“What are you doing?” Xie Lian asked.
The ball of ghost fire instantly froze in midair.
Chapter 98:
Thirty-Three Heavenly Officials Fight Over Blessed Land
“IS THIS YOUR GRAVE? Am I drinking your liquor?” Xie Lian asked.
He was a drunken mess and couldn’t hear clearly if the ghost fire said anything in reply. He just assumed the owner of the grave was upset and trying to chase him away.
“I get it. I’ll go,” he grumbled.
Xie Lian crawled upright, still hugging the jug in his arms, then took a few swaying, wobbly steps. He didn’t get very far before he lost his footing and fell all over himself with a thud.
As it turned out, there was a giant pit in the graveyard. It was probably dug to prepare for an upcoming burial, but the deceased hadn’t been buried yet, and Xie Lian went tumbling in instead.
Xie Lian’s forehead had smacked the outer edge of the pit when he fell. It hurt, and it only made the spinning of his head worse. He sat there feeling woozy for a while before struggling to get up. His hands were muddy and bloody, covered in scrapes and cuts.
He held out his hands and looked at them without really registering anything, then tried to climb out of the pit. However, he had just downed an entire jug of liquor—his limbs were limp, and he couldn’t exert any power. Every time he tried to climb out, he just went slipping back down. Xie Lian slumped back to the bottom of the pit and glared at the dismal, overcast night sky for a while, growing very angry.
This pit wasn’t even that deep. Why couldn’t he climb out of it no matter how hard he tried?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he started mumbling despite himself.
“…What the fuck.”
Xie Lian had never cursed before; this was the very first time such language had come out of his mouth. It was very curious—the stifling tension in his chest seemed to disperse instantly the moment he swore. Like a child who had just had his first taste of sweets, Xie Lian clung to the side walls of the burial pit and used all his strength to yell at a deafening volume.
“God fucking dammit!” He slapped at the ground and yelled, “Is anyone there? Is there anyone who can help pull me out?!”
Of course there wasn’t anyone. There was only a small ball of haunting ghost fire, blazing unceasingly as it flitted about. After Xie Lian fell into the pit, the ball of ghost fire rushed over, seeming to want to pull him up—but it would never be able to touch him.
Xie Lian didn’t bother with the ghost fire at all, just continued his angry rant. “Someone might as well just come and bury me!”
Cursing was one thing, but he still had to try to get out. Crssh, crssh. Xie Lian finally climbed out on his own, but the struggle had left him incredibly unkempt, and he lay on the ground huffing and panting laboriously. It took some time before he was able to turn onto his side to curl up, hugging himself.
“So cold,” Xie Lian whispered.
His voice was tiny, scared that someone would overhear. But the ghost fire did hear, and it came flying. It pressed itself against his body, its flames immediately burning much brighter than they had before. It was burning itself up with all it had.
Still, a ghost fire was cold. No matter how close it pressed, no matter whether it burned itself out, it still couldn’t bring even a sliver of warmth to the living.
In his daze, Xie Lian thought he could hear a tiny voice.
The voice seemed so close and yet so far, like it was coming from a waking dream. It cried in despair, “Oh God, please wait for me, just wait for me… Please give me a little more time… Let me… Let me…”
…God? Is it calling for me? Xie Lian wondered to himself.
But even if it was praying to him, it would be pointless.
He was already powerless as a god, and he was even less capable now that he wasn’t.
***
“Your Highness…? Your Highness? Your Highness!”
It was Feng Xin’s shoving that woke Xie Lian up.
Xie Lian blinked his eyes open laboriously and found himself lying in a narrow alleyway. Feng Xin’s face was hanging above him. He let out a breath of relief when he noticed Xie Lian was awake, but a moment later his relief was replaced with traces of anger.
“Your Highness! What’s going on with you, running off on your own for two days without a word?! If you don’t come back soon, I won’t be able to keep hiding it from Their Majesties!”
Xie Lian slowly sat up. “Two days?”
When he spoke, he found that his throat was dry and his voice hoarse. His temples throbbed, and his head ached like it was going to split. He sort of remembered what had happened, but not really.
Feng Xin crouched by his side. “That’s right! Two days! Where exactly did you go?! Why were you running around like a madman?”
Had he been drunk for two days? Why wasn’t he in some wild graveyard… Why was he lying here? Feng Xin’s tone made Xie Lian shiver with foreboding.
“What did I do?”
“You were possessed!” Feng Xin said gruffly. “Smashing stalls all over the place, beating people up. You even tried to confront some patrolling Yong’an soldiers! And I don’t know what else you did before that!”
When Xie Lian heard he had even gone after Yong’an soldiers, he was shocked. “I confronted the soldiers? Then…what happened to them?”
“Luckily, I found you and stopped you,” Feng Xin replied. “And since you look like this, they assumed you were just some crazy drunkard. They yelled at you but didn’t bother doing anything else, otherwise you’d be dead for sure. What happened to you? Why does it look like you were drinking?”
Xie Lian looked down at himself and found that he was filthy, covered from head to toe with mud and grime. He scratched his head, and his hair was as messy as that of a criminal being dragged to his execution. He certainly did resemble a crazy drunkard who slept on the streets all day.
Xie Lian was briefly silent before he crawled to his feet and replied vaguely, “Yeah…I drank a bit.”
Feng Xin couldn’t wrap his head around this. “Huh? How could you drink? And how much did you drink to be drunk for two days?”
Seeing Feng Xin’s look of disbelief irritated Xie Lian for no good reason, and he walked on ahead. “I already said I didn’t drink that much—just a bit. No big deal. Why can’t I drink?”
Feng Xin hadn’t expected him to answer like this and was stunned for a moment, then chased after him. “What do you mean, ‘no big deal’? Has Your Highness forgotten? Drinking breaks the precepts—you can’t break them! Otherwise, how can you cultivate? You have to ascend again.”
“…”
Xie Lian quickened his pace the moment he heard “cultivate” and “ascend.” He didn’t want to listen anymore.
“Your Highness!” Feng Xin called out. He caught up again, and after a moment’s hesitation, he tried, “Did something happen? Won’t you tell me?”
Hearing Feng Xin question him so cautiously, Xie Lian opened and closed his mouth, wanting to speak but unable to. He might break down if he didn’t tell someone soon, but he also wasn’t sure how Feng Xin would react if he told him.
He didn’t dare make that gamble.
Seeing him distracted, Feng Xin added, “Honestly, it’s not like you killed or robbed someone, so what is it that Your Highness can’t tell me?”
“It’s not like you killed or robbed someone”—those words threatened to suffocate him. Before, he might have wavered on the matter; he might have tried to tell the truth and trust his luck. But all such hopes were thoroughly shattered in that moment.
Xie Lian dipped his head and turned to keep walking. “It’s nothing… It’s just… I’m really tired. You…” he replied hazily. He was just about to make up an excuse when he noticed something on Feng Xin’s cheek and stopped in his tracks. “What happened to your face?”
