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Thread: Realms In The Firmament

  1. #1
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    Default Realms In The Firmament(天域苍穹)by Fengling Tianxia (风凌天下)

    Synopsis by xianxiaworld:

    《Realms In The Firmament》is the latest work of Fengling Tianxia (风凌天下) the author of 《Otherworldly Evil Monarch》 and 《Transcending the Nine Heavens》. The main character, Ye Xiao, was a superior master in his prior life. The three factions of the realm kill millions of people every time when they attempt to seize cultivation resources. Wealthy towns become wastelands only in one night. They cover up their crime with assertion that the towns were suffering under pestilence and disaster. They forcibly hold all the resources for cultivation, monopolize all valuable practice materials, and forcibly keep outsiders from cultivating so that only their three factions can practice in the realm. Ye Xiao declared war against the three factions in retaliation of their actions. He fought alone and ended up dying in vain. However he is reborn into a mortal body of a 16 year-old boy. He will use the powers he cultivated in his last life and slaughter his way back into the Realm. The story begins!


    Official Description:

    Laughing out loud upon all the heroes under the firmament, I am the monarch of the universe! All mountains and rivers are my territory. Riding toward all directions, I am the only king wherever I am. I shall dance beside wind and cloud, look down upon the earth, step on the skyrim realms, reach the edge of the firmament! Who dare to contend with me?! Would you fight alongside me, to conquer the world, to fly beside the wind and cloud, to the battle in the realms in the firmament!

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    Last edited by xianxiaworld; 02-22-16 at 12:15 AM.

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    Chapter - 1 If only I had an afterlife to slaughter the evil



    BOOOOM!!!. It sounded like the whole world was shaking.

    In the dust clouds, a big mountain was crushed into pieces. Endless broken rocks flew into the air with the dust. Rocks and dust rolling up suddenly obscured everything.

    A figure giving a shout broke out from the dusts cloud all at once. A man shining with a dazzling light like thunder and lightning was quickly flying forward. His high speed led to a long streak of dust trailing him.

    After that, a crowd of figures flew through the dust creating countless long streaks of dust, chasing after him as if possessed.

    “Three factions gang together including 3496 superiors, chasing me through thirty-seven thousand miles! Aha… you guys are really taking great pains!”

    With a tremendous noise, Ye Xiao - the man flying in front, stopped on a flying rock unpredictably, quickly turned around with a wild laugh. A sharp light of sword flew out of his hand at full speed, like a flashing streak of lightning of the firmament.

    The last of the power he contained!

    The light flew into the crowd. Pitiful cries burst out, but, as one fell another rose.

    Ye Xiao bled badly because of his last strike, which made him unable to fly anymore.

    坐如山岳岿然,站似通天长虹;动有风云涌动,行则霹雳随身!(Sitting like a lofty mountain, standing like a great rainbow; acting like a storm surging, moving like a thunderbolt.)

    Sitting, standing, acting, moving, the four lines are excellent descriptions about the superiors who have reached the Grade of Daoyuan[1]. Although Ye Xiao had been the best of all the Daoyuan superiors, after the amazing sword strike, he was like a spent bullet, too exhausted to fly. When he landed, the rocks under his feet were stained with his blood.

    Breathing heavily, Ye Xiao sneered with scorn in his eyes, “Humph, I may reached the end with no chance to survive, but let me assure you that most of you guys will die with me today!”

    The rock he was standing on, was on the peak of a huge mountain. He spoke like a king in the sky looking down, with imperceptible stateliness even in this imminent predicament! Fearing his aggression, hundreds of the superiors stood still in front of Ye Xiao, looking at him with misgivings in their eyes.

    The path they had travelled was dyed red with countless dead bodies. The howling wind sent their heads rolling on the path

    The cost they paid for Ye Xiao’s death is obviously what this endless red path shows!

    Although they were sure that this Xiao Monarch was at the end of his rope, they still wouldn’t dare to step forward, because they all knew clearly that whoever dared to get closer will get killed by Ye Xiao’s sword. It was affirmed that there were no exceptions and no doubt because this Xiao Monarch was a legend in the realms of firmament.

    The 3496 superiors from the three factions had set up huge traps and used countless approaches trying to hunt down Ye Xiao, travelled thirty-seven thousand miles and destroying nearly every mountain and river they passed. However, Xiao unexpectedly killed almost all the superiors behind him, leaving lots of dead superiors’ bodies wherever he went. Who could dare look down upon such formidable man? Nobody! Not even when he had reached his end!

    “Xiao Monarch! We wouldn’t have ganged together to hunt you down if it were not for your perverseness against us!” a sage-like old man in the crowd sighed completely exhausted, “I just don’t understand why… our well known Xiao Monarch would suddenly declare war against us, trying to kill us. What you did has led to the losses on both sides. Why are you doing this since it won’t bring you any good”

    Although the three factions finally had the chance to slaughter their shared enemy Ye Xiao, they had lost almost nine tenths of their superiors in this battle. The cost they paid was too high for them to revitalize themselves within a thousand years. The three factions would lose their top factions status in the realms once there were other factions rising. Even so, they still had no idea why Ye Xiao was so mad at them.

    Ye Xiao sneered, “So you don’t get it. You really don’t get it! Aha!”
    He looked down at the huge pit on his chest and while stretching his wounded body, chillingly said, “No matter what dirty business you did, I didn’t give a damn shit about it, except you forcibly occupied all the resources for cultivating, monopolized all valuable practice materials! You kept other people from cultivating themselves so that only you three factions could practise in the Qing-Yun Realm [2]! You acted so overbearingly, breaking people’s futures, and I just detested this. See, that’s why you all should die!”

    “No, Xiao Monarch! You are wrong! Only the virtuous should own the treasures in the world. Those who was cultivate themselves should follow the law of the jungle. What we did is nothing wrong!”

    “What -hah!” Ye Xiao laughed out coughing, “The virtuous you were saying that the treasures in the world belong to no one. No matter who, the one who seizes them has the right to own them. On that I agree. But, you slaughtered millions of innocent people just because you wanted to control the miraculous mountains, using those souls of the dead as sacrificial offerings to build the power vein! Then you cover your crime up with an assertion that those places were suffering pestilences and you were trying to save the rest of the realm! How many times did you mindlessly murder a whole town and distort facts. How dare you claim to be virtuous! HAHAHAHA!!” He laugh wildly while taunting them, “Now what wrong did I do. Bastards!” He smiled sarcastically.

    After Ye Xiao spoke, the three leaders of the crowd -the heads of the three factions, had ungainly expressions.

    “So, the reason you fought against us is simply to defend everyone against our injustice. Aha, what a noble man, Xiao Monarch! Even so, after your death today, who on earth would stand up and face us! We three factions may have suffered a great loss, but we are not destroyed! After no more than a thousand years, we will recover! But you, Xiao Monarch, will rot in hell forever!” The sage-like old man sneered.

    “As long as I am still alive, I will never let you proceed with it! If I die, the world would have nothing to do with me.” Ye Xiao smiled indifferently, “The only thing I would like to do, is to wipe you all out!”

    Even though he was talking with disdain, he felt sorry in his heart that he could not wipe out the three factions as a revenge for his brother. This was his life’s greatest regret.

    “I see.” The old man nodded slowly with a crazy murderous look, “Enough talking,we will end your life! We won’t let you stay alive!” He waved his hand, grinding his teeth, “Go kill him! Whatever the cost!”

    All the superiors attacked at the same time with full power. Countless lights and noises mixed in together, striking towards Ye Xiao, rolling like a huge storm. All that could be seen was dust flying up in the air. The mountain on which Ye Xiao stood earlier was crushed into pieces instantly and the dust now covered everything.

    Ye Xiao laughed out loud. After this one-month long battle, he was truly too powerless to even move a bit. He could do nothing against the destructive attacks, but could only look carelessly at the enemies, smiling.

    Instantly, he was smashed along with the mountain.

    His voice went up in air right before he was hit, “It is to be regretted that I was fighting alone and failed to kill you all! If I have a second chance, I promise I will cut every head of you down! You bastards getting away is my lifelong regret!”

    At the last moment of his life, Ye Xiao finally realized his main problem - he was solitary.

    BOOOM! Dust overflowed. Rocks rolled.

    Xiao Monarch left his last words with his last breath,

    “无悔此生路艰险,唯恨无力斩凶顽;若得来生重倚剑,屠尽奸邪笑苍天!”
    (I don’t regret my life even though it was so tough, but I hate that I couldn’t wipe the evil out. If only I had an afterlife with my sword in hand, I would remove all the evil so that I could laugh out loud in the world.)

    The old man looking at the mess, murmured with a sullen face, “Even if you had realized… You won’t have a chance… and never know the truth…” He sneered, “Humph, what a pity, there is no such thing as an afterlife!”

    “Off we go!” The old man waved his hand. All the superiors turn back and leave, but no one had noticed that the moment when Ye Xiao died, a thin purple light had flashed briefly in the sky.

    Wild wind blows over,with the mountain was gone, the huge amount of broken rocks which were left.


    ……

    Ye Xiao suddenly woke up confused, disregarding the pain in his entire body.

    “WTF is going on. Didn’t I die fighting against the three factions? How on earth could I survive that? No way…” He opened his eyes and a luxurious room entered his sight, and he felt like he was…he actually was lying on a soft bed!

    “I didn’t die?” Ye Xiao scratched his head, “How did I escape that?… Wait a minute… My body…” He stretched out his hands and kept his eyes wide open. Hands with white skin, long bony fingers, even lovelier than hands of a girl!

    “WTF…They are not my hands!” Ye Xiao was in a daze, staring at his hands.

    He quickly grabbed the mirror beside the bed and lifted it to his face, then cried out. In the mirror he saw an unknown youth who was about 16 years old, with white skin and sharp eyebrows. It was a handsome guy with red lips, looked as pretty as a lady.

    “Beautiful…” He realized it was not the right word to describe a guy and corrected himself, “Handsome…” He nodded, “Better than before… But what the hell’s going on?”

    Then he felt a sharp pain in his head. A memory was flowing forcefully into his mind. He almost passed out.

    Ye Xiao breathed heavily for a while before he had absorbed the whole memory which had invaded his mind just now.

    “Oh, I see…”


    ———————————————
    [1] Grade of Daoyuan: There are nine Grades in the level system of Realms of the Firmament.
    From low to high- Grade of Renyuan, Grade of Diyuan, Grade of Tianyuan, Grade of Lingyuan, Grade of Mengyuan, Grade of Daoyuan, Grade of Xianyuan, Grade of Shenyuan, Grade of Shengyuan.
    There are nine levels in each Grade, which makes it 81 levels in total.

  3. #3
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    Chapter - 2 A Weirdo He is, Weird Friends He Makes

    Ye Xiao was too shocked to close his mouth, even though he was dispassionate all along. He could never imagine that this unthought-of miracle actually did happen.

    The body… actually had belonged to someone else…

    Where Ye Xiao stayed at the moment is the Land of Han-Yang [1], the mortal world as it was stated in the Qing-Yun Realm.

    Although the body had belonged to a stranger, he still retained the name Ye Xiao, as the former owner of the body coincidently had the same name as him. The previous Ye Xiao was the son of the Northern General Ye Nan-Tian in the Kingdom of Chen [2].

    It was the General’s House where our main character Ye Xiao woke in his second life.

    He had been drinking all night at a brothel with his disreputable friends before he got home and died with an excruciating pain in the belly.

    At that moment, a tiny piece of our Xiao Monarch’s soul was still active and flew into the dying body by coincidence.

    “l think I can understand my situation right now… No… I still don’t get it…” Ye Xiao frowned, kneading his temple, “I did feel my soul fading away… There was no way I can still be alive. How did I survive and get rebirth in this body? Unbelievable…”

    He didn’t know what was going on, even though he was quite a knowledgeable man.

    It was absolutely impossible for this kind of thing to happen… but, it really happened on him.

    “Well, fair enough… Who is alive has hopes and now I have mine. With my extensive experience, as long as I cultivate myself correctly, I will soon become the great Xiao Monarch again! When that day comes, I will take my revenge on the three factions and kill them all! NO MERCY!!”

    He gnashed his teeth, with a combative look.

    The three factions had given any powers to deal with him and finally beaten him to destruction, but they could never had thought that the annihilated Xiao Monarch was still alive at the moment.

    “Bastards, one of the coming days, I will surprise you all!” He thought.

    When he was thinking, suddenly he grimaced while he felt pain inside his belly. It was an unbearable pain that feels like tearing the entrails.

    “Damn! Now I know how this kid died… He was poisoned…” Ye Xiao realized what had happened to him immediately, as he had seen a great deal of life. Even though he had realized what was happening, he couldn’t stop the influence of the poison to the body. He was too painful to wipe the sweats on his forehead.

    As the son of a general, the boy was actually poisoned to death.

    At the moment, even though Ye Xiao had taken over the body, the poison still existed and had the function of cause death.
    However, the poison might have kill the boy, but luckily it was not strong enough to kill Ye Xiao!

    “It is just nothing but a Qing-Ming Fruit Poison [3]… humph.”

    Ye Xiao was thinking it scorn of the poison, because he had identified the poison at once. Suddenly every thing went black for him. He realized that the poison started working again, so he performed his spiritual power in order to clear up the poison but astounded felt nothing in his body. That’s when he realized he wasn’t the Xiao Monarch in the former life anymore. Now he was a playboy of a general’s family, who seemed to have practiced some spiritual kong fu but had no any power at all.

    Thinking of this, Ye Xiao nearly yelled out painfully with a face-palm.

    It would be a thumping joke that the Xiao Monarch had survived a huge disaster but got killed by a trivial Qing-Ming Fruit Poison!

    While the pain was turning more and more drastic, Ye Xiao gnashed his teeth. He knew that he should try to survive first before considering anything else. He had no choice for now but use the very last piece of his soul power to deal with the pain first.

    Then he sat still with his legs crossed and gnashed, then transferred the soul power out of his mind. He targeted where the poison was at once, then used the soul power to pressed down right on the poison…

    “Puff!” Sputter.

    He spat out blood. His face turn as white as a dead body.


    “Damn… my last soul power… was actually used to deal with some poison. Now I really am faint… Who would have thought that there would be a day when I actually was so embarrassed…” He wiped away the blood on his mouth and thought, “For now I have got to remove the poison first… otherwise my dead body could rot in a few days… not to mention revenge…”

    “But… even if I survive this stupid poison… I have no powers remaining to go with my cultivation… My experience… my classy formulas… all wasted.”

    He murmured dolefully, “Now I am like a wealthy man walking in the brothel. I had the money and there were gals, but I turned out to be a eunuch… A gloomy thing like this has happened to me, how can I be the Xiao Monarch. Why don’t I claim the Xiao Moron..”

    Complaining wouldn’t help. He should figure out a cure.

    ……

    “Who’s the steward? Come quickly!” He yelled, “Go buy me some herbs.” He handed over a script on which he had just written a list of herbs to the steward. For the erudite Xiao Monarch, it wouldn’t need the spiritual power to cure the poisoning. He surely had some other way.

    Looking at the obsequious steward, he felt satisfied, “Aha, well at least it feels good to be a toff, giving orders and waiting to be served.”

    “Uhh…well… sir…I am afraid…” The steward held the script, looked at it, then twitched his mouth and scratched his head, with a dazed look.

    “Um? What?”

    “These herbs… I am afraid that I never have heard of them…” The steward speaking humbly, “My lord, I have learned many of the herbs in the world. I also have red Ben Cao Collection [4]. But these herbs… Ice-fruit, fire-leaf, phoenix bloom… I never heard of them. Where did you learn these from, if you don’t mind me asking?”

    “Ur…” Ye Xiao slapped on his head.

    Ye Xiao had almost forgotten that these herbs only existed in the Qing-Yun Realm. There should be none in this mortal world.

    “No no no, I was kidding buddy…” Sighed Ye Xiao, “Off you go.”

    The steward scratched the head and leave feeling confused. He wondered what his young master was going nut for. He thought, “He actually sent me for some herbs? The guy thought he could pretend erudite with some strange names written? I really, I mean really can’t have any word to say.”

    Ye Xiao walked towards the General’s study in a rush.

    He got in the room, walked to the bookshelves, started to find some medical books, so as to find a cure for the poison.

    “I knew it.” Sighed Ye Xiao.

    The Qing-Ming Fruit Poison wasn’t some classy poison for Ye Xiao, but it was still something from the Qing-Yun Realm. There could never be any cures in the mortal world.

    “It seems that whoever poisoned me was really trying to kill me.” Ye Xiao thought, “However, as how it is now, I am seriously in trouble. There is no cure here and I am not able to reach the Qing-Yun Realm. Am I really have nothing to do but waiting for death?”

    “Oh right, it obviously only exists in the Qing-Yun Realm… How can it be here then? Maybe the poisoner have some connections with people…up there?” Ye Xiao thought, looked a cold light twinkling in his eyes.


    “My lord! Lord Lan has come for a visit!” A guard standing outside the door reported.

    Not until this moment did Ye Xiao realize that the General’s House was really a weird place.

    There were never any females, not even housemaids. All working and living there were all guys.

    There were a few of them who looked spirited, but they were actually disabled.

    It was said that these disabled men were all ex-soldiers who had fought for General Ye.

    What a virtuous General cherishing his soldiers!

    That was the first thing Ye Xiao knew about his present father!

    “Lan? Oh I see!” Ye Xiao was blank for a while before the new memory came into his mind. Lan’s full name is Lan Lang-Lang. He is the son of the Southern General. Now Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang’s fathers were the two backbones of this kingdom, one ruling the north and the other ruling the south.

    Ye Xiao and Lan were both sons of generals. Their fathers were always out from home for a whole year, so they at some point shared the same feelings. That is why they hung out with each other and had become bros. However, while the former Ye Xiao was a free nut, Lan was unable to act too unseemly because of his mother.

    There is a full story about the name of Lan.

    The Southern General was a stammerer. The day when Lan was born, he was going home, sleeping in the carriage.

    He had a dream when he was sleeping. In the dream he was on a ship sailing in the rough sea.

    When he got home the next day, Lan was born and the family wanted his father to give the name.

    He was telling others about the dream right at the moment. He was so thrilled when he heard his son was born that he stammered, “La.. Lang… Lang… Lang Lang…”[5]

    Then the steward turned around yelling, “The General have decided… My young master should name Lan Lang-Lang…”

    As what it is, Lan Lang-Lang got his name, and became famous of it.

    The difference between Lang and Lang-Lang was like south and north; heaven and hell!

    “Xiao-Xiao, I heard that you were inebriated last night?” The girly voice of Lan came in before he stepped into the room, “Hah! A wise man like me would get away early and thank god I did…otherwise I would be led to the dark side by you playboys…”

    Ye Xiao got angry and cursed, “Lan Lang-Lang you prick! Stop calling me Xiao-Xiao before I beat your to death!”

    Lan shrank his neck and stepped into the room grinning cheekily, “I said you were extraordinary last night? You actually got yourself senselessly drunk in a brothel… I have to say I admire that. bro, I do!”

    “Humph!” Ye Xiao rolled his eyes, “How do you know? You set a spy in my house?”

    “Hah hah…” Lan started laughing, “I wouldn’t bother to do that in your shitty place.”

    After exchanging a few words, Ye Xiao observed his current best friend. Although Lan was born in a wealthy family, he was skinny, so skinny that the clothes seem to be oversized which was not actually true. The slim robe on him was clattering when he walked; there wouldn’t be more than 100 gram of fresh within his body. He had weird eyebrows, a flat nose, big lips and funny natural crossed-eyes.
    He wore a big thick hat in such a sweltering day.

    Ye Xiao learned from the new memory that there was a reason why he was always wearing a hat. His head was affected with favus [6] early in the year. He lost most of his hairs and became bold. He could not help but wearing a hat…

    Ye Xiao sighed, thinking, “Oh no… I am reborn with a weirdo’s body, and now I have to be friends with another weirdo!”

    “Oh my bloody god……..”


    ———————
    [1] Land of Han-Yang: A realm known as mortal world where Ye Xiao’s second life starts, and is far below the Qing-Yun Realm. People who live are all normal persons or low-level practitioners.

    [2] Kingdom of Chen: A kingdom in the mortal world - Land of Han-Yang, where Ye Xiao’s present father Ye Nan-Tian be a general.

    [3] Qing-Ming Fruit Poison: One kind of poisons that only exist in the Qing-Yun Realm.

    [4] Ben Cao Collection: A Chinese medical book from the old days. Ben Cao has the meaning of resources of plants.

    [5] Lang: A word refers to 浪, means sea waves.

    [6] Favus: a disease usually affecting the scalp, but occurring occasionally on any part of the skin, and even at times on mucous membranes.

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    Chapter - 3 The Pure Heavenly Crystal

    The former owner of this body was a real weirdo, and so was his friend… Look at this fellow with an indisciplined personality, wearing a thick hat on a sweltering day, actually considering himself romantic with an immensely proud attitude…

    “Come on let’s go! Last night before I left, I put some drugs into Zuo Wu-Ji’s drink. I have to check on him in any case.” Lan Lang-Lang laughed loudly with a grimace, “That bastard has always been opposing us. He’s too rebarbative really. After he lost the jade ruyi [1] of his father, he had been put under house arrest for like centuries. He has been released recently and I will never let this chance slip by…”

    “I am not going… Wait. There is the possibility…” As Ye Xiao was worried about the poison being difficult to eradicate, how could he be interested in hanging out with this guy. Then he cheered up. In his memory, this Zuo Wu-Ji was one of of his disreputable friends that was drinking with him the night before, so he could be the guy who had poisoned him.

    This Zuo Wu-Ji, as far as he could remember, was also a weirdo. Although he was called ‘one of the three lords‘ in town alongside Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang, he always opposed the other two, fighting against them every time they met. It was hard for them to make peace.

    ‘The three lords in town’, was of course a derogatory term.

    There was a even a doggerel created describing them:
    The three lords in town, how wonderful; they were short in businesses, but good at squandering the family fortune; they had golds, and silvers too, but gave it out for mirth; they had no faces, but they were foppish. The Northern General, he had a son named Xiao; a dog mothered by tigers, was such a punk. In the Southern General’s House, was like a rough sea; the man who named Lang, was a black sheep; The minister Zuo was talented, with a son named Wu-Ji, who had mortgaged the jade ruyi; what he made the mortgage for was food, drinks, toys and gals; he was such a lord, the top of the three!

    There was something about a jade ruyi mentioned in the doggerel. Several days ago, Zuo Wu-Ji had squandered so wantonly that he ran out of money. And in desperation, he actually mortgaged a jade ruyi of his father’s collection when a bunch of his friends egged him on. The jade ruyi might not be very rare, but was a treasure nonetheless worth at least 500 kilogram of gold. Zuo Wu-Ji squandered it for a measly 50 kilogram of silver. Later, he was nearly beaten to death by his father, and became the No.1 black sheep in the Kingdom of Chen.

    This great Lord Zuo stood out within the three lords, which included Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang, and became the champion black sheep in the group. He could really despise all others and turn up his nose at them.

    He exchanged something worth 500 kilograms of gold for just 50 kilograms of silver, and spent it completely in just three days… The way he squandered and dissipated the family money was really second to none.

    “Come on!” Lan Lang-Lang was so excited that his crossed eyes spread. He pulled Ye Xiao outside the house feverishly.

    The two dandies got on the carriage. Ye Xiao had not yet gotten used to this luxurious life, while Lan Lang-Lang was glancing left and right while enjoying the scenery through the raised the curtain with his crossed eyes. He rubbed his lips and whistled loudly. The loud whistle scared the women and girls on the street causing them to flee.

    While the carriage was proceeding, Ye Xiao suddenly felt something. This feeling made his heart beat with a bounce.

    It was an exclusive ability which he had used a lot of times, but had never understood how he came to posses it. This ability was used to detect treasures and items of value and when such items were nearby he would feel his heartbeat rise.

    He didn’t expect to posses this ability even after rebirth. This should be a massive advantage in this new life.

    However, Ye Xiao felt confused. This was the mortal world. What was this treasure that could actually make the great Xiao Monarch use his ability?

    As the they moved further, the feeling got stronger.

    When they stopped, he felt that the treasure was right beside him, within his reach.

