Chapter 139: Extra 4 Oh Goodness! The Cave of Ten Thousand Gods

LAUGHING, Xie Lian pushed Hua Cheng off him—his crushing weight was making it hard to breathe. The heat and passion had  yet to subside when something suddenly occurred to him.

“Oh yeah, San Lang,” he began offhandedly. “About the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods…”

“Hmm?” Hua Cheng replied lazily as he settled his arm over Xie Lian’s chest. Once something in particular was in his clutches, his fingers began to twiddle and toy with it. “What about it?”

“Nothing,” Xie Lian said. “It just suddenly occurred to me—are the divine statues inside that cave all right after Mount Tonglu’s eruption?”

It would be such a shame if anything happened to them. After all, every statue in there was the product of Hua Cheng’s blood, sweat, and tears, and Xie Lian loved them all.

“They’ll be fine,” Hua Cheng said. “I set up a ward a long time ago; the cave would remain intact even if the entire mountain collapsed.”

“Really?” This piqued Xie Lian’s interest. “They must be fine, then. What a relief. I want to go and take a look at them—is that okay?”

Hua Cheng’s expression seemed to falter for a moment before he quickly painted over it with a smile. “Sure, gege,” he agreed. “You can go if you want to. What’s stopping you?”

“Let’s go tomorrow,” Xie Lian exclaimed. “The Tonglu area is open now, so we can head out anytime we want.”

Hua Cheng quirked an eyebrow. “Tomorrow? All right.”

He didn’t object to the suggestion, nor did he speak more on the subject. A moment later, however, he flipped Xie Lian onto his stomach and climbed on top of him again.

Maybe it was Xie Lian’s imagination, but Hua Cheng seemed to work him even harder and more aggressively the second half of the night. It wasn’t even two more rounds before he was forced to cry “Gege, help me!” and woozily pass out.

He might have slept soundly until the next morning, but not two hours later, Xie Lian felt a void next to him, even deep in slumber. He opened his eyes a slit and peered at the spot beside him—only to find the man that was next to him missing.

Surprised, Xie Lian sat up at once, any drowsiness leaving him completely.

After quickly making himself decent, he slowly rolled out of bed. As he pushed the door to head out, he wondered, Where did San Lang go?

This was the first time Hua Cheng had ever gone missing halfway through the night. Xie Lian searched all of Paradise Manor but found no sign of him. Suddenly, he remembered that there was a room in the manor used for teleportation. When he went there, sure enough, the door of the room had been left ajar.

The array on the door wasn’t the same as the one he remembered from the last time he’d come here, and the cinnabar of the new array had yet to dry. Xie Lian went in without a second thought, and when he emerged, it was no longer Paradise Manor—instead, there was nothing but darkness.

Xie Lian closed the door and ignited a palm torch to illuminate his surroundings. When he took in the sight before him, he was shocked.

The teleportation array was connected to an enormous, eerie cavern—it was the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods!

Why had Hua Cheng come here alone in the middle of the night? Didn’t they agree to go together the next day? Why had he made this trip alone, in secret?

Xie Lian shook his head. With torch in hand, he started to slowly walk the dim, chilly tunnels.

His footsteps echoed hauntingly. The light silk veils covering the divine statues had been removed, so countless silent faces that mirrored his own stared out from the encompassing darkness. It was a somewhat terrifying sight, if he thought about it. When Xie Lian passed a cavern and glanced in absentmindedly, he saw a divine statue of the God-Pleasing Crown Prince. Its expression was gentle and its form graceful as it stood there, flower in one hand and sword in the other.

There were hundreds of divine statues here, if not thousands. Who knew how much time and effort it had taken to carve them, or how much time had been spent in this silent darkness.

As he thought of that, Xie Lian let out a sigh. Approaching the statue, he inclined his head and murmured, “It must’ve been lonely, huh?”

He was talking about the sculptor, but the statues as well.

The God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue nodded.

“…”

Well, that was terrifying.

Xie Lian remained frozen stiff for a while before he realized what had happened. Because he had been recharged with spiritual power very recently, the brimming abundance of it coursing through him had most likely affected the statues and made them move.

