Realms In The Firmament

Qi Gang had written a long report. Before he sent it to the headquarters of the House of Chaotic Storms, he read it, modified it, and transcribed it.

He knew that his master needed the report as a reference to make a further plan.

His master wouldn’t care about what they could get from the City of Chaos, not to mention the west city, but Qi Gang knew that what happened in this place would help his master learn the situation in the martial world. The attitude of the other forces would influence the plans his master made for the future.

What he had to do was to tell his master everything he knew, and that would be useful for his master’s great plan.

After the message was sent, Qi Gang stood up. The east of the sky was turning bright. The sun was rising. He was frowning. It seemed there were still things that troubled him.

‘The real chaos that concerns the House of Chaotic Storms hasn’t come yet… but it will come at any time.’

‘There is no doubt that the House of Chaotic Storms had expanded fast in recent years, but it is too fast… Our foundation isn’t strong enough. The young master is a wise man, and he definitely has realized this problem. I just don’t understand why he still chose to do this.’

‘I don’t know why, but I have this feeling. The Hall of Returning Nature should be the biggest enemy to the House of Chaotic Storms, but Master doesn’t seem to care about it that much…’

‘Why does Master devote so much to develop so fast? Why did he risk so much for it? What for? Is it necessary?’

‘Does he want to reach the top of the world?’

‘Or do we have another enemy?’

‘Is it the Brotherhood Alliance?’

‘Or are we going to fight the five royal clans?’

Qi Gang was lost and blank. The more he thought about it, the more confused he was. He felt like the House of Chaotic Storms whom he pledged allegiance with was more and more unacquainted to him…

…

“Medicine! Quick! Get me the medicine…”

“Do we have any more medicine that stops bleeding?”

“What?”

“That’s impossible! How could this be incurable? No way! Impossible…”

Somewhere in the city, there was a small inn.

A few people stayed together. Anger, anxiety, and despair spread among them.

“Big Brother, you… Please, stay strong. We will find a cure! We will… Doctor, please… Do something! Save my brother! Please… Please help him…”

A middle-aged man anxiously begged the doctors who stood around. He was sweating in fear and anxiety.

There were also a few dan makers and pharmacists, who were slightly shaking their heads helplessly.

Another middle-aged man was lying on the bed. If he stood up, he must be as tall, and as strong as a mountain—but now he was lying on the bed, with a colorless face. He was dying.

He was still conscious, but there was a bloody hole in his chest. His inner organs were half damaged. It seemed nobody was able to save a man like this.

He hadn’t passed away yet, only because the spiritual qi hadn’t gone yet. It was the spiritual qi that kept him breathing.

It wouldn’t last long, though. He was not going to make it.

The City of Chaos was in chaos. Within one night, over ten thousand men got hurt. Dan makers and pharmacists were badly needed everywhere. These people had the power to gather several dan makers and pharmacists, so they must be both powerful and wealthy. It was difficult to get a dan maker or a pharmacist with money. In the City of Chaos, money and power were both needed!

The dan makers and pharmacists showed them a helpless face, and the middle-aged man with big beards felt like he was struck by lightning. He was broken down. His lips were shaking, and his eyes were filled with tears.

Men do not easily shed tears, but when they do, then they are truly sad. There was always a moment when a man was truly sad, and that was when the tears filled their eyes!

His tough body suddenly became like boneless as it weakly dropped. He covered his face with both hands, and the unstopped tears flowed through his fingers.

“Here! Do something here! Stop the blood. You two, get over and do it now!” A voice of a lady, who was on the bed, urging the others.

The lady was sitting cross-legged by the side of the dying man. She kept one hand pushing on the man’s chest, pouring her pure and strong spiritual energy into the man’s body. She was holding the heart of the man and slowed down the spiritual qi of the man.

It was an extreme laborious method to extend the man’s life. The lady must be an extraordinary cultivator, but her face became colorless because she had spent too much energy for too long. Sweats flowed down her face. Apparently, she was going to use up her energy, but she didn’t give up.

The lady’s eyes were filled with desperate craziness. She didn’t give up, even though there was no hope. It seemed that as long as the man was still alive, her world was still alive.

