Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and he was absolutely ready to choose both just to save time.
The moment she spoke, addressing Ke Mo, he immediately recognize the familiar tone of her voice, tiny like the grumblings of a sulky child. It still retained that hint of sadness Xie Lian remembered from two centuries prior. Her and the General argued for a bit, Ban Yue's voice calm and low a stark contrast against the loud shouting of Ke Mo, and then asked who was the other person with them.
Right. Hua Cheng was a ghost, without a heartbeat and in complete darkness his presence couldn't be detected. Not only that, it was complete chaos on top of the walls earlier, and no one kept track of who fell and who ran away. It was normal that she thought there was only Xie Lian.
«It was them who killed all of my soldiers, are you happy now?», Ke Mo scoffed. «Everyone you wanted to kill is finally dead!».
Xie Lian almost wanted to clarify that the only one doing the killing had been his husband, but kept his tongue at bay. Not the time to try and reason with an angry ghost general, not while they were so close to the truth.
Ban Yue went silent and a tiny burst of light flared, illuminating a small girl with a palm torch. She looked like to be fifteen or sixteen, both eyes blackened in unhappiness, her face full of distinct bruises. Upon seeing her clearly for the first time, the Crown Prince decided that a punch hitting him square in the stomach hurt less.
If it hadn't been confirmed earlier, no one would think that pale little girl with shaky hands was the Guoshi of BanYue, especially not Xie Lian. The last memory he had of her was of a smaller girl, a bit younger, but the sorrow in her eyes was exactly the same, if only worse.
His last hope of knowing her at peace died down right then. She was a ghost, and not only a simple one, but a Wrath. Peace was almost impossible for her to attain, at that point.
Thinking about a way to save her from the judgment of the heavens, Xie Lian took advantage of the flames in her hand to take a good look at his surroundings. The ground next to her feet was piled with the armored corpses of BanYue soldiers, and he peeked beside himself as well; the palm torch was very small, but the wee light told him that Hua Cheng reverted back to his youth form, maybe a bit taller than before.
Understandable, he didn't want to appear in his true form right in front of Pei Su. Not that it really mattered, between E-Ming and the fact that every single BanYue soldier had been killed in a flash... well, Pei Su had to be blinded by idiocy if he didn't understand who Xie Lian's husband was.
They were still surrounded by darkness, however, so the god couldn't see where the other official was hiding. He didn't really want to start another hunt so soon, but even if he wanted to, Ke Mo's sudden wail in the distance made him snap out of it.
He turned towards the General and saw him clutching his own head, clearly distressed. Despite the frustration Xie Lian had towards the ghost, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Hua Cheng didn't know mercy, while fighting, and not a single soul was left – relatively – alive. Piles and piles of corpses, all killed by the swift slashes of E-Ming, resting in pools of dense crimson blood. It was a terrible sight, for someone who cared.
However, Ban Yue's expression remained wooden, and she only nodded with a muttered "good". Right in the midst of his rightful mourning, hearing those words made Ke Mo rage once more.
«Good? What's good in this!? What the hell do you mean!?».
«We're finally freed», the Guoshi replied. «That's what good means».
Then, she turned to Xie Lian, still shrouded in the dark: «Were you the one who killed them?».
Xie Lian eh-ed: «Not quite», he replied, glancing at his side.
«You're lying through your teeth!».
For him to be lying was a big accusation, and Xie Lian almost wanted to argue back with Ke Mo. It was true that he didn't kill them, it was Hua Cheng the reason why everyone was fully dead. Xie Lian, although he wanted to help in dealing with the General himself, didn't lay a single hand on his soldiers.
Those words probably made Ban Yue realize he wasn't alone, and she gave him an unreadable look, squinting to see who was beside him but not daring to approach. When she inquired about his identity, she spoke in perfect Han dialect, although the BanYue accent took away the interrogative tone.
Taken aback by the sudden question, Xie Lian pondered for a moment if he should straight up tell her his identity, but decided to stay on a more general note for the time being: «I'm a heavenly official. This one here is my husband», he ended up replying.
Ban Yue looked the official over and eyed the other man for a moment before looking away. Something told her it was better not to linger on him for too long.
«We've never had heavenly officials visit before», she said instead. «I thought you had all abandoned this place».
Never had any heavenly officials come to the Kingdom? Xie Lian took in the weight of those words, and frowned; that meant Pei Su never showed his true identity, and merely acted on the sides. But... the heavens knew a heavenly official was involved in the ongoing disappearances happening at the BanYue Pass.
Thinking about it made Xie Lian feel a dreading sense of disgust for the Heavenly Court, one that he quickly tried to suppress. The ghosts knew nothing, but the gods did, and they refused to act. It was truly despicable.
