757 Bon Voyage (1/2)
They only parted ways less than half a year ago at the Sacred City.
Six months ago, Yunlou Qingshu walked around in the Sacred City, his posture elegant and graceful, and his every move was indescribably noble and solemn. But at the moment, he sat on the ground, looking unkempt. He reeked of wine, and a pool of vomit remained uncleaned in the corner. He was hungover, like a tramp who was about to die on the streets, and one could no longer find the slightest bit of grace or majesty on him.
When Ye Qingxuan saw him, he was sitting in a place resembling an ancestral shrine. Under his buttocks was the table where offerings were initially placed on, and the memorial tablets that were supposed to be enjoying the worshiping were all over the place at the moment.
The shrine that used to be solemn and dignified in the past was a mess at the moment.
A blanket was messily draped around the decadent old man. He opened his eyes and looked at Ye Qingxuan, who walked in. After a long time, he seemed to remember who the young man was, and a trace of realization flashed across his eyes.
”It's been a long time since we last met, 'Your Royal Highness the Prince'.” The way he pronounced the phrase ”Your Royal Highness the Prince” was especially weird, full of ridicule and malice.
”You are Yunlou Qingshu?” Ye Qingxuan looked at him, his expression indifferent, trying to identify any familiar traces on his face.
”Oh, yes, it's me, it's me.” Yunlou Qingshu began cackling. He reached out and pointed randomly. ”Sit wherever you want, wherever looks comfortable to you. Mind your step; you just stepped on my grandfather's memorial tablet.” With the drowsiness and drunkenness of a hungover person, he glanced at Ye Qingxuan, his messy hair covered one side of his head, making him look very amusing.
”So, what brings Your Royal Highness here?” Although he asked so, his face still wore an expression that made him seem like he knew everything.
It was annoying.
Ye Qingxuan frowned. From the beginning, the situation was beyond his expectation. Although Yunlou Qingshu seemed dozens of times nicer than he was the last time they talked, it didn't mean that Ye Qingxuan was willing to deal with a madman. It was especially so as God knew how far the current Yunlou Qingshu was from becoming a madman. Or rather, how big was the difference between him and a madman?
”Beacon.” Ye Qingxuan spoke and asked straightforwardly, ”The beacon that leads one past the mist and the Great Wall, you have it, right?”
”Ah, yes, yes.” He did not shirk nor think about it, and he didn't even show any intention to wait for a good price to sell his goods. Yunlou Qingshu nodded straightforwardly as if another tramp had asked him whether there were any fleas on his body.
Nowadays, Bai Heng had sealed off the Aurora with the Great Wall. Attempting to cross the mist with any means wouldn't work, be it physically crossing the ocean or descending upon Aurora with one's aether projection.
Aurora was completely sealed off all the way from the physical world to the high-level dimensions. Hidden behind the mist, even the ocean currents and sea regions had changed drastically.
As a result of the World of Dark and the long distance separating the East and West, unless Ye Qingxuan confronted the power of the Great Wall head on, he had little chance of making it across the mist. But even a fool would know that it was impossible to fight against the power accumulated by the entire East for centuries with the power of one person alone.
He had been blocked out by the Great Wall. No, he hadn't even been accepted by the Great Wall before. Apart from the blood of the Deva, to the Great Wall, he had no residential permit, and naturally, it would not let him enter. Therefore, Ye Qingxuan could only come up with other methods, finding other ways to go to the East.
Other factors aside, he could conclude with confidence that even in the current situation, Yunlou must still have a beacon that could guide the way and enable him to pass the verification of the Great Wall. Otherwise, for so many years, where did the smuggled goods from the East come from?
Yunlou Qingshu knew his intentions from the first moment he arrived, and as a result, he felt all the more ridiculous and mocked.
He sized Ye Qingxuan up as if he was looking at a rare species of animal. ”It seems that you really have deep feelings for my daughter, you are actually willing to abandon the Queen to find her. What do you like about her?”
Ye Qingxuan was expressionless. ”It has nothing to do with you.”
”You are right.” Yunlou Qingshu laughed sharply. ”After growing up, children have nothing to do with their parents. As a father, I can only watch as a man hold her hand and take her away. It is really saddening. Am I right, Lord Hand of God?”
Ye Qingxuan's face suddenly turned pale.