She wouldn’t give up.

If the last bit of the man’s life energy was gone, and if the man died, then the lady’s world died with him. She might still live, but her heart would die with him!

Two other men were taking care of the wound in the dying man’s chest. Again and again, they patiently pasted the wound with medicine. Bit by bit, they used their purest spiritual qi to heal the wound.

The three people were doing their best, but it seemed to be helpless. It did keep the man alive, but it wouldn’t last long. The man was dying!

Apparently, it wouldn’t take long for death to take this man down to the netherworld!

“It won’t work…” The dying man on the bed smiled bitterly and said. His eyes were dim. “Guys… Don’t waste your energy. I… I am done… You are giving me your life energy. It won’t work, and you will die too!”

The lady in black clothes didn’t say a word, as if she didn’t hear the man. She gritted her teeth and kept pouring her energy into the man’s body. Suddenly, she spat out a mouthful of blood…

As she spat out the blood, her spiritual power, which was going to be used up, was refilled again, as if it were inexhaustible.

“No… Sister!”

The other two men who were also pouring spiritual qi to help the dying man weren’t happy to see that. Instead, they were frightened.

The lady had operated some sort of mystic technique to sacrifice a part of her life and turn it into her spiritual energy. She was refilling her energy by consuming her life. Of course, it worked, but such an extreme method only brought her temporary relief regardless of the consequences. It wouldn’t last long, and it wouldn’t save the man!

“Feng’er!” The man on the bed was frightened. He tried to stop her, and said, “Please… Don’t do this!”

The lady bitterly smiled but insisted on operating the mystic technique…

“Stop her now, you guys!” The man anxiously shouted.

His voice was getting weaker and weaker. He had already calmed down and tried to embrace death peacefully, but now he was anxious and worried.

The lady said, “Big Brother, I like you for a long time. I always want to be your wife… We are so close, and I never wanted to tell you. As long as I can stay with you, I am happy. Now… you are dying. If you are dead, and I am alive, I am just a dead body that still walks.”

“You can’t command me anymore…” Feng’er bitterly smiled and said, “I am responsible for my own life. I would rather use up every bit of my energy, burn out my life than just to watch you die in front of me!”

Feng’er—the lady in black clothes, in a low voice, said decisively, “If you are going to die, I will die before you. Let me go to the netherworld with you. I don’t want you to go alone. I am going to be on your side!”

As she was talking, her hands became warmer, and she poured the energy into him faster.

Apparently, she was sacrificing herself to keep the man she loved alive.

When her life energy was exhausted, the man would die, and she would die as well. However, she still did it, without hesitation!

What she did was not going to save the man. What she did was just to die with the man. It was not saving the man, but killing herself. All she wanted was to die before her beloved man did!

However, she didn’t hesitate!

She did what she said.

“If you are going to die, I will die before you. Let me go to the netherworld with you. I don’t want you to go alone. I am going to be on your side!”

Her eyes were filled with desperation and craziness. She talked like nothing mattered. “Brother, if killing myself can make you live for one second longer, I will let you live for one second longer! It is worthwhile!”

The middle-aged man on the bed powerlessly closed her eyes. He knew that no matter what he said, he couldn’t stop the lady. Warm tears flowed off his eyes, and he said, “It is my fault… It is all my fault… I shouldn’t have insisted on joining this battle. My stubbornness has brought us to this situation…”

“Brother, we made the decision together.” The other two men seemed to be regretful as well. “It is our fault. You didn’t agree… we convinced you. We wanted the money….”

The two tough guys who had climbed out from blood and fire in the martial world actually started to cry in tears.

They wouldn’t forget what happened in the battle. When they were in danger, their big brother appeared and stood in front of them, protected them but got hit by a lethal strike. The two men were so regretful at this moment.

If not that they insisted on joining the battle for profits, and if their big brother didn’t need to save them from a critical attack, then he would never get so severely injured, because he was such a good cultivator. They wished their big brother didn’t save them, because if they died and not their big brother, things would be much better for all of them!

