How To Polish A Pearl

Chapter 103 - Betraying (2)

Author's Notes:

I guess it is time for the big reveal of who has betrayed WKX and killed ZZS!

So – I am surprised that there were no guesses as to who she is?

Trigger warnings for violence and references to ZZS's death.

⊂ (▀▿▀) つ

"Of course I am going to fight you for it." Another laughter echoes through the hall and this time Wen Ke Xing can tell that it is coming from the ledge behind and above him. When he turns, he can see the two firepits igniting up on the plateau and a woman standing at the center— a woman who has decided to crash the funeral wearing nothing but red. Her white hair is almost golden under the light of the fires that are dancing beside her.

Luo Fumeng?

Wen Ke Xing can see her, but he cannot believe that it actually is her. He can hear the laughter still echoing around them, but he can't see her move her lips. The question in his eyes is so potent that he doesn't need to speak the words out loud.

The distorted voice appear next to his ears and he listens with conflict in heart, "Because it should have been me. You should have backed me to take the throne. Instead, you took it for yourself. Another perverted and unfaithful man on this throne makes me sick. You make me sick. This valley needs a change and only I can bring that."

He allows himself a few seconds to grieve. Tragicomic Ghost has been one of the ten devils since even before Wen Ke Xing had come to ghost valley. She had been the one to give him the Water of Lethe as a child. And she had been the one to entrust Gu Xiang to him, when that scared girl had walked in through the gates. Out of all of them—she was the one that he hadn't suspected at all.

"Change? You know, you should have just asked me and I would have given you the throne. Luo Fumeng, do you know that the three of us were planning on leaving? You could have had it all if you had just waited."

He used his QingGong to deliver that message since he didn't want the devils and other ghosts to hear him. He wanted to try and reach the only mother figure he'd had in the past twenty years. He felt like he had to tell her—even though it likely didn't matter at this point. He knew that they were going to fight to the death. Besides, it was highly unlikely that she would turn around and tell the whole hall that he was going to desert them. Doing that might instigate a full on fight on who ascends the throne after him. No—he made a gamble that she wouldn't tell them.

Wen Ke Xing can still barely make out her face when he hears that voice again, "Enough. Let's just get this over with." Her arms raises unnaturally and ghosts dressed in red swarms around her on the ledge, jumping off to land skillfully on the ground below. The elites are in a protective formation, circling around Wen Ke Xing. They are ready for whatever comes their way.

The ghosts around the tables have shifted during the exchange and are now huddled into groups of alliances. Only a few Devils remained at this late hour and they were not thanking their lucky stars for it. They had come for this farse of a wake and ended up in the middle of a coup. However, they knew that their Guigu Guzhu was as ruthless as they come and that he had just slaughtered two hundred of her assassins, their safest bet was still to side with him. However they could change their minds—depending on how this rebellion went.

The red ghosts are swarming through the hall, flanking the devils and their underlings. When they are all in formation, or what Wen Ke Xing suspects is their version of formation, everything stops as if they are waiting for a signal. The whole room is vibrating in anticipation, one big inhale before the exhale. Tragicomic Ghost drops her arms and her army lunges. In a whirl of black and red, ghosts versus ghosts, that laughter is heard in between battle cries and clanking metal.