Chapter 9: Dallying HuaLian, Night Fall in Sinner’s Pit (Continuation)

As expected, that little kid scarfed down a few lumps of the stuff she had picked off the ground and then dry-heaved harshly, crying loudly. Xie Lian was so shaken that he picked her up upside down and ran laps until all the stuff she ate came back out. After that was done, he crouched down and wiped his sweat.

“Are you all right, little one…? I’m so sorry. But don’t ever tell your parents about this, and next time, don’t pick up any more random stuff off the ground to eat… Wait, what are you doing now?!”

That child’s face was covered in tears, but she still went to pick food off the ground again, wanting to eat. It was only after Xie Lian grabbed her that he realized that the skin of this child’s stomach was practically pressed to the back of her bones.

When people were starved to that point, anything could be eaten. Even if it was disgusting to the point of tears, she would still eat it.

Xie Lian had no choice and went to get her the last of his rations. After that incident, he would often see the child stalking him in the shadows nearby.

In his memories, the little girl Banyue was always gloomy. Her body and face were covered in bruises, and when she looked at him, she would clutch the hem of his clothes and stare at him just so from below. Because she was singled out by the children of the Banyue kingdom, besides Xie Lian, only a particular Yong’an boy living at the border would sometimes pay attention to her. She’d spend her days tagging along behind the two of them.

She rarely spoke, but she was fluent in the Han dialect, so Xie Lian didn’t know where she came from. But she was a random wandering child, so he randomly took her in. When he was free, sometimes he’d teach her songs, sometimes wrestle, sometimes show off his busker move “Shattering Boulders on One’s Chest,” and other stuff, and they got along quite well.

Xie Lian shook his head. “I had thought the ‘Banyue’ in the state preceptor’s title was the country. I didn’t realize it was actually the name of the state preceptor.”

“And then?” Fu Yao asked.

“And then…it’s pretty much the same as what the memorial wrote,” Xie Lian said.

After some silence, San Lang spoke up. “The memorial said you died.”

As for that memorial, Xie Lian was extremely bummed out.

Weren’t memorials usually full of praise and exaggerated good deeds to glorify the deceased? All those mentions of his demotions aside, why did it have to so seriously record the embarrassing way he died?!

While they were hiding away from the sandstorm and he read to this part, he could barely look at it straight on. If it wasn’t for San Lang, who also understood Banyue script and was watching him, he would’ve pretended that section never existed. Having something like that written down, even he wanted to laugh at it, never mind other people. And he didn’t even have the nerve to ask those seeking shelter in his memorial not to laugh as they commentated and joked about his epitaph. That made him feel really bummed.

Xie Lian’s forehead was becoming red from all the rubbing. “Oh, that. Um. Of course I didn’t die. I faked it.”

Fu Yao had a face full of disbelief. Xie Lian explained himself. “I got trampled too hard and couldn’t get up, so there wasn’t any option besides faking my death.”

Truthfully, Xie Lian couldn’t quite remember exactly how he “died,” nor why that battle broke out in the first place, only that it was over something petty. He really hadn’t wanted to fight, and victory or defeat were meaningless. But by then his rank could go no lower, and no one would listen to him. In the midst of battle, everyone saw red, so when he rushed out and both sides saw it was him, for some reason all the blades and swords went after him and cut him down.

Fu Yao questioned, “You must have been standing in the middle being an eyesore, and that raised the ire of both sides, right? Otherwise, why would people cut you down on sight? Besides, I’m sure you knew there were many who hated you, so why didn’t you avoid them? Why did you have to charge in? I’m sure you could’ve avoided the whole thing if you’d wanted to.”

“I really don’t remember, all right?!” Xie Lian said.

Even if nothing could kill him, he still couldn’t endure that kind of butchering, so with the thought “this can’t go on!” Xie Lian resolutely dropped to the ground to fake his death. But even in “death” he was trampled to the point of passing out. It was water choking him that roused him, because corpses were usually thrown into the rivers after battles. Xie Lian went with the river’s flow and floated back to the Kingdom of Yong’an like a heap of junk. Afterward, he took several years to recover from his wounds, then picked up an unbroken compass to start off anew and finally made it to his original destination in the south. He then stopped paying attention to what went on in the Kingdom of Banyue.

“I’m sorry,” Banyue muttered again.

Fu Yao furrowed his brow. “Why does she keep apologizing to you?”

San Lang suddenly spoke up, “Kemo stated that the state preceptor of Banyue left for the Central Plains after a clash between the two armies. Were you involved in that?”

