Just then, Qi Rong, who was lying on the ground, suddenly spoke up. “Cousin Crown Prince, is that you?”
Xie Lian’s gaze moved back to Qi Rong. After staring coldly at him for a moment, Xie Lian stated, “Qi Rong, it seems you’ve been living colorfully over the years.”
As Xie Lian spoke, Hua Cheng removed his fake skin. Qi Rong’s eyes widened as the last of the intruders finally revealed himself.
Lang Qianqiu was dumbfounded by Qi Rong’s question. “Cousin?”
Even when he heard Qi Rong say “we Xianle” and guessed the identity of the Green Ghost’s past life as a citizen of the Kingdom of Xianle, he hadn’t imagined that Qi Rong and Xie Lian were actually related on a personal level.
Qi Rong stared at Xie Lian’s face and looked him up and down; it was a peculiar gaze, hungry with curiosity and fascination. When his eyes stopped at the sword Fangxin on Xie Lian’s back, he suddenly burst out laughing.
“SO THAT’S IT! THAT’S IT! FANGXIN WAS YOU! YOU WERE FANGXIN! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
Although Lang Qianqiu couldn’t understand why Qi Rong was laughing, it made him feel immensely uncomfortable. He demanded angrily, “What’s so funny?”
“I’m laughing at my good ol’ cousin, what’s it to you?!” Qi Rong snapped back in a fit. “Just now I said that your stupidity spanned hundreds of years. I’m sorry. I apologize. The best way to learn is to learn from the best—look at your shifu, no wonder you’re so stupid!” He turned to Xie Lian. “You went to Yong’an, became their State Preceptor, and ended up stabbed to death by your own disciple, isn’t that exciting? Isn’t it hilarious? You deserved it, you pathetic fool!”
The moment he uttered the word “pathetic,” Hua Cheng wrathfully struck once more. Qi Rong had always been tough-skinned, and for some reason seeing Xie Lian made him ten times more excitable than usual. Even with his face struck to the ground, he continued his indomitable shrieking.
“PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC!”
Each time he said it, Hua Cheng smashed his head down again. It was an extremely gory scene, and Xie Lian stopped the hand that was about to strike again.
“San Lang, just leave it!”
“Why should I?!” Hua Cheng demanded sharply.
“It’s nothing, don’t let any of it get to you,” Xie Lian said. “He’s just mental and extremely troublesome. I can take care of him. You just sit back and ignore him.”
He gently rubbed Hua Cheng’s shoulder, and it was a long time before Hua Cheng finally uttered in a low voice, “Fine.”
Qi Rong plucked his own head from the ground and arduously rolled to the side. He then spat, “Why play pretend with that false kindness? If you really didn’t want him to hit me, then you would’ve stopped him at the beginning! Faking indifference now, telling him to forget it, no one’s gonna praise you for bein’ merciful!”
“I stopped him because I don’t want him to dirty his hands. Did you misunderstand something?” Xie Lian said.
A trace of anger flashed across Qi Rong’s bloodied face, but then he started giggling.
“Yooo, Cousin Crown Prince, you’re getting along pretty well with Hua Cheng, aren’t you? This little brother of yours8 was wondering why none of the underlings he sent to greet you on Zhongyuan ever returned—now I see it’s because you’ve been clinging to Hua Cheng!”
Xie Lian had no idea that Qi Rong had sent any underlings to find him. On the night of the Zhongyuan Festival, it was a coincidence that he bumped into Hua Cheng, and taking him back to Puqi Shrine also wasn’t something he’d planned. It seemed that Hua Cheng had taken care of all of Qi Rong’s underlings. At the thought of this, Xie Lian unconsciously stole a glance at the person next to him.
Qi Rong continued, “Calling him ‘San Lang,’ tsk tsk tsk, so familiar! Cousin, you’re a big-shot heavenly official, how can you hang out with ghosts and demons? Aren’t you worried about him tainting your reputation? You’re so perfect after all, so pure and flawless, your saintly halo shines upon all of us on this earth, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…”
Many in the Heavenly Court thought the way Mu Qing spoke was sarcastic, but if they were to listen here and compare, they would witness sarcasm in its primal form. Truly, they had wronged Mu Qing.
Qi Rong didn’t just talk shit, he acted the part as well. He folded his hands over his heart and exclaimed, “Cousin Crown Prince, this little brother has thought of you constantly through the years. Look, I even meticulously carved this statue to keep you by my side, so I can gaze upon your valiant form every waking moment of every day. What do you think? It’s pretty well done, right? Do you like it? Don’t worry, it’s better if you don’t. I’ll carve some more, ha ha ha ha ha…”