Moreover, the fight that Xie Lian feared to happen was probably never going to become a reality, as Ban Yue was completely devoid of any will to fight. The Heavenly Court could have dealt with the problem with ease, but they chose not to, and sacrificed hundreds of innocent lives in the process. Being a Ghost King and all, Hua Cheng probably killed less people than the heavens in eight hundred full years.
«Do you want to leave?».
Xie Lian shook his head to clear it from all those negativity, and nodded: «Of course we do, but there's an array set in this pit, so we can't», he said.
Hearing that, the Guoshi walked to one of the walls, drew something on it, and the array was instantly released. Stunned, Xie Lian looked up and sure enough, the barely visible sheen of energy that was draped over the pit was completely gone, the moon glimmering white and bright above their heads.
That was easy.
«Is anyone down there? If not, I'm leaving!».
The shock of hearing Mu Qing's voice was quenched by the annoyed click of Hua Cheng's tongue next to him, and Xie Lian looked up. There was a shadow of a man looking down into the pit, so the god shouted at him that yes, there were people down there. He waved, trying to make himself a bit more visible, and yelled at him to come down.
Of course, before jumping down. Mu Qing blew a large ball of fire into the pit, lighting it bright like day. Finally, Xie Lian could clearly see the kind of place he'd been standing in, and sighed.
All around were mountains of bloody corpses piled high, hundreds of bodies of BanYue soldiers stacked on top of each other, dark blood smearing bright armors. The corner Xie Lian was standing in was the only spot in the entire Sinner's Pit that didn't have a dead body in it.
Xie Lian turned to look at the ghost beside him, and raised an eyebrow. The only response he got was a mischievous grin, before hearing the muffled noise of Mu Qing jumping down.
Right, what was Mu Qing doing there?
«Weren't you looking after the merchants?», he asked him.
Not yet used to the overwhelming stench of blood, Mu Qing fanned his hand to make the air flow: «We waited for over six hours and there was no sign of you, so we figured something happened», he replied, indifferently. «I drew a circle for them and came to check things out myself».
He didn't add that he was not comfortable enough with the thought of not knowing what was happening with Crimson Rain Sought Flower as part of the group that left for the ruins. He trusted Xie Lian – although admitting it out loud was far more difficult than simply thinking it – but it was difficult to set aside all his doubts at once.
Plus, he was sick of all those merchants complaining every five minutes. Six hours were nothing, their old uncle could survive plenty more. All that whining just made Mu Qing annoyed.
«What...? The circle won't last long. What if they leave it thinking you left them behind?». Xie Lian doubted all of them would leave, not with an injured man to take care of, but it was irresponsible.
Mu Qing rolled his eyes: «I can't stop stubborn people. If they're so eager to seek death, I don't care», he replied. Glancing at the two others in the pit, he nodded in their direction: «What's with those two? Who's who?».
The martial god was tense, surely ready to defend against the two strangers, but there was really only half a danger in there, and it was Ke Mo. The Guoshi, instead of being threatening, had her head lowered and was silent. Yet another behavior that hit Xie Lian right where it hurt.
«That one is the General of BanYue», he pointed at him. «The other one is the Guoshi of BanYue». Before Xie Lian could finish, however, Ke Mo suddenly leapt up.
He had been lying on the ground gathering his strength, and was finally able to jump up with a blood-curling shout, aiming his fists at Ban Yue. A large beefy warrior attacking a little girl.
Xie Lian saw red for a second. Ke Mo had every reason to hate her, and she could very well defend herself, but that girl was Ban Yue. She was that tiny, helpless girl Xie Lian took under his care. The same girl that he hurt so much when he faked his death, to the point of her running away and becoming what she was now.
RuoYe flew out from his sleeve before he could even give an order, and wrapped itself around Ke Mo. The General was slammed down that same instant, preventing him from landing even a single blow, but he still shouted his heart out to the Guoshi.
«Where are your scorpion-snakes?! Come on, let them bite me to death! Give me that release!».
«My snakes don't listen to me anymore», was the gloomy reply.
«Then why don't they kill you?!».
Ban Yue apologized to him, in a soft voice.
On one hand, Ke Mo was right. She claimed the snakes weren't under her control anymore, but they never attempted to bite her according to his words. On the other hand... Xie Lian had a theory. Better yet, he knew why the snakes didn't want to attack her, but needed confirmation to say it out loud.
Ke Mo kept shouting and screeching, trying to kick the Guoshi while madly struggling, but when Xie Lian rushed forward to stop him, she grabbed his wrist.
The grip was hard and came unexpectedly, but when he looked down at her, the Guoshi was watching him intently, with dark eyes hiding a flaming sense of life. He wasn't in need of a confirmation. He was glad to have received it.
