He even stuck out his tongue intentionally, as if he couldn’t wait for Xie Lian to make good on his threat and use that bloody method to pull his soul out of this fleshy body. He taunted with childish noises of woo-lah-lah.
“The one I’m possessing is a nobody anyway, so why don’t you? No one would know, no one would care, Your Highness’s holy radiance won’t suffer a bit of damage. Look! I crumbled your mom to ashes, aren’t you gonna kill me? Ha ha ha ha ha ha…”
That child couldn’t move Xie Lian’s boot, so he hugged his leg and cried louder. “Don’t kill my dad! Don’t kill my daddy!”
Xie Lian’s breathing was becoming more labored, his head dizzy, his body shaking, his hands itching to crush Qi Rong’s skull. But he couldn’t do it. Qi Rong spread his hands in a shrugging motion.
“Ha ha ha ha, Cousin Crown Prince, what a failure, what an absolute failure!”
Xie Lian picked him off the ground, raised his fists, and rained punch after punch down on Qi Rong’s face, yelling with each hit, “Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!”
Yet, the more enraged he was, the happier Qi Rong became. It didn’t matter if the price was a violent beating, Qi Rong was filled with rapture at his opportunity to drag both of them down to the same hell. His eyes shone brightly.
“See! There’s your true face! Cousin Crown Prince, is there anyone in this world who knows you better than me? No! You might look like a pathetic lost stray who anyone can trample, but I know too well. You’re still proud on the inside, you could never stand anyone calling you a failure! You must hate me for calling you a failure! Have I stabbed your heart enough to bleed? Hurry! Come! Or are you gonna tell me loudly that this body is innocent, so you won’t kill me in order to spare him? Come! Show me what you’ll do!”
With so much provocation pervading that cocky, insane laughter, Xie Lian couldn’t endure it anymore.
With a metallic sching, Fangxin was unsheathed.
And with a flashing swing, the ominous black blade struck down!
Chapter 25:
Upon the Grand Avenue of Divine Might, A Fleeting Glimpse of Beauty
THE SWORD WAS THRUST, penetrating the heart of the demon, and left it dead on the ground.
“By heaven’s blessings, malevolence is slain and evil is subdued!”
On either side of the Grand Avenue of Divine Might, cheers erupted like an ocean current, coming in wave after wave, each one cresting higher than the last. In the courtyard that stretched before the scarlet-red gates of the palace, the two cultivators who played the roles of god and demon bowed to the surrounding crowds and stepped down, standing off to the side. The martial match that opened the show heightened the excitement in the city. Not only were the streets packed elbow-to-elbow, even the rooftops were full of brave climbers, clapping, hollering, flailing. The crowds went wild.
A celebration of this magnitude was truly brimming and bustling with energy. In the history of the Kingdom of Xianle, if any festival of Shangyuan13 was to be described thus, it had to be the one happening today!
Upon the towering platform, row after row of finely dressed royals and nobles overlooked the crowd, all wearing courteous smiles on their faces. Within the palace, a line of hundreds waited silently. When the bell chimed, the State Preceptor stroked his nonexistent beard and began to call roll.
“Path-Opening Warriors?”
“Present!”
“Jade maidens?”
“Present!”
“Musicians?”
“Present!”
“Calvary?”
“Present!”
“Demon?”
“Present!”
“The God-Pleasing Martial Warrior?”
No one answered. The State Preceptor frowned as he noticed the complication and turned his head.
“The God-Pleasing Martial Warrior? Where’s the crown prince?”
Still, no one responded. The one who had answered to “demon” paused before he removed the monstrous mask, revealing a delicate, fair face.
This youth appeared to be about sixteen or seventeen. His skin and lips were both light in color, fresh and neat, and he bore a pair of bright, shimmering eyes, as black as obsidian. His hair was soft and silky, and a few loose strands lightly littered his forehead and cheeks. He looked quiet and obedient, in contrast to the monstrous demon mask in his hand.
He replied quietly, “His Highness the Crown Prince has left.”
The State Preceptor almost fainted. But for the sake of this grand occasion he couldn’t faint, so he held on and instead yelled with an angry exasperation. “Wha—？！ He left?! When did His Highness leave?! The ceremonial parade is about to leave the palace gates!! When the grand stage is revealed and there’s only a demon but no god, my old bones won’t be able to swim out of all the spit that’ll come flying at me! Mu Qing, why didn’t you stop him?!”