and San Lang said, “It’s not me.” “I know it’s not you.” Xie Lian said, “But that’s precisely what’s wrong. Both Ban Yue and Ke Mo are bound by the God-Binding rope; they can’t use their powers. My powers are depleted, and you’re not restricting anyone, meaning, there’s a sixth person in this pit?!” “Have you lost your mind?” Fu Yao demanded, “What sixth person? There wasn’t anyone who came down!” “Who’s there?” Ban Yue suddenly said. “Ban Yue, what’s happening? Is someone over there?” Xie Lian asked. “Someone–” Ban Yue’s voice disappeared halfway; whether her mouth was sealed shut, or she lost consciousness was not known. Xie Lian called out again, “Ban Yue?” Fu Yao was still fighting snakes, and was throwing spiritual energy everywhere, flashing here and there in the dark. “Be careful! She might be tricking you!” “Not necessarily.” Xie Lian shouted, “I’m going to save her first!” Xie Lian was about to run into the snake deluge when he heard San Lang’s voice next to his ear, “Alright.” Xie Lian felt the hand grasping his shoulders tighten, and in a flash they were blitzing forward. Xie Lian realized in awe that the boy was advancing and attacking but with an umbrella in one hand, and him in the other. In the darkness, silver shimmers flashed about once more, clanking and clinking, when suddenly, a sharp sound of two swords clashing rang in everyone’s ears. “Oh?” San Lang said, “There really is a sixth person. Interesting.” Xie Lian had no idea how San Lang was controlling the weapon, or what kind of weapon it was, but whatever it was, it most certainly did come head to head with another! The other party remained silent, and Xie Lian could only hear the sound of metal scraping metal as the fight intensified. From time to time there would be sparks flashing in the dark, but each time it was so short-lived it was hard to see the other’s face. Listening to the fight, Xie Lian could feel Ruoye grip tighter and tighter, and had to murmur reassurance, “Don’t be scared, relax. Relax a bit.” Ruoye loosened, and Xie Lian called out again, “Ban Yue, are you conscious? Can you respond?” No one responded. Fu Yao exclaimed, “Maybe the one fighting now is her!” “No. This one is definitely not Ban Yue!” Xie Lian said. When San Lang fought Ke Mo in the dark, he was light-footed and messing about, playing with him. This fight was also in the dark, but Xie Lian could tell San Lang was taking it more seriously. The other party was extremely skilled in martial arts and weaponry; Ban Yue was small and weak, just looking at her arms it was obvious power and arms were not her forte, so it was impossible for her to be fighting San Lang. But who was this sixth person? When did they appear?! Fu Yao griped, “Someone who would betray her own country is no different than Xuan Ji, why on earth would you still believe in her?” “Fu Yao, can you not be so irritated?” Xie Lian said, “You… Wait. What did you just say?” Fu Yao struck out another fist, and blew away a bunch of snakes, “I said, why on earth would you believe in her the same way you believe in that thing next to you!” “No, not that – you said Xuan Ji. You mentioned Xuan Ji’s name, didn’t you!” Xie Lian said. “Yea, so what?! She’s completely irrelevant!” Xie Lian however, held his breath. A moment later, he called out, “Stop fighting, there’s no more need to hide. I know who you are!” The sound of blades clashing never halted, the other party unaffected, but Xie Lian wasn’t worried, “Did you think I was tricking you when I said I already know who you are? General Pei Junior?” . “Who are you talking to?” Fu Yao was dumbstruck, “General Pei Junior? Don’t be crazy. Who do you think he is? If he descended everyone would know!” “You’re very right,” Xie Lian said, “But what if it wasn’t his true self that descended?” In the darkness, the fighting weapons faltered then continued anew. Xie Lian spoke, “It took me too long to figure this out. I should’ve known from the beginning.” “I knew that for close to two hundred years there was something causing havoc but none of the heavenly officials cared, and no one dared to speak of it, so there must be one or a number of officials keeping a wrap on this scandal. But because I wasn’t familiar with many of the officials, I didn’t dare to boldly pin this on anyone, and never tried to boldly deduce just which heavenly official it could be.” It was Fu Yao’s mention of Xuan Ji that reminded him. When it came to Xuan Ji, it wasn’t hard to relate her to the two General Pei’s, and the North was their territory. Fu Yao once said in passing that prior to his ascension, General Pei Junior slaughtered a city. Which city? It could very well be the Kingdom of BanYue! The Upper Court wouldn’t bat an eyelash at something like this; everyone needed to spill some blood if they wanted to do great things. But slaughtering a city wasn’t anything glorious after all, and if the story got spread too far it would affect the numbers of new believers, so of course there would be some cover ups after ascension. Thus, even if everyone knew something of the sort happened, they probably didn’t know the details or care to know the details. Besides, if it wasn’t for deep grudges, who’d had the time to care to dig his past and offend the support behind his back? Xie Lian spoke slowly, “That mud face had said there was someone amongst us who already visited the fortress fifty to sixty years ago. At first I thought he was lying to deceive us into approaching, but, his words may very well contain truth.” “Before, in that group of people, the one I was the most suspicious of was you. The caravan followed you, and you could take them anywhere. I have never seen a single scorpion snake in the years I lived nearby BanYue, and from just seeking a random shelter from the sandstorm, they happen to show up?” “I asked you to come look for the ShanYue fern with us, but just before we left you gave the directions of the ruins to the others so they could follow in our steps if they could no longer sit still. Earlier on top of the walls, I had already said if anything were to happen, I would go forward first; you who is always calm suddenly jumped, dying a meaningless death.” Xie Lian continued after a pause, “Your actions were strange and illogical. That it took me until now to realize who you are really was too late. Isn’t that right, General Pei Junior? Or should I call your current name, A-Zhao!” The silence that ensued was abrupt. It was a moment before a cold voice came, “Have you never suspected that the mud face might be talking about