Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 39

--Notes:

Just an unneeded warning: the divergence's main changes will take place from here onwards once again. If anything confuses you regarding the sudden shift away from the novel, this is why. I warned the first time I did this, and I'm being coherent and warning again. There are BIG changes happening. And I mean it.

From now, aside from some parts that will follow the novel almost exactly, everything is vastly different and will probably be until the end, give or take a couple chapters. This is mostly due to the fact that Bai WuXiang is not part of the plot, and to all my other independent decisions.--

Once back, from afar as he approached PuQi Shrine, Xie Lian could see Hua Cheng was leaning against the old tree in front of the shrine. His left hand was playfully spinning the broom without care, and a mound of fallen leaves was neatly piled next to his feet.

The Brocade Immortal, still in the appearance of a hemp robe, wasn't off of his body yet.

He almost called him, but the ghost put a finger over his mouth and shook his head, nodding towards the shrine. When the god approached, he saw that the door was open and a figure was crouched in front of the donation box, once again sneakily stuffing gold bars in.

Sighing dejectedly, Xie Lian quickly ran up to drag him away: «Qi Ying, stop stuffing it. I haven't taken out the ones from last time, it's all stuck».

He definitely didn't expect Quan YiZhen to come back. But then again, he was as unpredictable as one could be, and he probably was also thankful for how Xie Lian had behaved the night before.

Although, his presence posed an issue. Xie Lian wanted to get the Brocade Immortal off of Hua Cheng and place it inside a carefully crafted array, to keep it hidden inside the shrine and away from officials and ghosts. Even if Quan YiZhen told him to do what he wanted with the robe, he was a bit wary of actually doing what he wanted.

He thought about it for a quick second, and then shrugged; that robe needed to be contained, and he couldn't wait for Qua YiZhen to go away or kick him out.

So, he had the younger god sit down at the table, and then moved into the back room so he could work on creating the array. Thankfully, the imbalance caused by Hua Cheng the night Mount Tong'lu caused the first arousal of ghosts was fully gone now, so it took a relatively short time for Xie Lian to pour spiritual energy into the array.

Satisfied, he stepped back into the main room of the shrine and poked his head out the door: «Xiao Hua, you can give me that robe».

Quan YiZhen did follow the Brocade Immortal with uncharacteristically cold eyes when the ghost peeled off the robe and handed it to Xie Lian, but other than that he did nothing. In fact, he quickly went back to the donation box and tried to get some of the gold bars to become unstuck, apparently bored. At least he didn't try to add more in.

Ignoring him, Xie Lian dragged a wooden rack inside the array and hung the Brocade Immortal upon it. The robe didn't show any reaction as it was trapped, which the god took as a positive sign. If Bai Jing truly took a liking to Hua Cheng, it meant that it would probably avoid causing too many problems while it rested inside the shrine. And the array was powerful enough to deter any attempt at fleeing in case another arousal happened.

Over the following days, for some reason Quan YiZhen refused to leave. In fact, he seemed to have taken PuQi Shrine as some sort of happy farm, and was always leaping up and down, sometimes climbing trees, sometimes snagging fish or stealing vegetables.

In a moment of Xie Lian's carelessness, Quan YiZhen even snuck into the kitchen corner of the shrine and swiped a yam, hurrying away like a fish who had escaped the net with it dangling from his mouth. Hua Cheng tried to snatch back that yam, but gave up when the god used his greater height to his advantage.