    When he got off the carriage and looked up, he saw three words Zuo Xiang Fu [2] written in gold on the gate of the House of the Minister.

    The feeling was actually coming from inside the house!

    ……

    “Lan Lang-Lang! You bastard!” Zuo Wu-Ji shouted abusively, “Did you drug me last night? Fxxk you! You nearly got me killed!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji started with the abuse as soon as he saw them.

    Obviously, the grudge this guy held against Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang had been deeply engraved into his bones, unable to be erased.

    They fooled around with each other all the time and no one had admitted defeat yet. Although, he too had set traps for Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang ,it was merely playful… he couldn’t believe that they actually drugged him …

    Besides, the three lords used to be neck and neck, but now he had claimed the title for the biggest loser, much to the delight of the other two. Zuo Wu-Ji now couldn’t help but grind his teeth every time he saw them.

    However, Ye Xiao didn’t pay any attention to Zuo Wu-Ji. All his energy was used for observation. He focused at a table in the living room of the house again and again.

    On the table, there was only a white jade bottomed case, and on top of this case there sat a white stone. The surface of the stone was rough, making it look ordinary. It was totally bland except for a pair of fully spread wings engraved on it.

    It seemed that this was just one of the ordinary ornaments in the House of the Minister and it was never to be regarded as a treasure.

    While Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji were busy quarreling, Ye Xiao was observing it with all his heart.

    As he observed it, he could not stop himself become delighted!

    “YES! It is! Couldn’t be wrong!That’s the Pure Heavenly Crystal [3]!! It actually is the treasure!”

    He couldn’t believe that he had found such an incredible treasure so soon after reincarnating.

    The Pure Heavenly Crystal is something which exists in the legends with no doubt. It takes 10 thousand years to shape up and then another 1000 years to grow 1 inch. It is something which only exists in the tales of old. People of the Qing-Yun Realm may only dream of encountering this crystal, let alone the people of the mortal world!

    In the Qing-Yun Realm, a tiny piece of this stone had caused a massive war between the factions. They fought crazily and caused countless deaths.

    Ye Xiao was puzzled about such a large piece of this crystal appearing in a base mortal world such as this. And somebody had actually carved spread wings into it!

    “this… this is such a fxxing waste of resources, it’s infuriating”He thought.
    If anyone from the Qing-Yun Realm saw this situation, they would certainly pass out with heartburn. And if said person had a short temper, it would be a very easy for him to decide to kill every resident in the city and burn it down.

    Take our Xiao Monarch for example, he was frozen solid after witnessing such a colossal waste.

    It was like a pie suddenly fell from the sky into the hands of a starving man.

    He needed to consider his actions which would enable him to take a bite. He didn’t need to be greedy, just one bite will do…

    There must be something over the surface the The Pure Heavenly Crystal, covering its true exterior.

    And, according to where it was placed… they truly seemed to treat it as something trivial…

    “Only if they can give it to me… no, not necessarily give the whole piece to me… just only one bite, even if just scrape a bit powder for myself, it will be enough to cure me and be the bedrock of my super power, at once!” Ye Xiao murmured, while being completely thrilled.

    What a treasure!

    It was good to be the son of a privileged government official.

    But what should he do to get this thing?

    Such a challenge!

    Sensing the high security in the House of the Minister, Ye Xiao was agitated… His body was as weak as a drugster, so either stealing or robbing… was not a possible option for him.

    “Ye Xiao!” Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji were yelling at him, “What are you smirking for, you fool? What beauties are you imagining?”

    No wonder they were astonished.

    They had quarreled fiercely for quite a while. They even had spit a bit when they quarreled and had become really thirsty.And when they turned around, they found Ye Xiao was smirking, daydreaming and even slavering…

    “What’s wrong with him?” Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji both felt weird, “Why is he suddenly smiling with a goatish look…”

    “Wake up dude!” Zuo Wu-Ji waved his hand in front of Ye Xiao’s eyes.

    “WHAT?” Ye Xiao settled back, annoyed.

    “Come on my dear Lord Ye, this is my house…” Zuo Wu-Ji looking at the ‘fool’, eccentrically said, “What the hell are you planning? Do me a favor all right? Don’t make the satyr-like look again. We don’t have any women here!”

    “Well, there are still guys. I think Lord Ye might be interested…” Lan Lang-Lang laughed wretchedly, eyes rolling around. What he said just now had drawn the ire of Zuo Wu-Ji.

    Ye Xiao also scolded him while rolling his eyes. Suddenly, he came out with an idea.

    “Oh hey, Zuo Wu-Ji, I heard that you had sold the jade ruyi recently. Is it true?” Ye Xiao asked, blinking.

    “Shit…” Zuo Wu-Ji rushed forward and covered his mouth tightly, with a panic stricken face, spoke with a low voice, “Damn you! Fxxk you dude! How dare you yell out this thing… How could I know it was worth that much? I was really out of money that day and I just took whatever was nearby to get some. Then I was enjoying it with a bunch of people for days… I didn’t know it was my dad’s treasure and was for some medical use until I got home a few days later… Come on man I have been through a rough time for it… The whole family treated me like a sandbag… Don’t even mention it man, please. It will get me killed…”

    “Hmm… hmm…” Ye Xiao’s mouth was covered. He struggled quite hard to free himself. He planned something in his mind and said, “It was said that there will be an auction in Ling-Bao Hall the day after tomorrow, and… there will be a jade ruyi in the auctions… hah, it even looks just like your father’s, no, it’s of even better quality…”

    “Yes! Yes! There will be one.” Lan Lang-Lang nodded unceasingly, “In the auction the day after tomorrow. I will be there, to enrich my experience.”



    ——————

    [1] ruyi: a curved decorative object that serves as a ceremonial sceptre in Chinese Buddhism or a talisman symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore.

    [2] Zuo Xiang Fu: The Chinese pronunciation of 左相府, which means the House of the Minister - the house of the Minister Zuo.

    [3] The Pure Heavenly Crystal: An extremely valuable stone, only with which our character Ye Xiao could have chance to get his super power back and become a superior master again

  5. #5
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    Chapter - 4 Let Me Lend You Some Money

    Zuo Wu-Ji’s eyes brightened immediately, but then he soon became dispirited, “I won’t be that easy… I didn’t know that it was so precious. Such a little thing could actually be worth 500 kilogram of gold… How pathetic that I was incited by you pricks to steal and sell it for only 50 kilogram silver. What a huge loss…”

    And while grinding his teeth again, he said, “You pricks have made me the No.1 black sheep in the world… I should never have mentioned it and swallowed it with my teeth and blood [1]… Now there is another jade ruyi present, but what can I do to get it?”

    Ye Xiao lowered the voice and said, “Heh heh heh… It is just about money, isn’t it… That’s not a problem. I just want to ask you, do you want that jade ruyi?”

    “Of course! What a stupid question. Why wouldn’t I want it! When I get it, I will finally get rid of the title ‘the No.1 black sheep in the Kingdom of Chen’… Only God knows how desperately I want to do so…” Zuo Wu-Ji nodded, grinding his teeth, “But I ran out of money when that shit happened. My allowance has been reduced from 15 kilograms of silver per month, to just a quarter kilogram… What the hell can I do with a quarter kilogram of silver?!”

    “You want to get rid of the No.1 black sheep title… It is actually quite easy, only… You are about to be the unprecedented No.1 black sheep in the universe…” Ye Xiao thought.

    “Hah Hah!” He laughed loud and struck his chest, speaking nobly, “If you really want it, I could lend you some money…”

    “Really?” Zuo Wu-Ji was surprised, so was Lan Lang-Lang.

    Did the sun rise from the west?! Since when did Ye Xiao become so generous?

    “Absolutely!” Ye Xiao nodded with a serious look.

    “What on earth are you planning?” Zuo Wu-Ji looked at him suspiciously, and did some calculations in mind, “This prick, he really wouldn’t be planning some business with me, would he? Could there be the possibility that he really is in love with me?”

    “You bastard!” Ye Xiao shouted with dignity and honor. Acting as if his kindness was wasted, he said with bitter hatred, “Zuo Wu-Ji! What the hell did you just say? I want to help you because I treat you like my brother. I am also taking a big risk doing so. Who knows when a bastard like you could give me my money back? And you… you dare to suspect me. Fine! I’ll let you rot!”

    “Forget it! I can save the money for gals, can’t I… Lan Lang-Lang! Let’s go!” With anger, Ye Xiao stood up willing to leave, “We no longer have a friend like this bastard that never appreciates the kindness!”

    Lan Lang-Lang was always good at kicking up a row. He wouldn’t let go this chance, so he stood up with a woosh, shouting cheerfully, “Absolutely! We are never gonna talk to this prick as he doesn’t want to be our friend!”

    “No… Please don’t… brother Ye, brother Lan, stay! Ah please my dear brothers…” As fast as he could, Zuo Wu-Ji rushed forward and held Ye Xiao’s waist tightly and apologized with a flattering tone, “Ohhh, I only said one tiny wrong word… Oh please, we are brothers right? We are brothers forever. You wouldn’t really be mad at me, would you?… Ahhh come on just stay! Steward! Bring us some tea! The classy one! The best! The imperial tea the king awarded my grandpa with! Quick quick…”

    Then he respectfully seated Ye Xiao on the masters’ chair of the house, while bowing with a servile smile, “Hey hey… brother Ye, hah hah, master Ye, brother, my dearest brother… Would seriously you lend me some money?”

    Ye Xiao was sitting with one ankle on his other knee, “I was going to…”

    “Oh you can’t change your mind bro…” Zuo Wu-Ji nearly kneeled down.

    He wouldn’t give up the hard-found chance to rectify his mistake. God knows what kind of rough days he had been living for months… and he couldn’t even escape because his tormentors was his own family.

    “Humph, fair enough.” Ye Xiao blew the leaves floating on the tea, with a poker face, “Since I have already said it so soon, why don’t you write me a receipt and give me whatever something as a guaranty. With that I will just give you 750 kilogram of gold… Let’s make it clear, that you should return the money someday. Don’t even try bargaining!”

    “Absolutely!” Zuo Wu- Ji said with a happy face, then he realized a problem and asked with a disconsolate look, “But what should I give you for guaranty?”

    “Do you understand human language? Anything could do, just give me something. We are brothers. I don’t really want anything expensive from you, do I?”

    Zuo Wu-Ji suddenly felt relieved, “It is a good way indeed… Let me see. What should I steal this time?”

    He was rolling his eyes. Obviously he had decided to be the family thief one more time.

    “Oh, my!” Ye Xiao instructed him feeling disappointed, “Can you just be quick and pick any one of these collections in this house. It doesn’t have to be costly. Anything will do…”

    After Ye Xiao’s stark instruction, Zuo Wu-Ji finally came to an understanding all of a sudden, “Well… then is it ok to be a guaranty?”

    “Forget about the guaranty thing. That was what I meant. Come on, we are brothers!” Ye Xiao was showing generousness and said with consideration.

    Zuo Wu-Ji was too happy to even close his mouth. He finally could get rid of the burden in his heart. He laughed heartily, “Well then! Although every piece of this collection here was collected by my grandfather, and he loves them all… it wouldn’t matter if one or two went missing … Bro, tell me which one you like. I’ll directly give it to you! We won’t take that back! I surely will pay back the money and you can keep whatever you choose!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji was truly very generous.

    Ye Xiao rightfully answered with a questioning brow, “What do you mean? What do you think I am? I am only trying to help you. Do you think that I am hankering after your collection… You could give it to me as a gift after you get the money, as that shows your thankfulness. The gift itself may be small, but the goodwill is transferred. However, for now if I accept it, it will be seen as you bribing me!”

    “Bribing?” Zuo Wu-Ji thought with his mouth twitched, “How could he talk like he was a honorable officer.”

    “I am done with you dilatoriness. This one. I like the feeling of flying.” What he was unconcernedly pointing at was exactly the Pure Heavenly Crystal.

    “That… That is too cheap, isn’t it?” Zuo Wu-Ji was suddenly moved and thought, “It looks like Ye Xiao is really trying to help me. There are so many treasures in the house and he actually has picked one of the cheapest. What a good man. Why didn’t I realize it…”

    “All right, all right. You know my heart. That is enough.” Ye Xiao said profoundly, “What are we? Brothers should help each other… By the way, you should keep it as a secret, in case someone else knows that I have lend you lots of money… and they all come to me. It will be troublesome for me if I have decide whether I should lend money to this one or that one.”

    “You can count on me. I will keep my mouth completely shut!” Zuo Wu-Ji promised, “I am not that kind of people, am I…”

    “Why don’t you… just take it now?” Zuo Wu-Ji was afraid Ye Xiao would change his mind, so he tried to force his hand.

    “Moron!” Ye Xiao reproached him with a low voice, “Can you not think for yourself? Now if I take it right under these people’s eyes in your house, how can we keep it a secret?”

    “Right, right.” Zuo Wu-Ji then whispered to Ye Xiao, “How about I bring it out to you when the day turns dark?”

    “Great idea!” Ye Xiao answered with full of praise, “At the time I will go to the corner of the alley south of here and be waiting for you with the money.”

    Zuo Wu-Ji smiled when he heard this, “I should thank you for this bro… As long as it saves my reputation in the family, I will at once get the money from the business and pay you back. Set your heart at ease. I am a man of my word!”

    “All right dude. Could I give you my money if it were not for my trust in you?” Ye Xiao and Zuo Wu-Ji were holding each other’s shoulder as if they were the closest of brothers.

    Beside them with his jaws on the floor, Lan Lang-Lang was stupefied with the new developments.

    After all details were finalized, Zuo Wu-Ji respectfully saw Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang off with endless gratitude while they left with smugness.

    “When the day turns dark, just remember it bro.” Zuo Wu-Ji shouted. Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang heard the shout from Zuo Wu-Ji even though they had travelled quite far.

    ……

    “Hey listen, are you really gonna give him the money?” Lan watched Ye Xiao suspiciously, “Come on… you are not a kind hearted guy, are you? Are you gonna walk away and betray that guy…”

    “What are you talking about? You are such a flunky, while I have a tolerant heart! Do you think that I am someone like you who always breaks his word?!” Ye Xiao looked at Lan with disdain, “Go home and prepare a note for 500 kilogram of gold for me. I need it!”

    It seemed that he didn’t have enough money to lend to Zuo Wu-Ji…

    “Oh do you need it? Sure I will. Wait… What? What did you just say? You told me to prepare a note for 500 kilogram of gold, so that you can lend it to Zuo? Why should I? Give me a reason first!” Lan exploded with fury when he had realized what exactly Ye Xiao had said.

    “For me to give the money to him, so that he can do some good deals. Why should I?!” He thought.

    “A reason? You can’t even understand that! If you don’t prepare the note for me, what do I lend to Zuo Wu-Ji? Isn’t it obvious? You’re being too talkative!”

    Ye Xiao rolled up his eyes, unconcernedly and slowly said with a threatening tone, “Lan Lang-Lang, if you don’t bring me the note, causing me to break my word, that’s ok. I will just tell your grandfather, your father, your mother and your aunt that you fought with Zuo Wu-Ji for a gal’s favor in the brothel and ran around naked… If that is not enough for you, I can even paint some graffiti about you on every wall on the street! I shall make sure that you become famous. The whole city, no, even the whole world will know about you! I will let your reputation rise to the same level as Zuo Wu-Ji!

    “What? You!” Lan Lang-Lang was so angry that he nearly passed out. His eyes even turned normal due to his anger. He shouted as if bleeding, “How vicious are you? That is just taking my darkest experiences…”

    “Urrr… Stop it! How dare your refer to you infantile life as an experience? This deal eventually won’t even cost you anything. Let me ask you again, will you do it or not?”

    “I WILL DO IT! What other choice do I have?” Lan was nearly crying, “I will bring it to you…”

    ……

    -------------
    [1] Swallow ... with one’s teeth and blood: A metaphor, means someone have gotten through something bad but can not say a word about it.

  6. #6
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    Chapter 5 - Obtaining the treasure!

    Ye Xiao received the note from Lan Lang-Lang, and rushed to the suggested place - the corner of the alley near the Zuo Xiang Fu.

    The sun had set when he was halfway there and the darkness was fast settling in.

    Not far from where he stood, was the Zuo Xiang Fu. Ye Xiao smiled with satisfaction, and turned left so as to make a detour into the alley. But just as he reached the corner, his senses were invaded by a terrifying feeling.

    “Hmm?” Ye Xiao stopped immediately.

    He sensed immense danger!

    It was the instinct he had gained after experiencing countless life-and-death situations and ambushes. He had absolute trust in these instincts which he had developed after a lifetime of fighting.

    Ye Xiao knew that his instincts would not warn him with time to spare unless the situation was one of extreme peril.

    He could sensed a large wave of superiors coming towards him.

    And he was very near the place where the superiors would converge.

    “Are they coming for me?” Ye Xiao frowned, and then shook his head, “They shouldn’t be… I am not qualified enough for them to make such a big move. They wouldn’t be thinking too highly of me, would they?”

    At the same time, impatient footsteps were approaching from the opposite end of the alley. A murmur could be heard, “Ye Xiao will come, will he not? He won’t play me off, right?”

    It was the voice of Zuo Wu-Ji.

    Obviously, he had arrived earlier and was waiting anxiously for Ye Xiao.

    His presence here made Ye Xiao eliminate him as a suspect. It meant that this ambush was planned by an unknown entity.

    “Aha… You…” Zuo Wu-Ji couldn’t help but shout out loud when he saw Ye Xiao and he practically skipped towards him.

    “Hush!” Ye Xiao covered his mouth hastily, “Did you bring the item?”

    Zuo Wu-Ji nodded as his mouth was covered, and then took out a package from behind him.

    Ye Xiao could tell that this was the crystal without seeing it, he could feel it!

    Zuo Wu-Ji had pinched the crystal quite easily, perhaps as a result of him becoming used to thievery.

    “Here’s the note for 750 kilograms of gold. Remember to pay me back.” Ye Xiao said as he exchanged the note for the package. He felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

    “Thank you sooooo much…” Zuo Wu-Ji nearly cried, “Brother, a real good brother… From now on brother Ye, you are my best brother. I… I…”

    He stuttered due to excitement.

    Thinking about giving the ruyi back to his father , saving his reputation and no longer remaining a sandbag for his father and grandfather… Zuo Wu-Ji had became very emotional “… sniff, you really are my benefactor…”

    “Oh thank god! The title of the number one black sheep in the kingdom will be taken away from me soon. God knows how stressed I had been these past few days…” He thought.

    “All right now. Off you go quickly. Save your thanks for another day.” Now that he got the crystal, Ye Xiao didn’t want to spend a second longer in this alley.

    His instincts were practically screaming at him to get away.

    Luckily, Zuo Wu-Ji was even more eager to leave. “Bro, after the auction the day after tomorrow, I will be free again. After that, we must get a drink together.” Said Zuo Wu-Ji, while running away.

    Now that he had a chance to save his reputation, he felt that he could not longer waste even a second of his remaining life.

    “Screw that…” Ye Xiao was impressed, “The bastard runs even faster than me…”

    Now that the crystal he had dreamt of was finally in his grasp, Ye Xiao was over one hundred percent satisfied. He turned around to leave the alley, while petting the crystal in the package.

    Suddenly, he felt a strong dizziness, which made him sway on the spot forcing him to hold his forehead.

    The remanent of poison within his body had gotten out of his control and begun its attack.

    “I had completely suppressed it. How could it resurrect so quickly?” He thought.

    The dizziness in his mind got stronger and stronger, and even showed slight eagerness, as if it was alive…

    Ye Xiao had felt the dizziness get stronger, but had failed to notice the eagerness within the poison. He however wouldn’t dare to consider its threat insignificant. He gnashed his teeth and took out his knife. He currently had no choices but to cut off a piece of the crystal and use it against the poison, as it had grown vicious enough to take his life at a moment's notice. At this point, he really couldn’t care about wasting some of the crystal because what he prioritized foremost was his own survival.

    A grinding sound could be heard as he cut off the surface covering the crystal. But he soon discovered that its insides were extremely hard. With his present strength, he could only manage to scrape off a little powder from it’s surface.

    “It is actually that hard!” Ye Xiao felt helpless as he swallowed the powder.

    Ye Xiao only had some second hand knowledge about the crystal and hadn’t even seen a piece of it prior to today, let alone swallow some of it. It was only at this moment that he found out about the crystals hardness.

    It felt harder than diamond!

    The moment he swallowed the powder, a fragrance emerged from the crystal in his arms. It made him feel refreshed. He inhaled the sweet smell with a deep breath and felt relaxed, and then…

    Another kind of dizziness invaded his mind. He saw some golden words flashing within his mind. The very next moment, he felt the package become weightless. The crystal was gone!

    The package was indeed still in his arms!

    How can the crystal inside it disappear? It had vanished into thin air!

    Ye Xiao was gobsmacked! “What the fxxk is going on?” He could clearly feel that it wasn’t a superhero who had stolen it right under his nose!

    Although he had lost all his powers, he wasn’t lame enough to not notice someone whisk away his crystal!

    Maybe the crystal wasn’t gone, but instead had merged into his body!

    But… How did it get inside his body?

    The size of this crystal was considerable. How did it get inside? From where?

    Ye Xiao really felt faint at that moment, not just physically but mentally. Suddenly a flow of energy rushed up from inside his energy center[1]!

    It all happened in a flash. Ye Xiao turned sweaty at once, which was a result of a huge amount of spiritual energy flowing inside his body! He clearly felt his pulse beat erratically, but struggling against it was futile.

    “Oh no this is bad!” Ye Xiao was crestfallen.

    As a expert of cultivating, he sure had a very good idea of what he was facing. The suddenly arising energy definitely wasn’t anything good. It was very likely that he would be screwed this time.

    The reason for this analysis was simple. The adventitious energy which had poured into his body was too rampageous. Ye Xiao was unable to contain it with his present condition. Although he had desired for more power, but this surely was overkill… he had no possibility of controlling it! He now regretted that he had contacted this thing. Although he had known the crystal to be very powerful, he had vastly underestimated it’s effects!

    The current situation was a million miles - no, even further away from what he had predicted… The only way to solve this problem was to let the rampaging power out of his body and let it disperse. Otherwise his body would be ruined. If the poison didn’t kill him, the energy would… It had become a really shitty scenario!

    And at that moment…

    BOOM! A bang was heard nearby. Fire was rolling up in the sky!

    The piercing sound of battle could now be heard. The sounds of the weapons colliding could be compared to thousands of blacksmiths forging their iron together. Ye Xiao now truly felt like crying.

    The thing he had most feared was now occurring. His intuition had been spot on - a battle was taking place in the Zuo Xiang Fu!

    And it was taking place right when he was in this awkward situation!

    Fortunately, those superiors he had perceived earlier, turned out to be aiming for the Zuo Xiang Fu, not him.

    Unfortunately, the place where he was standing at right now was right next to the infiltrators…

    He was already going through a lot and now he had managed to crash into this mess.

    He decided to do the only thing he was capable of doing, which was to cover his head using the package in his arms, creating a makeshift hood...

    And then, he tried to get away…

    The messy battle had absolutely nothing to do with him…

    The sound of fighting was getting louder and louder. It could be easily made out that the force of the Zuo Xiang Fu had begun to fight back and currently held an advantage.

    A weird horn was heard. Ye Xiao frowned, “A long sound which is then followed by three short, should be a sign of retreat…”

    A lot had happened just now, and he had only been able to reach the end of the alley - not that he didn’t want to move faster, he just wasn’t able to. Suddenly, a swordlight slashed right in front of him.

    It turned out to be that one of them had already strayed out and arrived here.

    He hacked his sword and indiscriminately tried to kill all who opposed him.

    And he easily succeeded in killing everyone standing in his path.

    Ye Xiao suddenly turned bitter, “These guys who wear black and cover their faces, could never be with the Zuo Xiang Fu. They moved quicker and are way more fierce than some ordinary warriors -they should be some extremely well trained killers!”

    Maybe even more manecing than some well trained killers!

    While Ye Xiao was collecting his thoughts, the killer didn’t stop his merciless lightning like sword hacks!

    On account of the spiritual force of the killer moving forward, the power of his sword actually released a shiny green light. The surface of the alley wall was now shocked into pieces while some fissures had appeared on the ground. It was as if the sword breath[2] had even torn the air apart.


