The sounds of mourning passed through the windows into Ye Que’s ears.

He walked to the windows and gazed far away to the head of the Bridge of Long Life, shaped like a stone arch. He caught sight of Ye Yunhai wearing a mourning head dress and clothes of hemp. A huge coffin was following him from behind, and Xiao Huating was standing behind it humming a dirge softly. Further away behind them was an endless procession of mourners.

“Has someone from the General’s Manor passed away?” Ye Que thought instinctively before an idea struck him. “How many people are worthy enough of causing Ye Yunhai to put on mourning wear, and for Xiao Huating to hum an elegy? Aside from Ye Zhengru, I doubt anyone else has such influence.”

“Impossible!”

Ye Que rejected the idea because he had just seen Ye Zhengru a few days ago. Although the general’s body was indeed weak and he was afflicted with illness, Ye Que judged that he would not be in any risk of dying for the time being. If Ye Que had used his full powers, it was not impossible to have restored the general back to his original health.

Although Ye Que had no feelings toward his biological father, and he even hated him, he did not know why but his legs moved on their own accord, and he directly leaped out from the second storey of the Divine Sect Seminary onto the center of Yong’an Street.

Ye Que looked at the end of the street with a look of mixed expressions.

The funeral procession got closer and closer.

Ye Que did not display any intention of moving away until Ye Yunhai was about five meters from him. The latter raised his hand, and the entire procession stopped.

“The General’s Manor is holding a funeral procession, and idlers should step aside instantly,” one guard of General’s Manor shouted at Ye Que. “If you’re here to send the general off, please retreat to the side of the road.”

There was a little commotion due to the sudden halt of the funeral procession.

Ye Yunhai raised his head and looked in front of him. “It’s you?” he said.

“Who’s in the coffin?” Ye Que asked in a low tone.

Ye Yunhai looked at Ye Que. He was not surprised about his half-brother’s appearance, but he wondered why it took him so long to show himself. He had not shown himself at the manor for the past seven days, and neither did he offer incense to the old man nor tell anyone else that there was another young master of the General’s Manor.

Originally, he thought that Ye Que had already conceded and left. Who ever thought that he would be waiting here?

“My father, Ye Zhengru,” Ye Yunhai replied without any expression.

Hearing this answer, Ye Que paused while, and then he replied in a low tone, “Impossible. I saw him a few days ago. He has not reached the end of his life.”

“What a joke.”

“Would I lie about such a thing?” Ye Yunhai replied. His eyes were fixed on Ye Que, but he pointed behind. “The person lying in that coffin is my biological father. Would I be mistaken about that? The entire Luoyang City knows that my father had passed away, and you’re claiming that it’s impossible? What are you trying to achieve?”

“What was the cause of his death, then?” Ye Que asked.

“An old sickness relapsed and he died in the middle of the night suddenly.” Ye Yunhai replied without any hesitation. He had gave the same reason so many times over the past few days that even he began to believe that it was true.

One could begin to believe one’s lies after telling them too many times.

“I’ve seen him, and his old illness isn’t fatal, nor would it cause him to die in his sleep. It’s completely different from his true cause of death,” Ye Que said. His voice was uncharacteristically stubborn, and perhaps even he himself had not noticed that it was the first time he behaved in this manner.

“What do you mean by this? Would my father have been assassinated in his own home? Do you think anyone can sneak into the General’s Manor without alarming anyone?” Ye Yunhai said in a derisive tone.

“I didn’t say what the reason was, because I have not seen his body.”

“See the body? You want to see my father? You want to see the body of the Loyal and Honorable General?” Ye Yunhai asked coldly. “Who do you think you are? What right do you have to do that? Today is the day of my father’s burial, I don’t want to make things hard for you.”

“Get lost if you know what’s good for you.”

“Scram!”

In the face of Ye Yunhai’s insults, Ye Que did not move but slowly stretched out his fingers and pointed to the huge coffin not far away. “He told me that I can always acknowledge my ancestors.”

“I’m also a Ye,” Ye Que said, pointing to himself.

“I’ve all the right in the world to see him,” Ye Que said. His tone was unhurried but firm and resolute.

Ye Yunhai looked at the expression of Ye Que, and the corner of his mouth suddenly tilted up. “You finally said your purpose. You want to enter the General’s Manor, don’t you? You tried all means for a chance of acknowledging the ancestors, and now you even want to use my dead father to fool people!”

After a pause, Ye Yunhai continued, “Even if you are the father’s son, the Young Master of the General’s Manor, may I ask where have you been these past few days? My father has returned to Heaven, and as his son, I guarded his soul by his coffin for seven days.”

“You?”

“Where were you?”

“You didn’t even offer him any joss stick.”

“Do you think that you’re worthy of being called a Ye? Do you feel that you have the right to acknowledge your ancestors?”

“Today, in front of the elders of our Luoyang City, I, Ye Yunhai, swear before my father’s coffin that as long as I’m alive, the gates of the Ye Family will never be open to you.”

Ye Yunhai spoke firmly, and his words were powerful.

They were as sharp as swords.

Cutting words.

The citizens of Luoyang City that stood at both sides of the street began to point and speak about Ye Que after they heard Ye Yunhai. In life, one had to be filial to one’s parents. In death, one had to bury them correctly and perform the necessary rituals to remember them.

“That is to say, no matter what, you will not let me see him today?” Ye Que asked.

“Get lost if you know what’s good for you.”

“I won’t repeat the same words a third time.”

Ye Que was still indifferent and did not move at all, Ye Yunhai snorted, “On account that we bear the same surname, I don’t wish for any blood to be shed on the day my father is going to be buried. Don’t force my hand.”

“Men.”

Ye Yunhai shouted, and a team of soldiers dressed in white stepped out in an orderly fashion from the vast procession behind him. They eyes were bloodshot.

The air around them seemed to have frozen. Most people had heard the youths clearly. Ye Que claimed to be the legendary illegitimate son of the late Ye Zhengru, and that he wanted to take a final look at his father on the very day he was going to be buried; he did not believe that the general had suffered a relapse and died in his sleep. Ye Yunhai, however, had not agreed and did not even acknowledge Ye Que as his half-brother.

They were flesh and blood who shared the same father!

Why would two brothers be in a hurry to kill each other?

Normally, Ye Que would have given in. At this moment, he stubbornly refused to let go from the center of the street.

Was it necessary to start a battle between life and death?

At this moment, at the corner of the other direction of the Divine Sect Seminary, a young boy ran over, very fast, with all his might.

The man went straight to Ye Que and didn’t slow down until he reached his side. He even poked Ye Que’s elbow, saying, “Wait, wait.”

The person who came here was Qian Shuxiao. He gasped and stretched out his hand and said “wait” to Ye Yunhai, but his face was facing Ye Que, back to everyone. He opened his mouth but no words came out. “Leave first, there’s some insider news,” he said eventually.