Realms In The Firmament

The officer in golden armor was calm and steadfast at first, but after the conversation with the vice-captain, he was not anymore. In a shaking voice, he said, “If this Ye Xiao… If he is a member of the Ye Clan, a nineteen years old genius young man… If he dies in the Nine Death Trials… Well, then…”

The vice-captain’s face twitched and he said, “If he is… If that is true… I am afraid… that we will be…”

The two of them exchanged a hint through eye contact, and both found fear in each other’s eyes.

The next moment.

The two of them rushed out and ran as fast as they could toward the entrance of the Nine Death Trials.

‘No, no, no, no… Please don’t let that guy die in here… No, please don’t…’

‘If he dies, we will die with him. Well, maybe worse. It would be easier if only the two of us die… I am afraid… All our families would die as well!’

“Where is the guy who just came for the trials? Where is he? Which trial is he now?” The captain asked the guard at the entrance loudly.

The guard seemed to be surprised. He was totally confused. The shout that suddenly sounded at him didn’t wake him up at all. After a while, he said, “What? What man? What?”

The officer in golden armor was anxious, so he slapped the guard on the face and said angrily, “Bloody bastard! I am asking you!”

“Oh… I…” The guard finally realized what happened, so he hurriedly knelt down and begged for forgiveness. He was still in shock, and he said, “Captain, please… Forgive me. I was in shock… I was astounded. That’s the reason why I would act like that…”

“What happened? What shocked you like that?”

“It was… It was the man who entered the trials…” The guard was awakened, and he said, “Captain, did you just ask about the man who got into the trials?”

The officer held down his anger and said, “That’s right, I did! How is he? Tell me the details!”

“That guy… That guy is not human!” The guard seemed to be quite surprised. “He is… He is a monster! A complete monster…”

“Monster?” The officer kept his eyes wide open and said, “Tell me everything.”

“He… He was already gone. He passed the trials and left…” The guard was in shock. “When he entered the trials, he went forward like cutting bamboos with a long sharp sword… It only took him less than one minute to reach the ninth trial from the first… Now… Now he has already broken it through… He must have left the Land of Wrecked Dreams now… He should be hundreds of miles away from us…”

“What?” The officer and the vice-captain were both shocked.

The restraint on the Land of Wrecked Dreams wasn’t just something ordinary. It was specially made for the cultivators in the Human Realm Upon Heavens. Stronger cultivators would encounter stronger trials in there. For so many years, only a few people had reached the seventh level. Nobody had ever broken through all the trials. If people without dreams could easily break through the trials, what was the point? Did they have dreams or did they not? If they could start their lives over again that easily, wasn’t it too much to take for greedy people?

However, the young lord Ye Xiao actually just broke through all the nine trials within a short time!

He didn’t even get obstructed by any difficulties!

The officer and his vice-captain both would love to know that Ye Xiao was safe, but when they heard that he went through the trials so easily, they were astonished. It was unbelievable!

‘Isn’t it… Isn’t it just too unbelievable? That is absurd!’

‘He must be the young generation of that powerful man! He is truly unpredictably capable!’

“How… How did he do it?” The officer was shocked.

“I have no idea, Captain. That guy went to fast… I just couldn’t see clearly what happened.”

The officer was shocked, and then he was enlightened. He laughed and said, “It is good that he safely went through the trials. It is much better than dying here. What happened today must be my fortune… It may not be my lucky day, but it is my day… Hah hah hah…”

The two of them went into the trials to check on the facilities, and they were shocked again when they found that none of the facilities was damaged.

Ye Xiao was just like a cloud of cyan smoke, flying over the trials.

Many years later, the officer and his vice-captain still didn’t understand why Ye Xiao could do it so easily. In fact, it had become an unsolved mystery in the history of the Land of Wrecked Dreams.

…

The truth about Ye Xiao getting through the Nine Death Trials was a secret… People knew how to play tricks, but all every trick was different from others. A man could get anything done as long as he could think of the right way to do it. Ye Xiao had a lot of things that he had to do in the Human Realm Upon Heavens. He needed to meet his ladies and brothers as soon as possible, so he truly didn’t want to waste time on getting through some trials! Besides, in the trials, there was a fatal danger that he had to get over with.

When he entered the Nine Death Trials, he chose to do it in an extreme way. He took out the Golden Soul Tower, which was given to him by Lin Wuxie as a gift. He put the tower over himself as protection. All he needed to do was to activate the Golden Soul Tower in full power and kept rushing straight forward.

All the attacks from the Nine Death Trials were sent back by the Golden Soul Tower. That was the only reason why Ye Xiao could get through the nine trials so easily. After getting through the trials, he directly left the place.

