Realms In The Firmament

Chapter 22 – Extreme Joy is followed by extreme Sorrow

Wang Xiao-Nian arrived home, feeling absolutely euphoric. He had predicted that Ye Xiao would definitely die this time.

“Humph! How dare you extort me! I just played a little trick and now you’re dead meat!”

Wang Xiao-Nian was skipping away in a completely happy mood. Wang Da-Nian noticed that his son was unusually buoyant and felt dumfounded. He kept on pestering his son about his improved mood, but Wang Xiao-Nian remained tight lipped.

Wang Xiao-Nian knew the seriousness of this event. If Ye Xiao had truly died... the Northern General would definitely create a massive tempest!

He knew that it would be in his best interest to remain silent for now!

He had restlessly spent the next two days anticipating the arrival of this good news. He had frequently daydreamed about the sorry figure of Ye Xiao’s dead bodyand whether Ye Xiao had figured out the culprit responsible for his demise.

Hmm...

Another day had passed, and Wang Xiao-Nian was still waiting for the news...

And the news finally came.

A messenger had arrived from the crown Prince’s Palace, “Supervisor Wang. The crown prince sends for your son. There are some questions for him.”

Wang Da-Nian felt flattered that the crown prince had actually sent for his son. He thought, “This... this must be the start of my son’s bright future.”

“Go. Speak well.” Wang Da-Nian urged his son, “This is your best chance. Do keep that in mind.”

Wang Xiao-Nian looked confused. He was thinking, “Why is it the crown prince who is contacting me? Why is it not Mu Cheng-Bai? What? Something doesn’t feel right...”

...

On the other side of the city, after killing Mu Cheng-Bai and his two guards, Ye Xiao had stayed at home for three days!

He was not trying to cover the murders nor was he afraid that people would figure it out.

When he had finally arrived back at home that day, he immediately jumped into the sphere. He had spend 350 thousand silver bars on treasures, so he couldn’t wait to see the amount of qi that would fill the space inside the sphere!

Ye Xiao was truly unable to contain himself..

However, when he finally got into the space, he was stunned by what he saw.

The amount of qi in the space had actually remained the same and its color showed no changes.

Well, there was a tiny difference – which was the appearance of a small amount of fog-like qi. That was all.

Ye Xiao took in a lungfull of the unchanged qi in the space and was rendered totally speechless.

“It shouldn’t be! The space totally changed by just absorbing one blood ginseng... Today it has absorbed a great amount of qi from all those herbal medicines. It may not be enough to expect an improvement in the quality, but there should at least be a change in quantity. How come nothing has changed at all?”

He was totally bewildered by what he saw!

It was true that it shouldn’t be like this. But what could have gone wrong?

Blink! Ye Xiao suddenly thought of something and rushed to the egg. Once he arrived and saw the egg, he turned furious.

He had found out the reason for his confusion.

Endless white qi was flowing into the egg like a rapid river and it was slowly growing bigger.

Ye Xiao was not only angry, but also shocked.

He saw that the egg was blowing up like a balloon. It was getting bigger and had increased its size from that of a goose egg to that of a small melon. Then it finally stopped growing, but still continued to absorb all the qi that was flowing inside this space.

The egg’s need for the qi wasn’t limited by its size.

Although the egg had stopped growing, its dim surface was getting brighter and brighter. It could be seen indistinctly that some mystical patterns were appearing on its surface.

“Damn it!” Ye Xiao couldn’t help cursing.

“I spent 350 thousands and got through such a rough day and all I got for my troubles is some food for this god damn egg! This greedy bastard has left nothing for me! And... And it actually stopped growing! That is simply a waste of my bloody energy and money!” Just a short while ago, he was fantasizing about the huge improvement of his cultivation level, but now he was really upset.

“How much more is needed to quench your thirst?” Ye Xiao rubbed his chin and felt completely depressed.

However, at least he felt satisfied for what happened today. Actually he even felt a bit rapturous. It was because of the acquisition of the Heaven’s Cyan!

Ye Xiao took out the box and thought, “If the egg dares to absorb my Heaven’s Cyan too, I would not care about what creature’s egg it is any more and smash it into many pieces before I eat it!”

He couldn’t help smiling when thinking about it and he murmured, “Bad egg... Bad egg... Everybody is saying that I am a bad egg. Now what I have here is the real bad... No kidding...”

When he opened the box, he sensed some joyfulness spreading through the environment of the space. The next moment, a strong force attacked the box.

BANNG! The box was crushed into pieces at once and the Heaven’s Cyan burst out of the box and flew into the air.

The Heaven’s Cyan was intact!

It was actually entirely absorbed!

Ye Xiao was totally stunned to see what just happened. Then he widened his eyes!

The space was twisting and the purple qi was swaying. Suddenly the space expanded. The purple qi then spread over and there it was – a brand new cyan space had appeared!

The cyan space then slowly moved adjacent to the first temple.

