Realms In The Firmament
chapter-79

Chapter 79 - A Boat Capsizes In A Calm Sea

[The death of Mu Cheng-Bai is an unsettled case.

Who could have killed him?

After that, the three assassins, who were the guards of the Crown Prince’s Palace, died in the west street market. Yet Ye Xiao is perfectly fine after returning from the market, unharmed and rather happy.

Then… who killed them?

Since they were assassins, they must have been assigned to do the same task. According to the information received from the market, all three of them must have been killed in an instant.

Who were they aiming at? Who was their target?

That is pretty obvious actually... it would be Ye Xiao.

Then, who killed them?

Mu Cheng-Bai had an average cultivation level, so he was easy to kill. But this time, it was three guards from the Crown Prince’s Palace. They were not some ordinary cultivators, but even they got killed instantly. They were killed at the same moment together. No matter who did that, he must have accomplished an extremely difficult mission.

So…]

The steward looked at Ye Xiao. The confusion in his eyes now turned into questioning.

[Ye Xiao. Does he have such capability?]

“Xiao Xiao…” Song Jue used Ye Xiao’s nickname. That meant he was talking to him as his uncle, “Have you been… going through anything special?”

“Special? What special?” Ye Xiao was stunned, “No. I have not.”

“But your have improved a lot in cultivation.” Song Jue frowned and looked at Ye Xiao, “You can’t deny that, can you?”

Ye Xiao rubbed his nose and nodded.

He couldn’t lie about that. It was obvious, especially for a sharp person like Song Jue.

If he made an ambiguous statement or a lie right now, he would only embarrass himself.

“You have improved; I am happy to see so. Come on, show me what you’ve got.” Song Jue waved his hand and dragged Ye Xiao to the backyard. While walking, he gave the guards an order, “Guards! Seal the backyard. Nobody gets in.”

“Yes.” Two of the 36 blood guards answered loudly, and then moved away.

Suddenly, the whole house had turned into a highly secure arena. Let alone a living man, even flies couldn’t access it easily.

In the backyard...

“Come on.” Song Jue stood with his hands on the back with an ‘I am a superior cultivator’ attitude. He said casually, “Kid, use your full strength, attack.”

Ye Xiao’s mouth twisted a little.

[What? Full strength? Uncle Song, do you want me to send you to the gods today?

I have taken a huge effort to save your life that day. Do you think you can just give it away so easily, really? Even if you don’t want to live, I won’t agree.]

“Don’t hesitate. Don’t use restraint.” Song Jue thought that Ye Xiao was hesitating, so he encourage him, “Just use your full strength.”

Yet he didn’t know what Ye Xiao exactly was thinking. [Should I still conceal my true strength? Actually, Uncle Song is not a stranger. He has been loyal all along. And he is a sworn brother to my father. He is absolutely on my side…]

Collecting his thoughts, he decided to reveal his true power a little bit, so as to let his men feel relief and stop worrying.

Of course he couldn’t reveal it all… If he was to truly use his full power… even if Song Jue was a supreme master of the Grade of Tianyuan, Ye Xiao could easily send him to hell.

So he nodded and said, “Since so, I will only have to accept it then. But please, Uncle Song, be careful…”

Song Jue laughed as if he had just heard the most hilarious joke. He was amused and smiling, “Don’t worry kid. Even though you're capable enough to actually hurt me, you're still over 20 years away from being my opponent.”

Ye Xiao nodded and spoke with admiration, “It turns out that Uncle Song is such a strong superior cultivator. You never show your strength in day to day activities. It is true that the greatest genius often lies concealed.”

Song Jue nodded with satisfaction. He almost smiled his teeth off. He said, “Come on.”

“Ok.”

Ye Xiao answered, and then struck immediately without hesitation.

His body twisted, turning into a whirlwind. - Whoosh! - Only a dim shadow was left.

- SHOOT! -

He was faster than lightning. In an instant, he had already arrived in front of Song Jue.

Seeing the surprising turn of events occurring right in front of his face, Song Jue was terrified and shouted out, “What the fxxk…”

He definitely hadn’t expected - not even in his dreams - that his nephew could actually move so fast and his attack would actually be so sharp. He had actually broken the balance of time and space, making an incredible noise by distorting the nearby space.

Song Jue felt that this wasn’t ordinary attack, so he quickly operated his qi in order to defend against it.

The most terrible mistake a superior cultivator could make was to underestimate the opponent. And that was what Song Jue had done just now. At this moment, he had fallen into an unexpected situation.

In fact, he shouldn’t be blamed for this. He had been weakened a lot because he had been suffering from the Golden Mai Palm. Now he was only at the ninth level of the Grade of Diyuan. However, with his true strength, even a cultivator of the Grade of Tianyuan would not be able to defeat him.

