After a while of digging, Yin Yu started going upwards. The shovel efficiently moved away dirt and rocks, making them disappear somewhere else rather than piling them up as they went, and soon enough they emerged in the yard of a residence.
Xie Lian offhandedly commented about how the houses on that street were all impressive, after looking around a bit, so Hua Cheng provided an explanation: «This place is close to the Kiln, which is situated in what used to be the imperial capital, so it's a place of wealth», he told his beloved. «The ones who lived here were mostly prominent figures and government officials».
However, those houses weren't as impressive as the exceedingly horrifying sight near the well in the yard. All around it, sprawled over the edge, were seven to eight coarsely-made, ashen white stone statues. Which, in reality, weren't statues at all, and Xie Lian was quick to pick up the detail.
No one would sculpt such terrifying statues, unless their mind was twisted and their intentions far from benign; to see them in the yard of a certainly rich household raised many questions, and the answer to those questions was far more horrible than it could be imagined.
The fact that, beyond the open doors of the mansion, a family could be seen lying on the ground, only proved that those outside were the household's servants, and those inside the masters.
When Xie Lian pointed it out, the ghost nodded: «After the volcano erupted, the residents who lived in the high plains weren't burnt to death, but they succumbed to the volcanic ash. These shells were formed by that ash». Those people probably didn't even realize they died, when the pyroclastic wave engulfed them, a blazing hot cloud burning skin and tissues, filling the lungs with toxic gas.
A quick death, if anything, though a terrifying one.
However, as ghastly as the view was, there was nothing left but those shells. Hua Cheng proved it by approaching the family of three laying on the ground and shattering those shells, leaving behind only a pile of ashen-white shards. The volcanic ash could form a solid protective shell, but the corpse inside would still rot and break down. So many years had passed since the fall of WuYong that not even a skeleton remained.
«San Lang, next time warn me», Xie Lian scolded the ghost, kneeling down beside the pile of ashen shards. «I didn't know there weren't any remains in these shells, I thought you were being disrespectful».
What was left, save for the shells themselves, were some not yet fully rotted through pieces of cloth and the accessories worn by the hosts, such as earrings, necklaces, and so on. Though, the form of the shells was definitely the one of someone clutching something in their hands, close to the heart, ad Xie Lian didn't believe it could possibly be jewelry.
He was carefully picking through those pieces when Hua Cheng handed something to him; a pendant, a shimmering golden plate with something akin to bones hanging off the chain. The pendant was of exquisite manufacture, the gold not quite ruined by the passage of time. Surely it was an item of significance, and an expensive one on top of that.
Looking at it closely, Xie Lian noticed there were patterns engraved on the golden plate: «The ominous star?».
The celestial drawing had him befuddled. That particular star, which was the celestial phase when the Star of Glowing Befuddlement stood still in the Heart Constellation, had historically been seen as the Star of War and Death, and was an even more ominous sign when it rested within the Heart Constellation. Why would the ominous star be engraved on an accessory... it slipped Xie Lian's mind.
What didn't slip, however, was the fact that there were two more of that pendant hiding in the pile of shattered volcanic shells.
«A protection charm with the ominous star?», Xie Lian mumbled, puzzled. «Does the Crown Prince have any connection to it?».
Since the people of WuYong worshipped their Crown Prince, in a way that was similar to the Kingdom of XianLe, than the pendant should be the protection charm of said prince. But why draw that celestial phase on the charm?
«When the Crown Prince of WuYong was born, it was the celestial phase of the ominous star», Hua Cheng explained, eye fixated on the charm. «The people used it to symbolize him».
He hinted at Xie Lian to turn the pendant over, where a column of characters was engraved: «Maybe the meaning behind the Star of Glowing Befuddlement in the Heart Constellation wasn't quite the same as the present one. Two thousand years are a long time».
Xie Lian absentmindedly stroked that line of words, his heart slowly sinking. He felt too close to that Crown Prince of the past, too many coincidences. He too, after all, was born under the sign of the ominous star. For some reason, those many similarities between him and that other Crown Prince were disquieting. At first he was genuinely curious about his identity, because what chance could it be that their kingdoms had such similar stories?
