Realms In The Firmament

[This guy has been hunted for quite a long time…] Ye Xiao thought, [His experience of being hunted is not as miserable as mine, but it is quite woeful already…]

He didn’t know that Ning Bi-Luo was being hunted because of him!

Ning Bi-Luo sat on the floor dejectedly while breathing heavily and he asked, “The House of Chaotic Storm. I wonder whether you are Wan Of The Clouds or Xiu Of The Heavens?”

Xiu-Er spoke blandly, “I am Xiu-Er.”

“I see.” Ning Bi-Luo smiled with self-mockery. He suddenly looked amused and said, “To die in a demon’s hand, at least it won’t stain my honorable name in the world.”

Ye Xiao was surprised and thought, [Demon? What demon? What does he mean?]

Xiu-Er’s voice turned cold, “Ning Bi-Luo, do you know you just offended me?”

Ning Bi-Luo rolled his eyelids and said while panting, “I know. Of course I know… However, Lady Xiu-Er, even though you are powerful with all your hexes, you can only kill me once, right? You want to drag me back from hell and kill me again and again… Hey hey. Even if you really are a demon, I am afraid that’s out of your capability. Right?”

While speaking, he actually laughed and said, “I am unlucky to come across you while I am still carrying wounds. If I am fully recovered, I doubt that you can defeat me! Let’s just say the gods didn’t stand on my side!”

A figure in white fluttered. The slim figure of Xiu-Er appeared in Ye Xiao’s sight. Even in the heavy rain, her clothes still looked clean and dry!

She spoke, “There is no such thing as absolutely fair in the world. In the martial world, there is no such thing as justice either… Ning Bi-Luo, you are an assassin. Killing is normal for you. When you took people’s lives, did you give them a fair chance to defend themselves? Yet now you spoke those words. Don’t you think that what you said has stained your name? A man demeans himself right before his death. How pathetic.”

Ning Bi-Luo stayed silent for a while and then spoke hoarsely, “You are right. I am hypocrite by saying that. Just end my life today. I won’t complain anything about it.”

Xiu-Er laughed and then spoke indifferently, “You know what. I don’t want to kill you. What I want is to recruit you.”

Ning Bi-Luo laughed and said, “Recruit? In such a pleasant way?”

Xiu-Er spoke calmly, “The House of Chaotic Storm hasn’t recruited any true member for many years… Now that we are showing you our appreciation, why are you still unsatisfied? Does it really matter what way we used you?”

Ning Bi-Luo coughed for a while. He then panted out, “What a pity… I don’t want to be a demon.”

The coldness in Xiu-Er’s eyes increased and her eagerness to kill turned heavier.

Even though she was not looking at Ye Xiao, Ye Xiao felt a bit terrified at the moment…

“You have offended me over and over again. Ning Bi-Luo, as a man like you, it is immoderate to offend a lady like that.” Her voice became peaceful again.

Ning Bi-Luo was quiet.

“I want to know the true reason.” Xiu-Er spoke blandly, “The House of Chaotic Storm is world-shocking… All the superior cultivators want to be a member of it, except you. Why?”

Ning Bi-Luo spoke after a long silence, “I know that what you said is true. However… I am a self-governed man. I am always the one who gives the orders, even though I am an assassin. Perhaps I have never been a good guy… But I will never be a dog!”

He raised his head and spoke blandly and stoutly, “I can be a bad guy, but I will never be a dog for others! Not even a dog for the king!”

Xiu-Er stayed silent for a while before she said, “Good. Good. You are a tough guy. I was underestimating you.”

Ning Bi-Luo was motivated and laughed. He spoke proudly, “I am born with an unyielding character! I don’t think I can ever change it in this life.”

“The House of Chaotic Storm needs assassins this time. A man like you is someone I truly don’t want to lose…” Xiu-Er sighed and said, “The guy, Red In The Sky, has been missing since his last mission. Ning Bi-Luo, I am giving you another chance here… You can still change your mind.”

Ning Bi-Luo closed his eyes and mouth. He stayed silent.

His attitude was obvious, [Just kill me. I won’t change my goddamn mind!]

Xiu-Er sighed of pity and had her last try, “Fine. I won’t force you. However… Ning Bi-Luo, let me ask you another thing. If you can explain it clearly to me, and if your answer satisfies me, I will stop pushing you and give you a quick and nice death.”

Ning Bi-Luo spoke with his eyes closed, “Ok. Go ahead.”

