Chapter Text
Chapter 113: Teasing words to befuddle me and Also My Lord
“You’re ill. You’re deranged from terror. I’m taking you back for treatment. You will be healed for sure.”
Shi Qingxuan stared at him intently, and slowly enunciated his words: “I am not ill. Whether I’m ill, you should know best! Don’t write me off as crazy, I’m very aware. I’ve never been so aware in my life!”
Shi Wudu grabbed hold of him and dragged him to the carriage, yelling, “You don’t understand anything! Don’t speak nonsense!”
Shi Qingxuan wailed, “MING-XIONG! MING-XIONG, SAVE ME! YOUR HIGHNESS! SAVE ME!”
He reached out with both his arms, grabbing the other two, one with each hand. Xie Lian and Ming Yi both held on to the hands he extended. However, Shi Wudu yanked him away forcibly again.
“Let’s go. Everything’s alright. Gege is here.”
Shi Qingxuan was still screaming, and Pei Ming and Ling Wen went over to help Shi Wudu hold him down.
Ming Yi shouted, “Your brother doesn’t want to go back with you!”
“MING-XIONG! MING-XIONG PLEASE!” Shi Qingxuan was begging, bawling his eyes out as he reached for his friend. Ling Wen and Pei Ming rushed over to help the Water Master restrain the mortalized Wind Master.
“Lord Earth Master, with all due respect, stay out of this!” Shi Wudu urged, tightening the grip he had around his little brother. “This is my blood brother, do you think I would mistreat him? This is our own family affair, no need to trouble outsiders! So mind your own business!”
Shi Qingxuan’s mind raced faster than it ever had in his attempts to break free from the combined grip of the Three Tumors of Heaven. He looked once again to his best friend for guidance, wisdom, something! But there was none. His face seemed paler than it had ever been and the water in his eyes wrought an look of helplessness that was not unlike the one Shi Qingxuan was feeling.
His best friend wasn't cool anymore. He wasn't collected and, yet irritable like the Ming Yi he always knew. He was scared too! Shi Qingxuan let out a wail of agony when he saw tears falling down Ming-xiong's face too. No! There must be a way out! There must!!! Then he remembered. Just a few li away in the village of Fu Gu, a bunch of mortal commoners were cleaning up after their Fire Social.
“HE GONGZI!” Shi Qingxuan screamed at the top of his lungs. “IF YOU DO INDEED SAVE PEOPLE FROM THE EVILS OF THIS WORLD! I AM SORRY! I AM SORRY FOR– FOR– FOR TAKING WHAT IS YOURS! I KNOW I HAVE NO RIGHT TO ASK YOU FOR ANYTHING BUT I– IF YOU CAN, PLEASE! SAVE ME!”
He-gongzi?
Shi Wudu raised his hand in front of Shi Qingxuan, and was about to sweep down, to knock him out when a blue light dashed across the room and intercepted the motion.
In that instant, both Pei Ming and Ling Wen had been not only torn off of Shi Qingxuan, but also thrown into opposite walls with enough force to stun them, but not enough to actually hurt them or even break the walls. ‘Ming Yi’ had grabbed that hand that was about to sweep down and held it high above his head. ‘Ming Yi’s’ other hand closed around Shi Wudu’s arm that had been wrapped so tightly around Shi Qingxuan. They were in a deadlock. If Shi Wudu tried to move either arm, Shi Qingxuan would have enough room to wiggle free.
‘Ming Yi’ touched his forehead to Shi Qingxuan’s and asked quietly. “Are you sure you want me to save you?” His words hung heavier than usual, his voice was low.
Shi Qingxuan trembled for a moment thinking about how that very same tone once felt so reassuring despite its coldness. Now, it sent shivers through his mortal bones. It was as if the question was a threat... and a promise. Ming-xiong's tears were gone, and his eyes no longer visible.
Still, Shi Qingxuan hoped: there was a chance. With his freed hands, Shi Qingxuan grabbed onto those black lapels before him and nodded furiously. "Yes!"
“Qingxuan!” Shi Wudu scolded, seeing the Wind Master make his choice.
Nails pierced the Water Master’s forearms and bones shattered as the ‘Earth Master’ tightened his grip. In the next motion, ‘Ming Yi’ yanked both of the Water Master’s arms cleanly off his body, spraying blood over himself and the former Wind Master.
He threw both the arms back at the formidible Water Mater with enough force to make him stumble.
Shi Qingxuan screamed as his ‘best friend’ snaked an arm around his waist and with one silent leap back, retreated to the other side of the room.
“You’re okay.” ‘Ming Yi’ whispered using his thumb to wipe some of the blood and tears from his best friend’s cheek. Shi Qingxuan looked up at him. He looked like Ming Yi, but his spiritual presence was overwhelmingly high, his skin white, and his gaze colder than ice.
Off to the side, the second strongest Martial God in Upper Heaven, General Ming Guang Pei Ming drew his great sword and lunged forward.
