Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
What was the East Sky?
It wasn’t difficult to answer this question, but it was almost absurd to ask such a question. This young lord here was indeed ignorant!
“There are five main areas in the Human Realm Upon Heavens. They are called the East, West, South, North, and Glaze Skies.” The fat shopkeeper decided to give this young ignorant lord a lesson. “The East, West, South, North, and Glaze Skies are the East Sky, the West Sky, the North Sky, the South Sky, and the Glaze Sky.”
“This place here, where we are right now, is a small town at the easternmost point of the East Sky. Capable men never want to live in this place. This is an abandoned town of the East Sky. It is a place nobody likes.”
“I see.” Ye Xiao said, “Why five? Why are there only five main areas in the Human Realm Upon Heavens? I mean… It is such a big world…”
‘There is only one sky! Everybody knows it! Some so-called great cultivators, the most influential ones, divided the world into five parts, and that is all.’ The fat shopkeeper complained in his heart but didn’t say it out. He said, “It is just how people state it. Five skies—means five areas. In fact, every sky has some empty areas… Which aren’t supposed to be a part of the five regions…”
“According to the ancient stories, there used to be nine conquerors in the ancient era in the Human Realm Upon Heavens. Now we have five… There should be four more conquerors to make enough power stands for the balance.
“However, for so many years, no new conquerors appeared ever.”
“That is why those empty areas eventually become something where ambitious cultivators train themselves… Well, nobody truly takes control of those areas.” The fat shopkeeper talked in high spirit as if he was the hero of the world who was showing off his own world.
“Hmm. That must be somewhere to go…” Ye Xiao nodded and thought for a while. He said, “I should go to the empty areas for some training. I should try to take one, and perhaps, I will become a conqueror too…”
The fat shopkeeper did not dare to continue the conversation now.
‘Oh, no. That is something you should never casually speak out…’
‘Any careless words will get you killed.’
“My friend, may I ask you a question? How is your cultivation level? What level are you at?” Ye Xiao looked at the fat shopkeeper.
“I… I am only at level seven of the Mystery Origin Stage. That is awkward…” The fat shopkeeper seemed to feel ashamed.
“Oh…” Ye Xiao nodded, and then asked the man a few more questions and finally got to know the exact stages of cultivation in the Human Realm Upon Heavens.
Beyond the Dao Origin Stage, in the Human Realm Upon Heavens, there were more stages. They were the Mystery Origin Stage, the Faery Origin Stage, the Divinity Origin Stage, and the Saint Origin Stage. Beyond the Saint Origin Stage, it was the stage of those great conquerors of the world—One Spirit Stage.
“You are quite young, yet you have already reached level six of the Mystery Origin Stage. That is pretty impressive…” The fat shopkeeper looked at Ye Xiao but had no idea what more he could say to flatter the young master anymore, so he felt a little awkward.
Ye Xiao’s face slightly turned green and he said, “Please, don’t mention it… I have suffered a lot because of my cultivation level… I got beaten so many times that I can’t count… My families always say that I am a talented cultivator, but I just don’t like martial arts… There is simply nothing I can do…”
‘I can see that.’
The fat shopkeeper nodded and thought, ‘If you could work harder, with the wonderful background and opportunity you have, and good physical condition, you could have been much stronger than you are now.’
“May I ask you a question, young master? How old are you?” The fat shopkeeper seemed to ask a funny question, but it was realistic.
“Oh, I would prefer not to talk about the wasted years of my life… I am already nineteen now…” Ye Xiao drank up the liquor and said, “Nineteen years are wasted… Long but meaningless…”
“Nineteen years? Wasted? Long? Nineteen?” The fat shopper almost stared his eyes out, and he felt like countless alpacas kept running across his mind.
‘You are nineteen?’
‘Nineteen years, and you told me it is a long but meaningless time? What is wrong with you?’
“Yes. I wasted all the nineteen years of mine. Nineteen long years… In the past nineteen years, I have spent no longer than…” Ye Xiao thought for a while and continued, “No more than one year… on cultivation…”
The fat shopkeeper staggered.
“Well, then… How did you… Why… How come you can reach this level in cultivation if you spent only such a short time on it?” The fat shopkeeper couldn’t believe what he just heard.
“What do you mean how? Medicines. Of course.” Ye Xiao rolled his eyes and said, “They force me to eat those medicines… Damn it! Before I came here, for over half a year, I ate those things every day. They said those were the most valuable cultivation medicines, but… F*ck them… What the hell are those things! I can feel my intestines turning green because of those things! I know that you think the steamed buns are just some worthless food for you. Trust me. If you keep eating those fruits and roots for as long as I did, you will swallow the steamed buns like you can’t live without them!”
