“Lang Qianqiu, why are you still confused?” Qi Rong asked. “Even I’ve pretty much figured out what happened by now. Looks like you really don’t understand the kind of person your shifu is! Come, come, come, let me dissect my good ol’ cousin for you: this former Crown Prince of Xianle went and became Yong’an’s State Preceptor, taught you swordsmanship for five years…”
He’d only spoken a few words when Xie Lian brandished his sword. But before he could charge forward, Lang Qianqiu’s greatsword stopped him.
“Let him finish!”
“You know he’s insane, but you’ll still listen to his nonsense?!”
Fangxin was swung, and even though it was a slender blade, its shock wave almost loosened Lang Qianqiu’s grip on his massive greatsword. But just then, a silver, curved blade flicked Fangxin, hooked it, and pulled it aside.
Xie Lian was startled and cried, “San Lang!”
Qi Rong could see how badly Xie Lian didn’t want him to speak and how desperately he didn’t want Lang Qianqiu to hear the story, so Qi Rong had to do the opposite. He grabbed this chance.
“Prince An Le was our good Xianle boy, very obedient! He heeded my instructions to become false friends with you, but your shifu bumped into us cleaning out the Yong’an rat’s nest at the Gilded Banquet. An Le escaped, you rushed to the Gilded Banquet and saw what happened, and State Preceptor Fangxin became the most wanted man in the kingdom. That’s the story, not a word of it a lie…”
Xie Lian tried to charge forward to shut his mouth a few times, but he was stopped by Hua Cheng every time.
Xie Lian cried again, “San Lang!”
However, Hua Cheng didn’t say a single word as he continued to block Xie Lian. The more Xie Lian wanted to charge over, the faster Qi Rong’s lips moved.
“But you know this saintly cousin of mine, when he saw with his own eyes the people of Xianle committing murder, he must’ve thought: ‘How can this be? That’s not right!’ So, he went to find Prince An Le to educate him a little, but when he sought him out—my GOD, what did he discover? An Le’s massive plot! The plans didn’t stop with assassinating some thugs! There was no way cousin could educate him, so he hardened his heart and killed the last scion of our royal house with his own hands! Afterward, you caught your shifu and nailed him dead in that coffin, and so ended my cousin’s magnificent life as a State Preceptor. Cousin, am I right?”
Qi Rong spat a mouthful of blood next to the feet of the statue.
“I know you too well. You love doing shit like this. Ancestors above, look at what a good descendant you gave birth to! Not only has the Xie Clan of Xianle lost everything, now even the bloodline is cut! XIE LIAN! YOU UNLUCKY STAR, YOU GOD OF MISFORTUNE! YOUR EXISTENCE IS XIANLE’S GREATEST TRAGEDY! WHY WON’T YOU DIE? HOW DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE FACE TO KEEP LIVING?!”
“But I saw with my own eyes that he killed my father with his sword!” Lang Qianqiu said. “How do you explain that?”
“If it’s not your blind, elderly eyes or water getting into your brain, then I can only think of one reason,” Qi Rong replied. “Which is that An Le indeed stabbed your old man, but he didn’t die.”
“Then…did he finish him off?”
Qi Rong howled, “What are you saying?! My good cousin is such a kind soul—as if he would do that straight off! When he arrived, he’d be too abashed to finish the king off right away—he’d have to do a little show of trying to save the poor guy first. But, heh, your dad probably killed himself.”
“What do you mean he killed himself?” Lang Qianqiu demanded.
“What’s the first thing someone saved from an attempt on their life would do?” Qi Rong asked. “After seeing so many massacred at the Gilded Banquet, what would your first reaction be?”
Lang Qianqiu still hadn’t completely figured it out. “…Find the murderer.”
“Wrong!” Qi Rong said. “After my good cousin saved your old man and he found his breath, he would’ve certainly said, ‘Quick, State Preceptor! It was Prince An Le who did it! Go and kill Prince An Le!’ No, no, no, not just that, he must’ve said something worse, like, ‘State Preceptor! Call upon everyone! I want the entire population of Xianle wiped out! I want to bury them all with the dead!!’”
His imitative tone of despair and fury was disturbing to listen to, and Lang Qianqiu was growing paler by the minute.