Realms In The Firmament

The Pei-Yuan Dan Bead would not only clean the impurities inside her body, it would also strengthen her organs… Su Ye-Yue felt a sharp pain in her belly almost immediately; it was quite a quick reaction. It was proof that her aptitude for cultivation was exceptional.

After all, what she experienced was not the ablution of muscles and bones.

In the time it took for an incense stick to burn, faint footsteps indicated Su Ye-Yue’s return. She groaned and complained, “Xiao Xiao… you had given me a cathartic pill, right? It seriously made me feel ill…”

“No, I didn’t. Take some rest and you will be fine. You will feel refreshed in just a seconds…” Ye Xiao smiled as he spoke.

He wasn’t just comforting her. She had suddenly expelled a massive amount of impurities from her body. It would surely cause her body functions to be disrupted for a short period of time, but it was a part of the self-adjustment process. After a few hours, the process would end, and all the discomfort would be dispelled. Afterwards, the advantages of expelling the impurities would become evident.

“Well, I better go home then… My stomach feels really terrible. It won’t look decent if I stayed here.” Su Ye-Yue answered faintly.

“Don’t worry. Just spend the night over here.” Ye Xiao persuaded her, “I have already sent my men to inform your father. Besides, I won’t be at ease if you were to go back like this.”

She was looking really ill at the beginning, but when she heard Ye Xiao’s words, she immediately felt a little refreshed. She gave a grin so wide that her canines became visible, “Are you really worried about me?”

If it was Wen-Ren Chu-Chu who was asked to stay overnight, she would instantly become worried about her reputation. This girl, on the other hand, was actually concerned about his sincerity. Ye Xiao sweated and nodded, “Yes. I do.”

“Fair enough.” Su Ye-Yue’s mind was pure like crystal water. She didn’t even think of how inappropriate it would be if she were to stay overnight. Instead, she spoke happily, “Then you should quickly prepare a room for me… I am going to rest. And I also need to take a bath. I should go to bed quickly, as I am so tired and sleepy.”

As she had been anxious during the past few days, she was indeed exhausted.

…

It was midnight.

Ye Xiao sat on his bed, legs-crossed as usual, operating the East-rising Purple Qi. He was concentrating on his cultivation. This time, he was controlling the scorching hot power of the East-rising Purple Qi, so his entire body was shrouded by a mist of hot qi.

After the preparation was completed, he took out three pieces of the Sky Crystal Sand, which he had purchased in the auction, and held them in his hand.

The dense, scorching hot power of the East-rising Purple Qi suddenly gathered at the center of his palm!

Ye Xiao felt like he was creating a micro-sun in the palm of his hand.

Beads of sweat started to gather on his forehead as he rapidly operated the energy with all of his efforts, trying to complete this micro-sun as soon as possible.

The pieces of Sky Crystal Sand laying in his hand were slowly rotating, while they were being enveloped by the scorching hot power of the East-rising Purple Qi. It could be faintly seen that, while the Sky Crystal Sand pieces had turned red hot, they were not really melting.

It was unbelievable that the Real Soul Fire, which originated from the East-rising Purple Qi, and was the top-class power in the world, actually failed to melt the Sky Crystal Sand!

[TL note: It seems the scorching hot power he was using in his hand is called the Real Soul Fire (真元之火).]

Ye Xiao breathed out in a rush and his entire body felt weak. He stopped operating the martial art and returned the Sky Crystal Sand pieces. He murmured, “My cultivation is insufficient… I am unable to melt it.”

His plan this time was to melt the Sky Crystal Sand pieces and create a weapon for himself that he could properly use in his current condition. However, in spite of doing his best, it still couldn’t be done and he had to give up.

“To melt the Sky Crystal Sand, in terms of the general martial arts, even for the extremely high-level fire-attribute martial arts, would require a cultivator to be at the eighth level of the Grade of Diyuan at the very least. However, the East-rising Purple Qi is not some random martial art… Even though I failed this time, I think that I will be able to melt the Sky Crystal Sand once I reach the third level…”

Ye Xiao breathed out, “I can do nothing at the moment after all… I have no choice but to wait till I reach the third level of the Grade of Diyuan and see what happens then.”

He then grabbed the book of Sword Art of Feng-Hua that Su Ye-Yue had purchased in the auction. After examining it, he felt a bit speechless.

It was exactly what he had expected. This book of the Sword Art of Feng-Hua was only a fragmented version, as the missing information would amount to far more than ‘just a bit’…

If she had followed this book to practice, with her peerless aptitude, she might achieve a lot, but eventually, she would most likely stop improving after reaching the Grade of Tianyuan. Plus, it was possible that certain long lasting side effects would appear.

“Well, let me complete it for you.” Ye Xiao had travelled all over the world, so his understanding of martial arts was truly broad and profound. There were so many books of martial arts imprinted in his brain. The Sword Art of Feng-Hua wasn’t some high-class sword play method. Let alone the fragmented book, even if it was the full version, it would merely be one of the ‘first grade’ level books.

No matter what, it was surely far from ‘supreme’.

However, he had to complete the book with the Sword Art of Feng-Hua as the base. Otherwise, if it drew attention, he would become the target of everyone’s greed!

Ye Xiao was always cautious about it.

After he finished the book, Ye Xiao thought for quite a while and then integrated a copy of ‘Scripture of Yin’ into it.

