Chapter 13: Messing with Little Radish? You’ve Kicked a Steel Wall

Qi Jiangyuan suddenly felt his arms grow light.

The boy, seemingly unable to withstand the wine churning through his body, shimmered with spiritual light and instantly reverted to his original form—curled up in his palm, fast asleep.

Qi Jiangyuan’s gaze paused briefly before he let out a helpless chuckle. He gently cupped the radish in his fingers, lowered his eyes to quietly observe Can He’s sleeping face, and for a fleeting moment, a strange feeling stirred in his heart.

His spiritual sea had long been silent, like a still well, devoid of ripples, because something vital had been missing.

But in recent days, under Can He’s gentle care, his heart—silent for thirty thousand years—had begun to beat again, slowly but unmistakably.

Qi Jiangyuan could clearly sense that stirring, yet he couldn’t tell whether it was the result of Can He’s healing… or the quiet return of a karmic bond he had long lost.

“Your Highness.” Xie Suoyan’s voice came from the doorway.

The moment he stepped in, he immediately sensed something was off.

His Highness’s robe was disheveled, his breath still uneven, while Can He lay sound asleep in his palm.

“How many Ghost Messengers are still stationed nearby?” Qi Jiangyuan’s voice had already returned to its usual calm and cold tone.

Xie Suoyan replied, “Your Highness, three squads remain on standby.”

Qi Jiangyuan frowned. “Take two of them and escort Can He back to Wujian Prison immediately. Make sure he arrives safely.”

The outside might seem calm, but under the surface, the currents had already begun to shift.

Xie Suoyan understood as well—some of the people who had infiltrated the Ghost Market would need to be dealt with personally by His Highness. Keeping Can He here would only be a liability.

“Yes,” he answered, stepping forward to grab the radish’s leafy top.

Before he could touch it, Qi Jiangyuan pulled the radish slightly back.

Xie Suoyan’s hand froze mid-air. Realizing his mistake, he quickly switched to respectfully cupping Can He with both hands.

“Your tongue,” the Ghost King reminded coolly. “Don’t let it touch him.”

Xie Suoyan hastily retracted his tongue.

Cradling Can He carefully, he floated silently toward the door.

He had only gone a few steps when Qi Jiangyuan’s voice came again from behind: “You plan to carry the Little Highness back like that?”

Xie Suoyan: …

Then how should he carry him?

Qi Jiangyuan said no more. He ordered a Ghost Attendant to bring over a woven bamboo basket, lined with thick, soft padding.

He personally placed the radish inside, then took out his own handkerchief and gently draped it over Can He, leaving only the leafy top exposed.

Once everything was in place, Qi Jiangyuan said calmly, “Go.”

Xie Suoyan didn’t dare delay for a second.

One hand gripped the basket handle steadily, the other hovered protectively by the side. Without a sound, he departed with Can He.

They had cast this line for a long time. Even if they didn’t catch a true big fish, some clueless small fry were bound to bite.

Xie Suoyan knew full well—their real target was Qi Jiangyuan. Only if Can He left safely could His Highness act without distraction. He picked up the pace.

The Ghost Market hadn’t fully dispersed yet. Before long, a squad of Ghost Messengers was escorting Xie Suoyan along the path back to the docks.

Twisted dead trees lined the way, and the only sound breaking the eerie silence was the faint clink of the iron chains on Xie Suoyan’s body.

The Ghost Messengers remained on high alert, scanning their surroundings warily.

Xie Suoyan floated with utmost care, doing everything possible to avoid jostling Can He. The little radish slept peacefully in the basket, his leafy top rising and falling gently with each breath.

As they reached the edge of the dock, Xie Suoyan’s eyelid twitched.

His sense of Yin Qi warned him—suddenly, the surrounding spiritual energy had turned razor-sharp.

Not good!

The thought had barely formed when a powerful sword formation erupted without warning!

Countless cold sword lights burst forth, their target unmistakable—Xie Suoyan. The overwhelming sword Qi instantly scattered the Yin Qi around the squad.

“Ambush! Form up!”

Xie Suoyan reacted instantly. The iron chain coiled around his neck sprang into the air, crashing head-on into the incoming sword light!

Clang—!!!

The deafening clash of metal echoed through the air, illuminating the figures who had suddenly appeared.

Xie Suoyan immediately used his tongue to wrap around the basket handle, securing it tightly to his side. He looked up sharply toward the source of the sword light, and his heart sank.