The accessorial space was about a dozen meters wide surrounded by white mist. And standing at its center was the Heaven’s Cyan.

It looked like the Heaven’s Cyan had always been there and that it wasn’t brought from somewhere else.

Everything had blended into a harmonious whole!

The next moment, a lot of white qi flowed towards the cyan space like a storm. The space was quickly filled up! And yet, the qi did not stop flowing into the Heaven’s Cyan!

All Ye Xiao could see was that the Heaven’s Cyan was quivering and some new leaves were growing one by one on it. Suddenly his vision turned black and the very next moment, when it returned, he was already outside of the sphere and back in his own room!

For a while, he was still shocked and lost in amazement!

It looked like the space could feed the Heaven’s Cyan!

Also the Heaven’s Cyan could be planted in the space safely!

That was to say that in a short time, Ye Xiao could have an inconsumable Tree of Cultivating Tea forever and carry it around!

Thinking of this, Ye Xiao started feeling better and quickly got through his depression. Infact, he had even started to feel euphoric.

He sat cross-legged and started cultivating!

“The sun is shining upon the sky. The purple qi rises for me.”

Ye Xiao performed the basic cultivation task nine hundred times daily.

He knew that his cultivation was still at a low grade and was still far from the point where the qi would fluently circulate within his inner body channels, automatically performing his cultivation. The only way for him to improve himself was through hard work!

Ye Xiao sat quietly and meditated.

He had no idea that the crown Prince’s Palace was now in a mess.

But even if he knew, he wouldn’t care at all!

...

Wang Xiao-Nian was brought to the crown Prince’s Palace. He felt that something must be wrong and his legs started to quiver.

When he got into the main house, he felt like his heart had stopped beating!

He felt extremely cold in his heart!

In the yard of the main house, three dead bodies were placed on the ground, covered in white sheets.

One of them had a deep sword-stab wound in the chest. It went through the body, from the chest to the back and it had left a large hole. The hands were lying aside. The sleeves of the robe were uncovered and there was a golden flower embroidered in each of the sleeves.

The golden flowers were so eye-catching.

Wang Xiao-Nian looked at the shiny golden flowers and nearly passed out.

It was not some ordinary flower. To Wang Xiao-Nian, it was the symbol of... Mu Cheng-Bai!

The day when they hung out together, Wang Xiao-Nian had seen Mu Cheng-Bai wearing this robe! He recognized the golden flowers on the sleeves at once.

“Mu Cheng-Bai is dead?” Wang Xiao-Nian almost freaked out.

For him, Mu Cheng-Bai was someone who could not be killed by anyone!

The crown prince was sitting still and wore a bright yellow robe. He looked down at Wang Xiao-Nian with a serious look and a sharp gaze.

“Wang Xiao-Nian?”

“Yes, your highness.”

“The day before yesterday, was it you who had accompanied Mu Cheng-Bai?” The crown prince spoke with a calm voice. He didn’t look emotional at all.

Beside him was a girl wearing the royal clothes. She was currently staring at Wang Xiao-Nian. She had a slim body, white skin and a pretty face, but her eyes were swollen and red, showing traces of tears.

“Y... Yes.” Wang Xiao-Nian quivered.

“He is dead.” The crown prince spoke the three words in a peaceful voice, but to Wang Xiao-Nian it was like thunder to his ears.

Wang Xiao-Nian’s pupils suddenly expanded, as he felt his gallbladder breaking apart due to fear!

The crown prince looked at him, and spoke slowly, “Tell me every detail about the events from that day.”

“Y... Yes, your highness. Hmmm...” Wang Xiao-Nian was quivering and could hardly speak. He then licked his lips and bit his tongue heavily so that he calmed down, “That day, I hung out with lord Mu. He said that he wanted some herbs, so we went to the Hui-Tian Street... When we had only just arrived, we ran into this guy named Ye Xiao.”

“Ye Xiao?!” The girl sitting beside the crown prince suddenly looked up and stared at him with sharp eyes, “Son of the Northern General Ye Nan-Tian? One of the ‘three lords’ of the capital, Ye Xiao?”

“Yes, it was him.” Wang Xiao-Nian lowered his head hastily.

He lowered his head because he was too scared by the girl’s sharp eyes. He didn’t even dare to look her in the eyes at all.

“Go on.” The girl spoke, while the crown prince kept quiet.

Wang Xiao-Nian realised that this girl was most likely the sister of Mu Cheng-Bai, the crown prince’s wife.

“Coincidently Ye Xiao was there to buy some herbs too... and the thing he wanted to buy... was... was the one thing lord Mu had targeted. So... So they got into a fight...” Wang Xiao-Nian spoke haltingly.

“Wait! Mu Cheng-Bai didn’t know Ye Xiao. He would never know his name, as he hated the foppish-lord kind. How did he recognize Ye Xiao?” The crown prince interrupted.

Wang Xiao-Nian was stunned.

How did Mu Cheng-Bai recognize Ye Xiao? He felt that it was now impossible for him to get out of this!