Текст книги "Благословение Небожителей. Том 6 (ЛП)"

Автор книги: Мосян Тунсю

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 20 страниц) [доступный отрывок для чтения: 8 страниц]

“San Lang, did you carve this one too?”

Hua Cheng looked over and fell silent. It took him a moment to reply. “It was from my beginner years. Gege, stop looking at it.”

That was clearly the truth—this divine statue was quite ugly indeed. Even though it was easy to tell that the sculptor had done his utmost to carve the perfect form he saw in his mind, his wish had been left unfulfilled due to the limits of his skill. While it wasn’t cockeyed or crooked, the little figure was disproportionate in scale and smiled like it was mentally challenged.

Despite all that, the sculptor had still managed to include every single detail without fault. Xie Lian could easily tell that this was a God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue; its ears even had red dots for coral pearl earrings.

Xie Lian silently covered his mouth and turned away. He rubbed hard at his face in an attempt to seem natural.

Hua Cheng didn’t know what to say, so he pleaded again as he tried to cover the statue with its veil. “Your Highness, please don’t look at it anymore.”

“Don’t misunderstand! I think it’s really cute!” Xie Lian hastily assured him.

But then he realized, wasn’t he the one Hua Cheng had sculpted? If he called this thing cute, wasn’t he basically calling himself cute? It’d be incredibly thick-skinned of him to lie so blatantly. Xie Lian couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Seeing him like this, Hua Cheng bowed his head and lowered his lashes as he started to chuckle along with him.

As they both laughed, much of the nameless jittery air cleared away.

They continued onward and passed by another statue that was lounging on a stone bed. Its entire body was covered with a layer of thin, smoke-like white satin. Xie Lian was very curious and was just about to pull off the white veil over the divine statue’s body when Hua Cheng unexpectedly seized his wrist.

“Your Highness!”

Ever since they entered this Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, Hua Cheng had mostly been calling him “Your Highness.” Xie Lian looked at him, and while Hua Cheng let go of his wrist, he still seemed a bit uncomfortable.

“I already know it’s a statue of me. I still can’t look?” Xie Lian asked.

“If gege wants to look at statues, the best one I sculpted remains to be seen. I’ll show you some other time. Don’t look at any of the ones in this cave anymore,” Hua Cheng said.

Xie Lian didn’t understand. “Why? I think all the divine statues in this Cave of Ten Thousand Gods were carved really well. Really. It’d be a shame if I never got to see them. Which reminds me, those murals—”

“I’ll go destroy them,” Hua Cheng said promptly.

Seeing that he really planned to head off right now and do that, Xie Lian grabbed him hastily. “Don’t, don’t, don’t! Why destroy them? Just because I saw them? Fine, fine, fine…I’ll tell you the truth. I’ve only actually seen a few, like the one depicting the Shangyuan Heavenly Ceremonial Procession and the one of us in the army. I didn’t see most of them because Feng Xin and Mu Qing wouldn’t let me, so I have absolutely no idea what you painted. Don’t destroy them!”

Only then did Hua Cheng turn to face him. “…Really?”

Xie Lian held on to him and replied with the utmost sincerity, “Really. If you don’t want me to look, I won’t.”

Hua Cheng seemed to quietly sigh in relief, then he smiled. “They’re no good anyway. If there’s something you want to see, I’ll just paint it for you on the spot.”

This reaction made Xie Lian even more curious. But he didn’t want to spur Hua Cheng into destroying those precious murals, so he could only push down his own desires.

After taking a few steps, Xie Lian suddenly frowned. “…Some-thing’s not right.”

“What is it?” Hua Cheng asked.

Xie Lian turned to look at Hua Cheng. “White No-Face. Why would he come to Mount Tonglu?”

“Perhaps he hasn’t fully regained his powers, and he wants to use the Kiln to be fully reborn into this world,” Hua Cheng replied.

“If that’s true…would it mean he’s not currently a supreme?” Xie Lian wondered.

“That’s…not entirely impossible,” Hua Cheng said.

