Hua Chengdao: "What?"
He turned around and looked at Hua Cheng, saying, "Bai Wuxiang, why did you come to Tonglu Mountain?"
Hua Cheng said, "Perhaps his strength has not yet fully recovered, and he wants to use the copper furnace to be reborn."
Xie Lian asked, “If that’s the case, then that means he’s not… Jue now?”
Hua Chengdao: "It's not impossible."
Just now, Bai Wuxiang pretended to be "Feng Xin" and "Mu Qing" and suddenly appeared. His appearance was terrifying. In addition, Xie Lian's first reaction was "Can't beat him, run!", so he pulled Hua Cheng and fled. The two of them didn't fight him directly for long, so they didn't find out what level of strength Bai Wuxiang currently had.
Was it a bluff? Or was it pure skill? With those few quick, lightning-fast moves, it was impossible to tell. Xie Lian muttered, "Just seeing those two fake skins made me think he was stronger, but maybe... he hasn't fully recovered yet. Maybe this is his weakest moment? Otherwise, why would he come to Tonglu Mountain? Perhaps... I can give it a try."
See if you can take him down now!
Hua Cheng immediately said, "Okay. I'll go check it out with him."
Xie Lian snapped back to his senses and said hurriedly, “No, no, don’t confront him head-on. I’ll just give it a try!”
Desperate Ghost Kings generally don't fight easily. Take, for example, Black Water Sinking Boat and Blood Rain Seeking Flowers, who have lived in peace for years. This is because Ghost Kings aren't like the priests of the Heavenly Court, whose strength, temples, followers, and spheres of influence are easily known by those with a keen eye. They hide their true strength, just as they hide their true identities. They have no idea of each other's strength, and no one knows what the consequences of a clash between two Desperate Ghost Kings would be. Therefore, they strive to maintain balance whenever possible. Hua Cheng said, "Don't worry. The outcome is uncertain. Otherwise, do you think I'd let you face him alone?"
“…”
Xie Lian shook his head and said, “No, Sanlang, we are different. He… won’t kill me. I promise.”
Hua Cheng said: "Why?"
After hesitating for a moment, Xie Lian chose not to answer, saying only, “You don’t know how terrifying this thing is…”
Hua Cheng interrupted him in a deep voice, saying, "Your Highness! I know."
Xie Lian then remembered that Hua Cheng had served in the Xianle Army and personally experienced the Xianle battlefield, witnessing the horrific scene of corpses strewn across the ground. However, Hua Cheng had not witnessed the horrific battle between Jun Wu and Bai Wuxiang like he had. He had also never dealt with Bai Wuxiang.
Thinking of this, Xie Lian shook his head vigorously and said, "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I... don't want you to make any mistakes."
Hearing this, Hua Cheng's eyes flickered. After a moment, he smiled and said, "Don't worry, brother. I'm already dead, so it won't be that easy to die again. Besides, have you forgotten what I said? As long as he doesn't find my ashes, he can't do anything to me."
After he reminded him, Xie Lian finally remembered this and hurriedly said, "Wait! Let's not talk about anything else for now. Sanlang, have you hidden your... bones and ashes?"
Hua Chengdao: "It has been hidden for a long time."
Xie Lian nodded, paused, and couldn't help asking, "Are you sure you're hiding? Is that place safe enough? Will they find you?"
Hua Cheng said calmly: "For me, it is the safest place in the world."
Xie Lian, however, felt that nothing was absolute and asked, "Are you really that sure?"
Hua Cheng smiled and said, "If its hiding place is destroyed, then I won't have to exist. Of course I'm sure."
Although Xie Lian was concerned about the meaning of "no need to exist," he felt that this place was not a safe place, and there might be ears listening, so he did not want to discuss the issue in depth and put it aside. But at this point, Xie Lian really wanted to ask Hua Cheng - how did he die?
He longed to know, but couldn't bring himself to ask. After death, the soul remained in the world because of obsession. Most of the time, the obsessions of pain and resentment were the strongest. And to become the Ghost King of Despair, the obsession was even deeper. He was afraid that if he asked, Huacheng would be unbearable, like having his scar poked, and he himself might not be able to bear it either. How had Huacheng survived these eight hundred years?
At this thought, a terrifying thought suddenly popped up in Xie Lian's mind. He immediately broke out in a cold sweat and said, "Sanlang!"
Hua Chengdao: "What?"
Xie Lian’s fingers twitched slightly as he said, “I… have another question for you.”
Hua Cheng said, "Just ask."
Xie Lian stared at him and asked, “In the past eight hundred years, have you ever seen me other than when I was in Xianle Country?”
“…”
Hua Cheng slowly turned around and said, "I'm sorry, although I tried my best to find it and never gave up, but, there is nothing."
Xie Lian pressed, “Really?”
Hua Cheng looked him straight in the eye and said, "Seriously. Why do you ask, brother?"
Xie Lian let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief and forced a smile, "No, it's just that these past few years have been rather difficult, confusing, and full of failures. I thought it wouldn't be good if you saw it."
Hua Cheng laughed and said, "How could that be?"
Xie Lian, however, didn't laugh at all. He said, "I'm not kidding. I really failed."
Hearing this, Hua Cheng suppressed his smile and said seriously, "That doesn't matter. Didn't Your Highness say so long ago?"
Xie Lian was stunned. "Me? What did I say?"
