Outside the hall, birds took flight in fright in the dark forest. Xie Lian also felt an inexplicable oppression and subconsciously grasped Hua Cheng’s hand. Who knew that with this grasp, he found bad news.

Hua Cheng was obviously a ghost, but at the moment his body was burning hot like he had a high fever. Startled, Xie Lian immediately whispered, “San Lang, are you about to change back?”

Even though Hua Cheng was burning hot from forehead to fingertips, his expression remained unchanged, and he said, “Almost.”

Hua Cheng was about to change back, which was absolutely great news. But the timing was a little unfortunate. The moment before properly returning to the true form was of course the most critical and should least be disturbed. Xie Lian made a quick decision, “Set up an array. I will stand guard for you.”

He started moving as soon as he said so. He had Ruoye make a large twelve-meter circle around Hua Cheng, and then planted Fangxin in front of the circle as the “door lock” that would hold down the circle. Hua Cheng sat down on the ground in the meditation posture, “Gege, Fangxin you should keep for self-defense.”

Xie Lian said, “No, this array can’t be treated casually. There has to be a weapon that has drawn human blood to hold down the array… …” Before he finished speaking, he felt something scratch him from behind. He looked back, and was dumbfounded. He saw a small silver scimitar standing behind him, blinking its large silver eye, and scratching him with the hilt, as if volunteering itself.

Xie Lian squatted down and said with pity as well as amusement, “Eming! How come you have become like this, too?”

Eming’s blade was originally long and slender, but now it had shrunk by half. The silver eye was once beguilingly elongated, but now it had become like a child’s eye, large, round, and twinkling. Hearing Xie Lian say this, it seemed a little aggrieved, but still eagerly tried to push the hilt into his hand. Pei Ming said, “So is this the famous Scimitar of Doom Eming?”

As he spoke, he seemed to want to reach out and touch it, but Eming turned against him on the spot, pointing the blade at him menacingly. Fortunately, Pei Ming withdrew his hand swiftly, otherwise he would certainly have seen blood. Xie Lian petted Eming, “You are still small, can’t have you do it, just let Fangxin do it.”

Fangxin remained firmly still, and Eming, who offered itself but was outright rejected, hopped back to Hua Cheng, sobbing and crying. Without even glancing at it, Hua Cheng backhanded a slap, “What are you crying for. Isn’t it all because you’re useless. Piece of trash!”

Eming fell to the ground like a piece of junk that no one wanted, seemingly knocked unconscious by his slap. Could neither laugh nor cry, Xielian hurriedly picked up Eming, held it in his arms and stroked it a couple times, “No no. Don’t listen to him, you are not trash, you are very useful!”

Pei Ming took it upon himself to stand guard outside the circle, while Hua Cheng and Xie Lian sat opposite each other inside it. Xie Lian watched Hua Cheng close his eyes and rapidly enter a state of deep meditation, but his brow was still slightly furrowed, and a strand of hair came loose, so he reached over and helped him tuck the loose hair back. Right then, Pei Ming said, “Your Royal Highness, it’s here!”

Looking back, Xie Lian saw a man in black flit in like a ghost at the front doors of the hall. Once he saw him, Xie Lian’s eyes widened slightly. “It’s you?”

Pei Ming also said, “It’s actually you!”

The young man had beautiful and clean features, yet appeared cold and remote. Who else could it be but Ling Wen in his male form?

Pei Ming was old buddies with Ling Wen after all, and didn’t think much of it despite knowing he was currently a fugitive official from the Upper Court. He dropped his guard instantly, went up and hooked his shoulder, laughing as he said, “Ling Wen, you’ve always been one for theatrics. Had I known it was you, why should we be so wary and set up an array? By the way, was it you that wreaked havoc along the way? You’ve scared all the demons and ghosts to pieces. Congratulations, being a civil god isn’t in the cards for you anymore, but switching to being a martial god is quite alright, too!”

Ling Wen looked at him peculiarly, however. Not having received any compliment from him, Pei Ming was surprised, “Why are you looking at me like that?” Ling Wen whispered, “Old Pei… … a word of advice – you’d better take your hand off right now.”

He spoke in a hushed tone, as if afraid of arousing someone’s anger, and this person was closeby. Xie Lian noticed that Ling Wen wore a black garment, and at this moment, his body emanated overwhelming resentment.

The Brocade Immortal.