With that reminder, and recalling what was written on the memorial, some things were coming back to Xie Lian, though only in bits and pieces. “Ah, maybe…”

“It was to save me,” Banyue said.

Everyone turned to look at her, and she said softly, “General Hua got flattened because he entered the fray to save me.”

“…”

Xie Lian instantly remembered the agony of being trampled by thousands, and he hugged his body despite himself, but when he saw two others watching him with unreadable expressions, he pulled himself back in a hurry.

He said, “Not flat. Not too flat.”

Who knew why Fu Yao was looking so smug? He said passive-aggressively, “Well, aren’t you a saint.”

Xie Lian waved dismissively. “Nothing of the sort. I don’t remember the specifics anymore. But there were two children playing at the time, and I was just going to pick them up and run away immediately, but we didn’t manage to retreat fast enough and got caught between the two armies…”

“If that’s the case,” Fu Yao demanded. “How can you not remember something like that?”

Xie Lian replied, “Do you not know how many hundreds of years old I am? So much can happen in just a decade, there’s no way to remember everything in detail. Besides, some things are best forgotten. Rather than remembering how I was butchered and trampled hundreds of years ago, I’d prefer to remember that I ate a delicious meat bun yesterday, no?”

“I’m sorry,” Banyue said.

Xie Lian sighed. “Oh, Banyue. Saving you was my own choice. You’re not at fault. If you’re going to apologize, perhaps it should be to others.”

Banyue was taken aback and hung her head in silence.

Xie Lian continued, “But…maybe it’s because my impression of you is from two hundred years ago, but I don’t think you’re the kind of child who’d seek revenge and betray others… Will you tell me what happened exactly? Why did you open the city gates?”

Banyue contemplated, shook her head, and remained silent.

“Then why did you let the snakes out to bite people?” Xie Lian asked.

This time, Banyue answered, “I didn’t release the snakes.”

Xie Lian was taken aback. “What?”

“I didn’t release the snakes,” Banyue repeated. “They ran off on their own. I don’t know why, but they don’t listen to me anymore.”

Hearing this, Fu Yao grew impatient. Banyue pleaded, “General Hua, I’m not lying.”

Before Xie Lian responded, Fu Yao cut in rudely. “Anyone would say that after being captured. Even if you say it wasn’t intentional, I’ve heard all that before. All those people crossing the pass were clearly injured by your snakes. Show me your hands; you’re under arrest.”

Banyue shut up and extended both arms. Fu Yao immediately took out an Immortal-Binding Rope and apprehended both Banyue and Kemo, then he said, “All right. We’ve accomplished our goal for this trip. It’s all over now.”

Just then, San Lang spoke up. “She had no reason to lie.”

Xie Lian also felt there was a need for further interrogation. He turned to Banyue. “Can you not control any of your snakes?”

Banyue answered, “I can control them, and they’ll obey most of the time. But there are times when they won’t. I don’t know why.”

After some thought, Xie Lian said, “Why don’t you call them out and show us?”

Banyue was kneeling before him. Now, she finally rose to her feet and nodded. Soon, a wine-red scorpion-snake slithered out from underneath a corpse, raised its head, and curled itself on a pile of dead bodies. It soundlessly flicked its tongue at the group.

Xie Lian was about to take a closer look at the snake but saw Banyue widen her eyes, face strange. Xie Lian’s heart dropped and he thought, Oh no.

As that thought crossed his mind, the snake stopped flicking its tongue, opened its mouth, and pounced at him in attack.

It was a sudden lunge, but Xie Lian was ready. He was about to grab for it when boom, something exploded. When he opened his eyes again to see, the snake was already a splatter of guts on the ground, having been thoroughly blown apart. It was a calculated blast too, since none of the venom spilled.

Xie Lian immediately remembered another time when a snake died like that before they entered the Banyue ruins, but there was no need to say who did it at this point. He hadn’t even had the chance to look at San Lang before a red sleeve flashed before him, barring and separating him from Banyue.

On the other side, Fu Yao said coldly, “I knew she was lying. Did you think that snake would manage to bite him under these circumstances? Foolish.”

Banyue’s face was already pale when she saw that snake, and when she heard him, her head shot up. “I didn’t do it. I said there are some snakes that don’t obey me, and that one was one of them just now.”

Fu Yao didn’t believe a single word. “Who knows whether it was disobeying or obeying you?”

“That one wasn’t even called forth by me,” Banyue said glumly.

Xie Lian was about to speak when another two wine-red scorpion-snakes poked out from under a different corpse, flicking their tongues and watching them intently. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth…from the mountains of dead bodies and every corner of the pit, there came innumerable scorpion-snakes!

