Realms In The Firmament

“It was… It was the guy who I was trying to kill…” The ice that covered the third guy started to melt into water, which flowed down like a stream. At the same time, in his eyes, terror could be seen.

When thinking about how he had tried to kill someone like that with just one sword move… and how it turned out to create such a trouble for himself, he felt that a snake was climbing on his back causing him to tremble.

The three fellas were dumbstruck.

The one who had been running away from them was already injured. He was so close to being caught, as he had become exhausted by the time he had crossed the corner of the alley. He was thinking: [I have spent my life running freely around the whole world. I was invincible! Yet I am going to die here today!]

The next moment his eyes almost popped out.

He too saw the three knives which shone like the stars in the night sky.

He also saw the three guys who had been chasing him being hit at the same time, and noticed that they had actually lost their courage to continue the chase.

The man’s eyes lit up and he increased his pace in order to leave quickly.

How lucky! He actually managed to keep his life intact!

He thought of the man he had pushed aside just now. [Yes, it must be that guy. There was nobody else within a hundred meters of us…

It had to be him.

I am not usually a kind person. I tried to do him a favor because… there was no need for an innocent person to die because of me… since I was not going to survive this anyway…

I pushed him!

I would have never imagined that what I did has actually saved my life!

If I didn’t care much or maybe tried to kill him myself to clear the path… then now… I am afraid I would have been lying on the floor, without a chance to get this life back…]

Imagining that, he was drenched in cold sweat.

[I remember his face. Such a great favor, I will definitely repay him!

I am Ning Bi-Luo and I am not the kind of person who doesn’t have a sense of gratitude!]

[TL note: Ning Bi-Luo is this world’s number 1 assassin, who had been mentioned in the previous chapters.]

He suddenly moved and disappeared without a trace…

…

It hadn’t been a long time - only two days had passed since Ye Xiao had left home. Generally, it wouldn’t be considered as a case of disappearance at all.

However, during this dangerous period, two days was a long time. After waiting for a ‘long time’, the steward was nearly driven crazy!

A Storm was brewing in the capital. The streets were filled with fear, and everyone was suspicious of one another. Leaving home during this time was nothing but asking for death.

Indeed there had been several events happening during these days - really strange events.

It seemed like the Mu Clan had stopped planning their revenge toward Ye Clan. Before the world-shocking auction had even fully ended, every single man of the Mu Clan had already retreated from the capital. It was amazing how quickly they had ran off.

It had left many people perplexed though.

[What is going on with them?

They aggressively arrived showing a wild bravado, but ceased all activities without doing anything? It looked like they were fugitives. What are they doing? Is it really necessary?]

Anyway, since the Mu Clan had fully retreated, Steward Song sighed with relief.

At least the safety of his young master was assured for the immediate future.

However, panic overtook him once again! Ye Xiao was missing!

It had been two days since his young master was last seen and he had already asked Lord Lan, Lord Zuo and Lady Su about his whereabouts. However, even his closest friends didn’t have a clue about where he could be. For Steward Song, the only possibility was that his young master was missing!

At that moment, Steward Song was totally stunned!

[Could it be… that master was kidnapped by the Mu Clan? Otherwise, why would the Mu Clan leave in such a hurry?]

Anger had clouded his judgement, as he led his 36 Blood Guards to the Southern Gate!

“We have to save our lord! Even if we have to give up our lives!” He ordered like a homicidal maniac as his eyes were bloodstruck!

He was really risking everything this time.

The galloping of the horses sounded like a roaring thunder, bringing forth a surging killing intent.

These veterans who had retired from their former lives of swords and blood, none of them were ordinary people. This time, they were emitting fierce vigor and violent killing intent, which they had been suppressing for years. Everywhere they passed, the surrounding people would instantly become terrified.

They kept rushing south, disregarding the exhaustion of their horses, which were nearing Death’s gate. They had gone hundreds of miles until they arrived below a mountain. Once they had reached the foot of the mountain, they cried out in alarm as they held their horses!

What they could see was a hellish scene that was too horrible to look at!

Tens of men and tens of horses were lying in disorder on the floor. All of them were bloodied corpses. Not a single one was left alive!

“They… They are the people of the Mu Clan!”

One of the Blood Guards looked at the sign of the broken carriage, on which the Mu Clan’s insignia could be seen. The sign had been cut into half but it was still identifiable.

“The people of the Mu Clan? Why are they all dead?” The steward dismounted his horse, while a frown appeared on his face.

“They have all died and all of their belongings are gone…” One of the other Blood Guards, who was big and tall with a full beard said, “Did they encounter bandits? How else could this scene be devoid of valuables? This was a professional hit!”

“Bullshit. In a suburb of the capital, what kind of robbers could have been so strong to rob and kill the people of the Mu Clan? Let alone in the suburb, even in the whole Kingdom of Chen, even in the whole Land of Han-Yang, do you really really think there could be such powerful bandits?” The steward scolded, “Are you a pig?”