‘In Human Realm Upon Heavens.’

‘I, Ye Xiao, am finally here!’

That was the truth about how Ye Xiao went through the Nine Death Trials in one minute. Sometimes the truth wasn’t as beautiful as the story told. Sometimes it was romantic, and sometimes it was just pretentious. That was how absurd things could be in reality!

…

After leaving the Land of Wrecked Dreams, Ye Xiao didn’t stop. He was like a cloud of smoke, fleeting over the land in a whole day.

There were some towns and cities on his way forward, but he didn’t stop, he just went directly through them. All he did was to keep rushing forward.

He clearly knew that those towns and cities he met behind him were all low-grade places which were unimportant in the East Sky. He had to cross a big chaotic battlefield before he arrived at the first city in the East Sky!

Ye Xiao had a theory that was deep-rooted in his head.

He believed that if one wanted to be influential, he should start his life in the most thriving city!

It did work best at some point!

As long as he could become famous in the most thriving city soon, where it was also the place with most competitors, he would have a great future in the world.

If he could fight his own way to be an influential man in the city that was full of heroes and the royal born, it must be easy to achieve greatness in other places.

That was why Ye Xiao always had a clear destination.

He was marching toward the first city in the East Sky.

He had learned about the name of this city, the White King City!

When Ye Xiao was heading toward the White King City, he had to stop somewhere when he went across the Limitless Ocean.

…

The Limitless Ocean.

The name of this place had two meanings. First, it meant this area was so broad like it was limitless. Second, this area wasn’t under anybody’s control. It was a lawless, anarchic area.

Sometimes a person’s name didn’t tell the truth about the man, but the name of a place did!

The Limitless Ocean wasn’t an ocean though. It was a broad land with a lot of mountains, and it had nothing to do with the ocean.

From this area, the east, the west, the north, and the south were regions of the four conquerors, while the Limitless Ocean was a lawless martial world that nobody could conquer!

Jiang Hu, as known as the martial world, wasn’t Jiang, or Hu, so it was reasonable that the Limitless Ocean wasn’t an ocean.

There were no rules here.

There was no bottom line.

There was only one law—strength meant all!

It was quite like the most important rule in the Qing-Yun Realm. Who had the bigger fist had more rights to judge. The strong lived, while the weak died.

It was the jungle laws! The law of nature!

Since Ye Xiao set his foot on the soil of the Limitless Ocean, he started to feel the fierce qi of death in the air everywhere.

Ye Xiao stopped moving and just stared at the road in front of him. He frowned.

What he saw was not a city or a mountain range. It was a broad plain.

‘The Limitless Ocean, where there is no limit. Blood rises to the sky; heroes keep to the side. Great plans were always sour; flowers blossom among blood and fire. It is thousands or a million miles wide; it is deeper than the sadness in a man’s heart.’

‘The Limitless Ocean, where there is no limit. One step into the ocean and there is no way back home.’

This was a world full of blood and violence!

From where Ye Xiao stood to where the Limitless Ocean ended on the other side, it was about one million miles far!

How many dangers was Ye Xiao going to face on the one million miles?

Ye Xiao stood where he was, and he was lost.

He was a human being, so he could be fragile. Sometimes he would be sad, and sometimes he wept. In most of his life, he was absolutely a superior cultivator who could defeat the entire world, so he ignored the fear. He used to think that he would never feel fear. However, as a low-level cultivator in the Human Realm Upon Heavens, an ordinary man in this world, for the first time he worried about his future. For the first time, he felt the fear rising inside him!

At this moment, the Monarch’s Sword appeared in his hand, and it suddenly made a loud and clear sound. It was the fierce sound of the sword!

It seemed the sword was saying, “Master, let’s kill our own way from here! Let’s go through this area and reach greatness without regret!”

Ye Xiao took a deep breath, staring at the demarcation stone of the Limitless Ocean, and he said in a low voice, “Kill our own way… No, I can’t. But if I can rush over this… When I get there, it will be enough!”

He was talking about rushing over this huge area.

The Monarch’s Sword was in its infancy stage, so its spiritual intelligence was only like a child, and it couldn’t understand the difference between killing a way out and rushing it over. However, Ye Xiao had a strong feeling. He thought that maybe he was meant to be in this place.

He was set up when he just ascended to the Human Realm Upon Heavens, and now he was in the Limitless Ocean.

Now, as he was in the Limitless Ocean, he actually felt terrified by the danger he was going to encounter after all the fatal dangers he had been through! There must be a reason for this!

