There were always some things one couldn’t say…and some things one couldn’t do. For example, one couldn’t easily roll their eyes or cuss when minding their behavior as a heavenly official. But they could be much freer and more relaxed while wearing a different identity. Thus, Xie Lian never felt the need to expose them.
Fu Yao—no, now he should be called Mu Qing—gritted his teeth and said coldly, “So…you’ve known who we are for a long time, but you never said anything. You quietly watched us put on an act. Am I correct?”
Chapter 93:
Cave of Ten Thousand Gods—Faces of the Ten Thousand Gods Revealed
SEEING THAT HE was taking the matter quite hard, Xie Lian decided to try to give some guidance.
“Actually, it’s not that big of a deal…”
Mu Qing sneered. “I knew I was right! Was it fun? Did you enjoy watching me act? Hmm?!”
Now that they were being honest with each other, Mu Qing was honestly tearing him a new one. Nan Feng—or Feng Xin, rather—only looked awkward at first, but in the end he couldn’t let Mu Qing’s words slide without comment.
“What’s with that tone?”
Mu Qing was pale-faced and thin-skinned, and his entire head turned bright red whenever his blood started rushing—making it impossible to hide that he was upset. He whipped his head around.
“What tone? Don’t forget you’re one of the jesters here too! I’m not as generous as you are, to have no complaints about being someone’s entertainment for so long!”
“I wasn’t trying to watch you guys make fools of yourselves,” Xie Lian said.
“And stop thinking everyone is as narrow-minded as you are,” Feng Xin added. “His Highness still tried to help you even when your shitty deeds landed you in Heaven’s prison…”
“Ha! Oh, thank you so much. But I ended up in prison thanks to your son! What, you wanna fight for real?! You’re not afraid to sire a son, but you are afraid to talk?!”
Feng Xin really wanted to knock him dead for raising the subject of his son. Unfortunately, all three of them were still rolled up tight by the silk webbing, so he couldn’t move a muscle. Feng Xin and Mu Qing could only curse at each other, all manners and class gone.
Feng Xin’s face was getting redder and redder from anger, and Xie Lian was afraid he’d blow his top soon and start cursing up a storm. So Xie Lian tried to wiggle a bit, managing to rock back and forth a few times and eventually roll to Mu Qing’s side.
“Mu Qing, Mu Qing? Can you try turning around?”
Mu Qing stopped his yelling and took a breath. “What do you want?”
“Feng Xin is too far away—I can’t roll over there. But since we know these webs can be torn by teeth, I want to try to break the bindings on your wrists,” Xie Lian explained.
Mu Qing glared at him for a moment, then his expression swiftly cooled as he gazed upward like a dead fish looking at the sky. “No thanks.”
“I really do want to help,” Xie Lian said helplessly.
“Your Highness possesses a body of a thousand gold. I can’t possibly trouble such greatness,” Mu Qing said coldly.
Feng Xin cussed. “What the actual fuck?! Why are you being so sarcastic at a time like this?! Huh?! He’s helping you, trying to save you, but you’re acting like he owes you!”
Mu Qing’s head shot up. “Who asked him to help? Xie Lian! Why do you always show up at times like these?!”
Xie Lian was a little bewildered, and he vaguely remembered that Mu Qing had asked him the same thing a long time ago. How did he answer him back then? He couldn’t remember.
“Is there something wrong with showing up at times like these?”
Mu Qing lay back down. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t need your help.”
“Why?” Xie Lian questioned. “Everyone needs help sometimes just to get by.”
“Don’t bother with him anymore,” Feng Xin said. “He’s just a show-off. He thinks he’ll lose face if he gets help from you.”
Mu Qing and Feng Xin kept at each other’s throats while the wraith butterfly leisurely danced around Xie Lian—it was unhurried and calm as it shimmered with faint silver light. It made Xie Lian remember something, so he interrupted their sniping.
“Stop arguing, you two. It’ll be more of a joke if anyone else sees you like this. And someone will be along to help us soon.”
“No one in Heaven or on Earth will heed a call from this hellish place, so who’s gonna come save us?” Mu Qing said derisively. “Unless…”
A particular person came to mind before he finished, and he trailed off abruptly.
Feng Xin, however, asked directly. “Crimson Rain Sought Flower came with you?”
“You trust him that much?” Mu Qing asked doubtfully. “You sure he’s gonna come?”
Xie Lian was confident. “He will come.”
Hua Cheng had been behaving oddly for a while. Several times, he almost suspected the Hua Cheng next to him was fake. Nonetheless, his instincts told him that was impossible.
“Even if he wanted to, how would he find this cave?” Mu Qing added.
“Why don’t we holler some more?” Feng Xin suggested. “The more people, the louder the noise.”
“No need,” Xie Lian said. “We only need to sit and wait. No, just lie down and wait. Because Hua Cheng and I are joined by a red string—”
Before he even finished his sentence, he could see Feng Xin and Mu Qing’s faces twitching like worms had crawled into their ears.
“—What’s with that look?” Xie Lian asked. “Don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about some frivolous notion about the ‘red string of fate.’ It’s a spiritual device! Just a spiritual device.”
Only then did they stop twitching.
“Oh, I see,” Feng Xin replied.
Mu Qing was doubtful. “What kind of spiritual device? What does it do?”
“It’s quite useful,” Xie Lian said. “It’s a red string tied on both our hands that invisibly connects the two of us, and one can use it to find the other. It will never break as long as one of us is still breathing—”
The others couldn’t listen anymore and cut him off.
“How is that any different from a red string of fate?! It’s exactly the same thing!”
Xie Lian was taken aback. “No, I don’t think so… It’s different!”
“And just how is it different? It’s exactly the same thing, all right?!” Mu Qing exclaimed.
Xie Lian pondered the matter only to discover that it was true! The more he thought about it, the more he realized that the intent and function of this spiritual device really was quite similar to a red string of fate.
Just when he began to think he should drop this train of thought, a voice came from above.
“Gege? Are you down there?”
The moment he heard that voice, Xie Lian instantly felt himself relax. He looked up.
“San Lang! I’m down here!” Then he turned to the other two in the pit. “You see? I told you he’d come.”
Feng Xin and Mu Qing both made complicated expressions when they saw how happy he looked. Hua Cheng didn’t peek his head over the edge, but all of them could hear the helpless way he spoke.
“Gege, I said not to run off. Now what should we do?”
Xie Lian was confused by his tone, and his delight faltered. “Huh? Is this silk webbing that difficult to deal with? Can’t Eming slash through it?”
“The silk isn’t the difficult part…” he thought he heard Hua Cheng mutter faintly, but the words were so quiet he wasn’t sure whether they were actually said.
A moment later, Hua Cheng quietly spoke. “Eming’s not in a good state right now.”
Xie Lian found this strange. Wasn’t Eming perfectly fine and completely energetic just a little while ago? How could there be something wrong with it now?
Next to him, Mu Qing humphed. “No need to ask him anymore. How could the scimitar Eming be in a bad state? He’s clearly looking for an excuse not to help.”
“Don’t say that,” Xie Lian countered.
