1885 – A cloud of dense fog

“Old sirs, please pause for a moment, that’s not what I meant.” Ye Yunduan gave a calm smile. “How could I possibly forget Monarch Ye’s life-saving grace? I just wanted to discuss this on its own merits, that’s all. After all, at the present stage they’re the only ones who don’t have any movements. I know we’re obliged to the Monarch’s Hall, but isn’t this a fact?!”

Old Man Guan rolled his eyes. “How is this different from just now when you said that not having a loss is precisely having an advantage? Not moving can place great suspicion on them, but if they had moved, how are they not already wicked beyond redemption? It’s nothing more than a desire to add guilt!”

“Hehehe…” Ye Yunduan had a fit of hollow, forced laughter. Immediately he used an even more sincere manner to state, “Today’s matter is indeed very important, it could even be said to be an unprecedented crisis of the Ye Family forces. Yunduan wants to say the truth here…”

Old Man Guan coldly said, “Who doesn’t yet know that the present situation is not wonderful? You have some more words you want to say, could it be that anyone still won’t let you speak the truth?!”

Ye Yunduan’s eyes were cold. He said in a sinking voice, “Good, then I was at fault formerly. If I’ve said something offensive, these few old men please forgive me! Until now, I have one matter that I’m extremely puzzled by, and I would like the seven oldsters to give me a straightforward reply.”

“Don’t be so troublesome, just say it straightforward!” Old Man Qin said lightly. However, the expression in his eyes turned very vigilant, similar to guarding against a thief, as he stared at Ye Yunduan.

In his mind, Ye Yunduan immediately choked again, but the smile on his face did not change. With exceptional sincerity, he asked, “That Monarch’s Hall’s Monarch Ye, indeed is a hero. But what I’m exceptionally puzzled by, so much so that in my mind I’m rather uncomfortable and even jealous… is that every time you mention him, this Ye feels all… cough cough cough, at least it’s the case that in you seven’s hearts, the difference between me and that Ye Xiao is very big… Could it be that there’s just that much of a disparity between me and Ye Xiao?”

Hearing him admit he was jealous of Ye Xiao, the seven old men were all a bit embarrassed. Regarding Ye Yunduan’s question, though, they felt unable to reply. You just straight up asking us totally makes us feel awkward, how is that good?

As for the disparity, it’s not really big like that…

It’s not that we aren’t willing to reply to your question, it’s that we’re afraid to injure you young fellow’s self-esteem, is that good?

Between you two, this so-called disparity actually doesn’t exist!

After all, one was in the heavens above and the other in the ground below. How far was the distance separating the heavens and earth? Who knows how to tactfully describe that there is no comparison between them?!

“Even if you had a strong first impression of him, but… we have been host and guests thoroughly enjoying ourselves for over two years now…” Ye Yunduan continued complaining. “That Ye Xiao, is he really that good?”

The seven old men looked down their noses at the ground, the whole room went silent in a moment with no one making a sound.

Indeed, they really didn’t know how to say the truth, that he really was that good! It really was enough to hurt someone!

“Cough cough cough…”

After a long time, Old Man Song finally supported his other few old brothers after seeing them all avoid each other. He braced himself to stand out, deliberately choosing his words one at a time, saying, “Young Master Yunduan, we have been watching together… this one part, I can’t deny is outstanding…”

“But we also watched Monarch Ye’s ability grow and mature all along…”

“Looking at both sides and saying who is strong and who is weak, this question… this, this…” Old Man Song kept repeating, as he couldn’t think of a good way of expressing it. Could it be that I really must explain: Ye Xiao is so much stronger compared to you… how are you compared to Ye Xiao at all? Knowing or not knowing something has no comparison, how can it not hurt? Insisting on comparing is precisely malicious!

How is this not evidently committing an offence?

Stammering as he thought for a long time, he finally remembered, damn! Weren’t we discussing the question of who shifted the blame? This isn’t important right now, how did we get off track way over here?