the red clothed boy next to you?” A stream of flames suddenly lit up across the Sinner’s Pit. Under the light, two bloody silhouettes were revealed. One was San Lang, dressed in red, proper and standing with his weapon already tucked away. The other was a plainly clothed young man with a sword held tightly in hand, still at the ready. The plain clothed young man was covered in blood, looking as if he was also dressed in red. His expression was cold and reserved, carrying someone over his shoulders. It was indeed A-Zhao. To be fair, whether it be General Pei Junior his true self or A-Zhao, that composed, calm and collectedness never changed; only, Xie Lian had never gone down that train of thought so he didn’t connect the two. The one he was carrying over his shoulders was Ban Yue. It seemed he had called forth the snakes in order to steal her away during the chaos. Now that his identity was revealed, he had no more need to create havoc, and the snake deluge ceased bombarding. He sheathed his sword and gently laid Ban Yue down on the ground. On the side, Ke Mo was shocked, “Who are you? Didn’t you fall to your death???” A-Zhao didn’t spare a look at Ke Mo, staring instead at San Lang vigilantly. “Ke Mo, you really haven’t changed in these past hundreds of years.” He said in BanYuenese. Perhaps the tone of this maddening calm was overly familiar, Ke Mo’s face immediately scrunched up in rage, “… IT’S YOU!!! PEI SU!!!” If not for the God-Binding rope solidly tying him down, Ke Mo would’ve lunged at him to fight to the death. “General Pei Junior,” Xie Lian said, “Those scorpion snakes didn’t just listen to one command. You controlled all the snakes Ban Yue said no longer listened to her and went out to harm, correct?” “En. I did it.” He certainly admitted it easily. “Did Ban Yue teach you how to control the scorpion snakes?” Xie Lian asked. “She didn’t,” Pei Su said, “But how she does it, I could very well learn for myself.” “General Pei Junior is exceedingly intelligent after all.” Xie Lian commented. After a pause, he then asked, “When did you two meet? How did you two meet?” Pei Su however, gave him a look, “General Hua.” Xie Lian was puzzled, “Why are you calling me by that title too?” Pei Su asked quietly, “Do you not recognize me, General Hua?” “…” Now Xie Lian did. The beginning of it was kind of blurry. Ban Yue was bullied and ignored by other BanYue children when she was younger, and only a young boy of YongAn would sometimes pay attention to her. That boy was like Ban Yue and didn’t talk very much. Quite a number of children living on the border were from military families, and many also enlisted in the army when they grew older. Could it be… “It’s you?!” Xie Lian was surprised, “I, I can’t believe it took me this long to realize it was you.” Pei Su nodded, “It’s me. I’ve only just recognized General too.” No wonder. So turns out, Ban Yue and the enemy general had known each other since long ago! “Did Ban Yue really heed your order and opened the fortress gates?” Xie Lian asked. On the other side, Ke Mo spat and yelled, “Despicable Pei Su. Untie the ropes, let me fight him to the death!” Pei Su said cooly, “First of all, we already had a battle to the death two hundred years ago, and you lost; second of all, how am I despicable?” Ke Mo shouted, “IF YOU TWO DIDN’T COLLUDE, HOW WOULD WE LOSE?!” “Ke Mo, don’t deny it.” Pei Su said, “Even though I only had a troop of two thousand with me at the time, but breaking through the fortress gates was only a matter of time to me.” Xie Lian couldn’t help but interrupt, “Wait a sec, you only had two thousand under you and you were sent to invade a country? What’s going on? Isn’t that no different than sending you to your death? Were you perhaps even more elbowed out in the army than I was??” “…” Pei Su stopped talking. It seemed, Xie Lian had hit it on the mark. Xie Lian then asked, “If you knew it was a sure win, why did you have Ban Yue open the fortress gates?” “Because I needed to slaughter the fortress city.” Pei Su replied. “”What do you mean?” Xie Lian asked, “Since you were already going to win, why must you slaughter the city?” It couldn’t be that it was out of a hobby! “It was because victory was at hand, that we had to wipe out the city.” Pei Su said, “And it had to be as soon as possible. Immediately. Leaving none behind.” That “Leaving none behind” was chilling. Xie Lian pushed, “And the reason is?” Pei Su answered, “On the night before the invasion, many of the leaders of Ban Yue’s major families gathered for a meeting, and decided on a secret plot.” “What plot?” “The people of BanYue are violent in nature, and hated YongAn to the bone.” Pei Su said, “Even knowing they were about to be defeated they wouldn’t admit it. So the entire population of the kingdom, the young, the old, the women and the men, all banded together to assemble this thing.” “What thing?” Xie Lian could guess but he wasn’t sure, and the word that came out of Pei Su’s mouth confirmed his suspicions. “Explosives.” Pei Su slowly enunciated each word, “They had decided that if the kingdom was to fall, then the citizens will each carry explosives on their bodies, escape to YongAn, mix into large crowded areas, and suicide bomb to cause riots. Meaning if they must die, then they will drag as many YongAn people down as they can with them. If the kingdom should fall, then they shall terrorize the country that brought their downfall!” Which was why they had to be annihilated before those civilians had the time to flee. Xie Lian instantly turned to Ke Mo, roughly summarized for him in BanYuenese, and asked, “Is this true?” Ke Mo looked dauntless without any intention to conceal the facts, “It’s true!” San Lang raised his brows and commented, “How vile.” He said those words in BanYuenese, probably intentionally. Ke Mo replied angrily, “Vile? What right do you have to call us vile? If it wasn’t for your assaults, we wouldn’t be forced to make that move. You ruined us, so we sought revenge. How is that wrong?!” Pei Su responded cooly, “Really now. How about we lay everything out in the open then?” He tilted his head and said, “How many times have BanYue started riots near the border? How many caravans and travelers going to the West Plains from the YongAn were ambushed by BanYue? You intentionally sheltered the bandits that terrorized YongAn, and killed our soldiers that went to wipe them out under the pretense of illegal border crossing. How is that not vile?” Pei Su spoke unhurriedly and his tone was calm, but each word was sharp as knives. Ke