It was really her. She was really...
«Ban Yue...».
Her voice also trembled, as she was faced with someone from her past, someone that she believed dead. Ban Yue looked up to him, and strengthened her grip: «You are... General Hua?».
The back and forth stunned everyone in the pit, save for Hua Cheng.
Xie Lian wasn't surprised of that. Mu Qing had no idea he met that young girl during the BanYue war, while Ke Mo never crossed paths with him before. Only his husband, whom he told everything, didn't have a shocked expression on his face.
It would have been quite amusing, in they weren't in such a predicament.
Taking advantage of the stunned atmosphere, Mu Qing snapped out of it and rushed forward, knocking Ke Mo out with a well placed punch, soon after asking how they knew each other.
Instead of answering him, Xie Lian knelt down, gently gripped the shoulders of Ban Yue, and examined her face. Even death couldn't free her from the lingering pain hidden behind her eyes, but her gloomy face came alive with excitement.
She clutched at his sleeves, beaming: «It's me! General Hua, do you still remember me?!!».
Xie Lian felt tears welling up in his eyes, of joy of sorrow he didn't know, and couldn't help but smile at her: «Yes, of course I remember you, Ban Yue», he told her. He went back in time, for a moment, back to memories of her being still alive, still curious about the world despite all the wrong that it did to her, and sighed: «What have you done to yourself?».
«I'm sorry, Captain... I messed up», she muttered, saddened again.
In that exchange, with General and Captain used so liberally, something became glaringly obvious to the bystanders.
Mu Qing, especially, was in shock. So much, in fact, that he looked back and forth between His Highness and the Guoshi for a good amount of time before raising a finger in Xie Lian's direction: «You?! How did this happen? This means that the Tomb of the General is...».
«My tomb», Xie Lian replied. It was a long story, and he had no intention to recount it then and there. So, he brushed off Mu Qing's comments, and gave a simple, brief explanation, just to make him understand.
Those years had been bizarre, for Xie Lian. He was traveling around with Hua Cheng, tired of keeping himself in one place after his many wanderings, but the Ghost King had to leave him thanks to a sudden emergency – read: Qi Rong causing immense troubles again – and the border Xie Lian ended up exploring on his own was troubled. Skirmished would flare up everywhere, and there were often runaway soldiers, to the army started drafting anyone into recruit to make up the numbers.
With his luck, still far more terrible at the time, Xie Lian ended up being forced into the army, and somehow got promoted to Captain. Some people would call him General, too.
«Why... why General Hua?», Mu Qing questioned, not knowing if he wanted to know the answer or not.
Hua Cheng's expression changed slightly, from indifferent to amused, and Xie Lian cleared his throat: «My name at the time was Hua Xie», he waved his hand, heat creeping on his cheeks. «I don't think I need to explain why I chose that combination...?».
His old friend made a face that closely resembled that of a poor dog choking on a bone, so he changed the topic, briefly explaining how he met Ban Yue. The story was both sad and cute, and he didn't tell most of it. It was a bittersweet memory, the one he had of Ban Yue, of that disheveled, grimy child crouched on the ground, picking at the horrendous food he cooked to stuff it into her mouth. He got so scared for her well-being, seeing she started dry-heaving and crying, and resolved to give her the last of his rations to help her.
«She started following me everywhere, after that, so I decided to take her in. But then... well, you read the memorial».
«The memorial said you died».
Xie Lian rubbed his forehead so hard it became red: «Oh, that... of course I didn't die, I faked it». Noticing the face of disbelief of the martial god, the Crown Prince explained himself: «I got trampled on too hard and couldn't get up, so it was between coming out as an immortal or fake my death».
Truthfully, Xie Lian couldn't quite remember exactly how he died, nor why the battle broke out in the first place. It was something petty, and he didn't want to fight over something so meaningless, but that was all he recalled. When he tried to interfere, as innocent people were being dragged into the battle as well, everyone saw red and from then on he only remembered blades and swords coming at him from both sides.
Even if he couldn't die, Xie Lian couldn't stand that kind of butchering. It awakened memories too painful for him to keep fighting, physical pain all but forgotten.
His mind completely blacked out, there and then, and he dropped to the ground, getting trampled to the point of passing out. The only reason he woke had been water choking him, because corpses were usually thrown into the rivers after battle.
Hua Cheng picked him up before the river could make him float back to Yong'An, worry wrinkling his ageless face, and Xie Lian took several years to recover. Not from his physical wounds, healed by the gentle flow of spiritual energy coming from beautiful silver butterflies, but from the terrible impact the event had on his mind.
He didn't regret entering the fray, because he acted to save Ban Yue, but he regretted everything else for years. At first, not even Hua Cheng's sweet care could break the hard shell Xie Lian had built all around himself, too scared and traumatized to even wake up after falling asleep in his arms.
