Realms In The Firmament

“All of them were right…”

Gu Jin-Long and Wan Zheng-Hao were both surprised by the conclusion.

[I have been listening carefully for such a long time and that’s what you are telling me?] They both nearly spat out blood at the same time.

[The man has spent his whole life and the conclusion for all his works turns out to be… that the others are all right… What the hell you are working on then?]

“Please be patient.” Ye Xiao smiled blandly.

“However, the reason why all those dan-making masters could reach the outstanding range was because they weren’t calm enough. They had thought too much.” Ye Xiao spoke, “My master has been doing one thing in his life, so his heart is pure. There is no impurity.”

“After that, my master stuck to the path he had discovered. He first burnt some incenses to calm himself down for three days. And then he undertook ablution for three days. After that, he started to make dan beads with his sincere heart filled with respect…”

“That was the first time in his life he tried making dan beads, his first time touching a dan stove.”

“What’s the outcome?” It was Gu Jin-Long asking. He couldn’t pretend to be indifferent and casual anymore.

“It didn’t go well. He failed.” Ye Xiao spoke blandly, “The first time, he failed. The second time, failed… He kept failing, until… The seventeenth time, he successfully made something. Some ordinary Pei-Yuan Dan Beads. However, he just kept trying. After a half year, he was already able to produce some superior dan beads that were capable of producing dan glow!”

“A half year! Dan glow!” Gu Jin-Long and Wan Zheng-Hao looked at each other.

That was as fast as a rocket speeding across the sky for a rookie dan-maker!

“After a year, he could skillfully produce superior dan beads with dan mist.” Ye Xiao continued shocking the two men by talking peacefully.

“After another two months, he finally got his first group of supreme dan beads!” It finally exploded all the bedding he had made.

[Fourteen months!

The supreme dan with dan cloud!

From the first day he made dan beads to the day he produced supreme dan!]

They felt like they were dreaming. When they thought about the 400 years hard work, they were speechless at the same time.

Everyone knew about one thing. If a man used his whole life to do only one thing without considering anything else, no matter what he was doing, he would succeed!

By saying ‘without considering anything else’, it truly meant… EVERYTHING! That included eating, drinking, playing, living, traveling and even things between men and women…

It meant full concentration!

They were astonished, but felt reasonable somehow. [If he didn’t succeed after giving up so much… It would be too cruel for him…]

Ye Xiao spoke slowly, “I have witnessed the moment when the supreme dan appeared. It was like the world was shaking!”

“The supreme dan just came out the stove and the cloud was forming around it. The fragrance spread out a hundred miles away and the whole world was thundering!”

“Anomaly of the world!” Gu Jin-Long murmured, “The appearance of supreme dan beads could indeed produce anomaly of the world…”

“I will never forget that day! When the supreme dan showed up, my master looked up to the sky with tears on his face.” Ye Xiao said.

“400 years hard work. All for that moment. ‘It truly is dan cloud! It is…’ How could he not be emotional…” Gu Jin-Long looked up and murmured. He looked motivated.

“After my master produced his first group of supreme dan beads, he stopped. He went to his father’s tomb and burnt some incenses. He stayed sitting there for ten days. During the ten days, he had spoken nothing.” Ye Xiao spoke.

Gu Jin-Long and Wan Zheng-Hao didn’t know what to say.

They thought if they were in that situation, they would have said nothing like that too!

Because nothing needed to be said already.

What could he say to speak out the difficulties he faced during the 400 years?

What could he say to express his lifelong insistence?

“So the secret art of dan-making is simple.” Ye Xiao smiled and said, “My master had made a conclusion with several lines… ‘Pure heart; pure soul; pure body; pure spirit. No troubles; no seduction. Without distractions, to follow the harmony between man and nature.’”

(赤子之心，赤子之魂；洁净之身，洁净之魄，不染因果，不染风尘；心无旁骛，天人合一。)

It is just that simple. The thirty-two words were describing all the secrets of the supreme dan! Everything!”

Ye Xiao spoke blandly, “I am finished.”

“Ah…” Gu Jin-Long sighed and spoke, “Pure heart; pure soul; pure body; pure spirit. No troubles; no seduction. Without distractions, to follow the harmony between man and nature… Well said. Well said indeed…”

He shook his head with sorrow and smiled bitterly, “It is all about only several lines to speak, but when it comes to practice… How many in the universe are able to do so?”

At this moment, he gave up what he had been planning.