Mo argued, “What about you? Why not say you forcibly occupied our land first?” “The border had always been ambiguous, so how can you say we forcibly occupied your land?” Pei Su countered. “The lines were clearly drawn! It was you who didn’t keep to yourselves!” “The lines were drawn by BanYue, YongAn had never agreed to it. And your border had the oasis all to yourselves, leaving only desert land to us, what nonsense.” Ke Mo was red in the face, “The oasis was ours! It had always been ours!” Both sides had their stories; just listening to them argue made Xie Lian befuddled. This hostility was making him remember how badly he got beaten up stuck in the middle of both sides, and he could feel the pain on his face resurface. Pei Su seemed to have had enough of quarreling with Ke Mo, and he turned to Xie Lian, “So you see. There are many things in the world that simply can’t be clearly defined or resolved. You can only fight.” Xie Lian sighed, “I’ll agree to the first part.” San Lang on the other hand said, “Hm. I’ll agree to the last part.” Ke Mo’s anger was somewhat curbed, and he suddenly said, “The majority of YongAn people were shameless, but you were the most shameless I’ve ever met. Pei Su, you’re a cold-hearted man. You didn’t kill us for your country, and it wasn’t for saving your people.” Hearing this, Pei Su fell silent. Ke Mo continued, “You exiled son of man, looked down by all. You only wanted to secure your footing in the YongAn army in order to keep climbing up so you had to win that battle. So sad that Ban Yue still thought you as good and was used by you, and betrayed us for the likes of you.” “But isn’t General Pei Junior General Pei’s descendant?” Xie Lian wondered. To have such a renown ancestor watch over him, he couldn’t have fallen so astray? “He’s not the direct descendant of General Pei.” San Lang spoke up, “He’s from however many branches out.” Pei Su said quietly, “Ban Yue had always been my subordinate, and only obeyed my command to infiltrate the Kingdom of BanYue. She is from both BanYue and YongAn, once she’s chosen her side she had to be loyal to that side, so there was no such thing as betrayal. The BanYue people are evil, I have no regrets in killing them.” Suddenly, a voice came from above, “Having no regrets in killing, well said! Will you say the same in regards to all the travelers who were mislead by you to this Pass and lost their lives in this pit?” . That voice had come from above everyone’s heads, and Xie Lian instantly looked up, “Which great lord is here among us?” There wasn’t a response, but a sudden strange noise. WHOOSH WHOOSH, it was like the bellowing of wild winds. When that sound finally came near, Xie Lian could finally say with certainty – it certainly was the bellowing of wild winds! This abrupt gale entered the Sinner’s Pit from above, swept all the way to the bottom, and rolled everyone into the air! Xie Lian immediately grabbed for San Lang who was the closest to him and cried, “Watch out!” San Lang caught him too, face unchanging. Xie Lian only felt a whirl of spinning, their bodies swiftly rising, and after a pause, they started plunging down. Xie Lian threw out Ruoye and coaxed him in the midst of this chaos, “Alright, alright, everything’s over. Hurry, my good Ruoye, come out and give us a hand!” After a couple pets, Ruoye finally reacted. However, with nothing in the air to grab on to other than a giant Sinner’s Pit below, Ruoye flew about once and shrunk back. Feeling helpless, Xie Lian could only adjust his form for landing in the air. If it was like previous times, he would’ve cratered head first three feet into the ground, but this time, just before they hit the ground, San Lang reached out and gave him a pull, and he actually landed with his feet flat on the ground! When his boots firmly touched ground he was even a little incredulous. But that feeling went away real quick when a black clad silhouette came stumbling before him. Xie Lian saw who it was and delightfully called, “Nan Feng!” It was Nan Feng indeed, but a disheveled Nan Feng. It looked as if he was rolled in grime ten times before getting thrown into a rambunctious den of beasts to spend the night. His clothes were tattered and bedraggled to the max; hearing Xie Lian’s call, he only waved his hand and quietly wiped at his face, unable to speak. Xie Lian lifted him to his feet, “What happened? Did those two ladies beat you up?” Before his words fully left his lips, two figures appeared behind Nan Feng and strolled over. One of them was the woman cultivator in white with a whisk in her arms, and she greeted Xie Lian cheerfully, “How do you do, Your Royal Highness.” Although Xie Lian didn’t know who this was, proper etiquette must still be kept; but he didn’t know how to address her, so he could only smile back and wave. “Greetings, fellow cultivator.” The lady in black on the side glanced at Xie Lian coldly but didn’t seem to care for him. When her eyes moved onto San Lang however, she paused, seeming to think he was a dubious figure, and stopped for a moment. The gusts earlier had blown everyone out of the pit, and the two ladies walked past Xie Lian, heading straight for Pei Su. He saw them approach and didn’t appear surprised; after all he had already seen them in town when he was still playing the part of A-Zhao. He knelt down where he was, bowed his head to the lady cultivator in white, and called quietly, “Lord Wind Master.” Xie Lian was stunned hearing those words. And here he thought she was some menacing ghost or monster, who knew it was actually a heavenly official? And it was the Wind Master, the one that was throwing out ten thousand merits in one go in the communication array! But now that he’s thinking about it in detail, there wasn’t anything out of place. At the time she was saying something along the lines of “Where did they all go? Do I have to dig them out and kill them one by one?” and made him think she was after them. In reality, this “they” might not have meant them; it could mean the BanYue soldiers. Only, Xie Lian thought he was alone in this investigation and naturally thought the lady cultivators were strange and wicked. To a heavenly official that could easily hand out ten thousand merits, Xie Lian couldn’t help but feel a nameless reverence. He elbowed Nan Feng, “Why didn’t you tell me this was the Wind Master sooner? And here I thought she might be some sort of snake spirit or scorpion spirit. What a disgrace!” Nan Feng’s expression darkened, “I didn’t know it was the Wind Master. I’ve never seen