Ch.12: Red-Clad Ghost; Burning of the Martial and Civil Temples

On the face of the boy, as Xie Lian had first suspected, there was a field of serious burn scars.

Except, beneath the bloody scars, there were traces of three to four tiny faces.

Those faces were no bigger than the palms of a baby, and they were scattered crookedly

across his cheeks and forehead. After being burnt, the features on each tiny face were

shriveling in pain, as if screaming in agony. The sight of these weird, screaming faces

squeezing and squirming on a regular human face was indeed more horrifying than any demon!

Xie Lian felt as though he was plunged into a nightmare the instant he saw this boy’s face. A

fear so immense paralyzed him until he couldn’t recall standing up, nor tell what the expression

on his face was, but it must’ve been intimidating. The boy was already on tenterhooks as he

slowly removed his bandages. After seeing Xie Lian’s reaction, he took a couple steps back, as

if aware of Xie Lian’s inability to accept this face of his. He suddenly covered that horrifying face

and leapt up from the ground, then he let out a shout and fled into the deep woods.

Xie Lian finally came around and shouted, “WAIT!” He called out as he chased after him, “Wait!

Come back!”

But Xie Lian was dumbstruck for a good moment before he came around after all. The boy was

obviously familiar with the mountain paths, and he was used to escaping in the dark, so it took

him no time to vanish completely. No matter how Xie Lian yelled for him, he wouldn’t show

himself. There was no one around to help Xie Lian search and his powers were exhausted, so

there was no way he could contact the others. He ran all over the mountain, searching for a

good part of the hour to no avail.

A cold breeze blew past and cleared his mind a little. Knowing that running around aimlessly like

a headless fly served no purpose, Xie Lian forced himself to calm down.

“Maybe he’ll go back to take Xiao Ying’s body,” Xie Lian thought as he returned to the Ming

Guang temple. But then, he stopped in his steps.

Many men dressed in black, with grave expressions, had gathered in the woods at the back of

the temple, and they were in the midst of carefully unloading those forty-something upside-down

corpses. A tall man with folded arms before the woods was overseeing the operation. When he

turned his head around, it was the exquisite but cold face of a youth. It was Fu Yao. It looked

like he had made a trip back and brought along a number of helping hands from the Palace of

Xuan Zhen.

Xie Lian was about to speak but was interrupted by the sound of footfalls behind him. Nan Feng

had returned from sending the villagers away.

On seeing the situation, Nan Feng glanced at Fu Yao and said, “Didn’t you run away?” Displeased, Fu Yao raised his eyebrows at the offensive comment.

Xie Lian didn’t want another argument to start, so he said, “I asked him to find reinforcements.”

Nan Feng sneered. “Well, where are they? I thought you could at least ask your general to

come?”

Fu Yao replied mildly, “When I went back, I heard General Pei Junior had already come to the

scene, so I didn’t bother our general. Even if I did, he’s probably too busy to come anyway.”

Actually, based on Xie Lian’s understanding of Mu Qing, Xie Lian was pretty sure that he

wouldn’t come even if he had the time. But under the present circumstances, he was too tired to

care.

“Please stop fighting for a moment and help me find the bandaged boy.”

Nan Feng frowned. “Wasn’t he with you, guarding that girl’s body?”

“I scared him off after asking him to remove his bandages,” Xie Lian replied.

Fu Yao smirked. “Please, your crossdressing isn’t that terrifying.”

Xie Lian sighed. “It’s all my fault for being in a stupor. Lady Xiao Ying’s death was already a big

shock to him. He probably couldn’t take the blow of thinking that I was scared of his face, so he

ran off.”

Fu Yao wrinkled his nose. “Is he really that ugly?”

Xie Lian replied, “It’s not a matter of ugliness. He…has the Human Face Disease.”

Hearing those three words, both Nan Feng and Fu Yao froze.

They finally understood why Xie Lian was shocked.

Eight hundred years ago, a plague swept through the Kingdom of Xianle, and it wiped out the

nation. Those who caught the plague would first have small warts develop all over their bodies,

then as the warts swelled, the skin would grow rugged. That swollen part would slowly become

uneven, with three indentations and one protrusion, just like…eyes, mouths, noses. The facial

features would then metamorphize until it eventually took on the shape of a human face. If they

let it be, then more and more human faces would grow on their bodies. It was said that some of

these human faces, once fully-formed, could speak and even scream.

They called this the Human Face Disease.