He definitely meant it!
For the past half a year, he did eat a lot of the valuable medical materials every day. Those were treasures in the Qing-Yun Realm, but they weren’t anymore in the Human Realm Upon Heavens. The Cinnabar Fruit was a good example…
However, those were still valuable materials, so he did not lie at all!
The fat shopkeeper was shocked by this young lord, and his face kept shaking because of the astonishment.
‘Holy f*ck!’
He felt like a lot of alpacas running in his heart again.
‘You ate those medical materials every day… like they are some food…’
‘I… I… I… If somebody forced me to eat things like that every day… I would have at least reached the Faery Origin Stage…’
He kind of wanted to cry in tears when he thought of it.
‘One should never compare to others. You never know how much miserable your life can be until you meet somebody like this guy!’
‘It is important to be born to a good family. To be born as a member of a great family, one can spend less time in the hard works—not just one hundred years, but a lifetime, two lifetimes, even five lifetimes!’
After the delicious food and tasty wine, Ye Xiao had learned enough about the new world.
However, there was still a big problem. He hadn’t obtained his identity yet.
The fat shopkeeper lit up his eyes when he heard that Ye Xiao didn’t have an identity certificate. He started to imagine the background of this young lord.‘He doesn’t even have an identity certificate! Well, then he must be a member of a reclusive family clan. He comes from a powerful clan. It is certain now…’
“Well, you need the government to make you an identity certificate. It is a special certificate. You won’t be able to get it here in this town.” The fat shopper mumbled and said, “This is an abandoned town… in the easternmost point of the main area… People like us… Most of us couldn’t live on out there, and that is why we moved to this place. All we want is to feed ourselves and live in peace. There are no capable men among us… Ahem…”
“This area here, they call it…”
“They call it the Land of Wrecked Dreams.”
When the fat shopkeeper spoke out the words Land of Wrecked Dreams, his face turned red.
“The Land of Wrecked Dreams…”
Ye Xiao mumbled out the words, and his face looked weird all of a sudden.
“That is right. There are abandoned places like this in every main area… Well, there are a lot like us…”
The fat shopkeeper sighed and said, “In the Human Realm Upon Heavens, power means everything. The more powerful one speaks louder. Winners survive, and the losers die. Nobody complains about being defeated, because it won’t help! When people out in the martial world feel that there is no hope for further development out there, they might choose to live a peaceful life somewhere… This is where they will choose to spend the rest of their lives. They left the martial world and live their small lives in an abandoned land… counting days of the rest of their lives…”
“You get the peace and the time, but you lose the dream. Your life will never be different anymore.”
“Your enemies will let you go because you have surrendered. A peaceful life is the biggest enemy for cultivators…”
“In this world, dreams can be broken. The Land of Wrecked Dreams is where the dreams get replaced by peace…”
“In the Land of Wrecked Dreams, there are many old guys like me. Kids under ten years old will be sent out as soon as possible…”
“Kids have dreams… We will let them go. We hope that they never come back to this place. However, reality is cruel.”
The fat shopkeeper seemed to be sad.
“The Land of Wrecked Dreams is under strict protection from the government. They protect the weak ones. In fact, it was also supervision…”
“People can enter this place easily, but leaving this place is a totally different story. When a man has settled in this area, he may suddenly feel like going out to fight more for his life again. Well, it is possible, but it is difficult. To really leave this place, he will have to get through the Nine Death Trials in the Land of Wrecked Dreams. Those who passed the nine challenges will get the permission to go out and pick up the dreams again. Those who can’t pass them should give up or they will be killed in the Nine Death Trials!”
The fat shopkeeper sighed.
“Because when you have already given up on your dream, you have no rights to take it back. When you want to stand up and fight for it again, you have to pay for what you have done.
“The price is most likely your life.”
“The Nine Death Trials means there are at least nine times one will have to face death in the trials. Only those who survive all the trials, in the end, gets a second chance to run under the bright light and chase after the greatness in the world.”
“No pain, no gain. You got to give up something you have for something else you want!”
“As a matter of fact, people like us are never going to leave this place. We are people who have no dreams anymore. We just live the rest of our lives here.”
The fat shopkeeper sighed.
“Wait… Does it mean… that if I want to go out, I will have to get through the Nine Death Trials too?” Ye Xiao was frightened.
“Well… Yes. You sure do. Kids under ten years can leave without the Nine Death Trials.” The fat shopkeeper seemed to be surprised. “That is why I was shocked. I don’t understand why your families would throw you down to this place. I know that people like you need to be steeled, but I really don’t think they should send you down here. Difficulties in this place are just too many for you to overcome…”
Ye Xiao was totally numb!
