Perhaps his excited gaze was too piercing, and the young priests who were staring at him quickly waved their hands and said, "We didn't tell anyone else!"

Xie Lian’s eyes turned red as he asked, “Then how did they know?!”

After hearing that, few of the thirty or so priests present showed any surprise. Since so many priests knew about it, how many priests in the heavenly court knew about it?

When questioned by him, the priests paused for a moment and then defended themselves, “They are not outsiders. We are all familiar friends here. There are no secrets between us. Telling them is not like telling others. We will not tell other priests…” Before he could finish, Xie Lian shouted, “Lies! Lies! I don’t believe it!!!”

Being interrupted by him in such a harsh voice, the young priests were embarrassed and retreated back into the crowd. At this time, a priest suddenly shouted: "What does it matter whether you believe it or not? Your Highness, you did good things during your exile. It's good enough that no one reported you on the spot. You still ask others to keep it a secret for you? What obligation do we have to keep it a secret for you? It's really funny!"

Xie Lian felt as if a basin of water and ice was suddenly poured on him, and a knife was stabbed through his heart. He said anxiously, “No! I…”

I also heard someone say, "If you don't do bad things during the day, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door at night. If you don't keep yourself clean, how can you blame others for not keeping their promises? If someone hides this kind of unjust thing for you, then they are derelict in their duty and have no moral integrity!"

Xie Lian said: “No!!! I…”

He wanted to say that I had a reason, but I didn't want to, but he knew in his heart that no matter what the reason was, it didn't matter. What mattered was that he did rob!

Such a stain was like a brand of shame on his face, making him infinitely insignificant in front of these priests, and he didn't even dare to speak loudly to defend himself. Seeing that his momentum was declining, a martial god stood up and said, "Your Highness, you should understand now why we don't want you to practice here, right?"

Xie Lian lowered his head and clenched his fists.

The Martial God continued, "We are not on the same path. We cannot work together if we have different paths. You should leave on your own."

Seeing him confidently saying “People with different beliefs cannot work together”, Xie Lian suddenly understood.

After all, in the final analysis, don't you still want him to give up this sacred land?

The knuckles of his fists crackled, and he suppressed his tension in his throat for a while before saying in a deep voice, "...I'm not leaving. I want to practice here."

At this moment, his anger towards these thirty or so priests had overwhelmed his sense of shame.

Since it has come to this, he might as well just throw it all out. Rather than running away in disgrace, he would rather stay here with a thick skin and teach them no way to succeed. Xie Lian raised his head abruptly and repeated once more: "I want to practice here. This mountain is not your territory, you have no right to make me leave!"

Seeing his tough attitude, the thirty-odd priests all looked grim. Xie Lian heard someone whisper, “Why is this happening?”

"I've never seen anyone so shameless..."

However, no matter what they said, Xie Lian just stood there. Even though his heart was bleeding from the verbal sparring, he still stubbornly stood there without moving.

The Martial God said, "It seems that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is determined to do what he wants and is determined to make everyone unhappy?"

Xie Lian said coldly, “Come and chase me away if you have the guts. Anyway, even if you want to, you don’t have the ability to do that!”

As soon as these words came out, the dozen or so priests on the opposite side suddenly changed color and drew their weapons!

Of course. To the God of War, that was a huge provocation. Many of the people present were God of War, so how could they pretend they didn't hear it?

Surrounded by enemies, Xie Lian was not afraid at all. He had no sword in his hand, but only tightly grasped a branch that he used as a walking stick when climbing mountains. A martial god officer said solemnly: "Your Highness, if you apologize immediately, we can regard it as you did not offend us just now."

Xie Lian said, “If I have made you unhappy in any way, I will never apologize.”

He held the branch, pointed forward, and said, "Because you are not worthy of being gods at all!"

There was a commotion on the other side.

Someone sneered, "We are not worthy? Do you think a robber like you who robs mortals is worthy?"

Xie Lian couldn’t bear it any longer. He had never wanted to bear it in the first place, so he grabbed a branch and attacked, shouting, “This is too much!”

The dozen or so martial priests also fought back with their weapons. A priest in the back row said, "We didn't ask you to rob, why are you blaming us?"

But they were too happy too early. They thought that Xie Lian, who had no magic power and no weapons, would be easy to deal with, but it turned out to be completely different. Although Xie Lian only had a branch in his hand, he used it as if it were a poisonous blade, aggressive and extremely powerful. Not long after the two sides fought, several martial arts officials' swords were almost knocked away by him. They didn't even dare to be blown by the strong wind from the branch, and they were so scared that they quickly dodged to the back row.

As a high priest, he is unable to defeat a demoted mortal. This is so shameful!

At this moment, a priest who was watching the battle suddenly screamed from afar, "What the hell?!"

This shout startled the other priests: "What's going on?!"

The priest seemed to be in great pain. He covered his face and bent over and said, "Just now, a will-fire hit my eye... Was it him who did it?"

Xie Lian remembered that this was the priest who had pointed at his nose and called him a robber. He laughed in anger, “What ghost fire? If you want to steal the spiritual land, just say so. There’s no need to slander me!”

