Whose Fault Is It, Really?

He noticed Dong Rui being exceptionally generous, tossing out two taels of broken silver without the slightest pang of regret. Dong Rui chuckled slyly. "I don't have any, but you do." Ever since he put on the mask given to him by National Preceptor Shuangye, he no longer had to cover his face when walking through town, nor did he have to face a wall in some deserted corner just to drink tea or eat a meal. This was the life he had always wanted. He Lingchuan paused mid-motion. "I have money, but what does that have to do with you?" "How many favors do you owe me?" Dong Rui said leisurely. "Do you want me to count them up for you, one by one?" He Lingchuan fell silent. It was true. He had fleeced Dong Rui for divine bones and divine blood, and had borrowed two of his demon puppets to carry out the Mount Xu Plan. One could safely say that without Dong Rui's help, he never would have reclaimed the divine relic. He really owed him a massive debt of gratitude. Rarely seeing He Lingchuan at a loss for words, Dong Rui grew even more delighted. "Pay up! I don't have enough to spend! Give me a thousand taels to start." He Lingchuan indeed handed over a thousand-tael banknote. Dong Rui immediately called the waiter over and tossed out a silver ingot. "I'm in high spirits today! Tea for everyone in the house is on me, plus a plate of dried fruit for every table! Hey, storyteller, give us a few more good ones!" Hearing of such good fortune, patrons across the teahouse stood up one after another to offer their thanks. Dong Rui laughed out loud, practically wearing his gloating delight on his face. Once Dong Rui had finished laughing and the chatter around them had died down, He Lingchuan smiled without warmth. "Feel free to have your fun. It's fine. But let me remind you—too heavy a favor isn't a good thing. Once the debt gets too big to pay back, one might just—" He raised a hand and drew a flat palm across his throat. Dong Rui's smile vanished on the spot. If the creditor was gone, neither the debts nor the favors needed repaying. Sensing that He Lingchuan was threatening its master, the ghost ape bared its fangs and hissed, yet didn't dare make a move. Leaving aside the fact that it had lost to this fellow twice before, encountering him again this time, it could sense that He Lingchuan had grown stronger—strong enough to instill dread in its heart, keeping it from acting rashly. Dong Rui patted its head before asking, "What do you want now?" "Have you figured out anything about those strange cicadas?" "How could it be so fast?" Dong Rui picked up a piece of mung bean cake, chewing slowly. "We only arrived at Mount Rong yesterday, and you expect results today? Do you take me for an immortal?" He had only had one night's sleep and hadn't eaten or played his fill yet. "Now that is strange." He Lingchuan propped his chin on his hand, studying him. "Back when you were in the Demon Nest researching demon puppets, you went day and night without rest, unwilling even to run for your life. Where did all that fanaticism go?" Could Dong Rui really be the sort of person to cast research aside just to eat, drink, and make merry? Especially when the seventy-year cicadas' mutation was so intriguing, and he even had several live specimens on hand. "Times change! After going with you through all that—" Dong Rui pointed east. "Surviving multiple brushes with death, fleeing countless pursuers, and finally escaping with our lives, I realized that time is precious! One should enjoy life while one can! What's wrong with that?" He Lingchuan knew the east referred to the Beijia Kingdom and that this fellow was spewing nonsense, so he waved the waiter over. "Give us a private room." "Right this way upstairs, gentlemen!" The private room in this small-town teahouse was hardly elegant. There even appeared to be fresh spit in the corner of the wall; calling it a booth was more accurate, but at least it had a door. He Lingchuan shut the door, casually cast a soundproofing barrier, and asked, "Alright, what's really going on?" Dong Rui put on a bewildered look. "What do you mean, what's going on?" "The strange seventy-year cicadas came from the northeast, and so did your ghost ape. And your home is in the Wange Marsh," He Lingchuan said. "Tell me, what's the connection between them?" "Uh..." He Lingchuan laid it bare: "The seventy-year cicadas mutating into something so bizarre has to do with the divine blood, doesn't it?" He had conducted experiments with divine blood and had framed Nian Zanli with it; his understanding of this stuff far exceeded that of ordinary people. This fellow was simply impossible to deceive. His secret hadn't even lasted a single night. Dong Rui grimaced. "Let me state upfront: this cicada plague in Mount Rong was purely an accident. It has nothing to do with me." He Lingchuan gave a noncommittal grunt. "Over the past few months, we've either been in Beijia or traveling west." "Exactly, exactly!" Dong Rui nodded like a pestle pounding garlic. "No. 17 couldn't find me in Xiazhou, so it returned to the Wange Marsh on its own. But I had been gone for too long, and during that time, a band of thieves settled in Wange Forest, raiding everywhere. In the end, they found my place." No. 17 was the ghost ape. Hearing this, He Lingchuan immediately had a bad feeling. "And then?" "As luck would have it, during those few days, No. 17 had stolen wine from the nearby town and spent all its time drunk out in the open!" Just thinking about it infuriated Dong Rui, and he slapped the ape's head beside him. The ghost ape held its head in both paws, not daring to make a peep. "Right in the middle of their thievery, No. 17 returned, and a fight broke out between them. In the brawl, half a small bottle of divine blood accidentally shattered, splashing into the forest ground. "At that time, the seventy-year cicadas in Wange Forest happened to be in their active cycle, busy breaking out of the earth and emerging aboveground. Getting splashed by the divine blood like that, they... they..." Just as expected. He Lingchuan rubbed his temples. "So the spark that triggered this cicada scourge really was your divine blood?" "Hey, hey, it had nothing to do with me!" Dong Rui hastened to shift the blame. "If those petty thieves hadn't come to steal my things, the divine blood would still be sitting safe and sound in my house!" "Such an important treasure, and you couldn't hide it properly?" "I hid it! Of course I hid it!" Dong Rui smiled bitterly. "But how could a victim like me be as experienced as professional thieves? I hid it so well, yet they still sniffed it out." He Lingchuan sighed. "Go on." "Some plants on the ground splashed with divine blood mutated as well, but No. 17 was preoccupied with killing the thieves and didn't pay much attention. About ten days later, some beasts and monsters in Wange Forest suddenly went mad, destroying fields and devouring people, prompting the local magistrate's office to organize a suppression campaign. Right around that time, the cicada plague broke out too. Two or three months ago, the seventy-year cicadas weren't as massive as they are now, but wherever they swarmed, they formed a suffocating black cloud, leaving not a blade of grass behind." He Lingchuan looked at him. "A cicada mutation like that seems way too crude to catch your eye, doesn't it?" Since he had to lay everything out on the table anyway, Dong Rui simply sat up straight. "No, no! It's profoundly inspiring!" "Inspiring?" "The two cicadas Zhu Daniang captured and brought back for me—I've already finished dissecting them. I used to live in Wange Forest, and I ran experiments on the original version of the seventy-year cicadas long ago, concluding they were useless. But this time—this time is different!" When speaking of his experiments, Dong Rui's eyes lit up. "I'm certain that ninety-nine percent of those seventy-year cicadas died instantly upon ingesting the divine blood, but a few definitely survived. Do you know why? Huh?" Seeing how worked up he was, He Lingchuan could only play the straight man. "Why?" "They were about to reproduce! "During that season, the seventy-year cicadas emerge from the earth to court and mate. Perhaps a few had already mated, and stimulated by the divine blood, they laid their eggs prematurely!"