Fu Yao’s expression went through a myriad of changes as he put down his folded arms. “That’s

impossible! That thing was extinguished hundreds of years ago! There’s no way it can

reappear!” “I’m not mistaken,” Xie Lian only said.

Nan Feng and Fu Yao couldn’t refute. No one could refute this if it came from Xie Lian.

Xie Lian continued, “There are many burn scars on his face, probably from self-induced burning

to get rid of the faces.”

The first reaction of those who contracted the disease was usually to slice off the faces with

knives, or burn them off with fire; any means possible to rid themselves of those faces.

Nan Feng dropped his voice. “The boy is probably not a normal human being, then; he has to

be at least a few hundred years old. Everything else aside, is he contagious?”

Even though this was a severe headache, it was a question Xie Lian considered calmly and

logically. So he said with conviction, “No. The Human Face Disease is highly contagious. If he

was still contagious, then the entire mountain would’ve been infected by now, considering how

long he had been hiding here. His condition should already be…cured. Only the scars remain.”

They couldn’t afford to be careless. Fu Yao seemed to have some real influence in the Palace

of Xuan Zhen, and was able to call forth capable hands to help with the search. But no matter

how deep they dug or how far they looked, they could not find any traces of the bandaged boy.

Perhaps he had already fled Mount Yujun and vanished into the sea of people. The best they

could do now was to return to the heavens and request the Palace of Ling Wen conduct a

search, and wait for news. Fortunately, the boy was not contagious, but Xie Lian thought of how

horrifying the boy looked; if he was discovered after he left the mountains, he might end up

hunted as a monster. They must find him soon!

Without further delay, Xie Lian picked up Xiao Ying’s body and descended the mountain. Since

he was slightly out of it, he didn’t realize he brought the body into the teashop until the Tea

Master yelled at him. Xie Lian immediately apologized and went back out to entrust Xiao Ying’s

burial to someone else before re-entering the teashop. After settling everything, he sat down

and heaved a soundless sigh.

This case was finally over, but Xie Lian thought that the few days since he ascended felt longer

than an entire year of him collecting junk in the mortal realm. Climbing, jumping, flying,

screaming, tumbling, disguising and performing; his bones were going to collapse. Even then,

there were still many mysteries and aftermaths left behind for him to deal with. Maybe he’d raise

a bard banner, and roam the world telling tales of how collecting junk was better than

ascension.

Fu Yao lifted the hem of his robe and sat down next to him. Alas, he could no longer keep it in,

and rolled his eyes. “How much longer are you gonna wear that thing?”

It felt incredibly familiar to see his eyes roll. Xie Lian finally took off the wedding dress, wiped

away his makeup, then realized dejectedly, “Was I talking to General Pei Junior in this dress the

whole time? Nan Feng, why didn’t you remind me?” “Probably because you looked so happy in it,” Fu Yao replied.

After running errands all day, Nan Feng finally sat down for a rest too. “Don’t worry about it.

General Pei Junior won’t care. You can dress ten times weirder and he won’t bat an eyelash or

tell anyone.”

Xie Lian was grateful for all the errands Nan Feng ran and poured him some tea. He thought

about how cool-headed General Pei Junior was in the face of Xuan Ji’s madness.

He commented, “General Pei Junior is certainly calm and collected, very composed.”

Nan Feng took a sip of the tea and said, “He may look well-mannered, but he’s like his

ancestor—difficult to deal with.”

Xie Lian could see it. Unbelievably enough, Fu Yao agreed too.

“General Pei Junior is a nouveau ascendent of the last couple hundred years, but he’s got a

strong tailwind, and climbs the ladder pretty fast. When he was appointed Deputy General by

General Pei, he was barely twenty years old. Do you know what he did?”

“What?” Xie Lian asked.

“He slaughtered an entire city,” Fu Yao replied coolly.

Xie Lian looked thoughtful on hearing this, but he wasn’t surprised. In the Heavenly Court, kings

and generals roamed. The whole fighting for and protecting of one’s land was nothing less than

heroic, and to ascend, one must first become a hero. However, the path of a hero was always

bloody.

Fu Yao concluded, “In the Heavenly Court, there aren’t many who are trustworthy and worth

meeting.”

Xie Lian thought it funny that Fu Yao seemed to speak from experience. He probably got bullied

all over the place. But then again, even though Xie Lian ascended three times, he didn’t stick

around for long, so when it came to understanding these gods, he might actually know less than

these two junior officials.

Nan Feng on the other hand, seemed to strongly disagree. “Don’t listen to such inflammatory

statements, there’s good and bad everywhere. There are still a number of trustworthy officials in

the heavens.”