the Wind Master like this before. The Wind Master had always been… nevermind.” Xie Lian understood. This was probably a fake appearance the Lord Wind Master was donning, so he didn’t dig into it. He asked, “How did the Wind Master come to the BanYue Pass?” “To help out,” Nan Feng said. “When we saw them strolling in the streets earlier they were actually looking for those BanYue soldiers.” Xie Lian recalled now that the first time he asked about the BanYue Pass in the communication array, in the midst of silent awkwardness, it was the Wind Master’s sudden release of ten thousand merits that distracted everyone. The Wind Master probably already took notice of his query then. As Xie Lian mused, the Wind Master bent down in front of Pei Su, “Little Pei, I’ve heard everything, you know.” Pei Su hung his head. The Wind Master demanded, “Do you admit that in these past two hundre years, you were the one who lured all those travelers into the Ancient Kingdom of BanYue?” Since he was already caught, Pei Su didn’t argue, and only replied solemnly, “It was me.” “Why?” The Wind Master demanded. After a pause, Pei Su asked, “Lord Wind Master has long been suspicious, can you not guess why?” “Is it only because these souls of the dead are the iron proof of the blood on your hands whilst you were a human, and would become obstacles for your climbing higher in the future?” Wind Master asked. Pei Su neither agreed nor disagreed, and Xie Lian who was listening on the side, couldn’t help but ask, “If anything, why didn’t you just kill them directly? Why must you use such a method as feeding them the living in order to appease their resentment? How is that different than using another’s flesh and blood to quench the thirst of one?” San Lang spoke up, “He couldn’t.” That’s true too. In the Upper Court, every move by a heavenly official like Pei Su was watched intently by countless eyes. There were many things he couldn’t do directly; he couldn’t use his true form to come down and kill off all those resentful spirits of these soldiers straightforwardly, and he couldn’t send troops to annihilate them either. This was already a concealed affair, if there was too much of a stir, wouldn’t it attract everyone’s gaze? At most he could only send a clone like A-Zhao down quietly. Using the scorpion snakes that Ban Yue was known to be an expert in manipulating to go out and harm, attracting passersby in to feed the resentful spirits to disperse their resentment, no doubt it was a perfect framing scheme. “Your General Pei wouldn’t have done something like this at all.” The Wind Master said, “This time, I’m afraid you’ve crossed the line.” As a heavenly official, that he would release a clone to cause havoc at the BanYue Pass for almost two hundred years, lure innumerous passersby down the wrong path and into the ruins, and die in the mouths of BanYue soldiers, no matter how he could spin it, it wasn’t a small deal. Pei Su only lowered his head and said, “This young one knows.” The Wind Master swept the whisk, “As long as you understand. Reflect on yourself and think on it. We’ll talk in the heavens.” “I understand.” Pei Su said quietly. Having finished with the talk with Pei Su, the Wind Master stuffed the whisk into the back collar of her robe, stood up, and smiled at Xie Lian. “Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I’ve heard much about you.” To Xie Lian, “Heard much about you” really wasn’t a compliment, but nevertheless it was meaningless pleasantries, so he smiled back, “I’m sure it’s nothing. I’ve heard much about you as well, Lord Wind Master.” “Sorry about before, by the way.” The Wind Master said. Xie Lian paused, “Before? What happened before?” “Didn’t you all run into a windstorm in the desert?” Xie Lian could remember the mouthfuls of sand and replied, “Yes?” “I started that.” The Wind Master said. “…” The Wind Master continued casually, “That windstorm was meant to stop you all from going near the Kingdom of BanYue, but you didn’t get blown away, and ended up in BanYue anyway.” The more Xie Lian listened the more he felt something wasn’t right. Starting a windstorm to stop them from going to the BanYue Pass, and now this whole thing suddenly came into the open, just what did it mean? Xie Lian didn’t respond, biding to see what the other would say. The Wind Master then continued, “But, in regards to this whole ordeal, I would suggest Your Highness mind your own business and stop putting your hands where they don’t belong.” Xie Lian stole a look at Ban Yue who’s curled up on the ground, and dreaded. He was already worried that if this scandal was to reach the Upper Court, the officials could easily muck up the truth, add strokes to where there wasn’t, and have Ban Yue take all the blame while Little Pei ran off scot free. With Wind Master’s sudden appearance, telling him not to mind this business, didn’t this cement they will protect Little Pei? Without changing his expression, Xie Lian stepped forward to stand in front of Ban Yue, hiding her behind him, and said warmly, “But I’ve already put my hands into this business, I can’t possibly leave it now.” The Wind Master noticed his gesture and smiled, “Don’t be concerned. You can take the Guoshi of BanYue away with you.” That was unexpected. Xie Lian slightly taken aback, and the Wind Master continued, “While you were all in the pit, we’ve heard everything from up here. Although the Guoshi has turned into a ‘Savage’, when I roamed the city I saw that she had drawn the array to trap the BanYue soldiers and released all the captured mortals. She didn’t hurt anyone, and was even saving people. The only ones I’m taking are General Pei Junior and Ke Mo, you don’t have to worry about me placing blames on anyone.” Xie Lian relaxed, “Much ashamed! I’ve been suspicious.” “It’s normal to worry.” The Wind Master said, “There’s some unpleasant cultures up in the heavens after all.” The lady in black looked as if she couldn’t stay for another moment, and spoke up, “Are you done? If you’re done then let’s go.” The Wind Master rebutted, “Tsk! What’s the rush? The more you rush the more I wanna talk!” Still, she turned her head and smiled, taking out a folding fan from her waist and said, “Your Royal Highness, if there’s nothing else, we’ll see you in the Upper Court?” Xie Lian nodded, and the Wind Master opened her fan. On the fan was the word for wind ‘Feng’ in a slant, and three inclining lines like the wind on the back. This must be the Wind Master’s spiritual device. She fanned forward three times, and backwards three times. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from flat ground. The wind drew dust and sand, and Xie Lian raised his sleeve to block off the debris. When the wind died down, the two ladies, Pei Su, and Ke Mo had all disappeared, leaving only Xie Lian, San Lang, Nan Feng, and the deeply asleep Ban Yue behind. Xie Lian dropped his sleeve, still a little dazed, “What just happened?” San Lang casually strolled over, “A pretty good thing.” Xie Lian watched him, “Is it?” “Yea. The Wind Master was trying to help you by telling you not to get involved.” Nan Feng walked over too, “That’s right. You’ve dug in too deep in this business already. The only thing left to do is to file a complaint to the Heavenly Martial Emperor. Don’t get yourself involved anymore.” Xie Lian got it, “Is it because of General Pei?” “Correct.” Nan Feng said, “This time you have thoroughly offended him.” Xie Lian laughed, “I knew I was going to offend someone one of these days, I guess it doesn’t matter who.” Nan Feng furrowed his brows, “Don’t think I’m joking. Other than the Great Martial Hall, the next most powerful martial palace is Ming Guang. General Pei thinks very highly of Little Pei, and has always tried to boot Quan Yi Zhen. He’s gonna come knocking looking for trouble.” “Quan Yi Zhen is the Martial God that rules the West, right?” Xie Lian asked. “That’s the one.” Nan Feng replied, “Quan Yi Zhen is also a new official. He ascended around the same time as Pei Su. He’s young, and a little… But very powerful. General Pei wanted Pei Su to take all the devotees of the West, and he’s done well for himself, especially these past few years. Now with you dragging this scandal out into the open, it’s not looking good for Pei Su, maybe he’ll even be banished. If he gets banished, your luck is gonna turn for the worse too.” Xie Lian rubbed his forehead, mentally taking note that from now on he would have to be more mindful when eating, drinking, and walking. San Lang however, didn’t think it was a big deal. “Don’t worry. Pei Ming is too proud. He won’t do anything underhanded.” Nan Feng gave him a look. “What about the Wind Master?” Xie Lian asked, “She told me not to get involved, so she’s the one who will file the complaint? Doesn’t that mean she’ll be the one offending General Pei? I can’t have that. Let’s call her back. Nan Feng, do you know the password to her personal communication array?” “You needn’t worry about the Wind Master,” Nan Feng said, “General Pei can hurt you, but he won’t touch her. She may be younger than you but she’s much more successful in the heavens.” “…” Xie Lian wasn’t shocked into silence, but was instead thinking, ‘Who in the heavens is more of a failure than me? I don’t think there’s anyone.’ San Lang laughed, “With that backing, of course she’s successful.” “Are you talking about the lady in black? She looks to be a strong character too.” Xie Lian remarked. “No,” San Lang replied, “But she should also be one of the five elemental masters that make up ‘Wind, Water, Rain, Earth, Thunder’. Probably shouldn’t offend her either.” The Wind Master could start a twister from nothing, obviously powerful. But the lady in black was stronger. Xie Lian recalled the way she watched San Lang as if she’d found out something, and felt rather concerned. “I agree.” But still, there were words that Xie Lian thought didn’t need to be said and he swallowed them. He thought, ‘Even with a strong backing you may not be successful. Back in the day, the Crown Prince of XianLe had the support of the Heavenly Martial Emperor who ruled all three realms for a thousand years. He was still a failure.’ Xie Lian picked up his fallen bamboo hat, dusted it, seeing that it wasn’t flattened, and breathed in relief. He tied it back around his neck and really looked at Nan Feng. “Were you fighting with the two ladies all this way?” “Yes. We fought the entire way.” Nan Feng replied, face dark. Xie Lian patted his shoulders, “Thanks for your hard work.” Suddenly, he remembered there was another one who worked hard, and turned around, “Where’s Fu Yao?” “Wasn’t he watching the wounded?” Nan Feng responded. Xie Lian didn’t recall seeing Fu Yao after getting blown out of the Sinner’s Pit. Actually, ever since A-Zhao revealed himself there had been no more sounds from him, If he didn’t leave back then, he must’ve left when the wind blew. Xie Lian wasn’t actually that worried. He figured Fu Yao didn’t want to get mixed up in this mess so he quickly ran off. But, having heard Nan Feng say “wounded” he came to in shock and both cried at the same time, “The ShanYue fern!” “The sky only just lightened, no rush.” San Lang said. There is no such thing as “no rush” when it came to saving lives. Even if it was far from being 24 hours, who knows if anything might’ve happened in all that time? Xie Lian had no time to think about Fu Yao. He hurriedly carried Ban Yue on his back, and ran towards the palace grounds. Once at the palace, Xie Lian laid Ban Yue down, and immediately picked a few large bushels of the ShanYue fern. That mud face was still on the ground, its face a bloody mess amongst its white bones. In the past Xie Lian would’ve buried it, but first, he’s in a hurry to save people, and second, that man was buried in the ground for fifty to sixty years, he must not want to go back. But the corpse of the dead merchant was missing, and Xie Lian stopped, puzzled. Just then San Lang emerged from the palace with a small clay pot. When Xie Lian saw, he immediately called out, “Bless you, San Lang.” Ban Yue was weak and wouldn’t wake up, so Xie Lian shrank her and tucked her into the pot. The group of them continued to collect the ferns, and rushed back. It had been about eight hours since they left. Returning to where Fu Yao had drawn the circle, Xie Lian saw that many were still within it, scared to venture out. The old man who had taken Nan Feng’s pill was doing alright, and after applying the herb on his wound, he was able to stand and walk after resting for a while. Only, Xie Lian didn’t think there was any need to tell them what the herb used to grow on. After some time, the merchants were all calmed, and began to worry, “Where’s Tian Shengg? How come they haven’t returned yet?” Xie Lian was too busy picking herbs earlier and didn’t bother with Tian Shengg and the others. He was just thinking about going back to the ruins to search for them when he heard the voice of a boy yelling gege and uncles coming closer. Xie Lian turned his head, and sure enough it was Tian Sheng. The boy had a large bushel of