Everyone stared at Banyue, who was kneeling on top of a pile of corpses, and Fu Yao started spinning a ball of spiritual energy in his palm and shouted at her.

“Make them go away! They can’t all disobey!”

Banyue scrunched up her brows, looking as if she was trying to drive them out. Yet more and more scorpion-snakes appeared, curling and crawling, slithering ever closer. Bites from one or two snakes might not kill them, but from hundreds or thousands was harder to say. Even if they didn’t die, it wouldn’t be pretty. Xie Lian raised his wrist, about to call forth Ruoye, but saw that when the snakes slithered to a certain distance, they would stop and hesitate, forming a weird circle.

It dawned on Xie Lian, and he glanced at San Lang next to him. He was watching the snakes with condescension and immense contempt. The scorpion-snakes seemed to be able to read his eyes and didn’t dare approach. They backed off bit by bit, lowering their heads as they did so, pressing their savage heads against the ground submissively like servants.

But there seemed to be another power controlling them, not allowing them to abandon their attacks and leave completely. Thus, many of the snakes turned around and slithered toward Fu Yao. Fu Yao swung his hand and a blast of flames burst from his sleeve, killing a circle of snakes and forcing back another.

That wouldn’t last long, however. Xie Lian said, “Let’s get out of here first!”

Whoosh! Ruoye shot out from Xie Lian’s arm and flew upward. But a moment later, another whoosh and it was back on Xie Lian’s arm. Xie Lian was slightly taken aback and raised his wrist, scolding the silk band now rewrapped around it.

“What are you doing back here? The array was released, there’s nothing stopping you anymore, hurry and go!”

But Ruoye remained wrapped around his arm, trembling, as if it had bumped into something terrifying at the top. Xie Lian was about to coax it some more when suddenly, a long rope of something fell. Plop, it dropped on Fu Yao’s shoulder. Fu Yao went to grab it, and his face changed the moment he brought it before his eyes. It was another scorpion-snake that fell from the sky!

This caught Fu Yao off guard, and after getting bitten, he hurled the snake toward Banyue. Even with her hands tied, she still reflexively tried to catch the snake, and after having caught it, the dark red snake curled itself up around her arm without attacking. Just then, another plop and a second scorpion-snake landed on the ground!

Xie Lian could guess why Ruoye refused to go up now. Borrowing the faint light of the moon, Xie Lian raised his head and only just barely saw this sight: hundreds of little wine-red dots were falling rapidly into the Sinner’s Pit.

A snake deluge!

The red dots were coming closer. Xie Lian yelled, “Fu Yao! Fire! Shoot a stream of fire upward and get rid of them while they’re still in the air!”

Fu Yao bit his palm to break the skin, swung his hand, and a series of blood drops shot out; an instant later they transformed into a screen of fire that jetted up through the pit. Those sweeping flames rose over thirty meters and hung in midair, disintegrating all scorpion-snakes that touched them, burning them to ash, dissolving the snake deluge.

Temporarily safe, Xie Lian let out a breath of relief. “That was good, Fu Yao! Thank goodness for you.”

A spell like that evidently consumed an immense amount of spiritual power, and after one round, Fu Yao’s face was pale. He turned around and ignited a ring of fire, dispelling the snakes on the ground, and shouted at Banyue, “And you say those snakes don’t obey you? If you weren’t controlling them, why wouldn’t they attack you?”

San Lang laughed. “Maybe it’s because of your bad luck? They didn’t attack us either.”

Fu Yao turned to look at him, his eyes sharp and narrowed. Xie Lian could sense trouble. He’d somewhat established a theory about the current situation but hadn’t yet had time to sort through his thoughts, and Xie Lian didn’t want to see the two of them start fighting now.

“Let’s figure out what’s going on with those snakes first,” Xie Lian said. “Let’s charge out.”

Fu Yao sneered. “‘What’s going on’? Either the state preceptor of Banyue is lying, or the one next to you is causing trouble.”

Xie Lian glanced at Banyue, then at San Lang, and said, “I don’t think it’s either of them.”

His tone was gentle but firm. It was the conclusion he came to after much thought. However, Fu Yao must have thought he was shielding them intentionally, and the face illuminated by the flames was unkind. Xie Lian couldn’t tell if he was angry or laughing.

“Your Royal Highness,” Fu Yao said. “Don’t play pretend when you know the truth. Do you still remember your place? I’m sure you’re already very aware of who exactly that cad next to you is. I refuse to believe you haven’t realized it!”

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***