A Crown Prince becoming a god glorified by the common people, a catastrophe bringing despair and death over the population, temples burned and buried under layers and layers of ash and debris. And now, the sign of the ominous star on the day they were born.
The line between oddness and disquietude was thin; Xie Lian felt he had crossed it.
«Let's go», the god said, mouth suddenly dry. «We're wasting time».
There was still a dangerous ghost they needed to take care of.
Yin Yu wasted no time and started digging yet another tunnel when he figured walking beneath the earth would be faster than walking above it. Cutting straight through Mount Tong'lu, the way lit up with fluttering silver light, they proceeded in silence.
Xie Lian was still mulling over the fact that something seemed amiss, when he thought about that Crown Prince so similar to him, while Hua Cheng was busy with the butterflies he sent all over the place in order to find the ghost they needed to stop.
Then, when Yin Yu broke through the ground again to make them all surface, a sharp, shrill note crossed the air all of a sudden.
Immediately, Hua Cheng went pale – whiter than his corpse-like skin – and stumbled in his steps, as if a great force was causing his body to over-exert itself. He broke into a sweat, a bead trickling down the side of his head, and to Xie Lian's horror blood started trickling down his nose.
«San Lang!», he yelled, dashing to his side in a flash. «San Lang, what's happening?!».
He tried to answer, clearly, but as soon as he opened his mouth to speak another string of notes pierced their ears, and instead the ghost doubled over. When he straightened his back again, helped by the strong hands of a worried martial god, his lips were glistening with fresh blood.
In the split second it took for the music to pick up again, Xie Lian grabbed Hua Cheng and unceremoniously threw him back underground. Then, he threw Yin Yu back into the tunnel as well and ordered him to close the opening: «We're going to argue about what you didn't tell me later, now keep my husband safe!», he said, before unsheathing FangXin and leaping towards the direction of the sound.
It was clear that the music was the culprit behind Hua Cheng's sudden weakness and the damage caused to his body; it was also clear that, when Hua Cheng first found that ghost, he didn't recount exactly what happened to him upon hearing that music. Xie Lian didn't question the explanation he had been given, because the dreadful sensation prickling all over his skin was quite similar to the one described by Hua Cheng, but now he did.
And he had a good reason to.
Hua Cheng was too scared of telling Xie Lian about his injuries, from time to time. He would hide them from him, and although there was no malicious intent behind that action, it was still maddening.
No wonder his husband came back so shaken and frustrated, that day. The ghost managed to hurt him!
Angry, not at his husband but as his stubbornness in hiding his pain from him, Xie Lian figured they could sort everything out later.
Now, madly running towards the ghost he needed to stop, there was only one thing on his mind. Fight.
The golden blood of the martial god sang into his veins, the call of war heavy and strong, urging him on.
Xie Lian might be calmer, now, might have learned how to be much more reflective instead of letting instinct do everything for him, but the battlefield always made his soul turn ablaze, burning with the intensity of a dying star. A sword in his hand was what Xie Lian craved, the familiar weight of metal pushing down his arm, the hard handle in his palm, the glint of light reflecting on the pitch black blade that held much more history than what it showed.
His footwork was still fast and light, allowing him to move so easily between broken-down houses and trees that it seemed Xie Lian was gliding and flying, weightless through the air, his black robes fluttering behind him like a deep shadow tailing his movements.
It didn't take long for the god to find the ghost. When he did, the unholy amount of guilt, resentment, and deep sadness radiating from it almost made him recoil in shock, FangXin unexpectedly trembling in his hand. While he couldn't point out if the ghost was male or female, the resentful energy surrounding it too thick to notice, he could vaguely make out the shape of a tall, skinny person, skin as pale as a corpse, the malicious spark of vivid red eyes.
Xie Lian strengthened the hold on FangXin, fighting down the urge to shudder. The one in front of him was no ordinary ghost. It was odd, bizarre, not quite evil at heart but obviously desperate, out of control. The soul in front of him was shattered, held together by strings of resentment rather than willingness to stay, and the music now seemed filled with agony.
