Realms In The Firmament

Song Jue was shocked. When he realized it, he laughed because of extreme anger. ”Zhu Chenggong, look at you now. Talking nonsense like a stupid scholar. Fine. I don’t have all day. Don’t give me one thousand white flag. Pah. Not even one white flag. If you can get me the blood in the same way like Xiao did, I will admit defeat and leave right away with my nephew! Well, what if you fail?”

Apparently, Zhu Chenggong was furious. He decided not to let it go. He shouted with anger, ”Not white flag, just the blood? What difficulty does it have? Just say it. How much blood on the guy’s flag? You are so confident that I will fail. I guess you guys have gathered the blood from lots of men for that flag. Ten or twenty? Well you are making a mistake here. We are short for many things, but the last thing we lack of is human blood! I can get as much as I want! If I can’t make it, I call you father! How’s that sound!”

Song Jue calmed down facing Zhu Chenggong. He spoke in a deep voice, ”You are going to call me dad for sure. Let me tell you something. That is blood from many people indeed. Four hundred and sixty-five young men!”

Zhu Chenggong was shocked. He couldn’t believe it and he said, ”What? You nephew sacrificed nearly five hundred men for that flag? Hundreds of young strong men? Your stupid nephew deserves to die! He has to die! Where is my sword! I am going to avenge those pasted good men!”

Song Jue stared right at Zhu Chenggong’s eyes and fiercely shouted, ”Pah! You want to avenge those bastards? Fine! Let me tell you the truth! Those are over four hundred young foppish lords from the influential families! You know how they hide in the back every time when the army marches for battle? That is their blood!”

Zhu Chenggong opened his eyes wide. If the sockets didn’t hold his eyes tightly, his eyeballs would have definitely shot out. He felt it unbelievable and he looked at Song Jue. ”You… What did you just say? The blood on that white flag is from those bastards that I always want to smash to death… Are you kidding…”

”Hilarious?” Song Jue sneered at Zhu Chenggong. ”You won’t have the chance to see such a thing happen though. Those young bastards had their heads chopped off in front of the king and all those officials… No one survived! You should have seen that… Heads rolling on the floor… At least a hundred of those officials passed out…”

”Urhhhhh…” Zhu Cehnggong opened his eyes big like a bell. Eye sockets were such a hindrance. They stopped the eyeballs from popping out twice at least.

”It was simple. Before they were chopped, he prepared the white flag and a vat. Two hundred men did it together. Chop, chop… A full vat of blood… My nephew, the great Commander Ye, grabbed a huge brush pen and wrote on the flag! He didn’t even look at the king, just led the army out right away like thunder!”

”What the f*ck!” Zhu Chenggong was shocked. ”He did it in front of the king?”

”Yes!” Song Jue nodded.

”In front of those bastards’ fathers? The officials?” Zhu Chenggong couldn’t believe it.

”Absolutely!” Song Jue nodded like a chicken pecking.

”None survived?” Zhu Chenggong was totally astonished.

”Of course!”

”What the hell. What a fierce foppish lad!” Zhu Chenggong admired it right away.

He would never do that. He wouldn’t be able to! He wouldn’t dare!

He might just think about it and that’s all!

”Are you addicted in speaking useless words? Why keep talking meaninglessly?” Song Jue proudly said, ”Look at him. He is my nephew!”

Zhu Chenggong sneered at him and said, ”I don’t think that was meaningless. And people only say ‘that is my son’ with pride… unlike you…”

Song Jue looked at him like he was going eat human flesh. He gritted with his teeth and said, ”I think it is pretty much meaningless! You don’t even have a nephew like him!”

Zhu Chenggong had nothing to say. After a while, his neck was still red because of anger and he said, ”So what! I will get a boy when I go home this time! There’s still time!”

Song Jue was shocked.

[There is? Really?]

Zhu Chenggong was still in shock. He rubbed his hands and said, ”That is crazy. Too crazy.”

”Humph. That is crazy? Not to me! The real craziness will come.” Song Jue curled his lip and said, ”You know Grand Tutor Wang?”

”Sure. I do. His son was in the army? He assigned his son to the royal guards before the army marched for battle.” Zhu Chenggong curled his lip and said, ”Coward prick!”

”This time, his son was chopped too.” Song Jue said, ”Before we left, Grand Tutor Wang saw his son die, so he stood right in front of the troops trying to stop Commander Ye. That was insane. He was smashed over by the horse steps. Commander Ye didn’t even look at that old man. After Commander Ye rode over, the army followed up. Wang became a pile of… Hmm… There was not even a bit of his flesh left… Right… Light and dust… After the army rode over, that old bastard became dust in the light!”

”Oh my f…” Zhu Chenggong opened his eyes big and wide and couldn’t say more words. He kept his mouth opened but couldn’t say a word. After a while, he finally finished the word ‘f*ck’ and said, ”My heavens. He did that while the king was there too?”

Song Jue said, ”That’s right!”

Zhu Chenggong widely opened his eyes and kept taking in cold breath. He kept murmuring, ”That’s awesome… That’s rough… Holy heaven and hell… F*ck me… How could he be so tough!”

Song Jue humphed. He was apparently disdainful.

”I have to say that is so entertaining!” Zhu Chenggong laughed loudly. The hatred and anger on his face had vanished. And then he frowned and said, ”But Commander Ye must have offended the entire court… He is going to live a tough life in the future. No. He barely will have any future, I am afraid!”

And he sighed. ”Young man. He shouldn’t be reckless on that. To do things under the guidance of one’s personal feeling is… foolish…”

He had been questioning and cursing Ye Xiao a while earlier, yet he started to worry for him now.

Song Jue humphed and said, ”We will leave soon. Who cares about the court. Even if we stay, what can they possibly do to us… Anyway, it is your problem. We won’t bother…”

Zhu Chenggong apparently felt surprised. ”You will leave? Where to? Hmm. You mean you are resigning and never get on the court again?”

…