Realms In The Firmament
chapter-17

“How about you? What’s your plan?” Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji asked Ye Xiao in unison.

Ye Xiao actually looked perplexed and seemingly lost for words, as his plan was totally different from theirs.

“I… I want to be an expert cultivator.” Ye Xiao spoke seriously, “An invincible one.”

“Hahahahaha… an expert cultivator?! Invincible?!” Zuo Wu-Ji and Lan Lang-Lang felt their legs go weak and their stomachs cried out in pain from their laughter. Tears were falling down their cheeks due to laughing excessively.

The foppish and lazy lord Ye Xiao actually wanted to be an invincible expert cultivator. That was perhaps the biggest joke they’d had the pleasure of hearing in the entirety of their short lives.

Ye Xiao was stunned, “Seriously? Is my plan that unbelievable?!”

The two of them had had barely any time to recover from their previous outburst of laughter, before they felt their knees go weak again and the pain in their stomach resurface as laughter once more rang throughout general Ye’s manor.

“Honestly, in everyone’s eyes we are just three foppish playboys. What dreams could we have? What decent future could we plan…” Lan Lang-Lang laughed, “This conversation is fine in here, where it can be kept private. Because if people outside heard of these dreams, they would definitely laugh their teeth off.”

In fact, except for Ye Xiao, none of them would even dare to dream that the plans they were currently talking about, would all eventually turn into reality!

Zuo Wu-Ji would hold the greatest political power – with which he would wield the scepter and dominate the world, while Lan Lang-Lang would become extremely wealthy and become an unrestricted aristocrat and Ye Xiao would become a supreme cultivator with unfathomable strength!

Oh, however, Lang’s final dream - to finish their last dinner and then die together, would never materialize.

…

“What is a foppish playboy?” Ye Xiao frowned and asked.

These days he kept organizing his inherited memory and he realized that Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji were not some wicked lads like he had imagined. At least they had never done anything dirty, like bullying and oppressing innocent people. Maybe the biggest problem they had, was just being disappointing…

But, should they be regarded as foppish playboys because of that?

“Disappointing!” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled with self-mockery, “All those good lads are following the rules. They go to the colleges, seek their teachers and practise the way of martial arts. All they are fighting for are the honors of their clans and good reputations of themselves. They try their best to get into the government so that they can contribute for their clans, or become the leaders of their clans.”

“People like us are regarded as losers that are useless and have no ambitions. We are only playboys and black sheep.” Zuo Wu-Ji smiled bitterly, “Normally in the wealthy clans, those who often go to the brothels and bully the innocents will be called the black sheep. But things are different in our clans…”

“What makes us the black sheep is that we have no ambitions. Ambition means everything!” Lan Lang-Lang said sadly.

“Urh.” Ye Xiao frowned, “What I hate most, is bullying!”

“Aha, haha, ha! Well isn’t that exactly what you did to rob someone today?!” Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji laughed.

After dinner, Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji walked to the door preparing to leave. Before they left, Lan Lang-Lang seemed to have a bright insight in his drunken state. He spoke to Zuo Wu-Ji, “Hey dude, so all these years… have you been showing us your disguise?”

Zuo Wu-Ji smiled bitterly, “I have disguised myself for such a long time. Now the disguise has become my identity. I have been unable to tell if it is true or false.”

They laughed again loudly and then left side by side.

Ye Xiao stood at the door and felt blank.

He felt touched by the conversation they’d had during their feast. How many people like them… were actually showing their real faces?

Lan Lang-Lang and Zuo Wu-Ji were not. But who was?

Maybe the departed Ye Xiao… was actually a foppish playboy inside – so he died.

In his prior life Ye Xiao had never seen things from this perspective - the point of view he has in this present life. He could clearly feel that it was a life lesson of outmost importance.

He knew clearly that the way in which he perceived the world had such drastic changes, making him feel he was looking at the world through the eyes of someone else. Even so, the world he was living in and the realms that were in this world, were all still the exact same as they had been in his previous life.

Ye Xiao smiled, “It is always in this world, no matter where I live. There are always roads, no matter where I stand. Where do we sing and laugh; where do we weep and cry? …”

When he just finished the last word of the poem, Ye Xiao calmly entered the space of the sphere.

Yet when he arrived inside, surprise quickly replaced the calmness on his face.

The qi in the space was obviously heavier than before. There was some white qi mixed in there along with some purple qi. And there was another qi that was different from the original ones – a blood-color qi that was barely noticeable.

That must be the qi from the essence of the blood ginseng.

Besides, there was a smell of plants. It was a lively smell of life – the purest smell of nature.

