Chapter Text
Feng Xin had been having a rather normal day. Fight a little with Mu Qing, answer some prayers, fight a little more with Mu Qing, go disperse some ghosts, search for Xie Lian, fight a lot more with Mu Qing, cause some property damage in that fight, get chewed out by the owner of said property and fight with Mu Qing about who has to pay for repairs. Really, a normal day. That’s how his life had been for centuries and he hadn’t expected it to change today out of nowhere.
It started when someone ascended. And that ascension was violent enough that it tore through all of Heaven, leveling Feng Xin’s palace in the process. So obviously, he stomped angrily towards the gold beam of light to yell at the newly ascended god, but when the gold light faded, all the words died in his throat.
It was Xie Lian.
Feng Xin hadn’t seen His Highness in eight centuries. Ever since Xie Lian had told him to leave and he just had. It didn’t matter that Feng Xin had gone back shortly afterwards, Xie Lian had been gone. Feng Xin had failed him.
And now His Highness was back again, had ascended a third time. However, considering what Xie Lian had apparently done directly after his second ascension… Hopefully, it would go differently this time. Feng Xin was in an entirely different situation now, he could help. If Xie Lian would let him.
Feng Xin carefully watched how His Highness reacted to his recent ascension. Xie Lian looked around in confusion and something Feng Xin very hesitantly labeled as dissatisfaction and worry.
And then with no warning whatsoever Xie Lian’s expression turned frantic and pained. He coughed with a hand in front of his mouth, his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed into the nearest gods who’d been there to see who was ascending, the Windmaster and Earthmaster.
Surprised and panicked shouts rang out as Xie Lian kept coughing and a black liquid started to come out of his mouth. The Windmaster and Earthmaster both got sprayed by the black liquid, but the Windmaster was way too busy worrying about Xie Lian to complain about it and even the Earthmaster looked strangely panicked for some reason.
No comparison to Feng Xin, though. He hadn’t even noticed he’d darted forwards until he had reached Xie Lian who had turned into a pale shivering mess in the Windmaster’s arms.
“Your Highness! What’s wrong?” Feng Xin shouted frantically as he crashed to his knees next to Xie Lian.
The latter didn’t seem any kind of coherent, he kept mumbling frantically about a San Lang he had to get back to.
“Is he sick?” the Windmaster asked tearfully and was clearly transferring spiritual energy in an attempt to help.
“He’s cursed,” the Earthmaster replied with an undertone of panic that was completely foreign to him.
Feng Xin barely knew the guy and was honestly surprised he’d even been in Heaven, let alone this close to whoever had ascended, but the Windmaster had probably dragged the Earthmaster along. Still, since when was Ming Yi this worried about someone he had no way of knowing? He kind of looked like he was about to get murdered.
“Cursed?”
Feng Xin totally did not jump out of his skin at the sudden interjection. So what if Mu Qing had apparently come over as well and was now standing next to them? Feng Xin was a Martial God, he wouldn’t get startled by that!
“What kind of curse?” Mu Qing asked with a complicated expression on his face that Feng Xin refused to acknowledge as concern.
The Earthmaster took Xie Lian’s wrist and stayed silent for a few moments. His expression suddenly turned outright terrified. “It’s a love curse,” he said gravely as if he’d just been told the world would get burned to the ground.
As much as Feng Xin was worried about His Highness, he didn’t understand why the Earthmaster would look like that. The list of candidates able to do it was very short and he doubted Crimson Rain was involved in this.
Still…
“What?” Feng Xin and Mu Qing screeched in an unusual show of unity and in an even further deviation from their normal behavior, they didn’t even glare at each other for it.
Xie Lian looked way too deathly pale for that. Beads of sweat were running down his temple and the black liquid was smeared across his mouth. He was shivering and his gaze flickered frantically over the gaping gods, pleading to get back to his San Lang, whoever that was.
“This curse is a rather unusual one,” the Earthmaster explained as if he was holding a funeral for someone. “His Highness is bound to another person now and if he’s too far away from the other cursed party, he’s experiencing extreme pain and symptoms of a raging fever. His Highness needs to be reunited with the second person who was hit by this love curse or it will only get worse.”
That was probably this San Lang Xie Lian was babbling about.
“How do we break this curse?” Feng Xin demanded to know.
The Earthmaster sighed deeply. “I don’t know. However, don’t kill the caster. These kinds of curses rarely end with that, they only get worse. And the only additional information I have is that if one half of the couple is killed, this state will stay permanent. But I suggest you figure the rest out after you reunite the cursed couple. The couple will be drawn towards each other, so finding this mystery person shouldn’t be too hard. Best hurry up.”