He closed himself off from the world, to the point of making Hua Cheng shaking with worry, and cried his heart out when he finally came to himself. That day had been the first in years for Xie Lian to shed so many tears.
Swallowing dry, he raised his gaze to meet Hua Cheng's – who moved close to him – worried expression and shook his head: «I did it to save Ban Yue. She... she deserved a better life», he said. The agony of being trampled by thousands came back in spite of himself, and he still hugged his arms. «I wanted to pick her up and run away immediately, but I got caught between the two armies».
Ban Yue apologized again, for the umpteenth time in maybe ten minutes, and the Crown Prince Sighed: «My dear child, saving you was my own choice. You should probably apologize to others».
Hearing that, Ban Yue hung her head in silence, as if she was being harshly scolded.
Gently, Xie Lian put a hand back on her shoulder: «I don't think you're the kind of child who sought revenge and betrayed others. Why did you open the fortress gates?».
Ban Yue contemplated, shook her head, and stayed silent.
The silence, however, didn't last for long.
«I told her to. It was my fault».
Shocked, Xie Lian snapped his head up and turned around. In a heartbeat, Hua Cheng was at his side, and Mu Qing threw another fireball to light up the place even more.
Turns out, the masculine voice that broke the silence belonged to none else than A-Zhao.
Or, as Xie Lian perfectly knew, Pei Su.
He wanted to call out, but bit his tongue at the last moment. Mu Qing still had no idea that they were dealing with Pei Su. Maybe the official didn't want anyone else to be involved, otherwise why send an empty shell to his shack in PuQi village?
However, Xie Lian felt the hand grasping his shoulder tighten, and in a flash he was blitzing forward alongside Hua Cheng, advancing and attacking. In the darkness, silver shimmers flashed about once more, clanking and clinking, and a sharp sound of two swords clashing rang in everyone's ears.
Hua Cheng was angry, the god could feel his negativity bleeding through the spiritual energy of the ghost, and he couldn't blame him. In front of him was the man who – directly or indirectly didn't matter – caused hurt to Xie Lian. He was used to his antics enough to know that drawing blood from the Crown Prince meant terrible anger.
The short-lived sparks flashing in the dark corner weren't enough to see each other's face, and the fight made RuoYe grip his wrist tighter and tighter, until he murmured reassurance.
Then, he turned to Hua Cheng and whispered directly into his ear. Immediately, E-Ming moved to disarm their opponent and the fight ended as quick as it started.
«Why are we even fighting?», he asked aloud, making his husband take a step backwards. «I know who you are. If you don't want me to say your name with a junior present, it's fine. But let's stop this», he then added, the last bit mostly for Hua Cheng.
In fact, he made sure to rest his hand on his husband's arm, trying to soothe his negative feelings, and reached out to take E-Ming. A silent request to which Hua Cheng reluctantly complied, thus putting an end to that fight for good. Unless Xie Lian released E-Ming on his own volition, the sword would never fly out of his hand at risk of hurting him.
«Say it, it's fine».
The official stepped into the light, still disguised as A-Zhao, but it was clear that his true self was struggling to maintain itself hidden. The glow in his eyes was that of a god, and a sheen of spiritual energy surrounded him like no mortal could make it happen.
He shot a glance at Hua Cheng, just briefly, and then sighed. He didn't try to get his sword back from where it had landed, simply took some steps to approach Ban Yue, and then fell cross-legged on the ground. Truly, no killing intent could be sniffed around him.
Xie Lian tugged at Hua Cheng's sleeve and walked back, stopping in front of the two and beside Mu Qing: «What is the meaning of this, General Pei Su?».
«What!?».
Dumbstruck, Mu Qing's gaze flew from His Highness to the young man sitting in front of them, multiple times: «What are you talking about? How could this be General Pei Su?!».
It was obvious, if you knew what road to take.
To explain it to Mu Qing, the god firstly reminded him that prior his ascension, Pei Su slaughtered a city, and it was what ultimately made him ascend. The name of the city was never known, the young general always kept it a well hidden secret, so it was obvious he didn't want to give himself unnecessary troubles.
The Upper Court wouldn't bat an eyelash at something like this, everyone needed to spill some blood if they wanted to do great things, but the slaughtering a city would affect the numbers of new believers, and the BanYue War had been enough of a disaster for too many people already.
Cover-ups after ascension were an obvious choice, but somehow Pei Su managed to completely hide the fact that he slaughtered the Kingdom of BanYue. Not even Hua Cheng knew about it, and he had He Xuan and his many clones gathering information after information for him. It had to be something big, too big for the heavens and his believers.
