Realms In The Firmament

They had only started searching earlier this morning, but the reports impeaching General Lan had already piled up on the king’s desk!

The king was of course furious about it, “Lan! Keep your baby son under control! Otherwise, I will use my law to do it for you!”

The Lan Clan was frightened, so they hurriedly sent people to drag their young lord back home.

As Lan Lang-Lang was being dragged home, he struggled with his legs swinging and he kept shouting, “Get off me! I am looking for Xiao Xiao…”

Zuo Wu-Ji was totally disdainful of his foolish acts: [It is just simply searching for someone, and you can actually make things look like you are confiscating somebody’s property… Your head should have been cut off…]

The Prince Hua-Yang’s house also heard that people were looking for Ye Xiao. The young princess immediately gave her order and the guards in the house all got out to help search in the capital.

Three forces were working together in order to find Ye Xiao.

The young princess, Su Ye-Yue, hurried over to Ye Xiao’s house with her maid.

“Found him?”

“Why have you still not found him yet?”

“Is there anything bad happening to him?”

“Is it possible that he’s simply having too much fun at a brothel? So much that he can’t even get himself to leave? Follow my lead!”

The girl gave her order with a shout and the brothels in the capital were all in bad luck. Every brothel was broken into and searched. All the clients were kicked out of their rooms and stood in a line in the gardens…

The clients were all disgraced. However, they felt less embarrassed when they saw that everyone else was naked too. What was there to feel ashamed about, when everyone looked the same...

At the beginning, they instinctively raised their hands to cover their faces, because they could be identified by their face. They thought it was better to cover the face, as the rest of their bodies were usually no different with others. However, after a while, some of them looked around and stopped covering their faces. Instead, they started to cover their crotches with shame. It turned out they were not entirely the same in some places of their body and the difference was very obvious.

Of course, some other guys also stopped covering their faces, but they didn’t cover their crotches either. They actually acted like they were swaggering around by standing there with legs astride. They looked proud. There were difference between two men not only in their faces, but also in some special place, and the difference was also very obvious…

Ahem, what exactly was so obvious? (I surely have no idea what it is, as I am an innocent person… I don’t understand what this is all about…)

While the disturbance was spreading in the capital…

The young lord, Ye Xiao, that everybody was looking for, finally returned.

On his way back, he found a silent place and reverted back to his true face. Although there were wounds on his face, Wen-Ren Chu-Chu hadn’t hit him too heavily after all. Besides, the East-rising Purple Qi was truly a remarkable martial art. With its help, all of his wounds were nearly healed…

So the Xiao Monarch still retained his decency more or less…

Once he stepped in the street in front of his house, he heard a large amount of people cheering!

“The young lord is back! Our young lord is back!”

Those were his servants that were cheering.

“Lord Ye is back! Lord Ye is back!”

That was from the people of Zuo Xiang Fu and the people of the Palace of Hua-Yang.

“Thank god this fella is back. I can finally seize peace…”

That was from some other people. They felt lucky. They couldn’t resist feeling lucky; after he was missing, their houses had been searched dozens of times every single day…

Who could bear such annoyance?

Whenever those people searching for Ye Xiao entered their houses, their doors would be opened with a thunderous sound and they would be forced to squat down.

That was really such an unbearable memory…

When Su Ye-Yue heard that Ye Xiao was back, she rushed out like a whirlwind and stood at the door akimbo, shouting angrily, “Where were you and what have you been doing! Bastard! Come over! I will teach you some lesson for real!”

Ye Xiao felt warm in his heart.

The girl was shouting with anger, but in her voice, her concern was easily discerned.

Besides, while shouting, her eyes had already turned red, and her mouth was twitching; it looked like she was about to cry…

At this moment, she was truly adorable!

Watching Ye Xiao walking over leisurely, she felt truly surprised, as she felt like she had recovered everything that she had lost. She suddenly rushed down from the doorsteps. Her small figure was about to run into Ye Xiao’s arms. However, without any reason, she suddenly stopped!

She stopped at the place about half a meter away from Ye Xiao and looked at him. She spoke, “You… You are not a ghost, are you?”

She reached her hand to touch his body and then his face. She felt the warmth of his body and suddenly shouted, “You didn’t die!”

She jumped up high.

And then the tears started to flow down.

These last two days, in which Ye Xiao had been missing, had truly been terrifying for this girl.

She had pretended to be calm at the beginning until she could no longer do so. Then she went out to search with her men, but she couldn’t find anything.

In fact, although nobody gave up searching, most of the people had long lost hope!

Usually, they wouldn’t worry. They knew that Ye Xiao could completely lose track of time while he was fooling around outside.

However, this time, it had been right when the Mu Clan was in the capital!

His biggest enemy was right outside, preparing to kill him!