All around it, Xie Lian noticed the bodies of many ghosts and monsters that came before him, dancing and moving as if following the melancholic notes.
Strangely enough, none of those beings controlled by the ghost showed any intention of attacking him, so Xie Lian quickly opted for another plan. He carefully sheathed FangXin and slowly approached the ghost, one step in front of the other, wary of its every action. In a split second FangXin would be out again, if needed.
For the time being, the god simply walked closer and closer, stepping around the twitching bodies of those who had surely been foolish enough to pursue an offensive tactic.
The closer he got, the more detail he could catch of the ghost. First of all, Xie Lian finally understood he was looking at a man, albeit an exceedingly beautiful one. He had chiseled features and sharp eyes, but the skin was pulled taut against the bones underneath it, as if in life the ghost had suffered from hunger. From up close, Xie Lian realized there wasn't actual malice hiding behind those red eyes, but only anger, fear, and a devastating anguish that was so familiar it hurt his heart. How many times had Xie Lian worn that exact same look in his eyes?
Maybe too many, in eight hundred years.
He looked at his clothes, trying to recognize the style maybe, but the robes weren't too familiar to the eye or the memory. There was a vague recollection happening in the recessed of the god's mind, as if he'd seen someone similar some years prior, but those days he didn't pay attention enough to the crowd. He had no reason to, before his third ascension.
«What's your name?».
His voice was low and gentle, but steady at the same time, cutting like a blade. The ghost looked up at him, log lashes shadowing his eyes, and didn't answer. There was loneliness there, Xie Lian saw it.
«You don't remember?». The ghost shook his head. It seemed lost, now, rather than dangerous.
«Why are you here?».
. . .
"I don't know».
Xie Lian made to speak again, ask another question, but the ghost's voice was faster.
«I don't want to be here».
. . .
«I wanted to die».
«You're already dead», the god said. A memory flashed through his mind, of a black-clad youth kneeling in front of him, but he pushed it back. Wuming... it wasn't time to remember him. To remember the ghost Hua Cheng was before descending to hell.
«... why am I still here?».
Xie Lian didn't know what to reply. Ghosts didn't linger about if they truly wanted to disappear, move on into the afterlife as they waited for the moment to be reincarnated. A mortal that died with unfinished business was more likely to stay behind as a ghost, one that wanted to leave was more likely to walk the bridge and go towards reincarnation.
But the soul before him wasn't normal in the slightest.
The martial god had no idea how the young man died, but it had to be gruesome. His body, looking up close, was not whole; if not for the tendrils of smoky resentful energy holding it together, it would be nothing but a pile of dismembered limbs and pieces, stitched together but ready to fall apart. Xie Lian schooled his compassionate expression into one of pacific indifference, and heaved a sigh: «Maybe you left someone behind».
For a long time, the ghost didn't respond. Then, he relaxed the fingers holding his flute, letting it fall to the ground. As soon as it touched the broken tiles of a road in ruins, the small ghosts moving about suddenly stopped, before collapsing in neat piles of ash.
«Kill me».
«You've already been killed».
«Than kill me again».
Xie Lian was taken aback by the striking pain in the ghost's voice.
All that time, the god thought he would find someone unwilling to go down without a fight, a ghost ready to give his all in order to enter the Kiln and break through as a Ghost King. As it turned out, both he and his husband had it all wrong.
That ghost wasn't driven by killing intent. He was powerful, dangerously so, and was able to affect the dead all around him, but his wish wasn't to stay. His wish was to move on. Whatever it was that was keeping him from doing so wasn't his fault.
Unsure, Xie Lian hesitated.
There had to be something keeping that ghost tied to the world of the living dead, preventing him from moving on. Maybe he just didn't know about it, maybe he was so ruined that he couldn't realize it.
Dissipating him would be easy, just a simple task to carry out with a wave of the hand. But would it be fair? Would it be right?
The god didn't know.