Ling Wen continued in a whisper, “I’m not joking. General Pei, you’d better be careful even about talking. I can’t control my body right now. I’m afraid I will kill you.”

Pei Ming also realized that something was wrong. He retreated seven steps, but still said, “Why is Noble Jie so mad?”

Ling Wen said, “Shut up, I told you to stop talking. It’s not me who is mad, it’s someone else who is mad!”

As he closed in on them, he appeased in a soothing voice, “Bai Jin, those are all nonsense, none of it is true.” However, it was ineffective, and the black aura around his body grew even thicker. Ling Wen had no choice but to say, “Old Pei, I can’t help it. Those messed up folklores say that you are my fancy man, and now he is dead set on killing you!”

Pei Ming was in shock, “I’m wronged!”

Before he finished speaking, Ling Wen’s figure already forced in front of him!

The two exchanged a palm strike, and each backed up a number of meters. Ling Wen’s palm strike actually carried tremendous force like thunder! Pei Ming dodged it, exclaiming, “Impressive!”

Of course it was impressive. The Brocade Immortal was a martial god just shy of ascension to start with, who now also had the Copper Kiln home field advantage; additionally, despite being a civil god, Ling Wen was extremely intelligent, quick to generalize and draw inferences, who was also old buddies with Pei Ming and knew his skills and moves like the back of his hand. With these four factors combined, every strike of his was threatening, and Pei Ming could barely defend himself, shouting, “How vicious of you!”

The black flames in Ling Wen’s hands suddenly surged several times higher, and he said, “Don’t scold me. If you scold me, he will be even more vicious.”

While standing guard for Hua Cheng, Xie Lian couldn’t afford to be distracted or act impulsively.. After seeing how ruthless and cunning Ling Wen’s attacks were, and witnessing a number of extremely close calls, he was very worried about Pei Ming, but he couldn’t directly say to him “you are suppressed let me take over”, so he said, “General Pei! Could you please come back and help me stand guard for San Lang? I’m running low on spiritual energy. Let’s switch!”

Even though Pei Ming wanted to fight back, Xie Lian’s side was indeed the most important. He returned to the circle right away and took over Xie Lian’s guard position. With Fangxin remaining in the array, Xie Lian said, “Eming!”

The Scimitar of Doom Eming, which had fallen to the ground like a piece of junk, immediately flew into Xie Lian’s hands. Ling Wen backed up two steps, face slightly darkened; it appeared that the Brocade Immortal was somewhat wary of the new opponent. Xie Lian hadn’t often used a scimitar, but Eming proved to be very handy. With a decisive slash, he swiftly turned the situation around! But after barely a few exchanges, Pei Ming said, “Your Royal Highness, Pei doesn’t mean to cause trouble right now, but, there seems to be a problem with this City Lord Hua of yours?”

Startled, Xie Lian looked back. Sure enough, Hua Cheng’s brow furrowed even more. As he was distracted, Eming moved on its own and slashed towards Ling Wen. Xie Lian said, “Eming, please hold on for a bit!” He rushed back to the circle, touched Hua Cheng’s forehead, and instantly retracted his hand from the heat, “Why is it like this?!”

Pei Ming said, “Your Royal Highness, please don’t ask me things related to Blood Rain Sought Flower!”

Xie Lian had no choice but to stand guard together with him. Here inside the circle, he was burning with anxiety, and outside, Eming and Ling Wen had clashed dozens of times within just moments. The Brocade Immortal was impenetrable, and sparks flew. If it had been the usual Scimitar of Doom Eming, it would naturally have had the upper hand, but now, the shrunken Eming looked rather like a fierce child fighting with an adult. Deeply concerned, Xie Lian took a moment to look back, just in time to catch Eming land a hit on the Brocade Immortal’s shoulder. Ling Wen covered his shoulder at once, his face betraying a hint of pain. Apparently while no blood was drawn, he had taken a severe blow. Xie Lian said, “Good Eming!”

Pei Ming suddenly said, “Wait a minute, Your Royal Highness, I think that when you praised it, it seemed to have gotten bigger?”

Xie Lian was doubtful, “Is that even possible?”

Pei Ming said: “It seemed so. How about you try again?”

It was only praising it anyway, so after a brief consideration, Xie Lian said, “Okay. Eming, listen up! You, handsome and dashing, gentle and strong, witty and smart, lovely and kind. Uh, in short, you are number one in the world… …”

He shut his mouth before finishing speaking. Pei Ming clapped. Ling Wen outside the circle had just repaired the injury; upon seeing this, he was speechless, and hesitantly asked, “Is this… … what kind of evil magic is this?”