Perhaps, the killing, the blood in this place and the dangers in this place were unavoidable for him!

No matter what, he knew that it was impossible to walk through the one million miles ahead of him in peace.

‘Since I am here now, I guess I will just let the fame of the Xiao Monarch spread from this Limitless Ocean, and shock the Human Realm Upon Heavens!’

‘If somebody else can do this, I, Ye Xiao, can do this too! More than that, I will be better! I can be more!’

The five conquerors, as known as the five Sky Kings in the Human Realm Upon Heavens, all started their journey in the Limitless Ocean. It was a cruel battle that was full of blood and fire, but it was also full of opportunities!

The Limitless Ocean.

Ye Xiao had no choice but to step into this area, but he still stayed outside for two days. He knew that he was too weak to travel in such a cruel land.

One should be confident, but not blind. One should not underestimate oneself, but also not overestimate oneself either!

If he recklessly rushed into that cruel world, he would die.

Only those who lived had a future. No matter how talented he was, once he was dead, he was nothing!

The Limitless Ocean was full of superior cultivators and powerful spiritual beasts. Besides, there were many divine beasts as well. One tiny mistake could kill him in no time. That was not a joke.

Ye Xiao surely knew how serious this could be, so he decided to make some adjustment on himself before entering the Limitless Ocean.

For three nights, he spent the time resting on a big tree.

When the dawn of the third day came, suddenly, an explosion hit Ye Xiao. Ye Xiao was resting on the tree when he got blasted, and he was hit off the tree. As he touched the ground, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

He was shocked, but he didn’t panic, just hurriedly operated the martial art to heal his wounds. When he looked up to where the attack came, he saw a giant bird flying over in the sky. Behind the giant bird, there was a man chasing fast after the bird. The sword in that man’s hand kept switching different forms of qi. The powerful qi of the sword actually influenced so widely that it seemed to cover the entire world.

The big tree where Ye Xiao was resting on was unluckily hit by one of the man’s sword qi slashes. The tree was immediately destroyed, and the attack created a huge pit at where the tree stood.

Ye Xiao was trying to cure his wounds by operating his martial art. At the same time, he sent out his spiritual mind to check on the surroundings. He was lying on the bottom of the huge pit, staring at the sky with a muddled head. He was totally powerless at the moment, so he couldn’t move.

He was just resting on the tree, yet unluckily got hit by some sword attack. He couldn’t believe that he actually already got attacked before entering the Limitless Ocean!

That man’s sword qi attack was so fierce. It was terrifyingly powerful!

Ye Xiao only got impacted by the edge of the sword qi blast, yet he was already that seriously hurt. If he got hit in the face, he would have been killed for sure!

The huge bird was still waving its wings with its colorful feathers. It was trying its best to keep flying steadily. Apparently, the man behind it was in a higher position in this fight. He was hunting the bird!

“Peacock, there is nowhere you can go! Just surrender!” The man shouted to the bird while wielding his sword again. A hundreds-meters long sword qi attack flew out like it was crossing the sky. “I have been trying not to hurt you! You know I did!

“I am famous. Everybody knows me, the Dark Evil Spirit. It won’t bring disgrace to you to be my mount!”

The man behind the bird sounded like a ringing bell.

A mount!

Peacock!

Ye Xiao raised up his head to have a careful look. What he saw totally stunned him.

Whatever how he tried to be confident before, when he faced the cruel reality, none of his big words counted!

The Dark Evil Spirit who was hunting the peacock was much more powerful than the giant bird, but the huge bird who was running for life was already so much more powerful than Ye Xiao. Even though the giant bird was escaping, that it was in an extremely awkward situation, it still kept emitting some overwhelming qi. The power of the qi was so strong. Ye Xiao was lower than ten percent as strong as a bird.

The Dark Evil Spirit was so powerful that Ye Xiao could not recognize already. He wanted such a powerful beast to be his mount, which meant this man must be incredibly powerful.

The peacock made a furious roar and said, “I will never bow my head down to you! You can give it up now! I would rather die than bring disgrace on the Glaze Sky!”

“Hah hah hah… The Glaze Sky…” The Dark Evil Spirit sneered, “I can see how loyal you are to the Glaze Sky. I wonder if the King in the Glaze Sky recognizes you?”

Before he stopped talking, he had already made another qi slash and blast the peacock with it.

“Stop. It is pointless. It only makes you suffer more…” The Dark Evil Spirit smiled and gloated. “If you still don’t agree to by my mount, I will extract your soul out and refine it after I catch you. You will eventually become my mount after all. Why do you have to waste time on this?”