“Hah! Trustworthy officials? Do you mean your general?” Fu Yao sneered.

Nan Feng responded, “I don’t know about my general, but it’s definitely not yours!”

Xie Lian was long used to this kind of situation. And with other things on his mind, he didn’t have

the energy to pull them apart. The case in the north had concluded. Xie Lian returned to the Heavens, reported that bandaged

boy to the Palace of Ling Wen, and placed a request to search for him.

Ling Wen took the request with a grave expression and said, “I will do my utmost to find him.

Truly I did not think this journey to the north would open a giant can of worms. Thank you for

your hard work, Your Highness.”

Xie Lian replied, “I have the two junior officials who volunteered to help to thank, and General

Pei Junior as well. I am truly grateful.”

“All this is bad relationship trouble caused by Ol’ Pei himself, of course Junior has to take care

of it. He’s used to it, so there’s no need to thank him,” Ling Wen said. “If Your Highness is not

busy, please enter the communication array. We are to have a meeting over what has

transpired.”

Xie Lian also had many questions he’d like answers to. After leaving the Palace of Ling Wen, he

wandered about and found a small stone bridge. The stone bridge crossed a small gurgling

stream with crystal-clear waters. He could see the clouds drifting under the water, and through

the flowing waters and clouds, there stood the mountains and cities of the mortal realm.

“This is a good place,” Xie Lian thought.

And so he sat on the head of the bridge, mouthed the password, and entered the

communication array.

It was one of those rare times when the communication array was bursting with liveliness, with

voices echoing and reverberating from all directions. The first thing he heard was Feng Xin

swearing.

“Holy ****! Have you all picked a mountain for the sealing yet?! That Xuan Ji is a madwoman,

no matter what we ask, she only screams to see General Pei and tells us nothing useful about

the location of the Green Ghost Qi Rong!”

General Pei Junior responded, “General Xuan Ji has always been stubborn and intense.”

Feng Xin yelled angrily, “General Pei Junior, is your General Pei back yet? Let her meet him.

Then get Green Ghost’s location out of her and get rid of her!”

Feng Xin had never been good with women, and Xie Lian felt sorry that he was the one given

the task of interrogation.

General Pei Junior replied, “It doesn’t matter even if they meet. She’ll just become more

insane.”

A voice came through, “Another round of upside-down corpses…Qi Rong really is too crass.

Disgusting.” “Even the ghost realm thinks he’s vulgar. He’s truly the most asinine!”

Words between the officials flew seamlessly around in the array, it was clear that they were all

on familiar terms with one another. As a newcomer who’d only just ascended again after an

eight-hundred-year absence, Xie Lian should have laid low and remained silent, but after a

while, Xie Lian still couldn’t hold it in.

He asked, “Everyone, what was with the upside-down corpses? Was the Green Ghost Qi Rong

in the area too?”

Xie Lian rarely spoke in the communication array, so his voice was foreign to many and the

officials did not know whether to respond. Surprisingly enough, the first to answer him was Feng

Xin.

“The Green Ghost Qi Rong wasn’t at Mount Yujun. However, the upside-down corpses were

offerings Xuan Ji presented to him, as per his order.”

“Xuan Ji is a subordinate of the Green Ghost?” Xie Lian asked.

“Correct,” General Pei Junior replied. “Xuan Ji passed away many hundreds of years ago. She

held a grudge but was too powerless to raise hell until just over a hundred years ago when the

Green Ghost Qi Rong took a liking to her and took her under his wing. Only then did her spiritual

powers improve by leaps and bounds.”

What he really meant was the chaos Xuan Ji caused was not General Pei’s fault, because she

wasn’t originally this strong. All blame should go to the Green Ghost Qi Rong instead, since he

was the one who took her under his command and gave her the power to harm humans.

Everyone was already of the opinion that this sin was all General Pei’s to bear, but no one said

it out loud. Yet he noticed, and spoke of it so openly in a reminder, that it shut everyone up and

made them hide their real thoughts deeper within.

Xie Lian then spoke up again, “Has Mount Yujun been thoroughly inspected? What about the

child spirit?”

This time, Mu Qin’s voice rang out. He said in an indecipherable tone, “Child spirit? What child

spirit?”

Xie Lian thought Fu Yao had probably not reported every detail, maybe his volunteering to help

was even done in secret. So, without mentioning Fu Yao to spare him any unnecessary

problems, Xie Lian explained.

