Realms In The Firmament

[Since you want to see me so badly, and have been putting on the shows to trap me, why don’t I just let you see me, the past Prime Master of Sky Ice Palace?]

The lust for murder was rising in her heart.

Why would she waste time watching those people since she had something important to do next?

Those men were still enjoying the chitchats. The place they were staying at was a pit. The trees were tall, and they covered mostly everything around them. Even the sun couldn’t scatter the lights in.

It was quite a covert place, and they were talking in a low voice, so they were unbridled to have the conversation.

However, all of a sudden, when a man was talking, his eyes popped out and looked unbelieving. It seemed he just saw something unbelievable.

The others turned over to look at what he saw.

The first thing they noticed was the white clothes, and then it was the silver sword lights that were rushing over to them like waterfalls. They felt the tingle in the eyes, and before they had time to exclaim, seven streams of blood thrust up to the sky!

Seven men died before they had time to do anything. They didn’t even have time to stand up. The one who moved the fastest among them only had put his hand on the sword.

They were killed!

They were killed instantly by one sword strike!

One single strike!

With her mighty power, when she was intentionally making a sneak attack, even great cultivators like Xiao Monarch might be seriously injured, not to mention those regular cultivators who were used as baits.

The cold sword light flashed again. The freezing point of the sword was sticking on the only survivor’s neck. It had stabbed slightly into his neck, touching his throat.

The only survivor was precisely the man who had been telling the story!

Now, he wasn’t perky anymore. Instead, he was unbelieving and panicking, not knowing what to do, but actually didn’t dare to move a bit. He kept rolling his eyeballs but didn’t know what he should do.

He just saw the seven fellows of his die together at the moment when they turned their heads. It didn’t make a sound when the sword cut their necks and let out the blood.

Seven lives were gone just like that.

He was rattled by the fear in his heart. He couldn’t stay cerebral at all.

”Who are you?” Jun Yinglian looked frosty in the eyes. ”Who sent you to set the trap? What organization do you belong to?”

The sword was pointing right at his throat as blood flowed down.

He was freaking out at the moment. He rattled, ”I am…”

Yet he stopped when he said the two words. It seemed he had realized something, then he looked decisive. He opened his mouth and wanted to say something…

However, before he did, his throat was cut apart.

When his eyes looked decisive, Jun Yinglian knew that he wouldn’t tell her anything valuable. He was ready to die… That was why she just killed him without hesitation, in case he sent any information before he died to inform his fellows who might be around.

As she tilted the grasses with her sword casually, a big piece of grassland, about a dozen meters wide, was lifted up.

The eight dead bodies were moved under the grassland, and she put down the grassland to cover them. All traces were quietly hidden.

Even the smell of blood in the air was removed after she waved her hand.

It was a place of green grass, bird songs, and flowers. Nobody would know that there were eight Dao Origin Stage cultivators buried under the ground!

Her slender figure flew up like a piece of cloud in the dark forest and then moved fast through the trees.

She hadn’t risen up to the top of the trees all along or flew down any lower than the middle of the boles. She just kept flying in the air, being covered by the trees, before eventually disappearing.

On a road of a hillside.

That fake Xiao Monarch was walking forward slowly, looking around cautiously. He had been playing the crucial role in setting up the trap to get Jun Yinglian. However, to make Jun Yinglian believe it was true, the attacks on him weren’t all fake!

For him, if he were careless and got hit, he would be injured or even killed. That was why he couldn’t be careless a bit when they were playing to show for the trap.

He was cautious now, preparing to deal with the attacks to come. He was confused though. [The leaders have confirmed that Jun Yinglian is in this area, haven’t they? We have set it up so well, and we did make some noise that should be loud enough, why wouldn’t she show up?]

[To make sure Jun Yinglian will be killed, the leaders have sent hundreds of superior assassins in the area, other than this play in which I am playing the main character, haven’t they? The assassins should all be ready to kill. Even if your show fails, the assassins should be powerful enough to kill Jun Yinglian. This is a big show. There is such a great capture network. However, we still got nothing. How weird!]

[It has been months since the first day we did this, hasn’t it?]

[Generally, It should be done long ago.]

[But it hasn’t…]

The fake Xiao monarch was sure that Jun Yinglian must have left this area before his show.

He believed that, otherwise, she would definitely show up!

According to their plan, if things went well, he should be able to sit down and take a rest after walking for a little further. After that, he could take a turn and get ready for some food. The reason why they didn’t let him rest in one place was that the place where he was going to eat some food would be a stage for another show. It wasn’t indeed the time for him to eat.

It should be a new beginning of a show that could have lured Jun Yinglian to show up.

He was utterly bored about the days like this as an assassin. However, before the leaders told him to retreat… he had to keep doing it.

He sighed and looked exhausted. He leaned on a tree and prepared to take a nap. He closed his eyes slowly.

In fact, this was the only time he got to rest!

However, when he just closed the eyes, he abruptly opened them again.

Before he closed his eyes, he saw a terrifying white figure in the corner of his sight.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a woman, who appeared in front of him and he didn’t know when she showed up.

It was a beautiful woman.

He bet this was the first time he saw such a beautiful woman!

In fact, she was not only beautiful but also dangerous!

There was a sword in her hand.

The point of the sword had touched his throat from the moment she showed up in front of him!

The blade was frosty.

The air around the sword seemed to cool down sharply as it would never stop.

He knew who she was for the first sight.

Jun Yinglian.