The leader wore a black robe as well, but carried no sword—he simply stood with his hands behind his back. Yet the oppressive aura he radiated made every ghost present tremble.

Void Refinement Stage, peak level!

A figure like this could shake mountains with a single step in the Human Realm. What was he doing here?

Xie Suoyan might be a Ghost Fiend, but there were still hundreds of beings across the Three Realms on par with him.

His mind raced. He tightened his tongue’s grip around the basket. “Well, well. And here I thought who it might be. The Ghost King isn’t even here, and you’ve gone to all this trouble, deploying someone of your caliber, just to catch a mere Ghost Fiend like me? Aren’t you afraid the Three Realms will laugh at you for making such a fuss?”

Capturing the Ghost King was no easy task.

Xie Suoyan had assumed they would retreat to preserve their strength, but to his surprise, that man’s expression didn’t waver in the slightest.

What? Could it be these people weren’t here for Qi Jiangyuan at all?

Before Xie Suoyan could say another word, countless sword cultivators launched a fierce assault. Cold sword light wove into a net, and the Yin Qi defenses constructed by the Ghost Messengers began to visibly shrink under the pressure of the overwhelming sword intent.

Xie Suoyan’s long tongue trembled violently—he knew he couldn’t just sit and wait for death! He struck out again, his chain lashing out with ruthless precision, aiming to strike that man head-on.

But the sword aura around the cultivators suddenly shifted. The chain was jolted back by the sheer purity of the sword intent. Xie Suoyan let out a muffled grunt as a searing pain spread through his ghostly body.

It felt like he was being scorched by raging flames.

Shocked and furious, Xie Suoyan yanked back his tongue that had been shielding the vegetable basket.

He pulled too hard—his strength slipped out of control, and the basket jolted violently!

“Ugh…”

The white radish was shaken fully awake by the sudden upheaval.

Still tipsy, Can He groggily poked his head out of the basket, the leafy greens on his head swaying slightly.

“Who’s there?” The little radish reached out his stubby arms and instinctively grabbed the edge of the basket.

The moment he appeared, his bright green leaves stood out starkly in the dim surroundings.

The black-robed man who had been standing still finally moved.

His gaze locked onto Can He in an instant.

His figure blurred—and when it came back into focus, he was already right beside the basket, just inches away!

No! His target was Can He!

Xie Suoyan’s eyes went wide with fury. Ignoring the burning pain inside him, he roared, “Don’t you dare touch him—!”

He lunged forward, trying to shield Can He with his ghostly body. But darkness suddenly swallowed his vision, and his consciousness completely faded away.

…

Can He felt like he was stuffed inside a constantly shaking box, wind whistling past his ears, the jostling making him dizzy.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before the shaking finally stopped.

The black cloth covering his eyes was yanked off rather roughly. Can He shook his still-dizzy head and realized he was now inside a shabby little wooden hut.

His hands and feet were tightly bound with golden rope, leaving him unable to move.

The sound of chains dragging came from nearby.

The little radish blinked through misty eyes and tilted his head to look. He saw Xie Suoyan tied up like a dumpling, the iron chain removed and tossed carelessly into a corner.

Perhaps because they feared the power of a Ghost Fiend, the rope binding Xie Suoyan was even thicker. Even his long tongue had been tied into several ugly, tight knots, drooping from his mouth.

“Little Highness, are you alright?” Xie Suoyan turned his head with difficulty. Seeing Can He awake, he asked through muffled words.

Can He was slow to react, then mumbled in grievance, “…Where’s His Highness?”

Now’s really not the time to worry about that! Xie Suoyan looked utterly hopeless. “Let’s worry about ourselves first! We’ve been captured by the Yuehua Sect¹.”

Several unfamiliar men stood nearby, all dressed in white robes with swords at their waists. The leader’s robes fluttered lightly, embroidered with moon and cloud patterns, and his presence was the most imposing of all.

Xie Suoyan’s heart sank. These men were all Void Refinement Stage experts from the Human Realm.

If it were one-on-one, he could still hold his ground. But the Yuehua Sect had clearly come prepared. Several experts had joined forces, avoiding prolonged battle and striking with a clear goal.

They had first sent weaker disciples to lure away most of the Ghost Market’s forces, then left a small team to delay Qi Jiangyuan. Their true objective had been to abduct Can He.