When White No-Face had dropped his disguise as Feng Xin and Mu Qing and attacked, his abrupt appearance had been both shocking and terrifying. Xie Lian’s first reaction was to assume that their opponent couldn’t be defeated, so he’d grabbed Hua Cheng and fled. But they hadn’t actually fought him directly for long, so they couldn’t precisely gauge White No-Face’s current strength.

Was he putting on a front? Or was he stronger than he seemed? Nothing could be determined from a rushed exchange of blows that only lasted for a few seconds.

“I assumed he’d gotten stronger when I saw those two fake skins,” Xie Lian muttered. “But maybe…he hasn’t completely recovered. Maybe he’s currently at his weakest. Otherwise, why would he come to Mount Tonglu? Maybe…I can give it a shot.”

Give it a shot and try to take him down!

“Good. I’ll go fight him,” Hua Cheng immediately replied.

Xie Lian instantly snapped out of it and hastily said, “No, don’t. Don’t face him directly. My giving it a shot will be plenty!”

Supreme Ghost Kings would normally never face each other in combat so easily, as evidenced by the way Ship-Sinking Black Water and Crimson Rain Sought Flower had been able to coexist in peace. This was because ghost kings weren’t like heavenly officials, whose profiles were well known to anyone who cared to keep track—from their strengths, to the parameters of their powers, to the size of their temples and number of worshippers. But ghost kings hid their true strength just as they hid their pasts. They possessed no knowledge of each other’s abilities, and no one knew the potential consequences of a fight between two supremes. This encouraged them to maintain the balance at all costs.

“There’s no need to worry,” Hua Cheng said. “The victor hasn’t been decided yet. Surely gege doesn’t believe I would let you face him by yourself?”

Xie Lian shook his head. “…It’s not that, San Lang. It’s that we’re not the same to him. He…won’t kill me, I can swear it.”

“Why?” Hua Cheng questioned.

After a moment of hesitation, Xie Lian chose not to explain. He only said, “You don’t know how terrifying that creature is—”

Hua Cheng cut him off. “Your Highness, I know,” he said grimly.

Only then did Xie Lian remember that Hua Cheng had also joined the Xianle army and personally experienced the Xianle battlefield. He’d seen the tragedy with his own eyes, the fields piled with corpses.

But Hua Cheng didn’t know. He hadn’t personally witnessed that horrific battle between Jun Wu and White No-Face. He had never crossed paths with White No-Face directly.

Having considered this, Xie Lian shook his head forcefully. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just…I just…I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Hua Cheng’s eye twinkled at this. A moment later, he smiled. “Gege, don’t worry. I’m already dead, so it won’t be easy for me to die again. Besides, have you forgotten what I told you before? Unless he finds my ashes, he can’t do anything to me.”

Xie Lian had forgotten entirely that the ashes were a factor. He quickly said, “Wait! Everything else aside, San Lang, your… Have you stored your ashes somewhere safe?”

“A long time ago,” Hua Cheng replied.

Xie Lian nodded, but a moment later he couldn’t help but double check. “Are you sure they’re properly hidden? That the hiding place is secure enough and won’t be found?”

“To me, it’s the safest place in the world,” Hua Cheng answered leisurely.

Xie Lian didn’t think there was anything absolute out there, however. “You’re completely sure?” he pressed.

Hua Cheng smiled cheerfully. “If their hiding place is destroyed, then there’s no need for me to exist either. Of course I’m sure.”

Although Xie Lian was rather concerned about what “no need to exist” meant, they weren’t in a safe place and there could be ears listening in. It wasn’t the right time to probe this subject deeper, so he let it go. But it made Xie Lian want to ask Hua Cheng—just how had he died?

Xie Lian really wanted to know, but he didn’t know how to ask. When mortals died, whether their souls could remain on the corporeal earth depended on their obsessions and attachments. In most cases, anguish and resentment were the strongest fixations. To become a Supreme Ghost King, one’s obsession would have to be extraordinarily intense. So Xie Lian was afraid that Hua Cheng wouldn’t be able to handle it if he asked about his death—it might cause him pain, like stabbing an old scar. And Xie Lian himself might not be able to bear the details either.

