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.