Realms In The Firmament

The sword was definitely going to hit Ye Xiao on the face and its sword breath would reach him even before the blade would. With such an overbearing sword breath, the blade would not even need to connect, just the sword breath was sufficient to kill him!

Although Ye Xiao had no powers left, he had retained his vision. He was seeing everything with great clarity at the moment. This particular attack was called the Mountain Cracking Strike in the cultivation of swordplay. If this sword actually hit him, nothing in his body would be left intact. It would be completely torn apart. There would be nothing left unbroken!

“Want to kill me with no reasons at all and even want to tear me apart?”

Ye Xiao was angry. He was really furious.

At this moment, the raging power within Ye Xiao’s body had no means of dissipating and was currently circulating within his body which gave him the illusion of regaining his lost strength. He instinctively wielded his sleeve, and without thinking performed a “Laughing Eight Blast” in order to defend from the attack and fight back.

He began to laugh while performing the Eight Blast!

This was precisely The Xiao monarch’s signature move.

But it hadn’t occurred to him until he had already executed the move: “Damn it! I am no longer the Xiao Monarch of my previous life. No matter how surging my strength is, the spiritual power inside my body was all dependent on an external source. I can’t use this power as I wish, I need to be frugal. But if I don’t exert this power now, how can I defend and fight back?”

However, even he was surprised by what happened next.

Now that the endless raging power had found a way to burst out, it began to pour out continuously and showed no signs of stopping!

With a sharp sound, a powerful wind was created followed by a burst of purple light.

At that moment, Ye Xiao had a feeling, it felt like an illusion where he was back to the best condition of his prior life!

The Xiao Monarch who had laughed at all heroes, had he come back?

Puff…

A slight sound came out. The guy who was rushing towards him was now incapable of executing any more crazy sword-moves. He was unable to attack anymore because he was rendered completely immobile by an invisible force which had emerged from Ye Xiao’s Laughing Eight Blast. When faced with such force, even the sword in his hand was repelled and was made to turn around and smash the head of its owner with an undefendable power!

The force from the Laughing Eight Blast had made the sword strike many times fiercer than when it had originally been released.

The killer facing such misfortune, besides being scared enough to lose his countenance, was actually terrified to the extreme. Unfortunately, the killer was also experienced in battle. With quick reactions, he forced himself to correct his stance and to block the blade. Kacha! Both his hands were cut off at the same time. This action caused the back of the blade to hit his head instead of its sharp edge and made him bleed at once!

Receiving a powerful shock, his whole body was sent flying away like a kite with a broken string. With a bang, he crashed into a wall and rebounded back to the floor. Although all his bones were likely to be broken, he had dealt with this crisis correctly and had managed to preserve his life.

Ye Xiao had just wielded his sleeve and actually managed to get such a frightening win! He had managed to redirect the fearsome Mountain Cracking Strike just by a flick of his sleeves!

“The grade of a Tian-yuan Master! … Who is he?” The killers were shocked to a standstill. They were now facing a situation which had caused even the tone of their voice to change!

“My bloody god. Being called out for a mission, I had almost finished it and returned. And now I just casually met someone in a narrow alley and he turned out to be the stuff nightmares are made off…… What fxxing luck do I have…”

The power inside Ye Xiao’s body was still raging like before. It hadn’t slowed down at all, and even after the strike just now, it was still going berserk, and was about to explode. He gave a humph, and casually reached out with his hands into the air and grabbed. With a sound of a sword being unsheathed, the space in front of him distorted into a familiar shape. He had actually conjured a sword from thin air!

When the spiritual power turns into the sword, everything becomes his weapon!

The special move of the Xiao Monarch, Long Sky Laugh!

While smiling, this attack was used to take lives and chase after the souls of the dead.

“That move - creating a sword from thin air?! You can’t be……” The killers in the enemy camp shouted out in panic, completely terrified while stepping back at the same time. They obviously knew that they were not qualified to fight, and tried to escape with their lives.

But it was too late.

Ye Xiao’s eyes were filled with rage. He stepped forward and stabbed.

Suddenly, a splendid ball of purple qi appeared, then burst out, like some purple gorgeous fireworks were exploding in the night sky . The sword breath had disappeared at once like it was trying to get back the one-thousand years time!

“Urh…” Weird stuffy sounds were heard. The killer who had swung the sword earlier and the two other killers who had followed him had gotten their necks slashed. With their eyes popping out, they used all their strength to hold on to the wounds before eventually falling down on the floor floppily.

Triple kill with one sword move!

“Start from nothing, the purple skyline!” The leader who was standing the farthest from Ye Xiao, had the chance to observe earlier. As the only survivor in the group, he was extremely anxious to get away, but he had received a large wound on his chest, and his eyes were filled with alarm. He was looking at Ye Xiao with a horror-stricken face, “It is actually you! Ning Bi-Luo! How dare you fight against us. Even though you are the No.1 killer in the world, our lord highness would never let you get away with this!”

Ye Xiao was puzzled, “Ning Bi-Luo? Who is he? The No.1 killer? There actually is an elite cultivator in this mortal world…”

Besides, the lord highness? What lord? Who is he?

When he was going to finish this guy with a further attack so as to avoid troubles in the future, he felt the plentiful power which had been running restlessly in his body now was actually quickly calming down like refluence. The crisis of his Jing and Mai[1] exploding had passed and the rampage he had gone through had drained the power acquired through the powder from the Pure Heavenly Crystal.

The spiritual power which didn’t belong to him was not able to persist.