These past eight hundred years…how had Hua Cheng endured them?

A horrifying thought struck Xie Lian, and he was instantly awash in cold sweat. He quickly turned to Hua Cheng.

“San Lang!”

“What is it?” Hua Cheng answered.

Xie Lian’s fingers twitched slightly. “I…I have another question I want to ask you.”

“By all means,” Hua Cheng replied.

Xie Lian stared at him. “Other than in Xianle, did you encounter me at another place or time at any point in the past eight hundred years?”

Hua Cheng slowly turned his head to look at him. “Regretfully…though I never gave up and did my utmost to find you, I did not.”

Xie Lian pressed him. “Really?”

Hua Cheng looked him squarely in the eyes. “Really. Why does gege ask?”

Xie Lian sighed an imperceptible breath of relief and forced a smile. “Nothing. It’s just… The way I passed my days in the earlier years wasn’t the prettiest sight. I was a mess and very much a failure. I just wouldn’t have wanted you to witness that.”

Hua Cheng laughed. “How could that be?”

But Xie Lian didn’t laugh at all. “It’s not a joke. I really was quite the failure.”

Hearing this, Hua Cheng withdrew his smile and turned solemn. “That’s fine too. Your Highness, didn’t you say so yourself?”

“Me?” Xie Lian was confused. “What did I say?”

“‘To me, the one basking in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is you, not the state of you,’” Hua Cheng recited languidly as he gazed at Xie Lian. He blinked meaningfully, cocking an eyebrow. “I feel the same way.”

Xie Lian was stunned speechless for a good moment, then he quickly slapped his hands over his face to cover it, feeling like his whole head was burning up. “D-did I say that?!”

“You did!” Hua Cheng insisted. “Gege, don’t deny it.”

Xie Lian used his arm to block his face. “I…I don’t think so!”

“Gege, do you want to see the proof? I’ll find it for you,” Hua Cheng said.

Xie Lian’s head shot up. “You… Did you… No way! San Lang, you… Have you been recording everything?!”

“I’m joking, joking.”

“I honestly don’t believe you…”

“Gege, trust me.”

“I don’t trust you anymore!”

The pair came to a fork in the road. Suddenly, a breeze blew in. Hua Cheng tilted his body to shield Xie Lian, raising an arm as if to protect him.

It wasn’t a strong breeze and didn’t call for anyone to block it, but Hua Cheng’s action had come completely naturally. The wind passed, leaving strands of hair aflutter, tangled in the same way as Xie Lian’s thoughts. Xie Lian noticed that Hua Cheng’s expression and the contours of his face were cold when he wasn’t looking his way. Beautiful in his nonchalance, Hua Cheng didn’t even realize he’d moved without hesitation—as if protecting Xie Lian was innate to him.

“San Lang!” Xie Lian blurted again.

Hua Cheng tilted his head to look at him, and only then did he flash a smile. “What is it, Your Highness?”

Xie Lian felt that Hua Cheng probably didn’t notice himself smiling. A clear and powerful voice in Xie Lian’s heart told him that this man really saw him as a god.

Xie Lian’s fingers clenched furtively. “Once we’re out of Mount Tonglu, there’s a lot I want to tell you.”

Hua Cheng nodded lightly. “All right. I look forward to it.”

“Have Feng Xin and Mu Qing escaped?” Xie Lian asked.

“They’re already out,” Hua Cheng replied.

“And White No-Face?” Xie Lian asked. “He didn’t catch up to us, and he didn’t go to stop them. Where is he now? How far is he from us?”

“He—” Hua Cheng’s face changed before he could finish, and he lightly pressed two fingers against his right eyebrow. A moment later, he said, “…He disappeared.”

“How could he disappear?” Xie Lian asked in shock.

Hua Cheng remained calm as he focused on searching. “He’s just gone. Completely vanished.”

This was impossible—not even a ghost could disappear into thin air while surrounded by wraith butterflies in this Cave of Ten Thousand Gods!

“Let me see?” Xie Lian blurted.

