Me and the devil

一

~

One day, a great rumbling shook the sky. The force of these great tremors caused the earth and sky to tremble. The lanterns of everlasting light shook, the firelight dancing wildly. The many heavenly official's were all running about, asking each other:

"What great god has ascended?"

"What a grand entrance!"

One moment, the heavenly officials were all clamoring, jostling each other to get a closer look at this amazing god, the next moment they were all struck dumb.

Weren't you done?!

The weirdo, the laughingstock of the three realms, the legendary crown prince of Xianle. He...he...he... fucking ascended again!

~

Xie Lian turned to meet the shocked civil and martial gods. Tsk. He would rather be anywhere but here. Ling Wen was the first to greet his highness.

"Your highness?" Ling Wen was shocked to say the least.

She had lost track of him after his second banishment, but knew he wore simple, tattered white cultivation robes and wasn't in the best place financially. But the man that now stood in front of her was different. His clothes, while still simple and white were made from fine silk. The clothing seemed to shimmer when it caught the light just right. Gold lined the fine garment and hints of red popped out from the clothing too. It was obviously not a cheap piece of clothing.

To see him wear such nice clothing was a shock to say the least.

Xie Lian smiled and waved. While he was here, he might as well be courteous.

"Your highness..." Xie Lian turned to see Feng Xin staring at him slack-jawed.

"What's wrong Feng Xin? Shocked to see me again?"

Feng Xin could only stare numbly at him.

"Well." Ling Wen cleared her throat. "Congratulations, your highness."

"On what?" Xie Lian inquired.

Ling Wen stood tall, hands folded behind her back, seemingly having regained her composure. Her usual steely cold gaze had replaced the awed shock in her eyes moments earlier. She cleared her throat once more.

"You have won first place on the chart of 'The Heavenly Official most hoped to get banished' this year.

Xie Lian scratched the back of his neck. Nervously playing with Ruoye on his wrist. "Well first place is first place, after all. Is there anything actually worth getting happy about in return?"

Only one thing had brought Xie Lian joy for the past almost 800 years. Which reminded him, he should inform Hua Cheng what had happened, he probably already knew what was happening, but it never hurt to double check.

Xie Lian reached out through their personal communication array:

'Don't come over, I'm alright.'

Ling Wen was saying something, but Xie Lian hadn't heard her.

"Apologies, Ling Wen. But could you please repeat that?"

Ling Wen sighed.

"The winner receives one hundred merits." She said,

Xie Lian grinned:

"Please notify me if any other such charts occur."

Ling Wen squinted at him. She sensed something was slightly off about His Highness, but decided it wasn't a big deal, it had been almost eight-hundred years since they had last spoken, people could change in one year, let alone eight-hundred years.