“When I was in the wedding sedan, I heard the giggles of a child who sang nursery rhymes as a

word of caution. The two junior officials next to me didn’t notice, which means that this child

spirit must have remarkable powers.”

“There were no child spirits found on Mount Yujun,” Mu Qing stated. Xie Lian was confused. Perhaps the child spirit had specially come just to warn him? Thinking of

this, Xie Lian was suddenly reminded of another matter that had been on his mind all this time.

He asked, “Speaking of which, I met a young man who can control silver butterflies at Mount

Yujun. Does anyone know who he is?”

The noisy communication array suddenly fell completely silent. Xie Lian was expecting this

reaction, so he simply waited.

A moment later, Ling Wen asked, “Your Highness, what did you say just now?”

Mu Qing said coldly, “He just said, he met Hua Cheng.”

Upon finally learning the name of that young man in red, Xie Lian felt his spirits lift inexplicably.

He smiled.

“So he’s called Hua Cheng? Hm, it’s a fitting name for him.”

The tone of Xie Lian’s voice rendered all the officials even more speechless. Another moment

passed before Ling Wen cleared her throat.

“Um…Your Highness, have you ever heard of the Four Calamities?”

“Much ashamed, I only know of the Four Famous Tales,” Xie Lian thought to himself.

The so-called Four Famous Tales referred to the extravagant stories of the deeds of four gods

prior to their ascension: The Young Lord Who Poured Wine; The Prince Who Pleased God; The

General Who Snapped His Sword; and The Princess Who Slit Her Throat. Of course, the

“Prince Who Pleased God” alluded to the martial might of the Crown Prince of Xianle.

Being ranked as the Four Famous Tales did not necessarily indicate the four were the strongest

of the gods; it was simply because their tales were the most well-known and most talked about.

Xie Lian had always been slow on the uptake when it came to news from the outside world; he

could even be said to be out of touch with the outside world, and ignorant of the state of affairs.

He had only known about the Four Famous Tales because he was one of the four. The Four

Calamities was something that probably grew popular later, but Xie Lian had never heard of it

before. Since it included the word “Calamity”, it couldn’t be anything good.

“Much ashamed, but I’ve never heard of them. Who are the Four Calamities?”

Mu Qing said coolly, “Your Highness walked the mortal realm for hundreds of years, and yet you

are so ill-informed. I’m really curious to know what you’ve been doing all this time?”

Eating, sleeping, busking, collecting junk, duh?

Xie Lian smiled. “It’s not easy being mortal. There’s plenty of things to busy myself with, and

they are all complicated. It’s not easier than being a heavenly official.” Ling Wen spoke up, “Please remember, Your Highness, the Four Calamities are: Ship-Sinking

Black Water, Night-Touring Green Lantern, White-Clothed Calamity, and Crimson Rain Sought

Flower. They are the four Ghost Kings of the ghost realm, causing endless headaches to all in

the heavenly realm.”

Humans become gods when they ascend; ghosts when they fall.

The gods created heaven to reside in, drawing a clear boundary between themselves and

mortals. They watched from above and ruled from beyond reach. The ghost realm, on the other

hand, was not separated from the mortal realm. Monsters, demons, ghosts, and mortals shared

one earth; some ghosts hid in the darkness, and some pretended to be humans as they walked

among the people and roamed the mortal realm in disguise.

Ling Wen continued, “Ship-Sinking Black Water refers to a water ghoul. Although he has

reached Supreme status, he’s fairly low-key and rarely starts trouble. Not many have seen him

before, so we won’t mind him for now.

“Night-Touring Green Lantern refers to that vulgar, corpse-hanging Green Ghost Qi Rong. He’s

the only one in the four not yet a Supreme. He’s probably included because he’s always causing

trouble and is really quite annoying. Or maybe because four names are easier to remember, so

he’s just there to pad the numbers. He’s also insignificant.

“White-Clothed Calamity should be someone Your Highness is familiar with. He’s also known as

White No-Face.”

Hearing the name, Xie Lian, who was sitting on the stone bridge, suddenly felt a stab of pain in

his heart that spread all over his body. His hands began to shake, and he unconsciously folded

them into fists.

Of course he was familiar.

They say when a Supreme was born, it could destroy an entire nation and throw the world into

chaos. The first country White No-Face destroyed was Xianle.

Xie Lian remained silent and Ling Wen continued.

“Anyway, White No-Face is already defeated. Even if he still exists somewhere in this world,

he’d be the last person anyone would expect to steal the limelight.

“Your Highness, the silver butterflies you saw at Mount Yujun are also called wraith butterflies.

