Xie Lian asked, "Blood Rain Flower?"
Hua Cheng replied, "Crown Prince."
Xie Lian turned around, smiling, "It's the first time I've heard you call me that."
The young man in red sat on a mat, one leg up, also smiling, "How does it feel?"
Xie Lian thought for a moment and honestly said, "It feels... different from when others call me that."
Hua Cheng asked, "Oh? How is it different?"
Xie Lian tilted his head, squinting slightly, "I can't really say, it's just..."
When others called him "Your Highness," it was either emotionless, like a formal address, such as when Ling Wen did it, or it was said with a hint of sarcasm, like calling an ugly person beautiful on purpose.
But when Hua Cheng called him "Your Highness," it felt extremely precious. So, even though it was hard to describe, Xie Lian felt that when Hua Cheng called him "Your Highness," it was different from others.
Xie Lian said, "The groom who took me away on Yu Jun Mountain was you, right?"
Hua Cheng's smile deepened. Xie Lian realized his words might be misunderstood and quickly corrected, "I mean, the one who disguised as a groom on Yu Jun Mountain to take me away was you, right?"
Hua Cheng replied, "I didn't disguise as a groom."
If you put it that way, it's true. Back then, the young man didn't lie about being a groom. He didn't say a word; he just stopped at the bridal sedan chair and reached out his hand. It was Xie Lian who followed him!
Xie Lian said, "Alright. Then, why were you on Yu Jun Mountain at that time?"
Hua Cheng replied, "There are only two possible answers: First, I came specifically for you, Crown Prince; second, I was just passing by, with nothing better to do. Which do you think is more believable?"
Counting the days Hua Cheng spent around him, Xie Lian said, "I can't say which is more believable... but you do seem to have a lot of free time."
He circled around Hua Cheng, both physically and with his gaze, for a long time, then nodded and said, "You're... not quite like the rumors."
Hua Cheng changed his posture but still rested his chin on his hand, watching him, "Oh? Then how did the Crown Prince figure out that I am the Blood Rain Flower?"
Xie Lian's mind was filled with the umbrella under the blood rain, the jingling silver chains, the cold silver wrist guards, thinking, "You weren't exactly hiding it seriously."
He said, "No matter how I tested, you were flawless, definitely a 'Supreme' level. Your red clothes, like maple leaves and blood, seem to know everything and fear nothing. Such demeanor, apart from the one who makes all heavenly gods tremble, the 'Blood Rain Flower,' I can't think of anyone else."
Hua Cheng laughed, "So, can I take that as a compliment?"
Xie Lian thought, "Didn't you hear it as one?"
Hua Cheng's smile faded slightly, then said, "After all this talk, why doesn't the Crown Prince ask me what my purpose is in approaching you?"
Xie Lian said, "If you don't want to say, even if I ask, you won't tell me, or what you tell me won't be the truth."
Hua Cheng replied, "That's not necessarily true. Besides, you could just drive me away."
Xie Lian said, "With your vast abilities, even if I drive you away now, if you really want to do something bad, wouldn't you just come back in a different guise?"
The two were smiling at each other when suddenly, a rolling sound broke the brief silence in the Pugilistic Shrine. They looked towards the sound, seeing no one, just a small black clay pot rolling on the ground.
It was the pot containing Half Moon. Xie Lian had casually placed it by the mat, but it had somehow fallen over and rolled to the door, bumping against the wooden door Hua Cheng had made. Xie Lian worried it might break itself, so he opened the door. The little pot rolled out onto the grass outside.
Following it, Xie Lian saw the pot stop on the grass, standing as if it were gazing at the stars.
Hua Cheng also walked out of the Pugilistic Shrine. Xie Lian spoke to the pot, "Half Moon, are you awake?"
Fortunately, they returned from the Gobi Desert at night. Otherwise, if someone saw Xie Lian talking to a pot in the middle of the night, they might have made a fuss.
After a moment, a muffled voice came from the pot, "General Hua."
Xie Lian sat down beside it, "Half Moon, are you out to see the stars? Want to come out and look?"
