Firmament Sword

”So that’s how it is... Second Brother, did you... did you not have any inkling of this before?” Xu Luo’s voice was bitter. He watched Xu Jie nervously, afraid he might do something reckless.

”We were sleeping in the same bed. How could I not have noticed anything?” Xu Jie said, his face a mask of bitterness. ”I just thought I could truly move her, resolve all the conflicts in her heart. Who would have guessed... *Sigh*.”

”So now... your parents have gone to the Liu Family. What are you thinking?” Xu Luo asked.

”Hah, what can I think? I just have to accept my fate...” Xu Jie said.

Xu Luo looked at Xu Jie, puzzled. ’This isn’t the Second Brother I know. Absolutely not!’

Xu Jie clapped Xu Luo on the shoulder. ”Third Brother, you’re still young. There are some things you don’t understand. Xiaoyun is gone. If I don’t play along and see this act through, then my family... we’ll be completely disgraced.”

”It’s really good that you can see that.” Xu Luo let out a long breath of relief.

”By the way, Third Brother, do you have any... Elixirs that can increase my strength?” Xu Jie asked casually.

”Hm? Why?” Xu Luo’s guard went up again.

Xu Jie gave a wry smile. ”Xiaoyun is gone, and my mother wants me to marry a woman I don’t know at all, a woman I feel nothing for. Besides throwing myself into my cultivation, do you think there’s anything else for me to do?”

Xu Luo fell silent. He knew his second brother well. Before meeting Mo Yun, he’d never shown the slightest interest in the company of women.

You could even say he was naturally clueless and unresponsive when it came to women. It had worried their parents sick, especially his mother. She constantly fretted that her son would spend his entire life just forging iron, without ever thinking of carrying on the family line.

After Mo Yun came along, Xu Jie’s world became a little richer. But in truth, Xu Luo and the others all knew in their hearts that for the rest of his life, Second Brother would probably only ever love one woman: Mo Yun.

Silently, Xu Luo took out the book on Casting Skill, which looked as if it were cast from black iron. After a moment’s thought, he also took out the Jade Marrow Bottle, tipped out three pills, and said, ”These Elixirs... my brother and I got them from those Ancient Ruins. They’re called Blood Pills. A single one should be enough to grant a huge boost in strength. Take these three for now. This book is called Casting Skill. I’m not sure how valuable it really is. I had originally planned to give it to you as a wedding gift... Now, I’m giving it to you as a wedding gift anyway. No matter what, Second Brother... I hope you can pull yourself together!”

A look of delight crossed Xu Jie’s face as he took the Casting Skill book and the Blood Pills from Xu Luo. He first carefully stored the Blood Pills in a small jade vial. Then, he opened the book. After just a few glances, his breathing grew ragged. He looked at Xu Luo and said gravely, ”With this, I can forge a Divine Soldier!”

Just then, Little Fatty started knocking on the door. ”Second Brother, are you two done talking? Hurry up, it’s time to welcome the bride!”

”Coming!” Xu Jie replied in a low voice. He then gave Xu Luo a small smile. ”Third Brother, thank you!”

”We’re brothers. What’s the need for thanks?” Xu Luo said with a wry smile. ”You should get ready. Let’s go welcome the bride!”

”Alright!” Xu Jie’s voice trembled slightly, but he was doing his best to control his emotions.

Xu Luo sighed internally, but there was nothing he could do to help.

Xu Luo and Xu Jie came out of the room to find a group of people waiting anxiously.

Xu Luo looked at Little Fatty. ”They... really agreed?”

Little Fatty nodded. ”Seems so. Word came back telling us to get ready to go to the Liu Family to get the bride!”

”Wait!” A woman’s voice suddenly called out from outside. A figure in blue ran in quickly—it was Little Fatty’s fiancée, Lan Xin.

”Xin’Er, you’re only just getting back?” Little Fatty asked, looking at Lan Xin’s red-rimmed eyes. ”What’s wrong with you?”

Though everyone was heavy-hearted over what had happened with their second sister-in-law, no one was on the verge of sobbing uncontrollably.

Lan Xin held up a notebook in her hand and said through sobs, ”Sister Yun is so pitiful! Her heart was in constant torment, she was always struggling...”

With that, Lan Xin handed the notebook to Xu Jie. ”Second Brother, you should read it for yourself.”

Xu Jie silently took the notebook. He was very familiar with the handwriting inside—it was bold and flamboyant, powerful and grand, not at all like a woman’s script.

He remembered telling Mo Yun about it once: ”Just looking at your handwriting, anyone would assume you were a staunch and upright man.”

At the time, Mo Yun had sighed softly. ”I only hate that I wasn’t born a man!”

Thinking back now, all that had passed seemed like smoke and clouds, like a fleeting dream.

Little Fatty shot Lan Xin a glare and whispered, ”Why would you bring this out at a time like this? Aren’t you just trying to make things worse?”

Lan Xin looked aggrieved. ”What did I do?”

Little Fatty had no choice but to lean in and whisper the Xu Mansion’s current decision in her ear. Lan Xin’s eyes went wide. She looked at Little Fatty, her face full of self-reproach, and whispered, ”Then... then what do we do now?”

”Tough luck!” Little Fatty rolled his eyes.

Xu Jie silently looked at the sparsely filled notebook, turning the pages one by one.