He quickly reined in his spiritual power, but it was too late—the God-Pleasing Crown Prince had already taken a step forward. Although Xie Lian’s overflowing spiritual power had affected the statue, he’d made no attempt to issue it any commands, so its movements were slightly awkward. It tripped and fell with a thud.

“Careful!” cried Xie Lian as he rushed over to help it stand.

After being helped to its feet, the divine statue’s smile did not falter—it even lifted its chin with lofty dignity and nodded to him to express its thanks. Xie Lian couldn’t help but find its haughtiness funny, but he held back his mirth.

“Did you see Hua Cheng?” Xie Lian asked.

Divine statues can make simple sounds but cannot speak, except for representations of the silver-tongued gods who govern speech-related arts. When the God-Pleasing Crown Prince heard his question, slight confusion colored its face, as if it didn’t know who he was talking about. Xie Lian understood immediately—he hadn’t met Hua Cheng yet at the period in his life depicted by the statue.

Xie Lian reworded his question. “Have you seen a man dressed in red?”

Only then did the divine statue produce a full smile, accompanied by an aloof nod.

“Do you know where he went?” Xie Lian asked.

After all, he wasn’t familiar with this massive cavern and was afraid of getting lost.

The statue thought for a moment before pointing him in the right direction.

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Xie Lian said.

After walking along a stretch of road for a bit, he looked back. The God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue had mastered the essentials of walking quite quickly, and it had started performing a sword dance right there in the road. Its form was divinely graceful, as though it were center stage at the Shangyuan Heavenly Ceremonial Procession, dancing above a captivated crowd. Too bad there was no audience to appreciate its efforts.

Not long after, Xie Lian hit another fork in the road. Without pausing, he entered the nearest cavern, ready to ask for help from another one of his statues.

When he entered, he saw a figure sitting on the stone altar hugging a liquor jug and vigorously chugging its contents.

Xie Lian was speechless for a moment, then he dashed forward to snatch the jug away.

“Stop!” he exclaimed.

This divine statue was also made in his likeness, except with a thinner face and plain white robes, no longer extravagant. After Xie Lian took away the liquor jug, the statue tried to snatch it back, but its strength in its dazed state was no match for his own. Its attempts sent it spinning in circles, and then, suddenly, it clung to Xie Lian and began to cry in frustration.

Xie Lian gaped.

“There’s no need for you to cry either…”

The statue sobbed even harder at this; it cried like a man with infinite problems. It stopped grabbing for the liquor and instead clutched Xie Lian and refused to let go.

Xie Lian had no idea he was so clingy when he got drunk. He had no choice but to hug it and gently rub its back.

“All right, all right…” he soothed.

On second glance, Xie Lian realized that the “liquor jug” in his hand didn’t have any alcohol in it, so it didn’t matter if he returned it.

He asked, “Have you seen a man dressed in red? Where did he go?”

The divine statue pointed him in the right direction, and Xie Lian returned the liquor jug. As he continued on his way, the statue stopped crying. It sat back on the ground, hugging the jug, and drifted into dreamy distraction.

Xie Lian looked back and let out a sigh, then moved on.

After walking for a while longer, he heard a sound like the creaking friction of metal chains. He soon came upon a spacious cavern.

A swing hung from the domed ceiling of the cave, and a divine statue was seated upon it. It was sprightly and filled with the air of youth, and it wore the cultivation uniform of a Royal Cultivation Hall disciple—this was probably him at sixteen or seventeen. It was gripping the swing’s chains and pulling on them hard to make it rock back and forth, but it kept failing because it was sitting on it. It wore a troubled expression, clearly upset by its plight.

At the sight of this, Xie Lian went over to give it a push or two. The swing finally began to move, which made the statue in cultivation robes happy.

Xie Lian took this chance to ask, “Have you seen a man dressed in red? Where did he go?”

The statue in cultivation robes pointed in one direction, his other hand still holding the swing’s chain.

Xie Lian gave it another few pushes before he said, “Goodbye, then.”

