Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 66

In the time that it took the Mid-Autumn Festival to arrive, Xie Lian decided to get busy and went back to PuQi in order to attend to some prayers in person. It had been so long since the last time he visited his shrine that quite a lot of dust had accumulated on all the surfaces, so he spent the entire first day cleaning everything as much as he could.

Hua Cheng would have gladly helped him, but the god asked him not to worry and to attend to his city. After all, they both offered Yin Yu the opportunity to freely think about his choice of becoming or not a deputy official, so the Waning Moon Officer had left Ghost City in order to keep his thoughts in check without being distracted.

Not that it was really a problem for Hua Cheng, he could run his city even without Yin Yu, but after all that time of having him take care of the majority of the things Hua Cheng didn't trust anyone else to, the Ghost King found himself busier than he used to be.

Mostly because he wanted to keep the chaos of Ghost City at bay.

Before Yin Yu became a valid and valuable helper, Ghost City was much more chaotic and messy. Hua Cheng, while being an incredible ruler and one that knew how to help and listen to his people – even if he never explicitly said so out loud – used to have no rules in his city, save for making both Paradise Manor and Qiandeng Temple off-limits to anyone that wasn't someone decided by him.

So, while Ghost City thrived and welcomed many lost souls into its metaphorical walls, it was also a place where anything could happen, good or bad.

After Yin Yu arrived, however, things changed. There was still chaos, but it seemed to be more organized, less... dangerous, in a way. Sure, Ghost City wasn't a place for anyone to wander in and stay safe, but it also wasn't a deathtrap as much as it used to be. Its inhabitants, perhaps influenced by Hua Cheng being quietly kept calm by Yin Yu's genuine efforts at helping him and the city, gradually became less of a menace.

It was still quite foolish to get near ghosts and monsters of Ghost City, especially for mortals or inexperienced cultivators, but the tremendous chaos of the beginning felt a lot more distant.

To an outsider, of course, not much seemed to have changed. In fact, heavenly officials never even realized how Ghost City quieted down compared to the loud, destructive attitude it had after getting big.

But Yin Yu made a difference. Many ghosts who were scared or hesitant in being around others – people who died young and couldn't cross over, benign spirits roaming the world, even those who passed away naturally but wanted to stick around – started flooding the streets and opening market stalls or small shops. Monsters that seemed aggressive due to the overall aura surrounding the city suddenly becoming a lot friendlier towards other Ghost City dwellers.

The examples were many, too many to list them all.

One time, Hua Cheng told his husband that the atmosphere in the city after Yin Yu started living and working there actually resembled what used to be there when it was nothing but Qiandeng Temple and a bunch other buildings being constructed. It made no sense to an outside eye, but it was chaotically orderly when one looked at it from the inside.

Xie Lian felt that particular description fit Ghost City perfectly. Even the blood spilled in the city was just a river, compared to the oceans that roared before.

Obviously, Xie Lian never experienced Ghost City before Yin Yu. When he followed Hua Cheng to his territory, the former official was already there and the city didn't reek or blood and betrayal. It was more of a background smell, one that accompanied the everyday life of ghosts and monsters, never going away but also never being overpowering.

What he knew came from the things Hua Cheng and Yin Yu themselves told him, and the best comparison he could make to understand the past was probably to remember what Ghost City looked like when Mount Tong'lu reopened.