Realms In The Firmament

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 quickly 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 sense a large wave of cultivators coming towards him.

And he was very near the place where the cultivators 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 have 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 another second 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 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 remnent 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 crystal’s hardness.

It felt even 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 an expert of cultivation, he 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 its 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 cultivators 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 menacing 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’s breath [2] had even torn the air apart.

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[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