Their master is the last of the four, and one the world does not want to incur the wrath of—

Crimson Rain Sought Flower, Hua Cheng.”

In the Heavens, “notoriety” is the word to describe the Heavenly Martial Emperor, and the

Crown Prince of Xianle. Although the meaning of “notoriety” was completely different for thetwo, the word still resonated equally. However, in the ghost realm, there was only one worthy to

be called “notorious”, and that was Hua Cheng.

If you wanted to learn about a god, simply walk into his temple and take a look at the way he

was dressed and the weapons he wielded, and you’d more or less understand him. If you

wanted to know more, simply listen to folktales, plays, and stories passed down by word of

mouth. A god’s mortal past and deeds were well-documented. Ghosts on the other hand, not so

much. The kind of person they were while still alive, and their appearance at present, were all a

mystery.

The name Hua Cheng was very obviously fake, and his appearance was most likely fake too. In

the rumours, he was sometimes a twisted boy given to capricious mood changes, sometimes a

gentle and elegant handsome young man, and sometimes a gorgeous seductress with a

vicious, deceptive heart, anything goes! As for his true self, the only thing one could be sure of

was that he dressed in red, and often appeared during a bloodbath with silver butterflies

questing between his sleeves.

And when it came to Hua Cheng’s backstory, there were endless different versions. Some say

he was born crippled without a right eye and was bullied and humiliated since birth, so he was

filled with hatred for the world; some say he was a young soldier who died in a lost battle for his

country, and later came to walk the earth in resentment; some say he was a fool who was

tormented by the death of his love; some even say he was a monster. In the most outrageous

version, supposedly—only supposedly!—supposedly, Hua Cheng ascended and became a god

but immediately jumped back down on his own and became a ghost. But this was merely a

version that wasn’t widespread. No one knew if it was true or false, and not many believed it. It

had to be false, though; even if it was true, it’d be a complete embarrassment for the heavens

that someone would rather ditch the heavenly official role to become a ghost. Either way, the

more diverse the stories were, the more mystery he was shrouded in.

There were also many reasons for the gods to fear Hua Cheng. For example, his behaviour was

unpredictable; sometimes he would carry out a massacre in cold blood, and sometimes he

would do odd acts of kindness. He also wielded a great deal of influence in the mortal realm and

had legions of followers.

That’s right. Mortals worshipped gods to ask for blessings and protection so that they could

escape the evils from the ghost realm, and this was how the gods came to gain plenty of

followers. Yet, Hua Cheng, a ghost, had such a large following on earth that he could influence

the world single-handedly.

Here was a story that must be told.

When Hua Cheng first appeared, he did something notorious.

He openly challenged thirty-five heavenly officials. The challenge was to spar with the martial

gods and debate with the civil gods. Thirty-three of the thirty-five thought it hilarious, but were also infuriated enough to take up his challenge, thinking they could join forces to teach this little

devil a thing or two.

The first to step up to the plate were the martial gods.

The martial gods were the strongest of the heavenly officials; each had plenty of believers, and

they were all powerful. In the face of a newborn ghost, it was a sure win.

Instead, it turned out to be a complete annihilation. Even their weapons were completely

smashed into pieces by Hua Cheng’s freakish scimitar.

It was only after the battle that they found out Hua Cheng was born of Mount Tong'lu20.

Mount Tong'lu was a volcano. What was significant was that there is a city in the mountains,

called Gu21. The City of Gu wasn’t a place where people cultivated poison, but rather, the city

itself was a great venom.

Every few hundred years, tens of thousands of ghosts descended upon the City of Gu to

butcher one another until at last only one remained, and thus formed the venom. It usually

ended in complete elimination, but those who were capable enough to make it out alive would

emerge as Ghost Kings. Only two such ghosts have ever made it out of the City of Gu these few

hundreds of years, and as expected, these two both became the well-known Calamities.

Hua Cheng was such a Ghost King.

After the defeat of the martial gods, it came time for the civil gods to rise to the challenge. Surely

Hua Cheng could fight, but not debate?

Unfortunately for the civil gods, they could not defeat him. Hua Cheng could recite the classics

and debate the moderns. He was sometimes polite, sometimes vicious, sometimes stubborn,

sometimes incisive, and sometimes quibbling. He was truly a great speaker of sophistication

and bullshit. He verbally abused the civil gods from top to bottom, past to present, and infuriated

them so much that the waterfall of blood they coughed out washed the skies red.

Hua Cheng gained fame overnight.

