Over two thousand!
Hearing this, everyone’s expressions stiffened. Xie Lian glimpsed at Hua Cheng and said, “It
seems it was the right choice to pick the west road.”
That skull’s teeth chattered, “Sigh! Either roads is a mistake, there’s no path to go!
Indeed, for normal little minions, either direction was an obliteration disaster. No matter east or
west, either could easily crush them; no matter which road they choose, the end result was
blown to smoke and become fertilizer for others. After dry howling a few more times, the ghost
fires in that skull’s empty sockets gradually went out.
Xie Lian gently placed it down on the side of the road, “San Lang, do you know what the
creature in the east is?”
“Can’t be sure right now,” Hua Cheng replied, “But it’s still coming this way. Under the current
circumstances, I don’t recommend we face it head on. This one in the west is a little easier to
deal with.”
Xie Lian nodded, “Very well. Then we’ll continue westward.”
The group of them traversed through that field of corpses and hurried on their way. They walked
all night but never ran into that black clad man the skull spoke of nor see any trace of the Rain
Master, and Xie Lian couldn’t help but start to worry.
As they journeyed, the houses and buildings alongside the roads increased in numbers, and
soon, they could even recognize this was the impoverished slums, this was the theatre house
for leisure, this was a general store, this was the backyard of a wealthy household… the road
they walked beneath their feet were also paved by people, the patterns of the bricks could still
faintly be seen. This was obviously a prosperous little town, only it was empty of the living, and
strangely desolate and quiet.
There was an old well on the roadside, and when water was pulled up, the water was still
relatively clean, and so the group decided to rest there for a bit. Xie Lian and Pei Su both drank
a bit of water and washed their faces. When they looked up, Ban Yue had walked over.
Ban Yue had been holding onto that black clay pot this whole time and had been waiting for a
long time, “General Hua, Pei Su gege, eat something.”
“Alright. Thank you for your efforts.” Pei Su said.
“Thanks for everyone’s hard work, let’s all give this a try.” Xie Lian said.
Thus the group all gathered. However, the moment Ban Yue opened the pot, many faces
stiffened.
Although ‘smell’ was something colourless and formless, but the instant Ban Yue removed the
pot cover, it was as if some mysterious object had twisted all the air around the mouth of that
pot.
The group stared at the sight within the pot for a long time, each one of their pupils reflecting an
endless, bottomless darkness, like it could pull them into the abyss, and no words could
describe the sentiment expressed within their eyes. A moment later, Xie Lian patted Ban Yue’s
shoulder and gave a thumbs up, “Not bad. It’s good for a first time.”
Pei Ming looked at them in disbelief, “It’s her first time, but is it Your Highness’ first time? If I
recall, you made her follow your every step, and you’ve done more than she did. I knew there
was something not right with what you two were doing, so it wasn’t my imagination.”
However, Hua Cheng spoke up, “Is that right? Well since gege made this, I gotta try.”
Hearing this, Pei Ming and Pei Su’s eyes both whipped over to look at him, their eyes full of
awe, terror, respect, and other such emotions. “Gege, what’s this dish called?” Hua Cheng
asked.
Xie Lian cleared his throat lightly, “…‘Toppled Phoenixes’*”
“Good name.” Hua Cheng complimented earnestly.
Then, he reached into that bottomlessly dark pot. The way Pei Ming and Pei Su watched him, it
was like they were anxious he was going to be swallowed whole by the pot. However, Hua
Cheng calmly and easily took out a small, burnt, piece of something that resembled a broken
corpse, and serenely placed it in his mouth.
“How is it?” Pei Ming asked.
“Tastes like its name.” Hua Cheng said.
Pei Ming turned to Pei Su whose expression was unreadably complicated, “It’s made for you.
Enjoy.”
Pei Su: “…”
He took the pot from Ban Yue’s hands, and expressionlessly reached a hand in.
Xie Lian used the cold water to wipe his face again, fixed his hair, and turned around, no longer
looking at the others. He scanned the surroundings and asked, “How come in this land isolated
from the rest of the world has so many traces of settlements? Is Mount TongLu really
inhabitable?”