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng's doubts were already present when the empty shell came to PuQi Shrine, and got almost completely confirmed thanks to their talk with Ling Wen. When they stumbled upon A-Zhao, he obviously stood out at the most suspicious of the caravan for many different reasons, that he quickly listed to Mu Qing to save time. The final confirmation arrived from the mud face saying amongst them was someone who already visited the fortress decades ago. Xie Lian knew it wasn't himself, because he never went back to BanYue after dying on the battlefield, and it wasn't Hua Cheng either, for the same exact reason. The other merchants were normal humans.
The only odd one out was, coincidentally, A-Zhao.
But it wasn't just that.
Xie Lian, in the years he lived near BanYue, never saw a single scorpion-snake. Not even in the middle of battles and skirmishes, didn't hear about them afterwards, when it made sense for a Guoshi that could control them to use the creatures to BanYue's advantage.
But then, from just seeking a random shelter, a large group of them happened to show up. No snake was around when it was just the four of them, but as soon as they met a caravan of mortals, they appeared and bit one of the group, forcing the officials and Hua Cheng to reach BanYue.
A-Zhao didn't give the merchants precise directions of the ruins before leaving, so it was obvious he wanted to deal with the situation without having mortals stepping in his plans, but couldn't expect them to follow anyway. So, instead of listening to Xie Lian on top of the walls, he preferred the illogical decision of jumping down.
The knowledge of the heavenly official with them being Pei Su came gradually to Xie Lian, but was ultimately correct.
That much he told Mu Qing, as quickly as he could.
What he didn't tell him, not before Pei Su could give them his side of the story, was how he understood that Ban Yue learned from Pei Su himself how to control the scorpion-snakes, back when she was a child. What he heard before, of Ban Yue running away after his death and learning dark magic from a Yong'An individual, added up with everything else shortly after.
Ban Yue couldn't control her snakes anymore, and Xie Lian knew she wasn't one to kill innocent people. The snakes, however, would still go out and hunt, to the point of making hundreds of people disappear over the course of a century and a half. Moreover, the Heavenly Court knew a heavenly official was meddling with BanYue, and the issue had been going on for decades already.
It was easy to conclude that Ban Yue learned to control the snakes from Pei Su, but while she didn't want to do anything evil, the official descended and used them to lure people into the ruins, using the Guoshi as his perfect cover so that the disappearances themselves couldn't be blamed on anyone but a ghost.
Pei Su was probably using those people to keep the BanYue soldiers at bay, avoiding to draw too much attention on the kingdom from other heavenly officials. While Ban Yue trapped the soldiers, so that they couldn't hurt more people, Pei Su walked around the issue by indirectly sending merchants over to have the become food for the enraged ghosts.
Truly a perfect plan.
«General Pei Su, how did you to meet?».
It was implicitly confirmed that he was the one Ban Yue met in Yong'An, but Xie Lian still didn't know how a young girl such as her ended up in that predicament. Did they meet by chance, or was Pei Su looking for someone like Ban Yue, so he could have the upper hand in the war?
Pei Su, however, gave him a look, and simply called a name. His name. General Hua.
Puzzled, Xie Lian frowned: «Why are you calling me by that title too?».
«Do you really not recognize me, General Hua?».
«...».
As if suddenly struck by lightning, Xie Lian's body jerked in shock and he took in the sharpest intake of breath of his entire life.
The beginning of it was kind of blurry, with only bits and pieces of memories, but Xie Lian forced himself to remember.
To remember how Ban Yue was bullied and ignored by other BanYue children when she was younger, but a young boy of Yong'An would sometimes pay attention to her. The boy was like her, keeping to himself and quiet, but it was impossible to be mistaken.
Quite a number of children living on the border were from military families, and many enlisted in the army when they grew older.
Xie Lian looked at Pei Su, at the young form he still stubbornly retained, and felt his heartbeat quicken as he recalled more and more. All dressed in BanYue attire, at first it was almost impossible to recognize him. He looked older, but not too much older than the last time Xie Lian saw him as a human.
The more he stared at him, the more his traits became familiar, his voice a sound of his memories.
«It's... it's you?».
Pei Su nodded. No wonder Ban Yue listened to him, they had known each other for long time already back during the war!
Maybe he enlisted soon after his death, and went back to Yong'An. Xie Lian didn't remember him being able to control the snakes, but he could have learned in the same period. What he couldn't understand was why he went so far with his actions.
«Did you really tell Ban Yue to open the fortress gates?».
On the other side, Ke Mo came back to himself and yelled: «Despicable Pei Su! Untie the ropes, let me fight him to the death!».
«First of all, we already had a battle to the death two hundred years ago and you lost», Pei Su said coolly. «Second, how am I despicable?».
«If you two didn't collude, how would we lose!?».