He still took FangXin in hand, and slashed at him. One by one, he cut through the threads of resentful energy keeping his body in one piece, watching as he fell apart bit by bit, the corporeal side of his soul breaking down in nothing but a pile of gruesome remains. The dark robes pooled on the ground, not a single cut in the fabric that wasn't already there, flesh and bones a stark contrast against black and grey.
Soon enough, only the soul itself remained, broken and battered, flailing about.
Xie Lian didn't have it in himself to stab it with FangXin.
There had to be a reason why he stayed behind, after all.
He could heal, over time.
Xie Lian sheathed FangXin, cupped his fist, and bowed to the ghost.
«San Lang!».
Jumping back into the tunnel, Xie Lian threw FangXin aside and rushed to the ghost, who was kneeling on the ground. Despite the whistling music not sounding through the air anymore, Hua Cheng still had his head bowed and both hands clenched into fists, black nails digging into the flesh of his palms; a trickle of blood was at his lips, the red stain of blood wiped away still faintly visible on his chin.
While Xie Lian was away, blood spilled from under his eye-patch as well, leaving the dark fabric soaked with it.
The god fussed over him, checking to see if his spiritual energy was still fine; the god's fingers stilled for a second, sensing he hadn't fully recovered, and he sighed: «San Lang, did you... did you force yourself to recover?».
What he felt, reaching for his core, was worrisome. The energy inside him was untainted, so the nameless ghost didn't cause damage, but it wasn't as stable as it should have been. And with Mount Tong'lu not influencing him anymore, being now completely sealed after calling the ghosts to gather, Xie Lian could find no other reason for that.
Hua Cheng was so worried about Xie Lian's self-destructive behavior that he kept forgetting about his own.
Not at all relieved, now, the god gently took Hua Cheng's face in his hands and pressed their foreheads together: «Why do you put yourself in danger for me, my San Lang?», he whispered, a quiet murmur beneath the soft embrace of dark dirt and stone. «Don't you know how much I want you to be safe?».
The ghost swallowed dry, but when he tried to apologize Xie Lian placed a finger on his lips and shook his head, a timid smile curving up his lips: «I know why you did it. But promise me, if helping me brings hurt to you, then be more careful».
Slowly, heart warming up, Hua Cheng nodded.
He leaned into the touch, when Xie Lian used a corner of his robe to dab at the blood still on his face, like a cat looking for soothing pets. He knew he was in the wrong, and yet... Xie Lian was always willing to work their mistakes out together.
The Crown Prince that Pleased the Gods... for Hua Cheng, he would always be the Crown Prince who caught him in his arms. Who cared about gods-pleasing monikers, Xie Lian was the one who saved his life. He was the one Hua Cheng willingly lived for, died for, stayed for. He would always be his reason for existing.
«San Lang?».
«I promise, gege».
At that, Xie Lian hummed in approval. Then, he helped his husband to his feet and turned around to find Yin Yu leaning on the Earth Master's shovel, patiently waiting for them to be done.
The god didn't bother apologizing for that, he knew that Yin Yu would have spoken up if something was wrong. Instead, he nodded towards the opening of the tunnel, and the three climbed out in order to continue on their way.
Having already taken care of the ghost Xie Lian had an unexpected conversation with, Hua Cheng withdrew all his butterflies from Mount Tong'lu, calling them back. For a moment, the newly dug tunnel Yin Yu was leading them through lit up with silver light, so bright Xie Lian had to turn his eyes away from the shine, and then only a couple stayed behind to give them some brightness; all the rest disappeared in the bracers around the ghost's forearms, as if they never existed in the first place.
Hua Cheng once suggested to his husband that he could give him a pair of silver vambraces that held butterflies inside them, much like the exquisite hairpin the god wore every once in a while, but Xie Lian refused with a smile. He knew it was a gesture of affection, born from the wish to protect him as best as he could, but the god could never take something that was his.
A couple of butterflies, a pair of dice, that was fine. Xie Lian was not taking what was his husband's and making it his.
But such a blatant thing... Xie Lian wasn't comfortable with it. He was glad that his husband trusted him so, but he also wanted Hua Cheng to keep his symbols close.