The swing rocked back and forth dozens of times but eventually came to a stop once more. Without anyone to push him, the statue in cultivation robes sat there in a daze, and the troubled expression resurfaced on its face.

I should reach him soon, right? Xie Lian thought as he walked on and on.

Just then, he heard a small voice that sounded like it was suppressing pain. Confused, he wondered aloud, “What’s that sound? Gasping…?”

The voice was coming from a cavern just ahead. When Xie Lian went in, he saw a stone altar with what appeared to be a divine statue lying on top. A sheer white cloth covered it from head to toe and draped down the altar to brush the ground. The figure beneath the silk was writhing in shadowed contour, at times curling into a ball, at times tossing and turning. It looked like someone struggling painfully and suffering grave torment.

Speechless, Xie Lian was just about to go over and pull off the white sheet when a hand reached out from behind him and covered his eyes.

“Gege,” sighed a low voice, also from behind him.

Xie Lian chuckled. “San Lang, do you think I don’t know what this is even if you don’t let me see it?” he asked gently.

After a long silence, another sigh escaped Hua Cheng. “Gege, I was wrong.”

Xie Lian pulled down his hand and looked back to face him. “The Land of the Tenders?”

The one standing behind him was a tall man dressed in red. It was, of course, Hua Cheng.

Now that he had been caught, he raised one hand to hold his troubled brow. “…Yes,” he finally admitted.

No wonder. If that's what it was, it was no surprise that Hua Cheng wouldn't let him look at the statue.

“You came here tonight hoping to hide this statue, didn’t you?” Xie Lian asked.

Hua Cheng’s gaze shifted elsewhere as he answered. “Yes.”

Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Was Hua Cheng really so afraid of letting him see it?

“Why hide it?” he asked. “It’s not that big a deal, really. But now we have a troublesome problem on our hands…”

The troublesome problem being that Xie Lian’s arrival had unintentionally animated all the divine statues.

It wasn’t really too much of a concern, but to this statue in particular, it was an agonizing affair—for the sculpted idol beneath the silk cover was a depiction of the seventeen-year-old Xie Lian who had been poisoned by the Land of the Tenders inside that cave out in the wilderness.

The other divine statues depicted sword-dancing, or drinking, or swinging on a swing—all of that and more. This one, however, was the unfortunate representative of the time Xie Lian had been laid low by that dreadful flower yao’s poison, so when it came alive, it had to suffer the grave torment of the poison of desire.

The agonized gasping from under the sheer cloth was unbearable to hear—it forced Xie Lian’s mind back to that harrowing, torrid night.

“It’s awful, what it’s going through right now,” Xie Lian said. “If I leave, will it return to being a simple stone statue?”

If it did, it wouldn’t need to suffer further torture.

“I’m afraid not,” Hua Cheng replied. “Gege, you’re in pretty much your most powerful state right now. Every divine statue in the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods has been affected by you, and they will remain animated for a long time even if you leave.”

It wouldn’t be right to simply abandon this statue to its pain. “Then…is there any other way?” Xie Lian asked.

Indeed, Hua Cheng was a man of ways. With a slight nod, he said, “I was just attending to this matter. Come with me, gege.”

He led Xie Lian to a different stone cavern, and Xie Lian’s eyes widened when they entered the room. Inside stood a stone sculpture of a man—tall and slender, with a handsome face and lips that curled slightly upward. An eyepatch covered its right eye.

This statue was an almost exact replica of the red-clad man who’d led him here. It was a ghost king statue!

“This is…” Xie Lian trailed off.

“Something I carved in a hurry when I realized things were going wrong,” Hua Cheng explained. “I haven’t sculpted in years, so I’m a little rusty. Gege, look. Does it look like me?”

After examining it in detail, Xie Lian declared, “Very much so! But…”

“But…what?” Hua Cheng asked.

Xie Lian grinned. “It doesn’t look quite as good as the original.”

Hua Cheng smiled as well, then Xie Lian returned to the subject.

“So, San Lang, the idea you mentioned is…?”

Was it to have this ghost king statue help…“detoxify” the divine statue poisoned by the Land of the Tenders?

