Благословение Небожителей. Том 6 (ЛП)

Hua Cheng puffed a breath into his ear. “I’ll lend Your Highness a bit of spiritual power in case of an emergency…” he whispered. “Won’t you accept it?”
Xie Lian unconsciously gulped. “Th-this is ‘a bit’?” he stuttered. “It seems like too much… I haven’t…I haven’t paid you back for all the times before…”
“It’s not that much. And there’s no rush,” Hua Cheng said. “Take your time paying it back. The account will clear one day.”
Xie Lian made a few vague noises of agreement and was just about to run away when Hua Cheng pulled him to a stop.
“Your Highness! Where are you going? You’re running in the wrong direction,” he pointed out.
Only then did Xie Lian realize that he was running back the way they’d come. He quickly turned back around, slipping on the ice in the process. He pulled his bamboo hat down.
“I…I wasn’t… I-I’m just a little cold. Thought I’d jog around a bit to warm up…”
He put on the bamboo hat, then pushed it off to carry it on his back, then put it on again. Finally, he grabbed Hua Cheng’s hand and held it tight. The pair stood side by side and looked into the immense abyss below.
Hua Cheng’s voice was casual. “After this is resolved, I’ll show gege my proudest achievement in sculpture.”
“Okay,” Xie Lian replied.
They jumped down together.
Gusts of wild wind whipped past his ears so fiercely that it felt like waves crashing into him. But even that force couldn’t separate their hands—they held on to each other even harder.
Yet somehow, halfway down, Xie Lian’s hand was empty.
His grip hadn’t slipped, and Hua Cheng hadn’t let go—the hand he’d been holding in his own had simply disappeared in an instant, leaving behind nothing but emptiness.
Xie Lian’s heart lurched, and he shouted, “San Lang?!” He was falling so quickly that his cry was left dozens of meters above his head. It sounded unreal.
It was a long time before Xie Lian finally landed steadily on his feet. He immediately stood upright and called out again.
“San Lang?”
There was no answer. The hollow echo of the name told him of the immense size of the empty space where he was standing.
There was darkness all around except for above. Xie Lian looked up. He could see a snow-white sky above his head, but it was gradually shrinking. That had to be the Kiln’s mouth closing.
But where was Hua Cheng?
Crackle, whoosh. Xie Lian lit a palm torch, hoping to illuminate his surroundings and see what things were like down here. But the darkness was immeasurably deep, and this little flame couldn’t show him anything. The firelight itself seemed to be absorbed by the indifferent, dark void.
Xie Lian hadn’t controlled his powers well in his haste, and the flames erupted a little too high, nearly burning his face. He quickly tossed the fire to the ground.
As it fell, the firelight just happened to illuminate the back of a faint white silhouette looming not far away.
Xie Lian was instantly on guard. “Who’s there?!”
The white silhouette turned around and answered evenly, “You know who I am.”
Although he answered, the muscles on the man’s face did not move an inch. That was only natural, as he was wearing a half-crying, half-smiling mask.
“San Lang!” Xie Lian blurted.
Even though the sight of that face sent terror shivering through him, Xie Lian hadn’t cried out due to fear but due to worry. Of course, there was still no answer, and the crying-smiling mask came another step closer.
“You’re wasting your time yelling. The Kiln is sealed. It’s only you and me here.…no one else.”
Xie Lian automatically looked up again. Earlier there had still been a small snowy-white sliver of sky, but that bit of light had been completely swallowed by the darkness around them. The Kiln had truly sealed itself.
Xie Lian had never expected things to turn out like this—trapped alone with White No-Face, just the two of them, locked inside the Kiln.
Just the two of them? Why was it the two of them?!
Xie Lian gripped Fangxin and pointed the sword at him. “What is going on here? Are you meddling again? Where is he? Where is he right now?”
 
White No-Face clamped the edge of the sword between two fingers and flicked the blade with his other hand, making it ring clear and crisp. “He’s gone.”
Xie Lian watched this, and his eyes went cold. “Explain yourself clearly. What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
“He doesn’t want to follow you anymore. He left. He’s dead. What do you think?” White No-Face said leisurely.
Xie Lian’s heart dropped at first, but that was followed immediately by a violent rage, and he struck. “Stop your nonsense!”
White No-Face once again caught the blade effortlessly. “Fine, fine. I was indeed talking nonsense. Don’t worry, I simply sent him outside the Kiln. Even if he wants to rush back in here, it’s too late now.”
Xie Lian was fine with Hua Cheng trapped outside as long as it meant he was okay. He quietly sighed a breath of relief.
“But it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t come in,” White No-Face continued. “Even if he wouldn’t agree right now, who knows if he’ll still want to be with you when he sees what you’ll become.”
Xie Lian couldn’t formulate a response. His patience fully gone, he swung his sword again, yelling, “Shut up!” 
White No-Face easily dodged every single one of his strikes, and Xie Lian cried out in rage.
“I’ve had enough of you! What do you want? What exactly do you want?! How long are you going to keep clinging to me?! Why aren’t you dead? Why did you come to the Kiln?!”
“Because of you!” White No-Face replied.
Xie Lian’s movement faltered, and he huffed. “What do you mean?”
“You came here, so I did too,” White No-Face answered languidly.
Xie Lian’s expression twisted upon hearing that. But no matter how furious he was, how strong his murderous intent, it was as if White No-Face could always predict his next strike and avoided each attack by mere millimeters. The more Xie Lian struck, the more he understood one cruel fact:
He couldn’t win!
“That’s right,” White No-Face said, like he was reading his mind. “You can’t win.”
As soon as he spoke those words, a blade pierced Xie Lian’s wrist. Excruciating pain spread throughout his body, and Xie Lian’s grip on his sword faltered. In the next second, White No-Face grabbed him by the hair and yanked him backward, bashing him into the ground!
Xie Lian’s ears were ringing, his nose and mouth were filled with the metallic taste of blood, and his head swam.
A little while later, Xie Lian felt a hand pull his head up from the shattered ground. A voice came from above.
“So sad, so pitiful.”
Xie Lian choked out a mouthful of blood.
“Every time I meet Your Highness, you always look like this,” White No-Face said. “Makes one ache. Makes one excited.”
Xie Lian swallowed another mouthful of blood, refusing to cough it out. “…Don’t be too smug,” he croaked. “I might not be able to win against you, but…someone can. Even if you emerge from the Kiln, Jun Wu will just kill you again.”
Besides, there was still Hua Cheng!
Yet White No-Face replied, “Who says I’m the one who will emerge from the Kiln?”
Xie Lian was shocked.
Not him? Who else could it be?
White No-Face lifted Xie Lian’s face to look him in the eyes. “Your Highness, I think you might have misunderstood,” he said amiably. “A supreme certainly will emerge from the Kiln, but it won’t be me. It will be you.”
“…What did you say?” Xie Lian stammered, shaken to the core. “I’m not…”
He understood before he even finished his sentence. His body broke out in a cold sweat.
“That’s right. That’s exactly it,” White No-Face said. “Congrat-ulations, you finally understand my real objective. Isn’t this the ‘Third Path’ you love so much?”