Ch.174: Cave of Ten Thousand Gods; Faces of Ten Thousand Gods Hidden 2
However, he still didn’t press on it, “Since San Lang thinks it’s best not to look at them, then let’s stay cautious.”
Hua Cheng nodded lightly and the two continued onwards. Just then, they came to another fork in the road, and Hua Cheng went straight for the left. Xie Lian paused in his step and didn’t follow. Hua Cheng looked back, “What is it?”
“San Lang’s never come to this cave before, right?” Xie Lian asked.
“Naturally.” Hua Cheng replied.
“Then how come San Lang is so sure we should go left?” Xie Lian questioned.
“Not so much sure,” Hua Cheng said, “I’m just going blindly.”
“Since you’ve never come here before, how can you go blindly? Shouldn’t we consider which way to go more carefully?”
Hua Cheng smiled, “It’s precisely because I’ve never come before that we should go blindly.
Either way we know nothing of the formation of this place, so we might as well boldly bet on our luck, and my luck has always been better.”
Although that certainly made sense, but actually, every time the two went out, he had always let Xie Lian decide the way. It wasn’t often that Hua Cheng took the initiative to lead. Xie Lian nodded and the two were just about to enter the tunnel on the left when suddenly, Xie Lian spoke up, “Wait! – San Lang, do you hear that?”
“What?” Hua Cheng asked.
“On the right,” Xie Lian said, “There are voices.”
Hua Cheng face changed subtly, and after listening intently for a while, he said, “Gege, I think you’ve heard wrong. There’s nothing.”
“There is!” Xie Lian exclaimed, “Listen closely, it’s a man’s voice!”
Hua Cheng tried listening again and frowned, “I really don’t hear anything.”
Xie Lian was taken aback and he wondered to himself, ‘Am I hallucinating again?’
“Your Highness, this is fishy, there might be tricks.” Hua Cheng said, “I suggest we talk after getting out first.”
Xie Lian hesitated for a moment but in the end still said, “No! It might be Nan Feng and Fu Yao, I best go take a look after all!”
Then he ran off down the path while Hua Cheng called after him, “Gege! Don’t run off!”
However, hearing that faint yelling, the other party must’ve fallen into an extremely dangerous state and couldn’t allow any delay. Xie Lian didn’t dare to be careless either, and quickly ran down the path to the right. The deeper he went down the tunnel, the clearer the angry roars of a man could be heard. Xie Lian was delighted, ‘It really is Nan Feng and Fu Yao!’
Xie Lian didn’t know how long he spent going down the winding tunnel, but in the end he finally found the source of the voices, and it was a giant cave. There were no divine statues in this cave but a deep pit instead, and that was where Nan Feng and Fu Yao’s voices were coming from. It seemed, they were both trapped at the bottom of the pit unable to climb up. However, they were still energetically yelling at each other, so there shouldn’t be any life threatening troubles for the moment. It was too dark down below to see anything clearly, and Xie Lian cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted from above, “HEY–!! WHAT’S HAPPENED TO YOU GUYS?”
When the two at the bottom of the pit heard someone was here, they instantly stopped their arguing, and Fu Yao’s voice came, “YOUR HIGHNESS? IS THAT YOU? HURRY AND PULL US UP!”
Nan Feng on the other hand, didn’t speak. Xie Lian was puzzled, “You guys can’t climb up on your own? This pit isn’t that deep though, what’s happening down there?”
It might be because he’s been fighting the entire way, so Fu Yao was full of fire at the moment,
“RUBBISH! IF WE COULD CLIMB UP ON OUR OWN WE WOULD’VE DONE IT ALREADY! YOUR HIGHNESS, DON’T YOU HAVE EYES?”
Xie Lian squinted, “I can’t see that clearly. Do you still have spiritual power? Can you light a palm torch so I can see what the situation is down there? If you can’t then I’ll throw a fireball down…” Yet unexpectedly, before he finished his sentence, the two at the bottom yelled in unison, “DON’T!!!”
The sound of of them stopping him was close to alarm and terror. Fu Yao then yelled,
“ABSOLUTELY DO NOT LIGHT ANY FIRES!”
If he couldn’t light fires, then he’d have to use other ways to illuminate the place. Xie Lian’s first reaction was looking back, “San Lang…”
However, San Lang didn’t follow after him. There was no one behind him. Xie Lian was slightly taken aback; at first he felt slightly worried, then after, it was confusion. He couldn’t have lost his way?
Ever since they’ve entered this Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, Hua Cheng had been acting quite strange, but Xie Lian couldn’t quite put his fingers on exactly how. He looked to his left and right and suddenly discovered that on his own shoulder rested a tiny little silver butterfly, and he tried touching it lightly, “…Hello?”
