When the stone door opened this time, it dumped him directly on top of Hua Cheng!
He’d fallen into the armory! At the moment, Hua Cheng was sitting on the grand chair of the armory, composedly wiping the scimitar Eming. Even when someone suddenly fell into his lap from above, he’d only moved his hands away and stopped cleaning without any air of surprise. He gazed calmly at Xie Lian, as if waiting for an explanation. Of course, Xie Lian had none and could only lie in his lap and stare back boldly.
Suddenly, he saw another person at the periphery of his vision, and when he turned to look, he saw it was Lang Ying.
That bandaged boy was sitting on the floor looking terrified. In fact, his hands were clutching his head while he stared at the two of them. Why was Lang Ying here too? It looked like Hua Cheng was interrogating him?
But when Xie Lian peered upwards, he saw half of Shi Qingxuan’s white boot stepping over the void. There wasn’t time to think, and Xie Lian quickly gripped Hua Cheng’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry!” Xie Lian cried, then tackled Hua Cheng.
This tackle shoved Hua Cheng a few meters away, and he even tumbled a couple times before he found his footing. By then, Shi Qingxuan, with Ming Yi still on his back, had already jumped and landed with ease in the same spot Hua Cheng had just been sitting. Xie Lian forced himself to look back, and Hua Cheng was still looking at him without a word, but that one quirked brow was now arched even higher.
Xie Lian leapt to his feet and backed off a few feet, apologizing as he did so. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Lang Ying stared at Hua Cheng, seeming extremely frightened, and rushed toward Xie Lian to hide behind him.
Xie Lian shielded him and said, “San Lang, allow me to explain.”
“Mmm. I’m waiting,” Hua Cheng responded.
“Wait, shouldn’t it be the opposite?” Shi Qingxuan spoke up. “He should be the one who owes you an explanation! He’s the one responsible for the missing heavenly official! Be wary, Your Highness!”
This was exactly the situation Xie Lian didn’t want to face. He looked at Hua Cheng intently.
“San Lang, I don’t know what misunderstanding occurred between you and Lord Earth Master, but why don’t we talk this out peacefully?”
The best-case scenario would be Hua Cheng letting them go without harm. Although the Earth Master was wounded, his life was not in danger and he wasn’t missing any limbs. If he dropped the matter, this wouldn’t need to escalate. If Hua Cheng let them leave, then when they reported back to the Heavens, Xie Lian would do anything to beg Jun Wu for mercy, heedless of his own honor.
Unexpectedly, however, Hua Cheng asked, “Earth Master? What Earth Master?” After a pause, he continued, “Oh, did you mean the one on Wind Master’s back? He’s nothing more than an inept subordinate of mine.”
Both Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan were taken aback at this.
“He’s obviously one of the heavenly officials! How dare you say otherwise!” Shi Qingxuan objected.
Hua Cheng laughed. “Then I wonder why your honorable heavenly official would conceal his identity, leave behind his respectable title, and come work as an officer under me?”
Hua Cheng drew out his scimitar in a silvery crescent moon flash that followed Eming’s curve. “If that is genuinely the Earth Master, then what commendable patience to put on an act for ten years. In the past decade, I had thought him suspicous from time to time, but there was never any proof. If I hadn’t spotted him traveling alongside the Wind Master in Banyue, I’d still be in doubt.”
In a split second, Xie Lian understood everything.
So that was what happened!
As it turned out, the reason the Earth Master had gone missing and been imprisoned was ultimately because he had gone undercover and concealed his true identity for a decade to serve as a ghost officer under Hua Cheng. To be blunt, he was a spy.
Once in a while, Hua Cheng would think this subordinate’s actions were suspect, but without concrete evidence, he’d just kept him under observation. And it was only recently that Hua Cheng uncovered the Earth Master’s deception: during their journey to Banyue Pass, Hua Cheng had seen the Earth Master next to the Wind Master.
Even disguised as a woman （with thanks to the Wind Master）， Hua Cheng still saw through that fake skin. He’d discovered the black-clad lady was the ghost officer he suspected and locked on to his identity as one of the five elemental masters.
After the Banyue case was over, Hua Cheng probably left Puqi Shrine to settle his score with the Earth Master. It may have been during that deadly pursuit and dire circumstances that Ming Yi set off the distress signal. Then Jun Wu summoned Xie Lian and gave him the mission to launch this rescue.