And they’d conveniently taken him, the troublesome tagalong, down too.

Seeing that Xie Suoyan had recognized them, the middle-aged cultivator at the front gave a slight bow and spoke politely, “You have sharp eyes, Lord Ghost Fiend. I am Shi Shouzhuo, an elder of the Yuehua Sect. The situation left us no choice—please forgive any offense.”

Can He listened in a daze, murmuring, “Try on bracelets… His Highness still needs to buy me pretty bracelets, right?”

As he spoke, the little radish even tried to stretch out his bound wrists, but after several attempts, the ropes didn’t budge.

Can He frowned in confusion, as if he couldn’t understand why his hands wouldn’t move.

Xie Suoyan: …

Shi Shouzhuo might sound courteous, but what he was doing was far from honorable.

Xie Suoyan glanced at the Bodhi Rope² wrapped around him—specially designed to suppress demons and ghosts—then tried to circulate his Yin Qi in secret. Instantly, a surge of pure Yang energy rebounded, scorching his ghostly form with pain.

Shi Shouzhuo clearly had no intention of wasting words on a single radish.

The cultivators’ attention was focused on the magical artifacts in their hands, brows furrowed. A young disciple beside them tried injecting Spiritual Power into one of the artifacts. It glowed faintly for a moment, then dimmed again just as quickly.

After a careful inspection, Shi Shouzhuo finally said, “This artifact consumes three days’ worth of stored power with each use. Its Spiritual Power is now completely depleted and cannot be activated again.”

Xie Suoyan understood instantly.

So that was how they’d managed to escape the Ghost Market in an instant—through this spatial teleportation artifact. No wonder they’d slipped past Qi Jiangyuan’s senses.

“The Sect Master instructed us to return to the sect immediately after capturing the target, to avoid any complications,” one disciple said with a sigh. “Uncle Shi, should we wait here for the others for half a day? If they don’t arrive, then we leave?”

Can He turned his head, his mind still foggy as he listened to their conversation. He finally realized—he’d been kidnapped.

He glared at Xie Suoyan. “Aren’t you supposed to be the second strongest in the Three Realms?”

“Second among equals,” Xie Suoyan replied sheepishly. “Out in the world, your cultivation is only as good as your own strength.”

Second among equals was still second.

Who would’ve thought such a simple decision—stay or go—would spark a dispute within the Yuehua Sect?

“No,” Shi Shouzhuo said firmly. “Qi Jiangyuan could crush those disciples with ease. I fear they’ve already met their end. We must bring him back, activate the mountain’s protective formation, and lure Qi Jiangyuan into it. Only by borrowing the power of heaven and earth can we suppress him!”

“Otherwise, with just a few of us, we stand no chance against the Ghost King!”

But the disciple argued back, “Uncle! Isn’t Qi Jiangyuan seriously ill? How much strength could a sick Ghost King possibly have? Those trying to delay him are our fellow disciples—how can we just abandon them?!”

Clang—

Shi Shouzhuo actually drew his sword and pointed it directly at the disciple. “With Venerable Qingpan’s ascension, Daoxi Mountain is in a period of transition and cannot assist us. The Demon King’s whereabouts are unknown, his stance unclear. We don’t even know if Qi Jiangyuan has allied with him!”

“Any delay now would cost us our chance. We must return to the sect immediately—the longer we wait, the greater the risk!”

“But what about our fellow disciples?!” another elder retorted, unwilling to back down. “If the disciples hear that their elders abandoned their comrades in the midst of a bloody battle, what will they think of the sect?!”

One moment it was about the sect’s reputation, the next about the Demon Realm’s movements. Xie Suoyan was thoroughly enjoying the drama, while Can He just felt even dizzier from all the shouting.

“You’re all so loud…” Can He muttered under his breath.

Xie Suoyan immediately turned to look at him, only to hear Can He mumble, “Where’s His Highness? Why hasn’t he come? I want His Highness…”

Xie Suoyan nearly fainted. Ancestor Radish, how are you still hung up on His Highness at a time like this?!

The arguing cultivators also turned to look. The tense atmosphere eased slightly, but their gazes toward Can He grew increasingly strange.

Shi Shouzhuo gave a chilling smile. “Don’t worry, young master. Your Highness will be along shortly to keep you company.”

They had long wanted to capture Qi Jiangyuan directly. But even with rumors of his impending death, his unfathomable cultivation still made them wary of acting rashly.