It turned out he had been planning to do something.

He had planned to capture the dan-maker back to the Qing-Yun Realm to make supreme dan beads for his sect after he took the Cosmic Hades back.

With the help of the powerful resources of his own sect, he believed the dan-maker would soon reach a grandmaster’s level.

It was essential for the dan-maker who wanted to improve himself to be skillful. Even if the dan-maker would resist, he would eventually give up and start to make supreme dan beads soon because there were endless resources in front of him!

However, after what Ye Xiao had told him, Gu Jin-Long believed everything he said!

So he gave up that plan. If the dan-maker was threatened, how could he still contain the pure heart, the pure soul…? Let alone ‘without distractions, to follow the harmony between man and nature’… It would be bullshit…

If the dan-maker’s mind had been distracted, even if he was willing to make dan beads for Gu Jin-Long, he could never be able to produce supreme dan beads!

So Gu Jin-Long thought that it would be just ruining the dan-maker! He decided to let him make his own supreme dan beads and he could maybe have some from him…

He totally believed in what Ye Xiao had said.

Because what Ye Xiao had told were impossible to make up.

The theory that was mentioned in the story was admirable.

It was enlightening!

Yet he could never have thought that…

The guy in front of him was actually the Xiao Monarch!

The theory Ye Xiao had told was surely true, but it was just a theory. It wasn’t even a theory about the art of dan-making.

The story was true, but the main character surely was not Ye Xiao’s master. It was his only sworn brother in his previous life. That man was chasing the ultimate art of knife. That theory was the cultivation method he had eventually figured out.

Ye Xiao had just modified the story in a complete extent.

Speaking of Ye Xiao’s sworn brother, he was the main reason why Ye Xiao started killing in the Qing-Yun Realm and became the enemy of the three factions… crazily messing up with the three factions!

Of course… if there was truly someone who had been working on dan-making with the way Ye Xiao had told… Well… No matter how long this ‘someone’ could live, he would waste every second of it… It was merely wasting and failing.

To convert the theory of cultivation of the art of knife to the art of dan-making was absolutely impossible to be successful!

Ye Xiao raised his head and looked at Wan Zheng-Hao. He sneered and smiled, “I came here only by fits and snatches, yet you are not willing to let me leave now… I have thought a lot and couldn’t understand why. The only possibility is that you guys want to know how these supreme dan beads are produced, right? Now I have told you the secret. Are you happy now?”

Wan Zheng-Hao was a bit embarrassed.

As the owner of the famous Ling-Bao Hall in the Land of Han-Yang, what he was doing was truly a bit embarrassing. Yet he had no choices. The one who could make the call was no longer Wan Zheng-Hao now!

Ye Xiao said, “Now that I have told you everything. I wonder if I could keep my life… Well at least I have told you the secret. Even if I will die later, my master’s effort will be passed down to the future by you two. It won’t be wasted anyway…”

“You are mistaking us, Brother Feng…” Wan Zheng-Hao hurriedly explained. He kept shaking his hand, “I am not such a despicable man, am I?”

Ye Xiao said, “But it is the supreme dan beads… Everyone wants it…”

Gu Jin-Long smiled and said, “Brother Feng, you are telling the truth. However, even if we wanted the supreme dan beads, we will never use such an ugly way…”

He stopped for a while and then continued, “If you don’t mind, Brother Feng… Can you master make any supreme dan beads of some higher-level dan?”

Ye Xiao was surprised and then he said, “It is possible, but as I said, my master might not have the time to do it. Even if he wants to, he may not be able to…”

“I see.” Gu Jin-Long changed the topic immediately, “Well one more thing… The reason why we have been a little bit impolite to you today is because of something else.”

Ye Xiao was surprised, “Something else?!”

He wasn’t pretending to be surprised. He was indeed surprised and cautious at the same time!

He knew about Gu Jin-Long deeply.

Gu Jin-Long might look well behaved and elegant. He had a good reputation in the world. He was like a representation of the noble men.

But Ye Xiao knew that he was extremely insidious and acrimonious inside.

He might be smiling at the moment, yet the next second, he would draw out his sword and take your life. He had done this so many times before.

There had been many people in the Qing-Yun Realm who had died in the hidden dagger behind his smile. They had never figured out what had truly happened even at the last moment of their life...

…

4th guaranteed chapter of the week.

Translated by: Rain

Edited by: Alpha, Arch

Translated by XianXiaWorld