No doubt about it! With every compliment from Xie Lian, Eming’s figure grew longer. If it resembled a ten-year-old child earlier, now it was roughly a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youth!

Now that Eming had grown longer, the blade path became even more elusive and peculiar, and Ling Wen started struggling to cover all bases, seemingly on the verge of defeat. Suddenly a ruckus came from outside the hall, as if a group of demons and ghosts were passing by ostentatiously, shouting and screaming. Xie Lian said inwardly, “No good!”

Whatever he thought of, the Brocade Immortal could naturally think of as well, and had already propelled Ling Wen out like a whirlwind. Bursts of screeches and cries came from outside straight away, and after the cries subsided, Ling Wen walked in again. He was drenched in blood, his pale cheek was also marked with a streak of bright red, and he said, “You two, whatever I do next… … is not of my own volition.”

The evil aura all over his body greatly swelled, even more so than just now. As expected, after the Brocade Immortal killed other demons, his power further increased!

Eming went up to strike, but was bounced out by the layer of evil aura. It flew into the circle and was caught by Xie Lian, who asked worriedly, “Are you okay?”

He had the illusion that after Eming got in his hand, his large eye seemed to be covered with a layer of mist. But Pei Ming said, “Don’t worry, watch me.” He took Eming from his hand as he spoke. Xie Lian was still wondering when suddenly his face felt icy cold; with a “pop”, Pei Ming had unexpectedly slapped Eming onto his face.

The hilt part happened to hit him on the mouth. Xie Lian removed Eming, his mouth numb from the slap. Baffled, he asked, “General Pei, is there any point in your doing this?”

Pei Ming said, “Of course there is a point. Your Royal Highness, please look down.”

Xie Lian lowered his head, speechless.

Eming somehow grew again!

Unable to stand it any longer, Ling Wen asked from outside the circle, “Is this really not some evil magic?”

Xie Lian said, “To be honest, I’m not sure either… …”

The refreshed Eming jumped right up and resumed attacking the Brocade Immortal. Filled with emotions, Pei Ming said, “That’s what it is, I get it now. Your Royal Highness, I think I know how to help His Excellency the Ghost King quickly get through this crisis.”

“What?”

“Spiritual energy, lend him your spiritual energy!”

Xie Lian was puzzled, “It’s not a matter of spiritual energy, is it?”

Pei Ming said, “You don’t understand. It must be a problem with spiritual energy. Hurry up and help him!”

Seeing him so calm and confident, Xie Lian was befuddled. But then again, when he thought about the earlier slap, which was also very effective despite the lack of reasoning, Xie Lian couldn’t help but feel a little convinced. Considering that lending spiritual energy wouldn’t be harmful even if it was useless, he said to Pei Ming, “Then, then could you please turn around.”

Pei Ming turned around as asked. Xie Lian clasped his hands in namaste towards Hua Cheng, “Excuse me!”

However, gazing at the white and handsome little face with eyes tightly shut before him, Xie Lian found it difficult to proceed. Eventually, firming his resolve, he leaned in with his eyes closed, yet involuntarily lifted his head, and kissed Hua Cheng on the forehead. A voice from the side said, “Your Royal Highness, you’ve got it wrong. What’s the use of kissing his forehead!”

Xie Lian almost fell to the ground. When he looked back and saw Pei Ming squatting next to him, he was mildly peeved, “General Pei… Can you stop looking?” Didn’t he tell this man to turn his head!

Pei Ming raised his hands, “Okay okay okay, I won’t look anymore. Please hurry up, Your Royal Highness.”

Xie Lian struggled with his face flushing beet red, feeling utterly powerless, “…How do you expect me to be quick! I… I…”

Before he could finish speaking, another commotion erupted from outside the hall, “There is movement in that broken stone house! Come on, let’s go check it out!”

It turned out that a new group of demons had arrived. The Brocade Immortal had been locked in a fierce fight with Eming, but when he heard that there was fertilizer delivered to the door, he charged out right away without hesitation. This time, it took him less than three cries to get rid of all the demons outside the door, and strutted in the hall for the third time. As soon as he entered and waved his right hand, Ruoye shivered and contracted, shrinking from about twelve meters across to nine.