He gripped Hua Cheng’s shoulders with his hands and went on tiptoe to touch their foreheads together. Hua Cheng rested a hand on Xie Lian’s waist, then hesitated as if he was going to pull away. In the end, his hand stayed where it was and pulled Xie Lian even closer.

The scenes that Hua Cheng had seen moments earlier flashed before Xie Lian’s eyes. The white-clad man strolled through a stone cavern. Countless wraith butterflies rushed him and wrapped him in a shimmering human-shaped chrysalis. In an instant, those butterflies were engulfed in a crackling explosion of silver light, shattering them into a burst of sparkling glitter.

Once the silver light faded, the white-clad man was gone!

After that, Hua Cheng’s right eye brought Xie Lian elsewhere in the caverns, sweeping through countless other tunnels. However, the white-clad figure was nowhere to be seen. Xie Lian was puzzled and pulled away slightly.

“Could he have left?”

Now that White No-Face had seen Xie Lian, he would stop at nothing to harass him. Others might not understand this, but Xie Lian knew it all too well.

“Maybe our earlier speculation was correct,” Hua Cheng said. “His top priority is to use the Kiln to regain his supreme status, so he left ahead of us.”

Hua Cheng’s voice was right in Xie Lian’s ear. He only came back to himself when he heard those words, and he realized that Hua Cheng’s face was cupped in his hands. Xie Lian had pulled him down, making the taller man bend slightly at the waist. Xie Lian quickly let go.

“We have to stop him!” he cried.

Their mission was to prevent any candidates with the potential to become supremes from reaching Mount Tonglu. They’d run from the white-clad man earlier, but now that the situation was clear, they rushed through the countless divine statues in search of him. Before long, they reached the spot where he’d disappeared.

Other than some divine statues, there was not a single thing to be found. Silver shards of light covered the ground, and the little butterflies that hadn’t been completely destroyed by the shock wave were fluttering their broken wings. Xie Lian bent down; even if he didn’t know whether it would help, he still wanted to cup them in his hands.

Just then, he heard Hua Cheng’s voice from behind him. “…Gege, come over here by my side.”

His voice was laced with suppressed anger, but the rage wasn’t directed at Xie Lian.

Xie Lian looked up and saw that Hua Cheng’s blazing gaze was trained on a divine statue ahead of them.

The statue was covered head to toe with a white veil, but the general shape of it could be made out. One section protruded sharply; it seemed to be pointing a sword.

A patch of caustic red at the sharp tip of the sword’s point was spreading, staining, soaking the white silk veil.

There was blood on the sword!

Clearly there was something strange about this divine statue. Perhaps the original was no longer under the white silk and had been replaced with something else. Xie Lian leapt to his feet and stood at Hua Cheng’s side, pointing the sword Fangxin at the strange form. Hua Cheng wore a dark expression. He gave a wave, and the white veil fell with the motion.

Xie Lian’s pupils shrank.

It was a divine statue of Xie Lian beneath the white veil—a God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue. There was a sword in one hand, a flower in the other, and a smile on its face. But there were traces of blood on that smile.

The blood had come from the sword in its hand. A boy dangled there, pierced through. The boy had bandages covering his head and blood covering his body.

It was Lang Ying!

Chapter 94:

From the Sealed Kiln, One Supreme Shall Emerge

LANG YING’S HEAD had drooped to the side as though he’d lost consciousness. When Xie Lian saw it was him, he moved to save him without thinking—but he stopped dead in his tracks as his mind caught up with the situation. There was no one besides White No-Face here, so why would Lang Ying suddenly appear?

Seeing that the pure, holy statue of the God-Pleasing Crown Prince had been corrupted by dripping blood, Hua Cheng was obviously furious. His dark expression radiated rage, and the scimitar Eming exuded a chilling aura.

“Get the hell down,” he said.

With that, “Lang Ying’s” drooping head actually heeded and righted itself. He blinked open his eyes, then slowly pulled himself off the sword and dropped to the ground.

