It turned out that someone had long since snuck in. They had dressed themself in that exquisite attire, put on the mask, and disguised themself as a lifeless haystack to wait for him silently.
A loud clang rang in the air, and Xie Lian broke the blade in two with his bare hands, face unchanging even with blood pooling in his palms. As fast as lightning, he raised his leg and kicked that person in the abdomen, stomping them firmly into the ground. With their chest solidly pinned, that person grabbed at his boot and struggled, but they were unable to move an inch, as if they were nailed to the ground. Xie Lian bent over and slapped away the golden mask with one hand, revealing the face of a young man.
Xie Lian shouted, “Who are you?! A grave robber?! How did you get in?!”
Just then, the child to the side cried, “Daddy!”
This cry finally made Xie Lian remember. This man and child looked familiar—weren’t they that pair he saved from being cooked and eaten by Qi Rong back at the Green Ghost’s lair?!
Xie Lian understood the situation instantaneously. He swung a punch like striking thunder at the man’s jaw, roaring, “Qi Rong, get the hell out! I’m going to kill you!!”
The man laughed as he spat blood. “Cousin Crown Prince! What a joyous occasion! We meet again! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Although the face was different, who else but Qi Rong could this insane psychotic laughter belong to? When he lost his physical form, he possessed this young father!
No need for further explanation, but after his material body was thrown into that cauldron by Lang Qianqiu and melted away, he must’ve used the chaos of everyone running for their lives to possess the young man to avoid being pursued and then came to the Imperial Mausoleum of Xianle. Otherwise, how could a commoner know of the secret tomb of Xianle royalty? And how could they have found it in such a short time?
That child he dragged along may have been intended as rations for travel, or maybe the intent was to hide him in the coffin to divert Xie Lian’s attention for his ambush. Xie Lian punched him again, and Qi Rong held his face, looking aggrieved.
“Cousin, why are you so mad? It’s not like you’d die from a stab wound, hee hee hee hee!”
Thud, thud! Xie Lian punched him twice more, his eyes red around the rims.
“How did my mother always treat you?! And yet you treat her like this?! How could you, to her body—？！”
Qi Rong humphed. “Yimu12 is long dead. The person is no more, so what difference does it make if she’s a corpse or ashes? The corpse only changed form, isn’t it still there? Here you are, leaking tears and snot, weren’t you much tougher when you killed An Le? Can’t believe my good cousin actually has two faces, hee hee!” He then changed his face and spat. “How could I treat her like this? You’re the one to blame! Don’t you even know how to reflect on yourself? This is all your fault! You, God of Misfortune, have the gall to come cry at the Imperial Mausoleum of Xianle?!”
Xie Lian stomped down harder, and Qi Rong screamed, spewing blood from his mouth. But he looked even more excited and used both his hands to cling on firmly to the now blood-soaked white boot while he howled.
“THAT’S RIGHT! THAT’S RIGHT! JUST LIKE THIS! This is more like you! Fight, fight, kill, fight, hit ruthlessly! Kill ruthlessly! Don’t give me that timid, saintly teacher look, as if you’re so burdened with unspeakable sin! It’s disgusting! UGH!”
The child crawled over, crying loudly. “Waah! Dad! Dad, are you all right?!”
He couldn’t understand what was happening, only that his father was being trampled. From his point of view, Xie Lian was like an evil devil, but he was so scared of losing his father that he wouldn’t back down and tried desperately to pull the boot off his father’s chest. The young man wouldn’t stop spewing blood, scaring the child half to death, and he used his hands to cover his father’s mouth as if that could stop the bleeding. Seeing this, Xie Lian slowly calmed down. He understood that the owner of this body was innocent and eased his foot slightly.
He pointed the tip of Fangxin down, nudging it against Qi Rong’s cheek, and said forebodingly, “Qi Rong, you get the hell out yourself. Don’t believe I won’t pull out your soul with your tongue!”
Theoretically, in pulling out the tongue from its root, one could certainly pull out any ghosts possessing a body along with it.
Qi Rong refused the very idea. “I won’t! I won’t get the hell out! What are you gonna do? Go on, pull! Come, come, come, gonna kill me? I might just die, so don’t miss this chance, otherwise you can forget about ever finding my ashes in this lifetime!”