Ling Wen closed in step by step, while Eming pointed the blade at him without giving an inch. Xie Lian all at once shielded Hua Cheng entirely in his arms, groaning inwardly: If these groups of demons and ghosts keep passing by one after another, doesn’t it mean that the Brocade Immortal’s nourishment will be endless?

At this moment, a hand came to rest on the back of his hand. Taken aback, Xie Lian lowered his head; Hua Cheng had unexpectedly opened his eyes at some point and was now gazing at him, “Gege, put away Ruoye.”

Xie Lian immediately said, “Okay!”

At the same time as the word dropped, Ruoye swooshed back and wrapped itself around his wrist. Hua Cheng stood up.

This time, he had grown a bit more, looking around fourteen or fifteen years old and, for a youth of this age, really rather tall. Finding the situation unfavorable, Ling Wen appeared ready to flee, yet unfortunately the Brocade Immortal wasn’t ready to flee, instead he lowered his stance and charged over. What greeted him were thousands upon thousands of silver butterflies, as though a heavenly mirror had shattered, its fragments scattering across the world!

However, it was not only Ling Wen and the Brocade Immortal who were surrounded by the silver butterflies, but also Xie Lian and Hua Cheng.

After a long time, Xie Lian opened his eyes and, to his surprise, found himself standing in darkness.

Hua Cheng stood in front of him, too, and it was Hua Cheng in his true form. Xie Lian was shocked but also delighted, “San Lang! Have you recovered?”

Hua Cheng smiled, but gently shook his head, “No, gege, still a little more to go.”

Just now, Hua Cheng had sent out silver butterflies to fight back against the Brocade Immortal. Xie Lian glanced at him, then at the encompassing darkness, and understood. “Are we currently in an illusion created by your spell?”

Hua Cheng nodded, “You can say that; we are indeed in the Butterfly Dream. But to be more precise, we are now inside the Brocade Immortal’s Mental State.”

That is to say, they had entered the Brocade Immortal’s mind.

Hua Cheng indicated Xie Lian to walk forward. Just as Xie Lian was about to say that it was dark all around, impossible to tell which way was forward, he saw a streak of green grass crawling out from under his toes.

The verdant green grew and spread rapidly, soon enveloping all hills and fields in a spring hue. Saplings sprouted amongst the lush green grass, and under the light that tore through the darkness, grew into towering trees, with leaves as thick as clouds. The green turned to red, and the red fell; in a short while, a world of bright red maple leaves replaced the original darkness. Stepping on red fragments covering the ground, the two of them came to a halt under a tree. Xie Lian was amazed, “Can you freely switch the sun and moon, control the seasons even in someone else’s Mental State?”

Creating things with a snap of the fingers required an extremely high level of spiritual attainment, which was quite impressive even in an illusion. But Hua Cheng dismissed it, “It’s not a big deal. This is the edge of his Mental State, which is a chaotic zone. It won’t be so easy once we formally enter. Gege, have a seat?”

A swing hung quietly under a tree. Led by Hua Cheng, Xie Lian sat down on it without thinking, and it was a while before he realized that he was the only one sitting. “Why aren’t you sitting?”

Gently pressing him back, Hua Cheng smiled slightly, “Of course only one person can sit on the swing, otherwise who will push it?”

Xie Lian couldn’t help but feel amused, “Then why did you make a swing? Can’t you make a pavilion or something like that, so the two of us can both sit?”

But Hua Cheng didn’t answer, and to his surprise, stood behind him and actually started to gently push. Xie Lian enjoyed playing on the swing in his youth, and he didn’t know how many hundreds of years it had been since he was last pushed like this. Besides feeling amused, he felt like he was in a daze. Boots tapping lightly across the grass, he said, “Butterfly Dream, Butterfly Dream, there must be a reason that you’ve created this spell. Why did your silver butterflies bring us into his Mental State?” They couldn’t have simply brought them here for sightseeing. Hua Cheng asked, “Gege, why do demons and ghosts arise?”

Xie Lian said, “Obsession. Especially resentful obsession.”

Hua Cheng asked, “Then what if we could relieve them of the resentment?”

No further explanation was needed; Xie Lian understood the design concept of the spell.

If relieved of their resentment, the demon would naturally lose its desire to attack!