“You say you don’t want to serve anybody and only wished to fight for yourself alone. That is your personal conviction, right?” Xiu-Er asked, “For your whole life, you only obeyed yourself, is that true?”

Ning Bi-Luo sneered, “Of course. So I am. So I always have been. I will keep it so until I die! I won’t ever regret it!”

“Is that so? Then three years ago, why did you secretly lead all your men to the north and help Ye Nan-Tian kill a lot of the generals of the Northern Wolves?” Xiu-Er spoke blandly, “Don’t you think you were a dog for Ye Nan-Tian? Were you not serving the king of the Kingdom of Chen?”

“Nonsense!” Ning Bi-Luo suddenly opened his eyes and furiously said, “That’s different! How could you bring it to the same topic?”

Xiu-Er spoke poignantly, “What you did was helping others! Don’t tell me Ye Nan-Tian and the king had given you something as payment. If you said so, I won’t be satisfied. You won’t die today, or tomorrow, or the day after. You will be alive for a long time. You must know how it is to be begging for death. After that ‘a long time’, you will realize that death is a very precious and rare dream to you!”

“I said. You can’t associate these two things together. They were different essentially!” Ning Bi-Luo shouted.

“Oh? Tell me more!” Xiu-Er spoke indifferently.

“It had nothing to do with Ye Nan-Tian. I didn’t help him. In fact… I had an enemy in the generals of the Northern Wolves. So I had to kill them! My clan was slaughtered a long time before that and it was that enemy who did it. You were wrong about me helping Ye Nan-Tian. For me, Ye Nan-Tian was helping me with my revenge.”

“Ye Nan-Tian won the battle because I killed those guys, but I didn’t care about it and it had nothing to do with me. Ye Nan-Tian alone could surely win that battle without me.”

Ning Bi-Luo spoke indifferently, “You said that I was a dog for Ye Nan-Tian. Well it was nonsense. We were just cooperating by coincidence!”

Xiu-Er said, “Then what about the second question?”

Ning Bi-Luo stared at her with disdainful eyes and spoke blandly, “It turns out the wisdom of the Xiu Of The Heavens is just a joke. You actually keep questioning me about serving others?! Don’t you see… Even if I have fought in the battle, even if I have fought for the Kingdom of Chen, even if I didn’t have an enemy in the other side, it could never prove that I am a dog for the king!”

“It is simply because I am one of the people of the Kingdom of Chen!”

Ning Bi-Luo spoke blandly, “It is about bloodline, about the country. It has nothing to do about personality or personal business. And it certainly has nothing to do about being a dog!”

“Even though the royal court has been offering a reward for my head, when my country is in danger, I will stand forward to fight for her! Because this is the responsibility of the people in the country!”

“I hate most of the men who works in the royal court. I hold no good feelings to the royal family. I don’t give a shit to the king. I am simply a man in the martial world. Even in the martial world, I am an assassin which is always detested by the so-called noble men. But I will fight for my country when she needs me to!”

Ning Bi-Luo sneered, “I don’t want to join you, because firstly, I don’t want to be your dog, secondly… You guys have no idea how to be loyal to your country. You only care about rising and falling… Yet you don’t care about who will rise and who will fall. I am different. I have my roots.”

“Who rises and who falls… It includes my country! I can’t just sit and wait doing nothing!”

Ning Bi-Luo smiled, “So… You can recruit anyone you like, except me, the disreputable assassin!”

“Or let’s just say you don’t have the capability to recruit me, because you can never afford the conditions I want!” Ning Bi-Luo laughed.

His words were solid in the heavy rain and the wild winds.

It became silent!

The world was covered by the rain and the wind.

The rain was getting heavier.

To see it from the top, the raindrops were like endless javelins falling from the sky to the earth!

The mountains were like the ocean. Water was running everywhere…

The deafening sound of the flood had come over from the valley.

Ning Bi-Luo was covered by dirt and gasping. He was in a difficult position. Yet the Xiu Of The Heavens was still in a suit of white clean clothes, like a faery from the heavens.

However, Ye Xiao felt that Ning Bi-Luo contained more of the aura of a human being than Xiu Of The Heavens.

Xiu Of The Heavens looked clean and saintly, yet she was full of the ruthlessness, ‘looking at the world’s suffering, I am still casual and elegant’!

Her white clothes seemed so disgusting in the dark.

…

5th guaranteed chapter of the week.

Translated by: Rain

Edited by: Arch