Realms In The Firmament

After a while, Master Ju suddenly said, “The kid didn’t use any forbidden magic to improve himself, did he? He must be eager to improve himself as fast as he could. Is it possible that he made some forbidden dan beads to forcibly raise himself up in cultivation? Is that why he could improve so fast within only a few days? Well, we know some of the forbidden martial arts, but we also know what damage they would bring to a cultivator…”

Master Guan humphed and coldly said, “Save that stupid theory to yourself! We all know what it means to use forbidden martial arts and medicines. Of course, it can help a cultivator improve fast, but it also damages the cultivator’s cultivation foundation. Look at the kid. Do you see anything wrong? No! He is good! His spiritual energy is going inside him, which means he has a stronger foundation than what he currently needs! Don’t you see that? Really?”

Master Ju wanted to argue, but he knew Master Guan was right so he gave up.

Master Song started to talk, “Old Guan, I think the young man could have been hiding his true power. This is too astonishing… This is unbelievably fast…” He just couldn’t believe it. However, after that, he said, “No. It can’t be. I was close enough to him, and I am sure he was just a Faery Origin Stage cultivator. He can’t hide from me… It is impossible…” After that, he started to laugh at himself.

Master Guan looked at Master Yun and said in a deep voice, “Hey, old man. Yun. What is your opinion? Any strange possibility?”

“Well, look…” Master Yun, who was always calm and steady, rubbed his eyes and said, “I think… Maybe we didn’t see the truth of him… What do you think?”

The other three old men looked at him with a sneer in their eyes.

‘The four of us made such a stupid mistake at the same time? Come on… Anyone of us couldn’t make that mistake!’

…

Ten days after…

The four old men were having tea, and suddenly, something astonished them again…

“Oh, old masters, you are having tea here… That smells really good!” Ye Xiao pushed open the door and walked into the room.

“You… Pah!”

The four old men were going to say something, but when they saw Ye Xiao, they all spat out the hot tea!

They started to sweat heavily!

“Cough, cough, cough…” The four old men started to cough, and Ye Xiao was shocked.

The four old men coughed too hard, and Ye Xiao felt like they were going to choke.

‘What is wrong with these old men? Why do they cough? Have they all taken ill together? What is the problem?’

Ye Xiao was confused. ‘What is going on?’ He walked to the back of Master Guan and gently tapped his back, trying to be caring.

Perhaps he was pretending, but at least he looked pretty sincere.

Master Guan felt good about it, and the awkwardness was gone.

The other three old men looked at Master Guan like they were going to kill him. ‘Humph! Old bastard is gloating! I hope he will accidentally kill you on your back!’

“I am fine. Don’t worry.” The four old men were experienced. They grabbed the cups and drank tea, trying to stop coughing. However, it only made them cough even worse…

Ye Xiao’s face was shaking. ‘What is going on? Is it even possible that they got the same problem at the same time?’

‘It doesn’t make sense!’

Well, the four old men’s hearts were beating fast. They felt their hearts twisted.

‘Oh heavens… What have we seen? How did he do this?’

‘He is actually at level one of the Divinity Origin Stage now!’

‘The cultivation foundation is solid. The spiritual energy is going inside him. I don’t see an end to the improvement! How come?’

‘Holy heavens…’

‘This is unbelievable!’

‘It doesn’t make sense!’

The four old men said something to go through the motions and then saw Ye Xiao off, and then they all looked solemn.

“This is not right. We have to discuss it.” Master Guan gritted his teeth and it seemed to be painful.

“We have to get the other two old guys out this time. They have been pretending to be indifferent!” Master Yun seemed to be annoyed. “I don’t understand how they could be so calm! Don’t they understand what we are dealing with now? Don’t they? Don’t they?”

Ten days after, the four old men were waiting for a message. They were concerned with Ye Xiao’s current situation. When Ye Xiao left the Hall of Life and Death, they would focus on him with all their spiritual minds…

Ye Xiao had improved greatly but was still much weaker than the four old men, so he didn’t know they were watching him secretly!

“He did it again! He had a breakthrough again…” Master Ju was rubbing his beard, but after checking on Ye Xiao, his hands started shaking, and he accidentally pulled off some hairs on his beard… That was painful, but he didn’t have time to care about it. His voice turned sharp and he spoke like a rooster.

“Level two of the Divinity Origin Stage… That is level two of the Divinity Origin Stage… How is this possible…?”

Master Song jumped up in shock. The air around him started to flow fast, and the tea-table before him fell to the floor.

“That is… That is unbelievable…”

“He is a monster! He is definitely a monster…”

Another ten days later, it was the last day of the month.

Ye Xiao casually walked out of the Hall of Life and Death as usual. He felt pretty good because he just saved a powerful assassin who was dying. When the assassin left, he told Ye Xiao that he would come back to join him soon!

Maybe Ye Xiao liked assassins. He was happy to have one more assassin as his follower. It was reasonable though. When he was in the Land of Han-Yang, all those who swore loyalty to him were assassins in the beginning. Ning Biluo, Zhao Pingtian, and Liu Changjun were all top-class assassins in the world. It was understandable that he liked assassins!

Most importantly, this assassin was a Saint Origin Stage cultivator!

The Monarch’s Hall was going to have one more Saint Origin Stage cultivator, a powerful assassin!

He was so happy, and that was why he kept a big smile on his face…

When he left the fortress of trees and the array formation was closed, somebody started to watch him.

The four old men, who were having tea under the tree almost passed out when they saw Ye Xiao!

He was in level four of the Divinity Origin Stage!