Pei Su sighed: «Ke Mo, don't deny it. Even though I only had a troop of two thousand with me at the time, breaking through the fortress gates was only a matter of time for me».
Wait, two thousand? Two thousand soldiers and the order to invade a country was basically a death sentence, and Xie Lian couldn't help but interrupt their banter: «Were you even more elbowed out in the army than I was?». The official stopped talking and Xie Lian asked again, this time wanting to know why he had Ban Yue open the fortress gates if it was a sure win for him.
The answer was that Pei Su needed to slaughter the fortress city, something that made Xie Lian's frown deepen: «Why slaughter the city, if you were already going to win?».
«Victory was at hand, so we had to wipe out the city», Pei Su replied. «And it had to be as soon as possible. Leaving none behind».
Leaving none behind. It was a concept Xie Lian was horribly familiar with, but it still sent chills down his spine. But there had to be a reason, Pei Su wasn't an evil man, he wouldn't have followed such a terrible order without a valid reason. Or so he hoped, when he asked.
He didn't like the answer.
On the night before the invasion, many leaders of BanYue's major families gathered for a meeting, and decided on a secret plot, a plot that wanted the entire population of the kingdom – young, old, men, women – to band together and assemble explosives. They had decided that if the kingdom was to fall, the citizens would carry explosives on their bodies and escape to Yong'An, with the objective of mixing into large crowded areas and suicide bomb.
The meaning behind such a plot was obvious: if the people of BanYue had to die, then Yong'An would suffer the same fate, the same terror.
And there it was, the reason why every single citizen of BanYue had to be annihilated before having time to flee.
Angered, Xie Lian turned to Ke Mo and roughly summarized everything for him in the BanYue language: «Is this true?».
Ke Mo looked dauntless, without any intention to conceal the facts: «It's true!».
Hua Cheng was utterly disgusted. He cared little the life of other people, or at least he liked to say as much, but to have simple citizens blow themselves up in suicidal attacks was simply horrid. Looking at the expression on his husband's face, he could see repulsion and nothing else for those words. Rarely Xie Lian showed such unpleasant emotions, but when he did, his gentle and delicate face gave way to the harsh power of the martial god.
«How vile», he commented, voice dripping poison as he switched to the BanYue language, in order to make the General understand.
His Highness shouldn't have lowered himself to deal with that sort of scum. Memories of a broken immortal, never buried too deep, resurfaced as he scowled, one fist clenched so hard he could feel his nails dig into his palm. Not only the bloody BanYue war had been woeful for his beloved, but those warriors truly had less mercy than a Calamity himself.
Hua Cheng wanted nothing more than to exact revenge for all the pain his husband had gone through, because of that damned war, now even more. Xie Lian wasn't faring much better, hands trembling in contained rage, and that only fueled his desire to spill blood.
However, E-Ming was still with him. The sword was still, frozen in his shaking hand, a sign that Xie Lian didn't want it to end in a bloodbath. Instead of listening to his murderous desire, the Ghost King moved even closer to his husband and curled an arm around his waist, in an attempt to calm both of them down.
«Vile?!», Ke Mo replied, angrily. «What right do you have to call us vile? If it wasn't for your assaults, we wouldn't have been forced to make that move. You ruined us, so we sought revenge!».
Xie Lian had to take a deep, calming breath. Forced to make what, a move that would have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people? If they didn't make that move, who knew how many could have been saved. How many children could have still had a life, how many men and women outside of the army could have kept going.
He hated to say it, but even if the war would have killed too many of those innocents, many more could have been saved. Heartless soldiers didn't make all the ranks. There would have been people able to flee, to keep living, even if tragedy struck them down.
But with a decision so repulsive, with a plot that aimed at the lives of people that never did anything to harm BanYue, how could Ke Mo be right?
Xie Lian held a grudge against Yong'An as well, held an instinctive hate that never left him, but he knew how to recognize those who could suffer the fate of the war, and those who had to be spared.
E-Ming was still in his hand. He could hand it over to Hua Cheng, and without a single word Ke Mo would be dead.
It wasn't time, yet.
«Lay everything out in the open», he said, his voice so cold that even Mu Qing watched him with wide eyes. «Speak up. Now».
Struck by the sudden coolness he could hear in his voice, Pei Su didn't miss a beat before talking: «There's been many riots caused by BanYue citizens near the border, and many caravans and travelers kept falling victim of ambushes», he said. Then, he focused his attention back to Ke Mo: «You intentionally sheltered the bandits that terrorized Yong'An, and killed our soldiers under the pretense of illegal border crossing. How is that not vile?».
His tone was calm, slow, but each word was as sharp as knives.
«What about you?», Ke Mo argued back. «Why not say you forcibly occupied our land first?».
