Realms In The Firmament

Ye Xiao was wearing an unbecoming cotton robe. When he was arrived at the gate of the city, he operated his martial art to clean up the smell of blood and bloodstains on his body. Finally, he sighed in relief.

He noticed that there were a lot of girls around the gate. The smell of their perfumes came over to him in a tangy way. It was a female travel group getting out of town. They must be heading to the ice mountain. They actually travel in groups.

In fact, this group of girls was obviously built up by Su Ye-Yue’s sisterly friends. Some of them were the main officers’ daughters, while some of them were princesses of the royal clan. There were girls from noble houses and also daughters of wealthy men… Anyway, there wouldn’t be any girls from poor families or ordinary houses in this group.

Ye Xiao was like coming across some snakes and scorpions. He hurriedly hid aside.

If he got caught by these girls, he would have to go with them as company. That would truly be some shitty luck to him… He just returned from the ice mountain and he didn’t want to go back.

[I must be mad if I go back there again.]

It was more than enough for him to experience that memorable scene in his life.

That group of girls passed by Ye Xiao on their dangling sedans. They actually lined up in a very long cue. Around them, there were guards from their houses walking and staring at people on the street, like all men around them were perverts…

Ye Xiao kept hiding in the crowd and looked at the big group of upper-class girls dangling away. He felt like missing someone.

In this group, there should be one girl he was familiar with. So if he felt like missing someone, that someone must be the girl... Su Ye-Yue, Lady Su.

[She is always fond of joining big events. Why isn’t she in the group?

That’s weird.]

Ye Xiao looked more carefully and found that there was indeed no sedan from the Palace of Hua-Yang.

He felt that it was strange.

Usually, when something like this happened, Su Ye-Yue would be very eager to join such event with her group of sisters…

One of the reasons why he was so hurried in leaving the mountain was that he didn’t want to be recognized by Su Ye-Yue. If he came across her, although he was disguised as Feng Zhi-Ling…

Su Ye-Yue was too familiar and concerned about Ye Xiao. He wouldn’t want to risk being exposed. Besides, he just got out of a life and death battle, so he was both mentally and physically exhausted. He wasn’t in a stable condition, so he couldn’t be sure if he would be able to cover himself well in front of Su Ye-Yue…

[How come she doesn’t join her group this time?]

Humans were the kind that never stop looking for trouble.

He had just prayed not to get caught by the girl or that the girl could stop joining this event for just one day. However, when she really didn’t show up, he actually cared about her…

He felt like he had missing something important.

He was lost in thoughts and then suddenly, his expression changed. He murmured, “Oh no.”

He speeded up like a shooting star to somewhere inside the city.

He had realized the reason why the girl didn’t attend this event. It was the day that Prince Hua-Yang would go join the battle the next day. So today, they must be preparing to have their family dinner. It was the dinner before Prince Hua-Yang went to the battle. It was the last union of the family before he would go to war.

Even if Su Ye-Yue was free to get out, she would definitely be staying at home with her father.

At the moment, the night was about to come and the sky was about to turn dark.

It was in the Palace of Hua-Yang.

The palace was quite different than it usually was. There were colorful lights hanging everywhere.

The gate of the palace was usually shut, but now it was widely opened.

There was a long spear on the left of the gate and a grand broadsword on the right.

The weapons, instead of the guards, were actually guarding the gate when they were about go out for battle.

From the gate, there were two lines of broadswords leading the way to the middle hall. Every broadsword was about one meter long without the hilt.

The edge of the swords was glistening.

The broadswords were emitting some cold aura under the colorful lights of the whole palace.

Every man who passed by the broadswords could clearly see their face inside it.

Along with the full sight of the shadows of the swords, there was also that fierce killing intent coming over.

If some cravens occasionally passed the gate of the Palace of Hua-Yang, they would be so scared and get sick.

Whoever walked along there steadily were all soldiers and generals.

None of the maids were arranged to serve in front of the house. They were all having a day off. Some of them were resting in the backyard while most of them had gone home.

Today, who greeted the guests and served in the house were all vigorous soldiers who had been through hundreds of battles.

These soldiers all moved fast. Their eyes looked so different from those who usually greeted the guests in the house.

They were like eagles that had been starving for so long, and now they were finally out there searching for their preys.

