Realms In The Firmament

”Look at it. The wound looks smooth, but his heart has been thoroughly broken. To make such a wound… I guess when he was attacked, he was totally off guard. When the sword stabbed into his heart, he finally realized it, but it was too late. The sword had pierced deep inside his heart and it crushed it. That caused this wound that sentenced him to death…”

Ye Xiao said.

”It’s certainly a surprise attack, isn’t it?” Han Bingxue argued.

”He must be off guard. His enemy attacked him in surprise. That’s the only way to cause such a wound…” Ye Xiao frowned and spoke to Han Bingxue, ”If your head isn’t full of dregs, you will figure out if this means a surprise attack.”

”Urh…” Han Bingxue was embarrassed.

[Boss, you really should show me a little bit respect. Why can’t you put it in a softer way!]

”I did get sneak attacked…” Grey Mountain Stranger weakly opened his eyes. His face looked better and he was more spirited now.

The three of them knew that it was a momentary recovery of consciousness before death. Ye Xiao’s dan bead had aroused his last bit of life energy. Only powerful supreme dan bead had such efficacy!

”She showed up in the face of my dead wife…” Guo Meng smiled bitterly. He looked at the sky with his blank eyes, murmuring, ”My wife has been dead… for thirteen years now…”

”I thought I was in a dream. In fact, even if it was a dream, I would love to stay in it and have a close look at her…”

”Heh, heh, heh…” He bitterly smiled. Blood kept running out from his mouth. ”When I saw her… I was shocked… I barely have a sober mind… I didn’t even know it when she stabbed me… I couldn’t feel any pain…”

”That’s good though… dying in someone who looks exactly like my wife. Even though it is a sneaky scheme, even though it was just a dream, I still… got to see her again…”

His eyes became fainter. He struggled to reach one hand to Ye Xiao, which had a ring on the finger. He said, ”Thanks for your dan bead. It gave me the chance to say my last word. This ring… is for you… If you are available, please bury me in Grey Mountain… I want to be buried with my wife…”

His head fell aside when he finished the last word. He died.

The famous Grey Mountain Stranger died.

Even though he was dead, his blank eyes still stared at Ye Xiao with entreaty. In that pair of blank eyes, there was no anger, grudge, nothing but only peace.

The last thing he wanted was to be buried with his beloved wife in Grey Mountain.

…

Xuan Bing and Han Bingxue were shocked by what Guo Meng just said. Apparently, they couldn’t understand it.

”How is that possible? He couldn’t recognize his own wife? His wife died thirteen years ago. This is so weird…”

”It is weird. Couldn’t he even tell the living from dead?” Han Bingxue frowned in confusion.

It was a good question.

”He shouldn’t be so insane. He was a level eight Dao Origin Stage cultivator. His mental status should be much stronger than that. How could he be distracted like that?” Xuan Bing frowned. She was confused too. ”What’s weirder is that… somebody attacked him and put him to death, but he didn’t feel angry or have a grudge at all. That is unreasonable…”

Unlike the other two, Ye Xiao understood what had happened when Guo Meng started to talk about how the killer looked like his wife.

He wasn’t more experienced than Xuan Bing and Han Bingxue since he just had seen it once. What happened to Xiao Mufei was exactly the same with Guo Meng. They both had longed for their beloved ones. That was why they didn’t regret to die in that situation. Maybe for them, the reunion with their beloved ones was much more important than many other things in their lives! They wouldn’t regret it!

Ye Xiao made a sigh.

That horrible secret organization was on the move again.

”It is a long story to explain this.” Ye Xiao took off the space ring from Guo Meng’s finger. He checked inside the ring and there wasn’t anything special. In the ring, there were not many materials, but all of them were in high quality.

What had drawn Ye Xiao’s attention were a few books. The books recorded Guo Meng’s experience on his martial art cultivation.

Normally, these books should be like some excellent martial art guidance from a powerful superior cultivator. They should be priceless for normal people, however, the three of them were all experienced cultivators who were or used to be the some of the greatest cultivators, so they didn’t really care about it. The books had no use for them.

There was a picture that was well maintained. On the picture, there was a lady, who had beautiful eyebrows, big smile on the face, and seemed staring at something. It was so well drawn as if she was alive in it.

”I guess this is Guo Meng’s wife.” Xuan Bing sounded sad. She said, ”Guo Meng… actually carried the picture of his wife with him no matter where he went. He was such an emotional and sensitive man…”

”I never knew this Grey Mountain Stranger was actually a man of love and affection. It is such a pity that I didn’t have the chance to be friends with him!” Han Bingxue sighed. He felt sorry for him too.

Ye Xiao didn’t hesitate. He put on a fire and burned Guo Meng’s body into ashes, and then put the ashes into a pot. The pot was kept in his own space ring afterwards.

Xuan Bing and Han Bingxue did help too. They just wanted to do something for this respectful Grey Mountain Stranger. When everything was done, they both sighed.

[No matter how powerful you were when you were alive, how you conquered the world, you would eventually become a pile of ashes. That’s all. In the end, you still needed somebody to handle your body. Otherwise, it will rot in the wild or maybe eaten by animals… You wouldn’t know…]

”Life in the martial world…” Han Bingxue seemed gloomy.

Guo Meng was not powerful enough to be one of the best cultivators. However, he had a resounding reputation, yet he died in this place, unknown to the world.

The life in the martial world was a life to the death. Now, another lost soul was gone!

”Let’s go. I’ll explain everything I know to you.”

Ye Xiao said.

…

When Ye Xiao told them all about the attack on Xiao Mufei and how he thought the two cases were related to each other, they were already dozens of miles away from where Guo Meng died. Xuan Bing and Han Bingxue were both shocked by what Ye Xiao said. They were astonished and angry at the same time.

”There is actually such an underbred thing!”

”Those people are doing something unacceptable, unforgivable, and heinous!”

…