His expression was playful, yet he possessed an inexplicable air of omniscience. Though he spoke with the tone of a teenager, his voice was slightly deeper than most boys his age, and quite pleasant. Xie Lian sat upright on the ox cart, pondering for a moment before saying, "Blood Rain Visiting the Flowers! This scene sounds quite remarkable. My friend, could you explain how it came about?"

Out of respect, he still didn't add the word "little" before his friend. The young man sat casually, one arm folded over his raised knee, straightening the cuffs of his sleeves. He said nonchalantly, "It's nothing serious. It's just that he once raided another ghost's lair, and a bloody rain fell all over the mountains. As he was walking, he saw a flower by the roadside, battered by the blood, so he tilted his umbrella to block it."

Xie Lian imagined the scene, feeling a strange sense of elegance and tenderness amidst the bloody storm. He recalled the legend of the red-robed ghost burning the Thirty-Three Temples, and chuckled, "Does this Hua Cheng often get into fights?"

The young man replied: "Not often, it depends on my mood."

Xie Lian asked, “What kind of person was he in his lifetime?”

The young man said, "He's definitely not a good person."

Xie Lian asked, "What does he look like?"

After asking this question, the young man looked up at him, tilted his head, stood up, walked over to Xie Lian, sat down side by side, and asked in return, "What do you think he should look like?"

Seeing him this close, the young man's handsomeness was even more astonishing. Furthermore, it was a kind of handsomeness that held a subtle aggression, like a sharp sword unsheathed, so dazzling that one dared not even stare. After only a moment's gaze, Xie Lian felt a little overwhelmed. He tilted his head slightly and said, "As a great ghost king, I imagine he has many forms and appearances."

Seeing him turn his head, the young man raised an eyebrow and said, "Yeah. However, sometimes he still uses his true appearance. Of course, we are talking about his true self."

Xie Lian didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that the distance between them seemed a little far, so he turned his head back and said, "Then I feel that his true self might be a young man like you."

Hearing this, the young man's mouth curled slightly and asked, "Why?"

Xie Lian said, “No reason. You just talk about it casually, and I’ll just think about it casually. Everything is just casual.”

The young man laughed twice and said, "Maybe? But he's blind in one eye."

He pointed under his right eye and said, "This one."

This wasn't a surprising theory. Xie Lian had heard of it before. In some versions of the legend, Hua Cheng wore a black eyepatch over his missing eye. Xie Lian asked, "Do you know what happened to that eye?"

The young man said, "Well, this is a question that many people want to understand."

Others wanted to know what had caused Hua Cheng to lose his right eye, but in reality, they wanted to know his weakness. Xie Lian asked this question purely out of curiosity. Before he could respond, the young man said, "He dug it out himself."

Xie Lian was startled and asked, “Why?”

The young man said, "Crazy."

...He went so crazy he even gouged out his own eyes. Xie Lian was truly growing more and more curious about this Red-robed Ghost King, the one who had won the Blood Rain Scholarship. He suspected it wasn't just a case of madness, but since he'd already said so, he probably didn't have any further details. He continued, "Does Huacheng have any weaknesses?"

He hadn't expected the boy to answer this question; he had simply posed it casually. If Hua Cheng's weaknesses were so easily known, he wouldn't be Hua Cheng anymore. Unexpectedly, the boy answered without hesitation, "Ashes."

If one could obtain a ghost's ashes, they could command it. If the ghost disobeyed their command and destroyed the ashes, their body and soul would be annihilated. This was common sense. However, this common sense might not hold much weight when applied to Hua Cheng. Xie Lian smiled and said, "I'm afraid no one can obtain his ashes. Therefore, this weakness is equivalent to having no weakness at all."

The young man said, "Not necessarily. There is a situation where the ghost will voluntarily give away the ashes."

Xie Lian asked, “Like when he challenged the thirty-three priests to a duel, should he hand it over as a wager?”

The young man scoffed, "How could that be?"

Although he didn't say the whole thing, Xie Lian could tell he meant Huacheng couldn't possibly lose. He said, "There's a custom in the ghost world. When a ghost chooses a person, it entrusts its ashes to that person."

That was essentially like handing one's life over to another. Such deep love, what a touching story it must have been. Xie Lian said with great interest, "So the ghost world has such a passionate and emotional custom."

The young man said, "Yes. But few dare to do it."

Xie Lian expected just that. Not only do demons deceive people, but humans also deceive demons. There will undoubtedly be plenty of exploitation and betrayal. He said, "To devote one's heart so wholeheartedly, only to end up with nothing but ashes, is truly heartbreaking."

