The king nodded slowly to accept the decision. However, Xie Lian interjected.
“If you must punish Feng Xin, then you must punish me first. He’s my servant. First of all, he’s done nothing wrong, and second of all, if he was at fault, it was still done under my orders. I will take punishment on his behalf.”
Hearing him, rage flashed across the king’s face.
By and large, all fathers and sons in the world must go through this change. When the son is young, he idolizes his father as the greatest hero on earth, his own personal role model, and his worship is clear. However, when the son matures to a certain age, he starts to question everything his father does. This can even brew revulsion, until, in the end, neither side will acknowledge the other.
Xie Lian’s fundamental objective for entering Mount Taicang was to improve his martial arts and search for the direction of his heart. However, he was never attached to a particular place where he trained, nor his identity.
The so-called “Dao” of cultivation meant exactly what it said: “to walk the path.” As long as one’s heart was set on the path with a singular mind, then training could be done anywhere. He didn’t need to follow any dictated norms, nor enter the Royal Holy Temple. But there was another reason why Xie Lian had begged and pestered them to let him train on Mount Taicang, and that was because he didn’t really get along with his father.
As the esteemed Crown Prince of Xianle, the moment Xie Lian was born, the King of Xianle had already drawn out every detail of the path of his life, neat and orderly. It was all right when he was still young. A child had few worries, and Xie Lian only needed his parents to build gold foil palaces with him, to frolic and play. As the years went by, Xie Lian saw more and more that his father wasn’t only a father, but also the ruler of a kingdom, and many of their beliefs and actions no longer agreed. For example, the so-called Royal Authority was one of the things Xie Lian loathed.
If they couldn’t agree, then it was best to stay far away. Every time he returned to the palace, he spent time conversing merrily with his mother, but he never had any heart-to-hearts with his father. Neither of the two ever took the initiative to talk to each other, and it was the queen who always mediated between them.
Father and son had maintained this stalemate for many months, and now, with Xie Lian stubbornly refusing to back down, the king said, “Very well. Take his place, if you must. Let’s see if you can actually withstand it!”
“Of course I can!” Xie Lian retorted.
The queen saw the two of them butting heads again and anxiously intervened, “Why must it be like this?”
Just then, Feng Xin, who hadn’t spoken a word, suddenly raised his left arm and struck down on his right. There was a loud CRACK. The crowd was startled and looked toward the sound, and saw that his right arm was drooping limply, exactly like Qi Rong’s. Xie Lian was both shocked and furious.
“Feng Xin!”
Cold sweat rolled down Feng Xin’s forehead, and without a word, he knelt down before Qi Rong and ko, ko, ko, kowtowed three times, before Xie Lian could stop him. Quite pleased, Qi Rong laughed out loud.
“All right, I guess I’ll forgive you. Why couldn’t you have done this earlier?”
Even though Qi Rong’s arm was also broken, he looked energized and refreshed when he left, as if he had just won a battle. As for Feng Xin, he was still kneeling on the ground. Mu Qing stood on the sidelines watching, looking vaguely ashen, but his thoughts were otherwise unreadable.
Xie Lian whipped around to face his father, yelling angrily, “YOU—！”
Feng Xin grabbed him with his left arm. “Your Highness!”
The queen also put her hands on him to pull him back. Feng Xin had followed Xie Lian since the age of fourteen, and Xie Lian knew he was given preferential treatment by the queen. Feng Xin had only done this because he couldn’t bear to see the queen sad over the dispute between father and son. If Xie Lian threw a fit now, then Feng Xin’s efforts would go to waste. He swallowed his outrage, but the fire continued to burn inside his heart. The king finally looked appeased and left with a grim expression.
The queen had always liked Feng Xin. She sighed. “My child, we’ve wronged you.”
“Please don’t say that, Your Majesty. This was my duty,” Feng Xin replied.
Hearing this, Mu Qing’s eyes flickered, and he seemed to sneer soundlessly. Xie Lian, however, closed his eyes.
“Mother, if you really can’t handle Qi Rong, lock him up.”