«The border has always been ambiguous, how can you say we forcibly occupied your land?».
«The lines were clearly drawn! You didn't keep to yourselves!».
«The lines were drawn by BanYue, but Yong'An never agreed to anything. Not only that, your border had the oasis, while we only had desert. What nonsense».
Ke Mo was red in the face and yelled some more, but Xie Lian wasn't listening as intently anymore. The hostility between them was making him remember how badly he got beaten up stuck in the middle of both sides, and he could feel the pain come back once more, so much that he instinctively wanted to hug himself and chase it away.
Phantom pain, that's what he hated. He could manage getting trampled by a crowd, could suffer through it without feeling too much, but when that pain came back to haunt him, he couldn't endure it. His mind remembered better than his body. Remembered too much.
He couldn't help but feel relieved when Pei Su finally had enough of quarrelling with Ke Mo.
«There are many things in the world that simply can't be clearly defines or resolved», Pei Su said, turning to look at Xie Lian. «You can only fight».
In response, Xie Lian sighed: «I'll agree to the first part».
Hua Cheng, unsurprisingly, agreed to the last. But, just then, Ke Mo spoke again, his anger somewhat curbed but his words still harsh, accusing Pei Su of killing them not for his country, and not for his people.
Hearing that, the official fell silent, and Xie Lian moved his gaze to Ke Mo. He was still talking, as if no one else was there, telling the story of how Pei Su was an exiled son that needed to win that battle to secure his position.
Right. Pei Su wasn't a direct descendant of General Pei, but came from some branches out. Even with such a renown ancestor, it wasn't difficult to believe he had fallen so astray. But if that was the case, the fact that he told Ban Yue to help him made things even worse for him. She thought he was good, but Pei Su wanted nothing if not a victory for himself.
«What the hell, Pei Su?», he blurted out, completely done with that situation. «You're both at fault, here. There's no saving any of you».
He rubbed his forehead, to the point of giving himself a headache, and let out a slow breath: «Fine. This... I can't believe I'm saying this, but I regret coming here. I should have left this awful situation to sort itself out. How are you even arguing? Your people, Ke Mo, wanted to kill thousands of innocents. You, Pei Su, acted out of your own desire to have some recognition. The only one that was really a victim here is poor Ban Yue».
That poor child... Xie Lian felt sorry for her. She didn't want to hate anyone, yet she had no choice. And, when a trusted person like Pei Su asked her to choose a side, she was already trapped in a dead end, with no right solution to save her.
Saying yes to Pei Su caused a disaster that went on for almost two centuries, killing countless people, but saying no could have resulted in an even worse outcome. Opening the fortress gates meant the slaughter of an entire kingdom and the rising of resentful ghosts. Not opening the fortress gates would have meant twice as much death, if not more, and twice as much problems.
She didn't betray anyone, at the end of the day, other than herself. And she didn't deserve any of it.
«Why did you send that empty shell to me?», Xie Lian suddenly asked.
Pei Su wasn't surprised that His Highness knew he was the one who created the shell, but he looked away: «I wanted to put an end to this. You seemed suitable».
«Say that you didn't want to confess your crimes to the heavens», Xie Lian bitterly replied, before he could stop himself. He figured as much. When they arrived, only a handful of soldiers were left outside the Sinner's Pit. Thanks to their intervention, all of them finally fell in, and Hua Cheng got rid of everyone but Ke Mo.
«You shouldn't have involved Ban Yue in this. When she was alive, and now that she's a ghost, you shouldn't have involved her. You took advantage of her reputation and of her friendship», he scolded him, still harsh. «Have some regrets».
«I have some regrets, but none of them for killing the BanYue people».
Suddenly, a voice came from above, and Xie Lian almost took an immense sigh of relief. As soon as he heard it, he also gave E-Ming back to his husband, but refused to call RuoYe back. It was still binding Ke Mo, who at Pei Su's words thrashed and cursed again.
«Having no regrets in killing, well said! Will you say the same in regards to all the travelers who were misled by you and lost their lives?».
Xie Lian looked up, and even if he couldn't see her, it was obvious the voice belonged to Shi QingXuan. He shot a glance at Mu Qing, more confused than ever, then the bellowing of wild winds entered the Sinner's Pit from above, swept all the way to the bottom, and rolled everyone into the air.
Xie Lian instinctively grabbed for Hua Cheng, who was still close to him, and got caught back.
After a whirl of spinning, their bodies swiftly rising, they started plunging down. Xie Lian would have probably cratered headfirst three feet into the ground, but Hua Cheng reached out and took him in his arms, giving the Crown Prince the softest landing of them all. Everyone else landed on their feet, except Ke Mo, who slammed into the ground.