When White No-Face blew up the wave of silver butterflies that had surrounded him, he had used the distraction that the blinding silver light provided to hide himself under this divine statue’s white veil, then he’d transformed. If he could disguise himself as Lang Ying, it meant he must’ve seen the boy somewhere before.

“Where’s the real Lang Ying?” Xie Lian demanded.

“Your Highness, maybe there never was a ‘real’ Lang Ying,” Hua Cheng said.

If “Lang Ying” had never existed to begin with and was only White No-Face in his weakened form, everything would be easy to explain. But when Xie Lian remembered the girl Xiao-Ying who had died on Mount Yujun, he wished that explanation made less sense than it did.

Xie Lian swiftly thought of another possibility. “Or perhaps…he devoured Lang Ying.”

The “Lang Ying” before them was growing taller. His body stretched upward, and the bandages on his face unwrapped and dropped away to reveal the mask beneath. He lifted his head slightly when he heard Xie Lian’s guess and seemed to smile.

“You guessed right.”

So it was true.

After White No-Face was pulverized and dispersed by Jun Wu, all that was left of him was a wisp of a broken soul wandering the Mortal Realm. He drifted for who knows how long—and at some point in all that time, he met the ghost Lang Ying. He must’ve somehow coaxed or deceived Lang Ying into hosting him within his own body since his remnant soul might have been too weak to devour him outright. He had stayed glued to Lang Ying’s body and gradually recovered, and the end result was standing before Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. Ghost-devouring ghost—White No-Face had bitten the hand that fed him, his host Lang Ying. Just as He Xuan had devoured the Reverend of Empty Words, Lang Ying had become White No-Face’s slave.

It only took a few moments for “Lang Ying” to completely transform into White No-Face.

Hua Cheng eyed him. “Why would Lang Ying agree to lend you his spirit body?”

A request like that would be like a stranger asking a homeowner to open their doors and allow them to live there and eat their food. Lang Ying had survived as a ghost for hundreds of years—although he was timid and hesitant, he shouldn’t have been so foolish.

“I can of course provide an answer to your question,” White No-Face replied amiably. “But are you sure the one beside you wants to hear it?”

Hua Cheng looked at Xie Lian, whose expression was slightly strange. He surprisingly didn’t notice the gaze sent his way.

“Surname Lang, Yong’an, and he suffers from Human Face Disease,” White No-Face said. “Why did he agree to let me eat him? Can’t you guess?”

Xie Lian’s face instantly went pale. Veins popped on the backs of his hands, and he swung his sword with a shout of, “Shut up!”

White No-Face sidestepped and avoided the strike, but Xie Lian’s attack sliced through the sword in the hands of his own divine statue. Now he’d done it—he’d left the God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue wielding a broken sword, making the statue itself a ruined artifact. Xie Lian snapped out of his frenzy like he’d been drenched by a bucket of cold water.

The wraith butterflies seemed outraged and swarmed over. White No-Face appeared completely unbothered and gave a toneless laugh as he covered his face with his sleeve. In an instant, he vanished into the darkness, leaving their conflict entirely.

Xie Lian stared at the broken stone sword on the ground. “I’m sorry—” he murmured to Hua Cheng automatically.

Hua Cheng cut him off. “Isn’t it silly for Your Highness to apologize to me? He’s gone. Now what?”

Xie Lian pulled himself together somewhat. “Did he flee? We can’t let him enter the Kiln!”

The pair hurried out of the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods and back onto the snowy mountain. Right as they made it outside, they felt the earth quake and the mountain shake. Looking up, they saw even more waves of snow crashing down. This roaring avalanche was even larger than the one they had experienced before—it was as if something massive buried under the heavy snow was just waking up, and it was roaring and shaking off thousands of years of built-up snow.

“Can we still make it up there?!” Xie Lian cried.

Hua Cheng gripped his hand firmly. “We can if you follow me!”

They faced off against the crashing current of ice and snow. Their passage was grueling and perilous, and for every step forward they were forced three steps back, but they managed to avoid the most violent waves of snow and rubble and the countless pits as they blazed their trail up the mountain.