Hua Cheng leaned against a tree, "She just left Half Moon City. It's better for her to stay inside a bit longer."
After all, Half Moon had been in the Half Moon Kingdom for two hundred years. Suddenly being in a new place might be hard to adjust to. Xie Lian said, "Then stay inside a bit longer and recuperate. This is where I practice, so you don't need to worry about anything."
The pot wobbled twice, as if trying to express something. After a moment, Xie Lian said, "Half Moon, actually, this time it wasn't really your fault. Your Scorpion-Tailed Snake was..."
Half Moon said, "General Hua, I couldn't move at the time, but I heard everything."
Hearing this, Xie Lian was surprised. He realized that Pei Su had only sealed Half Moon's ability to move, not her senses. He said, "That's good."
Hearing everything was good.
The pot said, "General Hua, what will happen to General Pei Jr.?"
Xie Lian folded his hands in his sleeves, "I don't know. But... when you do something wrong, you have to face the consequences."
After a pause, the pot wobbled again, and this time, Xie Lian finally understood that this wobbling was a nod.
Half Moon said, "Actually, General Pei Jr. isn't that bad."
"Is that so."
"Yes," Half Moon said, "He helped me."
For some reason, more memories flooded Xie Lian's mind.
Half Moon often got bullied. In the words of other Eternal Peace children, she "had a face that begged for a beating."
Xie Lian only learned this after knowing her for a long time because no matter how much she was beaten, she never told anyone. It wasn't until one day when Xie Lian saw a group of children pressing her face into the mud that he realized where all her bruises came from.
But after some time, when asked again, she only remembered to wash and return the handkerchief that the boy who pulled her out of the mud lent her to wipe her face. She forgot everything else.
She forgot those who hurt her but remembered for life anyone who helped her, even once.
Half Moon continued, "Even though Ke Mo always scolded me for being bewitched by him, saying I was being used, it didn't matter if he was using me. I knew opening the city gates was something I chose to do."
Xie Lian didn't know what to say, but his heart softened.
After a moment, he patted the pot, "Alright, it's in the past. By the way, Half Moon, Hua Xie is a fake name. I haven't been a general for a long time, so you don't have to call me General Hua."
Half Moon asked, "Then what should I call you?"
That was a good question. If Half Moon seriously called him "Crown Prince," it would feel strange.
Xie Lian didn't mind what he was called, but recalling a certain topic, he said, "Call me whatever you like, General Hua is fine." However, there was an actual Hua here, so it might get confusing. But then he thought, "Hua Xie" was a fake name, taking the first character of "Flower-Crowned Martial God" as a surname, and "Hua Cheng" was also a fake name. It was funny they both chose the same surname.
At this moment, Half Moon said, "Sorry, General Hua."
Xie Lian turned back, a bit frustrated, "Half Moon, why do you keep apologizing to me?" Surely he didn't look like someone who made others feel sorry?
Half Moon said, "I want to save the world."
Xie Lian: "..."
Half Moon said, "General Hua, that's what you said back then."
Xie Lian: "???"
He quickly pressed the pot, "Wait. Wait!"
Half Moon asked, "Wait for what?"
Xie Lian glanced at Hua Cheng, who was standing nearby, arms crossed, and whispered, "Did I really say something like that before?"
These words were something he loved to say in his teens, but he hadn't mentioned them in the past few hundred years. Hearing them suddenly, Xie Lian felt overwhelmed. Half Moon said, "General, you did say it."
Xie Lian tried to deny it, "No, I didn't..."
Half Moon seriously and coldly said, "Oh, yes, you did. Once, you asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I said I didn't know. You said, 'How can you not know what you want to do when you grow up?' I asked you, General Hua, what about you? You said, 'My childhood dream was to save the world!'"
"..."
So that's how it was. Xie Lian said, "Half Moon, why do you remember such casual words so clearly?"
Half Moon said, "Was it casual? But General Hua, I thought you were serious."
Xie Lian was helpless, looking up at the sky, "Haha... Is that so. Maybe. I don't remember what else I said."
Half Moon said, "You also said, 'Do what you believe is right!' 'Nothing can stop you!' 'Even if you fall in the mud a hundred times, get up strong!' Many things like that."