After a brief silence, Hua Cheng’s smile disappeared and his expression went serious. Looking Xie Lian in the eyes, he stated, “Yes.”

Xie Lian hadn’t yet noticed the caution in his expression and thought, This idea is much too…

Although it certainly was an effective way to get to the root of the problem, just the thought of it was absurd and ridiculously debauched. To put it bluntly—were they really planning on suppressing the poison of desire by using the ghost king statue to take the virginity of his young divine statue?

Honestly, it was hard to even talk about!

Xie Lian was still at a loss for how to respond when Hua Cheng suddenly bent down on one knee in front of him. Taken aback, he quickly moved to pull him up.

“San Lang? What are you doing?”

“Your Highness, I have been disrespectful,” Hua Cheng said in a grave voice.

Xie Lian couldn’t get him to stand, so he crouched down as well. “How were you disrespectful?” he asked, puzzled.

Hua Cheng only stared at him. After a few moments, he drew in a soft breath and said in the same grave voice, “Please believe me, Your Highness. I only conceived of this ill plan because I could think of no other solution. I take full responsibility for sculpting that divine statue, but I have never meant any disrespect or acted with the intent to profane Your Highness’s likeness. If Your Highness feels this method is inappropriate, I will seek another solution.”

At last, Xie Lian finally understood why Hua Cheng was acting so solemn.

He’d secretly carved so many divine statues of Xie Lian, and it must have always worried him that Xie Lian found his motivations strange and his behavior offensive. And now, considering his proposed plan, he was probably terrified Xie Lian would think that his mind was filled with nothing but obscene fantasies and disrespect.

A smile crossed Xie Lian’s face, and he let out a sigh. He grabbed Hua Cheng with both hands and finally hoisted him to his feet.

“Of course I believe you. I know you’ve always respected me,” Xie Lian said.

However, Hua Cheng’s insistence that he’d never acted with the intent to profane was harder to believe. After all, ever since Hua Cheng had returned after dissipating into silver butterflies, the man was adamant about profaning his god almost every other day—and he was only growing bolder as time went on.

Xie Lian cleared his throat quietly. “This idea…there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s very good. Excellent.”

When he thought more about what the method entailed, his face grew hot—his words felt very immodest. But now that he’d received Xie Lian’s permission, Hua Cheng slowly regained his usual ease.

Xie Lian placed a hand on the ghost king statue’s shoulder. “Shall I give it my blessing?”

Hua Cheng blinked, and a smile slowly emerged on his face. “If gege wants to. That’s more than I could ask for.”

Xie Lian nodded. Soon after, the statue lightly arched an eyebrow.

As he withdrew his hand, Xie Lian couldn’t help but smile at the sight. “Now it really resembles you!”

Several figures had slowly approached the cavern—many of the divine statues had sensed something and come over out of curiosity, wanting to get a closer look at this new divine statue that was so different from them.

The ghost king statue also noticed them. It blinked, and its single arched brow arched higher. It seemed like it had some new idea and was searching for something.

It took some effort for Xie Lian to push his own statues out the door, coaxing and shooing them away. When he swept a glance back, he suddenly asked, “Where’s the Land of the Tenders?”

He was already using that name for the unlucky divine statue. Now, upon the stone altar, there was nothing but a sheer white sheet—before anyone could notice, the reclining Land of the Tenders divine statue had vanished without a trace!

Oh no! Xie Lian thought. Hua Cheng, who had followed him over with his hands clasped behind him, frowned.

“Let’s hurry and find it! The Cave of Ten Thousand Gods is massive; it shouldn’t be able to escape very quickly,” Xie Lian said.

“I’m afraid that’s not so,” Hua Cheng said. “Gege, look.”

He pointed at the ground, and Xie Lian had to go around to see the circle array that had been carved into the rocky surface by a powerful finger.

The teleportation array! It had somehow been able to draw a teleportation array with its bare hands—how much spiritual power had that divine statue drained from him?! Xie Lian was going to collapse on the spot.

