"So you chose to drag me down with you?" After hurrying into the palace and hearing the details, Wang Ye stared at Chen Qing, his face dark.
Chen Qing did not answer. Instead, he curiously poked Wang Ye's face.
"What... what are you doing?" Wang Ye backed away.
"Oh..." Chen Qing smiled sheepishly. "I just thought... your angry expression looked pretty convincing..."
Wang Ye: "..."
"Come on, don't be so petty..." Chuckling, Chen Qing poured him a cup of tea. "This is a golden opportunity. Do you know why that fellow named Fei, who's about your age and not even as handsome as you, gets to stand above you, with a rank even higher than your superior's?"
"Why?" Wang Ye touched his face. He thought he was quite handsome too. After all, he had placed third in the imperial examinations back then.
"Because he's the crown prince's cousin!" Chen Qing said earnestly. "As someone close to the heir apparent, he naturally started a little higher than you. His Majesty may be in his prime, but you still need to build a good relationship with his heir. This is a golden opportunity. Bring the crown prince back, and you'll have the merit of helping a dragon ascend!"
"What nonsense is that?" Wang Ye rolled his eyes. "Is that how you use 'the merit of helping a dragon ascend'? How did you even pass the imperial examinations?"
"That's not important..." Chen Qing waved a hand. "Anyway, you can't get out of this now, so why not look on the bright side? If this works, there really are plenty of benefits!"
"And if it doesn't?" Wang Ye sneered.
"If it doesn't?" Chen Qing curled his lip. "Then I'll probably have kicked the bucket. Why would I care what happens to you?"
Wang Ye: "..."
How had I never noticed how shameless this fellow was?
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want to confirm something first!" Chen Qing looked at him. "About Ghost Child-you haven't told anyone except Yuchi Peng? What about your master? Does he know?"
Wang Ye gave Chen Qing a meaningful look before finally shaking his head. "I haven't told him..."
"Really?" Chen Qing asked curiously.
"If I had, you'd already be under arrest." Wang Ye sipped his tea. "Do you think my master would leave someone of unknown origins who could control a ghost general alone?"
"Fair point..." Chen Qing nodded.
"You want to use Ghost Child?"
"Yes..." Chen Qing nodded. "Only a ghost general can control and communicate with a Ghost Horse. Now that Mountain Ghost is dead, the Ghost Horse is the only being that knows the crown prince's whereabouts. Is there any other way besides Ghost Child?"
"I understand..." Wang Ye nodded. "You don't dare work with anyone else because you're afraid of exposing Ghost Child's existence. I have the Flying Star technique and can take you straight to Ghost Child without being followed. You've certainly worked your abacus well."
"I can't help it..." Chen Qing shrugged. "Who told you to insist on dragging me down with you back then, Lord Wang?"
"I don't regret it!" Wang Ye looked at Chen Qing. "I think the best thing I've ever done in my life was drag you down with me before going to Liuzhou!"
Chen Qing: "..."
"So... you won't regret choosing to work with me either!" Wang Ye smiled and formed a seal with one hand. Daylight flared behind him.
Just like Liu Yu, the Duke of Song, a crystal flying elephant raised its trunk and trumpeted toward the heavens.
The light enveloped Chen Qing and the Ghost Horse with a warping force. In the next instant, they vanished!
About half a quarter of an hour after the three disappeared,
the emperor and Liu Yu slowly entered the room where the two men had been.
"Your disciple has been improving at a tremendous pace since his transformation..." the emperor said quietly.
Liu Yu nodded slightly. Wang Ye was his student, and he knew very well what his student's abilities had been before going to Liuzhou. Flying Star was one of the supreme mysteries among the Evening Elephant secret arts. Although his disciple was astonishingly talented, he had studied techniques for too short a time and had previously only barely mastered it.
That was also why, after being caught in the trap in Liuzhou City, he had only been able to teleport Chen Qing away in his haste.
