Xie Lian's gaze returned to him. After a moment of staring, Xie Lian said, "Qi Rong, it seems like you've been living quite a life these years."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hua Cheng removed the disguise he had given him. Seeing the three intruders finally reveal their true selves, Qi Rong's eyes widened. Lang Qianqiu exclaimed in surprise, "Cousin?"
Although he had already guessed from Qi Rong's words that the Green Ghost was originally from the Divine Joy Kingdom, he hadn't expected such a connection between him and Xie Lian. Qi Rong stared at Xie Lian's face, slowly scanning him up and down with a strange, greedy look. When his gaze landed on the sword on Xie Lian's back, he suddenly burst into laughter, saying, "So that's how it is! So that's how it is! Fangxin is you, you are Fangxin. Hahaha!"
Though Lang Qianqiu didn't understand why he was laughing, he instinctively felt uncomfortable and shouted, "What's so funny?"
Qi Rong sneered, "I'm laughing at my dear cousin. What's it to you? I said earlier that your stupidity spans a hundred years. Sorry, I apologize. You're a student of a great teacher. With a master like yours, how smart can you be?" He turned to Xie Lian, "You went to Eternal Peace to be the national teacher, and in the end, your own student stabbed you to death. Isn't that exciting? Isn't it funny? I say you deserved it, didn't you?"
As soon as he said "deserved," Hua Cheng struck him with a thunderous palm. Qi Rong, who was already tough, became inexplicably more excited upon seeing Xie Lian, even as his face was smashed into the ground, he kept shouting, "Deserved! Deserved! Deserved!"
Every time he said it, Hua Cheng would land another blow on the back of his head, creating a gruesome scene. Xie Lian stopped Hua Cheng's hand before it could fall again and said, "San Lang, let it go!"
Hua Cheng said sternly, "Why should I let it go?!"
Xie Lian replied, "It's okay, don't mind him. This person is just sick and troublesome. I'll handle it. You don't need to bother with him."
He gently patted Hua Cheng's shoulder. After a while, Hua Cheng finally said in a low voice, "Alright."
Qi Rong pulled his head out of the ground and rolled to the side with difficulty, spitting, "Why are you pretending to be kind? If you really didn't want him to hit me, you should've stopped him from the start! Now you're pretending to be generous, but no one will praise you for it!"
Xie Lian said, "I stopped him because I didn't want his hands to get dirty. Did you misunderstand something?"
Hearing this, a flash of anger crossed Qi Rong's bloody face. Then he laughed eerily and said, "Oh my, Crown Prince Cousin, you seem to have a good relationship with Hua Cheng? I wondered why during the Ghost Festival, when I wanted to visit you, none of the subordinates I sent returned. It turns out you were with Hua Cheng!"
Xie Lian had no idea Qi Rong had sent people to find him. On the night of the Ghost Festival, he had coincidentally met Hua Cheng and brought the young man back to the Pugilistic Shrine. It seemed the subordinates Qi Rong sent were all dealt with by Hua Cheng.
Thinking of this, he glanced at the person beside him. Qi Rong continued, "And calling him San Lang, tut tut, you're really close. Cousin, you're a great official in the Heavenly Court, how could you associate with such demons and ghosts?
Aren't you afraid of tarnishing your reputation? After all, you're so perfect, so pure and flawless, your holy light shines across the land, hahaha..."
Many in the Heavenly Court thought Mu Qing's words were a bit sarcastic, but if they were to compare it now, they'd see what true sarcasm was. They had wronged Mu Qing before.
Moreover, Qi Rong not only talked, but also acted, holding his heart and saying, "Crown Prince Cousin, all these years, your little brother has been thinking of you all the time. Look at the statue I made for you, I keep it by my side so I can always see your heroic figure. How is it, isn't it well made?
Do you like it? No worries, if you don't like it, I'll make more for you, hahaha..."
As soon as he mentioned the statue, Hua Cheng's face turned icy cold. If Xie Lian hadn't stopped him earlier, he might have stomped on it immediately. Xie Lian, however, knew Qi Rong's nature well. This person was quite sick; the more intense your reaction, the more excited he got. You had to do the opposite. So he smiled and said casually, "It's alright, but the taste is a bit off. You've worked hard."
Sure enough, Qi Rong's face fell immediately, and he said coldly, "You should be grateful. Only I would bother to make a statue for you. Who else would? You managed to ascend again this time, probably by clinging to Jun Wu's leg and crying until your knees were worn out. Look around the Heavenly Court, which official isn't more glamorous than you? Even those who ascended two hundred years ago can trample you. You're almost eight hundred years old and ended up like this, what a failure."
Xie Lian smiled and said, "Cousin is quite a failure. Not like you, who became fierce at just eight hundred."
Xie Lian knew exactly how to handle him, and Hua Cheng chuckled beside him, making Qi Rong's face turn green. He looked between them and suddenly said, "Judging by this setup, did you come to ask Hua Cheng to deal with me for you?"
Xie Lian was taken aback. Thinking about the situation, he found it hard to refute. Qi Rong said, "Look at you all, as soon as I say something bad about you, wow, he gets so angry. Could it be that your holy light on your head has blinded him? Oh my, I realize, he seems to have been blind from the start! Haha..."
Before he could finish, his vision suddenly went dark, his cheeks hurt terribly, and blood spurted out. He had been punched again. However, this punch wasn't from Hua Cheng, but from Xie Lian.
Xie Lian struck quickly and said coldly, "Just because I haven't hit you before doesn't mean I never will."
The punch was hard, and it took a while for Qi Rong to finally speak. He lay on the ground like a mangy dog, pounding the ground with laughter, "Crown Prince Cousin, you hit me, you actually hit me! Oh my, our noble, kind, compassionate, helpful Crown Prince, who wouldn't even step on an ant, he's showing me his true colors, he's hitting people, he's actually hitting people! Unbelievable, unbelievable!!!"