That divine statue had been poisoned by the Land of the Tenders, you know! What if it escaped and offended passing mortal women? What sort of strange, lurid legends about him would spring from that?!

“When did it escape?” he asked. “Where would it go?”

“Don’t panic, gege,” Hua Cheng said. “Think. Back then, if you had been poisoned by the Land of the Tenders, who would you go to first?”

That actually wasn’t too hard to guess. Xie Lian wasn’t all that anxious in the first place, so he swiftly calmed down. “It would’ve been—”

An incoming line of spiritual communication interrupted him before he could finish. Caught off guard, Xie Lian raised his hand without thinking to answer the call.

Feng Xin’s voice immediately blasted in Xie Lian’s ears. “Your Highness! Holy shit, I just saw a monster that’s impersonating you!”

Just as Xie Lian expected! Back then, Xie Lian’s most trusted aides were Feng Xin and Mu Qing. They would’ve naturally been the first ones he’d seek if something like the poisoning incident happened!

Thank goodness the divine statue had gone to Feng Xin first instead of running through the streets. Xie Lian sighed in relief and quickly started to explain.

“No, no! That wasn’t a monster, and it wasn’t impersonating me either.”

Feng Xin was stunned. “What do you mean?! It’s not a monster or an impostor? What, it was really you?! That can’t be!”

“That’s not it either!” Xie Lian cried. “Anyway, how is it right now? Did you catch it? Don’t let it get away!”

“Too late,” Feng Xin said. “It already took off!”

“What? Oh no!” Xie Lian exclaimed.

“Yeah, ‘oh no’ is right. Running around naked—how outrageous! What if people saw?!” Feng Xin said.

“Wait, what?! Naked?! I’m not…I mean, it’s not wearing clothes?!”

“Pretty much!” Feng Xin said. “It’s wearing something, but not much. The little clothing that’s there is all tattered, like someone ripped it up. If it’s not a monster or an impersonator, then what is it? What’s going on? It looked like a divine statue—wait. A divine statue?!”

He was suddenly horrified.

“It didn’t escape from that place under the Kiln, did it? What were you two doing?!”

Xie Lian couldn’t really remember how much he’d been wearing when he was suffering from the poison of the Land of the Tenders. He had been in a horribly uncomfortable state at the time, so maybe he’d stripped everything off in his delirium.

“I’ll explain later!” Xie Lian cried. “I’ll be there soon!”

He broke off communication and turned to Hua Cheng. “San Lang, we need to make a trip up to the New Heavenly Capital!”

Next to him, Hua Cheng had already collected the newly sculpted ghost king statue and transformed it into a tiny little idol, small enough to be carried in one’s palm.

“All right!”

With a few strokes, he drew an array, and the pair made their way directly to the New Heavenly Capital in no time. They made a beeline for the Palace of Nan Yang and saw Feng Xin as soon as they opened the door. When he came face-to-face with Hua Cheng, his eyes bugged out.

“Crimson Rain Sought Flower?” Feng Xin exclaimed in disbelief. “How come you’re here too? What are you doing up here?! Outrageous—a Supreme Ghost King strolling into the Heavenly Capital whenever he wants instead of staying in his proper domain!”

Hua Cheng ignored him. He listened intently for a moment before asking, “Where’s the announcement? The Upper Court couldn’t possibly be going back on its word now, could it?”

Feng Xin knew exactly what Hua Cheng meant by “announcement”—in light of his service in saving the Heavens and Earth, the Upper Court had been forced to proclaim and exalt Crimson Rain Sought Flower’s heroic deeds for an entire year. The veins on his forehead bulged violently.

“What announcement?! It’s the middle of the night!” Feng Xin exclaimed angrily. “People need to rest too, you know. The announcement only happens during the day!”

Hua Cheng gave a noncommittal “oh” that probably meant he wouldn’t pursue the matter further.

“Gosh, whatever!” Xie Lian said. “Let’s get to the point. Where’s the ‘me’ you saw? Where did it go?”

“It ran that way,” Feng Xin replied, pointing in a direction. “I was just about to give chase when the two of you ran in here!”