Even though their resentment often could not be satisfied in reality, they could in fantasy. The scenes that appeared repeatedly in everyone’s Mental State were their indelible memories. If it’s possible to settle their grievances in their Mental State and grant them their wishes, even if an illusion, it could still somewhat alleviate their resentment. To put it simply, the Brocade Immortal’s resentment reached the heavens, but if it’s possible to cheer him up in his little inner world, it’s quite likely that when they exited his Mental State, he would temporarily lose the urge to attack and kill.

Xie Lian smiled, “The thinking behind your spell is rather interesting.”

But Hua Cheng said with little interest, “This spell is pretty worthless. I made it up for kicks and have barely used it.”

Xie Lian asked, “Why?” Then he caught on right afterwards, and smiled, “I’m silly. You must prefer to directly give them a Crimson Rain.”

With Hua Cheng’s temperament, he certainly would simply kill anyone who dared offend him, and why would he bother relieving others of resentment!

Hua Cheng chuckled, “Gege knows me. Who has the patience to care about what they are thinking? We don’t need to act now, either. Later, when my spiritual energy is restored, the problem will be solved when I go out and give him a Crimson Rain.”

Xie Lian initially also thought it a good strategy to conserve energy while the enemy wore themselves out, but upon further consideration, he soon felt something was amiss. “It won’t work, will it? Sitting back and allowing this Mental State to develop naturally will be equivalent to letting the Brocade Immortal relive the genesis of the resentment, won’t it? That will infuriate him! Let’s go and settle his grievances now… …”

Grasping the iron chains on both sides of the swing, Xie Lian was about to get off, yet Hua Cheng placed his hands on his shoulders and applied a little pressure. “Gege, I suggest not.”

Xie Lian was perplexed for being stopped, “But if we don’t do anything and simply exit your Butterfly Dream Spell, later the Brocade Immortal will come after you.” After all, given the caster of the spell was Hua Cheng, the Brocade Immortal would definitely treat him as the target of his hatred, and attack him furiously. But Hua Cheng smiled, “So what if he chases and attacks me? Am I scared of him?”

Xie Lian said, “But even if you are not scared, it won’t hurt if we take a trip in his Mental State, will it? Does San Lang… … have any other reasons?”

There was no response from behind him. Turning his head back, he looked at Hua Cheng, “Can’t you tell me?”

Seeing him insisting, Hua Cheng pondered for a moment, and still told the truth.

He said, “Your Highness, right now my spiritual energy hasn’t been restored. I’m worried that once we officially enter the Brocade Immortal’s Mental State, there may be accidents.”

Xie Lian hurriedly asked, “What kind of accidents? Will you get hurt?”

Hua Cheng said, “How’s that possible. It’s just that if the situation gets out of hand, maybe… …”

He considered briefly, and still finished it, “You’ll get hurt.”

For an instant, the expression on his face was as if he loathed himself for uttering these three words.

But Xie Lian let out a sigh, “San Lang, you really shouldn’t be like this.”

His tone was very serious, and Hua Cheng was mildly stunned.

Xie Lian said, “Although I don’t know what your so-called ‘out of hand’ could be, you’ve never hurt me; I even believe in you, don’t you believe in yourself?”

He hopped off the swing, turned around and said with a frown, “Take ten thousand steps back, even if you don’t believe in yourself, you should still believe in me; even if an accident should happen, I’m capable of handling it. I know you are not afraid of the Brocade Immortal, but this is completely different from letting you bear his attack alone. I absolutely won’t agree, so –”

Xie Lian announced, “We will set off right away for the Brocade Immortal’s Mental State to find the source of his resentment. Now, immediately!”

He said these words completely without thinking, but as soon as he finished speaking, he was shocked to realize how pompous it had been, actually carrying a bit of the indisputable commanding tone from when he had been His Highness the Crown Prince. Softening at once, he dared not look at Hua Cheng, instead gazing into the distance, “Uh… … shall we go, San Lang?”

It was a good while before he heard Hua Cheng say from behind, “Okay, gege, let’s leave now.”

He clearly had a smile in his voice. Xie Lian knew that he was giving him a way out, which made him even more embarrassed, nearly blushing.

The two walked side by side on the fallen maple leaves for a while. To make Hua Cheng quickly forget the self who was issuing commands just now, Xie Lian tried his best to make conversation, “How much further is it?”

Hua Cheng said, “Not much further.”

After another few steps, Xie Lian muttered to himself, “Speaking of which, right after we got the Brocade Immortal, we found Heaven’s Eye’s group at our doorstep, followed by a series of events such as the reopening of the Copper Kiln, and I never had the chance to look into why Ling Wen initially created the Brocade Immortal.”