Without the support of the continuous supply of spiritual power, the sword in his hand disappeared. Ye Xiao yelled, “Humph, you’ve mistaken my identity.”

The Xiao Monarch was a proud cultivator who travelled the world above. What was right was right and what was wrong was wrong. He wouldn’t let others to take his blame!

However, the more he denied the truth, the more firmly the guy believed he was Ning Bi-Luo. With the mountain-like bearing of a master cultivator and the recognizable fighting style he had, if he wasn’t the No.1 killer, who else could he be?

The killer humphed and and said, “Ning Bi-Luo, there will be a chance for us to meet again. Wait and see!” He did a backward somersault. Under extreme fear, he actually burst forth with unbelievable potential, and twisted his body to disappear into the darkness.

He thought that it was fortunate that the monster - Ye Xiao didn’t attack again… The face-covered killer was dripping cold sweat, believing that he had escaped with his life…

The sound of soldiers was getting closer and closer.

“I absolutely can’t stay here any longer!”

The killer was unaware that Ye Xiao also secretly elated, “The killer didn’t attack me. I have really escaped with my life!”

In Ye Xiao’s estimation, the escaping killer was actually the one with the greatest strength among them, even greater than the one who had attacked him. If he had been brave enough to attack Ye Xiao, a fight would have been impossible with the power left within him.

Although, the last bit of his power that hadn’t disappeared was not enough to fight against the enemy, it was barely enough to run for his life. Ye Xiao dodged like a ghost, disappearing at once from the alley.

This movement was actually the skill for which he was known for in his prior life as the Xiao Monarch: One Laughter in Skyline!

Ye Xiao had gone over a hundred meters with a single dodge and heavily fell on the ground. The accidentally gained power in his body, was now completely used up.

The Xiao Monarch in his best condition could go dozens of miles when he use the One Laughter in Skyline skill at full power, but now it was only about a hundred meters. It was a difference similar to heaven-and-hell.

Although Ye Xiao felt like sighing with a certain dissatisfaction, he felt a surprising pleasure about escaping from that central zone of the battle. Besides, as a master of martial arts, he understood the reason why he had just moved such a short distance. It was not that his One Laughter in Skyline was lame but he was in a really poor condition and the spiritual power in his body was too little. All these disadvantages were combined. That’s why the distance he had moved was so lame.

Although, no expert had witnessed the godlike skill of moving for hundred meters with a single breath, if they had, they would surely have been shocked enough to drop their jaws to the floor!

What he was unaware of was that- at the moment, it was not only the Zuo Xiang Fu which was in disarray, the entire capital was already falling into disorder!

There were people shouting and horses neighing. Countless soldiers rushed on the street conducting a search for the escaping killers.

“Catch the assassins!”

“Do not let the assassins go!”

“Search carefully! Let no suspects go!”

“Rather kill an innocent than let them escape!”

This corner of the capital was the epicentre of the disorder. It was as if a huge rock had fallen into a peaceful lake and the ripples had spread across the whole city. The situation had the signs of getting more and more serious!

Inside Ye Xiao’s body, although the spiritual power was depleted, he still had the strength to move his legs, which was barely enough to enable him to walk on the street. By the time he got home, he was utterly exhausted to such a degree that he didn’t even want to move his little finger…

In fact, he had gotten through god knows how many question kiosks, but everyone had recognised the foppish son of the Northern General. While they saw him walking close with a over drunk pace and a coxcombical look, what interest did they have to bother with him?

Even if they were searching everyone, they would never suspect that one of the three lords would be involved, and hence, they won’t bother to interrogate him.

The Xiao Monarch had just reached the door at home, when he heard a voice yelling with anger, “Where have you been? At such a dangerous time you’re actually still lingering around. I’ll beat you to death! Arghhhhh……”

Although the voice was filled with anger, it was delicate and sweet-sounding. It was the voice of a girl.

Ye Xiao looked towards the source of the voice and saw two girls standing gracefully erect under the lanterns hanging in his house. The one in front was pouting her lips while furiously staring at him, but this angry look had an indescribable charm and glamour.

The guard standing beside the door was showing a bitter face, “My Lord… The princess has come to see you…”

Ye Xiao immediately felt that his scalp burning. From the successive memory, he learned that this girl in front was indeed his fiancee that his present father selected for him. She was the daughter of the Royal Highness Hua-Yang, the well known princess Moon in the capital.

“Hmmm, isn’t it claimed that she is gentle, soft and virtuous? She just yelled like a female lion when seeing me. What is going on…”

Before he could react, his ear was grabbed by a soft small hand, “Why don’t you get in here!”

The maids beside her were tittering away while covering their mouths. Ye Xiao was grabbed on the ear in an extremely awkward fashion and led through the door.

“Oyi oyi. Take it easy…” Ye Xiao had a bitter face. It was only recently that all his power had been exhausted, now his body was at its weakest. He was really not going to make it…

“Speak! What have you been up to? Bastard!” Princess Moon was looking at Ye Xiao who was facing her, with a tiger-like face.

It really felt different to see a beauty under the light. The Princess Moon had a face like flowers, curved eyebrows, clear and clever eyes, firm nose and a little mouth like a cherry. Her hair was slightly rolled up on her head…… She really was like a beauty from poems and paintings. Even though she was forcing an evil and scary look, she was still a stunning beauty, only one in millions. She had the ability to make a thousand faces and no one could recognize her true face.

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[1] Jing and Mai: Jing is the Chinese word for “essence”, specifically kidney essence. Mai is vein.