Complexion whole, he said, “Your question simply just isn’t the important thing here, the reason why we disapprove of your theory is because… that is just absolutely not possible. It’s precisely because you’re jealous that you resolutely hung on to someone not capable and not relevant, making a reluctant connection, so much so that launching against that target would only be a waste of resources and work to no avail… yes?”

The other six old men were as if they awoke from a dream, and each and every one of them nodded their heads again and again. “Exactly, exactly! Boss Song said it spot on, providing food for thought, and now we should in this way return to the matter at hand!”

“Currently we are already at confronting the motive of this extremely dangerous shifting of blame. We will research what response is proper, but this requires very, very careful discussion… if we do otherwise, we’ll immediately face possibly the entire Human Realm Upon Heavens’ hostility.”

Arriving at this point, Old Man Song glanced at Ye Yunduan, his eyes resentful of the iron for not becoming steel. “At this crucial point in time, Young Master Yunduan, despite everything, insists on involving us in this matter that has no reason, no foundation, no origin. It depends on me to say that the most important thing for Young Master Yunduan to do at present is precisely to get your jealousy under control. Youngsters being competetive is not a bad thing, but you have to take a look at the occasion.”

The other six oldsters nodded together. “Right, right… At this kind of time, it’s because jealousy of virtuous and capable people can delay major events, failing to divide between private and public, that’s the thing that a military commander needs to abstain from the most.”

Ye Yunduan nearly fainted at this.

Who… was jealous of virtuous and capable people!?

I… am failing to divide between private and public?!

Hearing these seven old fellows’ tones, it was very clear, Ye Xiao was precisely that ‘virtuous, capable’ person, and him being jealous of virtuous and capable people… in that way, it was saying that he was precisely an ordinary person, someone jealous of virtuous and capable people, someone incapable of dividing between public and private, a mistake-making small-minded military commander trying to abstain.

Like this, Ye Yunduan at last thoroughly understood the positions that he and Ye Xiao were at in the hearts of the seven family heads!

Ye Xiao was equal to a virtuous, capable sage!

Great Sage, Great Achiever!

He himself was equal to an ordinary person, a tacky, vulgar, narrow-minded person, so much so that he was a contemptable and nasty small character…

Arriving at this understanding, Ye Yunduan choked back a mouthful of blood.

Seven ignorant old fellows, this really is extreme bullying!

Little had he imagined those true positions in the hearts of the seven oldsters were actually like that. If you say that Ye Xiao is a virtuous and capable person, say that you, Ye Yunduan, are an ordinary person, that shows great regard to you, extreme regard to you, that you have the qualifications to compete!

En, generally speaking, he came to a firm conclusion!

Appears to be, as if, seems like, perhaps, probably, not too different is like that just a bit bullying the ordinary person, but the fact was that it was precisely like this. They still didn’t let a person speak the truth, speak genuine words?!

You, Ye Yunduan, are just not speaking the truth a moment ago, is this not what you are saying!?

Seeing that Ye Yunduan’s complexion looked a little bad and was completely incapable of disentangling himself, to the side a Ye Family Elder hurriedly came out to smooth things over, saying, “Right now our top priority is still how to respond to the way we’ve been framed by shifting blame… This is no small matter.”

Thus, everyone continued back on target, launching the discussion on the shifting of blame.

However, as they discussed, from the beginning to the end they didn’t have the slightest clue.

“In the end who killed all these people? Who has this kind of great style?”

“That super expert who took action, where did they come from?”

“Outside the fact that the person who took action’s strength was overly strong, even more important is that they moved to target all five regions’ manpower simultaneously. They completely uprooted them all without overlooking anyone, this information we know is accurate, and it’s also significant, we shouldn’t disregard it!”

…

The more they discussed it, the more everyone was depressed to the point of wanting to commit suicide.

They simply didn’t have the slightest trace of a clue to connect…

At the minimum they still didn’t have a direction for their response, yet again how could they discuss how to make the balance!?

Right now, the present circumstances in the Limitless Ocean was precisely that many experts from the five skies had all died here. The Ye Family forces exactly responded with one sentence: Yellow mud dropped inside of trousers, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t crap, it’s still crap.