the ShanYue fern in his arms, and behind him were two other merchants, all huffing and puffing. Turns out, while on top the walls of the Sinner’s Pit, Ban Yue swept the soldiers down,and captured Tian Sheng and the merchants. They were terrified, but Ban Yue only led them down from the pit, and directed them where to go before sending them on their way. They escaped, picked the herbs, buried the dead merchant’s body, and ran back, yet still somehow was slower than Xie Lian. In any case, Xie Lian escorted the caravan out of the Gobi desert, and ended this journey. Before they bid farewell, Tian Sheng snuck out to find him and whispered mysteriously, “Gege, I’ve a question for you.” “Ask away,” Xie Lian said. “You’re actually a god, aren’t you?” “…” Xie Lian was astonished. But also a little touched. In the past, there was a time when he’d holler and announce to the world, “I’m a god! I am the Crown Prince, Your Royal Highness!” and no one would believe him. This time, he hadn’t even said anything and the other party asked if he was a god, deeply surprising him but also moved him. Tian Sheng added immediately, “I saw you use spells! Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” ‘How would you even tell. No one would believe you…’ Xie Lian thought. Tian Sheng continued, “If not for you, I would’ve gotten thrown into that pit by those ugly ghost soldiers. When I get home I’ll build you a temple and worship you.” Xie Lian watched him pat his chest and make ‘very big, very big’ hand gestures, and couldn’t help but let out a laugh and smiled, “Then, thank you.” San Lang was standing on the side, and he chuckled lightly for some unknown reason. Xie Lian didn’t think it was because he thought a child’s naive words were ridiculous. Although children have no idea just how much work went into constructing a temple, nevertheless, receiving such a promise, fulfilled or not, was still a happy occasion. After much hassling, he had to leave behind a random title “The Scrap Immortal”, then he waved and walked off in the opposite direction.Nan Feng drew another Distance Shortening array and sent them all back to PuQi Shrine. Opening the door, Xie Lian took the straw mat out, laid it open on the ground, and collapsed on it like a dead body. This was done all in one breath. San Lang sat himself down next to him, hand propping up his chin, and watched him. Xie Lian sighed, “How long were we gone?” “Around three, four days.” San Lang replied. Xie Lian sighed again, “Only three, four days, why am I so tired.” Ever since he ascended, he was always worked to the bone like a dog, no lie. After he was done sighing, Xie Lian looked up, “Eh? Nan Feng? Why haven’t you reported back yet?” “Report back where?” Nan Feng asked. “Aren’t you the junior official of Nan Yang Palace? Won’t your general miss you after three, four days?” “My general isn’t in the palace right now, so he won’t miss me.” Nan Feng replied, Xie Lian rolled over and got up, “Alright. It’ll be good too if you stay.” “What are you doing?” Nan Feng asked. Xie Lian looked at him cheerfully, “I’m going to cook you a meal. As a reward for your hard work.” Nan Feng’s face dropped drastically. He raised his hand, pressed two fingers together and touched his temple, as if receiving someone’s private communication. He up and turned, “There’s an emergency at the palace, I’ll see you later.” Xie Lian waved his hand, “What? Nan Feng, don’t go! How can there suddenly be an emergency? I really want to thank you for everything–” “THERE’S AN EMERGENCY!” Nan Feng roared, and ran out the door. Xie Lian sat back down on the mat and looked at San Lang, “I guess he’s not hungry.” There was a loud bang before San Lang could reply, and it was Nan Feng who came back, having slammed open the door in a rush. “YOU TWO–!!” Xie Lian and San Lang were sitting together on the mat and both raised their heads to look at him, “What about us two?” Nan Feng pointed his finger at San Lang, then at Xie Lian, his words stuck in his throat, unable to speak. Then finally, “I will be back!” “You’re very welcome to.” Xie Lian said. Nan Feng gave San Lang one last stink eye before closing the door and leaving. Xie Lian crossed his arms, tilted his head like San Lang, and said, “Looks like there really is an emergency.” He turned to look at the boy next to him and smiled cheerfully, “He’s not hungry, how about you?” San Lang smiled cheerfully back, “I’m starving.” Xie Lian grinned and stood up again, turned around and casually cleaned the altar table, “Alright then. What do you want to eat, Hua Cheng?” Behind him, there was silence. Then chuckling. “I still prefer the name ‘San Lang’.” Ch.30: Poking the Ghost King; Crown Prince Seeks Truth Back still facing San Lang, Xie Lian said, “Crimson Rain Sought Flower?” “Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince.” San Lang replied. Xie Lian finally turned around with a grin, “That’s the first time I’ve heard you address me like that.” The red-clad youth sat on the mat, and adjusted his legs, also grinning, “How does it feel?” Xie Lian gave it a thought, and replied truthfully, ”It feels… a little different than when others call my by that title.” “Hm? How so?” Hua Cheng asked. Xie Lian tilted his head, his eyes squinting a little, “It’s hard to say, it’s just…” When others called him ‘Your Highness’, it was either emotionless, and all business like Ling Wen, but most of the time, when people called him ‘Your Highness’, it was laced with a sense of disdain, an intentional address like calling an ugly woman a beauty, somewhat sarcastic. Yet when Hua Cheng called him ‘Your Highness’, those two words were uttered with grave sincerity. So, while it was hard to describe, Xie Lian felt when Hua Cheng called him ‘Your Highness’, it felt different than when others called him ‘Your Highness’. He continued, “That night at Mount YuJun, the groom who took me away was you, right?” Seeing Hua Cheng’s meaningful smirk, Xie Lian realized his words may have meant something else, and corrected himself, “I meant, the groom in disguise who led me away was you, right?” “I wasn’t disguising as a groom.” Hua Cheng replied. Technically speaking, Hua Cheng wasn’t wrong. The young man at the time never said he was the groom or anything; in fact, he didn’t say a thing at all. He only stopped in front of the marriage sedan and extended his hand. It was Xie Lian who went with him willingly! “Fine. Then, why did you appear at the time?” Xie Lian asked. “This question only has two answers,” Hua Cheng said, “First, I came especially for Your Royal Highness; second, I was passing by and was free. Which do you think is more believable?” Xie Lian counted the number of days Hua Cheng had spent with him, and replied earnestly, “Which is more believable I can’t say, but you really do seem to have a lot of free time.” With his left arm holding his right elbow and his right hand propping his chin, Xie Lian gave Hua Cheng a once over and nodded. “You’re quite different than what the rumours say.” Hua Cheng changed his sitting position but still with a hand propping up his cheek, watched Xie Lian and said, “Oh? And how did you find out I’m me?” The images of that umbrella dripping with blood, that gentle clinking silver chain, and that cold silver vambrace filled Xie Lian’s mind and thought, ‘It’s not like you were trying very hard at hiding yourself.’ But when words dropped from his lips, they became something else. He said in a serious voice, “Even after all the probing you gave nothing away, so you must be a ‘Supreme’. You’re dressed all in a red like the maples, like blood, and seem knowledgeable of everything, capable of everything, and knew no fear. Such a disposition, other than that ‘Crimson Rain Sought Flower’ that even all in heaven fears, there doesn’t seem to be any other candidates.” Hua Cheng laughed, “Shall I take those words as a compliment?” ‘Can’t you tell they’re compliments?’ Xie Lian thought. “Sparing so many words, how come Your Royal Highness doesn’t question my motives for coming close to you?” Hua Cheng asked, his smile curbed somewhat. “If you don’t want to say anything, if I asked, would you tell? Or you might not tell me the truth.” Xie Lian said. “That’s not necessarily true. Besides, you can always boot me out.” Xie Lian replied, “You’re so powerful; if I booted you out now, if you really wanted to do something bad, wouldn’t you just change skin and come back?” The two were staring at each other, grinning, when just then, a small knocking noise broke the temporary silence in the shrine. They looked to where the sound came from and there wasn’t anyone, only that small, black clay pot rolling on the ground. It was the same pot Ban Yue was tucked in. Xie Lian had placed it next to the mat, but somehow it had tipped itself over and rolled to the door. Blocked by the wooden door built by Hua Cheng, it started hitting the door by rolling to it repeatedly. Xie Lian was worried it might break itself, so he opened the door, and the little clay pot rolled itself to the grass field outside. Xie Lian followed behind it, and saw that once the little clay pot made it to the grass field, it stood itself up. Even if it was only a pot, it gave the sense that it was gazing at the night sky. Hua Cheng also emerged from the shrine, and Xie Lian called out to the pot, “Ban Yue, are you awake?” Good thing when they returned from the Gobi it was already deep into the night, otherwise if anyone should see Xie Lian ask how a pot was doing they would probably throw a fit. A moment later, the sulky voice of a young girl came from the pot, “General Hua.” Xie Lian sat down next to it and soothed, “Ban Yue, have you come out to stargaze? Why don’t you come out?” Hua Cheng was leaning against a tree next to them and said, “She only just left the BanYue ruins. Probably best if she stays in there for a while longer.” Xie Lian thought that advice was sound. After all, Ban Yue had been stuck in BanYue for two hundred years; to suddenly change pace might be hard to adjust to. “Then you best stay in there and heal. This is where I cultivate, you don’t have to worry about anything. Don’t think about those soldiers and that general anymore.” The pot shook twice as if trying to say something. After chewing on his words, Xie Lian spoke up, “Ban Yue, the incident this time actually didn’t concern you. Your scorpion snakes were…” “General Hua, I couldn’t move at the time, but I heard everything,” Ban Yue said gloomily. Xie Lian stopped. Only then did he learn that Pei Su only sealed Ban Yue’s movement, but not her senses. “Just as well.” Since she heard everything, then just as well. The clay pot asked, “General Hua, what will happen to General Pei Junior?” Xie Lian crossed his arms in his sleeves, “I don’t know. But, mistakes will always be punished.” Another moment of silence, and the pot shook twice, and Xie Lian finally understood that it was nodding in agreement. “General Pei Junior is actually not a bad person.” Ban Yue said. “Is that right?” “En.” Ban Yue replied, “He’s helped me before.” Somehow, Xie Lian’s mind was suddenly filled with many more things. Ban Yue often received beatings, and using the words of other YongAn children, she had the face that “asked for it”. It was a long time after Xie Lian had known her before he learned of it too, since no matter how much beating Ban Yue received, she wouldn’t tell anyone. Until one day, Xie Lian saw a group of children pressing her face into the mud that he learned where all those bruises on her face came from. But after a while, when he asked her about it, she only remembered that she had to wash the handkerchief that the boy who pulled her out of the mud pit before returning it, and she recalled nothing else. She remembered no one who beat her, but the ones who had saved her once, she remembered for a lifetime. Ban Yue continued, “Although Ke Mo always scorned that he confounded my mind, that I was completely used, but whether if he used me or not, it was my own will to open the fortress gates.” Xie Lian didn’t know what to say anymore, but somewhere in his heart, he felt it go soft. A moment later, he patted that clay pot, “Alright, it’s all in the past. Oh, by the way. Ban Yue, the name Hua Xie is fake, and I haven’t been a general for a long time. You don’t have to keep calling me General Hua anymore.” “Then how should I address you?” Ban Yue asked. That was actually a good question. If Ban Yue also called him ‘Your Highness’ seriously, it’d feel weird. Xie Lian didn’t really care about his address either, he just wanted to change the subject. “That’s up to you. I suppose it’s ok if you keep calling me General Hua.” Only, there’s another one here named Hua, so that might cause some confusion. But then he thought, ‘Hua Xie’ was a fake name he took from the first word of the title ‘Flower Crowned Martial God’, so ‘Hua Cheng’ may very well be a fake name too? That they both coincidentally picked the same surname was rather amusing. “I’m sorry, General Hua.” Ban Yue said again. Xie Lian turned back to look at her and said woefully, “Ban Yue, why are