In people’s minds, Ye Xiao’s disappearance must have something to do with the Mu Clan. However, those people of the Mu Clan were all dead… Ye Xiao was still missing!

They had searched the entire capital, but they had actually failed to find even a single clue.

Except assuming the worst situation, they didn’t know what else to think.

When they were about to lose their hopes… He actually showed up from the corner of the street. He actually walked over calmly and leisurely.

The surprise brought by his appearance actually made people freak out.

“What are you talking about? Why would I die? I am totally fine!” Ye Xiao touched his nose and said. His heart felt warm. Although it was at dusk and the sun was setting, he actually felt good about the afterglow.

A feeling of ‘is it the close affection of the world’ filled his heart.

“In such a special time, why were you still fooling around? Where the hell have you been?!” The princess who had just relaxed suddenly stopped feeling joyful; some negative emotions that were caused by the extreme anxiousness totally exploded. She shouted fiercely, “Do you even know what a special moment it is right now! Do you know we have nearly gone mad trying to find you! Do you know how dangerous it is! Do you know how much I care about you… Do you know…”

She shouted loudly while swinging her hands; almost half of the street could hear her clearly.

And then she suddenly paused. She stopped shouting. The next moment, she cried loudly. “WAH!” She jumped into Ye Xiao’s arms and held him tight. She quivered because of crying.

With a beauty in his arms, Ye Xiao turned stiff. His hands were hanging in the air and he didn’t know what to do.

A man with an EQ of zero was exactly like that; he completely had no idea how to deal with such situations!

A beauty threw herself on him… He hadn’t experienced such a thing before - in both of his lives… Instantly, he felt anxiety overtaking him. He wanted to push her away, but felt as if it was wrong to do so… In fact, he felt a certain hint of warmth in his heart, as her actions had really moved him.

The next moment, a thought that had never occurred to him appeared in his mind: [In my present life, I am no longer cultivating the Pure Yang Martial Art. I don’t need to fear that thing…]

And then he kept his arms open and watched Su Ye-Yue weeping in his arms. Her tears and snots were on his clothes, but he had a feeling of tender affection. He slowly… furled his arms.

Eventually, he held the small body in his arms slowly and firmly.

It was unprecedented; that was truly his first time in both his two lives to hold a woman so completely and so earnestly!

At this moment, his heart was beating wildly.

At the same time, a happy feeling of ‘possession’ filled his heart.

That feeling was new and touching for him. It was a feeling that he couldn’t let go and didn’t want to let go. (Ahem. It is exactly what I felt when I first held my wife…)

Su Ye-Yue cried for a long time until she realized she was weeping in Ye Xiao’s arms. She hastily pushed his arms away and wiped her eyes. She didn’t dare to raise her head, as she spoke with her face blushed, “Where am I…”

And then she turned around and ran into the house like a rabbit with her head low.

It was truly a scene of the saying: ‘keep silence like a virgin, run like a running rabbit’. It was no doubt that the girl was a virgin; but the so-known Xiao Monarch was… also a virgin!

[TL note: ‘keep silence like a virgin, run like a running rabbit’ the literal translation of 静若处子，动若脱兔.]

The girl actually felt embarrassed…

Ye Xiao shouted behind her, “Watch out! Watch your step! Don’t run onto the wall…”

The voice of Su Ye-Yue with shame and anger came immediately, “None of your business!” And then she disappeared.

The onlookers laughed with kindness. They even felt inspired by the pure affection between them.

“Off you guys…” Ye Xiao swung his hand casually, “Yes, I am back. I am fine… Heh heh heh… Be off now please. Everything’s fine.”

The steward hurriedly gave an order to a guard, “Go to the house of Lan and tell Lord Lan Lang-Lang that our Lord Ye Xiao is back… Tell him not to worry.”

The guard nodded his head and hurriedly left.

What if nobody informed Lan Lang-Lang?! How many more stupid things could he possibly come up with…

Zuo Wu-Ji stepped forward and laughed, “Xiao Xiao, now that you are back and safe, I guess I should just be off then. If not… hahahahaha… I am afraid I would get beaten up hard.”

He made a weird laughter with an undetermined meaning. He then waved his hand and left with his men.

After seeing his best friend leave, Ye Xiao entered the house. The steward had his usual bright smile on his face until Ye Xiao entered, when his face instantly darkened, “My lord, your wounds…”

Ye Xiao swung his hand, “Nothing serious. I was captured. It took me quite some effort to get back…”

“Who dared to do so?” The steward turned furious.

[So even when there is no Mu Clan, there is still another force after our young lord?! This is something that should definitely be looked into more closely.]

“Hmm. About that… You don’t need to worry…” Ye Xiao spoke, “I have turned them into friends. No. In fact, they weren’t hostile to me at the beginning. Anyway, they are most likely off the capital already. It isn’t worth mentioning anymore.”