    ——————

    [1] One’s energy center: Refer to the dantian in Chinese, at or below the navel in one’s body.

    [2] Sword breath: The manifestation of energy from a sword that will come out when the sword moves.

  7. #7
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    Chapter 6 Start from nothing, the purple skyline!

    The sword was definitely going to hit Ye Xiao on the face and its sword breath would reach him even before the blade would. With such an overbearing sword breath, the blade would not even need to connect, just the sword breath was sufficient to kill him!

    Although Ye Xiao had no powers left, he had retained his vision. He was seeing everything with great clarity at the moment. This particular attack was called the Mountain Cracking Strike in the cultivation of swordplay. If this sword actually hit him, nothing in his body would be left intact. It would be completely torn apart. There would be nothing left unbroken!

    “Want to kill me with no reasons at all and even want to tear me apart?”
    Ye Xiao was angry. He was really furious.

    At this moment, the raging power within Ye Xiao’s body had no means of dissipating and was currently circulating within his body which gave him the illusion of regaining his lost strength. He instinctively wielded his sleeve, and without thinking performed a “Laughing Eight Blast” in order to defend from the attack and fight back.

    He began to laugh while performing the Eight Blast!

    This was precisely The Xiao monarch’s signature move.

    But it hadn’t occurred to him until he had already executed the move: “Damn it! I am no longer the Xiao Monarch of my previous life. No matter how surging my strength is, the spiritual power inside my body was all dependent on an external source. I can’t use this power as I wish, I need to be frugal. But if I don’t exert this power now, how can I defend and fight back?”

    However, even he was surprised by what happened next.

    Now that the endless raging power had found a way to burst out, it began to pour out continuously and showed no signs of stopping!

    With a sharp sound, a powerful wind was created followed by a burst of purple light.

    At that moment, Ye Xiao had a feeling, it felt like an illusion where he was back to the best condition of his prior life!

    The Xiao Monarch who had laughed at all heroes, had he come back?

    Puff…

    A slight sound came out. The guy who was rushing towards him was now incapable of executing any more crazy sword-moves. He was unable to attack anymore because he was rendered completely immobile by an invisible force which had emerged from Ye Xiao’s Laughing Eight Blast. When faced with such force, even the sword in his hand was repelled and was made to turn around and smash the head of its owner with an undefendable power!

    The force from the Laughing Eight Blast had made the sword strike many times fiercer than when it had originally been released.

    The killer facing such misfortune, besides being scared enough to lose his countenance, was actually terrified to the extreme. Unfortunately, the killer was also experienced in battle. With quick reactions, he forced himself to correct his stance and to block the blade. Kacha! Both his hands were cut off at the same time. This action caused the back of the blade to hit his head instead of its sharp edge and made him bleed at once!

    Receiving a powerful shock, his whole body was sent flying away like a kite with a broken string. With a bang, he crashed into a wall and rebounded back to the floor. Although all his bones were likely to be broken, he had dealt with this crisis correctly and had managed to preserve his life.

    Ye Xiao had just wielded his sleeve and actually managed to get such a frightening win! He had managed to redirect the fearsome Mountain Cracking Strike just by a flick of his sleeves!

    “The grade of a Tian-yuan Master! … Who is he?” The killers were shocked to a standstill. They were now facing a situation which had caused even the tone of their voice to change!

    “My bloody god. Being called out for a mission, I had almost finished it and returned. And now I just casually met someone in a narrow alley and he turned out to be the stuff nightmares are made off…… What fxxing luck do I have…”

    The power inside Ye Xiao’s body was still raging like before. It hadn’t slowed down at all, and even after the strike just now, it was still going berserk, and was about to explode. He gave a humph, and casually reached out with his hands into the air and grabbed. With a sound of a sword being unsheathed, the space in front of him distorted into a familiar shape. He had actually conjured a sword from thin air!

    When the spiritual power turns into the sword, everything becomes his weapon!

    The special move of the Xiao Monarch, Long Sky Laugh!

    While smiling, this attack was used to take lives and chase after the souls of the dead.

    “That move - creating a sword from thin air?! You can’t be……” The killers in the enemy camp shouted out in panic, completely terrified while stepping back at the same time. They obviously knew that they were not qualified to fight, and tried to escape with their lives.

    But it was too late.

    Ye Xiao’s eyes were filled with rage. He stepped forward and stabbed.

    Suddenly, a splendid ball of purple qi appeared, then burst out, like some purple gorgeous fireworks were exploding in the night sky . The sword breath had disappeared at once like it was trying to get back the one-thousand years time!


    “Urh…” Weird stuffy sounds were heard. The killer who had swung the sword earlier and the two other killers who had followed him had gotten their necks slashed. With their eyes popping out, they used all their strength to hold on to the wounds before eventually falling down on the floor floppily.

    Triple kill with one sword move!

    “Start from nothing, the purple skyline!” The leader who was standing the farthest from Ye Xiao, had the chance to observe earlier. As the only survivor in the group, he was extremely anxious to get away, but he had received a large wound on his chest, and his eyes were filled with alarm. He was looking at Ye Xiao with a horror-stricken face, “It is actually you! Ning Bi-Luo! How dare you fight against us. Even though you are the No.1 killer in the world, our lord highness would never let you get away with this!”

    Ye Xiao was puzzled, “Ning Bi-Luo? Who is he? The No.1 killer? There actually is a superior in this mortal world…”

    Besides, the lord highness? What lord? Who is he?

    When he was going to finish this guy with a further attack so as to avoid troubles in the future, he felt the plentiful power which had been running restlessly in his body now was actually quickly calming down like refluence. The crisis of his Jing and Mai[1] exploding had passed and the rampage he had gone through had drained the power acquired through the powder from the Pure Heavenly Crystal.

    The spiritual power which didn’t belong to him was not able to persist.

    Without the support of the continuous supply of spiritual power, the sword in his hand disappeared. Ye Xiao yelled, “Humph, you’ve mistaken my identity.”

    The Xiao Monarch was a proud superior who travelled the world above. What was right was right and what was wrong was wrong. He wouldn’t let others to take his blame!

    However, the more he denied the truth, the more firmly the guy believed he was Ning Bi-Luo. With the mountain-like bearing of a superior master and the recognizable fighting style he had, if he wasn’t the No.1 killer, who else could he be?

    The killer humphed and and said, “Ning Bi-Luo, there will be a chance for us to meet again. Wait and see!” He did a backward somersault. Under extreme fear, he actually burst forth with unbelievable potential, and twisted his body to disappear into the darkness.

    He thought that it was fortunate that the monster - Ye Xiao didn’t attack again… The face-covered killer was dripping cold sweat, believing that he had escaped with his life…

    The sound of soldiers was getting closer and closer.

    “I absolutely can’t stay here any longer!”

    The killer was unaware that Ye Xiao also secretly elated, “The killer didn’t attack me. I have really escaped with my life!”

    In Ye Xiao’s estimation, the escaping killer was actually the one with the greatest strength among them, even greater than the one who had attacked him. If he had been brave enough to attack Ye Xiao, a fight would have been impossible with the power left within him.

    Although, the last bit of his power that hadn’t disappeared was not enough to fight against the enemy, it was barely enough to run for his life. Ye Xiao dodged like a ghost, disappearing at once from the alley.

    This movement was actually the skill for which he was known for in his prior life as the Xiao Monarch: One Laughter in Skyline!

    Ye Xiao had gone over a hundred meters with a single dodge and heavily fell on the ground. The accidentally gained power in his body, was now completely used up.

    The Xiao Monarch in his best condition could go dozens of miles when he use the One Laughter in Skyline skill at full power, but now it was only about a hundred meters. It was a difference similar to heaven-and-hell.

    Although Ye Xiao felt like sighing with a certain dissatisfaction, he felt a surprising pleasure about escaping from that central zone of the battle. Besides, as a master of martial arts, he understood the reason why he had just moved such a short distance. It was not that his One Laughter in Skyline was lame but he was in a really poor condition and the spiritual power in his body was too little. All these disadvantages were combined. That’s why the distance he had moved was so lame.

    Although, no expert had witnessed the godlike skill of moving for hundred meters with a single breath, if they had, they would surely have been shocked enough to drop their jaws to the floor!

    What he was unaware of was that- at the moment, it was not only the Zuo Xiang Fu which was in disarray, the entire capital was already falling into disorder!

    There were people shouting and horses neighing. Countless soldiers rushed on the street conducting a search for the escaping killers.

    “Catch the assassins!”
    “Do not let the assassins go!”
    “Search carefully! Let no suspects go!”
    “Rather kill an innocent than let them escape!”

    This corner of the capital was the epicentre of the disorder. It was as if a huge rock had fallen into a peaceful lake and the ripples had spread across the whole city. The situation had the signs of getting more and more serious!

    Inside Ye Xiao’s body, although the spiritual power was depleted, he still had the strength to move his legs, which was barely enough to enable him to walk on the street. By the time he got home, he was utterly exhausted to such a degree that he didn’t even want to move his little finger…

    In fact, he had gotten through god knows how many question kiosks, but everyone had recognised the foppish son of the Northern General. While they saw him walking close with a over drunk pace and a coxcombical look, what interest did they have to bother with him?

    Even if they were searching everyone, they would never suspect that one of the three lords would be involved, and hence, they won’t bother to interrogate him.

    The Xiao Monarch had just reached the door at home, when he heard a voice yelling with anger, “Where have you been? At such a dangerous time you’re actually still lingering around. I’ll beat you to death! Arghhhhh……”

    Although the voice was filled with anger, it was delicate and sweet-sounding. It was the voice of a girl.

    Ye Xiao looked towards the source of the voice and saw two girls standing gracefully erect under the lanterns hanging in his house. The one in front was pouting her lips while furiously staring at him, but this angry look had an indescribable charm and glamour.

    The guard standing beside the door was showing a bitter face, “My Lord… The princess has come to see you…”

    Ye Xiao immediately felt that his scalp burning. From the successive memory, he learned that this girl in front was indeed his fiancee that his present father selected for him. She was the daughter of the Royal Highness Hua-Yang, the well known princess Moon in the capital.

    “Hmmm, isn’t it claimed that she is gentle, soft and virtuous? She just yelled like a female lion when seeing me. What is going on…”

    Before he could react, his ear was grabbed by a soft small hand, “Why don’t you get in here!”

    The maids beside her were tittering away while covering their mouths. Ye Xiao was grabbed on the ear in an extremely awkward fashion and led through the door.

    “Oyi oyi. Take it easy…” Ye Xiao had a bitter face. It was only recently that all his power had been exhausted, now his body was at its weakest. He was really not going to make it…

    “Speak! What have you been up to? Bastard!” Princess Moon was looking at Ye Xiao who was facing her, with a tiger-like face.

    It really felt different to see a beauty under the light. The Princess Moon had a face like flowers, curved eyebrows, clear and clever eyes, firm nose and a little mouth like a cherry. Her hair was slightly rolled up on her head…… She really was like a beauty from poems and paintings. Even though she was forcing an evil and scary look, she was still a stunning beauty, only one in millions. She had the ability to make a thousand faces and no one could recognize her true face.

    -- -- --
    [1] Jing and Mai: Jing is the Chinese word for “essence”, specifically kidney essence. Mai is vein.

  8. #8
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    Chapter 7 - Peerless Lord In The World And Foremost Spirit In Chaos

    “I uhh... I was just hanging out…” Ye Xiao explained weakly.

    An explanation like this was really too powerless!

    In terms of dealing with girls, the Xaio Monarch was clearly inferior to the previous Ye Xiao - the foppish playboy. The Xiao Monarch had spent his entire prior life cultivating the Pure Yang Martial Arts[1], so he hadn’t spent any time with women. As for now, there was a beautiful girl standing in front of him; a girl who was pretty no matter if she was angry or happy. His mind suddenly felt a little blank and his tongue seemed dull.

    Thuck!

    Ye-Yue swung her hand and struck Ye Xiao’s head. She shouted hysterically, “There is a disturbance going on right now and you were actually hanging around outside? Do you know there is a serious event happening in the capital today? If you keep staying out on the street, you may carelessly get yourself killed somewhere! Uncle Ye had given me a whip when he was leaving, so I have the right to discipline you. If you dare to oppose me, I will lash you with it!”

    Ye Xiao was thinking, “You sure have some guts! How dare you threaten me - the Xiao Monarch?! Maybe I should lash you to death instead!”

    But he decided to feign ignorance, “Really? What is going on in the capital?”

    Ye-Yue humphed, rolled her eyes and said while gloating, “I heard that Zuo Xiang Fu was raided… Many thieves had broken in and The Minister Zuo who has now lost a lot of priceless things is in a violent temper at the moment… Now all military forces in the capital are mobilized to guard the nine gates of the capital so that no one can get in or out. They are searching for the assassins and trying to arrest them with their loots.”

    The princess was actually tittering and then she caught herself losing manner and stateliness in front of Ye Xiao, so she pretended to cough slightly to regain composure and said, “It looks like the lord Minister Zuo will suffer a great loss. To catch the assassins and retrieve the stolen goods and recover his loss is proving to be really difficult…”

    Ye Xiao rolled his eyes and said, “Do you know what treasures were stolen from him?”

    “I have no idea, but it should be something very valuable. Otherwise why would he make such a big movement?” Ye-Yue shook her head.

    Ye Xiao thought, “The thing I got… Could it be what they were aiming for?

    He thought and thought again, “I should probably make a duplicate of this sculpture with a different material when I get a chance. In case Zuo Wu-Ji asks it back sometime in the future. Carefulness keeps a boat sailing for thousands of years…”

    “Listen! You are not allowed to attend the auction taking place the day after tomorrow. I have invited some of my sisters to go and play with me. If you are there, you will definitely bring shame to me! Furthermore, you are not allowed to go to the Wen-Hua Event later this week either… Anyway, there is nowhere you can go in this period of time. Do you understand? Will you keep it in mind? Do you hear me?!”

    The girl made threatening gestures for a while before feeling satisfied as she saw Ye Xiao nod repeatedly. She stood up and started to leave.

    Then she sighed and said with a nearly inaudible voice, “Ayy… You are actually not that annoying… but if only you try to behave yourself and change all those shortcomings, how nice would it be… Ayyy…”

    Under Ye Xiao’s gaze, Ye-Yue got on the sedan chair [2] and went further and further in the dim light of night.

    Ye Xiao felt vaguely helpless from deep within his heart towards this girl.

    Following orders from her parents, listening to the words from the matchmakers, a girl would never have the right to choose her husband. Although the girl was born in a noble family, she had no right to make a decision in regards to her own marriage.

    Since her parents had betrothed her to Ye Xiao, she would marry him sooner or later.

    However, it was unlucky for her that her fiancee was such a foppish playboy. There was nothing she could do but sigh…

    But it could be seen that Ye-Yue wasn’t totally heartless to the prior Ye Xiao. After all they grew up together… Otherwise she would not have worry so much that she had even come here to show her concern at such a dangerous time…

    Her sweet scent was still in the air. Ye Xiao couldn’t help sighing and his heart was filled with an indescribable feeling - it was a feeling he had never felt before…

    ……

    Ye Xiao lied down when he got back to his room, dropped the alertness of his mind briefly and suddenly felt completely exhausted, as if he was dying. He felt faint as if his body was empty; he did use up all of his energy for the escape a few hours ago… Besides, he had even coped with Ye-Yue just now, so the moment when he relaxed, he instantly felt difficult to hold on.

    The poison in his body was not yet cured. It was like a sharp blade hanging around his neck. Although the Pure Heavenly Crystal he had just used had entered his body for a short time, it had restrained the poison to a certain extent - and now, just with a push, the poison could be totally forced out of his body.

    The sooner he removed the hidden danger, the better. Ye Xiao calmly and patiently controlled the remaining spiritual power in his body. Although the extreme burst before had consumed ninety-nine percent of the spiritual power which had originated from the Pure Heavenly Crystal, a tiny little bit of it still remained in Ye Xiao’s body. Fortunately, Ye Xiao scored a lucky hit. This tiny dissociative spiritual power was actually an amount which he could control and apply freely at present.

    Ye Xiao was leading the spiritual power to cover up the poison completely in the Jing and Mai. Tiny pieces of the dissociative power from the Pure Heavenly Crystal got together in his Dantian. Then the powers went through the Jing and Mai all around his body from the Dantian. The stubborn Qing-Ming Fruit poison was soon covered up and flowing out through the Jing and Mai.

    The poison that was acknowledged incurable in the mortal world was actually covered by a thin layer of spiritual power and compelled out of his body! If superior masters in this world saw this, they would definitely be shocked enough to drop their jaws to the floor!

    Finally, Ye Xiao felt a swelling pain in his whole Jing and Mai and, with a puff, he opened his mouth and spat out some black blood. The blood dropped on the floor with an indescribable stink!

    The whole floor suddenly turned black.

    At that moment, the Qing-Ming Fruit poison had finally been dispelled completely!

    Ye Xiao just felt relieved, “This god damn poison has finally cleared up.”

    The relief he had felt at this moment was truly indescribable.

    He could finally have a good night’s rest after this…… At least he wouldn’t need to worry about getting killed by the poison anymore.

    Ye Xiao lied down and relaxed his whole body to have a good rest to restore his strength…

    However, the next moment, -Wooosh! He got up and sat on the bed instantly.

    Because when he just lied down, he felt several words appearing in his mind.

    Some golden words!

    Where had he seen them? …Ye Xiao recalled that when he first got the Pure Heavenly Crystal, he felt dizzy once and there seemed to be some golden words appearing in his sight, then the crystal had completely disappeared…

    Ye Xiao hastily sat upright and tried to transfer his soul power. Then, to his delight, he discovered that he could actually circulate his soul power again!

    Besides, from within his sea of consciousness, there came a strong attraction force…

    Shock instantly replaced the usual calm and collected gaze on Ye Xiao's face.

    The sea of consciousness was enshrouded in mist. Above the mist, there was a peculiar sphere shining in all its splendor.

    One after another, wave of purple qi came from the sphere flowing away.

    “This… Isn’t this the sphere that I had randomly stumbled upon when I was exploring the Death Domain in Qing-Yun Realm? When did it get into my sea of consciousness? What is going on?!”

    Ye Xiao opened his eyes wide. He had no idea how such a thing could have happened.

    However, a plausible explanation started to brew in his mind, “Is it even possible that… In the final battle of my prior life, I should have died completely, but instead, I got reincarnated here without any reasons. Could this be the doing of this peculiar sphere?”

    “Or could it be, that this Pure Heavenly Crystal consequently fulfilled a certain requirement of this peculiar sphere… so it finally decided to reveal itself?”

    Ye Xiao was very well-informed. He admitted that his suggestion was ridiculous, but he was ninety percent sure that he had got it right. Otherwise, everything would become unexplainable.

    If something as ridiculous as rebirth could happen, was anything else really impossible?!

    There was another faint thought brewing inside Ye Xiao’s mind - this sphere could not be something simple!

    Neither its origin nor its functions would be simple!

    “Maybe… It is highly possible that after I failed to walk on the road to the top in my last life, I will once more proceed on the path of cultivation in this new life, and the path starts with this sphere?”

    Ye Xiao was imagining with whimsicality. Although he knew that his thought was ridiculous, he was filled with eagerness. Even the well-informed Xiao Monarch had never heard of such a strange thing before!

    Ye Xiao gazed at the sphere in his sea of consciousness and remained puzzled after pondering over it a hundred times. Something which he had randomly found before was actually an earthshaking treasure? How could he not have realized it before?

    At that moment, Ye Xiao’s eyes suddenly lit up!

    It felt like a huge bolt of lightning which could split the earth and the sky, was striking him!

    After the lightning struck, everything turned white!

    Right at that moment, Ye Xiao felt his body shake and a ball of light appeared in his mind!

    The light was turning bigger and bigger. Step by step, he found that all the lights were
    originating from this ball!

    It was like a sun rising in the horizon of his sea of consciousness.

    The ball rolled and ten golden words abruptly appeared, shining in front of the ball! It shined right into Ye Xiao’s eyes!

    All of the pain in his body had vanished, as if a miracle had happened at that moment.

    “Peerless lord in the world, and foremost spirit in chaos!” [3]




    —————
    [1] In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Yang means male in gender. Pure Yang Martial Art is only for boys - males never have sex, to cultivate.

    [2] Sedan chair: A wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons.

    [3] The ten Chinese words are “天地无双主,混沌第一灵!”

  9. #9
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    Chapter 8 - Purple Qi From The East, Ablution Of Muscles And Bones


    After a while, the ten words were turning smaller and smaller and shrank into the sphere. What terrified Ye Xiao was that his soul followed the shrinking and also drew into the sphere!

    “The sphere is obviously inside my body. How could it draw me in? What is going on?” When the confusion had just aroused in Ye Xiao’s mind - woosh! his consciousness fell into a curious space.

    After being blank for a short time, Ye Xiao quickly regained his composure. He looked around and saw a huge palace standing like mountains with clouds curling around!

    Right below the palace there were two giant doors made of two huge white jades. The surface of the doors was smooth like a mirror - there was nothing on it!

    When Ye Xiao was checking carefully, he heard a sound - whoosh! A character was like a meteor flew from beyond the horizon and crashed on the blank doorframe of the left door!

    天 - Tian!

    And then another character fell.

    Ye Xiao was already prepared to see them. He looked at those characters flying down and embedding themselves on the doorframe of both sides. They were exactly the ten words he just saw - 天地无双主、混沌第一灵 (Peerless lord in the world, and the foremost spirit in chaos)!

    After that, more words started showing up one by one on the white-jade doors.

    “From heaven to hell, there is only one absolute ruler. But who is he?”

    “When the universe was just born, the sphere showed up. It took all efforts of creating and energy of the whole space to create such things. It brought about all livings beings - the sun, moon and stars in the sky, and the mountains and rivers on the earth…”

    It was such a long text.

    Ye Xiao read it and felt confused, “The words inside the sphere are really overstated, are they not? The sun, the moon and the stars could be all created by you huh?

    That… is impossible…

    Who do you think you are, a god? A sage? Or a sovereign being?”

    The next moment, the closed doors suddenly opened!

    An extremely dense fog flooded out!

    And beyond the fog was a long tunnel.

    As Ye Xiao was about to enter,golden flashing lights suddenly appeared in front of his face showing a line of words.

    “欲入此门, 生死一念 (Enter, gain absolute power or face total annihilation)!”

    Ye Xiao stopped walking and looked at them attentively.

    After the eight words, there came another twelve flashing like they were directly carved in his mind.

    “不成天地主宰,便化宇宙尘埃 (Either become the absolute ruler of the universe or yet another insignificant speck of dust in the world!)!”
    Ye Xiao felt shocked deep inside his heart!

    It was a clear statement: If you get in here, you have decided to accept this legacy, and you will only have a single way out - by becoming the absolute ruler of the universe.

    If he couldn’t succeed, he would become a speck of dust!

    Withering away!

    In simpler terms: If he failed, he would die!

    The condition was really taking it to the extreme.

    Live or die!

    There was no other option to consider.

    Ye Xiao stood silently for a while and said with a low voice, “A single man in the world should have dominated everything! Even if I fail, at least I would have fought once. I may die, but with no regrets! A speck of dust, so what? A deadwood, so what? Life is inherently like a leaf living through autumn!”

    “If I succeed, I will be the absolute ruler!”

    He leisurely walked through the doorway with his hand folded behind his back.

    He actually disdained looking at those warnings flashing around him.

    Success would let him look down upon the universe while failure would lead him to annihilation!

    He felt as if his blood was boiling and he was filled with an indescribable desire!

    “There it is, a method, a way back into the Qing-Yun realm. The three factions, wait and see! I, the Xiao Monarch, will return soon!”

    A place filled with warnings like these were just a perfect fit for his personality! — Succeed or die!

    That was actually what he had done in his previous life!

    However, the present Xiao Monarch was perhaps even more resolute than he'd ever been!

    “Here it is!” Above the empty main hall, there was a strange zone. The Pure Heavenly Crystal was right at its center and was slowly spreading wave after wave of heavy fog. This heavy fog was filling the main hall and the purple qi from the hall was slowly entering the Pure Heavenly Crystal.