A silly wish, maybe.
Xie Lian simply wanted to give themselves some boundaries that should never be crossed. For their own individuality.
A little bit was fine, a claim if one wanted. Too much... that couldn't happen.
«Yin Yu», he called the former official. «Did you use the ghosts swarming Mount Tong'lu to find him?».
The Waning Moon Officer nodded, shoveling dirt at incredible speed: «You wouldn't believe how gossipy some of these ghosts are», he commented, clicking his tongue. «Even in the midst of a fight there's some willing to talk behind someone else's back».
Because of that, it had been extremely easy to gather the information he needed, a matter of mere minutes. He just needed to find the right ghost, and he was greatly skilled in doing so. Years of working in Ghost City truly made a difference.
«Thank you so much for your hard work».
Although Xie Lian didn't think that such a simple thank you wasn't enough, he sensed something amiss and immediately shut up, signaling both Yin Yu an Hua Cheng not to make a sound. The former official stopped shoveling, while Hua Cheng looked at him with a raised eyebrow. The surprise, though, only lasted for a second, before he ghost himself understood.
Voices coming from their left, muffled but still distinguishable.
One belonging to a man, another to a child.
«Dad is eating bad things in secret again!».
«I'm not!».
«I smelled it! your mouth reeks when you eat it!»
Xie Lian fought back the urge to laugh at the child scolding the adult, raising a hand to his mouth, and sighed: «Well, good job», he praised Yin Yu, whispering. «We found Qi Rong».
Now they just needed to help him reach the Kiln. Which was easier said than done, if GuZi was with him. The god wanted to smack his forehead, so much was the frustration; Qi Rong had to be mad, bringing a literal human child with him to Mount Tong'lu... that he cared for him was one thing, but such a decision was entirely too dangerous for the kid.
Even if GuZi seemed to be much more responsible than his newfound dad, at that point.
Silently, Xie Lian gestured Yin Yu to open a hole in the tunnel, and sure enough the other side was an open cavern, with more tunnels leading to a bunch of other caves.
Careful, the god examined the place by sending intangible tendrils of spiritual energy all around, and was pleasantly surprised to find there were no other ghosts with Qi Rong. There were no mortals either, save for the poor soul he was probably eating when GuZi scolded him.
Xie Lian kind of expected to find a bunch of mortals trapped with him by the Ghost Fire Lock, and instead...
«Is he alone with GuZi, here? San Lang, can you check...?».
It was unbelievable.
«Just the two of them», Hua Cheng soon confirmed, after sending out one of his butterflies. «What an amusing thing, gege. Shall we go say hi?».
«Define saying hi», the god jokingly scolded him, but still started walking toward the voices. He was ready to have RuoYe snap forward and bind Qi Rong, just to avoid him screaming his lungs out in outrage, but apparently his cousin was waiting for them to appear.
In fact, as soon as they stepped inside the cave he was currently in, sitting cross-legged on the ground with GuZi nagging at him about healthy meals and wrongdoings with food, he raised his eyes and locked them with Xie Lian.
Amber gold and vivid green met for a second.
Qi Rong scoffed: «You're here to take me or this brat, cousin?», he asked, not bothering to look at him more than it was necessary. «You fuckers really know how to annoy people».
The fact that he didn't yell at his face was so dumbfounding that Xie Lian didn't answer immediately. When he realized he had been asked a question – a genuine question! Qi Rong, what the hell! – the god rolled his eyes: «Qi Rong, you would already be on the ground begging for your life if I was here to take you», he said, cutting straight to the point. He had long since learned that with his cousin there was no use in sugarcoating his words. Being direct and harsh was the best approach, if he wanted things to be quick and painless. «You're certainly non bringing GuZi inside the Kiln».
A ghost child would not survive in that place. A mortal child? Forget it, he wouldn't even be able to enter it before dying a horrible death.
Already, GuZi's complexion was paler than normal, his eyes visibly heavy. It was clear that the resentful energy swirling around Mount Tong'lu's territory was bothering his weak constitution, as it was normal for a kid with no cultivation foundations .
