Lang Qianqiu didn’t say a word, just grabbed him by the head and picked that half up. Qi Rong was still spouting insults, but Xie Lian noticed something off in Lang Qianqiu’s expression.
He warned, “Qi Rong, stop talking if you value your life!”
Xie Lian always treated others with kindness and respect, but Qi Rong was not someone who could be faced normally. Xie Lian knew this truth profoundly. Every time he had to face Qi Rong, Xie Lian’s normal politeness disappeared, and he unconsciously started being rude himself.
Lang Qianqiu dragged Qi Rong’s upper body to the giant, boiling, bubbling cauldron.
“Do you usually use this cauldron to cook humans?”
As Qi Rong’s mangled carcass was dragged around, it painted a thick trail of blood on the ground. “Yeah, so?”
Without another word, Lang Qianqiu let go of his hold.
“AAAAAAAAH HA HA HA HA HA—”
It was hard to discern whether Qi Rong was screaming or laughing, and the moment he was dropped into that cauldron, his flesh instantly split and burst open from the scalding heat.
Xie Lian had not expected this development; his pupils shrank and he blurted, “Qianqiu!”
Lang Qianqiu responded sharply, “What? How many people has Green Ghost Qi Rong eaten? Why can’t I teach him what it feels like to be cooked? He’s the enemy that murdered my clan, am I not allowed to make him suffer?!”
Of course he could. Xie Lian couldn’t say anything, and he had no right to say anything either. Yet whether it was as the crown prince of a mortal kingdom or as Heaven’s Martial God of the East, Lang Qianqiu had never done something like this before. He had always been straightforward in fights, never cruel. These actions were far from the Lang Qianqiu that Xie Lian knew.
When Qi Rong was fished out of the boiling water, his body no longer retained a human shape. It instead resembled a melted lump of skin and flesh, bones poking out in some areas, terrifying to behold. Yet he still seemed quite pleased and was still guffawing.
“Congratulations, cousin! Look at your good disciple! His wings have hardened! He knows how to use torture now!”
Lang Qianqiu released his hold, and Qi Rong was once again submerged into the bubbling cauldron. This time when he was dropped, it seemed even his bones were dissolved by the boiling broth. Qi Rong didn’t float up again, and only the remnants of some green cloth emerged on the surface.
After a while, having still not seen his shadow, Xie Lian couldn’t help but call out, “Qi Rong!”
His younger cousin, once upon a time, couldn’t shut up about his cousin the crown prince, idolizing and praising him for everything he did. However, after the fall of Xianle, he turned into a complete madman. He led the burning of Xie Lian’s temples and the desecration of his palaces, and he commissioned the kneeling crown prince statues everywhere, affixing them as thresholds. To make Xie Lian suffer, he would do anything, at any cost. Xie Lian had done his best to put up with that behavior, and if it involved others, he did his best to obstruct it. Until finally, when he could no longer tolerate it, he had to stay away and practice the idea of “out of sight, out of mind.”
Afterward, they lost touch for many years, and Xie Lian thought that Qi Rong had passed away. Who knew that, after so long, he would suddenly meet this figure from his past and see that face that so resembled his own? He couldn’t tell whether there were any feelings of nostalgia. The two of them were the only ones left from the royal house of Xianle, but they hadn’t even been together for long before Qi Rong died before him—cruelly killed by Lang Qianqiu, who in the past would refuse to even so much as flog someone. So much happened in such a short period of time; Xie Lian hadn’t yet sorted the thoughts in his head, and his heart was a mess. Lang Qianqiu stood next to the cauldron with his head hung low, unspeaking.
Just then, Hua Cheng spoke up. “He’s not dead.”
Lang Qianqiu looked up at him.
Hua Cheng said, “You can’t be thinking you’ve actually had your revenge? You only killed one of his many clones. If you want to exterminate him completely, you need to find his ashes.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Lang Qianqiu said coldly. “I will definitely capture him with my own hands and use his ashes to pay my respects to my king father and queen mother. Once that’s over, I will come and settle things with you, State Preceptor. Don’t you dare think about running away again!”
As soon as he spoke, he gripped his greatsword and struck, slashing the cauldron, then turned abruptly to walk away. Boiling water spilled from the cauldron, and broth filled with slivers of bone poured onto the ground.