Chapter 14 Letter From the Xiao Sec (1/2)
Chapter 14 – Letter From the Xiao Sect
It was early morning. The sky had barely begun to brighten when the master of the Xiao Clan, Xiao Yunhai, was woken from his deep sleep by the sound of urgent knocking on his door. “Clan master! Clan master, are you awake?”
Xiao Yunhai opened his eyes, took a glance at the light outside and then asked, with a frown: “This early in the morning, what happened?”
“It’s… it’s the Xiao… Xiao Sect! A letter from the Xiao Sect!” From outside the door came this excited, trembling voice.
“What? The Xiao Sect?!”
This master of the Xiao Clan, one of the most powerful people in Floating Cloud City, sprung up from his bed as if stabbed by a dagger on the butt. He haphazardly threw on his clothes and, not even bothering to straighten his hair, threw open the door hastily, grabbing the Xiao Clan disciple that was outside. He bellowed with wide eyes: “You said the Xiao Sect? The Xiao Sect?!”
“Yes! It’s definitely the Xiao Sect!” That Xiao Clan disciple swallowed with great difficulty, nodded with all his strength, and then presented the letter in his hand to Xiao Yunhai. “This letter has the eagle seal of the Xiao Sect! In this Blue Wind Empire, no one would dare to forge the Xiao Sect’s insignia.”
As soon as he saw the sky hawk seal on the letter, Xiao Yunhai’s entire body shook. He fiercely grabbed the letter, then, with violently shaking hands, quickly but carefully tore it open to reveal the paper within.
Although the Xiao Sect’s name had only one word of difference if compared to his Xiao Clan, that one word was like the difference between the clouds and mud! The Xiao Clan barely counted as the leading presence in Floating Cloud City, but on the Profound Sky Continent as a whole, it was simply a nameless existence. However the Xiao Sect is one of the four strongest sects in the Blue Wind Empire! They have the same level of prestige as the Heavenly Sword Villa, Frozen Cloud Asgard, and the Burning Heaven Clan. They were an existence that the Xiao Clan could not even hope to look up to.
To put it bluntly, a useless servant in the Xiao Sect would not even find it necessary to respect the Xiao Clan’s master.
However, there was a connection between the Xiao Clan and the Xiao Sect. That is because the person that founded Floating Cloud City’s Xiao Clan one hundred and sixty years ago, Xiao Bieli, was at the time a person from the Xiao Sect… To be more precise, he was an abandoned disciple, and, as rumor had it, the son of one of the elders at the time. However, Xiao Bieli was the result of that elder raping one of the Xiao Sect’s serving girls while drunk. Since childhood, his appearance was ordinary and his talent was lacking. Furthermore he attracted a large amount of gossip, causing that elder a great amount of displeasure. Upon reaching adulthood, his profound strength was the lowest among all of his peers. To let him remain at the Xiao Sect would only cause that elder more humiliation so he found an opportunity to send him to that piece of shit place, the rural Floating Cloud City and helped him establish the Xiao Clan. From then on he paid no more attention to Xiao Bieli and cut off all contact between them and the Xiao Sect.
But Xiao Bieli nevertheless was born in the proud Xiao Sect. He spent his entire life painstakingly cultivating his profound strength, hoping to gain recognition, and thus one day earn their approval and one day return to Xiao Sect. After he died, this desire was passed down through the Xiao Clan from one generation to the next, and became ultimate goal of every generation of the Xiao Clan. Especially among each generation’s clan master, all without exception hoped that they could rely on the tiny bit of Xiao Sect blood in them to establish a relationship, no matter how fragile, with the Xiao Sect. But after all these years, the Xiao Clan never produced a person that could fulfill this wish. Talk of the Xiao Sect to them was like that of the Celestial Palace, something that they couldn’t even hope to reach.
However, today, the Xiao Sect had taken the initiative to send a letter! This couldn’t fail to send Xiao Yunhai into joyful hysteria, the excitement making him feel as if he was in a dream.
After reading the letter’s contents word by word, Xiao Yunhai’s face was completely red, his breathing erratic. He pointed a trembling finger outside, hoarsely saying: “Quickly… quickly inform the elders to immediately gather at the main hall! Tell them we need to discuss big news concerning the future of our Xiao Clan… Go quick!”
“Ah… Yes!” The Xiao Clan disciple immediately answered and ran off in a panic.
………………………………………………
Xiao Che carefully opened the door, crimson blanket in hand, only to find that Xia Qingyue was already sitting beside the bed, awake and dressed. Her beautiful eyes that were as calm as water, watched him without even a tiny ripple.
Xiao Che immediately tossed the blanket on the table. With a face not red and a heart not racing, he calmly asked: “Wife, you’re up so early. Did you sleep well last night?”
“You’re not going to first tell me where you went last night?” Xia Qingyue faintly asked, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly.
“No need.” Xiao Che stretched his body and then started to straighten his hair using the mirror: “Because I know you definitely aren’t interested.”
Xia Qingyue: “……”
Although he fell asleep at the rear mountains with Xiao Lingxi last night, when he woke up, his mood was unusually good. After he straightened out his clothes and hair slightly, returning to his pretty boy image. Xiao Che stood up to leave and said: “Let’s go. It’s the morning of the first day, we have to go pay our respects to grandfather… This you won’t refuse, right?”
Xia Qingyue stood without a word and stepped out of the door ahead of him. Xiao Che loosened his shoulders and quickly followed her out.
Xiao Lie woke up early every day, and today was no exception. Upon entering Xiao Lie’s courtyard, the first thing they saw was him watering his flowers and plants. As he saw Xiao Che and Xia Qingyue enter, he gently smiled. “You came.”
Under Xiao Lie’s attentive gaze, Xiao Che quickly reached out and held Xia Qingyue’s small hand in his own. Xiao Qingyue’s hand was soft and smooth, yet also cool to the touch, perhaps because she was trained in the Frozen Cloud Arts. Xia Qingyue’s entire body stiffened. Right before she was about to yank her hand free from Xiao Che, she noticed Xiao Lie’s gaze, and had no choice but to quietly tolerate it. She let Xiao Che walk to Xiao Lie with her, hand in hand.