Hua Cheng said leisurely, "To me, you are the one who shines, and you are the one who falls. The important thing is 'you', not what kind of 'you' you are."
He winked at Xie Lian, raised an eyebrow, and said, "I'm the same."
“…”
Xie Lian was stunned for a long moment. Suddenly, with a "pop" sound, he covered his face with his hands, feeling as if his entire head was on fire. He said, "Did I ever say such a thing?!"
Hua Cheng said, "Yes! Brother, don't try to deny it."
Xie Lian shielded his face with his arms and said, “No, no!”
Hua Cheng: "Brother, do you want to see it? I'll find it for you."
Xie Lian suddenly raised his head: “??? You… couldn’t… could it be… Sanlang, you… couldn’t have remembered everything!”
"Just kidding, just kidding."
"To be honest, I don't quite believe it..."
"Brother, believe me."
"I don't believe it!"
The two of them came to a fork in the road. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew. Hua Cheng slightly turned sideways, standing in front of him and raising one hand as if to protect him.
The wind wasn't strong, and there was no need to block it, but Huacheng's action was completely spontaneous. Even after the wind died down, his hair rustled in a disturbing way, and Xie Lian suddenly realized that when Huacheng wasn't looking at him, his expression and features were cold. Absent-minded, indifferent and beautiful, Huacheng didn't even realize he had moved without thinking, as if protecting him was simply instinct.
Xie Lian blurted out, “Sanlang!”
Hua Cheng looked sideways at him, then smiled and said, "Your Highness, what's wrong?"
Xie Lian felt that Hua Cheng probably didn’t even realize he was smiling.
A clear and strong voice said in his heart that this person really regarded him as a god.
Xie Lian secretly clenched his fingers in his palms and said, "After we get out of Tonglu Mountain, I have a lot to tell you."
Hua Cheng nodded slightly and said, "Okay. I'll wait."
Xie Lian asked, “Have Feng Xin and the others left?”
Hua Chengdao: "He's already gone out."
Xie Lian asked, “What about Bai Wuxiang? He didn’t catch up with us, nor did he try to stop them? Where is he now? How far away is he from us?”
Hua Chengdao: "He is..."
Before he could finish his sentence, his expression changed slightly. He placed two fingers on his right eyebrow and said in a moment, "...He's gone."
“!”
Xie Lian was stunned: "How come he's gone?"
Hua Cheng remained calm, looking closely and saying, "It disappeared out of thin air."
Even if it was a ghost, it couldn't disappear out of thin air in the Cave of the Gods, surrounded by numerous undead butterflies!
Xie Lian blurted out, "Let me see?" He then grasped Hua Cheng's shoulders with both hands, raised his toes slightly, and rested their foreheads against each other. Hua Cheng's hand clasped his waist, as if to move away, but ultimately returned and held him tighter.
Xie Lian's eyes flashed back to the scene Hua Cheng had witnessed moments before. The man in white leisurely entered a grotto, and countless undead butterflies swooped down upon him, once again enveloping him in a shimmering silver humanoid cocoon. After a brief stalemate, he shook them free. Silver light burst forth, crackling, and the butterflies were shaken into a sky of phosphorescent light. However, once the silver light subsided, he vanished!
Next, Hua Cheng's right eye swept through the countless tunnels, and he spotted the figure in white everywhere. Xie Lian turned his head slightly away, wondering, "Did he leave?"
Others might not know this, but he knew best: if Bai Wuxiang saw him, he would haunt him. Hua Cheng said, "Perhaps our previous theory is true. His most urgent task was to use the bronze furnace to rebuild his body, so he left first."
The voice came directly into his ear. Xie Lian finally came to his senses and realized that Hua Cheng's face was in his hand, and he was slightly bent over. He quickly let go and said, "Stop him!"
Their mission this time in Tonglu Mountain was to stop any potential assassins. They had been avoiding the man in white, but after figuring out the situation, they began to search among the countless statues. Soon, they arrived at the place where the man in white had disappeared.
As expected, aside from a few statues, there was no one. The ground was filled with silver light, and the remaining silver butterflies, which hadn't been completely shattered, fluttered their remaining wings. Xie Lian leaned over, unsure if it would work, but still tried to gather them up with his hands. Just then, he heard Hua Cheng's voice from behind him: "...Brother, come to me."
The voice was filled with suppressed anger, but the anger was not directed at him.
Xie Lian looked up and saw Hua Cheng staring at a statue in front of him with fire in his eyes.
It was a statue, completely covered in white veil. It stood motionless, its outline vaguely visible. It seemed to be holding a sword in one hand, pointing somewhere, so one end of the sword was extremely protruding and sharp.
However, at this moment, a layer of bloody red slowly seeped out from the sharp tip of the sword, and it continued to expand and spread, soaking the white gauze.
There is blood on the sword!
Anyone who saw this would know that something was amiss with the statue. Perhaps, beneath the white veil, it wasn't the original statue anymore, but something else entirely. Xie Lian leaped to his feet, standing shoulder to shoulder with Hua Cheng, his sword pointed at the statue. Hua Cheng, with a sullen expression, waved his hand, and the veil was lifted.
Xie Lian’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Beneath the white veil was a statue of him. It was a statue of Prince Yue, holding a sword in one hand and a flower in the other, smiling. However, this smile was stained with a hint of blood.
The source of the blood was the sword in his hand. Impaled on the blade was a young man, his face bandaged and covered in blood. It was Lang Ying!
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