Xie Lian’s eyes were round and bulging, and he found himself unable to speak.
The man grew impatient. “Fine, fine, fine, it’s my bad luck today. You don’t have to pay me back for the rice. But what are you still lying around here for? You’re a grown man, not a child—are you waiting for your ma and pa to pick you up? Get up, get up, get up, get up.”
As he urged him, he tugged at Xie Lian and finally pulled him to his feet. Then he heartily slapped Xie Lian twice on the back.
“Stand up. Hurry home, now!”
And just like that, Xie Lian was pulled from the human-shaped pit. The two slaps almost sent him tumbling to the ground, he was so dumbfounded.
By the time he snapped out of it, the man was already gone.
Only the bamboo hat on his head remained, reminding him that someone had stopped to pull him out. It hadn’t been a hallucination.
He didn’t know how long he had been standing there when White No-Face reappeared behind him.
This time, he didn’t laugh. His voice wasn’t so easy and carefree anymore; he instead sounded vaguely worried and displeased when he asked, “What are you doing?”
The rain was still pouring down, but Xie Lian was wearing a bamboo hat that someone had given him. While his body was drenched, at least his head and face were spared.
But his cheeks were still wet.
When Xie Lian didn’t answer, White No-Face reminded him in a dark tone, “The sun is about to set. Take up your sword. You know what will happen if you don’t.”
Xie Lian didn’t turn to look at him as he softly said, “Fuck you.”
“What did you say?” White No-Face’s voice carried a trace of frost.
Now, Xie Lian turned to him. “You didn’t hear me? Then I’ll say it again,” he said calmly.
Suddenly, he struck out with a violent, thunderous kick that sent White No-Face flying dozens of meters away!
Xie Lian stomped his foot to the ground, and, with one hand clutching his wound, he pointed at White No-Face. In his most booming voice, he yelled with everything he had.
“I said fuck you! Who do you think you are to dare talk to me like that?! I am the crown prince!”
Tears were streaming down his face.
One person. Just one.
Really.
Just one person was enough!
While White No-Face was sent flying by his kick, he flipped in the air and landed easily.
“Are you mad?!” White No-Face shouted at him in absolute fury.
In all these years, this was the very first time Xie Lian had seen the creature react with such emotion—the sight gave him enormous pleasure. He grabbed the black sword from the ground and charged forward.
“I’m not mad, I’ve just come back around!”
The first kick had caught him by surprise, but the next attacks wouldn’t be so easy. White No-Face dodged Xie Lian’s blows as he flung icy accusations at him. “Have you…forgotten? How your parents left you, how your people treated you, how your worshippers betrayed you?! All because of that man—that puny, insignificant person—you’ve forgotten everything?!”
“I haven’t forgotten! But—” Xie Lian swung the sword and bellowed with angry vigor, “It’s none of your shitty business!”
White No-Face seized the tip of the sword and gripped it extremely firmly. Blood dripped from his fingers, and his knuckles cracked.
He was losing it a little. He muttered incredulously, “Useless trash…useless trash! You’re absolutely useless trash! You’ve come so far, but you can still regret—you can actually turn back!”
Xie Lian pressed harder into his thwarted sword strike and replied through gritted teeth, “…You disgust me. I refuse to ever become something as disgusting as you!”
That seemed to stun some calm back into White No-Face, and he regained the tone of voice that made it sound like everything was under his control. “…Never mind. This is simply one final, minuscule struggle in the face of death. Or did you forget what I told you?”
Xie Lian exhaled harshly as White No-Face slowly and clearly reminded him, “You summoned the souls of the battlefield’s dead. Now, it is too late. They will not be stopped!”
Amidst the heavy rain, the black sword in Xie Lian’s hand emitted a sharp, ringing cry that stabbed painfully at his ears and head.
“What will you do?” White No-Face asked. “Is it worth it to take on the curse of the ages for these people?”
Ever since his kick connected, Xie Lian’s blood was boiling in his veins and rushing to his head. All the sword-swinging and the words he spat came straight from his heart, with no thought of what he’d do or anything that came next. When he heard White No-Face’s question, he didn’t know how to answer it.
“You won’t see what I plan to do. I’ll get rid of you before that!”
White No-Face snorted. “How arrogant.”
Just as he finished speaking, Xie Lian felt himself leave the ground, and his entire body was sent flying.
He instantly steadied his mind to find his center, but before he could find his balance, a white figure flashed above him and struck down with force. It was like Xie Lian had become a ball of iron thrown by a sling, and he crashed deep into the ground with a resounding boom.
Xie Lian had started out with a sliver of hope that if he gave it his all with a sudden burst of strength, he could come out victorious. But after this strike, he was painfully aware of the reality.
He couldn’t win!
Too strong… The creature’s strength absolutely overwhelmed him!
Xie Lian had never found an opponent overwhelming like this before. The very idea would flash through his mind on rare occasions, such as the few times he sparred with Jun Wu. But while Jun Wu was incredibly strong, his power was measured and controlled, deliberate and careful—the complete opposite of White No-Face. There was a maliciousness in White No-Face’s strength that bordered on vicious, and his murderous intent brimmed with resentment.
It only took one strike for Xie Lian to understand. He would never be able to win against White No-Face. Perhaps only Jun Wu would be a match for the creature.
But the voice of Xie Lian as he was now would never reach Jun Wu!
A violent stomp, and White No-Face’s snow-white boot crushed down on Xie Lian’s chest. “Your arrogance and naive dreams caused everything, right from the start!” he snapped chillingly.
Xie Lian could feel his organs twist and retract from the stomp, the pain excruciating, but he held back a mouthful of blood. “No. It wasn’t me!”
“Huh?” White No-Face queried in an unpleasant tone.
Xie Lian reached out and firmly clutched the boot on his chest. His eyes were clearer than ever before, shining bright. “You brought the plague. You caused everything!”
White No-Face humphed. “…Perhaps. If you must think of it that way.” Then he seemed to smile. “But you need to understand something. If it wasn’t for your arrogance in defying the heavens, I never would have appeared in this world. I was born by heaven’s will.”
The flames in Xie Lian’s eyes weren’t snuffed out by the heavy rain; in fact, they blazed all the stronger. “Enough with the arrogance! I don’t need you to teach me anything—I can learn on my own. If a thing like you represents heaven’s will, then heaven’s will should be destroyed!”
Muffled thunder rolled in from the horizon; whirling winds blew.
White No-Face’s voice dropped deep and soft. “I took the utmost care in teaching you, but you remain obtuse and stubborn. Crown Prince, I’ve lost my patience.”
Xie Lian coughed a few times, and White No-Face continued, “However, it makes no difference. Either way, you already roused them, and there is only one step left to take. Allow me to help you with that.”
“What are you doing?” Xie Lian cried in alarm.
White No-Face bent down and seized Xie Lian’s hand, then stuffed the black sword into his palm, forcing him to grip it and raise it to the sky!
