Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 3

--!!! Important Announcement! Please read before proceeding! !!!

I will be changing the rating of this story from T to E, either when I post the next chapter or later. But! I will add a warning in the beginning notes when there's an explicit scene added, so people who are here not to read it can easily avoid it. They won't be important for the plot, I just really like this couple and wanted to add them, so there's no harm in skipping them if you're not interested.

Even though I added the tag "Rating May Change", I still want to be as transparent as possible. The rest of the story will still be on the same rating as the novel itself, so the E rating is really just for those added (skippable) parts.

Have a good read!--

Before Feng Xin and Mu Qing could have some sort of reaction that wasn't losing all the color in their faces, Xie Lian was taken away by that scene by Ling Wen, who was using his private communication array to request for his presence.
Praising her timely intervention, Xie Lian got up and bid goodbye to the two stunned martial gods, quickly leaving his palace before they could think to stop him. He wasn't ready to have that conversation, yet, and frankly... he hated being yelled at for something he didn't do wrong.
On the way over to the palace of Ling Wen, the Crown prince stumbled upon many heavenly officials with ghastly faces and hauntingly tired expressions, all carrying stacks of documents taller than the average person. It was a sight.

Ling Wen went straight to the point, informing Xie Lian that the emperor needed his hand in assistance for some kind of matter. In itself, it wasn't too common for the emperor to ask anyone, so Xie Lian was taken aback: «What is it?».

Before answering, Ling Wen handed him a scroll: «There has been a large number of grand believers from the north praying frequently», she informed him, watching as Xie Lian unrolled the scroll to check out its content. «It's been happening recently, so things must not be peaceful».
Grand believer could be a term for three types of people: the rich, who paid for religious services and built temples to please the gods; the missionaries, who promoted the religion; and those who possessed absolute faith in heart and body. This third type was fairly uncommon, because if someone could reach that level through genuine means, they wouldn't be far from ascension.
Ling Wen wasn't exactly surprised when Xie Lian immediately understood the one spoken of in that situation was the first type.

«The emperor cannot attend to the north, but if you're willing to make a trip on his behalf, the amount of offerings will be counted under your altar».
Clearly a way to give him a chance in paying those millions of merits, even if Ling Wen had been thoroughly shocked when their number decreased significantly. She also had no idea why that happened, and it made her both suspicious and frustrated.

If Jun Wu wanted to help the Crown Prince, far from him to refuse such an offering. It was a pretty clever ploy, as well, making it sound like he was asking if Xie Lian was willing to lend a hand. It was probably the reason why Hua Cheng contented himself with only halving the amount of merits Xie Lian owed, he had to know a hand was coming his way.
So, he thanked Ling Wen and send his thanks to Jun Wu as well, although silently. When Ling Wen asked him if he needed to borrow a spiritual device of some sort, Xie Lian shook his head: «Even if you gave me a spiritual device, I would need spiritual power to use it». And, as far as they knew, he had lost all of his powers due to his two banishments.
He could be – kind of – himself in the heavenly realm, since spiritual qi was abundant were all the divine palaces stood, but outside of it he had to be careful. Not only that, accepting a spiritual device from Ling Wen would have brought jealousy over RuoYe, and he didn't want the faithful silk ribbon to be jealous.
E-Ming was enough for that.