He was furious and attacked even harder. A circle of martial gods' swords, spears, swords and halberds were smashed to the ground by the ordinary branch in his hand. Suddenly, someone shouted, "I caught him! I caught him! Look!"

Xie Lian paused slightly, only to see the priests across from him in a mess. One of them was holding something high in his hand, saying, “There really is a will-o’-the-wisp. He’s causing trouble! We’ve got evidence!”

Xie Lian looked closely and saw that it was indeed a small will-o'-the-wisp burning faintly. He angrily said, "I have no idea what's going on! Why do you think I'm playing tricks just because you caught a will-o'-wisp? Will-o'-the-wisp is not a rare thing! Is my name written on it?!"

The screaming priest covered his eyes and said, "How could an ordinary will-o'-the-wisp fly into my eyes? How could this happen if you didn't order it?"

Xie Lian rebuked, “Then I said it could just be a wandering spirit on this mountain, accidentally got scared by you guys and bumped into you! What kind of evidence is that?”

The first martial god to attack grabbed the will-o'-the-wisp and said, "Who cares who ordered it? This kind of harmful thing should be broken up!" As he said this, he exerted force with his hands, trying to crush the will-o'-the-wisp to pieces. Seeing this, Xie Lian blurted out, "Let it go!"

After all, he couldn't bear to see the wandering soul being affected by their farce, so he rushed forward to fight with the God of War. Because he wanted to take the soul, he restrained his attack. The two were in a stalemate when several priests in the back suddenly shouted, "You're here? Come quickly! Come and see what's going on!"

It sounded like someone had arrived. The priests turned around and said, "You're finally here!" "We've been waiting for you for a long time, come and help!"

Upon hearing this, Xie Lian was shocked at first, thinking, “Could it be that some powerful priest has come?” Then he changed his mind and said, “Who cares who it is? If he wants to embarrass me, then I can fight him again! I’m not afraid of anyone!!!”

He was now filled with resentment and was ready for a fight. But when the crowd parted and the latecomer came forward, Xie Lian was completely stunned.

I never expected that the person who came was Mu Qing!

Mu Qing obviously hadn't expected to meet Xie Lian in such a situation. When the two met, they were both stunned. Xie Lian opened his eyes wide, forgetting the war gods who were fighting with him, and stammered: "...Why are you here? You are not..."

After saying a few words, he noticed something, understood it immediately, and shut up.

What Mu Qing was wearing now was not the old black clothes he had worn during their escape, but the official uniform of the God of War from the Lower Heaven.

Originally, when Feng Xin and Mu Qing were acting as Xie Lian's assistants, their abilities were highly praised and attracted attention. Later, when Xie Lian was demoted, many priests felt sorry that Feng Xin and Mu Qing were demoted with him, and some even came to ask them if they wanted to transfer to other priest halls to serve. If a priest admired Mu Qing and brought him back to the lower heaven to serve him, it would not be impossible.

This must be it. Moreover, he should be doing well now, otherwise he wouldn't come out in groups with this group of priests to find a paradise to practice.

Xie Lian is still a mortal, but Mu Qing has already returned to the lower heaven. This situation is inexplicably ironic.

Over there, Mu Qing finally calmed down and asked suspiciously, "What's going on?"

The priests rushed to tell him the whole story. Xie Lian stood far away, his body extremely stiff.

He noticed that they did not specifically tell Mu Qing about his robbery. What does this mean?

This means that Mu Qing had heard about this matter a long time ago. Mu Qing also knew that he went to rob!!!

Drop after drop of cold sweat rolled down Xie Lian's head, and he involuntarily took two steps back. The Martial God who had just confronted him shouted breathlessly, "He wants to seize the spiritual land by himself and drive us away. Mu Qing, come and help!"

How can I help you?

Let Mu Qing help us beat him together?

Xie Lian was so angry that his scalp was numb and he was shocked. He finally reacted and stammered angrily, "...You, you are really confusing right and wrong, so shameless! It's not like that at all! I clearly didn't do that!"

Mu Qing was watching from the side. He was anxious and angry, so he threw another branch at the god of war. The god of war was unable to resist and was defeated. He shouted again, "Mu Qing! What are you still standing there for!"

The other priests followed suit, but Mu Qing was still hesitant, as if he didn’t know whether he should take action or not. Xie Lian heard them urging Mu Qing to join them in attacking him, and he was furious: “Mu Qing won’t be like you, he’s my friend, he won’t help you!!!”

As he was getting more and more angry, he exerted his strength and knocked away another row of weapons. The other priests saw that he was getting more and more courageous and the momentum was not right, so they hurriedly said: "Mu Qing! Are you just going to watch him do whatever he wants?!"

Mu Qing's expression was unpredictable. He took a step forward, his fingers twitching slightly. The priest standing next to him urged, "Don't move, help me!"

At this time, someone else said in a sarcastic tone, "It's understandable that Mu Qing doesn't want to move. After all, he used to be the Crown Prince's personal attendant. Even if the Crown Prince is robbing and snatching spiritual land, he should still consider the old relationship between master and servant. He is already giving face by not helping the Crown Prince. How can we expect him to help us?"