«Why didn't you leave him with somebody?», he asked his cousin, bewildered at the fact he actually brought him along.
As if he could leave the brat with someone. Who did Qi Rong knew, aside from his goddamn cousin and the wretched husband that followed him like a dog? Only other ghosts, many of which wouldn't give a shit about a child.
«Tell me, my righteous cousin, where the fuck should have I left him?», he asked back, a snarl more than a question.
Xie Lian almost suggested he could have told him, and Shi QingXuan surely wouldn't have minded having a child in his care for a while, but then he remembered about He Xuan and didn't speak up. As annoying as it was, Qi Rong was right.
No one could have taken care of GuZi. Maybe the villagers of PuQi, but Xie Lian didn't want to risk them trying to enter the shrine and be rejected. The last thing he needed was them thinking their god didn't want to look over the village anymore.
«Leave him with us», he said, after a brief moment of silence. «Go to the Kiln, he'll be fine with us until you break through».
Go to the Kiln...
«Why are you helping me?».
Xie Lian was a heavenly official. If anything, even if there wasn't bad blood still flowing stubbornly between them, he should be trying to stop him in the name of the heavens, as every god should. Even his closeness to the ghost realm, as real as it was, didn't explain that behavior.
«I'm owning my mistakes of the past», was the answer, slow and pondered. Xie Lian had been thoroughly wronged by Qi Rong in the past, in many and painful ways. His cousin was the reason so many kneeling statues of his person existed, so many of his temples burned, so many of those dreadful insults ran around from mouth to mouth. However, Xie Lian wasn't without fault towards him.
The circumstances had been horrifying for both of them, Xie Lian fighting with his mental stability and Qi Rong suffering in a cell somewhere in Yong'An, but there were still faults.
Had Xie Lian spared at least one though, one single thought, for his cousin, maybe things would have turned out differently.
Realistically, they probably wouldn't have, not with how bad the situation was for everyone involved. Xie Lian still felt guilty that his cousin died alone, believing – and being absolutely right – that no one cared about him.
Allowing him to enter the Kiln and become a Devastation was Xie Lian's way to start mending the rift between them.
«I don't care if you still want to be an asshole, after this», he added, a dark glint in his eyes. «Just go become a Devastation. I didn't help you back then, I'm helping you now».
As he spoke, Xie Lian walked up to Qi Rong and extended his hand out for GuZi to take. The kid, smart as he was, understood he needed to leave his dad be and accepted the hand, grabbing it with shaky fingers. His skin was cold, a bit too much, so Xie Lian took off the outermost layer of his robes and draped it over GuZi's shoulders, huddling him up in that.
«What were you doing back then?».
Qi Rong rose to his feet, wiping some blood away from his chin. The arm he was munching on before GuZi came back and started bothering him with his unending chattering rolled away from where he hid it in his robes, earning him yet another scolding look from the brat.
Whatever.
«Did you really forget about me, Xie Lian? Did you all truly not care?».
He could cope with them not caring. He was used to that, his entire life had been filled with elusive supervision and borderline neglect, save for the fragile affection coming from the queen. But he couldn't stand being truly forgotten. He was tired of that.
Xie Lian heaved a sigh, fists instinctively clenching. Hua Cheng shot him a concerned look, obviously worried about him, so the god smiled at him and shook his head: «San Lang, behave», he warned him, nudging GuZi towards the Ghost King. «Go ahead, go find him some water. I'll come».
Although Hua Cheng was reluctant to leave, eye brimming with anxiety, he trusted his husband enough to listen without complaint.
Only when Hua Cheng and Yin Yu disappeared, first in another cave and then back into the tunnel leading out on the surface, the god turned around to face Qi Rong: «The answer might be worse than you think».
«Amuse me».
The god gave a wicked grin, though his eyes were heavy with anguish.
He spoke a single name, and he saw the ghostly face of his cousin be drained of all color, courtesy of the mortal body he was inhabiting.