    “I was right! They are connecting with each other, stimulating each other, and then building up a regular cycling pattern.” Ye Xiao pondered. Although he didn’t understand what was really going on, he could see that inside the sphere, the Pure Heavenly Crystal was actually the catalyst for the sphere…

    Ye Xiao tried to take the Pure Heavenly Crystal but found himself unable to reach it.

    “What the hell is this?! I had battered my brains to obtain that thing and now I can’t even touch it?” Ye Xiao was a bit pissed.

    After finding the Pure Heavenly Crystal inside the sphere, Ye Xiao started to look at his surroundings. He realized that even though he had entered a huge palace, he had actually only explored a very small part of it. The rest of the buildings behind were still shrouded by the heavy fog. One couldn’t even see his fingers clearly, let alone tell directions.

    DAANGG! Suddenly, a ringing sound filled the air, like the melodious sound of an evening drum or a morning bell…

    Ye Xiao felt his mind go blank after hearing this ring. He attained a shocking enlightenment which had truly appeared from nowhere. He could clearly feel that the bell’s ring was leading him through thousands of his past lives!

    At that moment, the thousands of lifetimes turned into a ray of light that rapidly flew through Ye Xiao’s sight!

    It seemed both real and dreamlike at the same time; seemingly existing in front of him, yet impossible to reach…

    The purple qi continued to expand till the ringing sound died out. A wave of the purple qi thrust up from the central grounds and formed ten words!

    “天地初始,唯有紫气东来 (At the very beginning of the universe, only the purple qi from the east was in existance)!”

    An extreme dense purple qi suddenly rose with splendid lights surrounding it. As sudden as lightning, it thrust forward and landed in between Ye Xiao’s eyes!

    Instantly, Ye Xiao felt his head becoming heavy as a martial arts method quickly took shape within his mind

    “万物得造化,紫气东来功!” (The creation of the universe depends on the East-rising Purple Qi!)

    “天地初始,紫气东来,是为万物之母,滋润苍穹⋯⋯此紫气提聚之法,正心正神,我心为天,阴阳转动,三光合 一,灵台冰清,紫气东来。”(At the beginning of the universe, there was a purple qi rising from the east. It is the mother of the world and the benefactor of the firmament… The method of cultivating the purple qi strengthens the heart and refines the soul. My heart is the heaven; Yin and Yang are revolving; three lights are converging; my soul is crystal clear; the purple qi rises from the east.)

    ……

    “The East-rising Purple Qi!”

    Ye Xiao read this method word for word and sentence for sentence. Eventually, within his mind, he found enlightenment. It felt like finding a treasure!

    The Xiao Monarch had earned such a great title in his prior life. While the strong basic cultivation of him was an ascent to transcendence, the method of martial arts he had been using was also something out of the ordinary. His discernment was also surely a transcendental skill. In Ye Xiao’s eyes, no matter if this East-rising Purple Qi was the first martial arts method in the universe or not, it was much better than the Pure Yang Martial Arts he had used in his prior life. The two methods were totally not in the same level; they were like cloud and soil. Even saying that the East-rising Purple Qi was in the sky and the Pure Yang Martial Arts was on the earth, was actually flattering the latter one. They absolutely belonged in different realms!

    Just by reading the beginning of this method, it had made him feel its endless power.

    He was sitting on the bed, wholeheartedly performing the new cultivating method again and again. He was transferring the poor small piece of spiritual qi into the route of the new method and began cultivating…

    The scattered spiritual qi in the world converged towards his body, then gradually entered within him and flowed towards his dantian…

    Inside the sphere, the Pure Heavenly Crystal was still persistently emitting the pure qi. The space materialized while the purple qi kept on spreading…

    Ye Xiao sat on his bed the entire night!

    Ye Xiao remembered clearly, when he was performing the new martial arts method for the 1999th time, suddenly, with a buzz, his soul seemed to shake and all his acupoints[1] opened at once! The qi from all over the world crazily rushed into his body.

    His dantian was holding the scattered qi from this world and there was a wave of faintly discernible cool energy forming an extremely tenacious thread flowing into his Jing and Mai!

    That was an energy created by the mixture of the sphere and the Pure Heavenly Crystal — the first piece of the saint spiritual power!

    When the normal qi got into his dantian, they merged together. If both strings would be compared, then the normal string would be made of some normal silk, while this saint spiritual power would be a strand of superior silk that could hold a thousand kilograms.

    That was like the absolute difference between a god and a mortal!

    The difference between Heaven and hell!

    While Ye Xiao was cultivating by absorbing the East-rising Purple Qi, his skin gradually excreted layers of sticky mucus which was black and smelly…

    Ye Xiao didn’t move one bit, seemingly unaware of his body getting dirtier and dirtier. An inexplicable excitement was engulfing his mind!

    His condition right now, was actually what most cultivators could only dream about — ablution of the muscles and bones!

    This is the first step on the long journey of cultivation. If he had been using normal methods, he would need to reach an unimaginable high level before he would be able to enter the ablution stage in order to transform his mortal body into a saint-body.

    Surprisingly the East-rising Purple Qi actually started the ablution right at the beginning!

    He had really found an unimaginable treasure.

    Maybe it was true that this method was the first martial arts method in the universe, like it was said in its description!

    ……

    The next morning, when the sky was still dark, Ye Xiao hurried out from his room and jumped into the pond.

    Splash!!!

    In the pond, several big fish were scared by the unexpected visitor and walloped around.

    Ye Xiao actually had no other choice. He had just woken up from cultivating and had found himself stinking like a shit hole!

    God knows how much dirt was inside the body of this foppish playboy. This time all the filthy things had been exuded and formed a heavy layer on his body…

    Ye Xiao even felt that his eyes were totally covered by filth…

    He casually rubbed his body and removed a handful of dirt… and he rubbed again then got a miters long finger-width strip of them… People who didn’t know what was going on would think that Lord Ye was catching a catfish in the pond of his house…

    The stinky smell was being spread out by the wind. Anyone who smelled it would definitely puke immediately!

    The smell was just too strong! There was even a guard who, while covering his nose, had come to see what was going on, but he was berated away by Ye Xiao, “Don’t you see I am having a bath? What have you come for?”

    The guard began to run away in an attempt to save his nose while scolding: “Shit! I know you are having a bath, but there are two questions ok? The first: Don’t you think it is too early to take a bath before sunrise? The second: I fxxking know you are taking a bath but it smells like somebody’s washing the toilet!!!”

    The pond in the General Ye’s house was really big. It was enormous!

    However, when Ye Xiao got out of the pond and looked back, all the fish in the pond were floating on the surface of the water, showing their white bellies and breathing the fresh air as if suffocating, with their mouths moving…

    If those fish could talk, they would cry before talking, “What the fxxk?! This is some nasty shit… I-Is this the end?”


    ——————

    [1] Acupoints: Acupoints are locations on the body that are the focus of acupuncture, acupressure, sonopuncture and laser acupuncture treatment. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, several hundred acupuncture points are claimed to be located along what practitioners call meridians.

  10. #10
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    Chapter 9 - A Peculiar Bead, A Quirky Egg


    Ye Xiao put on his clothes slowly and felt his whole body relax. He had finally began the journey of cultivating the number one martial arts method since the beginning of time – the East-rising Purple Qi!

    He tried using a normal method to circulate the power he had gained from cultivation. As he guided his qi towards his palm, it started to shine with a bright primrose yellow light.

    “Level 1 in the Grade of Diyuan!”

    Ye Xiao felt relieved. What a nice surprise!

    He had realized that this mortal world was quite different from the Qing-Yun Realm that he had stayed in during his previous life. In Qing-Yun Realm, the lowest grade was the Grade of Lingyuan. When he was in his prior life, he had reached the top in the Grade of Daoyuan, which was the highest level in the Qing-Yun Realm.

    However, in this mortal world, it began with the Grade of Renyuan.

    The Grade of Renyuan, Grade of Diyuan and Grade of Tianyuan were the only three grades in the mortal world at the moment. Above the Grade of Tianyuan, it was the Grade of Lingyuan, which only appeared in the Qing-Yun Realm.

    The nine levels in the Grade of Renyuan were the nine steps to become a hero. The nine levels in the Grade of Diyuan were like nine mountains that were, one after the other, harder and harder to climb. The nine levels in the Grade of Tianyuan were like nine different clouds at various heights while each upgrade equaled a step closer to heaven!

    “Level 1 in the Grade of Renyuan allows people to establish themselves in the mortal world; level 5 would allow one to get wealthy; Aside from life and death, all routes in this world lead to the 9th level. The level that officially lets you truly stand apart from ordinary people!”

    A man in the Grade of Diyuan could be called a real cultivator. People who had reached this grade usually had already achieved numerable accomplishments… However, in the Grade of Diyuan, to level up could be compared to climbing the tallest, most challenging mountains in the world..

    “So in fact I have already become stronger than ordinary people… I deserve to be called a real cultivator now…” Ye Xiao actually started to show a slight trace of complacency.

    In his prior life, he had spent a full year to cultivate himself from level 1 in the Grade of Renyuan to level 1 in the Grade of Diyuan. This time however, it only took him one day!

    “Such speed…” Ye Xiao was rubbing his chin and felt a bit lightheaded. A cultivation speed like this was something he wouldn’t dare to dream about in his past life.

    Although he knew that it was the benefit of being a cultivator of the East-rising Purple Qi, he was still satisfied enough that he wouldn't regret dying again for it. Only those who had cultivated themselves before knew the difficulties of increasing their strength…

    Although the former Ye Xiao - the foppish playboy - was ignorant, he had practiced some spiritual kung fu under pressure from his father. He was more or less at level 3 in the Grade of Renyuan. There was a silver lining found after living in the General’s House after all. The departed lord Ye had a certain amount of qi inside his body, however, there were too many impurities in it.

    “It is good he had created a base for me, although he had debilitated his body so much that I don’t even want to look at it… However, at least I have a body and am alive.” Since he was very satisfied at the moment, he didn’t wish to dwell on it.

    “I wonder... Would there be any other functions in the sphere?” Ye Xiao was in good spirits.

    While enjoying the progress he achieved in cultivation, he was more interested in the Pure Heavenly Crystal. He had only just entered the space inside the sphere and used the qi obtained from the Pure Heavenly Crystal, yet the ablution of his muscles and bones had already taken place. This was truly wondrous! Moreover, the waste-like body had broken into the Grade of Diyuan because of it.

    “What if… What if I take another piece, what would happen… like, I want to laugh hehe hehe heh…”

    Thinking of that, he reentered the sphere. Ye Xiao walked straight to where the Pure Heavenly Crystal was located and looked up. He rubbed his chin and thought, “Shall I… cut off another piece?”

    Ye Xiao thought of something and immediately took action. He jumped up and reached his hands out to grab the Pure Heavenly Crystal…

    He had previously failed to cut the crystal with a knife, but now that he had the power of the Grade of Diyuan. He thought, “This time I can finally fiddle with this tough thing no matter what!”

    However…

    Booom!

    Purple lights attacked him at once.

    Ye Xiao was blown onto the floor and nearly got his hip decimated into eight pieces. The shock, however, made him oblivious to the screaming pain of his body.

    The Pure Heavenly Crystal was right in front of him and could be clearly seen.

    But… He might be able to lay his eyes upon it, but it was still far beyond reach. He couldn’t reach it no matter what he tried!

    That wasn’t all, the moment he had tried to lay his hands on it, he was cruelly beaten away by the purple lights coming from within the Pure Heavenly Crystal…

    “What the hell is going on? This thing had cost me innumerable hardships to obtain and now that it has finally become mine, I can only look at it from a distance?! Is there still justice?!” Ye Xiao was kneading his hip with frustration flashing across his face.

    He wouldn’t give up just like this and gave it another shot, but the results were the same.

    Ye Xiao was frustrated after being beaten down time and again, with dirt smeared all over his face, “It really is impossible to reach!”

    Looking up at the highly standing Pure Heavenly Crystal, Ye Xiao sighed and groaned, “I’ve never seen something like this shit… I got it and it is in my place. It is obviously mine, but it actually won’t let me touch it! You… ratty space in the sphere, can you be reasonable?”

    After trying a few more times, Ye Xiao feebly lied down on the floor of the space.

    He finally understood. Even though he could get the Pure Heavenly Crystal into this sphere, his level was too low to take charge of this space. He didn’t have the right, or should we say power, to rule here.

    Ye Xiao knew clearly that using such a treasure like the Pure Heavenly Crystal for now would really be a huge waste! Although it could immediately boost his cultivation to unimaginable heights, it could bring some hidden troubles with it. After all, it strength didn’t come from arduous cultivation then a cultivators base was doomed to be weak. It would be a difficult journey for him to get back to the status of his power growing endlessly.

    However… the chance to achieve a meteoric rise in a single night was so alluring that no one would be resist it at all. As it was within sight but beyond reach for now, he no longer held any interests for it.

    “Fine. This place will make for a fine storage room.” Ye Xiao settled for the second best option in an attempt to comfort himself.

    Then he exited the space, grabbed a chair outside and tried to take it back into the space within the sphere…

    “Erhh, no?” Ye Xiao looked at the chair in his hand and scratched his head.

    “Is it too big? Maybe a smaller one will do.”

    Ye Xiao grabbed a stone about the size of an egg.

    But… it failed once again.

    “What is the problem?” Ye Xiao was really confused.

    “Even I can get in, how come this small stone can’t?!”

    He tried it once again!

    He had tried for several times until he shifted his attention and took a jade-crystal, which contained the essences of the universe and was left to him by his father, and at this point finally something happened…

    It was not that the jade-crystal could enter the space, however…

    “It lost some…” Ye Xiao looked at the jade-crystal which he held and found that something had changed, making him feel both happy and annoyed.

    Normal people may not have been able to tell the difference, Ye Xiao on the other hand obviously felt it. The jade-crystal didn’t look different - it retained the same scale and the same sheen. However, the most essential qi it was harboring was gone, so it had become nothing more than a pillow with an embroidered case — pretty to look at, yet absolutely useless.

    “Could it be that this space only accepts certain higher-class things…” Ye Xiao started to analyze it, “That means, every fancy treasure needs to be higher than a certain class to be able to enter this space. This fade-crystal is quite an example. Except for the most essential part of it, the rest is below the required class, so it can’t get in!”

    Ye Xiao rubbed his chin and was thoughtful for a while, “This thing is picky with its food, isn’t it?”

    “To absorb the essence of the sky and the earth and to gather the qi from everything, so as to expand the space and feed yourself. Only then can you become the unparalleled Monarch of this unbound space… This is the first temple of the unbinded space. To open the second temple, you need to master the second degree of East-rising Purple Qi.” Ye Xiao had finally found some words on the wall.

    In other words, it was telling Ye Xiao that he should go get more valuable things to expand the space in this sphere before it could feed him back. Such circulation would cause both of them to improve.

    “Hmm humph, so there it is…” At this moment, Ye Xiao couldn’t help but frown, “At the moment I just started with the East-rising Purple Qi, and I am even not at the first degree; I am only at the beginner’s degree.”

    As for the present circumstance, he couldn’t know what the requirements would be to enter this second temple.

    The Grade of Diyuan only corresponded with the beginner’s degree; it should at least be the supreme master’s level in the Grade of Tianyuan to achieve the second degree.

    A question started to form in his head, “How many degrees of the East-rising Purple Qi were there?”

    Followed by another question, “What degree would be the maximum he could possibly reach?”

    “This is…” Ye Xiao sighed deeply.

    A vast and hazy future had appeared in front of him. There was still a seemingly endless road for him to travel!

    But in any case, the East-rising Purple Qi was absolutely thousands of times stronger than what he had been practicing in his previous life! Anyway, he would practice it to the supreme level and cultivate it even further!

    The urgent question now was… where could he get all of the treasures which he was going to need?

    From all the things around him in the General’s House, only the jade-crystal could barely be considered worthy — it was only a partial pass at best — what a tragedy!

    “If you give me nothing, how can I obtain countless treasures?” Ye Xiao felt depressed and sighed deeply at the space, “Even if a treasure shows up, it will be in the hands of a noble family and used as tribute to coax someone like the king. Even if there would really be one that was worthy… I would still need the money to make the deal. If I were at a higher level, I could just go and rob it… but I am a mere weakling for now. If I go rob a top-level treasure to expand this shitty space, I am afraid that a single fart from the enemy will instantly kill me. What am I even complaining about?” A wonderful housewife could never cook a meal if she had no rice [1], just like Ye Xiao now, he also couldn’t do something if he wasn’t capable.

    No one knew whether the space was disgusted by the pathetic tone of some Monarch or not, however, there was the purple qi floating in the air and the space was shaking. On the west corner of the space, a deep and serene tunnel appeared.

    Ye Xiao went blank when he saw this. He was just simply grumbling, he didn’t actually expect any reaction from it.

    “Is it because I am too pathetic so the gods showed pity for me? Oh no, I mean the space showed pity for me!”

    He walked through the tunnel and saw a purple colored table at the end of it. On this purple colored table there was a lotus pedestal and at the center of the pedestal, there was a…An egg?

    Endless purple qi was coming out from inside the lotus pedestal and going into the egg while the surplus qi frantically flew away…

    “Erhh… an egg? No… a duck egg?” Ye Xiao was looking at the egg on the table and felt really confused.

    It was obviously an egg!

    Yet it was slightly bigger than an egg. Well if there was an egg with two yolks… it could be about this big.

    “What kind of being could be in this egg?” Ye Xiao was stretching out his hand to pick up and see the egg up close, but when he reached it, he shockingly found himself unable to pick it up. He quickly triggered all his powers to pick it up apprehensively…

    BAMM

    Ye Xiao fell down on the floor!

    He still couldn’t pick it up. He actually still couldn’t do it!

    It was nothing but a small egg. For Ye Xiao’s cultivation now — he at least could carry up to a thousand kilograms — yet he actually couldn’t pick it up!

    “!!!!!” Ye Xiao goggled widely, unable to utter a single word.

    The next moment, he felt a burning sensation in his heart.



    —————
    [1] Something like if you have no hand you can't make a fist. Cooked rice is the essential food in Chinese meals.

  11. #11
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    Note: Hi guys, we have retranslated chapter 1 and will improve other previous chapters soon. Do check it out.

    __________________________________________________ _________________________

    Chapter 10 - The Supreme Dan?

    “This egg… Could it be some mythical creature’s egg? What if it hatches… heh heh heh…”

    All of a sudden, Ye Xiao’s eyes filled with an endless desire.

    Such happiness!

    “Hahahahahaha… How could I’ve ever thought that anything inside this quirky place would be ordinary?!

    Only a super mythical creature, would be able to brazenly leave its egg here, wouldn’t it?

    Look at the table… Hmm, obviously all the qi in this space is gathering here to feed this egg. Only a fraction of the qi arriving at this egg got rejected and was thrown back out after entering the egg…”

    “It turns out that all the purple qi I was using for cultivation is actually the inferior qi which this egg doesn’t care about…” Ye Xiao was left speechless.

    “I wonder when this egg will hatch…” After some imagination, Ye Xiao checked around the purple table carefully, expecting some other surprises to show up.

    It must have been his lucky day because yet another surprise dawned upon him.

    There was a small delicate purple box under the table. Inside this box, there were about a dozen round beady pills with the size of soybeans. They were all enveloped by a weak white halo of light.

    “This is Pei-Yuan Dan [1].” Ye Xiao was knowledgeable and clear-sighted. How could he not know this stuff?

    However, Pei-Yuan Dan was nothing extraordinary in the Qing-Yun realm…

    But these Pei-Yuan Dan were at a very high level - they could very well be of the highest quality. When they were made, there wasn’t any efficacy lost due to it being restrained by spiritual energy. They had almost broken through the limit of dan!

    Anyway, Ye Xiao had never been able to produce something at such a high level in his prior life.

    However… even if it was of the highest level, it was still just Pei-Yuan Dan.

    The cheapest of the dans!

    “And this is the only benefits I can get?” Ye Xiao felt speechless as he put the Pei-Yuan Dan beads into a jade bottle and left the space with a loud sigh and a groan.

    “The qi I get is the discarded qi from that strange egg and the extra profit I get are actually some cheap dan beads. I really can’t think of a word to say!”

    ……

    “Steward, how much money do we have in the family? How much can I use?” Ye Xiao asked the steward.

    “Uhh… Well…” The steward seemed to feel awkward, “The money in this family naturally all belongs to you my lord, but the salary of the general and the spoils of war are all for some certain uses. As for those left for you to use, they are… are all in your own closet.”

    What he meant was obvious: For those given by the general, he could use them freely; those that wasn’t given to him, he’d better not plan on touching them.

    Ye Xiao stared, and then he sighed feebly.

    He knew about his father. General Ye was really an uncommonly/extremely nice boss to the soldiers. Most of his incomes were used to pension the relatives of the soldiers who had sacrificed themselves in battles, as well as those left disabled after wars…

    This family really didn’t have much money left for their own use…

    Thanks to the departed Lord Ye Xiao, who had saved some gold and silver by acting recklessly. However, it was only about 500 gold bars [2]. Last time when he lent some to Zuo Wu Ji, it had taken him 250 gold bars already.

    He also took another 500 gold bars from Lan Lang-Lang by blackmailing him…

    “Poor! Truly poor!” Ye Xiao was struggling.

    “Forget it. Go on with your own business. Just leave me alone.” Ye Xiao waved his hand instructing the steward to move away.

    Ye Xiao collected his thoughts for a long time and eventually decided to change his appearance. For him, who used to be the world-renowned Xiao Monarch, it was child’s play to change his appearance by transferring his spiritual power. Besides, now he was… an expert of the Grade of Diyuan.

    Although the Pei-Yuan Dan wasn’t good stuff in Ye Xiao’s eyes, it should still be considered one of a kind of tonics in this mortal world… So it would be better not to be found out that he was the one who released them to the public…

    Otherwise, there would be endless troubles for him.

    A face with a dark and rough look, whiskers that seemed to have been growing for over 30 years and an extremely muscular body.

    That was exactly what Ye Xiao looked like after disguising himself. After checking himself out in the mirror over and over, he eventually nodded with satisfaction and then put on a bamboo hat as an extra form of insurance to keep his true identity hidden.

    “The Ling-Bao Hall Salesroom!”

    Ye Xiao was standing in front of the biggest salesroom in town. It was where tomorrow’s auction was scheduled to be held. It was already bustling with people concerning themselves with decorating this salesroom in preparation for the auction that would take place the following day.

    What Zuo Wu-Ji wanted, would appear at this auction…

    “Well the name of the salesroom… is truly decent.” Ye Xiao was looking at the busy staff and thinking deeply, murmured in his head, “Wasn’t there a Heaven Attaining Salesroom in… I wonder if all these salesrooms are connected to each other, perhaps they’re just branches?”

    He threw his thoughts aside for now and stepped through the door.

    “Please hold on, warrior.” A man with a goatee from the salesroom came up to him and smiled fawningly, “The auction will not start till tomorrow…”

    It was an obvious statement: Don’t come before tomorrow.

    “I come bringing business.” With a raucous voice, Ye Xiao talked chillily, “How can I not know that the date for the auction is tomorrow? That is exactly why I am here today. Go fetch me your boss. Ask him if he wants some supreme dan on his auction. If you don’t do this quickly, I will turn around and leave!”

    “Supreme dan?” The man with the goatee frowned lightly.

    In the Land of Han-Yang, there would only be one in every one thousand people capable of making drugs. For a drug-maker to be able to reach such a level that he can create a dan, not even one in ten thousand drug-makers would reach such a level! As for dan, it was a wonderful thing that even an unfathomable cultivator couldn’t easily obtain!

    Moreover, it was the supreme dan!

    But this guy…

    “If you don’t mind me asking sir, the dan you are talking about… Could you show it to me?” This goatee-beard man changed the term of address at once, from warrior to sir.

    Ye Xiao let out an annoyed grumble and without further ado shook the bottle in his hand, before taking its lid off.

    Suddenly, a dense wave of wonderful scent was released.

    The governor could only manage to get a measly sniff of it before Ye Xiao had decided to reseal the bottle. Even so, with just a sniff, the governor felt his entire body relax and a comfortable feeling entered his heart.

    “Please follow me. I will bring you to our most capable connoisseur immediately.” Only with a sniff, the governor could judge: This supreme dan was very likely genuine!