The middle-aged man who was talking to the dan makers and pharmacists wanted to find a way to save the dying man. When he heard Feng’er said, “I like you for a long time. I always want to be your wife”, he was shocked.

He turned around and looked at Feng’er. He was sad, desperate, and self-condemned.

He had always been chasing Feng’er for so many years, from silent loving care to aboveboard advances. All the brothers, including the big brother, had helped him. Feng’er kept rejecting his advances, and the man thought she was just shy.

He knew that Feng’er treated their big brother differently, but he pretended it meant nothing. At this moment, he finally realized that Feng’er was so deeply in love with their big brother.

He loved her, but she loved their big brother, and the lucky man didn’t reply to her love! Did their big brother knew, or did he not?

‘He knows! He is a smart man. He acted like he didn’t know, only because he didn’t want to hurt me. They should be together, but they didn’t, because of me. Now it is too late…’

“I am guilty! I caused pain to the three of us!” He got down on his knees and said sorrowfully.

‘Because of my wishful thinking, they never faced the relationship between them. Now they are both dying!’

The middle-aged man wished he could die for his big brother!

The lady and the dying man looked at each other, with love and care in their eyes. Nobody could stand between them. Nothing could separate them!

Not even death!

Similar things used to happen several times, but the man didn’t realize it. He just kept making advancing moves, hoping his insistence would touch the lady’s heart, but he neglected the true love between the lady and his big brother!

After a while, as Feng’er kept consuming her life energy, her hair started to become colorless…

She was becoming older…

Wrinkles kept showing up on her face…

“What have I done… I was so selfish. I was so blind… I failed you both… Oh, heavens…” The middle-aged man got down on his knees and said painfully, “Oh, heavens… Please, strike down a bolt of lightning and send me to death…”

The other two men were also despaired. They had almost used up their energy too.

That middle-aged man suddenly rushed to a dan maker, as if the dan maker was his only hope, and said, “Is there really nothing we can do? Is it really incurable? Can’t we even try to do something?”

They had asked the same questions again and again for a long time.

As he asked it the last time while his lips were shaking, his eyes were filled with craziness and despair. He suddenly knelt and said, “Mister Wang, please, you are a dan maker. Please, save my big brother. Save him…”

“The Hall of Returning Nature! The House of Chaotic Storms!” He suddenly shouted angrily, “I, Du Qing, will not let this go until death stops me!”

The dan maker looked at the dying man on the bed, and the other brothers who were all frustrated only made a sigh, and said, “There is nothing I can do to help… Wait… Oh?”

It seemed he had come up with an idea.

The four men and the lady heard the dan maker, so they all looked at him with expectations.

The dan maker couldn’t be sure, but he said, “I am definitely out. Your brother is too severely damaged. I can’t bring him back. However, I heard something a few days ago… I don’t know if it is reliable, but if it is, your brother may still have a chance to live. I just can’t make sure if it is reliable… Perhaps, it is a chance for you, but it also seems to be just a story!”

“What chance? What story?” The four people were all excited and widely opened their eyes.

At this moment, this message was like a straw from the bank in a man’s hand, who was drowning in the water.

It might not work, but it was hope. The four people all got spirited up a little!

They would love to try anything that could bring them a chance to save their big brother, and they would do it at their best!”

“Listen… I heard that there is a special place in the City of Chaos, which is called the Hall of Life and Death… It cures all dying men, and it is said that they can save all dying men… There are conditions, though… To get their treatment, there are two options. First, they save your life for free, but you have to pledge allegiance to them. Second, they save your life and charge a huge amount, and you have to do them one favor. You have to do what they ask you to do, no matter where you are, whom you work for when it is and what it is. You have to do it… Apart from that, if they save you, you can’t turn against them, ever.”

“Those are the two options. They only save people who are beyond the Divinity Origin Stage. Weak cultivators are not welcomed…”

The dan maker bitterly smiled and said, “People talk about it all the time recently, but I don’t hear anything about anybody saved by them. For us, it is just like a joke… Who would agree to those stupid terms anyway?”

“The Hall of Life and Death?” The lady hastily asked, “Where is it?”