Of Monsters and Flowers: a Jun Wu x Xie Lian x Hua Cheng

Three Masked Men

The city was utterly empty as Xie Lian walked through the streets, with only corpses littering about that all were disfigured with Human Face Disease.

Wu Ming was mere steps behind Xie Lian, ready to protect him in case they came across any survivors -not that he needed to act as a guard, as Xie Lian was even more skilled with the sword than he was, but the thought of not acting as a guard was unthinkable to the ghost.

Bai Wuxiang was also still present, but he was staying some ways away just to watch, and he occasionally disappeared but returned after a while.

Eventually, they reached the main palace and found that all the guards and servants were dead there as well, the disease fed by the dead soldiers had killed their victims in minutes.

They went deeper in, just following after Xie Lian until they arrived at the throne room.

The chopped-up bits of Lang Ying's body had not been cleaned up in the few days since Xie Lian had killed him -the servants had not been brave enough to touch his infected corpse- and the throne room now stunk with the sickly sweet scent of decay and the throne and the flesh-mush were covered with flies and maggots.

"A fitting end for a usurper." Xie Lian thought, a small smile forming under his mask, "Left to rot."

The former crown prince knew that no announcement had been made about Lang Ying's death, so his heir was not yet king, so Xie Lian wondered where that brat was -or rather, his corpse.

Xie Lian did not wonder long, soon finding the only survivor in Yong'an; hiding away in a lone hall was a teen boy wrapped up all over with bandages: Crown Prince Lang Ying.

"How curious." Bai Wuxiang hummed, "The unleashed spirits did not touch him."

But the bandaged boy did not spare Xie Lian nor Wu Ming a glance, instead going past them to yell at White No-Face.

"You tricked bofu! Bomu and tangdi were supposed to live!" The teen yelled, hitting the white-clad ghost's chest like a toddler having a tantrum, "You lied!"

The former god did not listen to the rest of the other prince's whining, seeing red.

How dare this little brat think that he and his family were getting everything they lost back and the new royal titles that they stole? How dare he complain about not receiving exactly what he wanted just because he bitched and whined and 'suffered'?

He lost his entire family, his home, his homeland, his friends, his godhood, everything, and got nothing in return but more suffering.

Xie Lian pulled Fangxin from the sheath at his hip, ready to teach Lang Ying what it truly meant to lose everything.

Wu Ming noticed what Xie Lian was doing and went over to grab Lang Ying's wrists to hold him in place for his god's convenience.

Lang Ying struggled in the ghost 'general's' hold, trying to squirm away, but Xie Lian just ripped the bandages off his face.

There, they saw why the unleashed plague had left him alone: he was already infected with the original slower strain of Human Face Disease -likely having gotten it from his uncle.

"Let me go!" Lang Ying whined, still squirming annoyingly

Xie Lian raised his hand and promptly stabbed the other crown prince in the belly, sliding the sharp blade aside to gut him properly.

The teen gasped, watching his innards spill outwards, his intestines smacking the floor with a wet squelch, foot by foot just continuing to fall like a rope that seemed to never end.