    As the governor of the salesroom, he was naturally well informed, but today was still the first time that he got to appreciate this wonderful scent.

    All the ordinary tonics, even other valuable materials that were nearly upper-grade, were unable to be as precious as this!

    Ye Xiao sat on a fauteuil as if he was a warrior carrying a golden sword and riding a giant horse. He tasted the tea unhurriedly with a certain calm and confidence showing on his face.

    In front of him, the governor had returned in haste, “Sir, Master Guan from our salesroom is here. Master Guan is the number one connoisseur in our Heaven Attaining Salesroom! He’ll definitely be able to tell, if the dans you’re intending to sell are authentic or not.”

    Behind him, there was a white-bearded old man radiating vigor.

    “May I have your noble name please?” The white-bearded Master Guan smiled gently, “And your title?”

    Ye Xiao smiled flatly, “Old gentleman, are you considering… the possibility that there is a dan-maker in this kingdom? Or should we say… That there hasn’t been a dan-maker of such a high level for many years in this kingdom??”

    Master Guan laughed, “I didn’t say that. There is always a smarter person and there is always a higher heaven. There is always what we cannot imagine, but nothing that can not be done… However, I have been staying here in the Chen-Xing City for 20 years. If you, sir, have actually brought some real dan… it would only be the third time that I would have the opportunity to auction dan in these 20 years! That is not only a great honor for the salesroom, but also for me!”

    Ye Xiao was deeply shocked by his words!

    He had still underestimated the value of dan in this mortal world!

    Although dan was something ordinary and common in the cultivation field, that was when it was in the Qing-Yun Realm!

    A dan with the efficacies of fortifying and nourishing the body was almost the same as rubbish in the Qing-Yun Realm. Who of all those superior masters in the Qing-Yun Realm would need such a thing? They wouldn’t even have bothered to bend over and pick it from the ground!

    But in the mortal world, a dan like this was enough to be called the immortal dan!

    Only one portion could cure hundreds of illnesses!

    Only one portion could bring fitness!

    Only one portion could heal all wounds!

    Moreover, the Pei-Yuan Dan brought by Ye Xiao was actually the top-quality supreme dan!

    “Here I congratulate you on having such great luck today. You can be sure that this is your third time to auction dan.” Ye Xiao said flatly, “Besides… If I can get a good deal this time, maybe you will… have the fourth and the fifth great honors like this one!”

    Master Guan trembled as he stroked his white beard and started to observe Ye Xiao. He carefully went over Ye Xiao’s characteristics, his dark skin and the bamboo hat which he had worn despite being indoors, and then he said solemnly, “I am Guan Wan-Shan. I dare ask how I should called your honor?”

    Ye Xiao smiled, “I am… Feng Zhi-Ling.”

    “Greetings, brother Feng.” Guan Wan-Shan nodded and smiled with a fist and palm salute. [3]

    Ye Xiao calmly nodded while retaining his previous posture. He would have never thought that the false name he had just now casually picked would turn out to become world-famous and universe-renowned… Many, many years later, it would become a legend in this world: The most honorable, the most handsome, the most unrestrained, the most elegant and the most magnanimous… The perfect-five [4] dan-maker in the world. (Eh-hem, let me play the role… I should be handsome and unrestrained somehow…— words from the author)

    “However, I should still see the dan first.” Master Guan straightened his clothes and sat properly. His words might be mannerly, but what he meant was unavoidable.

    Ye Xiao wasn’t surprised. He took out the jade bottle from his clothes and casually put it on the table.

    Guan Wan-Shan looked surprised. “If it is really supreme dan, how can he keep them in such an inferior bottle?” He suddenly started to question the authenticity of these dan. But the next moment, when he took over the bottle and opened it, a dense stream of qi flowed out, which made Guan Wan-Shan’s expression change instantly!

    His hands were shaking vigorously as he tried to seal the bottle very cautiously. It seemed as if he was afraid to let the scent flow away even just a little bit!

    Guan Wan-Shan took a deep breath to calm his fast beating heart down. When the dense scent had only barely reached his nostrils and he had felt the qi of life [5] which was the most potent qi he had ever seen in a dan, he realized…

    As of now, even the thought of suspecting or disdaining the items taken out by this man in front of him had turned into a massive joke.

    This was the most valuable dan he had ever come across in his entire life!

    The very next moment he started giving a quick sequence of orders, “Somebody, anybody, quick! Bring me my Purple Crystal Plate quick, and my Purple Jade Bottle… Bring me my Dan-Yang Mirror, hurry!. Quick quick quick…” Then he turned around and asked Ye Xiao in a straightforward manner, “Brother Feng… The urh… How many pieces of this kind of high quality dan are you looking to sell? Just one? Or maybe two? Or…”

    His voice was quivering. A 50, maybe 60 years old man, had his face reddened all over and his eyes filled with earnest eagerness and even a little craze.






    —————

    [1] Dan: One kind of medicine, mostly with miracle efficacy. Pellet-shape pills.

    [2] Gold bars: we have decided to change the monetary system from kilograms to bars. 1 bar of gold = 1 kg of gold. We will make changes in the earlier chapters soon.

    [3] Fist and palm salute: To cup one's hands in obeisance or greeting. The right hand is clenched in a fist. The left hand thumb is bent, and the four fingers are stacked and straight. The palm of the left hand is placed over the fist.

    [4] Perfect-five: Used to describe Ye Xiao because he has five qualities maxed out- The most honorable, the most handsome, the most unrestrained, the most elegant and the most magnanimous

    [5] Qi of life: A form of qi which is found in all living beings.

    More chapter
    Last edited by xianxiaworld; 03-13-16 at 12:47 AM.

  12. #12
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    Chapter 11 - You want to buy it, I don’t want to sell

    As soon as Guan Wan-Shan spoke, he regretted opening his mouth. Finding such a valuable piece of dan was worth the good fortune of three generations, and he was actually hoping to see more. He really felt that greed had taken over his rationality. However, if he could obtain more than one of such a precious item, it would definitely be the best day of his life.

    The old man’s reaction startled Ye Xiao but he still managed to reply indifferently, “Well I didn’t count how many are present. It should be about fifteen.... maybe sixteen. Though, I truly didn’t count…” He felt drops of sweat appear on his forehead as he started to worry, “I truly don’t think of this as something valuable. Why would it draw such a big reaction from this old man? This is such a hot headed old man!” He was really taken aback by this kind of a reaction.

    “WHAT?! F-fifteen… o-or sixteen?!? And you didn’t even count it out?! Seriously?!” Guan Wan-Shan stared at him like he wanted to hit Ye Xiao.

    Ye Xiao felt helpless as he innocently threw his hands up in the air..

    Guan Wan-Shan truly wanted to curse this man in front of him, but managed to keep his words to himself and thought, “A single item is valuable enough to shake the world, yet he actually has more than fifteen of them. He has such ridiculous amounts of good luck to be able to acquire such valuable dan beads, yet he doesn’t even seem to value it. He even takes it to an auction and yet, he couldn’t even be bothered to do a simple count?!

    That was such a reckless waste of God's good gifts!

    This… This guy… was truly… a humongous black sheep!

    The three lords? They were simply three good kids compared to this guy!

    One could really not be compared with the other!”

    Guan Wan-Shan’s lips were trembling. He turned around and yelled, “… G-go bring me twenty Purple Jade Bottles!”

    He couldn’t scold Ye Xiao at the moment, so he vented his anger on his subordinates.

    Many loud shouts were heard one after the other, followed by footsteps which belonged to an approaching crowd.

    It had been at least a dozen years since they had seen the master connoisseur so agitated.

    By any chance, if they acted too slowly then they would be reprimanded at the least and in the worst case, even lose their jobs.

    Only a few moments later, Guan Wan-Shan had received all the equipment he had demanded.

    Then he took out a clean white towel and wiped his hands completely clean. He put a purple plate which was made out of crystal on the table after which, he took out a strange transparent cover and placed it over the plate.

    After that, he took the jade bottle from Ye Xiao and placed it on the plate through a strange opening in the cover.

    With that, only his hands could reach through the cover. They fit perfectly into the opening, making sure that none of the qi that was emanating from the dan bead would be able to escape.

    “This is some incredible equipment. It really is of great quality.” The Xiao Monarch clicked his tongue in admiration for the structure of the cover.

    However, he didn’t realize that his praise had made the old guy Guan nearly fall back down in anger. “The story about ‘keeping the casket and giving back the pearl’ [1] has become a laughingstock for over a thousand years. Now there is another living example. The cover is an artful thing but it can never even compare with the valuable dan beads. You think little of such treasure but admire a common cover. What a bloody world-class joke!”

    When the jade bottle was opened, the wonderful scent spread again. Moreover, from the bottle, a mass of white mist emerged, which was much too dense to disperse.

    “Dan... cloud!!!”

    The white beard of Guan Wan-Shan was quivering. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and dropped to the ground.

    There are nine grades of dan and only those over grade 7 release a dan mist. At the highest grade 9, this dan mist would even contain visible dan veins.

    However, only the legendary, limit breaking dan that had broken through the limits of the ninth grade could produce… the legendary dan cloud!

    Note: The appearance of the dan cloud is, however, not a certainty! That is to say… even those legendary dan beads might only have a layer of ‘dan mist’, rather than a full dan cloud.

    The cloud and the mist actually share the same essential attributes, but the mist would quickly disperse while, according to the legends, the cloud would keep on rising while continuously changing its shape!

    That is similar to the difference between heaven and earth!

    The dan cloud was something that only appeared in those legendary stories from eons past. Only stories were told about it in this mortal world, but it had never been seen before!

    At this moment, Guan Wan-Shan was witnessing the legendary dan cloud that he hadn’t even dared dreaming about, and was feeling its extremely dense scent, which brought the greatest joy to both his body and mind. He was nearly crying out in excitement.

    “My dear ancestors!” Guan Wan-Shan thrillingly murmured, “Today, I…I have finally seen the legendary dan cloud with my own two eyes! Oh this dan cloud… It is worth three-generation good fortune… I no longer have regrets and I can die willingly…”

    The Xiao Monarch was slightly stunned, “What the hell is going on? He is just identifying some dan beads. How could such a simple thing make him go crazy… Die willingly he says… That is just a simple dan bead, not some lethal incurable poison!”

    The bottle was carefully being leaned forward letting a soybean-sized dan bead roll out. The soybean-sized dan bead was still enveloped by the dan cloud as it was rolling around on the plate. After a while the dan bead could be clearly identified as a golden dan bead with mysterious veins covering its entire surface…

    Guan Wan-Shan lightly closed his satisfaction filled eyes.

    No further inspection was needed.

    Veins were densely covering this dan bead, while the dan cloud was still ever spreading

    This was — something that could only be produced by the supreme immortals from myths — the legendary magical grade 10 dan!

    Although it was just some Pei-Yuan Dan, with such quality, even the grade 9 dan-maker that only existed in the myth would want to buy it for a price and take it for research, because… more than just about the grade of dan, it was about opening an entrance to a tough path towards supreme dan-making!

    Even learning a tiny bit of the technique could bring a big upgrade to the dan-maker.

    Almost acting like a devotional fanatic, Guan Wan-Shan quickly grabbed a purple jade bottle and put the first Pei-Yuan Dan bead into it. Followed by the second Pei-Yuan Dan bead entering a second bottle, the third one in another bottle… and then the fourth…

    “Fifteen in total!”

    Guan Wan-Shan was utterly shocked by the number.

    Although Ye Xiao had mentioned it, Guan Wan-Shan still had a hard time believing this man in front of him, especially after he had confirmed the quality of the dan beads that even released the legendary dan cloud. It could be said that to even create one of these at a time in a sealed furnace would be a matter of unbelievable luck. But, it was obvious to him that the fifteen were produced from the same furnace at the same time, and they actually all had the same legendary quality!

    “This… Brother Feng!” Guan Wan-Shan turned around, looked at Ye Xiao like a ravenous wolf and said eagerly, “Brother Feng, these dan beads were so outstanding. Make a price! These dan beads, no matter what price you make, we will take them!”

    “Master Guan…”The governor standing beside them was greatly startled.“WTF! He must have gone crazy…” He thought.

    Normally, as the connoisseur of the salesroom, even if he had confirmed the facticity of the dan beads, at least he should have depreciated it, declined it a little and then taken it with feigned difficulty. This was his known tactic to greatly lower the price required to acquire new items for the auction.

    However, now that he had said this… it was so far beyond outstanding that they would take it regardless of the astronomical costs.

    If Ye Xiao made a sky-high price…What was he supposed to do about it?!

    “Heh heh, these dan beads, I’m not interested in selling them.” Ye Xiao glanced at the governor with a mocking smile, “Master Guan, you really do have some exceptional capabilities. With such spirit, heh heh, you must have achieved great heights.”

    Guan Wan-Shan understood the hint and hurriedly turned around and shouted, “Get out! Not even a single word about today should leak out! If there is any information that leaks outside, you can forget about your puny life!”

    The governor quickly gave Master Guan his word, before quickly making his way out, wiping large beads of sweat off of his forehead.

    He might not know anything about the grades of dan, but even he had realised the seriousness of this situation.

    Guan Wan-Shan turned to Ye Xiao and said with an embarrassed smile, “Sorry. My underlings are underbred. They don’t understand the rareness of these legendary dan beads… Please forgive them with your lenience.”

    Ye Xiao nodded lightly.

    Guan Wan-Shan clearly knew the meaning behind Ye Xiao’s words: If he tried to force down the price of such supreme dan beads like he dealt with some ordinary thing… then, Ye Xiao might feel sullen and just leave, leaving him empty handed losing this three-generations worth of good fortune.

    An opportunity like this one… Over ten generations of his family had done auction appreciating, yet it wasn’t until now that such a valuable item had appeared in their auction house!

    Besides, if he were to lie about his opinion, he would feel like he was desecrating the legendary dan beads this man had brought; for such high-quality dan beads, even if he had intentionally tried to force down the price, he would have very likely offended all the dan-makers in the world at the same time!

    Once it spread out that he had done such a vile thing, his reputation would be ruined – people might say, “You had actually dared to force down the price of the legendary dan beads that even produced an actual dan cloud?! Then what about those ordinary dan beads which were in your possession? Would you expect to be given money for taking those?!”

    “Brother Feng, you just said that you don’t want to sell… What do you mean? What plan do you have? Please, could you say it out, please!” Guan Wan-Shan asked humbly, and then immediately called for tea, “The good one. The best tea…”

    “My plan is simple. I just want some treasures in exchange for these dan beads.” Ye Xiao said honestly, “And you must have realized that I haven’t produced these dan beads myself. The production of these dan beads is far beyond my capabilities.”

    Guan Wan-Shan looked at him as thoughts quickly rushed through his head, “Hmm, he doesn’t have any traces of firing on his hands, any traces of gentle and mass roasting on his face or the unique smell of a dan-maker on his body…” He nodded and nearly said something offensive, “I dare you to… Eh-hem… Brother Feng you are being humble…”

    Instantly, he felt his face starting to burn and a dark red color quickly spread on his face. He had somehow managed to hold the second part of his sentence in his mouth, however, the half that he had already spoken out had such a clear meaning that even a fool could guess where it was going.

    Ye Xiao humphed, “It isn’t me who produced these dan beads… but, the dan-maker who was able to create such dan beads is unwilling to show up, let alone to be in contact with ordinary people in this mortal world…”

    What he meant was that master Guan could do all he wanted, he was simply not worthy to meet this legendary dan-maker.

    Guan Wan-Shan didn’t doubt these words at all; instead he comprehended tacitly and took it for granted, so he showed a humbler attitude, “Yes... Yes. Yes. Such an expert must absolutely be absorbed in his dan-making cultivation. He will never have some spare time on hand to get in touch with us mortal people. Brother Feng what you say is very reasonable…”

    “Whenever we could get the favor from an honorable dan-making master, we would accept any proposal from him or her, no matter what was proposed. However, to exchange dan beads for treasures… This salesroom truly has never had such a case in our long history…” Guan Wan-Shan said, “Brother Feng, I am sure that you’re aware of the laws concerning trade in our Land of Han Yang. Everything has to be valuated with gold or silver and in every trade, the salesroom must give the government a fixed… expense as tax. It is not that I don’t want to make this deal, but…”

    Ye Xiao nodded. He understood.

    If they used treasures for exchange, how could the government take a percentage of the deal? What would the tax be in a scenario like this? Would it be equal to the value of a golden leave perhaps?

    Salesrooms were strictly overseen by the government, so they wouldn’t dare to make such deals.

    Once they did, they would lose their qualifications and, moreover, get prosecuted.

    Even though Guan Wan-Shan knew he would offend this legendary dan-maker and even though he wanted to do anything to make this deal work, under such circumstance, he had to think of those relying on him and turn this offer down!

    Ye Xiao muttered, “I understand your concern and difficulty… but, the senior dan-maker is eccentric. Gold and silver, he turns his nose up at them. If I go and tell him about your difficulty, the deal will certainly be canceled. I am afraid you will not be happy to see that happen!”

    —————
    [1] Keeping the casket and giving back the pearl: A Chinese idiom. It is an analogy meaning a lack of judgment and making the wrong decisions. It also refers to people who attach more importance to the appearance than the inner beauty or the quality.
    *A jewelry dealer put his pearls in small caskets so as to make them look precious. The caskets were made of precious wood and luxuriously decorated with perfume and gemstones. A person was very fond of these exquisite and beautiful caskets and bought one. After paying the money, he opened the casket, took the pearl out and gave it back to the dealer. He then left with just the casket.*

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  13. #13
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    Chapter 12 - Lifting a stone to drop it on one's own foot


    Guan Wan-Shan comprehendingly said, “You are right. Of course I know that it is a great honor to be given this proposition by the master dan-maker… Hmm, look, can we figure out something… to do it diversified and indirectly. What do you think?”

    Ye Xiao frowned, “How diversified? How indirectly?”

    “The diversified and indirect way is actually not that complicated. We can pay you some money for the dan beads first, and then you use the money to attend the auction or just purchase the treasures… Isn’t this an easy way for both of us to achieve our goals?”

    Ye Xiao squinted at him and replied significantly, “What if we fail to get the treasures in the auction?”

    Guan Wan-Shan smiled bitterly, “Brother Feng, it seems you are well aware of the auctions… Alas, it is not all that easy these days. However, the treasures may be held on to tightly by different groups and the government has announced that some of them should be handed in, but since we can stand mighty in the capital, we surely have our secretive means… Otherwise, how can such a great amount of treasures from all over the world be gathered together?”

    Saying those words, Guan Wan-Shan gave an impression of being proud.

    Ye Xiao was slightly shocked and answered, “Since you say so, I can only trust you. But you know clearly about the quality of these dan beads from the master dan-maker and their value. Are there really that many treasures present over here? Besides, even if you manage to take out enough treasures this time; what about next time; or even the third time? I don’t think you want this deal to be one-off, right?!”

    All the while he was continuously racking his brains, “How many objects in total could there be regarded as treasures in this world? Could this salesroom actually possess such resources?”

    “I think that perhaps your opinion is slightly inaccurate. Stalactite and Starlight are of course treasures. Well, then ginseng and ganoderma [1]… are also treasures, aren’t they? Guan Wan-Shan said with confidence.

    “Urh…” Ye Xiao couldn’t help but to stare speechlessly at this old man.

    If some 10-year old ginseng could be considered a treasure… then the treasures in this world would be really uncountable…

    However, Ye Xiao didn’t expect getting a lot of top-level treasures all at once, just the more the better, and so, he agreed with Guan Wan-Shan, “What you are saying is reasonable. As for these dan beads… What price can you make for them?”

    Guan Wan-Shan smiled bitterly and said after muttering for a while, “For some ordinary Pei-Yuan Dan beads, we usually spend no more than 50 thousand silver bars for each… and then we sell them on the auctions. Anyway, although the dan beads you bring are also simple Pei-Yuan Dan, it has the sky-top quality! Of course they couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath, so… Look, 500 thousand bars, for each, what do you think?”

    “Are these dan beads really that valuable?!” Ye Xiao was shocked and shouted out in his mind.

    But his face only showed a serious frown, and answered with an unassailable tone, “100 thousand silver bars, each!”

    Difficulty was clearly shown on Guan Wan-Shan’s face, “Brother Feng, for these Pei-Yuan Dan beads that were produced by your master dan-maker, which has reached the legendary grade 10, it is indeed worthy of 100 thousand silver bars. As a matter of fact, it could very well be even worth more… But, because these dan beads are really so precious, we will not sell them at the auction; instead, we will keep them… Heh heh, in our present financial situation, 1500 thousand silver bars… is quite beyond our budget…”

    Ye Xiao was impervious, “Lack of money? Well then you could buy less. Just take five of them. As for the other ten, you can sell them at the auction for me. No matter how much they are sold for, it all belongs to me.”

    Guan Wan-Shan was stunned,“This guy really has a rigorous way of doing things.”

    In customary cases of auctions, if one thing was not unique and even had over ten identical pieces, the final bid price would be reduced badly. After all when there were many identical treasures, the relation between demand and supply changed. For instance, an upper-level dan bead may be sold for a sky-high price, but if there were ten identical upper-level dan bead at the same time, no matter how precious they were, the price would decrease badly for sure.

    What Ye Xiao suggested — one for 100 thousand silver bars and fifteen for 1500 thousand silver bars was totally inconsistent with the trade principle in auctions!

    However, there were always exceptions; the supreme dan beads Ye Xiao had brought, was actually such an exception. Pei-Yuan Dan with sky-high quality had reached the limit of dan-making in the world. Even if there were more than 15 pieces, the price would never decrease even a bit — it would get higher instead!

    If the dan beads were truly on sale at the auction, the price would definitely go higher than 100 thousand silver bars. If Guan Wan-Shan wanted to buy them after the auction, it would be simply impossible with a budget of a mere 100 thousand bars of silver per dan bead. It was his luck that he could get five in advance now!

    “Fine, that’s it then.” Guan Wan-Shan gnashed and promised.

    He knew clearly whoever could take out these supreme dan beads was no ordinary person. He believed that as long as this guy was satisfied, there would be more opportunities like this in the future.

    But if he wasn’t satisfied, he wouldn’t get another opportunity.

    When Ye Xiao walked into the salesroom, he only had a few grams of silver on him. Yet when he left the salesroom, he got a note for 500 thousand silver bars!

    He had become a multimillionaire by simply walking in, dumping some ‘low quality’ dan beads, and leaving the building!

    Guan Wan-Shan had amiably offered him a Skyline VIP Card, yet he had rejected it without hesitation.

    “I will come back here for more business, however, I do not wish to be tied down here by such a simple card. Do I require a card to prove my status around
    here?”

    Looking at Ye Xiao’s back, Guan Wan-Shan looked grave.

    “… ‘don’t want to be tied up’… He really doesn’t want it?!” Guan Wan-Shan was shocked.

    “He really is a smart guy.” As a sharp-sighted man, how could he not realise what Ye Xiao had truly meant?

    He didn’t want a VIP plate, because he was a freewheeling and unfettered man.

    A VIP card might be a symbol of one’s status and showed his value, but it was also a binding — once Ye Xiao got a card like this, the next time he wished to attend a salesroom, he’d be obligated to come back to this salesroom.

    That was an invisible constraint.

    Apparently Ye Xiao didn’t like that.

    From within the shadows a figure suddenly quietly approached Master Guan, “Master, do we need to tail this guy?”

    “No.” Guan Wan-Shan showed a serious face, “This guy… he is absolutely someone we can not mess around with. If we displease him, even if we kill him, we will lose the connection with the supreme dan-maker and face serious retributions… Inform the head office first and we’ll deal with him later.”

    “Yes, master… Well, about the auction…”

    “Delay!” Guan Wan-Shan waved his hand and replied firmly, “There were a few herbs that were enough to be the main selling points. But now, compared to these supreme dan beads, they are far from enough. Make an announcement now. The auction will be delayed by ten days. Inform the head office about these supreme dan beads and ask them for a plan. We will follow their lead.”

    “Yes, master.”

    Ye Xiao had left the salesroom and made his way through a couple of back alleys before he returned to one of the larger streets. He had regained the appearance of a young handsome lord. His appearance, demeanor, stature and temperament… were all changed.