This natural smell was certainly brought by the blood ginseng too.

Ye Xiao realized that the blood ginseng he brought was the first plant absorbed by the sphere, and it had contained the qi of life.

He then walked along the purple tunnel and found that the qi here was heavier, just as he had expected. He took a deep breath and then felt relaxed and happy.

He walked around for a moment and then prepared to get out for cultivating, but when he turned to the entrance, he suddenly felt that something was different. He quickly turned back and observed the room carefully, until he finally found it…

The egg!

It had become bigger!

It was as big as a duck’s egg before, but now it had grown bigger still. It was at least as big as a goose’s egg now.

“Oh? This thing could actually grow?” Ye Xiao was surprised, “It was truly an egg of a mythical creature. I haven’t seen any eggs that can actually grow…”

That was truly his first time seeing something like this, even while counting both of his lives.

Ye Xiao was certain that it was a mythical creature’s egg!

Because the egg was really felt amazing and mysterious.

Peerless lord in the world and foremost spirit in chaos!

The sphere was very arrogant, so it must be something outstanding. The egg inside it with endless qi must be something beyond the ordinary. “It must be a top-grade mythical creature!” He thought.

Since Ye Xiao had first come in contact with this egg, he had frequently been lost in thought. When would it finally hatch and what kind of creature would be born from it? He was even starting to dream about a creature so powerful that it could swallow the entire Qinq-Yun Realm with just a single gulp!

He touched the egg and found it to be cold. But he couldn’t feel any rhythm of a living creature. He murmured, “You are such a powerful being. How powerful will you be? …”

Ye Xiao was delighted. He left the space and sat cross-legged to cultivate so as to improve his strength. The qi in the space then went into his Jing and Mai like streams to assist his cultivation.

Other than the qi from the sphere, the qi, that was scattered throughout the world, gathered around Ye Xiao to assist in his cultivation too. The path that the qi traversed was however invisible. Nobody, not even the expert cultivators, could sense the moves of the qi in the world. The purest qi was quietly absorbed by the space and then flowed into Ye Xiao’s Jing and Mai…

When the world was built, the purple qi rose from the east!

Another night had passed. At the moment when the sun shined its first light, Ye Xiao felt an indescribable throb!

This was his first time that he truly performed the East-rising Purple Qi and felt the purple rising qi!

At the moment, the sky lit up at once with sunshine. The next moment, his Ni-Wan Acupoint[1] suddenly beat, tak tak tak…

His blood began to boil all at once!

His hair suddenly stood up, pointing at the ceiling!

In his Dantian, a wave of power that had stayed dormant suddenly rushed up… All the way toward his scalp!

Boom! Bang!

It felt like there was a wave of qi breaking through the top of his head. His entire body was filled with an indescribable feeling of relief!

He felt that he was bathing in a bathtub filled with warm water, and the heat spread all over his body. He was experiencing all of these conditions at this moment.

Ye Xiao mind was now completely blank and he couldn’t speak out a single word.

Massive qi was breaking through in his body. Within his mind, he saw that there were stars dancing, three flowers blossoming and five streams flowing!

Ye Xiao was quickly taken over by surprise.

It was the sign of breaking through the first grade of the Grade of Diyuan!

Could it be that he had already reached the second grade of the Grade of Diyuan?

“That… It shouldn’t be. I just broke through the first grade of the East-rising Purple Qi several days ago and became an expert cultivator of the Grade of Diyuan. How did I improve myself by this much so quickly?

This is insane!

How can a six hundred years old blood ginseng have such efficacy?

Although I have only used one blood ginseng - even if I had used ten, It couldn’t be possible for me to break through the first level of the Grade of Diyuan in such a short amount of time.” He thought.

Ye Xiao recalled that when he reached the same level in his prior life, he had suffered immense pains, comparable to the feeling of his Jing and Mai melting. However, this time he felt really comfortable.

That is so simple, so easy and so comfortable!

Ye Xiao immediately began to execute the East-rising Purple Qi, and then he learnt that it was still only at the first grade, even though his normal cultivation had apparently possessed immense improvements!

“Comparing the level system of cultivation and the level system of the East-rising Purple Qi… How big is the gap between them?” Ye Xiao could be regarded as an expert cultivator in this mortal world now, but he was still only at the first grade of the East-rising Purple Qi.

Ye Xiao felt stunned when he thought of this.

It was an extreme excitement that flowed through his veins, “If I improve my East-rising Purple Qi to the top grade, I will… Live forever... And become a legend, right?!

[1] Ni-Wan Acupoint: An acupoint on the crown of the head.