He felt a bit like vomiting.
After a long time, he managed to suppress the heartfelt nausea.
”Sorry, I felt a bit nauseous.” He waved his hand and asked, ”What on earth happened that turned you into this goddamn state right now?”
”It has nothing to do with you.” Yunlou Qingshu squinted and said calmly. ”Please don't bother about it.”
”What about the situation outside? How did the bodies come about?”
”Isn't it clear at a glance?” Yunlou Qingshu spread his hands resignedly. ”Speaking of it, I learned the tactic of hanging the rebels from you Anglos. The effect is not bad indeed.”
”In the end, you personally turned your City of the Cloud Tower into this goddamn state?” Ye Qingxuan asked.
”Is it not good?” As if he had been asked about something he was most happy about, Yunlou Qingshu laughed hard, bending forward and backward. ”Isn't it the price a usurper like me should pay?
”No, it is only right and proper this way. You see, I did everything in my power to snatch the position of the lord of the city, but ended up destroying the entire Cloud Tower. And in the end, everyone deserted me, and I would die from madness. The ending is simply so classic that it should be written into a novel. Or rather, one should say that it won't be normal if this is not the case! ”
Ye Qingxuan said nothing and simply looked at him, his gaze becoming one of pity.
”You can't solve the problem of the Black Tide, right?” He said, ”For the sake of the position of the lord of the city, even though you did everything in your power, killed your father, sent assassins after your brother, even raped your own sister, and turned your daughter into a marionette... You paid every price that you can afford, in order to have a grasp on power, but in the end, power abandoned you.
”Without Bai Xi, you can't resolve the problem of the Black Tide beneath the City of the Cloud Tower.
”The City of the Cloud Tower will be destroyed in the catastrophe, because of you, your incompetence, your desires, and everything you have done. Am I right, Yunlou Qingshu?”
Yunlou Qingshu said nothing.
Facing Ye Qingxuan's relentless insults and ridicule, he narrowed his eyes and gazed at the man in front of him, his mad face convulsing because of rage. Under the pupils, webs of red blood vessels were spreading, like fire. After a long time, he lowered his head, as if he had lost all his strength, and laughed hysterically.
”Exactly!” He lifted his hands and applauded, not being evasive about all the evils he had done. He grinned and laughed, revealing sharp canine teeth, and an evilness like that of demons filled his eyes. Despite being so decadent and flustered, his face, he was still full of a glow of pride he felt from his maliciousness.
From the bottom of his heart, he was proud of all that he had done!
He exclaimed, ”It is the achievement most worthy of praise and proclamation in my life as Yunlou Qingshu! Greatness that you ordinary folks can never achieve! A great evil that can't even be redeemed by one-ten-thousandth even if its perpetrator is cooked in nine tripod cauldrons!
”You only got one thing wrong...” He paused, and the malice in his smile spewed out like a blowout. ”Ye Qingxuan, if the father of the woman you love is going to marry her to another person one day, what will you do?”
Ye Qingxuan looked at him, expressionless. His fingers tapped on an incorporeal sword ridge, and a chill burst forth. ”Do I have any other choice?”
”What a coincidence, I think so too, and I did so too...” Yunlou Qingshu whistled incredibly happily. ”Look, you are like me! It is one of the things we have in common, and it is definitely not the only one! By the way, do you like your hair?”
Ye Qingxuan said nothing.
”You don't, right?” Yunlou Qingshu understood his answer moved a bit forward from the table as if he wanted to have a heart-to-heart conversation with the young man. ”Rest assured, I dislike mine more than you do.” As he said so, he pointed to his messy hair. ”Look, this white hair. It's not because of a pure bloodline, but merely because I am old.
”It is my greatest shame, proof of my lowly birth.”
Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes impatiently, and he was indifferent.
Yunlou Qingshu snickered. ”It is your greatest fortune, Ye Qingxuan, to be able to grow up in Anglo from young. You have not become like me, even though everyone thinks that you are a 'hybrid'.”
Disregarding Ye Qingxuan's cold expression, Yunlou Qingshu lifted his hand and toyed with the messy hair hanging from his forehead, separating the hair that had stuck together in clumps, one by one.
”Before the age of 15, I carefully hid in places where others couldn't see, escaping from their sight. I'm afraid of others looking at my face and seeing my hair...