"Pfft..."
No need to look back, he knew Hua Cheng, under the tree, had laughed out loud.
Xie Lian tried to cover the pot but couldn't, thinking, "What nonsense... why did I always say such things? I'm not like that... Am I?"
Half Moon said, "But I don't know what the right thing is anymore."
Hearing this, Xie Lian was stunned.
Half Moon said, "I wanted to save the world, like General Hua said. But in the end, I destroyed the Half Moon Kingdom."
She said, confused, "And no matter what I do... it always ends badly. General Hua, I know I didn't do well, but can you tell me where I went wrong? How can I truly, as you said, save the world?"
"..."
Xie Lian said, "Sorry, Half Moon, I didn't know how to save the world back then, and I still don't know now."
After a pause, Half Moon said, "General Hua, to be honest, I feel like these past two hundred years, I don't know what I've been doing. It's such a failure."
Hearing her say this, Xie Lian felt even more frustrated, thinking, "Then I'm even more of a failure. I've been around for eight hundred years..."
Leaving Half Moon's ghost in the pot to gaze at the stars and calm down, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng returned to the Pugilistic Shrine.
After closing the door, Xie Lian suddenly said, "Half Moon stayed at Half Moon Pass willingly, not because she became a monster and was trapped there."
She always remembered she opened the city gates herself and never made excuses like "I did it for the greater good." To let the Half Moon soldiers vent their anger and ascend sooner, she let Ke Mo lead them to kill her repeatedly.
Xie Lian shook his head, "Actually, if General Pei Jr. didn't want to keep those Half Moon soldiers and didn't want the Heavenly Court to find out, he could have quietly sent an avatar to the mortal realm to deal with them. Why use such a method?"
Hua Cheng said, "An avatar's power is weakened. You saw Pei Su's avatar, Ah Zhao. It couldn't handle so many Half Moon soldiers at once. Using live humans to feed them dissipates the resentment faster and is the simplest way."
Xie Lian asked, "Why the rush?"
Hua Cheng said, "Maybe he wanted your little Half Moon friend to hang herself fewer times."
After a pause, Xie Lian said, "What about the mortals?"
Hua Cheng said calmly, "For a god, mortal lives are less than ants. For Pei Su, a typical high-ranking god, as long as he's not caught, killing hundreds of people is no different than squashing hundreds of bugs."
Xie Lian glanced at him, recalling when San Lang jumped into the Pit of the Damned and instantly killed all the Half Moon soldiers at the bottom. He turned and said, "Aren't avatars supposed to be weaker? Your avatar seemed quite powerful."
Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow at him, "Of course. But I'm the real deal."
Xie Lian was surprised, "Oh? You're the real one?"
Hua Cheng said, "Genuine."
Blame it on his expression after saying that, as if inviting Xie Lian to verify. Before Xie Lian realized what he was doing, he had already lifted a finger and poked Hua Cheng's cheek.
After poking, Xie Lian suddenly realized what he had done and inwardly panicked.
He was just curious about what the ghost king's skin felt like, but his body acted faster than his mind, and he poked it. This was really inappropriate.
Suddenly being poked in the face, Hua Cheng seemed slightly surprised, but he was always composed. His expression quickly returned to normal, and he didn't say anything. He just raised an eyebrow higher, as if waiting for an explanation, amusement clear in his eyes. Xie Lian had no explanation, looked at his finger, and discreetly hid it, saying, "...Not bad."
Hua Cheng finally laughed, crossing his arms, tilting his head, "What's not bad? Do you think my skin is nice?"
Xie Lian sincerely said, "Yes, very nice. But..."
Hua Cheng asked, "But what?"
Xie Lian stared at his face, examining it closely. Finally, he said, "But, can I see your real face?"
Since he mentioned "this skin," it meant that although this was his true self, the appearance wasn't his real one. This youthful look wasn't his true face.
This time, Hua Cheng didn't answer immediately. He lowered his arms, and Xie Lian felt, perhaps wrongly, that his gaze had darkened a bit, making his heart slightly anxious.