The Waning Moon Officer beckoned. “This way please.”
Xie Lian nodded and followed him.
The crowd parted once more, and the Waning Moon Officer led Xie Lian through the path. No one dared follow, and after an incense time, the two had left the bustling street behind and made their way further into a quieter, more remote part of the city.
During their walk, the two barely conversed. The Waning Moon Officer walked as though he was going to disappear into the shadows at any moment, so Xie Lian followed closely. As his eyes swept idly past the officer’s wrist, he abruptly noticed that it bore a black cursed circle.
It was something he was more than familiar with.
A cursed shackle?!
His eyes widened, but he was silent in his shock. Just then, the Waning Moon Officer spoke up.
“We are here.”
Xie Lian looked up and realized he had been led to a lake. There were haunting will-o’-the-wisps floating above the waters, playing around and chasing each other. Next to the lake stood a large, resplendent mansion.
The Heavenly Realm and the Ghost Realm both possessed glamorous architecture. However, the glamour of the Heavens put an emphasis on prominence and prestige, whereas the glamour of Ghost City lay in bewitching frivolity. Even the large characters displaying the name of this mansion, “Paradise Manor,” emitted an evil aura.
Strange music came from the inside, airy and soft, incredibly enchanting, as if there were many women giggling and teasing, singing and dancing languidly in play.
Following the music, Xie Lian entered the mansion slowly. After raising a beaded curtain, warm perfumed air came rushing at his face. Xie Lian turned his head slightly to avoid getting engulfed in the scent.
A thick, snow-white rug made from the fur of some unknown beast covered the floors of the great hall of Paradise Manor; surprisingly, it was a full pelt. Many beautiful and captivating women, barefoot and clad in light silk, were unfurling their lithe limbs like blossoming petals, sensual and beguiling as they danced to their hearts’ content. The music he heard came from them.
The ladies were spinning seductively like bouquets of roses covered in thorns, blossoming in the deep night. When they spun over to Xie Lian, they playfully teased him with their eyes. If any travelers walking in the night were to accidentally intrude upon this scene, it was hard to say whether they’d be more frightened or enchanted. However, when Xie Lian scanned the main hall, his eyes went straight through those women to the person seated in the back.
At the end of the great hall there was a large divan made of black jade, expansive in size; upon it over a dozen people could lounge. But there was only one man seated there, and it was Hua Cheng. There was a group of gorgeous ghost women dancing before him, but he didn’t spare them any looks, only lazily keeping an eye on what was before him.
In front of Hua Cheng was a small golden palace. It roughly resembled a heavenly palace, but on closer inspection, that little structure was built from thin sheets of gold foil stacked upon one another. He was also absentmindedly twirling a piece of gold foil in his hand.
Gold Foil Palace. Xie Lian had played this game often when he was a child; it was no different from village kids stacking rocks to build houses. When he was younger, he disliked separation by nature, and it didn’t matter what it was—as long as the objects were placed together, Xie Lian would refuse to separate them. So whatever it was he built, he’d forbid anyone to touch it, and he always wished desperately that he could glue the fragile sheets together so that it’d never collapse. When he was even younger, if he saw his golden palace fall apart, he’d be distressed to the point of refusing food and sleep until the king and queen coaxed him from his shell. The golden palace before him now was grand, made of hundreds of layered foil sheets, and fragile like an egg, as if a gentle breeze could blow it down.
Xie Lian couldn’t help but chant mentally: Don’t collapse, don’t collapse.
A brief moment later, however, Hua Cheng gazed at his work and flashed a smile. He extended a finger and flicked the top of the golden palace—
Flitter flatter, the foil fluttered and collapsed into a heap.
Gold foil was now strewn across the ground. The golden palace was destroyed, but Hua Cheng appeared amused by his handiwork, like a child who’d pushed over a tower of building blocks.
He mindlessly threw away the gold foil sheet that was still in his hand and jumped off the divan. The dancing women immediately stopped in their steps and backed off to the sides, silencing their songs. Stepping on the gold foil sheets as he went, Hua Cheng walked toward the entrance.