Hua Cheng said, “Just ask me.”

Xie Lian was surprised, “Do you even know such ancient anecdotes from the Upper Court of Heaven?”

So it wasn’t just his imagination; when it came to the dark or bright histories of all the big officials in the Upper Court of Heaven, Hua Cheng did have some spicy stuff. He nodded and actually told Xie Lian.

It turned out that before Ling Wen became the number one civil god in the Upper Court, the person who had sat firmly in this position was another civil god, known as “True Lord Jing Wen”.

True Lord Jing Wen, hailing from the Kingdom of Xuli, had several hundred years more seniority than Ling Wen, and a deep foundation. One year, during a ceremony for worshiping civil gods in the Kingdom of Xuli, there was a small competition. Young scholars were to write an essay with the Kingdom of Xuli as the topic and, without signing, post it to the largest civil god temple in the country – at that time, it was the Hall of Jing Wen. The submissions would be judged by the people and the finest one crowned as the winner.

At that time, True Lord Jing Wen happened to be on an excursion in the Human Realm. On a whim, taking the form of a scholar, he participated in the competition and, with a swing of the brush, composed an eloquent and florid essay extolling the might of the Kingdom of Xuli, confident that it would stand out amongst the myriad submissions. Just imagine, if this essay won first place, and it was revealed that the person who topped the list was a clone of True Lord Jing Wen himself, wouldn’t it be yet another beautiful tale that would be passed down to future generations?

The idea was great, and it would have made everyone happy. Who knew, an exceedingly awkward accident occurred.

After the ceremony concluded, the first place was announced, and the winner was not Jing Wen’s “Ode to Xuli”, but instead a policy essay titled “Not Xuli”.

Xie Lian asked, “Has San Lang ever read the essay ‘Not Xuli’?”

Hua Cheng said, “I did find it to have a look. If gege is interested, I can write it down roughly for you another day.”

Xie Lian hurriedly said, “That’s not necessary. However, to be able to defeat True Lord Jing Wen, who had already ascended at the time, it must have been very well-written.”

Hua Cheng commented, “It was well-written, but not especially amazing. It’s just that the Kingdom of Xuli was in a dire situation at the time, with widespread resentment among the people. When they saw such an essay, it happened to suit their taste. Plus essays like “Ode to Xuli” had flooded the scene, people had long since been tired of them. Given such a comparison, ‘Not Xuli’ naturally won.”

Xie Lian nodded slightly, “There’s no first in writing. It’s not a big deal, just that everyone has different tastes.”

Hua Cheng said, “That’s right. Jing Wen thought so too at the beginning.”

The people of the Kingdom of Xuli searched everywhere for the author of “Not Xuli”, but of course no one claimed it. Who dared claim such a thing? If someone lusted after the fame and bogusly claimed it, they would have easily been found out. Soon, because it caught the attention of the troops, the ceremony removed the top essay.

While True Lord Jing Wen was displeased about the competition and scorned it, he forgot about it after a few months. What’s unfortunate was that, a few months later, a piece of shocking news spread among the civils gods in the Upper Court of Heaven –

The person who won first place at the Kingdom of Xuli’s civil god ceremony with “Not Xuli” was finally found, and was presently arrested and locked in jail. And this person turned out to be a young woman who sold shoes by the street!

How could that be!

Xie Lian asked, “Someone who sold shoes?”

Hua Cheng said, “Yes. Nangong Jie used to do this in the Human Realm.”

No wonder he had heard people secretly call the Palace of Ling Wen the “Palace of Broken Shoes” (broken shoe is slang for abandoned mistress), and more than once or twice, but Xie Lian didn’t think it’s appropriate to get to the bottom of this kind of thing, so he never knew where it came from.

Originally, no one would have ever associated “Not Xuli” with a shoe girl, but the young woman also occasionally helped people with things like copying letters or ghost writing love poems for a little writing fee. One day, a patron noticed that her handwriting and the one in the winner essay were strikingly similar, and reported it, hence she was caught.

After learning about this, True Lord Jing Wen lifted his brush, immediately drafting the young woman named Nangong Jie up.

Bear in mind that there were few female officials at that time in the first place, not none, but most were in charge of flowers and plants, embroidery and crafts, singing and dancing, and so on. Even with drafting, no one was willing to draft women to be junior officials. Female civil gods were even rarer. The women in the palaces of civil gods were uniformly beautiful girls, and instead of being in charge of civil matters, most were eye candies who ground ink and rolled out paper, and couldn’t count as officials.