Just when they were at a loss, they caught wind of another piece of news—Qi Jiangyuan had returned from the Longevity Ruins with a beautiful young man, whom he doted on immensely.

Even in death, he was still a romantic.

Once there’s a weakness, there’s a way in.

Xie Suoyan tried to reason with them. “Aren’t you righteous sects supposed to be all about principles? ‘Every wrong has its source, every debt its debtor³,’ right? You know how the Ghost Realm works—survival of the fittest. If the Ghost King falls, it might actually be an opportunity for me. As for this one beside me, he’s just a little demon the Ghost King abducted. He has nothing to do with any past grudges.”

But Shi Shouzhuo exploded the moment he heard that. His sword tip swung sharply toward both Can He and Xie Suoyan. “Innocent?! What do you know?! Easy for you to say! When Qi Jiangyuan slaughtered the Yuehua Sect, did he spare the innocent?!”

His chest heaved with fury. “Thirty thousand years ago! When he was in the Yuehua Sect, how many senior brothers and sisters looked after him? How much did the Sect Master care for him? And what did he do? That ungrateful wretch repaid kindness with betrayal and got so many of his fellow disciples killed!”

Can He jumped, startled. “Why are you yelling at me?! Thirty thousand years ago, I was just a seed without even a shred of consciousness!”

Shi Shouzhuo choked on that outburst, but his gaze remained icy. What he said next sent chills down both demon and ghost spines. “I’m sorry, young master. Dragging you into this is indeed our fault.”

His tone softened. “But you’ve lived alongside the Ghost King for so long. We can’t be sure you haven’t been influenced by him—whether you’ve sided with him, or harmed the innocent. Even if this matter is resolved, just to be safe, we can’t let you go.”

The meaning couldn’t be clearer.

Even if they ultimately succeeded in dealing with Qi Jiangyuan, to eliminate all future threats, they still had to silence Can He.

Xie Suoyan knew there was no longer any room for negotiation and couldn’t be bothered to pretend anymore. “You know better than anyone who’s right and who’s wrong! If you hadn’t been jealous of His Highness back then—if you hadn’t resented his extraordinary talent and tried to suppress him at every turn, even going so far as to… Would you have brought destruction upon your own sect?”

To put it plainly, they were just using revenge to mask the jealousy they could no longer hide.

Thirty thousand years had passed, and Shi Shouzhuo’s thoughts were no secret. He admitted it without hesitation. “Yes! I admit it! I was jealous! So what? If Qi Jiangyuan hadn’t come to the Yuehua Sect with that cursed fate, would he have stolen the title of the sect’s once-in-a-century genius from me? All the praise, all the attention—they should’ve been mine!”

Before Qi Jiangyuan entered the sect, Shi Shouzhuo had been the golden child, receiving every resource the sect could offer. But after Qi Jiangyuan joined, everything changed.

That man’s cultivation speed was terrifying. In just a few decades, he matched what Shi Shouzhuo had achieved in a hundred years of hard work! His brilliance was completely overshadowed, and the resources that should have gone to him were redirected to Qi Jiangyuan. All his pride was crushed into dust!

Can He drawled out the facts, “His Highness was your junior brother. He died and became a ghost, cultivated for ten thousand years, and became a Ghost King. You’ve been at it for thirty thousand years and you’re still in the Void Refinement Stage.”

Xie Suoyan: “…Little Highness, that’s a brutal truth.”

Shi Shouzhuo’s expression twisted for a moment. He finally realized that arguing with a drunken radish was just asking to be humiliated.

Perhaps because Can He had hit a nerve, Shi Shouzhuo simply said, “Rest for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Then we move out.”

With a flick of his sleeve, he turned and left the wooden hut with the other disciples.

The door slammed shut behind them, and they layered multiple barriers outside.

Once they were gone, Xie Suoyan began trying to free himself.

Thanks to Can He constantly messing with him, his long tongue had developed the ability to untie itself without using his hands.

He wriggled the tip of his tongue a few times, and the tightly knotted bindings loosened.

Regaining control of his tongue, Xie Suoyan immediately whipped it around and started furiously licking the Bodhi Rope that bound him.

He was trying to use his Yin Qi-laced saliva to corrode the artifact.

Unfortunately, the Bodhi Rope was, after all, a treasure left behind by Venerable Qingpan—pure yang and unyielding. His tongue was assaulted by a sharp, burning pain, like needles and fire stabbing into it.

