Realms In The Firmament

“I uhh... I was just hanging out…” Ye Xiao explained weakly.

An explanation like this was really too powerless!

In terms of dealing with girls, the Xaio Monarch was clearly inferior to the previous Ye Xiao - the foppish playboy. The Xiao Monarch had spent his entire prior life cultivating the Pure Yang Martial Arts[1], so he hadn’t spent any time with women. As for now, there was a beautiful girl standing in front of him; a girl who was pretty no matter if she was angry or happy. His mind suddenly felt a little blank and his tongue seemed dull.

Thuck!

Ye-Yue swung her hand and struck Ye Xiao’s head. She shouted hysterically, “There is a disturbance going on right now and you were actually hanging around outside? Do you know there is a serious event happening in the capital today? If you keep staying out on the street, you may carelessly get yourself killed somewhere! Uncle Ye had given me a whip when he was leaving, so I have the right to discipline you. If you dare to oppose me, I will lash you with it!”

Ye Xiao was thinking, “You sure have some guts! How dare you threaten me - the Xiao Monarch?! Maybe I should lash you to death instead!”

But he decided to feign ignorance, “Really? What is going on in the capital?”

Ye-Yue humphed, rolled her eyes and said while gloating, “I heard that Zuo Xiang Fu was raided… Many thieves had broken in and The Minister Zuo who has now lost a lot of priceless things is in a violent temper at the moment… Now all military forces in the capital are mobilized to guard the nine gates of the capital so that no one can get in or out. They are searching for the assassins and trying to arrest them with their loots.”

The princess was actually tittering and then she caught herself losing manner and stateliness in front of Ye Xiao, so she pretended to cough slightly to regain composure and said, “It looks like the lord Minister Zuo will suffer a great loss. To catch the assassins and retrieve the stolen goods and recover his loss is proving to be really difficult…”

Ye Xiao rolled his eyes and said, “Do you know what treasures were stolen from him?”

“I have no idea, but it should be something very valuable. Otherwise why would he make such a big movement?” Ye-Yue shook her head.

Ye Xiao thought, “The thing I got… Could it be what they were aiming for?

He thought and thought again, “I should probably make a duplicate of this sculpture with a different material when I get a chance. In case Zuo Wu-Ji asks it back sometime in the future. Carefulness keeps a boat sailing for thousands of years…”

“Listen! You are not allowed to attend the auction taking place the day after tomorrow. I have invited some of my sisters to go and play with me. If you are there, you will definitely bring shame to me! Furthermore, you are not allowed to go to the Wen-Hua Event later this week either… Anyway, there is nowhere you can go in this period of time. Do you understand? Will you keep it in mind? Do you hear me?!”

The girl made threatening gestures for a while before feeling satisfied as she saw Ye Xiao nod repeatedly. She stood up and started to leave.

Then she sighed and said with a nearly inaudible voice, “Ayy… You are actually not that annoying… but if only you try to behave yourself and change all those shortcomings, how nice would it be… Ayyy…”

Under Ye Xiao’s gaze, Ye-Yue got on the sedan chair [2] and went further and further in the dim light of night.

Ye Xiao felt vaguely helpless from deep within his heart towards this girl.

Following orders from her parents, listening to the words from the matchmakers, a girl would never have the right to choose her husband. Although the girl was born in a noble family, she had no right to make a decision in regards to her own marriage.

Since her parents had betrothed her to Ye Xiao, she would marry him sooner or later.

However, it was unlucky for her that her fiancee was such a foppish playboy. There was nothing she could do but sigh…

But it could be seen that Ye-Yue wasn’t totally heartless to the prior Ye Xiao. After all they grew up together… Otherwise she would not have worry so much that she had even come here to show her concern at such a dangerous time…

Her sweet scent was still in the air. Ye Xiao couldn’t help sighing and his heart was filled with an indescribable feeling - it was a feeling he had never felt before…

……

Ye Xiao lied down when he got back to his room, dropped the alertness of his mind briefly and suddenly felt completely exhausted, as if he was dying. He felt faint as if his body was empty; he did use up all of his energy for the escape a few hours ago… Besides, he had even coped with Ye-Yue just now, so the moment when he relaxed, he instantly felt difficult to hold on.

The poison in his body was not yet cured. It was like a sharp blade hanging around his neck. Although the Pure Heavenly Crystal he had just used had entered his body for a short time, it had restrained the poison to a certain extent - and now, just with a push, the poison could be totally forced out of his body.