Among all the arts known by Ye Xiao, it was the premier martial art for girls to practice.

…

The next morning, Su Ye-Yue, who had spent all night in General Ye’s house, jumped over to Ye Xiao with a face filled with excitement and surprise.

“Xiao Xiao!” She leaned towards Ye Xiao and exclaimed, “Look at me! Look at me!”

“What’s wrong?” Ye Xiao looked at her pretty face with a ‘What are you talking about?’ look on his face. He felt confused.

“Ahhya… You pig!” Su Ye-Yue pouted, and then she was back in good-spirits as she again pointed to her own face and said, “Look at me again carefully. Take a closer look.”

Ye Xiao carefully inspected her face and said, “Why don’t you tell me what exactly is going on?”

This remark caused Su Ye-Yue to feel discouraged and spoke angrily, “Haven’t you noticed that my facial skin has become better?”

Ye Xiao shook his head blankly, “No, I haven’t. Is it really better now?”

Su Ye-Yue immediately felt depressed.

She woke up early this morning to freshen and dress herself up, but when she looked into the mirror, she noticed that something was different - really different. She found that her skin had acquired a rosy glow, as it was both pink and white. She felt that she had become extremely beautiful, to the point where she wasn’t even sure if she was awake or dreaming.

Most importantly, there used to be some dark spots on her face, but at that moment, they had completely vanished.

Facing such an astonishing change, she was naturally extremely excited, so she rushed to Ye Xiao inorder to show off. However, she wouldn’t have imagined that this guy would actually fail to notice any difference…

“You are a complete moron!” She was really upset.

However, she was also thinking: [How come after sleeping here for just one night, my face has become so beautiful? Could it be… Could Ye Xiao’s house actually be a wonderful place for beautification?]

Although she didn’t speak out, she had made up her mind: [In the future , I will definitely come here to sleep as often as I can.

Humph! It is going to be my home sooner or later!]

She grabbed her copy of Sword Art of Feng-Hua quickly and hung her head low and left grouchily.

She wasn’t aware that changes had been made to her incomplete copy of the Sword Art of Feng-Hua. Although Ye Xiao hadn’t completely changed everything, he had changed a massive amount of details…

In fact, after she had gained the Sword Art of Feng-Hua, before she had time to check it out carefully, news of Ye Xiao’s disappearance reached her ears. That was also the reason why she kept the book with her all the time.

If she had read it even once, with her eidetic memory, she wouldn’t really need to keep it by her side. So even though she would read it and practice with it, she would never find out that the contents had been changed.

At the moment, a voice from outside reported, “My lord, people from the Palace of Hua-Yang have arrived, and they are saying that they have come with the order to take the princess back.”

“Ok then.” Ye Xiao answered casually.

A long time after the girl left the house of Ye, Ye Xiao started panicking: [Oh no! Am I going to be caught telling a lie?]

Last night, Ye Xiao told her that he had sent people to inform the Palace of Hua-Yang about her staying overnight. In fact, he had never done that…

…

When she went back to the palace, without a doubt, she was severely scolded.

“That was not presentable. That was unacceptable!” Prince Hua-Yang was furious. He was utterly frustrated as if his most precious treasure was snatched by someone else. He scolded her while stomping his feet, “You are an unmarried girl. You had actually stayed overnight in your intended husband’s house… You, you... you… you damn girl. You are trying to piss me off! Are you not?!”

She kept her head low as she listened to him, but her expression showed indifference.

[Dad is alway like this. He likes to make a fuss.]

“You. You are going to completely disgrace me!” Prince Hua-Yang paced around trying to find some tool for punishment, but how could he bear to see any of these tools being used on his precious daughter? So, eventually, he felt his anger and depression reaching new heights; his pace became faster.

After a long time, she stood up and patted down the dirt on her knees, and then went into the inner house with a smile on her face…

Prince Hua-Yang gave out a long sigh. He felt that he was incompetent and had failed as a father. He had scolded his daughter severely, but had only made her smile…

“Mom, let me tell you a big secret.” Su Ye-Yue cuddled in her mother’s arms and spoke in a whisper.

“What big secret?” The old princess asked with interest.

“Well the secret is… I had slept overnight in Xiao Xiao’s house. This morning when I woke up, I found my skin had become delicately smooth…” Su Ye-Yue started flattering herself, “Mom, look at my face. Isn’t it much more exquisite? Isn’t it smoother? My facial skin is much better, isn’t it? That is a big secret, isn’t it?!”

After the old princess heard the big secret, her expression changed quickly. She stared at her daughter with a pale face. It was as if she had been struck by lightning, “Slept overnight… Skin became better? That, that…”

The princess was quite well informed. She naturally knew that generally, before a girl got married, her skin would not be in the best condition.

The time that a girl’s skin became radiant was right after she got married and was moistened by the rain and dew… The several years following that was the period of time when a girl was in her most beautiful condition.

Now that she heard Su Ye-Yue say so, the thoughts of the princess went in the wrong direction: [This silly girl hadn’t come home for a whole night. Did she actually do that thing with that guy Ye Xiao?

That, that... that… Damn it…]

“What exactly did you two do?” The princess turned green in the face, “You you… You damn girl! How dare you do such a disgraceful thing! You are going to piss me off to death…”

Su Ye-Yue was surprised after seeing her mother’s reaction. Her eyes were wide open and she looked very confused, “What disgraceful thing? I… I didn’t…”