What was truly frightening, however, was that after the challenge, Hua Cheng demanded all

thirty-three officials make good on their word. Before the challenge, it was decided that if Hua

Cheng were to lose, he would offer up his own ashes. If the officials were to lose, they must

descend from the heavens and return to being mortals. If it wasn’t for his arrogant attitude and

his decisive stake, and the conviction of the thirty-three officials that they would not lose, they

would never have accepted such terms.

20 “Tong’lu” means “Copper Kiln”, so Mount Tong'lu is basically a giant furnace.

21 “Gu” means “venom”.

the end, all thirty-three gods ate their own words, and no one honoured the terms. It was

humiliating to break their promises, but when they thought about it, if only one of them was

defeated it’d be an embarrassment; if all of them were defeated and humiliated, then no one

would lose face. They could even turn around and mock the other party! So they all came to a

tacit understanding to pretend that nothing had happened. Mortals were forgetful anyway, they

would forget this in fifty years or so.

They were not wrong about the mortals, but they were wrong about Hua Cheng.

The gods refused to fulfil their promises? That was fine, he would give them a hand.

So, Hua Cheng burnt every single temple and shrine of all thirty-three gods.

This was the stuff of nightmares for all the gods in the heavens -- the red-clad ghost’s burning of

the thirty-three martial and civil gods’ temples.

Temples and followers were the main source of power for heavenly officials; where would

followers go to pray if there were no temples? If they didn’t pray, there wouldn’t be merits. The

massive loss of temples and merits greatly crippled the heavens. To rebuild would take at least

a hundred years, and even then it wouldn’t be the same as before. This was a catastrophe

greater than passing one’s own predetermined Heavenly Calamity22. The number of temples

and shrines of these heavenly officials combined were at least tens of thousands, but Hua

Cheng managed to burn them all in one night. How? No one knew, but he did it.

He was truly insane.

The gods cried foul to the Heavenly Martial Emperor, but there was nothing he could do. The

heavenly officials themselves accepted the challenge and the terms, and Hua Cheng was

cunning enough to only destroy temples without hurting anyone. It was like he dug a hole and

asked the gods to jump, and the gods themselves dug the hole bigger and dove in. So what

could they have done, the way things were now?

Originally the thirty-three heavenly officials wanted to show the world the defeat of this

insignificant devil, so they broadcasted the challenge in the dreams of many royals and nobles

to display their strength and might before their most devout believers. But all the royalties and

nobles saw was their miserable defeat. When the mortals woke up, they swapped from

worshipping the heavenly officials to the Ghost King. The heavenly officials who lost both their

temples and believers soon grew weaker and weaker, until they were erased from existence. It

wasn't until a new wave of ascensions that those empty positions were filled up again.

Ever since then, the name Hua Cheng was feared in the heavens. Even just hearing any

mention of red robes or silver butterflies brought cold sweat to many. Some feared he would

22 Gods have predetermined Heavenly Calamities that they must endure and overcome every so often if

they want to level up. It usually involves hella lightning strikes or descending into the mortal realm to live

one lifetime as a mortal, but it varies.

challenge them then burn their temples if they were to incur his displeasure; some were

blackmailed into silence and inaction because he had them by the balls; and some even oddly

respected him because of how wide his reach was in the mortal realm. Sometimes, they even

had to ask him for help in paving the way for them while they carried out their duties.

Thus, the heavens feared, hated, and respected this Ghost King.

Among the thirty-five gods who were challenged, the two who declined were General Xuan

Zhen, Mu Qing, and General Nan Yang, Feng Xin.

They thought the challenge was beneath them and didn't care for it. Turns out, it was the right

decision to make. But even then, Hua Cheng hadn't forgotten about those two. Many

Zhongyuan Festival23 patrols ended in fists and blood when both parties crossed paths with

each other, and those crazy, maniacal silver butterflies left an everlasting impression on both

men.

Hearing this, Xie Lian thought of those fluttering silver butterflies that danced around him

playfully. He couldn't picture them as described in the rumours.

“Are they really that scary?” Xie Lian wondered. “Aren't they rather… precious?”

23 [中元節] Zhongyuan Jie, or the Ghost Festival, falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the

Lunar Calendar. (This usually falls around August/September on the Western Calendar.) The seventh

month is ghost month, when the gates to the underworld are open, so the gods patrol more diligently. The

festival celebrates the underworld, and offerings are made to the dead to appease their spirits and help

them move on. Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost Festival

*hope you enjoyed see you soon :) *

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