The peacock refused to resign itself to defeat. It roared and suddenly started to fall. Perhaps it was already exhausted.

Ye Xiao was frightened.

He wasn’t worried about the peacock though, because he cared about himself more at the moment…

‘Hey! The bird! Come on! Why don’t you pick somewhere else to fall… Why do you have to fall on me? You are leading death to me, aren’t you…’

He tried his best to control his body and made a dash to hide somewhere in the huge pit.

With a big explosive sound, the huge peacock actually fell right on the huge pit and covered it all.

Its big eyes happened to see Ye Xiao, who was hiding inside the pit, so it showed him a hint of apology in its eyes. Suddenly, its body started to shine colorful lights that rushed up to the sky.

It was some flame that brought people feelings of dreams.

It wasn’t actually burning, and it wrapped the peacock entirely.

“Damn it!” The Dark Evil Spirit in the sky angrily shouted and said, “The nirvana flame! How come? A f*cking peacock burns in the nirvana flame! How come? How is this possible?”

In his voice, there was an obvious regret.

“You chose to fall on this place. Did you think that little guy in the pit could save you?

“No, you didn’t mean it. If you want to be saved, why would you burn yourself in the nirvana flame?

“You didn’t want to be saved. Why did you choose to fall here?”

The Dark Evil Spirit murmured in the sky as if nobody was around.

The nirvana flame soon finished burning. The peacock in the flame was already gone. While the bird was gone, there was an egg in five colors lying on the bottom of the pit.

The peacock was unbelievably tough and upright in nature. When it knew that it was going to be caught by the enemy, it directly activated the nirvana flame to burn itself and turn itself back to an egg. It would rather become an egg than to serve as somebody’s mount!

Ye Xiao was totally stunned.

The egg was right in front of him, and the Dark Evil Spirit was rushing down towards him. He was helpless at the moment.

‘What the hell… I was just taking a nap on this tree. That is all. How did I get involved into this dangerous fight? Why?’

‘You are fine. You became an egg. You know nothing now. You won’t know it even if you are fried and eaten. You don’t fight, and you don’t bow! Well… What is this Dark Evil Spirit going to do to me? Will he let me go?’

Ye Xiao was speechlessly blank.

The Dark Evil Spirit slowly landed. He appeared like a scholar who was wearing all black clothes. He was staring at Ye Xiao, with a weird smile on his face, and then took two steps closer. After looking up and down at Ye Xiao for a while, he blandly said, “Well, just a pretty boy… Hah. Damn that stupid peacock. It would rather become an egg and benefit this useless pretty boy than become a mount of mine. Unbelievable!”

Ye Xiao was totally innocent, and he helplessly said, “Master, please… I… I have no idea… I have nothing to do with this…”

He knew that it probably wouldn’t work, but he could at least try.

It was impossible to save himself with a fight against such a powerful man. Even ten thousand of him together couldn’t defeat this Dark Evil Spirit in a fair fight.

Ye Xiao had no dignity of a hero at all at this moment. He well understood that he should always do what he was able to. Any reckless moves could directly lead him to death!

The Dark Evil Spirit humphed and impatiently said, “I know you have nothing to do with this… Well… Why? Why were you here? Do you know your appearance changed the whole thing?

“You ruined it. You showed up, and you got involved. You must die!”

The Dark Evil Spirit humphed and coldly said, “You are an egg now. I guess I don’t want you anymore. I don’t have hundreds of years to wait for you to hatch. Well, you chose this boy here before burning yourself. I guess I should do you a favor, and send him down with you to death. I guess he will be a good company to you down there.”

He said these words to the egg.

Apparently, Ye Xiao meant nothing to him. He was obviously less important than the egg.

The Dark Evil Spirit slowly raised up one hand and stared at Ye Xiao. It was like a giant man who was going to kill an ant.

Ye Xiao made a long sigh. He knew that he was too weak to resist this, but he had to at least try to fight for himself. As he had the thought, a stream of golden light shined between his eyebrows.

The golden light was weirdly bright and glaring at the moment.

“Oh?” The Dark Evil Spirit was surprised when he saw what Ye Xiao did, and then he laughed and said, “What? Are you serious? Do you really want to fight me? Hah hah hah hah…”

He laughed so loud like he had just heard the most hilarious joke in the world. He extremely despised Ye Xiao for how Ye Xiao actually overrated himself, and Ye Xiao felt it from the laugh.

However, the next moment, his laugh abruptly stopped.

He stopped laughing because he saw the thing that the golden light became eventually. He was suddenly frightened like he saw a ghost. He jumped up, and said with an exclamation, “You… Are you… Are you Master Ling’s people?”