As soon as Xie Lian convinced his husband to put him down, a black-clad silhouette came stumbling before him, and it was a disheveled Feng Xin. It looked like as if he rolled in grime ten times before getting thrown into a rambunctious den of beasts to spend the night. His clothes were tattered and bedraggled, his face gloomy.
Did He Xuan beat him up? It seemed something He Xuan would do.
Before he could ask him, two figures appeared behind Feng Xin and strolled over. One of them was Shi QingXuan, still with a whisk in her arms, and she greeted Xie Lian cheerfully. The lady in black, aka a shapeshifted He Xuan, glanced at Xie Lian for only a second before moving to Hua Cheng. Judging by his expression, surely Hua Cheng mocked He Xuan again.
«San Lang, stop it», he whispered, gently elbowing him in the side. He didn't want to see them argue again, the last time he and Shi QingXuan got so fed up with their antics that they left and strolled around Ghost City on their own for three hours.
With a brief excuse, the two ladies walked past Xie Lian and headed straight for Pei Su, who didn't appear surprised to see them approach. After all, he had already seen them in town when he was still playing the part of A-Zhao, and he was probably already familiar with the female form of the Wind Master. In fact, he knelt down and bowed his head, quietly greeting her with her title.
«Why didn't you tell me it was the Wind Master? I had to fight them!».
Feng Xin's voice sounded so offended the Crown Prince almost laughed, but then he also got yet another dumbfounded expression from Mu Qing, and snorted for real: «I'm sorry for not telling you, I couldn't», he apologized, giving them a half-assed explanation. He didn't tell them why he couldn't say anything, and they didn't press further. Maybe they weren't interested, maybe Hua Cheng glared at them again. who knew.
As the two martial gods mused, Xie Lian looked over, to witness the confession of Pei Su in front of Shi QingXuan.
Their conversation didn't last long, and Xie Lian didn't interfere. He knew why Pei Su couldn't just kill the BanYue soldiers directly, even if the explanation did nothing to lighten up his situation. Using someone else's flesh and blood to quench the thirst of ghosts was an indirect way to deal with the issue. Trying to deal with it directly would have immediately drawn countless eyes to him, and those suspects of a heavenly officials being involved in the BanYue mess would have turned to safe accusations with a visible target.
«Your General Pei wouldn't have done something like this at all», the Wind Master said. «I'm afraid you've crossed the line».
It was a shame, really, but releasing a clone to cause havoc for almost two hundred years, lure innumerous passersby down the wrong path to due in the mouths of BanYue soldiers, no matter how he could spin it, wasn't a small deal.
Shi QingXuan wanted to help Xie Lian and end it there, but the heavens needed to know, and he told Pei Su as much.
«I understand», Pei Su said quietly. He turned to Xie Lian, who was standing close to the same handsome youth he'd seen already on Mount YuJun, and thought for a second before calling him: «Your Highness?».
«Mh?».
«I won't tell».
Xie Lian didn't miss his eyes darting to Hua Cheng for a split second, and closed his eyes, nodding his thanks. No one, obviously, asked any questions, so the young official looked down once again and didn't talk anymore. It seemed that they were finally done with that disaster of a mission. Now, the last thing to do was bringing the shanyue fern to the wounded merchant.
However, Xie Lian suddenly remembered that someone else was with them, and stole a look at Ban Yue, who was curled up on the ground. He was already worried that if the scandal was to reach the Upper Court, the officials could easily muck up the truth, and have Ban Yue take all the blame while Pei Su ran off scot-free.
Without thinking twice, Xie Lian stepped forward and kneeled beside Ban Yue: «If you haven't heard what we said down there, I can repeat it so you can report it to the heavens», he told Shi QingXuan. His trust in her judgment wasn't tainted by doubt, but Ban Yue was still trapped in her own bad reputation. Even the best of them all could be fooled.
Shi QingXuan assured him they heard everything, even repeated it to make him feel more at ease, and then He Xuan spoke up with urgency. Surely, the ghost didn't want to stay another moment, and told as much.
Unable to help himself, Xie Lian glared at his husband, who only replied with a shrug and a smug look on his face. And he still wanted to deny they were friends, him and He Xuan.
Amused, Shi QingXuan took out a folding fan from her waist and smiled: «Your Royal Highness, we'll see you in the Upper Court one of these days?».
Xie Lian gave her a nod – much to Hua Cheng's chagrin – and the Wind Master opened her spiritual device, the word "Feng" visible against a stark white background. She fanned forward three times and backwards an equal amount, and a gust of wind blew from flat ground.
The strong breeze drew dust and sand, and when it died down the two ladies, Pei Su, and Ke Mo had all disappeared, leaving four people covered in sand and debris – and a deeply asleep ghost – behind.