    The tall, strong and ugly Feng Zhi-Ling was gone.

    “The auction is tomorrow…” Ye Xiao was thinking, “With these 500 thousand silver bars, I can at least buy some treasures, right? Besides, I saw the jade ruyi… I need to make sure Zuo Wu-Ji gets it. Otherwise if he retracts the deal…”

    Ye Xiao was expecting the auction to proceed smoothly, but he was unaware of the actions of master Guan who had delayed the auction.

    And he, who wanted the auction to be smooth the most, was actually the main culprit for the delay...

    Nothing happened on his way home. Ye Xiao practiced some martial arts after he got home, before he started reading. After all, he had understood this mortal world through the memories of the departed Ye Xiao but they were imperfect. It would be better for him to read more about this mortal world, so he would have an easier time settling in.

    When the night was about to come, the guard appeared in front of Ye Xiao and informed him, “Lord Lan and Lord Zuo have come together. They are here to meet you, my lord.”

    “Why did they come together?” Ye Xiao was surprised.

    “Fxxk! Fxxk fxxk fxxk…” Zuo Wu-Ji hadn’t entered the room yet, but his shouts were already clearly resounding inside the mansion.

    Lan Lang-Lang’s voice also came with a depressed tone, “The Ling-Bao Salesroom is playing us apparently…”

    “What happened? Why are you both so angry?” Ye Xiao looked at both of them while frowning with confusion.

    “I don’t want to talk about it!” Zuo Wu-Ji sighed deeply, and then sat on the chair, “The bloody auction is delayed! Fxxk…”

    For Zuo Wu-Ji, who wished for nothing more than to restore his reputation in his family by regaining the possession of a jade ruyi, every minute felt like a year!

    He had finally gotten his hand on enough money to buy the jade ruyi and all he had to do was bid on the jade ruyi at the auction… But the auction had actually been delayed!

    When he heard about the delay, he had nearly spit out blood, because the miserable life he was living recently had to continue for at least another ten days!

    “I don’t want to live anymore… I can’t live with it anymore…” Zuo Wu-Ji was crying without shedding any tears.

    “Delay? Why is it delayed?” Ye Xiao opened his eye wide.

    It was no good news for him either. The sooner the auction was held, the earlier he’d get some treasures. Which in turn could let him learn more about the sphere in his mind and the space within it and cultivate to a higher realm sooner.

    “There is a goddamn moron!” Lan Lang-Lang sighed, “At this important moment, he actually took out a few supreme dan beads… With such precious items, how could the salesroom not delay the auction to make advertisements for the beads? Several days are absolutely not enough to advertise it! Ten days is actually rushed, if we think of the situation… Gosh, what a shame. I have heard that a cool-steel sword is on sale at the auction. I was planning to get it as soon as possible. Now I need to wait for another ten days. Fxxk that bloody moron…”

    “Urh…Just because of some supreme dan beads… It is delayed?” Ye Xiao was slack-jawed.

    Isn’t it like lifting a stone to drop it on one’s own foot?

    _________________


    [1] Ganoderma: A genus of polypore mushrooms that grow on wood, and they include about 80 species, many from tropical regions.

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  14. #14
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    Chapter 13 - Bored? Let’s Go Make Some Trouble!


    The reason why Ye Xiao tried to earn some money quickly was so that he could buy some treasures at the auction to feed the spiritual space. He had successfully obtained the money, but now the auction was delayed....

    Ten days was not a very long time, but the problem was that, Ye Xiao couldn’t wait any longer. Not even one more day!

    “By the way, how is the robbery case... you know, of your house?” Ye Xiao was feeling depressed so he changed the topic to ask about what he was interested in most at the moment.

    Zuo Wu-Ji’s grandfather Mr Zuo, the father of the minister, had searched in every nook and cranny of the capital, Chen-Xing City, several times. Now the whole city had a dense mist of nervousness hanging over it and now, even the most insignificant of sounds could instill the greatest of fears in the hearts of the residents. The public security had even become unprecedentedly tight - thanks to Zuo Wu-Ji’s grandfather.

    “Skip it!” Zuo Wu-Ji looked pale, “That night I was nearly killed. My grandfather came back home and found that most of his collection had been stolen which had made him furious! These days there is no one in the house that dares to speak out loud…”

    Ye Xiao said modestly, “It seems that your grandfather must have lost something extremely valuable in that robbery…”

    “Apparently so…” Zuo Wu-Ji sighed, “I haven’t seen my grandpa this angry since I was a baby… Now the whole city has been thrown upside down because of my family and yet my grandpa still isn’t willing to let it go…”

    Ye Xiao replied with an ‘oh’ before asking thoughtfully, “Well then, did your grandpa specify which was the most valuable piece amongst the stolen treasures?”

    “Who would dare to ask him in his current condition?” Zuo Wu-Ji shouted, feeling wronged, “At the time I had only said one word, but I got immediately beaten several times…”

    Lan Lang-Lang showed deep interests, “What exactly did you say?”

    “Nothing special… I just said ‘be off with the old and move on with the new. Don’t worry grandpa’ …” Zuo Wu-Ji felt like weeping but was lacking tears, “Then he had suddenly entered a frenzy and shouted, ‘You damn black sheep! It is this damn attitude of yours with which you steal every valuable thing in this house and exchange them for prostitutes and alcohol’ … then he gave me a beating!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji spoke sadly, “Tell me, what have I done wrong? I said those words only to comfort him, and yet I got mercilessly beaten. Did I really doom myself to a thrashing?”

    “Eh-hem, hemm…” Ye Xiao started to cough loudly in an attempt to conceal the laughter that was boiling up inside of him.

    “Arhahahahah..whooppahaha...” Lan Lang-Lang didn’t even try to cover up his laughter; instead he laughed gloatingly.

    Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji had become extremely bored due to the auction being delayed, so they had come over to see Ye Xiao. Zuo Wu-Ji had always been hostile towards Ye Xiao - they disliked each other. However, this had all changed after the ‘great favor’ from Ye Xiao. He had even started to consider Ye Xiao to be a true friend, and so, he had come over to Ye Xiao with Lan Lang-Lang to complain about the auction and their boredom and perhaps to score a free meal from Ye Xiao.

    Ye Xiao smiled and looked through the window at the dark night sky as he lightly said, “The robbery… maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing for your clan… There is an old saying which says that luck and misfortune come in turns… Maybe, for the loss you have suffered today it will be repaid a thousand times in the future…”

    Ye Xiao spoke very slowly. It seemed like what he was saying had some obscure meanings.

    Zuo Wu-Ji sighed. He didn’t know what Ye Xiao had really meant. He didn’t understand that it was actually a precious promise. He could only feel bad about his own misery at the moment, “Alas, don’t talk about making it up…Right now I become scared enough to piss every time I see my grandpa … I’d better fix my own issues first. The bloody auction, how could they fxxking delay it? The bloody moron with his supreme dan beads. If I get a chance to meet him… I promise, I will tear him into a million shreds…”

    He let out another sigh which was filled with endless sadness.

    “Oh I see why you two have come here. The auction is delayed and you guys are slowly dying due to boredom, right? So you are here to seek some amusement from me, right?” Ye Xiao looked at them with amusement.

    The delay of the auction had been troubling him as well, even more so, after finding out that he had become the reason for this delay.

    Besides… Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji could complain about it out loud while he couldn’t say a word about it!

    And they were even calling him a moron right to his face. He really felt like giving these two in front of him an asswhooping. Though he found it extremely painful to tolerate their trash talking, he still had to!

    “Heh heh heh… Oh right, I know of a freakish occurrence which might interest you, brother Ye. Do you remember the Shan-Hua House?” Zuo Wu-Ji asked.

    “Hmm?” Ye Xiao’s eyes turned cold with chilliness emanating from them.

    How could he forget the place where he - or should we say the departed Ye Xiao - got poisoned: the brothel Shan-Hua House.

    “Ninety-eight people in Shan-Hua House were all killed. Everyone in that house is dead, no survivors.” Zuo Wu-Ji sighed regretfully, “I was going to have some fun there during this rough time, you know, with those pretty chicks. When I got there, all I saw were rotting corpses. That was really disappointing… It is a pity about those pretty gals…”

    “What? All dead?” Ye Xiao frowned tightly.

    “All dead.” Zuo Wu-Ji nodded, “And… according to the signs on their bodies, they must have died several days ago. The government are terribly distracted because of the robbery, to even miss so many dead bodies.”

    “Oh.” Ye Xiao felt relieved and thought, “They’ve been dead for several days, so the murder has nothing to do with the robbery. It seems that... right after I was poisoned when I was struggling to survive, these people in Shan-Hua House had already been killed. Everyone in that brothel had been taken care of, eliminating any possible clue!”

    The man who planned this murder is truly wicked and merciless!

    “Zuo Wu-Ji, do you know the identity of Shan-Hua House’s owner?” Ye Xiao probed, “The whole house was wiped out and still the owner had not yet shown up?”

    Zuo Wu-Ji scratched his head and said, “Well this is a tough question for me. I am not so sure to be honest… However, it is said that the house is related to Wan Xiao-nian, but… there is no basis for these claims.”

    “Wang Xiao-Nian?” Ye Xiao said with half-closed eyes, “That’s… The son of Wang Da-Nian, the personal guard of the crown prince, the leader of the guards in the Crown Prince’s Palace, right?”

    “Yes, that’s him.” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled, “This bastard Wang Xiao-Nian was boasting a few days ago that his father had received a hundreds-years old top-quality blood ginseng, which was to be used to improve his strength. It is said that that ginseng can make a man reach the upper-level cultivation and become an expert cultivator in just one night… Fxxk that! The bastard is really boasting. I hate every bit of him! Well, at the end of the day, the murders at the brothel have nothing to do with us. We just lost a nice place to enjoy ourselves…”

    “Enjoy? Is your disease cured?” He looked at Zuo Wu-Ji sportively. The ‘hundreds-years old quality blood ginseng’ had lit up Ye Xiao’s eyes.

    Zuo Wu-Ji turned red-faced and shouted, “Ye Xiao! Don’t force me to fight against you!” He had forgotten what he had said about the blood ginseng instantly.

    Lan Lang-Lang almost split his sides due to laughing vigorously and caused his hat to nearly fall off his favus infested head . He grinned, “Oh can’t we say the truth about you any more? You went to the brothel time to time and how many times did you fxxk a girl? Is there any time you are not the one being fxxked? hahahaha.... There are six prostitutes sworn brother and sister with you, and I heard that you are the youngest? Lord Zuo, you are actually very well-known as the famous Gal No.7…”

    “Fxxking bastard!” Hearing the word ‘Gal No.7’, Zuo Wu-Ji turned into a raging beast. He rushed forward to hold Lan Lang-Lang and gave him punches and kicks, while Lan Lang-Lang was laughing and got into a clinch with him.

    As a matter of fact, though Zuo Wu-Ji had a foppish personality, he had an inborn disease, which was unspeakable. Eh-hem. Well… he couldn’t do that thing - you know. Normally it was something a man would never tell, but the foppish and prodigal lord Zuo was liberal to face such defect. It was really something strange…

    After the horseplay, Zuo Wu-Ji felt sad and sighed, “The auction is delayed, but I heard that these supreme dan beads are something better than the best, with quality higher than the highest… If only I could get my hand on one of them during the auction...:”

    Lan Lang-Lang showed disdain, “Come on, dear lord Zuo. Forget about that, will you? With our wealth, we can just afford one for sure, but… the question is there is no way we have the chance to win the bid. Those noble-blooded guys will fight until bleeding their fists.”

    Zuo Wu-Ji nodded and sighed.

    The three of them were called ‘the three lords in town’ like they had a splendid title, however, compared with those lads truly born with noble blood, they couldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence.

    The noble clans were able to function alongside each other peacefully, because they made sure not to touch each other’s businesses.

    But they disliked each other for sure.

    Among the three clans, the clan of Zuo was somehow stronger than the other two - the clan of Lan and the clan of Ye. Zuo Wu-Ji had elder brothers and he was substantially given up by the clan because of his disease. Ye Xiao was the only son of the Ye clan, while Lan Lang-Lang was also the only son of the Lan clan…

    “The real noble clans…” Lan Lang-Lang sighed.

    “While the royal court has existed for a hundred years, the clans have existed for thousands upon thousands of years…” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled, “Our clans are far from those noble clans. To be able to compare ourselves with the true noble clans, we will need to prosper for at least another century…” He shook his head helplessly.

    “What noble clan has a foppish black sheep like you?” Lan Lang-Lang disdainfully said.

    “Oh, so you think you are better than me?” Zuo Wu-Ji glared at him.

    It looked like the very next moment would be the start of a fight.

    Ye Xiao felt an agitation, he had never felt before, awaken deep down within his bones.

    “Stop! Shut up both of you. This is my house ok? Get somewhere else to fight… Hmm, well if you are really that bored, why don’t we go make some trouble for Wang Xiao-Nian?” Ye Xiao smiled and thought, “The blood ginseng shouldn’t be wasted in some mortal’s hand right? I wouldn’t think anything of it if I don’t know about it, but I do know now. So I shall not let such thing escape my hands…”

    Wang Xiao-Nian was somehow related to the poison after all…

    “Sure!” Zuo Wu-Ji and Lan Lang-Lang were both meddlers. They both raised their hands and got excited when hearing the suggestion.


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    Chapter 14 - I Was Poisoned. So What?

    As of this moment, the disturbance in the capital showed no signs of settling. The city contained more than a thousand gangs of various sizes, big and small. But none of them were brave enough to make careless moves, for all of them were truly scared of being annihilated.

    The forces of Zuo Xiang Fu had blocked the four gates of the city and had searched the most crime infested areas within the city. They began to act out against the gangs while shouting out a phony slogan: Fight against the criminals; bring back the peace!

    They made detailed investigations against each and every gang.

    Those who used to play the bullies on the street were now forced to face the music.

    A big suspicion crept into every resident’s mind:Just what on earth was stolen from the house of the Minister Zuo? Several days have passed and they are actually still continuing with the investigation!

    At the same time, news of two other great events was quickly spreading throughout the kingdom of Chen!

    The first was about the killer group Tu-Tian Group, which was feared as the most mysterious and deadliest group. They suddenly suffered a surprise raid causing many of their top killers to be eliminated.

    Their secret hideout, on which their existence depended on, was no longer a mystery. Once a killer exposed both his name and face to the public, he would become the public enemy number one. Nobody knew the identity of the person who spilled the secrets of the Tu Tian Group to the world.

    Now that it was known where the Tu Tian Group could be found, all people with prior grudges set out to take this group out.

    They were like rats crossing the street!

    The head of Tu-Tian Group - the No. 1 mysterious killer in the world, Ning Bi-Luo, had luckily fought his way out of the siege and left his stronghold. He had completely vanished from the face of the earth.

    The second was… of course, about the emergence of the supreme dan beads!

    The Ling-Bao Hall Salesroom was gonna sell the supreme dan at the next auction which was about to take place!

    Pei-Yuan Dan was absolutely nothing of high value for the martial sects in this world. It was useful to a certain degree, but only at the starting stages of cultivation. Once a person had become an expert cultivator, Pei-Yuan Dan beads would become practically useless to him!

    However, conventional logic could not be applied in the case of these Pei-Yuan Dan beads! Although it was the lowest-grade dan, once it produced the dan cloud, it was definitely something from legends!

    These legendary dan beads were something that all dan makers in the world would covet!

    If a dan-maker could study it, it could at least boost his dan-making skills into a higher grade!

    And dan-making was actually the basic foundation of every martial sect! Every sect wants to strengthen their foundations.

    Therefore all the martial sects made their decisions at once: to send their finest men to the capital. They gave such orders without any hesitation: to try their best to acquire the supreme dan no matter what cost!

    To ensure that they were not duped, every martial sect had sent an experienced dan-maker!

    They didn’t know how many of these legendary dan beads were going to be auctioned. What if there was just one?

    Supreme dan with dan cloud was always something from the legends. How would these martial sects dare expect there could be more than one? So when they heard about the good news, they were all thrilled but also filled with caution. Every martial sect spared no effort to fight for it!

    While Zuo Xiang Fu was still ‘hunting for the criminals’ all over the capital, all the mysterious martial sects and noble clans started showing up. The whole capital was quickly turning extremely chaotic!

    Every force in the world had the same target: Chen-Xing City, the capital of the Chen Kingdom!

    Qing-Yun Sect, Cang-Shan Sect, Ling-Yun Sect, Zi-Yu Sect, An-Ning Sect, Wu-Liang Sect…One could go on for hours!

    All these superior martial sects started making preparations in advance for this once in a lifetime auction. Even those long-white-bearded old elders who hadn’t shown their faces for many years were slowly reappearing.

    Ye Xiao could never have imagined that on the day when he casually used some movements and was mistaken for Ning Bi-Luo, he had actually caused the destruction to a top assassins guild in the Kingdom of Chen.

    And he could never have imagined that just by revealing some dan beads, he had caused a massive sensation in the mortal world. He was simply trying to earn some money and get some high quality treasures so that he could go faster in his road of cultivation. If he had known that the beads would receive such worldwide attention, he would have done something low-pitched instead…

    In his previous life, he had grown up in the higher-level world of Qing-Yun Realm and had never visited the mortal world, and so, he wouldn’t have guessed that even the cheapest dan could actually cause such a large scale disturbance!

    He had been lacking the funds to achieve his goals, so he had casually taken out the supreme dan beads to deal with this issue.

    He had accidentally caused tidal waves of trouble to wash over these lands. He had, however, no clue about all these events currently taking place all around the Kingdom of Chen, as he was leisurely enjoying himself in the capital…

    ……

    At this moment Ye Xiao was in Wang Xiao-Nian’s house looking to create some trouble.

    Wang Xiao-Nian felt the pressure emitted by these three foppish lords pressing him down, making it hard for him to breath or even to stand up straight. They were creating trouble for him and the young lord Wang couldn’t handle it, so he had secretly sent for his father.

    “Wang Xiao-Nian, be honest! That night in Shan-Hua House, was it you who poisoned me?” Ye Xiao stared at Wang Xiao-Nian fiercely.

    “Yes! It was you who poisoned Ye Xiao! I am the witness!” Lan Lang-Lang always desired to stir up trouble, so when he heard Ye Xiao’s ‘powerful’ pretext, he jumped right in. He didn’t care if it was true or not, he just wanted to make some trouble here…

    “You bastard actually dared to poison my brother. How dare you!” Zuo Wu-Ji shouted cheerfully.

    In the two foppish lads’ minds, getting poisoned was absolutely something made up by Ye Xiao. They wouldn’t have known that it was the truth. Anyway, they just wanted to add fuel to the fire and at least make Wang Xiao-Nian sweat.

    Ye Xiao was also showing a face like he was just setting him up with some fake excuses. It became harder for Wang Xiao-Nian to tell right from left as what was true started to seem false and what was false started to seem like the truth.

    Wang Xiao-Nian’s face turned pale, “Ye Xiao… you...you… Don’t speak nonsense! When did I poison you? You… You can’t just set me up like this!”

    “I was there and it was obviously you who poisoned Ye Xiao! Your dirty tricks can never escape my eyes!” Lan Lang-Lang had his eyes wide open, “Otherwise how could Ye Xiao actually have gotten drunk after only a few glasses...”

    Wang Xiao-Nian’s face turned pale white and it looked like he would be spitting out blood any second now, “WHAT! Getting drunk too quickly equals... being poisoned?!”

    “Yes! Yes it is! So what?”

    “Wang Xiao-Nian you work this thing out today!”

    “Otherwise we will tear your house apart today...”

    The three lads were like monsters. They were importunately talking nonsense and running off their mouths. Apparently they were just looking for a bone in an egg [1]. Wang Xiao-Nian felt anxious, angry and wronged and he almost cried.

    What could he do anyway, facing the three most unreasonable men in the capital?

    Ye Xiao had actually been poisoned in the Shan-Hua House. That night, Wang Xiao-Nian had actually been hanging around with these three foppish lords. Besides, his father, Wang Da-Nian, actually had close connections with the Shan-Hua House…

    Due to these reasons, Ye Xiao suspected the Wang clan...

    The question was… Although Wang Xiao-Nian had never been a good person, would he really stoop to such a low level as to poison someone who attended the Shan-Hua House?

    Ye Xiao and the other two foppish lords were throwing random words out, pretending the truth to be a mere lie, leaving Wang Xiao-Nian desperately searching for a way out, as large beads of sweat were dripping down his face. They were showing the attitude which said: “Apparently we are pinching you, so what? Bite me!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji had the Minister Zuo in his family; Ye Xiao had the Northern General; Lan Lang-Lang had the Southern General. These three officers were truly someone Wang Xiao-Nian’s father could not afford to displease.

    In another word, if the three officers took a little action against him, he wouldn’t have a chance to get away even though he had a crown prince behind him… If the three clans fought together against the Wang clan, how could the crown prince offend three of the most influential figures in the government at the same time for a mere leader of the guards?

    “You are unscrupulous! How dare you poison me!” Ye Xiao looked fierce.

    “You are heartless! How dare you poison Ye Xiao! I am the witness! I saw it with my own eyes!” Lan Lang-Lang was thrilled and shouted.

    “You are perverse! You actually poisoned Ye Xiao!” Zuo Wu-Ji went along cheerfully.

    “You betrayed your family! You are worse than a beast! You are against the gods! You are horrific! You actually poisoned Ye Xiao!” Lan Lang-Lang spoke smoothly and actually came out with such sophisticated words. Words like these were something he wouldn’t be able to think of in normal circumstances… However, there was even a ‘you betrayed your family’ in it. It seemed like he had gone a little bit over the top…

    “I...I… I didn’t poison you… I did not… I don’t even know what poison it was…” By this time Wang Xiao-Nian was on the verge of crying. Suddenly, his father, Wang Da-Nian barged in.

    When he saw Ye Xiao standing right inside his house, his facial expression changed at once.

    The next moment when he heard the words ‘actually poisoned Ye Xiao’, he felt faint and nearly fell down the stairs. His face had turned extremely pale.

    These moves, that were obvious mistakes from a panicking person, were absolutely something that he, as the leader of the guards in the Crown Prince Palace, wasn’t supposed to make!

    Wang Da-Nian composed himself quickly and walked forward. Fawningly he said, “Oh, what an honor for me to have you three lords here. Honored guests! You lit up my humble house, really!” Then he turned to his son, “You rascal! We have the three lords here and you haven’t even prepared tea for them yet! Is this how I raised you, to ignore your guests like this?”

    In fact Ye Xiao had noticed Wang Da-Nian’s strange reaction earlier. The changes in his face and stumbling moves, Ye Xiao had seen them clearly. He quickly deduced the truth of this matter and sneered.

    “Dad…” Wang Xiao-Nian had been feeling depressed, but luckily his father had shown up now as his savior, “About that night, it was obvious that Ye Xiao was poor at alcohol and got drunk. Now he intentionally insists that I have poisoned him. He would have died long ago if he was truly poisoned. How could he be swaggering around here… He...He is obviously bullying me, isn’t he?

    “Poor at alcohol and got drunk?” Wang Da-Nian was confused.

    At this moment, his face was really strange - a face which could only be described as weird.

    Ye Xiao stepped forward and was slightly shaking his body. He stared at him and said loudly, “That night it was your son’s treat. He poisoned me! I need an explanation for that right away!”

    Lan Lang-Lang felt interested and stepped forward too, “That’s right! I saw it with my own eyes. I am the witness. Your son poisoned Ye Xiao! The evidence is conclusive! Do you still want to deny it?!”

    Wang Da-Nian spoke carefully, “Poison? If you don’t mind, lord Ye, would you care to tell me how my son poisoned you and what poison it was?!”

    …...



    -----------
    [1] A Chinese idiom. The phrase means trying deliberately to find a fault with someone or something faultless. The idiom is often used to describe someone who is very picky, who finds faults with others on purpose.


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  16. #16
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    Chapter 15 - Extortion


    “Are you questioning me? How the hell would I know how he poisoned me? As for what poison it was, honestly you should ask your baby boy. What the hell do I know about it? The only thing I know is that I am a heavy drinker with a hollow leg, and that night I got fxxking drunk after just three shots.” Ye Xiao said viciously, “I spent the whole night sleeping. What could I be if I wasn’t poisoned?!”