Now he finally realized one thing, which was the most important thing for him now! He did not ascend to the Human Realm Upon Heavens in a normal way!
He was definitely set up!
He was totally f*cked up!
When he collected a lot of materials, he was a bit overjoyed, because he thought he was so lucky. At this moment, the arrogance was completely gone!
“Damn it! Ah!” Ye Xiao raged up in fury. “Who the hell is f*cking with me? Can this even be any worse? Come on!”
At this moment, his anger was rising up to cover the entire sky.
He was so upset and angry at the same time, and he wanted to slaughter whoever set him up…
He had never thought that he would be so f*cked up when he just ascended to the new world…
How could he possibly get away from it then?
He was so bullied!
When others ascended, they ascended in the same way, like every regular cultivator who ascended. In fact, they were all especially taken care of when they arrived in this new world. While Ye Xiao ascended to the new world, he was sent to a desolate land, where there was nothing, nothing normal at all. For almost half a year, he spent the time traveling alone in a wasted area. After all the hard works, he finally left that desolate world, but ended up falling into the Land of Wrecked Dreams!
It was a place where the people without dreams resided. If he wanted to leave this hopeless area, he had to go through the Nine Death Trials! It didn’t seem to be hopeful at all! He had to face death nine times! With his current cultivation power, Ye Xiao was definitely going to die in the trials!
“Bastard! Bastard! Bastards! Ah…” Suddenly, a blurred image of a man came up in his mind, but he captured it and recognized the man’s face, so he started to shout furiously. “Ji Mo! It is you! You bastard! I must be you! Nobody would do all this sh*tty thing between two realms to set me up except you! You must wait! You must wait for the day when I beat you up to death! Do you really think you are invincible? Huh? You f*cking shameless bastard! You cunning rat…”
Ye Xiao kept shouting abuse toward the sky for almost an hour.
The fat shopkeeper, who stayed with him all this time, had gotten his face turned green, and then blue, and then purple, and then dark, and then colorless… That was just like a face changing magic trick!
His eyelids kept rising up, and he nearly passed out.
Ye Xiao was truly furious at the moment. He didn’t pretend anything at all, and it was obvious.
That was why the fat shopkeeper was so frightened. He could have been frightened to death.
‘What did he say? What did this young lord say? He said…’
‘He was set up? Somebody sent him to the Land of Wrecked Dreams?’
‘Well, it seems normal… People do that all the time.’
‘But… What did he say next? The sh*tty thing between two realms?’
‘That indicates a lot…’
‘Between two realms…’
‘Oh my good great mother!’
‘What a super cultivator it must be!’
The fat shopkeeper did not experience a lot in his limited life, but he was a local resident in the Human Realm Upon Heavens after all. He could tell the truth from some words Ye Xiao said. Because of what Ye Xiao said, he knew that what happened to this young lord was far beyond his knowledge. The only feeling he had in his heart was fear!
Ye Xiao shouted for a long time, but it didn’t vent his anger, so he drank a big bowl of liquor and asked the fat shopkeeper. “Is it sure that I have to go through the Nine Death Trials to leave the Land of Wrecked Dreams? Only after I leave this place, I can register and get my own identity certificate. Is it right?”
“Yes, it is. You can only do the identity register in some big cities. Mid-range cities do not have this department.” The fat shopkeeper was shaking when he answered the question.
“F*ck! F*ck it! I am so f*cked up to death this time!” Ye Xiao was truly frustrated this time.
When one was fooled too many times, he broke down.
In the further conversation, Ye Xiao learned that normally, people who ascended to this world would go through the ablution in the wash pond and automatically finish the identity register. After the identity register, these new members of the Human Realm Upon Heavens could go anywhere they wanted in this world…
However, when it came to Ye Xiao…
People did nothing and things were automatically done for them. He had wasted nearly half a year but still got hang in the middle of nowhere. As far as he was concerned, he even had to get through some trials that could most likely get him killed before he could get himself registered in this world.
Even if he successfully got through the trials and left the Land of Wrecked Dreams, he still had to travel a long way to a big city for the register, and it was possible that he would fail to finish the register!
It seemed… that another half a year was not enough for him to get all these things done.
After all, he spent almost half a year just to get out of that strange area.
The others just arrived and got everything done, while he had to spend over a year to do those things…
What a huge difference!
“Why do you have to f*ck me up like this? Why?” Ye Xiao was so angry that he felt like his intestines were burning.
…
“That guy is really clever… He actually knows who is fooling with him. What a smart man.” Somewhere else, someone was gloating.”
…