When that wraith butterfly felt his touch, it fluttered its wings a couple times but didn’t fly away, and only seemed to be showing him its flapping. On this journey, Xie Lian had heard Hua Cheng tell him that his silver butterflies were divided into various categories. He didn’t know what category this one belonged to, what it was responsible for, but whatever it was made for, it could at least shine some light. Thus, he asked, “Can you go down to take a look for me?”
Sure enough, that silver butterfly flapped its wings and flew down. Xie Lian called out, “Thank you!” and waited until it reached the bottom of the pit. Once the soft silver light illuminated the situation below, Xie Lian couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
At the bottom of the dark pit was a field of haunting white, the entire hole covered with a thick layer of a bed of silk!
Nan Feng and Fu Yao were both wrapped into two cocoons among the silk chrysalis, like two little flies stuck in a spider web. They were both black and blue in the face, their heads covered in blood, but who knows if that was caused by their mutual beatings earlier. Xie Lian couldn’t help but pat himself on the back for not doing things recklessly, otherwise if he did throw a torch down, the entire pit would probably be set ablaze instantly.
“What’s going on?” Xie Lian asked, “Is that cobweb? Could this be the nest of a spider spirit?”
“WHO KNOWS!” Fu Yao yelled, “EITHER WAY WE CAN’T BREAK FREE!”
It seemed he was desperate to escape. Nan Feng on the other hand, had an unreadable expression, and looked as if he was going to call for help at first too, but when he saw the one who’d come was Xie Lian, he stifled and swallowed his words and said instead, “Don’t come down yet, this silk is really tough. Once it gets on to you it’ll be hard to break free.”
“I won’t come down.” Xie Lian said.
After deliberating for a moment, Xie Lian tied one end of RuoYe to the hilt of Fang Xin and was going to lower the sword down to try and see. Yet unexpectedly, RuoYe only snuck down halfway through before those cobwebs discovered it and rapidly shot upward, as if ready to show what they’re made out of. RuoYe backed away in terror, yet, it was still too late, and those cobwebs caught on, tied a knot, and yanked it down, pulling Xie Lian down as well.
He had never imagined that this cobweb was actually this strong and sharp!
The moment Xie Lian fell into the pit, those white strings of silk instantly charged forward and tied him up nicely. The rest of the cobwebs were then slowly crawling about, further securing the ‘cocoon’ on Nan Feng and Fu Yao’s bodies. Fu Yao was going mad with rage, “How come you fell too? Now look at us, three dumb fools! Let’s all just die here together!”
“What are you griping about?” Nan Feng shot back, “This only happened because he was trying to save us!”
Xie Lian on the other hand, was tumbling, “Hahaha, hahaha, hahahaha…”
The other two looked at him dumbfoundedly, and Fu Yao said, “Did you hurt your brain on the way down? Have you lost your mind?”
Tears were rolling down from the corners of Xie Lian’s eyes, and he said with much difficulty,
“N… No, hahaha… what’s with these cobwebs… what are they… so ticklish, I can’t… hahahaha…”
When he fell down, that silk bed very gently caught him, and the cobwebs that came to bind him were also very gentle and tame, and while they were apprehending him, they brushed softly here and there, like they were tickling him. Xie Lian curled into a ball, tenaciously fighting back,
“No, don’t, wait! Stop! Stop! I give! STOP !!!” Only then did the white silk bind his hands behind his back and stopped. Nan Feng and Fu Yao watched him, and a moment later, Fu Yao said grumpily, “How come those cobwebs were so tough in binding us but so loose when binding him? Not even his face is covered.”
Xie Lian finally caught his breath and said, “Aren’t, aren’t your faces uncovered too?”
Fu Yao rolled his eyes and replied, “They were covered, but after we came to we used our teeth to bite them through, otherwise there would’ve been no way we could make noise.”
Xie Lian tried struggling for a bit but that cobweb was indeed tough and unyielding. Plus, he was laughing too hard earlier, his ribs were in pain, so he was temporarily out of commission, and decided instead to relax a bit, lying himself down flat, “So how did you two end up here?”
“Don’t know.” Fu Yao replied, “When the avalanche happened, snow came covering down like the sky was collapsing, and by the time we woke up we were already here.”
“No no no,” Xie Lian said, “I meant why did you both come to Mount TongLu?”
When this subject was raised Fu Yao became enraged, “I was pursuing that female ghost Lan Chang and that fetus spirit, who knows why HE’s here!”
“Me?! I’m here to chase after that mother and child too…” Nan Feng answered.
Fu Yao spat, “Then why didn’t you go chase them? Why did you hit me?? I… My general already said that fetus spirit has got nothing to do with him, he didn’t kill them! His good heart taken for a donkey’s liver, truly, there’s no point in being a good person!”
