Realms In The Firmament

Chapter 30 – An Assassin At Night

“Erh?” Ye Xiao was shocked. When he opened his eyes, Su Ye-Yue was no longer around. He could only hear a shy voice, “Little Soya [1]! Let’s go! Let’s get out of the house of the man who speaks honeyed words…”

She had managed to escape from his clutches.

He heard the guards talk, but he couldn’t make out what they were talking about, and then they stopped.

“Yes of course… This has nothing to do with her… I never said that it did… (dialogue continued from chapter 29)” Ye Xiao rubbed his head and murmured, “Why did she suddenly become shy and run away… What’s wrong with her?”

He was confused and murmured, “Oh girls… Their thoughts are truly baffling…”

The steward came over in a hurry and noticed that Su Ye-Yue had left. He felt relieved and grabbed onto Ye Xiao’s arm, “My lord! People from the Mu clan have reached the entrance of the capital! They are now doing the blood sacrifice outside the south gate. It is said that… They are holding 77 white flags and 22 blood flags in total!”

Ye Xiao was confused, “Blood sacrifice? White flags? Blood flags? What the hell are those?”

The steward was in such a hurry that he stomped his foot out of frustration before answering, “You don’t know? It is a ‘ninety-nine’! The 77 white flags mean mourning and the 22 blood flags mean that they are unwilling to give up! There are 99 flags in total, and that means they will never consider any compromise! No matter how long it will take, they are unwilling to give up!”

Ye Xiao rolled his eyelids, “So what?”

Hearing Ye Xiao’s words, the steward became dumbfounded.

Ye Xiao stretched himself leisurely, “Time for bed… Words like ‘unwilling to give up’ sound really horrible. I am so scared and it makes me feel sleepy… I am so terrified… So I think I need to sleep so as to hide from reality.”

The steward was shocked as he watched his young master leave leisurely. He was rendered speechless and felt like there was a storm howling in his mind. When he was just considering forgetting about their relationship and beating Ye Xiao up, Ye Xiao had already closed the door in his face. After a while, snoring sounds resounded throughout the mansion…

“I am truly…” The steward couldn’t find words to complete this sentence. He was extremely worried but he couldn’t do a thing about it, so he finally stomped his feet on the floor and then left.

…

It was deep into the night.

The steward had stayed awake the entire time.

The capital was enshrouded in a tense atmosphere at this moment.

However, nobody knew that in a vast bamboo forest, there was a man with a clear sight quietly observing the capital.

It seemed that all the birds in the capital were arriving at this forest to set up their nests. The birds flew to the bamboo forest from all directions one after another. The silent bamboo forest had turned unusually noisy.

The man in white waved his hand quietly and those birds all gathered in the sky over his head.

They didn’t just keep flying. Instead, they stopped on his hand one after another. It was truly a marvelous spectacle. The birds left small wax beads in his hand one after another.

“Master, you should get some rest. Just let Xiu-Er and me do this job.” A girl in white walked over lightly and spoke softly.

“It’s better I do it myself when I am able to.” The man in white smiled softly, “Wan-Er, you two must be tired after all these years. You should relax sometimes. Don’t worry. Such an easy job won’t exhaust me. Besides, to do some works is a way for me to practice. It is good for me.”

Wan-Er smiled, “As long as you stay with us, we won’t feel tired. I understand that you want to practice more, but your legs… We are worried about you.”

The man in white smiled peacefully, “It is my unavoidable fate. Everything will be ok and I just need to get over it. This period of time is actually the perfect time for me to improve myself. It affects my ultimate mission which I have to complete in the future. Don’t worry. I will be fine. I have gotten over it long ago… really!”

“Ok.” Wan-Er replied with a sweet smile, and then she covered him in the pure white cotton cloak which she had brought.

As she was preparing to leave, the man in white spoke to her in a low voice, “Wan-Er, do you notice that the name ‘Ye Xiao’ sounds odd?”

“Odd?” Wan-Er frowned.

She thought that his question was weird. The word was especially weird – ‘odd’!

“You may not know about it. This name is very interesting.” The man in white smiled peacefully and spoke as if deep in his thoughts, “What a pity…”

His eyes slightly rolled up and he looked into the distant sky through the bamboo trees. After a long time, he sighed, “What a pity!”

“A pity?” Wan-Er was confused and her crystal-like eyes were wide-open.

But the man stopped his daydreaming so that he could read the information attentively.

“The first storm will soon reach the capital… And will also be the first storm of my life…” The man in white murmured, “Who could experience the storms of the world with me by my side?”

He looked really lonely, as if the loneliness was from extracted from the bottom of his heart. A sense of coldness had formed within him.