The young man laughed and said, "What are you afraid of? If it were me, I would send the ashes away. Who cares if they want to grind them up or scatter them for fun?"

Xie Lian smiled, suddenly remembering that after talking for so long, neither of them knew each other's name. He asked, "My friend, what's your name?"

The young man raised a hand to his brow, shielding himself from the wine-red afterglow of the setting sun. He squinted, seemingly disliking the sunlight. He said, "Me? I'm the third child in my family, and everyone calls me Sanlang."

Since he didn't volunteer his name, Xie Lian didn't ask any further questions. He said, "My last name is Xie, and my given name is Lian. Are you heading this way, too, to Puqi Village?"

Sanlang leaned back against the straw, resting his head on his hands and crossing his legs, saying, "I don't know. I was just wandering around."

Hearing that there seemed to be something behind his words, Xie Lian asked, "What's the matter?"

Sanlang sighed and said leisurely, "There was a quarrel at home, and I was kicked out. I walked for a long time, but there was nowhere to go. Today I was so hungry that I almost fainted on the street, so I just found a random place to lie down."

Although the boy's clothes seemed casual, they were made of very good materials. He also had good manners and seemed to be idle every day, seeing this and that and knowing everything. Xie Lian had long guessed that he was a young master from a wealthy family who had come out to play. A young man who had lived a life of luxury and comfort had been walking alone for such a long time, and the journey must have been quite difficult. Xie Lian was well aware of this. Hearing him say that he was hungry, Xie Lian rummaged through the small bag he carried with him and only found a steamed bun. He was glad that it was not hard yet, so he said to him, "Do you want to eat?" The boy nodded, and Xie Lian gave him the bun. Sanlang looked at him and asked, "You don't have any more?"

Xie Lian said, "I'm fine, not too hungry."

Sanlang pushed the bun back to him and said, "I'm fine too."

Seeing this, Xie Lian took it back, broke the bun in half, and handed him half, saying, "Then you have half and I'll have half."

The young man then took it and sat beside him, eating the bun together. Seeing him sitting next to him, taking a bite of the bun, he seemed strangely obedient. Xie Lian always felt that he had been wronged in some way.

The oxcart dragged slowly along the undulating mountain road. As the sun gradually set in the west, the two sat in the cart and chatted. The more they talked, the more Xie Lian felt that this was truly a strange young man. Although he was young, his gestures and words had a certain arrogance and composure, as if there was nothing in the world he didn't know, and nothing that could stump him. This made Xie Lian feel that he knew a lot and was mature beyond his years. And sometimes, he would reveal the fun of a young man. Xie Lian said that he was the abbot of the Pu Qi Temple, and he said, "Pu Qi Temple? It sounds like there are a lot of Pu Qi to eat. I like it. Who is it for?"

Asked this daunting question again, Xie Lian coughed lightly and said, "Prince Xianle. You probably don't know."

The young man smiled slightly, but before he could say anything, the body of the ox cart suddenly shook violently.

The two of them swayed a bit, and Xie Lian, worried that the young man might fall, reached out to grab him. Unexpectedly, as soon as his hand touched San Lang, the young man suddenly shook his hand away as if burned by something scalding hot.

Although his expression changed only slightly, Xie Lian still noticed it. He wondered if this young man actually disliked him. They had clearly been chatting happily along the way. But at this point, he didn't have the energy to dwell on it. He stood up and asked, "What's going on?"

The old man driving the ox cart said, "I don't know what's going on! Old Huang, why don't you move? Go ahead!"

The sun had already set, dusk had fallen, and the oxcart was once again trapped in the mountains and forests, all around dim and dark. The old ox remained stationary, stubbornly refusing to move. No matter how the old man urged it, it was useless. It seemed to want to bury its head in the ground, mooing incessantly, its tail whipping like a whip. Xie Lian saw something was amiss and was about to jump off the cart when the old man suddenly pointed ahead and shouted.

Ahead of the mountain road, numerous green flames were burning faintly here and there. A group of people in white clothes were holding their heads and slowly walking towards this side.

Seeing this, Xie Lian immediately said, “Protect!”

Ruo Xie slipped free from his wrist, flew around the ox cart, and formed a suspended circle in mid-air, protecting the three people and the animal. Xie Lian turned around and asked, "What day is today?"

Before the old man could answer, the young man behind him said, "Zhongyuan."

On the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell open. He went out without checking the date, and today happened to be the Ghost Festival!

Xie Lian said in a deep voice, "Don't wander off. You've encountered something evil today. If you take the wrong path, you won't be able to come back."

The author has something to say: Huahua is using her face to pretend to be a newbie!