And he had been through endless fights, so he was rather experienced in fighting. With all these advantages, it was reasonable for him to be confident while facing an inexperienced Ye Xiao.

At the beginning, he was only thinking about testing Ye Xiao’s capability; he never truly wanted to fight against him.

After all, in his mind, the disparity between their capabilities was so massive that he didn’t think there was need for him to be cautious.

However, reality had brutally betrayed his expectations.

A test had turned into true combat.

Facing Ye Xiao’s sharp attacks, he was forced to fight with utmost concentration. He fought well, but he had made a mistake already forcing him to defend in desperation. Although he had a higher level in cultivation, he couldn’t save the situation that was caused by his own casualness.

He had operated his qi in order to resist Ye Xiao’s attack. But when the attack came, its strength was beyond his imagination.

His chest suddenly suffered from a variety of strikes. He shouted out once again, “OH FXXK!”

- Pah Pah Pah Pah Pah! -

At that moment, Ye Xiao had struck Song Jue’s chest like a metal hammer several hundred times.

And the winner of the combat was quickly decided.

- Shoot! -

Ye Xiao turned over and stood on the ground. He waved his sleeves and stayed still.

- Puff! -

On the other side, Song Jue flew out awkwardly for several meters. - Boom! - And then he stopped once he hit the wall. He stared at his nephew, shocked. His body was plastered on the wall, spread eagle. He finally slid down to the ground like a snake. - Puff. - He collapsed on the floor.

With his mouth hanging open, he was looking at Ye Xiao with astonishment as he murmured, “What… What… What was that? You you you… I… I… I…”

After stuttering for a bit, he coughed. He stood up from the ground, tottering and staring at Ye Xiao as if he was looking at a monster.

He could swear that he had never imagine that Ye Xiao could be so strong.

[What was that?

I was showing how a cultivator stands, and then he attacked, and I fell down like he was crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.

I didn’t even have time to react.]

Now he only had one thought, [Shit… That was so embarrassing… People say ‘a boat capsizes in a calm sea [1]’, yet it was not a boat which capsized; it was a bloody huge ship…]

Ye Xiao laughed and pulled him up. He said, “This martial art, I just learnt it recently. It is called Thunder Thousand Palm. How are you Uncle Song? Are you hurt? Is it sharp, my new martial art?”

Song Jue blushed and murmured, “I was just not fully prepared just now. I was kind of unprepared… If I am well prepared, that would never happen. I was careless… Ahem… Of course, I kind of let loose you… I fell down myself on purpose…”

“Sure. Of course.” Ye Xiao said, “Who are you? You are Uncle Song! You must have done that on purpose to make me feel confident. We all know that. No need to speak too much of it. We know that.”

Song Jue coughed. He hadn’t blushed for decades, yet now he felt his cheeks burning. He said, “However, as young as you are, you have such capability. That’s not a normal thing. You are fine. You are good…”

He was wondering, [Thunder Thousand Palm? How come it sounds familiar to me? I seem to have heard of it before…]

He started going through his memories, trying to recollect where he had heard of the Thunder Thousand Palm before. He looked at Ye Xiao, “Well then… Mu Cheng-Bai and the three assassins today, were they killed by you?”

Ye Xiao smiled. He didn’t answer the question directly, but said, “Uncle Song, let me walk you back to the house.”

He didn’t answer the question, but Song Jue understood. He was shocked and then felt gratified. He gave a thumbs up, “Good man. You definitely are the son of Ye Nan-Tian. You have got guts.”

And then he waved his hand, “No need to walk with me. I am not that weak. With your low capability, even though you did make me fall over by chance, you could never hurt me.”

Ye Xiao nodded, “Of course not. That’s obvious.”

Song Jue held his head high and walked in front of Ye Xiao like nothing had happened. He said, “By the way, when did you start training that martial art…”

“Not long ago. I was hanging around outside and saved an old man by chance…” BY now, Ye Xiao had become a specialist in making these kind of lies. He had made one in front of Prince Hua-Yang; now he was making another one. “But that old man was so ill. After he taught me a bit of this, he passed away. And then I tried it and felt it to be perfect for me. So I kept cultivating…”

“That is more than not bad. Even I couldn’t…” Song Jue stopped hurriedly. He coughed and said like an old sage, “I was nearly defeated by that. It must be something extraordinary… It was your fortune. From now on, you should work harder on it. After working hard for a certain amount of time, you will be improved in an obvious way. You are young. You should accept what you are taught. Do you understand?”

…

[1] A boat capsizes in a calm sea (阴沟里翻船) means falling miserably in a very easy task.

This is the second guaranteed chapter of the week.

Translated by:- Rain

Edited by:- Alpha