Xie Lian suddenly had a bad feeling about this. “Question. That direction couldn’t possibly be—”

Feng Xin answered simply. “Toward the Palace of Xuan Zhen.”

“…”

“Let’s go!” Hua Cheng said in a dark voice.

The two didn’t dare delay. They made a beeline for the Palace of Xuan Zhen, then broke through the front doors and charged inside. Mu Qing was sitting atop the divine altar, stunned, like he’d just seen something unbelievable.

Xie Lian went up to him and waved in front of his face. “Mu Qing?”

Mu Qing finally came back to his senses when he saw Xie Lian. Nevertheless, his expression remained shocked. It took some time before he could manage to demand, “Xie Lian, what were you doing?”

“What was I doing…?” Xie Lian repeated. “I…I don’t know. Can you please tell me?”

Mu Qing glared at him. “Why did you barge into my palace in the middle of the night in a state of undress?!”

Hua Cheng narrowed his eye, but Xie Lian only exclaimed, “…Don’t phrase it so misleadingly! No matter what you saw, it definitely wasn’t me!”

Mu Qing put this hand over his face, looking like he wanted to gouge whatever he had seen out of his eyes. “Even if it wasn’t you, it’s got something to do with you!” he rebuked with a steely expression. “It’s that divine statue from the cave, isn’t it? What are you two playing at, letting an indecent divine statue loose and allowing it to run amok in the middle of the night? Do you and Crimson Rain Sought Flower really need to play like that?!”

Hua Cheng scoffed. “What’s it to you?”

“What’s it to me?! It’s my palace!” Mu Qing cried angrily.

“Well, I played a part in rebuilding the Heavenly Capital,” Hua Cheng retorted leisurely.

“…” Mu Qing was speechless.

It was true. The Upper Court had suffered catastrophic damage, and plenty of heavenly officials had to secretly ask for help from the master of Ghost City. Hua Cheng made quite a significant contribution to rebuild the New Heavenly Capital, and that was a fact.

“We weren’t playing; it was an accident,” Xie Lian explained. “Where is it now?”

“It stole a sword from me and ran off to—” Mu Qing began, but Xie Lian knew where to go without him needing to say more.

Clanking metal rang out from one of the Palace of Xuan Zhen’s outdoor gardens. The little ghost king idol Hua Cheng carried with him hopped down on its own and hurried toward the garden in leaps and bounds.

Xie Lian rushed to the garden, and sure enough, the Land of the Tenders statue was standing atop the rockery!

The divine statue’s tousled clothing revealed large swaths of its smooth shoulders and chest. The clothing below the belt barely covered the essentials, making for an incredibly suggestive sight. The expression on the sculpture’s face was also quite a feat of mastery—its brows were tightly knit, and one could almost see the sheen of sweat and blush on its skin. It wouldn’t be a lie to say it had been wrought by the devil’s hands. It was using the sword it had stolen from the Palace of Xuan Zhen to stab itself with arduous effort, which was causing the loud clanking noises. It was trying to detoxify itself in the same way Xie Lian had attempted back then.

However, the Kiln stone from which it was wrought was formidable, so the sword couldn’t penetrate no matter how hard the statue tried. The blade eventually bent with its efforts.

As if it had lost all hope, the statue raised its hand—it was going to smash its own head to pieces.

“Calm down! Calm yourself!” Xie Lian hurriedly called to it.

The divine statue turned its confused, hazy eyes toward him, and Xie Lian leapt up to deliver a slap of his own. The statue tumbled inside a hollow cavity of the rockery structure and lay immobile, unable to get up. Hua Cheng darted to Xie Lian’s side and threw something down.

It was the ghost king statue!

Or, rather than being thrown, it had actually struggled free of Hua Cheng’s clutches as soon as it saw the statue of the young god. Once free of his grip, the ghost king statue transformed back into its tall, slender full-sized form as it sailed through the air, then it dropped to land atop the divine statue.

A surprised gasp came from below, and Xie Lian promptly jumped off the rockery.