Yet now, after just a few short days, he could instantly form the Flying Star spell and teleport three beings, including the Ghost Horse. Calling his improvement tremendous hardly did it justice!
He was probably already approaching the level of a beyond-first-rank spellcaster!
"Your Majesty..." Liu Yu gave the emperor a deep bow, something he rarely did. "I know my disciple well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with him. After I am gone, I hope Your Majesty will trust my judgment and not squander such an exceptional talent!"
The emperor looked at Liu Yu, his gaze immensely complicated. Finally, it slowly turned cold, and he nodded. "Very well. You have my word!"
"Daddy!!"
They had only just arrived through teleportation, and before Chen Qing could recover from dizziness comparable to riding a giant pendulum, a muscleman locked him in a crushing bear hug!
Fortunately, this little terror knew his own strength, unlike Nezha in a certain cold-joke comedy. Otherwise, Chen Qing would have been flattened into a meat patty.
Chen Qing struggled free of the bear hug and fought down the churning seas in his stomach before asking blankly, "Nezha, why do you have body odor now too?"
He remembered that although Ghost Child looked rather muscular, his body was immaculate. Not only did he have no body odor, he even carried a faint lotus fragrance. That had been a personal touch Chen Qing had slipped into his design.
How had he developed body odor after just a few days apart?
"Body odor?" Ghost Child froze, then sniffed himself hard before grinning. "Oh, this! That big idiot Yuchi Peng said it was the scent of a man. He said you could only be a real man with this smell, so Nezha grew his flesh to be like his..."
Chen Qing's face twitched. A real man, my ass. That bastard Yuchi really knows how to gild his own face.
Beside him, Wang Ye's mouth twitched too. He was close to Yuchi Peng and naturally knew that indescribable smell of his. He had complained repeatedly and told him to bathe more often, yet now the man had somehow tied it to masculinity.
"Huh?" Ghost Child's eyes suddenly lit up as he looked at the enormous horse behind the two of them. "Daddy, how did you find this thing?"
"Hehe, borrowed it from someone!" Chen Qing grinned. "Can you control it?"
Ghost Child nodded and strode closer. The Ghost Horse, which had only been behaving because of the spell controlling it, immediately grew excited as it looked at Ghost Child.
There were plenty of sturdy Ghost Horses in the underworld, but few opportunities to earn a ghost general's favor. After Mountain Ghost died, it had thought it would never enjoy such an honor again!
Neigh!
The Ghost Horse gave a long whinny, then actually prostrated itself on the ground, utterly submissive.
It had not been this submissive even before the emperor's formidable Golden Crow Bloodline.
Ghost Child approached with a grin and stroked its coat. "It's good quality, Daddy. It's been fed nice and strong."
At the praise, the Ghost Horse grew even more excited!
Seeing this, Chen Qing felt a little relieved. Ghost Child ranked second among the four great ghost generals, above Mountain Ghost, but he had been imprisoned for years. Newly born Ghost Horses might not acknowledge him. Now it seemed Chen Qing had worried too much.
"Nezha, ask it whether it can find the crown prince."
"The crown prince?"
Chen Qing had come prepared and took out a portrait.
Ghost Child took the portrait, held it in front of the Ghost Horse, and patted its head.
Yet after seeing the portrait, the utterly obedient Ghost Horse hesitated for a while. Only when Ghost Child impatiently patted it a second time did it give two cries.
Ghost Child frowned and turned to Chen Qing. "Daddy, the place where this person you mentioned is staying is very dangerous!"
"Where?" Chen Qing's eyelid twitched, and he immediately asked.
"The Tomb of King Xiang!"
Chen Qing: "..."
"Your Highness, stay strong!"
Within the murky, gray space, a group of people radiating potent Yang Qi stood out starkly on the Yin Road. The shrill wails of vicious ghosts all around them never ceased, making their hair stand on end.
More terrifying than the sounds was the sight. Countless vicious ghosts packed the entire road, their green eyes frighteningly numerous in the gloom as they scrambled over one another to lunge at the living.