He was so excited it was almost insane. Lang Qianqiu had never seen someone so bizarre in words and actions. After watching his one-man show, he was stunned and muttered, "Is this... is this person insane?"
Xie Lian was used to it and said, "You heard him, this person is crazy and mentally unstable. His words aren't credible."
At this point, Qi Rong's laughter abruptly stopped, and he suddenly became serious, sneering, "Don't be so quick to tell people I'm crazy. Let me ask you, how did King An Le die?"
This question had been asked by Hua Cheng earlier, but now Qi Rong was asking Xie Lian, and Lang Qianqiu became interested again.
Xie Lian's heart tightened, and he couldn't answer immediately. Qi Rong slowly got up, leaned against the kneeling statue, and said, "After An Le died, I cut open his body to see. His internal organs were shattered by extremely sharp sword energy, so there were no external wounds, but he kept coughing and vomiting blood.
This method, ordinary swordsmen can't do it. I initially thought the Eternal Peace traitors hired some mysterious person to disguise An Le's death as an illness, but now I think there's another person who could do it. This person, of course, is my fair and just cousin.
After all, our Flower-Crowned Martial God Crown Prince is a pure and unique heavenly snow lotus..."
Hua Cheng stomped down, and Qi Rong howled in pain. Lang Qianqiu felt like his head was about to explode, clutching his head with bloodshot eyes, "Shut up! What have you figured out? Who's the killer, what's with the banquet, and what's with King An Le? What's going on?!"
Qi Rong said, "Lang Qianqiu, why can't you figure it out? I've pieced it together. It seems you really don't understand what kind of person your master is. Let me dissect my good cousin for you: this former Crown Prince of the Divine Joy Kingdom went to Eternal Peace as a national teacher and taught you swordsmanship for five years..."
He had barely said a few sentences when Xie Lian's sword vibrated, ready to step forward, but Lang Qianqiu's heavy sword blocked him, "Let him finish!"
Xie Lian said, "You know he's crazy, yet you listen to his nonsense!"
Fangxin swung down, and though the sword was extremely slender, it shook Lang Qianqiu's grip on his giant heavy sword. But then, a silver blade lightly hooked and deflected his sword, and Xie Lian was taken aback, "San Lang!"
Qi Rong saw that Xie Lian clearly didn't want him to say more or let Lang Qianqiu hear more, so he deliberately did the opposite, seizing the moment to say, "King An Le was a great man of our Divine Joy, he listened to me, pretended to befriend you, and at the banquet, took out a bunch of your Eternal Peace traitors. Your master saw it, and An Le fled. When you arrived at the banquet, you ordered a nationwide manhunt for the national teacher Fangxin. This is the prelude, absolutely correct..."
Xie Lian tried several times to stop him, but Hua Cheng blocked him each time. Xie Lian said, "San Lang!"
However, Hua Cheng remained silent, simply preventing him from moving forward. The more Xie Lian tried to stop him, the faster Qi Rong spoke, "But my saintly cousin, seeing An Le kill people, must have thought: This won't do. This is wrong.
So he went to find King An Le, wanted to educate him, found out An Le's plan was big, not just assassinating a few traitors.
Unable to educate him, he made up his mind and personally killed the last remaining royal bloodline! — Finally, you caught your master, nailed him in a coffin, and my cousin's grand national teacher career ended. Cousin, am I right?"
He spat a mouthful of bloody saliva at the foot of the kneeling statue, "I know you well! You love doing such things. Ancestors above, look at what kind of good descendant you've produced, teaching the Divine Joy Xie family to not only lose everything but also end up without descendants! Xie Lian! You're a harbinger of doom, a God of Calamity! Your birth was the greatest misfortune of the Divine Joy Kingdom, why don't you just die, how do you still have the face to live in this world???"
Lang Qianqiu said, "But I saw him kill my father with my own eyes, how do you explain that?"
Qi Rong said, "If your eyes weren't blind and your brain wasn't waterlogged, I can only think of one explanation. That is, An Le indeed stabbed your father, but didn't kill him."
Lang Qianqiu said, "Did he... did he finish him off?"
Qi Rong exclaimed, "What are you saying! My good cousin is a kind person, how could he immediately finish him off? After going up, he must have felt embarrassed to finish him off right away, so he must have done something first, like saving him. However, hey hey, I'm afraid your father brought it on himself."
Lang Qianqiu said, "What do you mean by brought it on himself?"
Qi Rong said, "After someone who's almost been killed is saved, what's the next thing they do? After seeing so many people dead at the banquet, what's the first thing you think of doing?"
Lang Qianqiu hadn't fully figured it out, "…Capture the culprit."
Qi Rong said, "Exactly! After my good cousin saved your father, your father caught his breath and would definitely say: 'National teacher, quick, it was King An Le, go kill King An Le for me!' No no no, not just that, he must have said something more extreme, like: 'National teacher! Call Qianqiu! Call everyone! Kill all the Divine Joy people in the country! I want them to be buried with me!!!'"
He imitated that kind of furious and desperate tone, sending chills down the spine, and Lang Qianqiu's face slowly turned pale. Qi Rong continued, "Even if he didn't kill them then, your mother and a bunch of traitorous relatives were killed by An Le in front of him, sooner or later he'd target other Divine Joy people.
Your good master heard it wasn't right, thought it over, and decided this old guy couldn't be left alive, so of course, he gave him a cool stab.
He's just that kind of person, with a saintly demeanor that can't tolerate any wrongdoing, yet always doing harmful things that don't benefit anyone; trying to please both sides, ending up with nothing, hehe, haha..."
Volume 1