    “Urh…” Wang Da-Nian couldn’t believe him and said, “If you had been poisoned like you said, it should not have been this easy for you to recover, right? And now you are here, all fine and healthy. It means you were not poisoned. Right?”

    When Wang Xiao-Nian saw his father, he thought his savior had come. When he saw that his father totally lost his usual vigour, acting weird and arguing powerlessly, he seriously felt disappointed.

    How could he realize that Wang Da-Nian was seriously shocked.

    Wang Da-Nain was arguing with his mouth, but feeling different in his mind, “Who on earth cured him? Who was it? That should be incurable. How could it be cured? Who on earth knows how to deal with such powerful poison? This is so bloody weird…”

    “I did get poisoned anyway! I got drunk only for three shots. That’s the evidence. Lan Lang-Lang was there. He is the witness. There are both evidence and witness. How dare you disavow it?” Ye Xiao didn’t want to be reasonable at all, “I was poisoned and I want your explanation! Otherwise, let’s find someone to check my body. Ok, I will send for a royal doctor to check my body carefully. Let’s see how you continue feigning. Humph…”

    “That is surely unnecessary.” Wang Da-Nian was scared. He thought, “Although I don’t know who cured this bastard’s poison, which was supposed to be fxxking incurable. It may remain inside his body and if it is found out, I will go to hell… Ye Nan-Tian will definitely come and wipe my family out. This foppish bastard came here only to get some advantages. I think it will be fine if I give him some money and send him away.”

    “Hahahahaha…” Wang Da-Nian made the decision and laughed, “I see. Lord Ye drank too much that night…”

    “Who says I drank too much?” Ye Xiao was angry, “I was obviously poisoned!”

    “Fine… Fine… Let’s say you were poisoned.” Wang Da-Nian simpered, “Ok then, what ‘explanation’ would you like, lord Ye?”

    Ye Xiao was surprised and turned to Lan Lang-Lang, “What do we want?”

    Lan Lang-Lang was surprised too and couldn’t find anything to say. He rolled his eyes and swallowed, before sneakily kicking Zuo Wu Ji’s foot.

    Zuo Wu-Ji was rolling his eyes, trying to think of something he wanted, but failed. Ye Xiao suddenly frowned and murmured like he realized something, “Oh right… wasn’t there this six-hundred years old… hmm... what was it… hmm...”

    “Blood ginseng!” Zuo Wu-Ji suddenly remembered what they’d been discussing before coming here. He shouted excitingly, “Give the blood ginseng to Ye Xiao as compensation, otherwise we won’t let you get away from this!”

    “Exactly! You will not get away this time! Lord Ye was badly weakened because of your poison. He won’t recover unless he gets something nutritional!” Lan Lang-Lang was delighted and shouted spiritedly.

    “This is totally unfair!” Wang Xiao-Nian got really angry and his face turned red. He yelled, “You bastards! You actually want to extort our ginseng! You must be crazy! You are making a huge mistake bastards! I am going to…”

    His mouth was covered by his father before he finished speaking.

    “You are gonna do what?” Ye Xiao sneered, “You tried to kill me but failed and got caught. Now you want to deny your guilt. What? Do you even want to kill us all to cover your sin?! Wang Xiao-Nian, how dare you? You actually want to murder us! Are you trying to be a rebel?”

    Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji went along with him, “Wang Xiao-Nian, are you trying to be a rebel? We are witnesses!”

    Wang Xiao-Nian breathed heavily, “You… You bastards…” He could hardly utter a word.

    “Blood ginseng it is then!” Wang Da-Nian agreed immediately, “Since you, the three lords, want it, I can only submit and agree with your terms, but you must promise me one thing…”

    He was sad and angry, and he quavered, “I am only a low-position guard. I wouldn’t dare to argue with you three lords… But from this point onwards, please forget about this issue with the poison… I can bear it this time. It is nothing but spending some money to avert trouble. However… you should know that everyone has a temper and even a rabbit will bite if it is pissed…”

    “Dad!!!” Wang Xiao-Nian had shock covering his face, as he stared at his father with wide open eyes.

    He wouldn’t imagine that his strong father had actually submitted to the three foppish lords.

    “Shut up!” Wang Da-Nian shouted angrily.

    “A rabbit will bite… A rabbit… Hahahaha....” Lan Lang-Lang laughed and rubbed his favus infested head. On the opposite side Wang Da-Nian and his son turned red in their faces. They looked so angry, almost as if they wanted to swallow somebody.

    “Of course.” Ye Xiao pushed Lan Lang-Lang aside and said, “A wise man should not tease the weak. He who leaves some leeway, will always make new friends. We are not unprincipled…”

    Everyone felt sick about what Ye Xiao had said, including Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji. Their faces distorted and it looked like they were about to puke a mouthful of blood.

    Ye Xiao had extorted a six hundred years old ginseng by making trouble out of nothing and arguing irrationally… if that wasn’t the pinnacle of being unprincipled, then who in this world could possible be considered unprincipled?.

    “… Don’t worry about it. If your baby boy didn’t flaunt that he had a six hundred years old ginseng and that he would use it to boost his cultivation and beat us up… and most importantly, if he hadn’t poisoned me… as a noble-minded, knightly, gentle and brave gentleman, why would I make trouble for him? I usually will not even look at small fries like your son. And none of us three are interested in rabbits…” Ye Xiao talked like he was a sage with a lofty attitude…

    “I see.” Wang Da-Nian heard what Ye Xiao said and felt a slight sensation of relief forming in his stomach. He turned to his son and shouted, “Rascal! You were going about flaunting my riches! You truly are a black sheep! When will you finally let me be free of worries…”

    “…” Wang Xiao-Nian opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word. He felt that his blood had accumulated at his throat and he had great difficulty to keep it in his mouth and not spray it around the room.

    “Go get the ginseng and give it to lord Ye.” Wang Da-Nian sighed. He felt unwilling to give this rascal the ginseng. but he felt like he had no other choice, so he told his son to go fetch it.

    “Dad!!!” Wang Xiao-Nian shouted bitterly. But, when he saw Wang Da-Nian’s face turning green, he didn’t dare to disobey and walked to his room completely depressed. It looked like his soul had departed early from his body, leaving it to walk this earth soulless.

    “Lord Ye!” Wang Da-Nian took a deep breath, “Shall we get all of this over with already?”

    Ye Xiao smiled, “Sure. Absolutely. I am a tolerant man after all. I won’t bother with your stupid son anymore!”

    Wang Da-Nian felt relief, “Lord Ye, a man who can not be trusted is an unwelcome guest to any party. I hope you will keep your promise… But if you don’t… I might not be able to stand your behavior anymore.”

    “Haha, of course I will keep my promise. What am I? An honest man.” Ye Xiao said disdainfully and thought, “Keep my promise to you? In your dreams! Pooh…”

    Wang Xiao-Nian was returning from his room, moving extremely slowly, hoping a miracle to fly down from the heavens and save his precious ginseng. He was holding a small box as he walked through the door. Ye Xiao shouted, “Quick! Bring me my ginseng! Don’t dawdle! It is mine no matter how much you dawdle!”

    “Dad... I really didn’t poison him…” Wang Xiao-Nian looked at his father sincerely. He was trying to make his last effort to keep the ginseng. The blood ginseng was a crucial steppingstone on his long path of cultivation.

    Wang Xiao-Nian still didn’t understand why his father would give up such a valuable treasure and hand it over to the good for nothing foppish lord Ye. He, of course, couldn’t know what his father was thinking. So he had no clue that there was nothing he could do to change the current chain of events.

    Wang Da-Nian sighed and thought, “You silly boy. If it wasn’t for what I’ve done and the fact lord Ye is standing right here in front of me, how would I ever let them take our blood ginseng with such ease? They were only standing here making trouble out of nothing...”

    “Give it to lord Ye, son. Let’s admit our misfortune.” Wang Da-Nian waved his hand and said hopelessly. He was thinking, “I can’t afford it to be stubborn right now anyway. The poison… even it has really been cured... I know it will still need at least an entire year for it to completely leave his system. Ye Xiao is acting especially lively. That most likely means that he has a detoxifying expert helping him. Maybe Ye Xiao is a little bit muddleheaded, but that detoxifying expert behind him must have known what has happened. If I don’t give up now, I will only be putting a curse onto myself. I might even put the curse on my family or even on my entire bloodline. I will just let this bastard have this little advantage… I may have lost a simple blood ginseng, but now I’ve learned that Ye Xiao has actually survived the poison. It is not all bad!”

    Ye Xiao rushed forward and quickly grabbed the blood ginseng. He laughed and turned around to face Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji, “Let’s go!”

    The three foppish lords were leaving full of vigor and feeling completely refreshed.

    “Ye Xiao, I will never leave your side!” Wang Xiao-Nian shouted while trying to catch up.

    “Hahahaha… We will have a lot of time ahead of us to play these games! I am not afraid of rabbits, let alone biting rabbits!” Ye Xiao’s voice was coming from far down the street. They had already made quite a distance from the Wang family house.

    “Dad, Ye Xiao was obviously not poisoned! They were obviously here to extort us! They were only here to take the blood ginseng!” Wang Xiao-Nian felt like heaven was playing a trick on him and asked his father sadly, “Why did you…”

    “Shut up!” Wang Da-Nian’s face twitched and his eyes turned vicious. He breathed heavily and was about to say something but he stopped. Then he just said, “Stay at home. Don’t leave the house. I need to go somewhere.”

    Then he turned around and hurriedly left.

    At the same time, Ye Xiao was holding the blood ginseng with one hand and waving with the other, “Let’s go back to my place, let’s celebrate this victory with some drinks! My treat!!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji and Lan Lang-Lang were totally impressed, “Lord Ye, you have really extorted the ginseng! We could have never expected Wang Da-Nian to be such a pussy…”

    Ye Xiao’s mouth twitched upon hearing these words. He was thinking, “It is not because Wang Da-Nian is a pussy… Instead... it is because the departed lord Ye has sacrificed his life for this blood ginseng… I was just the lucky one to take it in his name…”


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  17. #17
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    Chapter 16 – The Dreams Of A Simple Dude

    Currently, the three lords were at Ye Xiao’s house, partaking a grand 3 person feast.

    On the table there were delicacies of every kind accompanied with fine liquor. It was surely a regular affair for the General Ye’s Residence to hold a small feast like this. Ye Xiao was in high spirits and he spoke a lot. The blood ginseng had already shriveled up even as it remained locked within the box. Its essence had already been absorbed into the space of the sphere, and was quietly being digested over there.

    The steward had silently entered the room and had stopped right besides Ye Xiao.

    “What is it?” Ye Xiao asked kindly.

    “Here’s the thing, my lord… After you left the Wang’s residence, Wang Da-Nian left at once,” the steward spoke carefully, “and headed for the Crown Prince’s Palace.”

    “Hmm?” Ye Xiao frowned and looked up at the steward.

    He wasn’t surprised that Wang Da-Nian would leave for the Crown Prince’s Palace, after all that is what he had tried to lead him into doing. What actually surprised him was how the steward had followed it up.

    The steward had actually thought of following the tracks and had apparently made preparations for it beforehand…

    That wasn’t something an ordinary person could or would do.

    “The steward… is actually not an ordinary person!” Thought Ye Xiao as he was staring at the man in front of him.

    The steward showed calmness under Ye Xiao’s eyes. He then spoke gently, “Excuse me.” He turned to the door and walked humbly and honestly like always.

    But Ye Xiao had changed his evaluation of the steward.

    The General,Ye Nan-Tian, was always out at war. The man he trusted to look after the house and be in charge in his absence, couldn’t be just some ordinary person.

    After finishing the food along with several drinks, Ye Xiao asked, “By the way, you know, the three of us are currently just fooling around everyday… May I ask the two of you about your plans for the future?”

    “Future? Plans?” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled and said, “What future can I have in my life? What plan can I have? I was fxxking gifted with infertility by the heavens. Having such a sickness is something a man will disclose, as it will only arouse mocking laughter from everyone around them. Somebody has already told the world about mine. The whole capital knows that the second son of the Minister Zuo has a disabled shaft! How can I hold my head up when I go outside? What is there for me to plan for? How can a loser like me expect to have any kind future? I will just waste away!”

    He had guzzled up three glasses of wine during the short time he had been speaking.

    Zuo Wu-Ji drank quickly. Heartrending sadness was expressed on his pretty face, “You know what. Now in those brothels, those girls who are not willing to go past simple performances like customers like me the most, because they know even if they are naked in front of me, there is nothing I can do… Ye Xiao, do you think there could be any kind of plan for people like me?”

    Ye Xiao sighed lightly. In fact he really felt sorry for Zuo, as any man could understand the suffering arising from lacking the functions of their lower regions.

    As he was collecting his thoughts, he suddenly remembered the existence of a dan in the Qing-Yun Realm, called the Male Recovery Dan. This dan was definitely not a high grade treasure– it barely qualified as a 5th grade dan. This grade 5 dan had only a single function though. Neither was it useful for cultivation nor could it save one's life, but when it came to revitalizing one’s infertility, this dan was the answer. In other words, it was a superior invigorant.

    The Xiao Monarch, of course, wouldn’t care about this kind of dan. However, for some average cultivators, especially those lewd ones, this dan was absolutely worth every single penny.

    For people like Zuo Wu-Ji who were born with a slight defect between their legs, only a single dan bead would be required to accomplish a complete recovery.

    Moreover, since Zuo Wu-Ji’s physical condition was poor, if he ate one piece of the Male Recovery Dan, he would not only get rid of his infertility, but also improve his body strength!

    After all, a grade 5 dan in the Qing-Yun Realm would definitely be considered to be a legendary dan in the mortal world!

    After he thought for a while, Ye Xiao’s eyes lit up, “Don’t be so full of despair. Your sickness is not something which is incurable… Let’s assume you can get rid of your infertility problem. In such a scenario, what would you do?”

    Zuo Wu-Ji took a deep breath and said sadly, “I know that you are just comforting me, but this natural-born disease is absolutely incurable. I know it is an absurd hope but… if it can be cured, I hope…” his eyes suddenly lit up, “that I can become a well-known officer. I will stand besides the king and subjugate the whole world. I will be the one who stands only below the king but above all the others. I will leave my honor in history and be praised by every generation in the future! I will innovate the government and fight against the corruption within.”

    “I learn about politics day and night and I learn from everything I see. Any chance that I can find to learn or get experience in governing, I grab it with both of my hands. And then I will think about how to improve it, how to unite everyone, how to guide the country and how to be the best politician…”

    He smiled sadly, “It may sound ironic but... Everyday when I fool around with the two of you, I might look unambitious... But when you two are sleeping with some girls at night, I will sneak off and go home… I will read my books and collect my mind to calm myself down... Because when there is nothing to keep myself busy with... All that I can think of at that time is to commit suicide so that my mind can finally be set free…”

    Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang were completely silent.

    They had never thought that the number one black sheep of the capital, Zuo Wu-Ji, would actually possess such ambition and such dedication!

    “I know. No matter how hard I struggle, nothing will change… Stories of my natural born infertility have been spreading in the air for far too long… No matter what talent I might possess and how smart I might be, in the eyes of the king, I might only be considered as a eunuch. I can only be disgraced by the world and be made into a laughingstock.”

    Zuo Wu-Ji had by now guzzled up another three glasses. He smiled with self-mockery, “You know what. Except to pee, the thing between my legs is completely useless…”

    Hearing his self-mockery, Ye Xiao and Lan Lang-Lang couldn’t help but feeling depression quickly taking over the mood of the room.

    “Gal No.7, I was wrong.” Lan Lang-Lang said guiltily, “I won’t call you Gal No.7 anymore…”

    “You!” Zuo Wu-Ji stared at him while rage seemed to be boiling up inside of him, but he quickly stopped and said with a voice full of sorrow, “I always imagine that if I am cured someday, I will have four wives and be chased after by lots of pretty girls, and I will be the most romantic officer and a decorated loyalist! Haha, how is it? Isn’t my dream hilarious? Maybe my dream is too unrealisable. What a ridiculous wish!”

    Ye Xiao sighed and held Zuo Wu-Ji’s shoulder, “Have you never considered cultivating, so you can become an immortal? Travel around the world and rule over all your enemies with an iron fist?”

    Zuo Wu-Ji shook his head and said, “I am really not all that interested in those cultivators! No matter how powerful a cultivator becomes, all he does is fight and slaughter to obtain a few profits. An intellectual can devise strategies and preside the battle from thousands of miles away. One word, one decision, each of them can change the lives of every resident in the world for the better!”

    “That will be enough for me in my short life.” Zuo Wu-Ji said.

    Ye Xiao was shocked. During the conversation, he had found out that Zuo Wu-Ji had possessed a virtue – fortitude. In fact, Zuo Wu-Ji had always shown this virtue, but no one had ever cared enough to notice.

    A man who was born with a pair of disabled balls, was able to look straight at his own defects and bear with the endless mocking eyes and words. He could even overcome such challenges with an unabated dream! Ye Xiao didn’t think that he could do any better than Zuo Wu-Ji if he were to stand in his shoes - He might even opt to suicide to obtain total freedom, like Zuo Wu-Ji had said!

    “There are only things we can’t think of, but absolutely nothing we can't deal with. As long as you imagine bravely, there is always a chance to realise it.” Ye Xiao nodded and said gravely, “The pioneer and the unique, the most romantic politician who stands only below the king and upon the others in the history – handsome, strong, incorruptible and honorable lord Zuo!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji was about to get angry but stopped when he saw Ye Xiao’s serious face, then he asked doubtfully, “Are you actually serious right now?”

    “I do have an idea to cure your disease.” Ye Xiao spoke slowly.

    Even a man with fortitude would freak out. He had to comfort Zuo Wu-Ji first, because due to Zuo Wu-Ji’s present mental condition, he might lose his mind before he got to fully use the Male Recovery Dan.

    “What?! You?” Zuo Wu-Ji’s eyes lit up and his breath became heavy, like the sound of bellows being played.

    “I can cure you, really.” Ye Xiao said seriously, “Well… I am sadly not able to do so right at this moment. Your disease is beyond ordinary treatments. The special treatment that is required to restore your manhood takes time to prepare. Zuo Wu-Ji, if you trust me, wait for one year! In no more than one year, I promise you, I can man you up!”

    Zuo Wu-Ji looked at him with a serious expression plastered on his face, until he eventually smiled, “Absolutely! Deal! I will wait. I have been waiting for eighteen years. Why don’t I way for another year?”

    Lan Lang-Lang giggled, “Eighteen years… Good for you. So you have been thinking about girls since you were born? Admirable!”

    The three of them started laughing.

    “Er Lang [1], how about you?” Zuo Wu-Ji felt relieved, because he had finally been able to talk about the sorrow that had been hidden deep within his heart for many years. He had even made fun of Lan Lang-Lang - calling Lan Lang-Lang by his nickname, which he hated more than anything in this world.

    “Zuo Wu-Ji!” Lan Lang-Lang nearly exploded, “I am warning you one last time! Don’t call me Er Lang! You can call me brother Lan, or call me Lang! My life may be full of Lang, but there is absolutely no ‘Er’! I hate ‘Er’!”

    “Lang~~~” Ye Xiao and Zuo Wu-Ji burst out laughing and nearly fell off their seats.

    “Come on, Lang! Spit it out! What do you want to do?” Zuo Wu-Ji had decided to call him ‘Lang’ from now on.

    Lan Lang-Lang rubbed his head. He didn’t like the way this single word, Lang, sounded when it was pronounced with a low voice. He was, however, the one who had suggested it, so he had to bear with it.

    He then surprised the other two by declaring, “I have ten wishes.”

    “Number 1, to cure my favus infested head.” Lan Lang-Lang rubbed his head.

    Puff! Ye Xiao spit out the wine and Zuo Wu-Ji couldn’t stop laughing.

    “Number 2, my family will no longer restrain me in any way, so I can finally be free to do as I please.” Lan Lang-Lang ignored the laughter from the other two as he continued listing his whishes, “Number 3, I want to be so rich that even multiple warehouses become insufficient to store all my money in! Number 4, I don’t want to work for the government. I’m not interested in learning either martial arts or literature. Number 5, I want to have a beautiful wife. I don’t need three or four wives; a single thoughtful and beautiful one is enough. Number 6, my family will be healthy all their lives, peacefully dying once they have reached the threshold of 100 years of age. Number 7…”

    Lan Lang-Lang didn’t stop and listed out all his wishes. He had actually not been joking when he had said that he had 10 wishes. The last wish was, “… Number 10, we will be best friends forever. Like, even when we are eighty years old, we will still fool around together. Then when we eventually turn a 100 years old, we will finish our last dinner together before peacefully closing our eyes one last time… Together…”

    Lan Lang-Lang clicked his tongue and then said wishfully, “Such a great future. I feel delighted just thinking about it…”

    Ye Xiao and Zuo Wu-Ji were speechless.

    Although they knew that Lan Lang-Lang was cherishing their brotherhood, the words that had come out from his mouth were a little bit over the top for them! They were thinking, “WHAT?! What do you mean ‘closing our eyes one last time...Together’, you fool?!”



    ------------

    [1] Er: The pronunciation of the Chinese character “二”. It means the number two and double, it also means stupid.


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    Chapter 17 – The fruits of labor came to my bedside once again

    “How about you? What’s your plan?” Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji asked Ye Xiao in unison.

    Ye Xiao actually looked perplexed and seemingly lost for words, as his plan was totally different from theirs.

    “I… I want to be an expert cultivator.” Ye Xiao spoke seriously, “An invincible one.”

    “Hahahahaha… an expert cultivator?! Invincible?!” Zuo Wu-Ji and Lan Lang-Lang felt their legs go weak and their stomachs cried out in pain from their laughter. Tears were falling down their cheeks due to laughing excessively.

    The foppish and lazy lord Ye Xiao actually wanted to be an invincible expert cultivator. That was perhaps the biggest joke they’d had the pleasure of hearing in the entirety of their short lives.

    Ye Xiao was stunned, “Seriously? Is my plan that unbelievable?!”

    The two of them had had barely any time to recover from their previous outburst of laughter, before they felt their knees go weak again and the pain in their stomach resurface as laughter once more rang throughout general Ye’s manor.

    “Honestly, in everyone’s eyes we are just three foppish playboys. What dreams could we have? What decent future could we plan…” Lan Lang-Lang laughed, “This conversation is fine in here, where it can be kept private. Because if people outside heard of these dreams, they would definitely laugh their teeth off.”

    In fact, except for Ye Xiao, none of them would even dare to dream that the plans they were currently talking about, would all eventually turn into reality!

    Zuo Wu-Ji would hold the greatest political power – with which he would wield the scepter and dominate the world, while Lan Lang-Lang would become extremely wealthy and become an unrestricted aristocrat and Ye Xiao would become a supreme cultivator with unfathomable strength!

    Oh, however, Lang’s final dream - to finish their last dinner and then die together, would never materialize.



    “What is a foppish playboy?” Ye Xiao frowned and asked.

    These days he kept organizing his inherited memory and he realized that Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji were not some wicked lads like he had imagined. At least they had never done anything dirty, like bullying and oppressing innocent people. Maybe the biggest problem they had, was just being disappointing…

    But, should they be regarded as foppish playboys because of that?

    “Disappointing!” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled with self-mockery, “All those good lads are following the rules. They go to the colleges, seek their teachers and practise the way of martial arts. All they are fighting for are the honors of their clans and good reputations of themselves. They try their best to get into the government so that they can contribute for their clans, or become the leaders of their clans.”

    “People like us are regarded as losers that are useless and have no ambitions. We are only playboys and black sheep.” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled bitterly, “Normally in the wealthy clans, those who often go to the brothels and bully the innocents will be called the black sheep. But things are different in our clans…”

    “What makes us the black sheep is that we have no ambitions. Ambition means everything!” Lan Lang-Lang said sadly.

    “Urh.” Ye Xiao frowned, “What I hate most, is bullying!”

    “Aha, haha, ha! Well isn’t that exactly what you did to rob someone today?!” Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji laughed.

    After dinner, Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji walked to the door preparing to leave. Before they left, Lan Lang-Lang seemed to have a bright insight in his drunken state. He spoke to Zuo Wu-Ji, “Hey dude, so all these years… have you been showing us your disguise?”