It was the kind of coldness felt when one was at the top of the world, a coldness that nobody else could withstand.

He said to Wan-Er, “Let the Nine Black-dressers [2] stay focussed on every movement in the General’s House. If something goes wrong, make sure they do any -and everything necessary!”

Wan-Er quickly agreed and left.

…

The city was meant to be bustling tonight.

A lot of people entered the Chen-Xing City through every entrance!

People from the martial sects, the unattached cultivators and the tyrants from everywhere were all quietly making their way to the city.

The security in the house of Ye was strengthened.

After the princess left, eight guards had arrived from the Palace of Hua-Yang. They’d joined the security group immediately after arrival.

The steward was well prepared. He had actually brought a bizarre knife with him.

The 36 blood guards felt surprised when they saw the knife. They looked at each other and found nothing to say. These guards, who usually expressed no emotions, were unexpectedly showing their excitement.

They hadn’t seen the God-Slayer’s Knife for so many years. This night… would certainly become an interesting night for them.

The night had fallen and the sky was at its darkest.

The whole capital was enshrouded by the darkness.

But the darkness tonight was different from the usual one. There was a depressing feeling contained inside it, which had quickly spread all over the capital.

Tonight, even the common people could sense the danger in the air. They all closed their windows and had gone to bed early.

The royal guards sensed it too, even though they had no idea what was actually going on. They paid more attentions tonight, like there were horrible enemies coming for them.

It was finally midnight.

It was silent in Ye Xiao’s room. The snoring had stopped. It seemed like he was deeply asleep.

The steward sighed and murmured, “He actually sleeps like he is dead. Oh my good lord. Should I say that you are unperturbed like an experienced general… or heartless like a hoodlum? Gosh…”

He truly felt that he was unable to see through this young lord’s heart.

The young lord was sometimes smart with personal control, but mostly he was just a foppish lad, a fool – a complete fool!

In the sky, the wind howled weirdly.

The steward stood on the roof of the house and saw some figures flying over.

The white belt on those figures’ waists were obvious, even dazzling in the dark.

The steward narrowed his eyes.

He felt the white color to be too dazzling.

The crown prince did stop the actions considering the fight for the throne, but he had allowed the Mu clan to deal with Ye Xiao independently. It actually became more troublesome for the Ye clan.

People from the Mu clan were obviously crazy. They didn’t care whether Ye Xiao was the true murderer or not. Neither did they care whether Ye Xiao had the capability to kill Mu Cheng-Bai or not.

They cared about nothing.

They simply wanted to kill Ye Xiao!

It was totally unreasonable.

What was even more unreasonable was that they were actually going through with it; they were actually trying to kill Ye Xiao tonight!

The steward was absolutely livid. And the people who were getting closer now had proven this fact. The Mu clan had been standing high above the masses for so long that they treated people like ants which they could kill freely without any consequences…

From each direction of the east, the south, the west and the north, there were two figures flying over, and they were about to step on the bounding wall of the General’s House.

The steward yelled, “Who are you? Halt, all of you! You are not allowed to violate the territory of the General’s House!”

A sneering laughter came from the west. A man in the west side said, “Where is the foppish lad? Tell him to come out and prepare for death! We will just think of this as a food taken at night.” Harsh laughter penetrated the General Ye’s house.

For the Mu clan, which was one of the eight noble clans, to fight against a general’s family was definitely an easy job. They didn’t have any respect for them at all.

These men might not be the main force of the Mu clan, because the Ye clan was not strong enough to warrant the use of their main force. But these men were more than strong enough to play the bullies in the capital.

The steward was furious and spoke with a cold voice, “You are here to have some food late at night, right? You have to know that the food in our place requires one to have strong teeth. It would be a shame if you guys get your teeth broken!”

The man replied with a sneer, “My teeth are steel-like. It is just a trivial Northern General’s House. What could be so tough that could break my teeth!” He waved his hand and shouted, “Go! Go get our food!”

“Yes!” The other seven men answered at the same time.

The next moment, the seven figures turned into seven sword lights. The lights suddenly flashed in the sky and flew fast into the house.

The steward’s pupils constricted at once and he shouted his orders, “Stop them!”

The 36 blood guards who had been waiting for a long time answered affirmatively to the steward and immediately prepared to fly up to start the sanguinary fight!

Their enemies were from the famous Mu clan. Although they were not the core force of the Mu clan, they were still extraordinary fighters. The steward and the guards really felt insecure about this battle, but none of them ever thought of backing off!

However, the next moment, everyone was stunned by what happened!

——

[1] Little Soya: It must be the name of Su Ye-Yue’s pet – it may be a dog or a cat.

[2] Nine Black-dressers: It seems there are nine men in black, and Hei-Jiu must be one of them.