They had noticed how unbelievably fast Ye Xiao was improving about ten days earlier, so they decided to stay around the Hall of Life and Death after that because it was easier for them to watch the young man.

They wanted to know how surprising the young man could be. When they saw Ye Xiao, even though they knew it would be shocking, they were still astonished.

‘We have seen many talented men in our lives!’

‘We are old enough to see all kinds of geniuses! We know how fast a cultivator can improve! We know the world’s most talented man, the most powerful itinerant cultivator in the world!’

‘When he was in the Divinity Origin Stage, it took him three months to get one level up. When he was in the Saint Origin Stage, it took him ten years to get on level up. That is a legendary figure we are talking about.’

‘Now… What the hell is with this young man?’

‘This is totally unreasonable!’

‘If the talented men we know are legends of the world… What is this young man? A sick monster!’

It seemed they could only think of this word to describe how fast Ye Xiao was!

After all, no human beings could improve as fast as Ye Xiao did!

The day before the contests of the month began, a stage was built in the Monarch’s Hall. And it was tall.

It was still an empty place one day earlier, but one night after, the stage appeared!

On the stage, four huge flags were flickering in the air. There were a few words on the flags and they were written by the Monarch himself.

When people saw the words, they felt awkwardly speechless.

It was simple. On the first flag, it said, “Do not go any further than necessary!”

It wasn’t surprising. Whoever fought on the stage were members of the Monarch’s Hall, so they should not cause any unnecessary harm to each other!

On the second flag, it said, “A fight between brothers!”

That was reasonable too. Whoever fought on the stage were brothers, who could show their back to each other in the battle against the enemies someday. Nobody should forget that!

On the third flag, it said, “The winner goes up, and the loser goes down!” That was a bit awkward.

He first told everybody to be careful and not to do anything to hurt each other, but then he told them whoever lost the contests would go down! It definitely raised the bellicosity. Nobody wanted to be a loser! What did Ye Xiao want? Did he want to humiliate the ones who lost?

In fact, some clever ones gave a good explanation for Ye Xiao. “The winner goes up and the loser goes down doesn’t contradict the first two lines! Who wins the fight becomes the winner while who loses becomes the loser! That is the truth! Being weak is not pride. Those who bear humiliation know they should work hard. To solve a problem, you must admit it first!”

People all agreed to it!

The words on the last flag had truly astonished everybody. On the last flag, it said, “Who stands on my way to becoming a legend will have to fight me with life and death!”

That was unbelievable, shocking, astonishing, and unreasonable.

Over two thousand Divinity Origin Stage cultivators in the Monarch’s Hall felt awkwardly wordless.

‘Please, dear Lord Monarch… What are you doing?’

‘You want us to be careful, and you want us to try not to hurt each other. However, you want us to fight with our lives!’

‘The winner goes up and the loser goes down, so we must fight our best to take the opponent’s life?’

‘That is ridiculous…’

‘Aren’t they contradictory?’

‘If you don’t think so, then you must be out of your mind!’

‘What should we do? Which one is right?’

People had to question Ye Xiao about the contradictory part, but Ye Xiao did not give them any explanation, and he didn’t change a single word on the flags.

In the end, he gave a new order.

“The Monarch’s Hall has a new rule. The order has been given by the great Monarch. The stars can be destroyed, and the sky can be ripped, but the order remains. People in the Monarch’s Hall, listen. Whoever questions my words will have to see himself out!”

People all turned silent after these words were said.

The Monarch had clearly shown his attitude!

‘I gave the orders, and you don’t get to question me!’

‘You have to obey, and that is all you should do!’

‘If you don’t understand, I don’t care! You don’t get to ask!’

‘It annoys me!’

As the new order was given, everybody knew what the Monarch meant.

‘I have given the order. I am the boss. I am the chief. I don’t care if the order is wrong. You must obey it! You have to! There is no explanation, and there will never be!’

‘My order will not be changed!’

‘Nobody questions my words!’

‘It is your own business how to understand my words. Just mind your own sh*t and that is all!’

That was an unreasonable rule, and it wasn’t good for a new organization.

People started to feel resentful about it, of course, secretly.

…

“Lord Monarch, please! You can’t do this.” Master Guan’s face turned pale when he knew what happened. He grabbed Ye Xiao’s sleeve and said, “You… This… This is going to stir a big disturbance in the Monarch’s Hall!”

Ye Xiao frowned and said, “Old Master, I know what I am doing.”

Master Guan was angry and he said, “What do you know? If you are stubborn about this, you will bring damage to the Monarch’s Hall. Itinerant cultivators are always unruly people. They aren’t cold-blooded, but definitely harsh. If some of them does not draw back the attack in time, people will die on the stage. If people die, you have to take good care of it. If you punished the one who kills our own man, you are wrong too, because he only follows what you said on the flags. It will be unreasonable if you punish the winner for doing what you told him to do! However, you can’t just ignore it, because people die! Things will go wrong. It will become a mess. You will be in trouble. Please, you can stop it now? It isn’t too late. Everybody makes mistakes, but you must fix it! It is important for a leader! It isn’t disgraceful at all to take back your words!”

Looking at the old man, who was talking with a red face, Ye Xiao showed a warm smile.

He was sure Master Guan was on his side. Master Guan was caring for the Monarch’s Hall.

Ye Xiao decided not to hide from him and he said, “Master, you are right, but I did this on purpose. I need things to be this way.”

“What? Do you mean you are planning on this? Why?” Master Guan was confused.

“Because…” Ye Xiao looked serious and said, “I need to know something.”

…