The corpses on the ground had already piled as high as mountains, yet more kept charging over their fallen predecessors, as though there were no end to them!
The general at the front was bare-chested, his towering body unlike that of an ordinary man. He stood a full three zhang tall. Two great sabers, each a zhang long, reaped the charging creatures like a meat grinder. He was like a god of war!
Yet even a supremely valiant god of war gradually faltered before their endless numbers. His breathing had grown ragged long ago, and now and then a little ghost slipped through to bite a chunk of flesh from him.
Before he knew it, his belly had become a bloody mess, his intestines spilling all over the ground!
Behind the burly man, fully armed guards also struggled desperately against the stragglers that slipped through. Their armor was covered in green flesh, blood, and bodily fluids, the stench so overpowering it made one retch!
In their midst, the guards tightly protected a young man in white. Fair-skinned and noble in bearing, the youth now seemed drained of vitality. His face was as pale as snow, and he was barely breathing, but a trace of golden flame in his eyes marked his exalted identity.
"Help will be here soon!"
The person closest to the crown prince was a spellcaster. His official robes marked him as Subordinate Fifth Rank. Anyone familiar with officialdom would have recognized him as an Eastern Palace official responsible for teaching the crown prince statecraft and letters, also known as the crown prince's attendant.
"Help?" A bitter smile appeared on the crown prince's weakened face. "Don't lie to me. Where could help possibly come from in our situation? I was unfilial and fell for that fox demon's scheme. My death would be no loss, but that fox demon has taken my appearance and entered the palace. If it harms Father, ten thousand deaths would not absolve my guilt!"
"Rest assured, Your Highness!" The middle-aged crown prince's attendant hurriedly reassured him. "How wise is His Majesty? How could he fall for a mere demon's schemes? That fox demon overestimated itself by daring to enter the palace. It will surely be exposed. As long as Your Highness holds on, reinforcements will surely arrive!"
"Don't comfort me..." The crown prince looked around. "Break out yourselves. Don't worry about me. You must return to the palace and stop the fox demon from wreaking havoc!"
"Your Highness, you must not speak lightly of giving up!" the attendant urged in a low voice. Yet as he watched the densely packed vicious ghosts surging around them like an ocean tide, wave after wave, anxiety burned in his eyes!
The crown prince had been robbed of his primal yang and then ambushed by a ghost general. His vitality had suffered grievously. If help did not come soon, he might...
"General Hong!"
"Speak!" the burly man holding back the main force of vicious ghosts roared from afar. His thunderous voice shook the heavens, majestic and imposing, but the attendant knew he was already an arrow at the end of its flight!
Gritting his teeth, he finally made a decision and shouted, "I have a secret art that can let His Highness break out!"
"If you had something like that, why the fuck didn't you say so sooner?"
"But I need to borrow your heart, General!!"
At those words, the other man abruptly fell silent.
"General!!"
When no answer came for a long time, the crown prince's attendant shouted sharply, "What are you hesitating for?"
"Well... if you borrow it... will you return it?"
The burly man's voice was clearly much weaker than before...
The crown prince's attendant: "..."
"Pfft!"
A strange sound came from behind the army of ghosts. As it rang out, something bizarre happened.
The vicious ghosts, previously frenzied and seemingly heedless of life and death, all prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling. Every guard stared blankly around them.
Meanwhile, the burly man who had stood before them like a mountain stared warily toward the source of the sound.
At some unknown moment, a figure had appeared there.
Thin and frail, even shorter than the vicious ghosts around him, yet he felt incomparably dangerous!
"Are you lot... trying to make me laugh myself to death?"
Haha, some readers said the emperor's personality wasn't great and the protagonist was getting pushed around, ummm.
I wouldn't really call it getting pushed around. He was just pressed down a little by authority. He's a beginner, after all. Besides, if I designed the emperor with a good personality, how would we rebel later?