Xie Lian mediated out of habit, “Alright, alright, stop arguing, I understand the situation now. Stop fighting for now, stop your arguing. You even caused the avalanche just now, so can you just take a break? Let’s think of a way out together.”
However, Nan Feng was also incensed, “Does your general not know what he’s usually like? He has no reason to complain if people are suspicious of him!”
Fu Yao glared, “What did you say?! I dare you say that again!”
Nan Feng was glaring harder than him, “I DO DARE! I’ll say it again: it wasn’t like you had any good intentions, you only want to show benevolence to those you can’t stand so you can be all pleased with yourself in secret. You’re just satisfying yourself and waiting to watch others make a fool of themselves. Don’t give me that “good heart taken for donkey liver”, and don’t think yourself a good person! Genuinely good people aren’t like you, YOU’VE NEVER BEEN ONE!”
Veins popped on Fu Yao’s forehead, his lips twitching, “THIS IS ALL YOUR IMAGINATION, PURE NONSENSE!”
Nan Feng shouted, “WHETHER OR NOT IT’S NONSENSE YOU KNOW BEST, HOW WOULD I NOT KNOW YOU!”
Fu Yao’s veins were now popping all the way down to his neck, “WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO LECTURE ME? LOOKING DOWN ON PEOPLE FROM SO HIGH UP, CAREFUL YOU MIGHT FALL AND BREAK A LEG!”
“I’M STRONGER THAN YOU IN EVERYTHING!” Nan Feng yelled back, “DID YOU THINK NO ONE KNOWS OF THAT SHITTY DEED YOU’VE DONE?!”
Just the mention of it and Fu Yao seemed to be even more furious, “…YES! I ADMIT I DID IT!
BUT HOW MUCH STRONGER ARE YOU THAN ME? TAKING YOURSELF FOR THE MODEL OF LOYALTY, DIDN’T YOU DITCH THE BOSS WHEN THE WIFE CAME ALONG? THE WIFE AND THE SON BECAME MORE IMPORTANT?! EVERYONE’S DOING THINGS FOR THEMSELVES, IT’S THE SELF THAT’S PRIORITY! AREN’T YOU EMBARRASSED HANGING ON TO THAT OLD SHITTY DEED OVER MY HEAD?”
When he heard “wife and son”, Nan Feng was completely outraged, “YOU FUCKING… YOU! … I? You?”
Although the two couldn’t move, they were already at each other’s throats, and did not realize the way they addressed each other had already went from “your general” “my general” to “you” “me”, and because they were overly aggravated, they completely did not notice if they were exposing something, and only now did they come around. Xie Lian had long stopped talking.
Nan Feng and Fu Yao both whipped their heads over to look in Xie Lian’s direction, and saw Xie Lian silently flipped on the silk bed, turning over and only showed them his back, “Um… I saw nothing. I meant, I didn’t hear anything.”
“…”
“…”
Xie Lian faced the stone wall and said gently, “Are you two going to keep going? Um, as for what you were discussing, I won’t comment on anything else, but I actually do think that the wife and the son are the most important. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s basic human sentiment. These are all really old gripes, so let’s not stew ourselves in it and think of a way to escape first….”
Fu Yao cut him off, “…You already knew?”
Since it didn’t seem he could get away with it any longer, Xie Lian could only concede, “Yea…”
Fu Yao said in disbelief, “When did you find out? How did you find out?”
Xie Lian didn’t have the heart to tell the truth and said instead, “I’ve forgotten.”
The real answer was, a very, very long time ago. Since Mount YuJun he already had a faint suspicion, and by the time they made it to the BanYue Pass, he had already verified the truth.
What junior martial officials from the Middle Court? They didn’t exist. “Nan Feng” and “Fu Yao” were only little clones created by Feng Xin and Mu Qing!
It was like Fu Yao couldn’t believe his real identity was so easily seen through, and was relentless, “When exactly did you find out? How did you find out? There must’ve been something that gave it away, what was the flaw?!”
“…”
Xie Lian really couldn’t bear to tell the truth. There wasn’t anything to give away, since those two had flaws all over!
The three technically grew up together after all, how could Xie Lian not be familiar with the way they behaved and spoke? From the sloppy fake names to the never-changing personalities, it was too easy to guess. If he couldn’t guess who were under those two skins, then he would’ve lived all those years for nothing.
But, some things were best not to be said by the person himself, and some things were best not to be done. For example, in minding the appearance of a heavenly official, one couldn’t easily roll eyes or cuss, but in a different identity, he could be much more open and relaxed. Thus, Xie Lian never felt the need to expose them.
Fu Yao, no, now he should be called Mu Qing. Mu Qing gritted his teeth and said chillingly, “…So, you had already known who we were for a long time, but you never said anything, and was only watching us play acting quietly, right?”
————-
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login