Realms In The Firmament

“Well… I don’t believe in this fake information anyway. But why does everybody keep talking about it?”

“You bloody know nothing! That is the imperial’s trick to go against Ye Xiao”

“Oh wow… This young lord is truly unlucky. I am sure he doesn’t dare to kill a chicken. Now he has actually been set up for killing an expert cultivator. He becomes a murderer… heh heh… I really have no words to say about this obvious trap…”

“You know nothing! To kill someone, only an excuse is sufficient…”

“That’s right…”

“But what our prince is doing is truly a little bit over the top”

“Ya, I know…”

…

“Stop spreading nonsense! You mean Ye Xiao could actually kill Mu Cheng-Bai? How ridiculous!”

“That’s what people are saying…”

“A rumor is a rumor. Is your brain located in your ass? If we trust the ‘rumor’, what should we do about the ‘truth’? …You pig!”

…

“Did this ridiculous thing… actually happen? Ye Xiao killing Mu Cheng-Bai... You actually believe that? Hahahahahahaha…”

…

The rumor was spreading as fast as lightning all over the Chen-Xing City, and it kept on spreading further and further at an unimaginable pace!

This event suddenly became a joke everywhere in the capital.

The Crown Prince’s Palace had been preparing to take actions, but then they suddenly became muddled because of this unforeseen and overwhelming rumor!

“At the moment this rumor has caused quite a stir in the capital… If we insist on going for Ye Xiao at present, it will be difficult. I have a lot of misgivings about this.” A middle-aged counselor was sitting opposite the crown prince. He smiled bitterly, “Besides, I heard that the king is also paying attention to this event.”

The counselor’s words seemed to purposely hint towards a certain direction.

“My father is also paying attention…” The crown prince smiled and said lightly, “It seems that… there is a tricky and capable person in the General’s House who is pulling the strings. They stir up the public opinions and let us be trapped in the scruples… Interesting. Heh…”

“So, we have only two options.” The counselor calmly said.

“Go with the second one.” The crown prince didn’t even ask what the two options were and spoke decisively, “Follow the normal procedure. Let the ministry of penalty do the investigation… Try to reduce a big trouble into a small one, and a small one into nothing. At least make it look good at the official level… After all, we need to consider the reaction of General Ye. The first option is too uncompromising and we can’t do that!”

The counselor nodded, “Yes, your highness. I got it.”

That was right. The crown prince only ordered everything to look nice from the government’s perspective, but he didn’t mention anything about the involvement of clans or about the common folk.

Of course he didn’t need to consider about those two yet.

The counselor had left for a while and the crown prince was still sitting there quietly.

His eyes were flashing as he was murmuring, “Mortal? Mortal world? …”

And then he suddenly let out a chilling laugh, “The glory, splendor, wealth and rank in the mortal world are wonderful things that those boring guys will never understand! They only run after the so-called ultimate goal! Even if the mortal life is just an experience spanning a limited time, at least I will taste every bit of it. If you are not a fish, then how do you know what constitutes the enjoyment of fishes… How dare you talk such nonsense that we are nonentities…”

He stopped laughing and stood up, and then left with long strides.

…

Ye Xiao was sitting cross-legged and was feeling the East-rising Purple Qi silently circulate inside his body. It was a wonderful feeling that comforted him with each passing second, and he was truly enjoying it so much that he completely forgot about the passage of time and neglected to wake up.

One after another, strands of qi were entering his body through his skin.

When he thought about the time he killed Mu Cheng-Bai, he had mixed feelings.

He understood that under the present circumstances, killing Mu Cheng-Bai was really a stupid move, because a lot of people had seen him fight against Mu Cheng-Bai that day. They had witnessed it personally. It was absolutely impossible to wipe out the witnesses. He knew that he shouldn’t do it but he did it anyway. That meant that he had also put himself into a very dangerous situation.

But he had to do it. Even though he knew it was a bad idea, he still went for it!

Because he could feet that after being reborn in this body, the former owner’s personality and instincts was still influencing him.

And former Ye Xiao’s personality showed irresoluteness and cowardice.

He had no determination nor any sense of responsibility! All these foppish stupid young lords were in the same situation.

Ye Xiao even felt that, as of this moment, he was way inferior to his previous invincible self.

Occasionally, he even feels that, he is no longer a true cultivator.

He knew that he couldn’t let this situation escalate any further, so he used this opportunity to bring about a great danger for himself so as to arouse the instincts of his prior life.

He wanted to completely get rid of the impact of the former Ye Xiao!

So, although he knew that it wouldn’t do him any good, he still did it with decisiveness.

That was to revive his survival instincts in the face of extreme danger and to sharpen himself by overcoming these perilous situations!