These words seemed to be an excuse for him, but in fact they were extremely sinister, and a few blue veins instantly appeared on Mu Qing's forehead and neck.

The atmosphere became tense, Xie Lian sensed something was wrong and said, “Mu Qing…”

He just called out a name, and the next moment, his hand suddenly felt lighter and there was a sound of something being cut.

Xie Lian was stunned, and looked down. What was cut off was his only "weapon", the branch. Looking up again, Mu Qing, who was standing opposite him, had a long sword in his hand.

At this moment, the blade was pointing at Xie Lian. The man holding the blade said coldly, "...Please leave."

“…”

Xie Lian held the half branch in his hand and looked at Mu Qing for a long time before saying, “I… didn’t really want to rob. I didn’t seize the spiritual land. I was here first.”

“…”

Mu Qing repeated expressionlessly: "Please leave."

Xie Lian looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and said, “…You know I’m not lying, right?”

When he asked this question, he felt a little hopeful and a little scared. A voice told him to stop asking and turn around and walk away. But he still couldn't help asking.

Before Mu Qing could answer, Xie Lian’s body suddenly leaned forward and he fell heavily to the ground.

The ground was a muddy mountain road, full of potholes and fallen rocks and broken leaves. Xie Lian fell to the ground, his eyes widened in disbelief.

I don’t know which priest took advantage of his distraction and pushed him from behind, causing him to fall so ugly in front of so many eyes.

It was really too ugly. From all directions, there were voices of varying heights, overwhelming the sky. Xie Lian heard them all, and with his eyes wide open, he looked at the dark ground in front of him, then very slowly raised his head and looked at Mu Qing who was standing not far in front of him.

Mu Qing was standing among the priests. He didn't look at him but turned his head to the side. Like everyone else, he had no intention of reaching out to help him up.

Then, Xie Lian understood that no one would help him.

After lying there for a long time, he slowly got up from the ground.

The priests thought he was going to attack again and were extremely alert, but Xie Lian did not attack anyone. Instead, he lowered his head and searched on the ground for a while. He found the small package that the queen had packed for him. He picked it up silently, put it on his back again, turned around, and walked down the mountain step by step.

As he walked, his pace became faster and faster. After a while, Xie Lian was running wildly.

He held his breath and ran all the way down the mountain without stopping. He didn't know how far he ran, but suddenly he didn't pay attention to his feet and fell again, and then he vomited out his breath with a smell of blood.

In his panic, he didn't think of getting up, but just sat on the ground to catch his breath. When his breathing gradually calmed down, Xie Lian didn't think of standing up, but just sat there in a daze.

Suddenly, a hand reached out.

Xie Lian blinked a little slowly, followed the hand, and slowly raised his head to look, and surprisingly it was Mu Qing again.

He stood in front of Xie Lian, his face slightly blue, and held out a hand. After a long while, he said in a stiff tone, "Are you okay?"

Xie Lian stared at him blankly, saying nothing.

Perhaps because she felt uncomfortable with his creepy gaze, Mu Qing avoided his gaze.

But he still held out his hand and said, "Get up."

But it was too late to extend this hand.

Xie Lian did not take his hand, nor did he stand up, but continued to stare at him.

The two of them were in a stalemate for a long time, and Mu Qing's face became more and more ugly. Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, Xie Lian suddenly grabbed a handful of mud from the ground and threw it at Mu Qing with a "pa".

Mu Qing didn't expect him to do such a thing. He didn't know whether to call it rude or childish. A ball of dirty mud suddenly exploded in his chest, and a few spots splashed on his face. He was stunned. After a while, anger surged up, but he suppressed it and whispered: "...I have no choice!"

He really had no choice. He should have a good relationship with those priests now. If he just watched his colleagues being beaten up by Xie Lian without stopping them, or was thought to be on Xie Lian's side, he would be in trouble.

Xie Lian seemed to be unable to speak, and could only grab the mud on the ground and throw it at him. Mu Qing tried to block it a few times but couldn't, and angrily said, "Are you crazy?! I said I have no way out, but you also have no way out if you go robbing people, right?!"

roll roll roll!

Xie Lian only had this one word in his mind, but he couldn't even say it. He could only frantically grab everything he could get his hands on and throw it at others. He didn't care who he was throwing it at. Finally, Mu Qing couldn't stand it anymore and walked away with a sullen face. Xie Lian took a few deep breaths, sat back down, and became dazed again.

He sat like this until dark.

After dark, many phosphorous lights floated in from nowhere, dancing in the air. Xie Lian seemed not to see them, and he was not excited at all.

However, those phosphorescent lights seemed unwilling to be ignored by him, and gathered around him more and more. Xie Lian still ignored them.

Until a figure appeared in the phosphorescent fire.

The arrival of that person was always accompanied by a huge ominous premonition. Xie Lian sensed something and slowly raised his head.

Ten steps away, a figure in white stood among countless floating phosphorescent flames, with a half-mask on his face giving him a sinister smile.

He said in a friendly manner: "Hello, Your Highness."