Благословение Небожителей. Том 6 (ЛП) - Мосян Тунсю

“Who knows?!” Fu Yao yelled, desperate to escape. “We can’t break free anyway!”

Nan Feng, on the other hand, bore an unreadable expression. At first, he had looked like he also wanted to call for help, but he’d sullenly swallowed his words when he’d seen that Xie Lian was the one who’d come.

“Don’t come down yet—the spider silk is really tough,” Nan Feng said instead. “It’ll be hard to break free once it grabs you.”

“I won’t come down,” Xie Lian said.

After deliberating for a moment, Xie Lian tied one end of Ruoye to the hilt of Fangxin, planning to lower the sword to just see if it’d work. But Ruoye had only crept down halfway before the web discovered it. Tendrils of silk shot upward with violent intent at this interloper. Ruoye coiled away in terror, but it was too late—the webbing snagged the bandage, wrapped around it, and yanked it down, pulling Xie Lian in as well.

Xie Lian had never imagined that this web would be so strong and cunning!

The moment Xie Lian fell into the pit, the white tendrils of silk charged forward and trussed him up. The rest of the silk tendrils crawled along to further secure the “cocoons” that trapped Nan Feng and Fu Yao.

Fu Yao was absolutely furious. “How come you fell in too? Now look at us—three stupid 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 about and laughing. “Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha…”

Nan Feng and Fu Yao looked at him, dumbfounded.

“Did you hit your head on the way down? Have you lost your mind?” Fu Yao asked.

Tears rolled from the corners of Xie Lian’s eyes, and he said with much difficulty, “N-no, ha ha ha… What’s with this web…? Why is it…so ticklish?! I can’t… Ha ha ha ha…”

The silk bed had caught him gently when he fell, and the tendrils that had bound him seemed to touch him with care and love. They brushed softly against Xie Lian’s body while they worked, as if they were tickling him.

Xie Lian curled into a ball, fighting back with tenacity. “No, don’t, wait! Stop! Stop! I give! Stop!”

Only then did the white silk tendrils bind his hands behind his back and stop their ticklish dance. Nan Feng and Fu Yao stared at him.

A moment later, Fu Yao said grumpily, “How come it was so rough when it tied us up but so lenient with him? It hasn’t even covered his face.”

Xie Lian finally caught his breath. “Aren’t…aren’t your faces uncovered too?”

Fu Yao rolled his eyes. “They were covered. We had to use our teeth to tear holes after we woke up. We couldn’t have shouted otherwise.”

Xie Lian tried struggling a bit, but the silk webbing was tough and unyielding; plus, his ribs faintly hurt from laughing too hard. For now, he was out of commission. He decided to relax a bit, lying down flat.

“So how did you two end up here?”

“Don’t know,” Fu Yao replied. “When the avalanche hit, snow came crashing down on us. When we woke up, we were already here.”

“No, no, no,” Xie Lian said. “I mean, why did you come to Mount Tonglu?”

Fu Yao was furious the instant the topic was raised. “I was pursuing that ghost woman Lan Chang and the fetus spirit! Who knows why he’s here!”

“Me?! I’m here to chase after that mother and child too…” Nan Feng answered.

“Then why didn’t you go after them?” Fu Yao spat. “Why did you hit me?! I… My general already said that he had nothing to do with the fetus spirit. He didn’t kill either of them! His goodwill was taken for ill; there’s honestly no point in trying to be a good person!”

Xie Lian mediated out of habit. “All right, all right, stop, I understand the situation now. Stop fighting, stop arguing. You’re the ones who caused that avalanche, so can you just give it a rest? Let’s think of a way out together.”

However, Nan Feng was incensed. “Does your general really not realize how he usually acts? He has no right to complain if people are suspicious of him!”

Fu Yao glared. “What did you say?! I dare you to say that again!”

Nan Feng glared even harder. “I do dare, and I will say it again! You never had goodwill for anyone! You just want to show benevolence to people you can’t stand so you can secretly feel all smug about it later. You’re after your own satisfaction, and you love to watch everyone else make fools of themselves. Don’t give me that ‘goodwill taken for ill’ garbage, and don’t you dare think that you’re a good person! Genuinely good people aren’t like you—you’ve never been one!”

Veins popped on Fu Yao’s forehead, and his lips began to twitch. “You’ve made all that up! It’s pure nonsense!”

“You know best whether it’s nonsense—as if I don’t know you!” Nan Feng shouted.

Those veins now bulged all the way down Fu Yao’s 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 better than you at everything!” Nan Feng yelled. “Do you think no one knows about that shitty stunt you pulled back then?!”

The mere mention of this mysterious incident seemed to inflame Fu Yao even more, his fire fueled by shame. “Yes, I admit I did it! But how much better are you than me, really? Acting like you’re the model of loyalty—didn’t you ditch the boss too when you got a wife? Didn’t your wife and son suddenly become more important?! Everyone does things for themselves; everyone makes themselves top priority! Aren’t you embarrassed to keep hanging that ancient shitty deed over my head?”

When he heard “wife” and “son,” Nan Feng’s outrage exploded. “You fucking… You! I…? You?”

Although neither could move, they were so intent on their argument that they didn’t realize the way they addressed each other had slipped. They had dropped “your general” and “my general” in favor of “you” and “me,” and in their fury they had completely failed to notice what this exposed. Only now did they realize their error.

Xie Lian had long since stopped talking. Nan Feng and Fu Yao both whipped their heads over to look in Xie Lian’s direction and saw that he’d silently flipped on the silk bed, turning over and only showing them his back.

“Um…I saw nothing. Wait, I mean, I heard nothing.”

“…”

“…”

Xie Lian faced the stone wall as he politely asked, “Are you two going to keep this up? I won’t comment on anything else you were discussing, but, um…I do think that someone’s wife and son should be most important. There’s nothing wrong with that—it’s basic human sentiment. But all this ancient history…let’s not stew in it. Let’s think of a way to escape—”

“You already knew?” Fu Yao cut him off.

Since it didn’t seem he could get away with it any longer, Xie Lian could only concede. “Yeah…”

“When did you find out? How did you find out?” Fu Yao said in disbelief.

Xie Lian didn’t have the heart to tell the truth. Instead he replied, “I forget exactly.”

The real answer was that he’d known everything for a very, very long time. He’d already vaguely suspected it on Mount Yujun, and by the time they set foot in Banyue Pass, he’d confirmed it.

These “junior martial officials from the Middle Court”? They didn’t actually exist. “Nan Feng” and “Fu Yao” were merely clones created by Feng Xin and Mu Qing!

Fu Yao seemed like he couldn’t believe his real identity had been seen through so easily, and he began to relentlessly interrogate Xie Lian. “When? How? There must’ve been something that gave it away—what was the flaw?!”

“…”

Xie Lian really couldn’t bear to tell him the truth. There weren’t any secrets to give away because they had flaws all over them!

The three grew up together, after all—how could Xie Lian not recognize the way they behaved and spoke? From the sloppy fake names2 to the completely unchanged personalities, it was too easy to guess. If he hadn’t realized who was behind those two skins, he would've lived all these years for nothing.