No matter how nasty Qi Rong had become, how careless he used to be back in XianLe, he feared than name as well. That person, that omen of blood and misfortune.
Qi Rong feared and loathed Bai WuXiang just as much as Xie Lian.
«I wish I could say we cared about you. We all forgot, not out of malice, but out of desperation». Xie Lian saw the pained flash cross Qi Rong eyes upon saying that. He felt a bit guilty for it. «I can't say anything for my parents. Whatever was going through their minds, I never knew. As for me, well... I was plagued by guilt. I was terrified of what happened, to XianLe and to me. I was confused, and I didn't know what to do, how to live after suffering the banishment and the hate of the people».
He kept himself honest, there was no reason to lie. If he ended up hurting Qi Rong with his words, because he didn't believe that was enough of an excuse, then so be it.
He fought down the lump forming in his throat before continuing: «I don't know if Bai WuXiang started harassing me before or after you died. I don't know if I can use him as my reason for being an insensitive mess when it came to you, so I won't blame it fully on him, but I was terrified of him. He scarred me, enough to make me detached from reality».
At times, Xie Lian didn't even realize what he was doing, moving solely because his body remembered how to. His mind was somewhere else, lost in the haze of a blood-ridden battlefield, the screams of dying people ringing in his ears, the pleas of those who were infected with the Human Face Disease shattering his core from the inside.
«I'm sorry I left you behind».
He didn't say "I didn't mean to", because Xie Lian himself didn't know. Did he mean to leave him to his fate? He had no idea. What the god knew was that they forgot about him. The lack of care showed by his family was still vastly obscure to him, incomprehensible and now lost after their death. As for him, Xie Lian didn't think he willingly forgot about Qi Rong, but his mind had been so devastated back then that there was no way to understand.
Qi Rong didn't expect Bai WuXiang to have hunted Xie Lian down. He was aware of his viciousness, XianLe had been his kingdom as much as Xie Lian's, and he suffered greatly from the destruction of it, but to target his cousin specifically...
The ghost had been lucky, in his life. While he ended up being captured by the hands of those soldiers who preferred to leave him to die alone in the dark, Bai WuXiang never chose him as a mean to his amusement.
«Did he do something to you?».
Despite himself, Qi Rong felt a pang of anxiety for Xie Lian. He had hated him, despised him, after looking up to the godly figure he used to be both before and after his ascension, but that was something else entirely. Something that, no matter the harsh feelings between them, couldn't be overlooked or mocked.
Bai WuXiang... he went above and beyond what the common people and the gods called "fear".
The god cleared his throat and turned his head, unwilling to answer. His hands started trembling, so he grabbed one with the other in an attempt to stop them from shaking so much: «What do you know of the death of our family?».
A question to another question.
Xie Lian was perfectly aware he was simply postponing the inevitable. He just didn't want to talk about it.
«What should I know? They died, that's all I could learn».
And he learned of it after becoming a ghost, no earlier. Who knew, maybe they died before him and he was hopelessly waiting for two dead people to come and rescue him.
«My parents hanged themselves».
The words hit Qi Rong like a brick. The mortal body he was inhabiting still had needs such a breathing, so it felt like all the air had been knocked out of his lungs, leaving his breathless.
Death by suicide... why would they do such a thing?
Sure, they were royals, and living in the streets had to be difficult, but Qi Rong remembered them as people who didn't give up. No matter what, they always tried to find a solution for everything, working themselves to the bone for their kingdom. During the war, Qi Rong saw them being eaten alive by worry and despair, but never once did they try to simply give up the fight.
So he asked.
And the answer made him want to throw up.
Xie Lian huffed, laughed with no mirth: «It was Bai WuXiang. It was what he did to me. It was their desperation when they realized I was too gone to even exist anymore».
His parents didn't exactly die because Bai WuXiang forced them to take that silk band, but they did die because of him. Indirectly. Thanks to Xie Lian's tribulations.
His hand was all over their bodies, stark white against corpse pallor.
«I don't want to tell you what he did to me, I'll be honest», the god admitted, starting to walk away from his cousin. «But know that I almost became a Calamity because of him. Go to the Kiln, I'll handle the heavens».
