Firmament Sword

"N-no one sent us! Really! We didn't teach Li Hua to say those things!" a young man in his twenties said to Li Ye. His blond hair was completely burned off and his face was blackened, giving him a wretched and aggrieved look.

"Is that your answer, too?" Li Ye asked impassively, looking at the others.

The men glanced at one another, then nodded in unison.

Li Ye sneered. "Heh... facing death and still acting tough... Not bad! I just love people with principles like you. But... your 'principles' are an insult to my intelligence! So... you can all just die!"

As he spoke, Li Ye raised a hand. A bone-chilling killing intent radiated from his body, and the temperature of the air plummeted in an instant.

Though Li Ye still wore a smile, inwardly, a storm of fury was already raging.

He was about to explode from fury!

His own brother had been taken from their home as a child to study under a highly respected Elder of the Honglou Sect. By all rights, he never should have turned out this way.

But when Li Hua returned home for the first time a few years ago, Li Ye had noticed something was wrong. Li Ye was not much more than a boy himself back then, and though he sensed his brother's distance and coldness, he hadn't taken it to heart. He figured it was probably just because they hadn't grown up together.

After all, they were brothers. Blood is thicker than water.

'As long as I treat him well and do what an older brother should, one day he'll be moved and we'll become close.'

Li Ye had been so optimistic then, but just a few days later, his brother returned to his sect. That separation lasted for several more years.

By the time they met again, Li Ye was a grown man, and his brother Li Hua... had grown from a small child into a young teen. But their reunion was nothing like the harmonious picture of brotherly affection Li Ye had imagined. Instead, the dynamic had shifted to: "The older brother stole everything that should have belonged to the younger, and the younger brother's heart is filled with hatred!"

It made Li Ye want to scream curses, to drag out the scum who had incited his brother and tear them limb from limb.

Li Ye had always wanted to change this situation. His parents had been trying hard, too. But in his youthful rebellion, his brother Li Hua refused to believe a word his family said, dismissing their explanations as pathetic justifications.

The situation never improved. After Li Ye received another treasure from the Ancestor in the Holy Land, Li Hua's hatred for his brother finally reached its zenith.

He thought, 'If I didn't have an older brother, all these treasures, all this glory—it would all be mine!'

To a mature person, this line of thinking might seem laughably childish.

But in the heart of a seventeen-year-old, that's just how it was.

That was why Li Ye wore a smile and appeared so calm. It was also why he hadn't used lethal force when he struck earlier. This didn't mean he didn't want to kill them. He wanted his brother to see with his own eyes what kind of scum this group he called his "brothers" truly were.

Otherwise, if he had just killed them outright, his brother's misunderstanding would have only grown deeper.

Li Ye's gaze was frigid, his eyes brimming with killing intent. A tyrannical aura burst forth from him as dazzling, dragon-shaped rays of light swirled around his body, making him look like a deity.

"Still not talking?" With a grabbing motion, Li Ye pulled an eighteen-year-old youth toward him through the air. He held him by the collar and said coldly, "I'll count to two. If you don't talk, you die."

"One!"

"But everyone counts to three!" Though terrified, the youth in Li Ye's grasp was convinced Li Ye wouldn't dare kill him. 'After all, if he wanted me dead, I'd have been gone already.' Besides, he wasn't just a disciple of the Honglou Sect; he was also from the same clan as Li Ye. Even as a member of a side branch, he couldn't just be killed on a whim.

So the youth still had the nerve to try and get under Li Ye's skin.

"Two!" The word had barely left Li Ye's lips when his free hand smashed a fist into the youth's chest.

CRACK!

With the sharp crack of shattering bone, the youth's entire sternum was crushed, and his chest caved in.

A look of utter disbelief filled the youth's eyes. He never imagined Li Ye would actually kill him. He died before he could even let out a scream.

WHOOSH!

With a wave of his hand, Li Ye pulled the twenty-four-year-old youth into his grasp. After their "baptism" of lightning, none of them had any strength left to resist; they were completely at his mercy.

"I'm counting to one. If you don't talk, you die!"

"Ah! I'll talk! I'll talk! Don't kill me, please don't kill me!" Having seen what happened to the last one, this young man knew Li Ye wasn't joking around. He was dead serious. How could he dare act tough now? He immediately began to beg for mercy.

"Then spit it out!" Li Ye slammed the man violently onto the ground.

CRACK! CRACK!

Both of the man's leg bones snapped on the spot, and he let out an earth-shattering howl of agony.

"Shut up! Talk!"

At the sound of Li Ye's icy voice, the young man impossibly choked back his scream. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and his face contorted in agony, but he didn't dare make another sound.