you always apologizing to me?” Did he really look that sorry to people? From within the pot, Ban Yue stated, “I, want to save the world.” Xie Lian: “…………..” “General Hua, you said that once.” Ban Yue said. Xie Lian: “???” He hurriedly pressed down on the clay pot, “Wait, hold on a sec!” “Wait for what?” Ban Yue asked. Xie Lian took a peek at Hua Cheng who was still leaning against the tree with his arms crossed, and said in a low voice, “Did I really say that?” Those words were his favourite saying when he was only ten something years old. In the many hundreds of years thereafter, he shouldn’t have uttered them at all; he couldn’t believe it. But Ban Yue was firm, “General, those were your words.” Xie Lian still wanted to struggle, “I don’t think so…” Ban Yue told him sternly and coldly, “Oh, no, you did say them. There was once, you asked us all what we wanted to do when we’re older. Everyone answered, and after you also said: ‘My dream was to save the world; the common people’.” “…” So that was it. Xie Lian used his hand to cover his entire forehead. “Um. Ban Yue. Why would you remember so clearly something so randomly said?” Ban Yue was confused, “Random? But General Hua, I had thought those words were said very earnestly.” Xie Lian raised his head to gaze at the night sky, feeling helpless. “Haha… really? Maybe. I don’t remember whatever else I might have said.” “You also said, ‘Do what you think is right!’” Ban Yue told him.”’Nothing can block your way!’ ‘Even if you fall into rotten mud a hundred times you must get up with determination!’ There’s a lot, like this.” “Pfft.” He didn’t need to look back to know that it was definitely Hua Cheng under the tree who heard and laughed. Even smothering the pot now wouldn’t help, and Xie Lian thought inwardly, ‘….what… nonsense! … Why did I keep saying those kinds of things… I’m nothing like that at all… am I??’ “But, I don’t know what’s right anymore.” Ban Yue said. Xie Lian froze. “I wanted to do as what General Hua said and save the people.” Ban Yue said, “But in the end, I destroyed the Kingdom of Ban Yue.” Her voice was lost, “And it seemed that no matter what I’d do… the results were all horrible. General Hua, I know I didn’t do things right, but can you tell me, where did I go wrong? What should I do in order to do as you’ve said and… save the world?” “…” Xie Lian replied, “I’m sorry, Ban Yue. How to save the world, the common people…. I didn’t know the answers to that question back then, and even now I still don’t.” Ban Yue was silent for a moment, then said dejectedly, “General Hua, to be honest, it feels like the past two hundred years, I’ve no idea what I’ve been doing. What a failure.” Hearing her, Xie Lian became more depressed, thinking, ‘Doesn’t that make me more of a failure? That I’ve lived eight hundred years for nothing?’ Xie Lian left Ban Yue the little ghost in the pot to stargaze alone to calm down, and went back inside PuQi shrine with Hua Cheng. After closing the door, Xie Lian suddenly spoke up, “Ban Yue remained at the BanYue Pass willingly. It wasn’t because she became a ‘Savage’ that she was trapped there.” She had always remembered that it was her who opened the fortress gates, and had never used any such just excuse like she was doing it for the people. It was to help the BanYue soldiers to vent their resentment so they could leave this world sooner that she allowed Ke Mo to lead them to murder her over and over. Xie Lian shook his head, “If General Pei Junior really didn’t want to leave those BanYue soldiers behind and didn’t want the heavens to find out either, he could very well send a clone to secretly descend to take care of them. Why did he have to use that method?” “Clones don’t have the same amount of power,” Hua Cheng said, “You saw how Pei Su’s clone A-Zhao was? He couldn’t take care of so many BanYue soldiers, so feeding them the living was the fastest and easiest way to disperse their resentment.” “Why did it have to be so fast?” Xie Lian wondered. “Maybe it’s so your little friend Ban Yue wouldn’t hang so painfully as many times.” Hua Cheng replied. Xie Lian was silent for a moment, “Then what about those mortals?” Hua Cheng replied quietly, “They’re heavenly officials. Of course a mortal’s life is nothing but ants in their eyes. Pei Su is a classic high ranked god. As long as it wasn’t discovered, killing a few hundred people was no different than stepping a few hundred insects to death.” Xie Lian glanced at him, and recalled that when San Lang jumped into the Sinner’s Pit, he wiped out all the BanYue soldiers in a flash. He turned to him and said, “Clones don’t have the same amount of power? I see your clone is pretty powerful.” Hua Cheng arched his brows. “Of course. But I’m the real thing.” Xie Lian turned to look at him, surprised, “Eh? This is your true form?” “One hundred percent authentic.” Hua Cheng declared. If anything must be blamed, it would have to be how Hua Cheng looked as if he’s welcoming Xie Lian to test it out himself, and without thinking, Xie Lian raised a finger and poked Hua Cheng’s face. After poking, Xie Lian came to in shock and yelped ‘oh no!’ in his head. He was only curious to see what a Supreme Ghost King’s fake skin would feel like, but apparently his body moved faster than his mind and poked him! What a disgrace! To have someone suddenly poke him, Hua Cheng looked somewhat shocked too, but he was always calm and collected, so his expression cleared instantly. He didn’t say anything, but his raised brows went even higher, as if waiting for Xie Lian to explain, and the laughter in his eyes remained. Xie Lian couldn’t explain himself; he looked at his own finger, hid it away, and casually said, “…Not bad.” Hua Cheng finally burst out laughing, and crossed his arms with his head tilted, “What’s not bad? Do you mean this skin?” “It’s really well made,” Xie Lian said sincerely, “But…” “But what?” Hua Cheng asked. Xie Lian stared at his face and studied it for a moment. Then finally, “But, can I see your real face?” This time, Hua Cheng didn’t respond immediately and dropped his arms. Maybe it was all in Xie Lian’s head, but Hua Cheng’s eyes darkened slightly, and Xie Lian’s heart tightened in spite of himself. — ●MXTX Author Notes: In regards to whether if it’s the real person or a flesh clone, you can understand it like this: –Sun Wukong pulls out a monkey hair, and blows out hundreds of monkeys. Those are all clones. –Sun Wukong knows the seventy-two earthy transformations and turns into
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