‘Ming Yi’ tilted his head in the general’s direction and blinked. When his eyes opened again, they’d changed from a dull brown to a brilliant golden color that almost glowed in the dark room. With just a gaze, ‘Ming Yi’ activated a distance shortening array in the space between him and Pei Ming.
With no room to change his course of action, the General Ming Guang ran right through it and vanished. The array shattered to pieces as soon as it was used and ‘Ming Yi’ relaxed again.
Next, Ling Wen attacked with a palm blast. Though she was just a Civil God, her spiritual powers were not to be underestimated. Shi Qingxuan subconsciously clutched those black robes before him tighter and buried his face in that body’s chest as the civil god with the most worshippers in all of Heaven attacked.
‘Ming Yi’ raised one arm to shield Shi Qingxuan and another in the direction of the chief Civil God in all of Heaven. Without an ounce of worry, he absorbed the blast effortlessly and collected the energy in the palm of his hand.
Ling Wen’s eyes widened. Only three people in the world should have been able to withstand a spiritual attack of that caliber. The first, was the great Heavenly Emperor Jun Wu, the second, was the prominent Supreme Ghost King, Crimson Rain Sought Flower and the third, on a good day, was the strongest Martial God aside from the Emperor, her friend, Pei Ming. She understood then as she watched all of the energy she poured into that blast swirl around in the pale, open hand of the man standing before her. “You are not the Earth Master! Show your true form!”
‘Ming Yi’ turned the spiritual energy over several times, examining it like one would a mildly interesting, ancient artifact, and laughed, actually laughed! Shi Qingxuan looked up at him in terror. In all two hundred and fifty-some-odd years that he knew this man, he’d never once seen him laugh. “And what right do you have to make any demands?”
He turned over his hand and sent the blast back towards Ling Wen, amplifying it tenfold. The force sent the Civil God straight through the pavilion walls, across a valley, and into the side of a nearby mountain.
“You–” Shi Qingxuan whimpered from behind the sleeve that shielded him from Ling Wen’s attack.
‘Ming Yi’ was smiling with a wild, deranged look gleaming in his eyes that shook Shi Qingxuan’s core even harder than his brother’s determination to restore his stolen godhood. Like an enslaved dragon breaking its chains, a lion breaking out of his cage, ‘Ming-Yi’ was smiling.
‘Ming Yi’s’ smile immediately vanished when he heard Shi Qingxuan’s voice. No matter how quiet Shi Qingxuan was, ‘Ming-Yi’ always heard him. He looked down at the former Wind Master in his arms with a stern expression that sent another shiver down Shi Qingxuan’s spine. Throughout this entire confrontation, though his strength was unparalleled, his hold on Shi Qingxuan had remained loose and gentle. They remained like that for a moment, eyes locked in silence.
It took a while before Shi Qingxuan remembered he was the one who called this man’s attention. And this man was quite simply, patiently waiting for the fallen Wind Master to continue. “Who are you?” Shi Qingxuan asked finally. His voice quivered in fear yet is head remained pressed against the ‘Earth Master’s’ chest the whole time. Then Shi Qingxuan realized... somewhere along the way, that chest he leaned on, had fallen silent.
“Think on it for yourself.” that man responded softly, almost tenderly with the same evasive speech that ‘Ming Yi’ always used. “Or—" The shine in his eyes seemed to brighten suddenly. "You can ask your dear brother if he remembers my name.” Despite his cold tone, his motions were gentle towards Shi Qingxuan as he bent down and slowly to release Shi Qingxuan onto the ground.
As he stood again, he transformed his appearance. Silver threads wove their way up the black hems of a long outer robe that appeared, creating a shimmering, elegant pattern of waves as they went. With a sweep, he pulled off that exquisite, silver-threaded black outer robe and draped it over Qingxuan without a care in the world for the others present. They didn't matter at all to this man.
Even if they wanted to, none of them could move under this man’s crushing spiritual aura. It was like-- he wanted them to watch, so there was no question regarding his intent to protect the one in his arms.
When he stood to face the Water Master again, his face was noticeably paler, as though devoid of all blood, his forehead sharper and his brows were deeper. “Shi Wudu, do you know who I am?”
Shi Wudu splat blood. “It doesn’t matter who you are! Release my brother!”
‘Ming Yi’ let out a sigh and shrugged, lifting his empty arms to the side as if to silently say he’s been released already . “Nobles really are forgetful. Water Tyrant, how many mortal names and mortal births did you flip through, back then, to so arduously find the one me? What, it hasn’t even been a few hundred years, and you’ve already forgotten what I look like?”
Hearing this, Shi Wudu’s face was starting to twitch, little by little.
An expression like “seen a ghost” that only mortals experienced was now showing on his face for the first time. Shi Wudu’s pupils shrank to the smallest they could, and he blurted, “You’re still alive?!”
“I’m dead!” He Xuan confessed stenly with his eyes cast down towards Shi Qingxuan. Then, he suddenly raised a hand, pressed his fingers together, and swung his palm upwards. Under the weight of He Xuan’s spiritual might, everyone present at the Terrace of Cascading Wine felt a surging pain and fainted.