“It’s too late! Sorry, we’re gonna borrow your sacred garden for a bit!” Xie Lian exclaimed as he pushed Mu Qing, who had rushed over at the sound of the commotion, back into the palace hall.

Mu Qing was shaken. “What were you guys doing?”

“I’ll explain some other time. Very sorry!” Xie Lian said.

“What’s there to apologize for?” Hua Cheng asked, slowly and leisurely. “You’ve saved this guy’s life how many times now?”

“No, you’d better lay it all out clearly, right now,” Mu Qing demanded. “I saw you throw another you down there. He threw another him down too, right? My eyes didn’t deceive me? So what are you two up to? What’s happening inside that rockery right now?”

Xie Lian was almost strangling Mu Qing in his attempts to drag him back inside the palace hall. “This is urgent! Really, Mu Qing, don’t go over there! Why must you push this?!”

“Xie Lian!” Mu Qing roared. “What are you two doing in my palace?! What the fuck?! What the actual fuck?!”

“It’s not us!” Xie Lian exclaimed. “It was only an accident. It’s really too late…and you’ve caught Feng Xin’s language again!”

***

Two hours later, the two statues finally exhausted all the spiritual power they had taken from Xie Lian and Hua Cheng.

Xie Lian put his hand over his face the moment he went inside the rockery for a look. While Hua Cheng took care of the statues, Xie Lian went out wordlessly to stop Feng Xin and Mu Qing, who both wanted to see for themselves.

“You two don’t want to see it,” he said with the utmost sincerity.

Feng Xin wasn’t a curious person, so he wisely retreated the instant he got a bad feeling. Mu Qing, however, couldn’t let it go. He flung his sleeves wildly and mumbled equally crazily, his face as dark as a pan’s bottom.

“I can’t believe this…I cannot believe this! Not only that a thing like this could happen in the first place—it just had to happen in my palace!”

And then, he drifted away like a ghost. He would probably never be able to look at that rockery the same way again. Xie Lian highly suspected that he would chop it to bits with his bare hands after they left.

To be honest, Xie Lian himself couldn’t believe that he’d been the cause of such a funny, mortifying accident—he honestly didn’t know whether or not he should feel embarrassed about all this.

He turned his head to look at the two statues—no, they should now be called one statue—and asked, “Will they…stay like that?”

“Yeah, let them,” Hua Cheng said. “It’s not like they can be separated now.”

Xie Lian covered his face.

What heavenly official had statues in a pose like that?! It’d be a disaster if anyone saw! It was too indecent—and absolutely outrageous!

Xie Lian groaned. “…San Lang, make sure they’re…properly hidden. Don’t let anyone see them.”

“But of course,” Hua Cheng replied with a laugh. “Don’t worry, gege.”

They brought the two-as-one statue back to the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, and Xie Lian wiped the sweat from his face once it was finally returned to its place. The other Xie Lian statues inside the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods once again surrounded them, curious, but they were once again coaxed and pushed away by the real Xie Lian.

“Turn your eyes away from impropriety; don’t look.”

The statues had no choice but to leave. Although they didn’t get to see that divine statue’s new and final state, they all kept glancing back as they walked away, seeming very jealous that the Land of the Tenders Xie Lian finally got a “companion.”

The Land of the Tenders’ poison had certainly been neutralized, but all the other statues still seemed to be missing out on fulfillment of their own. There was no one to admire the God-Pleasing Crown Prince, no one to lend a hand to the drunk, no one to push the swing…

Xie Lian couldn’t help but think greedily, If only every Xie Lian could have a Hua Cheng.

Unexpectedly, Hua Cheng said the same thing aloud. “Doesn’t gege think it would be better if every His Highness had a San Lang by his side?”

The two clapped their hands together and immediately set to work, and a great manifestation of their abilities began to unfold within the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods.

Soon, Xie Lian had witnessed the entire process of how Hua Cheng transformed a large, heavy rock into an exquisite, expressive stone statue that seemed almost alive. It was impossible to describe his technique, since Hua Cheng moved so fast that Xie Lian couldn’t even see how it was done. He assumed that Hua Cheng had long since merged his sculpting techniques with his spiritual ones, so all that remained for Xie Lian to do was watch in amazement.