True Lord Jing Wen’s move earned him widespread acclaim among the civil gods for cherishing talent. Everyone said that this little girl was truly lucky to have met such a noble person as True Lord Jing Wen, who had such an eye for talent; not only did she escape from prison, but she also clung onto the branch and turned (from a lowly swallow) into a phoenix. It seemed such a beautiful tale.

Unfortunately, the truth was not like that at all.

While True Lord Jing Wen ostensibly attached great importance to Ling Wen, he never let her do anything that a civil god should do, and instead day after day, for decades, made her serve tea, fetch water, and wipe desks for everyone in the palace, or walk hundreds of miles to pick up a poem manuscript, or deliver gifts to other officials non-stop during holidays, and often made her organize long expired ancient files in his own palace until late at night.

This led to a very strange phenomenon: Ling Wen still found time to read and write when she had been a mortal, and could at least face the wall and meditate even when imprisoned; after she was drafted and soared to the heavens, on the contrary, there was not a single moment where she wasn’t waiting on people hand and foot, or doing chores on her knees.

Reflecting on it, Xie Lian found it indeed to be the case; Ling Wen was still in the Lower Court when he ascended for the first time, and every time he saw Ling Wen, she was doing chores. It was precisely because she had done a lot of chores and done them extremely reliably that Xie Lian remembered such a person. He said, “This True Lord Jing Wen actually meant to exhaust Ling Wen to death, didn’t he?” Running around all day long, but solely for trivial chores, unable to gain any benefit. Thinking still further, Xie Lian felt a chill in his heart, “And making Ling Wen organize expired files until late at night, which could almost be called vicious. Many people will draw unsavory associations and spread dirty rumors as soon as they hear the words ‘female official’ ‘late at night’, but such rumors have little impact on an male official… … This was meant to thoroughly destroy Ling Wen’s future.”

Hua Cheng said, “Exactly. Whatever he was thinking, gege, that colleague of yours was so shrewd, she naturally saw it as clear as day, too.”

Except, with how strict the hierarchy of the Upper and Lower Courts was, subordinate to the Palace of Jing Wen, Ling Wen had no power to fight back, therefore, at the beginning, she adopted the motto of “forbearance”, maintaining a facade of respect towards top to bottom, and roughly managed to stabilize the situation.

Unexpectedly, someone brutally tore up the illusion of stability.

Xie Lian asked, “Brutally? Who?”

Hua Cheng said, “The most brutish in behavior in the Upper Court of Heaven, who else could it be but the Water Tyrant?”

There was a tradition among the civil gods in the Upper Court: whenever there was an event or a holiday, they would hold some literary or poetry meeting to compliment each other or their superiors. One day, there was also such a literary meeting, and Jing Wen presented an essay “Ode to Divine Might”. When this essay came out, all the civil gods were wonderstruck. It took the Upper Court by storm and was widely circulated, and Jing Wen was quite proud of it. Who knew, this essay was noticed by Shi Wudu.

Reading it would have been one thing, but after reading it, he blatantly said in front of a bunch of officials as he waved his fan, “This essay can’t possibly be written by Jing Wen. If a bullshit civil god like him could write such a piece, I wouldn’t have thought it too much work to get acquainted with him when I passed by his door!”

Shi Wudu already held the limelight at that time, a very popular person in heaven. His words naturally spread instantly throughout the Upper Court. Right away there were busybodies poking for fun everywhere, and soon discovered that the lower-level attendant god Ling Wen from the Palace of Jing Wen also had an essay “Martial Culture”. The concept and prose of this essay closely mirrored those of “Ode to Divine Might”, it’s just that works from civil gods of the Lower Court were rarely read, so no one knew about it. Which came first and which came later, it was truly hard to say.

If something couldn’t be argued clearly, then it’s up to which side had more supporters and louder voices. True Lord Jing Wen was quite senior, with a deep foundation, so it wouldn’t take much to know which way the wind blew. Soon, Ling Wen found herself trapped in a very unfavorable situation. She would meet a disgraceful end if she continued to endure it at this point, thus, Ling Wen also confronted him head-on. In the end, both parties agreed to write an essay each on the same topic and see which was better. Since each said that they wrote the essay that took the Upper Court by storm, then they could each write another one, and demonstrate their prowess.