He had already asked this question the day before, only, there was no one who could answer
him at the time. Now there was. Hua Cheng replied, “It’s inhabitable, but, it was a long time ago.
Mount TongLu is the size of seven fortress cities, its territory spread far and wide, and it used to
be an ancient kingdom. These houses are all historical remains of cities and townships from the
ancient kingdom. The closer we are to the heart of the ‘Kiln’, the more relics there will be, and
the more prosperous they’ll appear.”
Xie Lian didn’t question this answer at all, “I see.”
Just then, Pei Ming’s voice came from behind them, “Little Pei, what are you doing? Men don’t
kneel so easily, get up!”
Xie Lian didn’t turn around, “What’s the name of this ancient kingdom? San Lang, do you
know?”
Hua Cheng didn’t turn around either, and his fists hung easily at his sides, “The Kingdom of
WuYong.”
Pei Ming admonished, “Your Highness? Your Highness, do you have an antidote or something?
You can’t just leave him like this. And you. What are you feeding him? What’s with this snake?
It’s still moving after it’s been cooked for so long? Did it become a spirit?!”
Ban Yue seemed to be kowtowing to apologize unceasingly, “I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…
it’s indeed turned into a spirit, I didn’t know how long it’d cook for it to become a spirit… I’m
sorry…”
Xie Lian supported his cheek with a hand and pondered, “I’m ignorant and ill-informed, I don’t
seem to recall ever hearing the name of this kingdom. How ancient is it?”
However, just as the words left his lips he wasn’t so sure anymore. WuYong, WuYong. Hearing it
from out of the blue it did sound foreign. But if he thought about it deeply, it seemed a long, long
time ago, someone somewhere had uttered it before.
“The details aren’t clear,” Hua Cheng said, “But it must be older than the Kingdom of XianLe. At
least two thousand years.”
Xie Lian looked around their surroundings, “But looking at these buildings, they don’t look like
they lived through two thousand years.”
“Naturally.” Hua Cheng replied, “Because most of the time, Mount TongLu wasn’t open to the
outside. Like sealed within a massive mausoleum and completely shut out from the outside
world, they would of course be kept in a good state.”
Xie Lian bowed his head and became pensive. On the other side, Pei Ming finally left Pei Su on
his own devices and came over, “Lord Ghost King sure knows everything. But, isn’t this
information rather too out of this world? Might I ask what your source is? I’ve never heard a
single word of any of this going around in the outside.”
Hua Cheng didn’t look at him, “And might I ask General Pei, what kind of individual has the
ability to gather this kind of information in Mount TongLu?”
“Logically, any ghost can.” Pei Ming said, “But by Mount TongLu’s slaughtering rules, the more
valuable information one wishes to obtain, the longer one must remain, so it must be a powerful
individual.”
“And what kind of individual can come out of Mount TongLu after gathering all this information?”
Hua Cheng asked.
“It must be a Supreme Ghost King like My Lord.” Pei Ming said.
“So,” Hua Cheng said, “I gathered this information myself. As long as I don’t speak of it, of
course there wouldn’t be any word of it going around in the outside.”
He finally turned his head back and mocked slightly, “To the heavenly officials of the Upper
Court, keeping secrets might be more difficult than passing a heavenly calamity, but not to me.”
“…”
He wasn’t wrong. If information of such magnitude was to be learned by some heavenly officials
in the Upper Court, it wouldn’t take two hours before it could be heard excitedly discussed in
every spiritual communication array. That Hua Cheng was able to keep this in for so many years
without selling it to anyone and didn’t speak of it to boast, it showed just how mature and
resolved he was.
“I get it.” Pei Ming said, “It appears, when it comes to His Highness, not only is Hua Chengzhu
knowledgeable of all, but would also tell all that you know.”
“No.” Xie Lian suddenly said.
Everyone turned to look, “What, no?”
Xie Lian had been deep in thought earlier, and now, finally, his right hand folded into a fist and
lightly tapped his left palm, “I said earlier that I don’t think I’ve heard of the name WuYong
before, but that’s wrong. I’ve heard of that name before!”