Xie Lian was still shivering in the Windmaster’s arms. Hurrying up might be a very, very good idea.
“General Nan Yang, General Xuan Zhen,” a calm voice interrupted.
Nope, Feng Xin totally did not jump out of his skin this time either. The Heavenly Emperor himself had come over, Ling Wen at his side. Jun Wu was looking at Xie Lian with a worried expression. His Highness still seemed to be his favorite even after everything that had happened.
“I ask you to take Xianle back to whoever he’s cursed to be in love with and find a way to break this curse as soon as possible,” Jun Wu ordered.
Whispers arose between the gods about how Feng Xin and Mu Qing allegedly still hated Xie Lian, but Feng Xin didn’t care. Right now, he just desperately wanted to get that pained and delirious expression off Xie Lian’s face. Meanwhile, Ling Wen on the other hand was mumbling something about having to find another person to pay for the damage. Whatever that was about.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Feng Xin replied and Mu Qing nodded his consent as well.
“I expect a report on the identity of the other cursed person as soon as you find out,” Jun Wu said. “A god cursed to think himself in love with a mortal is highly problematic. We need to know who this San Lang is.”
“We’ll handle it,” Mu Qing said even though he clearly meant that he would do it on his own.
Feng Xin decided to yell at him later, he had other priorities at the moment. He took Xie Lian out of the Windmaster’s arms and asked, “Your Highness, we’ll take you to your San Lang, where is he?”
At the mention of the unfamiliar name, Xie Lian turned at least coherent enough to point them in the right direction, so the three quickly descended with Feng Xin holding the shivering prince in his arms the entire time.
Xie Lian was far too light for his taste and those robes had clearly seen better days. Sometime in the last century. Heaven, what had happened to Xie Lian all this time?
When the three gods landed on the earth, Xie Lian already seemed better. Some color had returned to his cheeks and he dazedly blinked up at Feng Xin.
“Feng Xin?” he asked quietly and then noticed the second person accompanying him. His voice got ever quieter. “Mu Qing? What… what’s going on? Why… I…”
“We’ll explain, but don’t you want to do something else first?” Mu Qing asked reservedly.
Xie Lian’s eyes widened. “San Lang! I was just with him and then I ascended! The ghost! I have to get back to him as fast as possible!”
From one moment to the next Xie Lian pushed himself out of Feng Xin’s arms and darted off into a small forest that was next to them.
“Your Highness!” Feng Xin and Mu Qing shouted simultaneously and immediately ran after him.
For a person still struck with a high fever, Xie Lian was surprisingly fast.
“Why didn’t you pay better attention?” Mu Qing hissed. “How could you just let him run off like that?”
“I didn’t see you stopping him either!”
“You were the one carrying him!”
“Because all you can be trusted to carry is a broom!”
“Big words coming from you, Ju Yang!”
“Say that one more time again and my palace won’t be the only thing that’ll have to be rebuilt!”
Feng Xin and Mu Qing kept yelling at each other until they caught up with Xie Lian just in time to see him reaching a person in red who was stumbling around frantically in the forest, obviously looking for something. Or someone.
“San Lang!” Xie Lian cried out with immense relief in his voice.
The person in red whirled around and his face lit up with joy like a small child. “Gege!”
Feng Xin and Mu Qing on the other hand both froze in their tracks in shock and existential dread as Xie Lian kept running and threw himself into the arms of the young man in red.
Threw himself into the arms of the Calamity that had wiped out thirty-three gods and seemed to have it out specifically for Feng Xin and Mu Qing.
Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
Hua Cheng.
Because apparently, he was involved after all. Even if the Ghost King was currently in the form of young man, almost still a teenager, Feng Xin would recognize that menace anywhere. Forget about some random mortal, that would’ve been infinitely preferable to Xie Lian and Hua Cheng being the ones who were currently cursed to be in love with each other. This was about the worst thing that could’ve happened!
Please, someone tell him he was hallucinating! Someone tell him His Highness wasn’t currently cuddling the most dangerous threat of Heaven like Crimson Rain was a stuffed animal. And the normally menacing and mocking Ghost King was letting Xie Lian as if he never wanted to be somewhere else!
It looks like the world is going to be burned down after all, Feng Xin thought panicked.
Because once Crimson Rain was back to normal, he would one hundred percent have feelings about being cursed to fall in love. And with Xie Lian of all people. Crimson Rain hated gods with a passion, there was no way he’d make an exception for His Highness, right?