She was the target of his trap!

However, the target had targeted him!

[No! I can’t let her kill me! Although I won’t be able to defeat her, I have this face! Isn’t it a big strike to her? It should be able to save me!]

He looked panicking in the eyes for seconds and then became shocked. After that, he intentionally showed her a sense of longing murmured, ”Lian Lian?”

The organization he belonged to had done lots of research and came up with this method, which could make him act exactly like the real Xiao Monarch in front of her.

If she still suspected Ye Xiao’s death, she would fall to it.

Her eyes were still full of coldness. She blandly looked at that familiar face, and sneered, ”Well played. You look just like him. You acted just like him. However, there is one thing you can’t fake. You can’t make the fake real.”

The fake Xiao Monarch still murmured painfully, ”Lian Lian… Do you still hate me…”

Jun Yinglian sneered. She didn’t even want to talk to this man anymore. [Who do you think you are? How dare you impersonate my lover?]

[How dare you pose as him talking to me?]

The spiritual energy in the sword had blocked his vocal cord. Her sword moved and then that fake Xiao Monarch’s entire face was cut off.

It was bloody and terrifying.

Flaying created the extreme pain to a man. However, that man couldn’t even exclaim. He just trembled.

”How could this face grow on somebody else body?” Jun Yinglian blandly said, ”Especially not in the body of a man who impersonates my man to hurt me.”

The fake Xiao Monarch’s eyes were full of terror, fear, and confusion.

[My face, my posture, my words, my manners… are all perfect. How did she find out I am fake?]

[How did she do it?]

[How… How is this possible?]

”You must be curious.” Jun Yinglian blandly said,”Let me clear your head before you go to hell… No matter what organization you belong to, you know quite well about Xiao Monarch. His face. His body. His moves and words. His postures. The way he talked. Even his martial art. You impersonated him perfectly.”

”You must be so confident as if even Xiao Monarch himself would see you as a reflection in the mirror if he was here.”

”But I can still notice the difference. Why?”

She looked utterly proud of it, with a feeling of standing high upon the clouds. ”It is simple. Nobody can fake his vigor, his specialty, his heart.”

”It is his extreme indifference to everything in the world. You can’t fake it! It is his carelessness to his life and death. You can’t fake it! It is his pride of standing upon the clouds looking down at the small world. You can’t fake it!”

”Most importantly, the regret and guilt to me that is buried deep in his heart and his soul is something you can never fake!”

Jun Yinglian smiled, ”You? You want to con me? Are you all kicked in the head by a pig? Do you understand now? Are you willing to die now?”

”I kill you, not because you are trying to kill me, not because of the trap you set up to get me, but because… you shouldn’t impersonate him!”

”There is only one Xiao Monarch in the world!”

”If he were alive, he would kill you!”

”Then I shall kill you for him!”

That man’s eyes turned deadly grey. He got it.

[I see.]

[I deserve this. Xiao Monarch was such a great cultivator. It is never easy to fake him. It is impossible to correctly pretend to be him to cheat the woman who loves him and knows him so much…]

[This plan is bound to fail.]

He slowly closed his eyes. Was he going to give up?

Suddenly, his throat moved.

He wasn’t giving up. Instead, he was making the last decision!

Jun Yinglian hurriedly pinched his throat, trying to stop whatever he was doing. This man was the key to the trap. He must know more about the organization than those men in black.

However, it was too late. There was a mass of black smoke coming out from his mouth. After that, the dark blood was overflowing his mouth. His head fell aside, and he was dead.

Jun Yinglian humphed. She didn’t feel sorry for him at all. She started to check the man’s body, but his body actually started to rot fast. After a while, he had turned into a cloud of cyan smoke.

Jun YInglian had grabbed a space ring, but there was nothing but only a sword in it.

She lost the trace.

She frowned.

She lost the trail, and she was wondering who was working so hard to kill her!

It was evident to her.

[It is nobody but the three factions!]

”Humph!” Jun Yinglian coldly humphed and spoke in a low voice, ”There is always a priority. You are lucky. I will let you breathe for a little longer. When I finish what I promised to Yue Gongxue, I will go make a closure with you!”

Her slender body thrust up to the sky with the breeze. After a while, it stirred up chaos in the sky. A piece of white cloud shot toward the north in lightning. The thunderclaps only sounded on the floor after a long time.

The three factions had been haunted by Jun Yinglian for a long time. They were becoming more and more heavily-guarded. In fact, even if Jun Yinglian stayed here, she wouldn’t get a chance to make a massacre.

The only way to do it was to start a frontal battle.

However, she wouldn’t stand a chance to win a frontal battle. She knew it. Besides, she was lucky to escape the trap this time. It wasn’t as easy as what she told that fake Xiao Monarch. Since the three factions hired such a mysterious assassination organization to kill her, they would keep trying different ways to do it. If she kept harassing them, they wouldn’t stop trying to kill her, and she could hardly get a chance to take her revenge anyway. She decided to leave it for some time and returned someday afterward!

She left the area for the promise she made to Yue Gongxue, as well as for loosening the three factions’ alert.

She shouldn’t lose patience in taking revenge.

To make tension and flab alternately was the best way!

[I will do whatever I promise to do.]

[Although I am a woman, I will keep my words, which most men can’t do!]

…

————

Author’s note:

When I am writing this chapter, I suddenly feel sad for Jun Yinglian…

If there is one character in this book that I feel apologetic to, it would be Jun Yinglian…