With that, he walked away without looking back.
If he did, he would have seen his cousin looking at him in amazed terror.
«Scrap gege, will my dad be okay?».
. . .
Xie Lian gave up on convincing GuZi calling him in a different way before even trying to do so. Kids were kids, better to let them to their childish way as much as he could.
He still nodded, picking kid up to carry him in his arms: «Your dad will be away for a while, but everything's gonna go well». He trusted Qi Rong in that. After all, he wasn't exactly weak, and neither he was foolish. To have made it so that his name was alongside the three great Ghost Kings was no joke, despite the mockingly ignorant attitude people had towards him.
They were walking away from the heart of Mount Tong'lu, slowly making their way down broken roads. Yin Yu was leading, but the Earth Master's shovel wasn't in his hand anymore, instead carried across his back; they figured it was better to stay on the surface, because GuZi might be braver than many other kids, but he still probably spent a good deal of time underground and it couldn't be good for him.
As the group moved forward, a sudden tremor shook the earth beneath their feet.
«The Kiln?», Xie Lian turned around, a questioning tone in his voice.
Beside him, Hua Cheng nodded and pointed to the mountain in question, looking like it was dyed in the color of blood thanks to its red forests. Xie Lian couldn't smell it from where they stood, but those trees crimson like maples carried the stench of metallic rust, brought to them by plenty of resentment and human blood.
Hua Cheng took care to describe it to him, one day that Xie Lian was feeling particularly curious about his time in Mount Tong'lu.
The Kiln accepted Qi Rong into its heart, and the barrier sealing Mount Tong'lu and its temporary dwellers broke all of a sudden. According to an impressed comment by Hua Cheng, it was exceedingly incredible that a ghost could make his way to the Kiln in under a week since the sealing. Xie Lian thought it less impressive, just because there was no actual competition that time around.
On his own, Qi Rong was already a near-Devastation, powerful enough to take on the majority of the ghosts that dared challenge him. On top of that, Xie Lian stepped in, getting rid of the only true menace that could overthrow his cousin, and together with Pei Ming, Ban Yue, and Pei Su, they apprehended both Rong Guang and Ke Mo, two other big problems.
It didn't matter that Rong Guang had no interest in entering the Kiln and Ke Mo was probably just as uncaring, they could still have presented a risk hadn't it been for the bizarre group that took them down.
All of that, paired with the fact that He Xuan probably killed off many of the more dangerous ghosts before they could even make their way to the Kiln, greatly aided things to go along smoothly.
In all honesty, Qi Rong could have reached the Kiln without that kind of help. The nameless ghost would have been the only real trial, and Xie Lian was happy to have taken care of him, especially considering the weird emotions coming off from the poor soul.
The help he had been given was mostly to keep the heavens and their snooping noses out of the mess.
Since they now had to wait forty-nine days – maybe less, but it was unlikely – lingering in the area wasn't ideal. Xie Lian suggested they could rest for a bit while Mount Tong'lu went back to sleep, the Kiln being the only place left alive; that way, Yin Yu could finally stop for a moment, surely exhausted for all that running around and fighting he'd done up until that point, and they would be able to draw a Distance-Shortening Array by the time everyone was rested enough.
GuZi, though he kept stealing glances at the volcano visible in the distance, decided it was for the best to curl up in Hua Cheng's arms and fall asleep, much like an oversized cat.
«Oh, that's adorable», Xie Lian commented, a gentle smile softening his features. He had been on edge since his conversation with Qi Rong, the laughing-crying mask of Bai WuXiang sneaking up on him as an illusion every time he stole a look at the empty shells of those who died in pyroclastic clouds; seeing GuZi being so utterly cute in his confused husband's arms helped his mood increase considerably.
So much so that he leaned in and stamped a kiss on the ghost's cheek.
Yin Yu could only snicker at the shocked expression lighting up his face for a second, Xie Lian following suit: «San Lang, you're so cute».
Hua Cheng was speechless.
Good thing he was already dead, because his heart wanted to burst.