The Blood Guard grinned and rubbed his head, “No...”

People started laughing.

The steward checked around carefully, but found no traces. He murmured, “What kind of people could do this so cleanly? That is really illogical!”

“There are seventy bodies in total. Except for the eight guys that died in our house, all the people of the Mu Clan that entered the capital of the Kingdom of Chen are here. Not even a single one survived.”

One of the Blood Guards looked at one of the bodies on the floor and said, “The old man in the middle is Mu Zi-He. He was the leader of the group for this trip. He was the fourth younger brother of the patriarch, and he has a high position even though he was only in the Grade of Diyuan. He died here anyway. The people who killed him must have thought nothing about leeway this time.”

“And they have done it so cleanly.” The steward sighed. He realized more and more that this thing was too complicated.

It was even possible that the Ye Clan would be blamed again..

The problem was, that it truly had nothing to do with them. Even if every force of the Ye Clan got together, they would never have a chance to do such thing. In fact, Steward Song was actually determined to die this time as long as they could chase the people of the Mu Clan down.

He knew how powerful the Mu Clan was. If the Ye Clan fought against them directly, it would be not far from an ant hitting a tree. In Steward Song’s mind, if his young master was really captured by the Mu Clan and they could catch up with them, there was still a tiny chance to rescue Ye Xiao even if it meant losing all of his people in battle.

With such a powerful force, these Mu Clan people were actually wiped out. How powerful would the killers have to be. To the most conservative projection, there absolutely wasn’t such a powerful force in the Kingdom of Chen!

“Look! The mountainside!”

One of the Blood Guards shouted.

The steward looked up and was immediately stunned.

He nearly slapped himself on the face. He had actually been worried about being framed and kept saying that it was done too cleanly.

It turned out the killers hadn’t even thought about hiding their identities. In fact, they had even gone ahead and left a message, notifying the world that it was their doing!

They hadn’t noticed the obvious words on the mountainside, because what was in front of them had been too stunning for them. The words on the mountainside were totally undisguised, but they had made the ‘black under the light’ kind of mistake - they hadn’t noticed the obvious place and made a foolish mistake.

[TL note: ‘black under the light’, 灯下黑, means people are not aware of the events that distinctly occur around them.]

“慕氏太猖狂，特意来断头；若问杀人手，翻云覆雨楼！”

(The Mu Clan is too arrogant, so we came and killed them on purpose; to anyone who wishes to know who did this, it was the great House of the Chaotic Storm!)

Below the words there was a pattern of a building in the storm which was drawn intentionally with blood.

It was actually quite vivid. Obviously, after the killers wiped these people out, they actually drew a pattern here leisurely.

“This this this… This is so…”

A Blood guard was stunned, “It is so arrogant… This House of the Chaotic Storm… What is it?”

The steward’s face was blank, “Mind your words. Since there is no trace of our lord here, he wasn’t captured. We need to go back right away. It won’t bring any good to stay in such muddy waters.”

It could be seen from his face. He was far from relaxed; instead, a deep sense of worry was plastered on his face.

[The House of the Chaotic Storm. Finally, they showed up!

The most mysterious and terrifying force in the world.]

The steward was terrified.

When he saw the words ‘House of the Chaotic Storm’, he couldn’t stop his heart from beating heavily.

He was frightened! Not only was he unable to find his young master, he had even stumbled upon information about the House of the Chaotic Storm…

He felt rather upset, as nothing seemed to go his way.

When they all returned home, they started to search around again. Although they had searched the whole capital, they failed to find any clues about Ye Xiao’s whereabouts.

That night, the steward wasn’t able to fall asleep.

The next day they continued their search, yet, it was to no avail.

Not only were the people of the Ye Clan trying their best to search for Ye Xiao, Zuo Wu-Ji and Lan Lang-Lang also sent a lot of people to help them find Ye Xiao.

People were worried, especially Zuo Wu-Ji. After he had brought the jade ru-yi home from the auction, he had earned a title of ‘a prodigal who returns, is more precious than gold’. That really had delighted him.

And all of this was only possible because of Ye Xiao’s help. Now that Ye Xiao was missing, how could he not be worried.

Lord Lan was also worried. He kept his eyes widely opened and searched everywhere with his men. He had been searching for a long time, but was yet to find even a single clue. It wouldn’t be long before he would completely freak out!

“Why can’t we find him!” Lan Lang-Lang’s eyes were bloodshot as he furiously yelled, “You’re all useless garbage! Keep searching! Don’t you even miss a rat’s hole!”

“My lord, it was the Lord Sun’s house in front…”

“Screw it! I don’t care what lord he is. Get in and search!”

“My lord, it was the Lord Sun’s home…”

“GET IN AND SEARCH!”

“What? Who dares to stop me? BEAT HIM UP! SMASH EVERYTHING… GET IN! AH, AH, AH, AH…”

…

After searching one street, he was caught and sent back home.

Did this moron come to help searching? Or did he just come to make trouble for his own family?