The others were scared witless, frozen in shock.

Li Hua stood there blankly, at a complete loss. His brother at this moment was like a demon, a stark contrast to his usual, smiling self. It was as if he were a completely different person.

And yet, for some reason, Li Hua felt no fear at all.

In fact, ever since they were children, he had always been afraid of his ever-smiling older brother. It was as if that smile concealed an endless danger that terrified him to his very core.

Then, as he grew up, people constantly told him how outstanding his brother was, what a talent he was... It made Li Hua feel like a pathetic creature living in the shadow of his brother's brilliant halo.

Later on, people began to constantly badmouth Li Ye in his presence, all while feigning indignation on his behalf. They said the only reason Li Ye received so much attention was that he was the eldest son, and thus received all the love and the best resources.

"In reality, his talent is far inferior to yours!"

At first, Li Hua didn't believe it. 'After all... that's my own brother!' he'd thought. Though he was young, he understood the importance of family bonds.

But they said it again and again, for years on end... a constant whisper in his ear. Gradually, Li Hua started to believe it was all true.

Gradually... he began to hate his brother more and more.

It had escalated to the point where he now saw his own brother as his mortal enemy.

And yet, for some reason, this cold-blooded, merciless, golden-haired young man—his brother—was now giving him the strangest sense of security.

'Is he doing all this... for me?' Li Hua stood watching Li Ye, a strange emotion welling up in his heart.

Just then, the youth with the broken legs began to speak, his story tumbling out in a trembling, halting confession. Each and every detail reached Li Hua's ears with painful clarity.

At first, Li Hua couldn't quite believe it. But as the youth continued his tale, and the others, under Li Ye's menacing glare, added their own corroborations, Li Hua finally understood. He had been deceived by these people for more than a decade.

'So everything I ever heard was a lie!'

'So my brother... has always loved me very much!'

'So my parents weren't biased against me. They sent me to my master... because they thought my talent was greater!'

'So all these years, the resources I received were far more plentiful than my brother's... and of better quality!'

'Then... my hatred for my parents and brother all these years... it was all completely wrong. These people... they've been lying to me all along!'

'So the root of all this was just that Brother received the Ancestor's treasure, and they got jealous. They're afraid of him growing stronger and becoming their rival. They're afraid he'll compete with them for the position of Sect Leader of the Honglou Sect...'

'I've been so stupid!' Li Hua muttered. When he looked at the ashen-faced, cold young man again, tears were already streaming down his face. "Brother, I was wrong!"

The seventeen-year-old's knees gave way, and he collapsed to the ground before his brother.

"I didn't come looking for trouble, but you people wouldn't leave me alone..." Li Ye sighed, looking toward the heavens as a cold, murderous light began to flicker in his eyes. "In that case, let's see how this fight ends!"

With that, Li Ye stepped forward and pulled his brother to his feet. "A man kneels to Heaven and Earth, to his ancestors, and to his parents. He shouldn't kneel to anyone else, not even his own brother! You were wrong, but admitting it and changing is what matters. Now... do what you feel you must. Your brother is here to back you up!"

Li Hua felt a warm, strong hand pull him up. A warmth he had never known before surged from deep within his bones, making the blood in his veins boil!

Then, Li Hua turned his gaze to the people he had called his brothers since childhood.

They looked wretched, utterly miserable. A complex emotion flickered in Li Hua's eyes, a hint of a struggle. But then he thought about how these people, only a few years older than him, had been deceiving and brainwashing him since he was a child, turning him against his own family... An uncontrollable rage began to well up inside him, threatening to explode.

"Li Hua... you can't kill us! We're your brothers!"

"Li Hua, have you forgotten? When you were bullied as a kid, I was the one who helped you!"

"Brother Li Hua, we were just following orders! We had no choice..."

The men, who looked like pieces of charcoal, all knelt before Li Hua, kowtowing and begging for their lives. The one with the broken legs even scrambled and crawled, trying to grab ahold of Li Hua's leg.

Li Hua took a few steps back. "My brother just said that a man kneels to Heaven and Earth, to his ancestors, and to his parents. He shouldn't kneel to anyone else. You people have no backbone!"

"Yes, yes, you're right! We have no backbone! We're just a bunch of spineless worms! We're scum! Brother Li Hua, please, spare us! We'll never do it again!"

The group wept and wailed, begging for mercy again and again.

Li Ye stood off to the side, watching his brother dispassionately, showing no intention of intervening. At the same time, his gaze flickered toward a certain direction out of the corner of his eye.

His seemingly relaxed body was, in fact, tensed and ready.

'These young men are just small fry,' he thought. 'The real big fish has yet to show itself.'

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