The sooner he removed the hidden danger, the better. Ye Xiao calmly and patiently controlled the remaining spiritual power in his body. Although the extreme burst before had consumed ninety-nine percent of the spiritual power which had originated from the Pure Heavenly Crystal, a tiny little bit of it still remained in Ye Xiao’s body. Fortunately, Ye Xiao scored a lucky hit. This tiny dissociative spiritual power was actually an amount which he could control and apply freely at present.

Ye Xiao was leading the spiritual power to cover up the poison completely in the Jing and Mai. Tiny pieces of the dissociative power from the Pure Heavenly Crystal got together in his Dantian. Then the powers went through the Jing and Mai all around his body from the Dantian. The stubborn Qing-Ming Fruit poison was soon covered up and flowing out through the Jing and Mai.

The poison that was acknowledged incurable in the mortal world was actually covered by a thin layer of spiritual power and compelled out of his body! If cultivators in this world saw this, they would definitely be shocked enough to drop their jaws to the floor!

Finally, Ye Xiao felt a swelling pain in his whole Jing and Mai and, with a puff, he opened his mouth and spat out some black blood. The blood dropped on the floor with an indescribable stink!

The whole floor suddenly turned black.

At that moment, the Qing-Ming Fruit poison had finally been dispelled completely!

Ye Xiao just felt relieved, “This god damn poison has finally cleared up.”

The relief he had felt at this moment was truly indescribable.

He could finally have a good night’s rest after this…… At least he wouldn’t need to worry about getting killed by the poison anymore.

Ye Xiao lied down and relaxed his whole body to have a good rest to restore his strength…

However, the next moment, -Wooosh! He got up and sat on the bed instantly.

Because when he just lied down, he felt several words appearing in his mind.

Some golden words!

Where had he seen them? …Ye Xiao recalled that when he first got the Pure Heavenly Crystal, he felt dizzy once and there seemed to be some golden words appearing in his sight, then the crystal had completely disappeared…

Ye Xiao hastily sat upright and tried to transfer his soul power. Then, to his delight, he discovered that he could actually circulate his soul power again!

Besides, from within his sea of consciousness, there came a strong attraction force…

Shock instantly replaced the usual calm and collected gaze on Ye Xiao’s face.

The sea of consciousness was enshrouded in mist. Above the mist, there was a peculiar sphere shining in all its splendor.

One after another, wave of purple qi came from the sphere flowing away.

“This… Isn’t this the sphere that I had randomly stumbled upon when I was exploring the Death Domain in Qing-Yun Realm? When did it get into my sea of consciousness? What is going on?!”

Ye Xiao opened his eyes wide. He had no idea how such a thing could have happened.

However, a plausible explanation started to brew in his mind, “Is it even possible that… In the final battle of my prior life, I should have died completely, but instead, I got reincarnated here without any reasons. Could this be the doing of this peculiar sphere?”

“Or could it be, that this Pure Heavenly Crystal consequently fulfilled a certain requirement of this peculiar sphere… so it finally decided to reveal itself?”

Ye Xiao was very well-informed. He admitted that his suggestion was ridiculous, but he was ninety percent sure that he had got it right. Otherwise, everything would become unexplainable.

If something as ridiculous as rebirth could happen, was anything else really impossible?!

There was another faint thought brewing inside Ye Xiao’s mind - this sphere could not be something simple!

Neither its origin nor its functions would be simple!

“Maybe… It is highly possible that after I failed to walk on the road to the top in my last life, I will once more proceed on the path of cultivation in this new life, and the path starts with this sphere?”

Ye Xiao was imagining with whimsicality. Although he knew that his thought was ridiculous, he was filled with eagerness. Even the well-informed Xiao Monarch had never heard of such a strange thing before!

Ye Xiao gazed at the sphere in his sea of consciousness and remained puzzled after pondering over it a hundred times. Something which he had randomly found before was actually an earthshaking treasure? How could he not have realized it before?

At that moment, Ye Xiao’s eyes suddenly lit up!

It felt like a huge bolt of lightning which could split the earth and the sky, was striking him!

After the lightning struck, everything turned white!

Right at that moment, Ye Xiao felt his body shake and a ball of light appeared in his mind!

The light was turning bigger and bigger. Step by step, he found that all the lights were

originating from this ball!

It was like a sun rising in the horizon of his sea of consciousness.

The ball rolled and ten golden words abruptly appeared, shining in front of the ball! It shined right into Ye Xiao’s eyes!

All of the pain in his body had vanished, as if a miracle had happened at that moment.

“Peerless lord in the world, and foremost spirit in chaos!” [3]

—————

[1] In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Yang means male in gender. Pure Yang Martial Art is only for boys - males never have sex, to cultivate.

[2] Sedan chair: A wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons.

[3] The ten Chinese words are “天地无双主，混沌第一灵！”