Realms In The Firmament

Chapter 428: What Does Laugh [1] Mean?

”Of course it’s real…” Ye Xiao smiled. ”Right. Today is 8th July. Seven days later, it is 15th… I will make a Soul Restraint Dan bead by then, so that you can meet each other for the first time and open to each other your true hearts.”

First it was disappointment, and then it was despair, at last, it became a hopeful surprise. It filled up Zhao Pingtian’s heart. He quietly stood there while looking at Ye Xiao. He couldn’t believe this was real. He felt like he was going to explode the next moment.

He sat there with surprise in his eyes. Tears came out. The tough man, the killer king, acted like a child all of a sudden and started to sob.

After a while, he actually lied down on the table and cried out loud.

For how many years, his longing, his love, his regret, his waiting…

Finally, he had hope now!

He was like a traveller who was heavily loaded. He had been carrying heavy burden in his heart and could never put it down. No matter how tired and hurt he was, he never put it down. He just carried it and went on and on.

He had nothing to live for but still lived without love just because of the tiny hope that was brought by the moment when the Yin Fruit was absorbed by the body.

He had been struggling in desperation.

He cried so loud, like his organs were going to break down. While he was crying, he murmured, ”I was thinking that after I avenge my sect, I will follow Rou-Er to death because I have nothing to live for. The way to the netherworld is a long distance. How can I let her walk alone. However, time to time, when I dreamt about Rou-Er, she always told me that she was always with me…”

”Fifteen years ago, I met a fortuneteller. He said that we are living in different worlds. We shouldn’t have the chance to see each other again, but if we have faith, we may be able to… I know he was lying to me, but I have been living for this tiny hope, struggling in life… I… I… When I wanted to end my life, I thought about the fortuneteller’s words… I hoped that he wasn’t lying to me… Wooo… Today, I finally meet the chance… It turns out faith does give me hope!”

- Splat… -

His tears flowed down like a river hitting on the ground, making a pool of water.

A man should never cry, except when he is really sad!

Nobody would believe that the killer king would cry like this, like a kid that was wronged…

Ye Xiao truly understood Zhao Pingtian’s feeling.

Zhao Pingtian saw his beloved one’s dead body with his own eyes. He saw the grave with his own eyes. However, somebody told him that he would have a chance to meet her again! That was an unbelievable thing, wasn’t it?

Zhao Pingtian did believe it.

He even kept the faith on it, on this nearly impossible dream, and lived till this moment with desperation.

Zhao Pingtian was a killer king. He was a firm and persistent man. That fortuneteller actually could convince him at that moment. Even though Zhao Pingtian wanted to believe him in the first place, but that fortuneteller must be someone extraordinary.

”Brother Zhao, the fortuneteller. Do you remember who he is? He is so amazing. I don’t think he is not an ordinary figure!” Ye Xiao was curious.

”I don’t know him. Since that day, we have never met again.” Zhao Pingtian was confused.

Ye Xiao was surprised.

Ye Xiao thought that it should be a famous fortuneteller. Maybe he was someone like No. 1 fortuneteller in the world, with titles like ‘Iron Words’ or ‘Inerrant Prediction’, that someone who had shocked the entire Land of Han-Yang so everybody believed in him. Otherwise, how could he make Zhao Pingtian give up on killing himself. Unexpectedly, Zhao Pingtian didn’t even know that guy. How could he know anything about his background then?

”He just told me people called him Mister Destiny. He told me that if I have faith, I will meet her again. I have never seen him after. I once tried to look for him everywhere, but I got nothing… He seemed to have disappeared since then… completely…” Zhao Pingtian said with confusion, ”I don’t know why. He said so, and I just believed him. I told myself once that he was a liar, but deep inside my heart, I knew he wasn’t! Maybe I really wanted to believe what he said, but it is mostly about my instinct. My instinct told me he was telling the truth!”

”It is so strange. My instinct, well, my heart told me that if I have faith, there will be that day,” He added.

Ye Xiao was curious. [How could it be so strange? Is there really an inerrant prediction in the world?

Mister Destiny?

I have never heard that name in the Land of Han-Yang so far. If there truly is such a capable fortuneteller, he should be very famous in the world…

Who is this man? Where is he from?

How did he know there would be such a day?!]

”What… What did he exactly tell you?” Ye Xiao asked.

”I didn’t quite understand what he said back then. Now… I still feel that what he said is strange, but I believe in him deep inside me.”

Zhao Pingtian said, ”Mister Destiny told me this. Recent years in martial world, bones of the dead are everywhere; a clear conscience in your heart, a smiling monarch it leads you to; struggle for two lives, brightness in one life; one laugh at present life, the other at the road he comes; one laugh at the time, the other at the ancient; a couple will meet again, if only they have a laugh…”

Zhao Pingtian said while recalling what the man said. From every detail he remembered, he knew that he must be some outstanding figure who wouldn’t show up easily. He had successfully predicted what would happen at the present time. It must be a great fortune for Zhao Pingtian to meet that man in the pass. Zhao Pingtian was thinking maybe he missed something that could change his future, yet he didn’t realize Ye Xiao’s face had changed.

”The first four phrases, ‘Mister Destiny told me this. Recent years in martial world, bones of the dead everywhere; a clear conscience in your heart, a smiling monarch it leads you to’, I think it is talking about me, how I live in the martial world, killing people. Although I do not know what the ‘smiling monarch it leads you to’ means, I surely have clear conscience. For all these years, I am an assassin with principles. I never killed any innocent people. I am with clear conscience, and I am sure about it! Maybe that is the reason why I got to meet you, Feng Monarch, and you bring me hope. The ‘struggle for two lives’ must be talking about me and Rou-Er. Basically, we are both living a second life now… The next, ‘one laugh at present life, the other at the road he comes’, that is hard to explain. ‘A couple will meet again, if only they have a laugh.’ I have no idea what it is talking about… I just know that me and Rou-Er, we must be related to the word ‘laugh’ a lot. However, this laugh… What does it mean? Is it a person, an item, or something else? I truly don’t have a clue.”

…

[1] The Xiao in Ye Xiao’s name means laugh. Xiao Monarch could also be called the Laughing Monarch, like some of his techniques portray. One Laughter in Skyline, Laughing Eight Blast, and more in the future. Basically, the prediction points that Zhao Pingtian will be lead to the Laughing (Xiao) Monarch.