    Zuo Wu-Ji smiled bitterly, “I have disguised myself for such a long time. Now the disguise has become my identity. I have been unable to tell if it is true or false.”

    They laughed again loudly and then left side by side.

    Ye Xiao stood at the door and felt blank.

    He felt touched by the conversation they’d had during their feast. How many people like them… were actually showing their real faces?

    Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji were not. But who was?

    Maybe the departed Ye Xiao… was actually a foppish playboy inside – so he died.

    In his prior life Ye Xiao had never seen things from this perspective - the point of view he has in this present life. He could clearly feel that it was a life lesson of outmost importance.

    He knew clearly that the way in which he perceived the world had such drastic changes, making him feel he was looking at the world through the eyes of someone else. Even so, the world he was living in and the realms that were in this world, were all still the exact same as they had been in his previous life.

    Ye Xiao smiled, “It is always in this world, no matter where I live. There are always roads, no matter where I stand. Where do we sing and laugh; where do we weep and cry? …”

    When he just finished the last word of the poem, Ye Xiao calmly entered the space of the sphere.

    Yet when he arrived inside, surprise quickly replaced the calmness on his face.

    The qi in the space was obviously heavier than before. There was some white qi mixed in there along with some purple qi. And there was another qi that was different from the original ones – a blood-color qi that was barely noticeable.

    That must be the qi from the essence of the blood ginseng.

    Besides, there was a smell of plants. It was a lively smell of life – the purest smell of nature.

    This natural smell was certainly brought by the blood ginseng too.

    Ye Xiao realized that the blood ginseng he brought was the first plant absorbed by the sphere, and it had contained the qi of life.

    He then walked along the purple tunnel and found that the qi here was heavier, just as he had expected. He took a deep breath and then felt relaxed and happy.

    He walked around for a moment and then prepared to get out for cultivating, but when he turned to the entrance, he suddenly felt that something was different. He quickly turned back and observed the room carefully, until he finally found it…

    The egg!

    It had become bigger!

    It was as big as a duck’s egg before, but now it had grown bigger still. It was at least as big as a goose’s egg now.

    “Oh? This thing could actually grow?” Ye Xiao was surprised, “It was truly an egg of a mythical creature. I haven’t seen any eggs that can actually grow…”

    That was truly his first time seeing something like this, even while counting both of his lives.

    Ye Xiao was certain that it was a mythical creature’s egg!

    Because the egg was really felt amazing and mysterious.

    Peerless lord in the world and foremost spirit in chaos!

    The sphere was very arrogant, so it must be something outstanding. The egg inside it with endless qi must be something beyond the ordinary. “It must be a top-grade mythical creature!” He thought.

    Since Ye Xiao had first come in contact with this egg, he had frequently been lost in thought. When would it finally hatch and what kind of creature would be born from it? He was even starting to dream about a creature so powerful that it could swallow the entire Qinq-Yun Realm with just a single gulp!

    He touched the egg and found it to be cold. But he couldn’t feel any rhythm of a living creature. He murmured, “You are such a powerful being. How powerful will you be? …”

    Ye Xiao was delighted. He left the space and sat cross-legged to cultivate so as to improve his strength. The qi in the space then went into his Jing and Mai like streams to assist his cultivation.

    Other than the qi from the sphere, the qi, that was scattered throughout the world, gathered around Ye Xiao to assist in his cultivation too. The path that the qi traversed was however invisible. Nobody, not even the expert cultivators, could sense the moves of the qi in the world. The purest qi was quietly absorbed by the space and then flowed into Ye Xiao’s Jing and Mai…

    When the world was built, the purple qi rose from the east!

    Another night had passed. At the moment when the sun shined its first light, Ye Xiao felt an indescribable throb!

    This was his first time that he truly performed the East-rising Purple Qi and felt the purple rising qi!

    At the moment, the sky lit up at once with sunshine. The next moment, his Ni-Wan Acupoint[1] suddenly beat, tak tak tak…

    His blood began to boil all at once!

    His hair suddenly stood up, pointing at the ceiling!

    In his Dantian, a wave of power that had stayed dormant suddenly rushed up… All the way toward his scalp!

    Boom! Bang!

    It felt like there was a wave of qi breaking through the top of his head. His entire body was filled with an indescribable feeling of relief!

    He felt that he was bathing in a bathtub filled with warm water, and the heat spread all over his body. He was experiencing all of these conditions at this moment.

    Ye Xiao mind was now completely blank and he couldn’t speak out a single word.

    Massive qi was breaking through in his body. Within his mind, he saw that there were stars dancing, three flowers blossoming and five streams flowing!

    Ye Xiao was quickly taken over by surprise.

    It was the sign of breaking through the first grade of the Grade of Diyuan!

    Could it be that he had already reached the second grade of the Grade of Diyuan?

    “That… It shouldn’t be. I just broke through the first grade of the East-rising Purple Qi several days ago and became an expert cultivator of the Grade of Diyuan. How did I improve myself by this much so quickly?

    This is insane!

    How can a six hundred years old blood ginseng have such efficacy?

    Although I have only used one blood ginseng - even if I had used ten, It couldn’t be possible for me to break through the first level of the Grade of Diyuan in such a short amount of time.” He thought.

    Ye Xiao recalled that when he reached the same level in his prior life, he had suffered immense pains, comparable to the feeling of his Jing and Mai melting. However, this time he felt really comfortable.

    That is so simple, so easy and so comfortable!

    Ye Xiao immediately began to execute the East-rising Purple Qi, and then he learnt that it was still only at the first grade, even though his normal cultivation had apparently possessed immense improvements!

    “Comparing the level system of cultivation and the level system of the East-rising Purple Qi… How big is the gap between them?” Ye Xiao could be regarded as an expert cultivator in this mortal world now, but he was still only at the first grade of the East-rising Purple Qi.

    Ye Xiao felt stunned when he thought of this.

    It was an extreme excitement that flowed through his veins, “If I improve my East-rising Purple Qi to the top grade, I will… Live forever... And become a legend, right?!


    ------------
    [1] Ni-Wan Acupoint: An acupoint on the crown of the head.

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  19. #19
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    Chapter 18 – Such A Small World

    When thinking about that, Ye Xiao felt his blood raging. He took a long and deep breath to calm the raging blood in his body. As he did, his eyes quickly became brighter.

    As of this moment, Ye Xiao was unaware of the East-rising Purple Qi’s power. Not just that, he also didn’t realize that when he would eventually reach the peak of the East-rising Purple Qi cultivation, he would become much more than a simple immortal existence. He would become an unparalleled legend!

    Right now, all that Ye Xiao knew was that the awful smell from before had returned and that he badly needed a bath to clean the filth covering him. His body was completely covered by a disgusting layer of brown sticky outer skin with big beads of sweat dripping in between. These were the impurities found in every simple human being and only once one started on their journey of cultivation could they expel them out of their body.

    This state of the body was something every cultivator wished to attain. It was the important ablution of muscles and bones, as he had successfully broken through the first level of the Grade of Diyuan and had entered the second grade!

    For the current Xiao Monarch, this was an absolutely outstanding accomplishment!

    He had already achieved two ablutions of his muscles and bones. To achieve just one ablution was an incredible achievement, but to actually achieve a second one, and in such a short time as well, was definitely unheard of!

    As Ye Xiao stood up, he felt the bones in his body crack. As he fully straightened his back, he realized that he had actually grown a little bit taller over the course of this single night.

    After Ye Xiao had properly cleaned his body from the disgusting filth in a nice and comfortable warm bath, he turned to look in a mirror and gasped in admiration for the image he perceived, “I am so bloody handsome! The girl I will eventually marry must definitely possess many generations of her family's good fortune…”

    Coincidently, the steward walked to the door and heard what Ye Xiao was saying. He nearly fell down because of that. Although he was usually a composed steward, at the moment, he couldn’t help but twist his mouth and shiver…

    “What the hell… I have traveled extensively for 30 years and gone through fire and water for 18 years. Even so I have never seen anybody that narcissistic…”

    “What a top wonder of the world!” He spoke straight out.

    “What top wonder of the world?” Ye Xiao was opening the door and happened to hear that, so he asked.

    He knew that even though he had gotten the memory from the dead Ye Xiao, he still had much to learn about this mortal world. He wouldn’t let go a chance to gain more information!

    “Hmm… Urh… Well…” The steward spoke slowly, “My lord, there were some supreme dan beads at the auction in the Ling-Bao Hall Salesroom. I was saying that those dan beads were truly a top wonder of the world.”

    “Supreme dan beads?” Ye Xiao curled his lip and thought, “Supreme dan bead he said. That’s nothing. It is just something I used to earn some money, you fool.”

    “My lord, I think it would better for you to stay at home these days.” The steward said seriously, “I have heard that the kingdom is extremely chaotic right now. All those martial sects including the mysterious ones and the noble clans are sending their core forces to the capital. The next few months in the capital will be filled with dangers…”

    He looked at Ye Xiao and had an opinion that he dared not to voice, but spoke in his mind instead, “A foppish young lord like you will easily be the target of their swords. Hmm, you are dead meat if you get into any trouble.”

    In the government and among the residents, people may be afraid of offending the General Ye, but those people who fought for living or came from some great sects or noble clans were fearless. They would easily kill anybody like crumpling a piece of paper…

    “How can I just stay here? I am going out now…” Ye Xiao frowned.

    “It would be better if you don’t.” The steward also frowned and said impatiently.

    All the clans in the capital were recalling their fighters from the frontlines. All the young lords were forbidden to go out by their families. Every clan was preparing to receive these sects…

    At this time, if Ye Xiao walked out on the street, he would be like a bright lamp in a dark tunnel – a vivid target.

    Ye Xiao signed, “Don’t worry. I will keep myself inconspicuous…” He then pushed the door open and left.

    “Stay low, my lord.” The steward spoke and thought, “Oh my lord… please don’t get into any trouble…”

    “All right. Absolutely!” Ye Xiao loudly replied as he had already moved far away.

    Both of them didn’t know that Ye Xiao would neither keep away from trouble nor would he stay low, instead he was going to be the centerpiece of an earthshaking event!

    Ye Xiao was walking breezily on the streets. As he had the money now, he certainly was heading to the herbal medicine market. That was his most important goal at the moment.

    Above all, after having absorbed the blood ginseng into the sphere’s space, he had great confidence in the use of herbal medicine for this space. He couldn’t wait to get to the market.

    In Ye Xiao’s opinion, no matter if it was in the Qing-Yun Realm or the mortal world, cultivation was always the top priority!

    He was trying to keep his promise, so he stayed low all along and showed no curiosity towards anything. In fact he had no mood for trouble.

    As he got closer to the herbal medicine market, he sniffed a dense smell of the herbal medicine.

    Ye Xiao’s eyes lit up and he trotted over to the market with excitement.

    The market was on a street which was over six miles long and at least half of the stores in it were selling herbal medicine. The others were either clinics or stands that were selling medical equipment. Most of the people walking on this street were wearing fierce expressions.

    This street was the well-known Hui-Tian Street of the Chen-Xing City.

    In Hui-Tian Street, only herbs, medicine and medical equipments were sold.

    If you got hurt, got ill or got poisoned, you would either come here to find a cure or a doctor who could help you fight against death or you could simply die.

    Because if there was anything in this mortal world that could save you, it would be found in this Hui-Tian Street. If it wasn’t for sale here, you were almost certainly going to die…

    That was why this street was named the Hui-Tian Street. [1]

    Ye Xiao went in and out of one store after another. He had been spending money like running water to buy herbal medicines – and he had bought a lot. He wouldn’t hesitate since he had 500 thousand silver bars at his disposal.

    Ye Xiao was satisfied since he had bought several hundreds of years old ginsengs and other hundreds of years old herbal medicines.

    But those had already cost Ye Xiao more than 150 thousand silver bars.

    Nobody had noticed that every time after he had bought something, he kept discarding the purchases after walking a short distance. Because once these herbal medicines came in touch with his hands, their essences would be completely absorbed by the sphere’s space.

    These herbal medicines were far from superior treasures, but they had useful quantities of medicinal essence. They possessed quite a massive potency when gathered together.

    This time the space had just absorbed the most essential parts of them. Some of the herbal medicines had retained their appearances, but the essences within them were already absorbed completely. They had just become some useless shells…

    Ye Xiao did everything covertly. He kept a few bags in his hands so that people around him would think that he had never let his purchases out of his sight.

    But they didn’t know that these bags were replaced many times. And all the contents of the bags had become garbage.

    He travelled from north to south and then east to west. All the stores in the market thought that they finally had the chance to meet a heavy buyer that they had always been dreaming about.

    Nobody noticed that he was quietly throwing away everything he bought, spending his money like running water – this was quite a stealthy operation.

    When Ye Xiao was about to visit the last store, some guys walking toward the same store caught sight of him. Then one of them hurriedly moved to an alleyway to hide from Ye Xiao.

    This guy was actually Wang Xiao-Nian!

    His eyes were burning up with unquenchable hatred.

    He cursed in his mind,“Ye Xiao! You bloody son of a bxtch!The god must hate you so he gave me this opportunity! Your retribution is coming.”

    Beside him was a silk-robed youth who was followed by a small entourage. This youth was confused by Wang Xiao-Nian’s reaction, so he curiously asked, “Who is he?”

    “He is Ye Xiao!” Wang Xiao-Nian said, while gnashing his teeth.

    “That guy is Ye Xiao?” The silk-robed youth was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with a roman nose, fiery eyes and a strapping body. He frowned, “The blood ginseng that I gave your father as a gift, was extorted by him, right?”

    This youth had slightly overdone the deepness of his voice, creating a heavy tone that made people who heard his voice feel depressed.

    Wang Xiao-Nian took a deep breath, “That is him! It was this bloody foppish black sheep that bullied and extorted us, while relying on the name of his father!”

    “Hmm... It really is a small world. Don’t worry.” The silk-robed man had a murderous look in his eyes that was emanating a thick killing intent, “Quick, go away and hide yourself somewhere! Make sure no one can connect you with what’s going to happen!”

    He spoke slowly, “A gift from me is never something that can be robbed so easily. He who dares to rob me, must prepare to pay the price!”

    Wang Xiao-Nian was delighted, “That’s right!”

    Wang Xiao-Nian was clear about who this man was.

    That’s why he was so delighted!

    The name of this silk-robed man was Mu Cheng-Bai. He was the elder brother-in-law of the crown prince and he was from one of the well-known eight noble clans – the Mu clan.

    He had lived in the capital all his life. Even though he did not hold any official position, nobody dared to mess with him.

    Because he represented an extremely powerful force!

    The main reason the crown prince could have been crowned, was because of the support he received from this great noble clan.

    Mu Cheng-Bai had played an important role in choosing the next crown prince.

    A man like him wanted to assault Ye Xiao. It seemed that Ye Xiao would not find it easy to get away this time!

    ……


    [1] Hui-Tian Street: Hui-Tian is 回天 in Chinese. It means to save a desperate situation.


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    Chapter 19 – You think you’re unreasonable? Watch me!!

    Ye Xiao had nearly finished his shopping tour. He had just walked into the last store and was immediately attracted by a fluctuation in the surrounding qi, before he could even utter a word.

    He quickly follow the fluctuation of special qi and found out that it had originated from inside a dusty box sitting in a remote corner of the store.

    “What is that?” Ye Xiao asked as he pointed at the box, before nonchalantly picking it up.

    “Hmm… I have no idea. Well, to be honest, even our manager has no idea as to what it is. It may be just some weird weed, nothing of value really. The only strange thing about it is that it never withers. Although it has been in the box for a few years, it is still vividly green. Maybe it is useful in some way... But none of our staff really know...” The sales clerk answered honestly.

    Normally when a customer would ask about a specific good, they would be told that they had sharp eyes and that they had spotted a treasure, in an attempt to make a greater profit.

    But since the sales clerk was working in a store here for some time, he had developed a keen eye. He instantly guessed Ye Xiao’s status from the way he was dressed and how he acted, so he didn’t talk tall but decided to tell the truth instead. He knew it would be better losing the deal than getting into some trouble afterwards!

    The guy understood it clearly: A man like Ye Xiao could not be mentioned in the same sentence as some fools that he could casually mess around with.

    “Hmm? Since it is useless, why do you keep it?” Ye Xiao displayed calmness as he asked further questions while holding the box.

    “We had collected it several years ago… Well I have forgotten the details. Anyway, we haven’t been able to sell it, so we just keep it in the corner.” The salesclerk showed embarrassment and rubbed his head.

    Ye Xiao nodded, and then spoke carelessly, “I will take it. Give me the price.”

    He actually felt extreme happiness in his heart.

    He was thinking, “What ‘may be just some weird weeds’? What ‘isn’t something valuable’ and ‘always stays green’, you fool? How hilarious! It is the Heaven’s Cyan!”

    From a straw to a tree, it takes ten thousand years; to cook it into tea, he who drinks it could be led to heavens! <>

    The seedling of the Heaven’s Cyan grows by one inch every five hundred years. It takes ten thousand years to fully grow its roots and become a tree. In the last day of the ten thousand year period, the tree will grow rapidly from twenty inch sapling to a tree approximately a foot in diameter. After that it goes back to growing one inch per five hundred years again…

    Ten thousand years are only enough for it to grow one full cycle.

    It needs neither sunshine nor water, nor trials of winds and thunders. Seasons never influence it. It only needs a private space to automatically absorb the qi from the world which is present in the air.

    There weren’t many people that knew about the Heaven’s Cyan, yet Ye Xiao happened to know clearly about it. And he also knew the name of it when it had blossomed.

    The Tree of the Cultivating Tea!

    People at any cultivating level, even those at the top level of the Grade of Daoyuan like Ye Xiao was in his previous life, could boost their cultivating process with the Cultivating Tea

    Now in Ye Xiao’s discerning eyes, the Heaven’s Cyan in the box was over nine thousand years old. It needed only a short time to become a Tree of Cultivating Tea.

    How could he not be astounded when he saw such a treasure?

    It was a super valuable treasure that could hardly be found anywhere. In the Qing-Yun Realm, a pot of the Cultivating Tea was worth at least 100 thousand Golden Crystals! [1] The cost of an actual Tree of Cultivating Tea would be utterly inconceivable!

    After the Heaven’s Cyan transformed into the Tree of Cultivating Tea, it acquired the appearance of a normal tea tree that wouldn’t draw any eyes. One would be very lucky to be able to come across one and recognize it. So the best way to find the tree was to find it when it was still in its infancy and could be recognised with its always-green feature.

    However, even if somebody found it, it would still require an entire ten thousand years to complete a single cycle of growth and obtaining the tea leaves.

    Who on earth could live for ten thousand years?

    So the Tree of Cultivating Tea was very rare, even in the Qing-Yun Realm.

    Ye Xiao had been extreme lucky to see a five thousand years old Heaven’s Cyan, so he knew about this ‘weird weed’.

    He really couldn’t have imagined there was really an almost blossomed Heaven’s Cyan in this low-grade mortal world where it was quietly soaking in qi!

    Wasn’t it the pie in the sky?

    “You… You will take it?” The salesclerk blinked his eyes and felt that it was hard to comprehend why someone would like to buy such a weed, so he asked, “Well… It really isn’t priced yet… Do you really want it?”

    “How on earth would I know its worth?” The sales clerk thought.

    Ye Xiao casually took out a note worth 5 silver bars, “How about this? Is it enough for you?”

    “Yes… Yes…” The salesclerk was delighted. A weed for 5 silver bars, he felt like this was a small fortune for some weed.

    Meanwhile, a slow and heavy voice sounded instantly, “I will take it, for 50 silver bars.”

    A silk-robed man walked into the store with his hands clasped behind his back. It was Mu Chen-Bai!

    The salesclerk was stunned hearing his words. “A weed, which has been here for three years and nobody ever asked about it, now suddenly two customers want it and they are even raising the price!”

    “I am the one who saw it first.” Ye Xiao frowned and felt something was wrong. He thought, “This guy comes with strong hostility! But I barely know him. Who is he?”

    “Well you just offer your price. Since the deal is still uncertain, whoever gives the higher price surely gets it.” Mu Cheng-Bai said chillily.

    In fact, Mu Cheng-Bai had no idea about the contents inside the box. But that didn’t matter to him, he just did this to displease Ye Xiao.

    “The higher price you said? 500 silver bars then.” Ye Xiao curled his mouth and a cold light shone in his eyes.

    “5 thousand.” Mu Cheng-Bai held his arms behind his back and looked up.

    “50 thousand.” Ye Xiao narrowed his eyes.

    If someone who had known Ye Xiao well was present, he would have recognised that Ye Xiao was actually livid.

    “500 thousand then!” Mu Cheng-Bai moved his neck and smiled disdainful. He was here to provoke Ye Xiao, so he would do anything necessary. No matter what price Ye Xiao would say, he would follow it by ten times as much.

    He thought that in the capital there was no one really dared to ask for his money anyway. He doesn’t care what price he needed to offer, because the sales clerk would not really get his money.

    However, right after he spoke out his words, he felt his belly deform into a concave shape and experienced a sharp pain. WHOOSH! The next moment he flew away and a voice sounded in his ear, “Fxxk your five! Hundred! Thousand!!”

    Ye Xiao was really pissed and became violent. He thought, “Bastard how dare you mess with me, the Xiao Monarch?”

    He had no hesitation as he had viciously kicked Mu Cheng Bai in his stomach. This kick contained such force that Mu Cheng-Bai was kicked out of the door!

    He crashed through the portiere and flew out far into the street.

    What a spiffy kick!

    One moment he was still talking and in the very next moment, he suffered a crushing defeat!

    PUFF! Mu Cheng-Bai forcefully fell on the street, and coincidentally landed on a big basket of persimmons. Yellow pulps were now covering his body. But he couldn’t stop and rolled over causing the pulps to get into his mouth. His mouth was now stained with yellow pulp and people might now think that he was getting off that big basket as he finished eating those persimmons…

    Mu Cheng-Bai was quite a cultivator himself but he hadn’t thought that this girly foppish lord could actually surprise him with a kick. He got kicked completely unprepared. This ‘flight’ had made him really embarrassed.

    His guards were also stunned and were unable to take any action. In the blink of an eye that they saw their master flying out like a rocket.

    They were just going to hit Ye Xiao angrily, but unexpectedly, Ye Xiao was the one who had rushed out through the door, now completely furious.

    And then the angry words boomed outside the store in succession.

    “You dare! I will let you have it! You want to take it from me, huh? You actually… You actually… You prick…” Ye Xiao swore loudly. And Bam! Puff! Slap! He didn’t let up with the beating even while swearing.

    A moment before, he was thinking, “This prick clearly came to me to pick a fight. Then he must be either with Wang Da-Nian or the Crown Prince’s Palace. Or he is just some moron! Whoever he is, I am going to beat him up today! So what if he is a big shot?!”

    Then he kicked the man again before grabbing the box. He rushed in to leave the 5 silver bars note on the desk as payment for the weed. Then he got out on the street and stepped on the belly of Mu Cheng-Bai, and then he rained punches on him like raindrops in a storm.

    The first punch made Mu Cheng-Bai’s left eye black and the second one, the other. He just created a panda then the panda’s nose became red, and then his mouth turned black too…

    As the young generation of the eight noble clans, Mu Cheng-Bai was a cultivator of the Grade of Renyuan, although he was doing better in literature than martial arts. But he had no ability to react when Ye Xiao had kicked him. The primary qi in his dantian had dispersed due to it. Then he was lying on the floor in disgrace and failed to get up. He could offer no resistance at that moment.

    After that, before he realized anything, Ye Xiao had already ridden on him like riding a horse and punched him with the two fists like a jackhammer!

    “You…” Mu Cheng-Bai was only able to speak out one word before his mouth was punched by Ye Xiao. What he wanted to say was punched back into his throat.

    “Me? What about me! You asked for this you bastard!” Lord Ye was high-spirited and vigorous at the moment. He was showing his rascal specialty of ‘the three lords’ right in the crowded street.

    He represented the saying vividly– When reasoning didn’t work, actions of a scamp really helped…





    --------
    [1] Golden Crystal: The money in the Qing-Yun Realm.


    More Chap

    http://www.xianxiaworld.net/Realms-In-The-Firmament/

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