765 I Trust You’ve Been Well (1/2)

Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes and saw the faint light of dawn.

It seemed that he had been dreaming for a long time. That d*mn Hermes had appeared in the dream, as well as the first pope. But for some reason, although he also appeared in the dream, he did not seem like himself.

He still remembered a few episodes from the beginning, but when he got up the broken and chaotic fragments quickly melted in his memory.

”D*mn it...” Ye Qingxuan rubbed his forehead. He was still a little sleepy. Although he had slept the whole night he still felt like he had stayed up late.

The sound of the carriage rocking continued, and a loud clamor from outside.

He opened the curtain and saw refugees in ragged clothes on both sides of the road. Most of the hundreds of refugees had no shoes, and they walked barefooted through the mud that was frozen with morning dew, their meager body temperature turning it into soft soil as they trampled over it.

The morning dew made them shiver.

In just a quarter of an hour, many fights broke out over food.

Some people walked until they could walk no more, then fall beside the road.

A child was crying.

Even so, none of them dared get in front of Ye Qingxuan's carriage. When they saw his white hair they kneeled on the ground and did not dare to look up until he had passed by.

”What's going on?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

The driver he had hired was quite courageous and did not kneel to him. He looked back and said, ”My Lord, these people are all victims.”

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a while.

He already understood.

For the past couple of days, all he had seen were desolate cities and towns. It had been a thousand miles of empty towns and villages occupied by bandits. Even the bandits looked sickly, and could barely hold their knives.

These people had abandoned their land because they feared the calamity of war and had become refugees fluent in the ways of the wilderness. There were also wealthy households that had fled hardship. They had equipped their strong servants with swords, and they worked together to form a team as they drove along the muddy road.

They were trying to stay far away from the flames of war.

Ye Qingxuan sighed softly and shook his head to dispel the unrealistic myths that were in his dream from his mind. He stared at the tragic scene before him.

This was reality.

He pulled the curtain back.

There was nothing he could do about this.

At a time like this, when money could not buy food, it had been difficult for him and his driver to obtain food for their horse.

What was funny was that Ye Qingxuan had done a good job facing the world's heroes, but now those heroes were busy with their own affairs and had no time for him.

Everywhere they went, musicians trembled with fear and kept their distance, none of them daring to block him. There were even those who had prepared supplies for him so that he could be on his way all the quicker.

This carriage had been given to him by someone else.

Since coming to the East, Ye Qingxuan had felt a sense of alienation entangle him. Although this was his homeland, everyone looked at him like he was an outsider.

Even in war and calamity, they wanted to have nothing to do with him.

They just kept their distance.

They pretended he didn't exist.

Their attitude of not cooperating and ignoring him was extremely irritating.

Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes and tapped his fingers on his seat.

He didn't mind others not treating him with proper respect. Besides slighting and keeping their distance, they didn't dare do anything, not even daring to look straight at him.

All he wanted to do was take Bai Xi away.

He didn't care about anything else.

Soon, a sound came from outside the carriage.

”Sir, we can't go forward anymore.”

Ye Qingxuan opened the curtain and saw the refugees surging in front of him. The sound of crying and shouting came from them. Amidst the chaos, the towering city gate before them was shut firmly. Cliffs hung high on both sides, and armored soldiers looked down on them with cold eyes, bows in hand and quivers filled with arrows.

Above the gate, the musician who defended the city yelled angrily, and the sounds of bowstrings tightening merged into one. Under this deadly threat, the refugees surged backward like a tide, no longer daring to go forward.

Finally, everyone saw Ye Qingxuan heading towards the gate.

They felt his gentle and majestic wave of aether, and aether that was difficult for ordinary people to detect spread out. The faces of the musician defending the city changed.

”Halt where you are, or we will kill you under the full authority of the law!”

”Why can't we come through?” Ye Qingxuan's voice rang out before him, still clear over the distance between them.

The musician defending the city's expression changed a bit, but his teeth were still gritted. ”These rebels bring bandits with them! If we open the gates even a little there will be chaos! The gate is shut for the security of the nation. Without orders from the higher-ups, no one can pass...”

Ye Qingxuan frowned, lifted his hand, and threw the signet toward the gate. It was proof of his identity that the Emperor of Aurora had bestowed on him all those years ago in the Sacred City.

”If the Emperor's decree has not changed, then I am still a noble of the Empire of Aurora, the head of the Ye family… Even I can't pass?”

All was silent. At that moment darkness flashed before the musician's eyes.

The head of the Ye family?

Wait, hadn't the Ye family been destroyed decades ago?

But the signet before him was unmistakably conferred by His Highness himself. But now weren't the Nine Families of the Dragon Bloodline in rebellion? And the nobles of the Nine Families had clearly been ruined…

Maybe he didn't know yet?

No, the one who was coming had already achieved a Scepter, so it was absolutely impossible that he would be that stupid.

Or was this one of Bai Heng's tricks?

For a moment the musician who was guarding the city's thoughts spun. He could not understand Ye Qingxuan's reason for coming, and his level was absolutely not high enough to spread the message among the many Scepter musicians. He quickly remembered the orders he had received yesterday. He gritted his teeth, hardened his heart and through the signet aside.