Hua Cheng’s stiffened lightly, “Gege, where did you hear of it?”
Xie Lian turned his head around, “In my youth when I was training in the Royal Holy Pavilion in
XianLe, my master was the Guoshi of XianLe. When he first took me in as a disciple, he once
told me a story.”
It actually couldn’t be considered a story, more like instilling some grand, glorious imageries of
legends in young Xie Lian’s mind – Once upon a time there was an ancient kingdom. In that
kingdom there was a crown prince who was ingeniously talented, intelligent and clever, skilled in
both martial and literary arts, and was a scintillating character that only appeared once in
history. He loved his people and his people loved him. Long after he died, his people never
forgot him.
The Guoshi spoke solemnly and tenderly, “My child, I hope you will become a person like him.”
At the time, young Xie Lian sat poised and proper, and said without thinking, “I don’t want to
become a person like him. I want to become a god.”
“…”
Xie Lian said, “If that crown prince was really as amazing as you say, how come he didn’t
become a god?”
“…”
Xie Lian continued, “If the people really never forgot him, then how come I’ve never heard
anyone speak of this crown prince before?”
“……..”
Xie Lian swore that when he first raised those questions he had never intended to provoke or
rebel and really was just curious, looking for answers to his query. However, after the Guoshi
listened to him his face turned quite the shade.
Why could Xie Lian recite the Ethics Sutra back and forth like it was nothing? Because, that
night, the Guoshi made him copy the Ethics Sutra a hundred times to do good by its name and
“cultivate both the body and mind”. Xie Lian deeply suspected that had it not been for his
honourary status of the crown prince, the Guoshi might’ve had him kneel on nails to copy the
scriptures.
In any case, after that, every word of the Ethics Sutra was deeply burned into Xie Lian’s brain.
At the same time. A tiny impression of this “Crown Prince of WuYong” remained.
Xie Lian had always enjoyed reading but had never come across any records relating to the
Kingdom of WuYong in any old scrolls, so he figured the story was something the Guoshi made
up to educate him, or perhaps the Guoshi had played cards too much and remembered wrong.
However, he didn’t feel the need to blow his cover nor the need to copy the Ethics Sutra for
another hundred times, so he didn’t bother to fight for the truth and didn’t take it to heart.
“Your Highness, it sounds like this Guoshi of your XianLe has quite the background and knows a
lot,” Pei Ming said, “Might I ask what’s happened to him?”
After some hesitation, Xie Lian replied, “I don’t know. After XianLe fell, I haven’t seen how many
people were afterwards.”
Just then, he suddenly felt something tighten on his ankle and he froze, “WHAT’S THERE?!”
He was about to stomp and break the bones of whatever it was, but when he looked down, he
breathed a sigh of relief, “General Pei Junior, what are you doing appearing like this? That was
close, I almost ruined your hand.”
That hand indeed belonged to Pei Su. His entire person was sprawled on the ground, his face in
the mud, his two arms outstretched, one hand gripping Pei Ming and the other gripping Xie Lian.
The two crouched down, “What is it you want to say?”
Ban Yue was holding her pot, “I don’t know. Earlier, Pei Su gege kept crawling all over the
ground and seemed to have discovered something important.”
“Oh?” Pei Ming was amazed, “You can find something even in such a state? As expected of
Little Pei. So what did you discover?”
Pei Su loosened the hand gripping him and pointed in a direction. Xie Lian looked to the
direction he pointed at and said, “This is…”
The group all gathered to examine, “Oxen hoof marks?”
Pei Su finally raised his head from the mud and croaked, “This, is… m, arks left behind by L, ord
Rain Master’s Protection St, eed.”
“Pei Su gege, your commas are all over the place.” Ban Yue remarked.
Pei Su replied, “I’m al, right. Lord Rain Master, lord, lord…”
He was stuck on the word ‘lord’ and couldn’t continue anymore. Xie Lian wondered, “Could… he
be poisoned by the scorpion tailed snake?”
“Their poison doesn’t work like this…” Ban Yue said.
Hua Cheng said, “The Rain Master had already run into the black clad man in the west, and
fought a battle.”
———–