In any case, in the space of only a moment, Hua Cheng turned around and picked up a newly sculpted kid from a pile of debris. The boy had disheveled hair, ragged clothes, and bandages wound around his head. He looked sad and pitiful, and he clutched something in his hands that he refused to let go of. Xie Lian placed one hand on the little one’s head and gave it his blessings while Hua Cheng gave it a bit of spiritual power. Shortly after, it blinked and started looking around. When it found that someone was dangling it in the air by its collar, it lashed out with a brutal kick.

Hua Cheng dodged easily, like he’d already anticipated the attack, and let it struggle and kick in his grip however it wanted.

Xie Lian hadn’t expected the little Hua Cheng to be so aggressive and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh my, so fierce!”

Hua Cheng clicked his tongue and tossed it away. The little one fell to the ground with a thud, but it quickly crawled back to its feet and glared at Hua Cheng with its eye flashing.

Xie Lian extended a hand to it, worried that it might’ve fallen too hard. “San Lang, you’re too rough! Careful not to break it,” he chided.

In a way, this little one had just been born!

“No matter,” Hua Cheng said nonchalantly. “He’s plenty resilient.”

The kid was vicious as hell toward Hua Cheng but quite friendly toward Xie Lian. Xie Lian beckoned for him to come closer, and he moved to do that—but just then, the God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue sensed something and descended from his position, gazing their way.

The moment he saw the God-Pleasing Crown Prince statue, the little one was stunned, frozen in place. His unbandaged eye widened, and he hurried over with thumping steps. He clearly wanted to grab the hem of the Crown Prince’s clothing and pounce on him, but at the same time, he didn’t dare get too close lest he dirty his robes. It was a long time before he extended his arms very carefully and opened his stubborn little fists.

There was a single tiny flower hidden in his hands.

The God-Pleasing Crown Prince gave the boy a small smile as he accepted the flower. Then he reached one hand out and picked the boy up, hoisting him up into his arms. The two left happily, just like that. One had finally found someone to admire his sword dance, and one had finally found someone to offer his flower.

Xie Lian felt relieved as he watched them, but a problem suddenly occurred to him. “San Lang, after you’re done sculpting everything, the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods will be filled with so many of our divine statues. Will they begin to mistake who belongs with who? So many of them look alike, after all.”

“They won’t,” Hua Cheng replied with a broad smile.

“Why not?”

“They won’t,” Hua Cheng repeated with confidence.

He raised his eyes to gaze at Xie Lian, still smiling.

“Even if ‘Your Highness’ mistakes me, ‘I’ would never mistake Your Highness—because a Hua Cheng will only ever be the believer of a single Highness; he is faithful to his one and only. It will never happen.”

Xie Lian met his gaze with equal intensity. “I would never mistake you either,” he blurted. “There will only ever be a single most devoted believer for a Xie Lian. ‘I’ will always remember that. I…”

He trailed off, suddenly rather embarrassed by his declaration. The two of them were like children eagerly promising each other, “You’ll always be the only one I like the very best.” While it was sincere, it was incredibly juvenile.

And while juvenile, it was incredibly sincere.

After a brief silence, Xie Lian cleared his throat softly. “So then…next, let’s help the Royal Highness on the swing by sculpting a Lord Ghost King to push him.”

It looked so very lonely and sad without anyone to help push.

“Sure,” Hua Cheng replied happily.

“And then, what about the drunk one?” Xie Lian asked. “That one’s a little troublesome. It seems utterly confused, not to mention it cries. Gosh, there are too many divine statues here; I wonder how long it’ll take before all the ghost kings are carved?”

“Why worry?” Hua Cheng asked with a smile. “There’s no rush—they’ll all meet eventually.”

Xie Lian also smiled, then he nodded. “Mmm. They will all definitely meet,” he said softly.

Inside the stone cave, the two once-solitary statues were joined as one. Their gazes and bodies were entangled endlessly in their tight embrace, both staring with rapt adoration at the other face mere inches from their own.

They were truly forever inseparable.

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