Finally, they reached the highest point. The volcano’s peak was coated in an unfathomably thick layer of ice. Xie Lian thought he’d slip if he tried going even a bit faster, but Hua Cheng led him by the hand and moved forward with steady, fearless steps.

The pair came before the volcano’s enormous mouth—a cavernous maw that seemed to snarl at the heavens. When Xie Lian peered into its depths, he saw nothing but complete darkness. Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought he saw a red light pulsing horribly in the deepest recesses. Sometimes it was there, sometimes not.

Xie Lian could feel himself starting to panic. He held his bamboo hat to his head to keep it from being torn away by the snowy winds. “Did he go in already?”

Hua Cheng glanced inside, and his expression turned grim. “Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“The Kiln is closing.”

That caught Xie Lian off guard. “What’s going on? Why is it closing so soon? Don’t there need to be at least a few ghosts inside before the slaughter can begin?”

“That’s usually true,” Hua Cheng said. “However, if the Kiln believes an entrant has an extremely high chance of breaking through, it will close upon their request.” After a pause, he added, “That’s what I did back then.”

“So is he a supreme or not?” Xie Lian asked. “What will happen if a Supreme Ghost King enters the Kiln again?”

“The same thing that happens to an ascended heavenly official facing another Heavenly Tribulation.”

In other words, his strength would increase exponentially! If they allowed White No-Face to pass this obstacle, the consequences were unimaginable—and once he emerged from the mountain, Xie Lian would surely be the first one he’d seek out.

After eyeing that infinite, bottomless abyss for a while, Xie Lian said slowly, “San Lang, I…I might need to go down there to resolve this.”

“Then go. I’ll come with you,” Hua Cheng replied quietly.

Xie Lian gazed at him. Hua Cheng looked up and met his eyes. He cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

“All we’re doing is heading inside to eliminate an eyesore, then breaking through the Kiln again. That’s it. It’s not like it’s hard.”

Seeing him so relaxed, Xie Lian’s tensed emotions loosened a little as well, and he smiled.

A moment later, Hua Cheng said, “However, there is one thing.”

Xie Lian made a curious noise and tilted his head. One of Hua Cheng’s arms suddenly snaked around Xie Lian’s waist and pulled him into his arms, and he lifted Xie Lian’s chin gently with his hand. And then, Hua Cheng enveloped Xie Lian’s lips with his own.

They kissed and embraced for a long time in the snowstorm before their lips slowly parted. Xie Lian was dazed for a good moment before he jolted out of his stupor. Flushed, he opened his eyes.

“Wh-what was that all of a sudden?!”

Although it wasn’t the first time they’d done this, they had always used grand, dignified reasons to justify their actions—things like “lending spiritual powers,” “transferring air,” or “it was simply an accident.” But now that certain things had been made clear, those excuses were exposed as falsehoods, and their actions were abruptly far more significant.

Xie Lian didn’t know where to put his hands—should he cling to Hua Cheng’s arms or push him away? Should he press Hua Cheng’s head down or block his face?

Hua Cheng puffed a breath into his ear. “I’ll lend Your Highness a bit of spiritual power in case of an emergency…” he whispered. “Won’t you accept it?”

Xie Lian unconsciously gulped. “Th-this is ‘a bit’?” he stuttered. “It seems like too much… I haven’t…I haven’t paid you back for all the times before…”

“It’s not that much. And there’s no rush,” Hua Cheng said. “Take your time paying it back. The account will clear one day.”

Xie Lian made a few vague noises of agreement and was just about to run away when Hua Cheng pulled him to a stop.

“Your Highness! Where are you going? You’re running in the wrong direction,” he pointed out.

Only then did Xie Lian realize that he was running back the way they’d come. He quickly turned back around, slipping on the ice in the process. He pulled his bamboo hat down.

“I…I wasn’t… I-I’m just a little cold. Thought I’d jog around a bit to warm up…”

He put on the bamboo hat, then pushed it off to carry it on his back, then put it on again. Finally, he grabbed Hua Cheng’s hand and held it tight. The pair stood side by side and looked into the immense abyss below.