“Hiss—” Xie Suoyan sucked in a breath through his teeth, pulling back his reddened tongue with a grimace.

The air was filled with the smell of roasted meat.

Can He sniffed carefully. “What’s that smell? I’m so hungry…”

Xie Suoyan replied, “That’s the smell of my tongue getting roasted.”

Can He: “Ugh.”

Xie Suoyan turned away speechlessly, only to see Little Radish hanging his head, silent and pitiful.

“Little Highness,” Xie Suoyan mumbled through the pain in his tongue, trying to comfort him, “don’t believe only their side of the story.”

“Back when His Highness entered the Yuehua Sect, yes, he did have other motives. He deliberately stirred up conflict to pave the way for cultivating the Ghost Dao. But it’s like they say—flies don’t land on eggs without cracks. If their own hearts weren’t already twisted, how could they have fallen into his trap so easily?”

The more he spoke, the more he realized something was off. Why did this honest explanation sound like he was smearing His Highness?

Can He nodded along, half-understanding, and repeated, “His Highness entered the mooncake rice dumpling to cultivate, just to sting the cracked egg…”

Xie Suoyan: ?

What the hell is a mooncake rice dumpling?

He hurried to correct him. “Anyway, the point is, things back then were complicated—but it was definitely their fault!”

Can He nodded obediently, his little face serious. “Right, it was all the mooncake dumpling’s fault.”

Xie Suoyan: …………

He really shouldn’t have tried talking to a drunk radish.

Xie Suoyan held back as long as he could, but seeing Can He looking so downcast, he couldn’t help but try to reassure him. “Don’t worry, Little Highness. His Highness already anticipated that the Yuehua Sect wouldn’t give up and would come looking for trouble.”

“They want to use this chance to wipe him out completely, but His Highness is planning to settle old scores once and for all. He’s been pretending to be sick, feigning weakness to lure them out—he’s drawing the snake from its hole, planning to catch them all in one net! I just didn’t expect them to be so eager, delivering themselves right to our doorstep…”

“So don’t worry. Everything is under His Highness’s control.”

Can He’s muddled brain caught a key phrase.

The boy suddenly looked up, eyes fixed on Xie Suoyan. “His Highness… is pretending to be sick?”

Xie Suoyan: “Ah? No! I mean… I don’t actually know if he’s sick or not. But from the start, the plan was to set a trap and lure them in.”

Can He stared at him, lips pressed tight, eyes turning red at a visible pace. Tears began to fall, one after another. “Your Highness lied to me?”

The drunken radish was heartbreakingly fragile. With a loud wail, he burst into sobs. “He faked being sick… He tricked me into treating him, tricked me into sleeping with him every day… He lied to me!!”

Xie Suoyan: !

Why is he suddenly crying?!

Right now, he truly wished he could sew his own mouth shut. In a panic, he tried to explain:

“No! Little Highness, please listen to me, His Highness didn’t lie to you. At the time, it was just a formality at the Longevity Ruins, no one expected you would just…”

That he would offer himself up on a silver platter… No, offer to treat the illness.

“He lied to me!”

The drunken radish sobbed uncontrollably, as if the sky had fallen. He couldn’t hear a single word of explanation.

His outrage erupted like a volcano.

Can He suddenly gave a violent struggle, and the Bodhi Rope binding him let out a faint tearing sound.

The Bodhi Rope, famed for restraining demons and spirits, was actually snapped clean through by Can He. It fell limply to the ground at his feet.

Xie Suoyan’s jaw dropped in shock.

Shit, how could he forget! This delicate-looking radish had a natural talent for destroying magical artifacts!

With the Bodhi Rope destroyed, the formation was forcibly disrupted.

“Not good!” The Yuehua Sect disciple guarding the door heard the commotion and shoved the door open.

At a glance, he saw Can He standing there perfectly fine, with the broken Bodhi Rope at his feet.

He nearly jumped out of his skin and screamed, “Uncle-Master Shi! Something’s wrong, the radish spirit broke the Bodhi Rope!”

Can He jolted.

Xie Suoyan’s heart skipped a beat too.

He immediately scuttled far away from Can He like a bug, shouting at the top of his lungs:

“This time they’re the ones calling you a radish! Not me!”

Author’s Note:

Thought he’d picked a soft persimmon, turns out he poked a tyrant radish [folds hands in prayer]

Translator’s Notes