”I was defeated. I wanted to end my broken life, but I couldn’t bear to face the subordinates who had already died for me.”

”Since childhood, I’ve had a high opinion of myself, often saying I only hated that I wasn’t a man. Only at the end did I realize my high self-regard was nothing but ignorant arrogance. I was far inferior even to a few scions of powerful families. I was schemed against time and time again, yet I was powerless.”

”I watched my subordinates dwindle day by day. The smiles on their faces vanished completely. My heart was bleeding. I hated myself, and I hated the people who schemed against me even more...”

”I’ve decided. I will lead my troops into Cangqiong. I will let everyone know that I, Mo Yun, am not a traitor! Though I was defeated, though I was abandoned by my country, I am still a person of Great Yan! I will absolutely not let Cangqiong have an easy time. I will make them pay the price they deserve!”

”The journey was arduous, our hiding precarious, yet the soldiers never complained. Zhou Bo even comforted me, saying, ’General, our luck is bound to turn!’ I actually know how Zhou Bo feels about me, but it’s impossible. In my eyes, he is only a capable commander, not a suitable match for me. If this hadn’t happened, perhaps I would have chosen a great, world-shaking hero! But now... my heart is filled only with desolation. I have a home I cannot go to and a country I cannot return to. My future? Do I even have a future?”

”Wei Ziting... This man is sinister and cunning, yet he approached me to cooperate. I’ve investigated; he truly does share a deep-seated grudge with the group that schemed against me. But I am his enemy, after all. Can he be trusted?”

”The new people who have joined me don’t give me a good feeling. They have too much of a bandit’s air about them, which I don’t like. But I have no choice. For now, I can only use them to get things done. They are local thugs, after all, and only care about personal gain... I also need to use them to contact Wei Ziting...”

”In the end, I was still schemed against. Wei Ziting is shameless and cunning. I had taken precautions, but I never expected him to mobilize so many troops to surround and kill my subordinates, to capture me... Zhou Bo fought his way out with his life on the line. Before he left, he told me he was going to seek help from the very people who schemed against me. I refused. How could I ask my enemies for help?”

”But Zhou Bo told me that if they refused, the worst that could happen was death. If we’re to die in a foreign land, does the method even matter? But if they actually agreed, it would be an opportunity to infiltrate the enemy’s inner circle. There would be plenty of chances for revenge in the future! I was still thinking that this was a complete joke. They wish they could kill every last one of us, so how could they possibly agree to something so absurd?”

”Even if the people who schemed against me are enemies with Wei Ziting, they are still people of Cangqiong!”

”I never expected Zhou Bo to actually succeed. It was only later that I found out that the person who had plotted against me the most viciously was actually in love with me. This... am I dreaming? I was drugged with an aphrodisiac by a villain. I only wanted to die, but I was saved. At that time, my only thought was to yield to the enemy for now, and then strike again when their guard was down!”

”He was too good to me... I’m pregnant...”

”What should I do?”

”What can I do?”

”Kill him? He is my man! Even though I hate him, hate him enough to want to tear him to pieces, he is completely sincere with me!”

”Our two nations are at war. Was what he did wrong? No. But am I wrong to hate him? He’s the one who put me in this situation... Shouldn’t I hate him?”

”I’m lost. I originally thought I could make a decision easily. But when I think of the child in my belly—that’s my child... and his! Only now do I understand that the feeling of being a mother is so blissful... Am I really going to end all of this with my own hands?”

”Today, he told me he wants to take me back to the Imperial Capital and marry me. I’m so conflicted. If we could spend our whole lives just here, in Xu Luo’s fiefdom, then maybe... But to go to the Imperial Capital? To meet his parents and the Emperor... I, Mo Yun, am a person of Great Yan, in life and in death! If I want to prove my innocence, I have no choice but to strike against those people!”

”He’s so happy. He said that marrying me is the greatest fortune of his life. I want to kill him. I want to kill his whole family. I want to kill the Emperor of Cangqiong... But if I really do it, if I take them all down with me, I will have failed my child. And if by some miracle I escape, how will I face my child in the future? What would I tell him? Am I supposed to tell him that his mother killed his father with her own hands?”

”I can’t decide. His mother doesn’t like me, but she hasn’t done anything to me. His father and the Emperor of Cangqiong have both expressed their admiration for me. Should I really go through with it?”

The further into the notebook he read, the messier the handwriting became. Xu Jie’s heart felt like a churning sea. The eyes of this man of iron, who almost never shed a tear, were now red.

”Xiaoyun, I never knew you had so much turmoil in your heart...” Xu Jie let out a long sigh and looked at the last few pages of the notebook.

”The wedding is tomorrow, but my heart is completely lost. I can’t bring myself to do it. I... I don’t think I love him. I think he’s the one who put me in this situation, so I should hate him... But my heart... why... why does it still hurt so much? So much that I can barely breathe?”

”I think I can feel the baby in my belly moving gently. Don’t they say it doesn’t move until five or six months? Why is he so restless? And why do I feel so happy when he moves?”

”The sky is getting light. In the end, I still can’t make this decision. Mo Yun... you truly are a cowardly woman...”

This was the last entry in the notebook. The paper was dotted with tear stains, and many of the words were blurred almost beyond recognition.

Xu Jie’s heart ached with a wrenching pain, as if someone were squeezing it tight.