There was a sense of fever on their faces.

There was a bloodthirsty look in their eyes.

Because… They were about to go to war.

The flag of the Prince Hua-Yang would fly all around the battle.

These men’s blood would be splashed on the battlefield, the most perfect place for them to die.

Their lives would be like the beautiful night blooms. Even though they only bloomed in a flash, this flash was enough to make them hold no regrets.

The clarions had a gloomy tune all of a sudden.

They should only use this kind of clarions in battle. At this moment, they actually kept blowing clarions responding to each other.

After the first clarion, there sounded another one not too far away. The clarions went on and on with the same rhythm…

After a while, there sounded lots of clarions from all directions spreading out of the city.

The street in front of the palace was proclaiming a curfew.

All the streets and roads around the palace had been cleaned up long ago.

The ten thousand soldiers were standing along the two sides of the road with their weapons in hand.

In front of the palace, there was a crowd of soldiers. Inside the palace there were lots of generals. Around the palace, there were so many soldiers.

In fact, there were about 20 thousand soldiers throughout the palace at the moment.

Except for the sound of footsteps and some gasping sounds, there were actually no other sounds.

Not even a sigh or a cough.

Everything was so quiet, portraying a deathly stillness. That was rarely seen.

Outside the city, the army was also in silence. In the big camps, all the soldiers were sitting still silently.

They had their weapons in their hands and just sat there.

Every twenty men sat around one table.

The liquor and the food smelled so good.

Both the generals and the soldiers didn’t move at all.

It looked like there were hundreds of thousands of statuaries staying there silently.

The clarions kept going on and on.

Some of the soldiers looked so young. It must be their first time to go fight in a battle.

At the beginning, there were some fear and some excitement in their eyes. However, when the whole world around them were covered with this silence…

In their eyes, the fear and excitement were all gone. Each and every one of them felt both serenity and fervor at the same time. Their blood was burning under the silence.

It had nothing to do with romance today.

It had nothing to do with women today.

It only concerned about men. Men from the military of the Kingdom of Chen.

It was a celebration of the men from the military.

Countless fully armed soldiers were coming from all over the city.

All the lights in every street were lit up at the same time.

There were 16 men coming out of the gate from the Palace of Hua-Yang. They stood on both sides of the gate like the wings of a wild goose. They walked in the same pace. These 16 men looked exactly the same.

They were the men who greeted the guests.

Yet they were not just ordinary guards. They were the outstanding generals of the eight experienced troops in Prince Hua-Yang’s army.

From the north, the orderly footsteps resounded. The men were not yet to be seen, but the sound of their steps had filled the whole place with their vigor.

[People from the north are coming.]

The generals couldn’t help thrusting their chests forward.

Everyone was looking at the same direction.

The next moment, a flag suddenly showed up from the corner of the street. A vigorous troop marched over with orderly paces.

The man in front of the troop was almost 3 meters high, he was the one raising the flag. Each of his step forward was vigorous.

“We are the two dragons, two tigers and a lion who were designated by the great Northern General, Ye Nan-Tian, to guard the capital. We represent the great General Ye and the 560 thousand brothers in the northern army to congratulate Prince Hua-Yang. We hope that when the royal sword of Prince Hua-Yang swings, the enemies in the south fall down. We wish you all the success and hope you gloriously return safely from the battle!”

The man’s loud voice was like steels crashing against each other. It was steady and firm. The congratulatory speech was like a battlecry filled with vigor.

Following his words, the four men behind him shouted at the same time.

The fifty men behind these five generals stayed silent though. Their eyes were sharp with a solemn aura.

- Chin! -

The next moment, the fifty soldiers drew out their swords at the same time, making the sound of metals.

The two dragons, two tigers and one lion were part of the ten generals in Ye Nan-Tian’s army.

Ye Nan-Tian had ten generals. They took turns to go to battle every half a year. This time, it was these five staying in the city, and next time, it would be the other five. It was kind of a tradition.

At the moment, the five generals who stayed in the city came to felicitate Prince Hua-Yang.

There were not many people in their troop, yet when they got together, they were like an army that could wipe out thousands of enemies.

…

3rd guaranteed chapter of the week. One more later on.

Translated by: Rain

Edited by: Arch

From XianXiaWorld