Hua Cheng’s voice was casual. “After this is resolved, I’ll show gege my proudest achievement in sculpture.”

“Okay,” Xie Lian replied.

They jumped down together.

Gusts of wild wind whipped past his ears so fiercely that it felt like waves crashing into him. But even that force couldn’t separate their hands—they held on to each other even harder.

Yet somehow, halfway down, Xie Lian’s hand was empty.

His grip hadn’t slipped, and Hua Cheng hadn’t let go—the hand he’d been holding in his own had simply disappeared in an instant, leaving behind nothing but emptiness.

Xie Lian’s heart lurched, and he shouted, “San Lang?!” He was falling so quickly that his cry was left dozens of meters above his head. It sounded unreal.

It was a long time before Xie Lian finally landed steadily on his feet. He immediately stood upright and called out again.

“San Lang?”

There was no answer. The hollow echo of the name told him of the immense size of the empty space where he was standing.

There was darkness all around except for above. Xie Lian looked up. He could see a snow-white sky above his head, but it was gradually shrinking. That had to be the Kiln’s mouth closing.

But where was Hua Cheng?

Crackle, whoosh. Xie Lian lit a palm torch, hoping to illuminate his surroundings and see what things were like down here. But the darkness was immeasurably deep, and this little flame couldn’t show him anything. The firelight itself seemed to be absorbed by the indifferent, dark void.

Xie Lian hadn’t controlled his powers well in his haste, and the flames erupted a little too high, nearly burning his face. He quickly tossed the fire to the ground.

As it fell, the firelight just happened to illuminate the back of a faint white silhouette looming not far away.

Xie Lian was instantly on guard. “Who’s there?!”

The white silhouette turned around and answered evenly, “You know who I am.”

Although he answered, the muscles on the man’s face did not move an inch. That was only natural, as he was wearing a half-crying, half-smiling mask.

“San Lang!” Xie Lian blurted.

Even though the sight of that face sent terror shivering through him, Xie Lian hadn’t cried out due to fear but due to worry. Of course, there was still no answer, and the crying-smiling mask came another step closer.

“You’re wasting your time yelling. The Kiln is sealed. It’s only you and me here.…no one else.”

Xie Lian automatically looked up again. Earlier there had still been a small snowy-white sliver of sky, but that bit of light had been completely swallowed by the darkness around them. The Kiln had truly sealed itself.

Xie Lian had never expected things to turn out like this—trapped alone with White No-Face, just the two of them, locked inside the Kiln.

Just the two of them? Why was it the two of them?!

Xie Lian gripped Fangxin and pointed the sword at him. “What is going on here? Are you meddling again? Where is he? Where is he right now?”

White No-Face clamped the edge of the sword between two fingers and flicked the blade with his other hand, making it ring clear and crisp. “He’s gone.”

Xie Lian watched this, and his eyes went cold. “Explain yourself clearly. What do you mean, ‘gone’?”

“He doesn’t want to follow you anymore. He left. He’s dead. What do you think?” White No-Face said leisurely.

Xie Lian’s heart dropped at first, but that was followed immediately by a violent rage, and he struck. “Stop your nonsense!”

White No-Face once again caught the blade effortlessly. “Fine, fine. I was indeed talking nonsense. Don’t worry, I simply sent him outside the Kiln. Even if he wants to rush back in here, it’s too late now.”

Xie Lian was fine with Hua Cheng trapped outside as long as it meant he was okay. He quietly sighed a breath of relief.

“But it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t come in,” White No-Face continued. “Even if he wouldn’t agree right now, who knows if he’ll still want to be with you when he sees what you’ll become.”

Xie Lian couldn’t formulate a response. His patience fully gone, he swung his sword again, yelling, “Shut up!”

White No-Face easily dodged every single one of his strikes, and Xie Lian cried out in rage.

“I’ve had enough of you! What do you want? What exactly do you want?! How long are you going to keep clinging to me?! Why aren’t you dead? Why did you come to the Kiln?!”

“Because of you!” White No-Face replied.