While he was collecting his thoughts, the qi in his body suddenly started to boil, and then it gradually pulsed along towards his Jing and Mai. Ye Xiao didn’t dare to be careless, so he calmed his mind and restrained the pulses step by step. However the amount of qi going haywire was too much for him to possibly regulate, and he started to feel sick. Ye Xiao still worked very hard to perform the supreme spiritual method [2], but the longer he cultivated, the worse he felt. The qi in his body was refusing to calm down.

Ye Xiao was experienced in cultivating, and so, he remained calm in such a situation. The boiling qi, although hazardous, was also a fantastic opportunity. If he stopped the East-rising Purple Qi from rampaging, it would gradually slow down, would eventually clear away and the danger would pass. If he decided to bear with it, the possible benefits would definitely be tremendous. But if he succumbed to the boiling qi, his Jing and Mai would definitely be damaged.

If Ye Xiao followed the conventional knowledge about the principles of cultivation, he should have stopped cultivating the moment the qi in his body started to boil. However, at that moment, he suddenly felt inspired – actually, it was his intuition, that if he stopped now, he would miss out on a golden opportunity!

He had to choose between experience and intuition, and the Xiao Monarch decided to go with the latter!

He grinded his teeth and continued cultivating!

But it didn’t get better at all. Instead, he felt his dantian bulging, and was on the verge of exploding. If the continuous accumulation of qi inside his Jing and Mai continued, it would certainly explode!

Ye Xiao was terrified.

The current situation was beyond his knowledge. The result of this gamble was uncertain!

Did this mean that his intuition was wrong?!

But, just when he was about to consider stopping, the boiling qi in his dantian calmed down!

After a while, the boiling qi that settled suddenly flowed back towards his dantian. At the same time, an unbearable piercing pain coursed throughout his body. Ye Xia instantly blacked out after spitting out a mouthful of blood!

In an instant, everything in front of him was dyed red with blood!

The next moment, the rolling qi in his dantian oddly separated into two parts; one was red while the other was blue!

Ye Xiao realized that these were two types of qi with different attributes.

The red qi contained the power of scorching hot flames; it felt like it could incinerate everything. And the blue qi contained a power of intense coldness; it felt like it could freeze anything.

Were these two options for him to choose from?

One stayed while the other disappeared?

Or could they both coexist within him; one representing yin and the other, yang [1]?

Ye Xiao frowned; it was really a tough choice.

The power of the scorching red scorching qi was surely good, but the power of the blue gelid qi also had its own advantages.

Ye Xiao didn’t want to give up on either of them.

He thought about it for a while longer and finally decided to mainly cultivate the power of the blue gelid qi.

He was still in one of the realms under the same firmament as in his previous world. He was known for his scorching hot attacks in his previous life and he had even reincarnated in a body which shared the same name.

If he managed to draw the attention of the three factions and was identified as the Xiao Monarch, it would certainly result in his death, because he would never be able to resist them in his present condition. He should do everything in his power to prevent them from finding out about his identity as the late Xiao Monarch before he became strong enough to oppose them.

Basically, if a cultivator lost all his cultivation and had to rebuild it, he would choose to cultivate the method and attribute that he was familiar with; he would never choose to cultivate in another attribute, let alone a conflicting one.

Therefore, the ultra cold attribute was a perfect mask for Ye Xiao.

In fact, there was another reason why Ye Xiao chose to cultivate the gelid qi.

The East-rising Purple Qi actually held a pure yang attribute, but at the moment, it showed a completely contrary attribute. Due to the profoundness of the East-rising Purple Qi, Ye Xiao thought that this gelid qi must be something extraordinarily powerful.

With that, the decision was made. Ye Xiao tried transferring the power of the gelid qi. He had only just started to guide it, before it suddenly moved quickly to fill up his dantian!

Simultaneously, the red scorching qi also started to disappear from his body.

And then a wave of gelid qi rushed out from the dantian and ran through every inch of the Jing and Mai. Wherever this gelid qi spread, the originally mild qi was immediately replaced by the gelid qi!

While the attribute of the qi was switching, Ye Xiao actually felt his mind clear up like it never had before!

There were streams of the clear power running around each and every inch of his body.

Ye Xiao tried reaching a finger to tap on the chair nearby lightly.

A wave of frost suddenly burst out from his fingers and froze the chair until it cracked!

The power of the finger tap didn’t stop and the chill rapidly spread in the air.

Within the blink of an eye, the entire room turned into his own little ice cave.

However, the coldness brought by the gelid qi brought an incredible comfort to Ye Xiao. He didn’t feel cold; rather, he felt an endless pleasure surrounding him.

……………………………

[1]Yin and Yang : In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary. In this context, Yin represents the blue gelid qi, and Yang is used for the red scorching qi.

[2]Supreme spiritual method : method used to cultivate the East-rising Purple Qi.