Xie Lian couldn’t help but say, “This method wasn’t very reasonable, was it? Some people may perform inconsistently, with one essay outstanding, and the next mediocre. How to take this into account? Besides, there is no first in writing, how were they going to judge? How could Ling Wen agree?”

Hua Cheng said, “It was unreasonable, but there was no way around it. If she didn’t agree, she would immediately be regarded as a coward with a guilty conscience. As for the judging method, on the day of the essay contest, they would invite all current civil gods from the Upper Court there to make a selection, and take head count.”

Xie Lian said, “That’s even more unreasonable. Given True Lord Jing Wen’s long tenure, he would have certainly cultivated many friendships in the Upper Court; even if not friends, as a fellow official, everyone would definitely have to consider his standing, and wouldn’t offend him for a junior civil god who hadn’t ascended. How could this selection possibly be fair?”

Hua Cheng said, “Therefore, Ling Wen lost.”

Although there was no surprise to the result, Xie Lian’s heart was still in his throat, and he said, “This was basically a fight with her back against the wall. She lost the contest, would she ever be able to turn it around?”

Hua Cheng smiled, “Gege gets so absorbed by the story that he is even worried. You don’t need to worry about your colleague, though, because less than a month after Ling Wen’s loss, the Kingdom of Xuli was destroyed. With the country in ruins and its people in chaos, Jing Wen lost his source of spiritual energy, ending up with everyone giving a shove to the falling wall.”

Hua Cheng said leisurely, “Supposedly, the Kingdom of Xuli was destroyed because the people were corrupt, and the king mostly appointed incompetent individuals as generals. The only person who could defeat his opponent on the battlefield was a young warrior. But one day this young man abruptly met a tragic end… …”

Xie Lian instantly grasped it, “Bai Jin!”

Sorted out in this way, things became exceedingly clear. The reason why Ling Wen wanted to get rid of Bai Jin was because as long as he was around, the Kingdom of Xuli would be around. And if the Kingdom of Xuli was around, Jing Wen would be around. Therefore, the person she wanted to kill was not Bai Jin, but Jing Wen!

Hua Cheng said, “After Jing Wen fell, gege, your colleague had the opportunity to devote herself to cultivation, quickly ascended, and climbed onto the position of the next ‘number one civil god’. A new generation replaced the old one. On the day of that contest, everyone spoke with one voice and dismissed Ling Wen’s work as worthless, but look at it now, how many still mention it?”

Xie Lian lightly exhaled, “Gossip is a fearful thing, and Bai Jin was innocent. Knowing this, I guess his resentment mostly stems from being tricked and murdered by Ling Wen. Stopping Ling Wen in the Mental State should be good enough.”

Hua Cheng said, “Maybe. But, gege, as we are about to enter, please don’t be surprised by whatever identity you are assigned later.”

“Identity?”

Hua Cheng said, “To avoid alarming the owner of the Mental State, Butterfly Dream will assign intruders new identities that can blend into the Mental State’s environment, which prevents the person under the spell from feeling any abruptness and thus setting up defenses. It might be quite strange, so I’m mentioning it first.”

Xie Lian initially found it novel, then dangerous, “How strange will it be? Like, his sister-in-law, or something like that?”

Hua Cheng laughed, “Not that strange! When Butterfly Dream arranges a new identity for you, it must first be acceptable to the owner of the Mental State, who should feel that you indeed fit the role. Unless his sister-in-law is really a man, how can it not feel abrupt? Gege, are you afraid of this?”

Xie Lian was deeply embarrassed. At this time, voices could vaguely be heard from up ahead. He hastily grabbed Hua Cheng and sprinted, “We’re here! Hurry up!”

Shortly after, Xie Lian rushed into a street.

This street was bustling with heavy traffic and quite prosperous. The Mental State was so realistic that Xie Lian was greatly fascinated. He then surveyed himself: he was still dressed in a plain white Taoist robe, with a small bamboo basket filled with medicinal herbs slung over his back.

It appeared that his assigned identity in the Brocade Immortal’s inner world remained that of a wandering Taoist, not some weirdo. Xie Lian couldn’t help but breathe a big sigh of relief and, looking back with a smile, said, “San Lang! Look, I’m… …”

But there was no one behind him. He blinked. Hua Cheng was gone.

Xie Lian said, “San Lang?!”

He and Hua Cheng were separated!