บท 5: Wind Move Guard
บรรณาธิการ: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As Jiang Chen was recovering his meridians, the winter hunt was coming closer and closer.
The quarrel between the west and east courtyard had been known in the whole Southwind Ridge. Many rumors had arisen.
Fan Tu's recovery had made the east courtyard less passive. And many people loyal to the east courtyard felt greatly eased.
However, Fan Tu was only one man. It was far from enough just relying on him. Huge amounts of people were needed in the east courtyard.
Since they suffered such a great loss in the Black Dragon City that day…
As a result, Gao Yue went in person to the Sus living in the Whitewater City to ask for help.
The Sus was a family from the Hundred Thousand Mountains, not as powerful as the Jiang Mansion, but powerful enough to lend them a hand for an extreme urgency.
Their eldest daughter was engaged to Jiang Chen. The two families were relatives by marriage. So there was no big problem to get help from them.
On the day of the winter hunt, Jiang Chen finally had all of his damaged meridians fully recovered. It had taken him a fortnight, no more and no less.
But he only achieved the Cloud Six, instead of the Cloud Nine as he had imagined.
This was actually nothing unusual, since such a great injury resulted in the previous Jiang Chen's death, for sure his genuine Qi was greatly lost.
He had to continue practicing so that his state would be enhanced.
""Besides the Scripture of Spirit Nurturing, any practice method that I know will drive the Nine Heavens Continent crazy.""
But he didn't rush to practice.
Since he had to prepare for the winter hunt…
He took a look at the daybreak and wanted to have some more sleep.
Jiang Chen's face turned to a terrible look instantly. He was feeling an unendurable hotness, as if his blood and flesh were burning. The most horrifying part was that he felt as if there were a hand digging in his body.
""What's going on? Could there be any problem?""
No matter how many theoretical knowledge he had, it was the first time for Jiang Chen to practice. He was totally taken by surprise.
Luckily, no other bad feelings other than some discomfort for now.
In a moment his meridians got pressured to some extent, but Jiang Chen showed an ecstatic face.
It felt like a new meridian was growing in this body.
If he wasn't wrong, this new meridian was exactly the holy pulse.
""Hahaha, the Nings must have been too lame to take away the holy pulse completely.""
It was like reaping Chinese chives. The Nings only took away the top part other than the root, so it totally could be recovered.
""It's true. It's no easy to transplant the holy pulse. How would the trivial Nings from the Nine Heavens Continent be qualified to do that? However, they caused that poor guy's tragic death."" Jiang Chen thought.
In addition, it was Ning Haotian who got the holy pulse. The holy pulse in his body would only exist temporarily. It would disappear soon.
But it was a pity that the holy pulse cannot be recovered once and for all. Instead, one pulse grows after another. The pulse growing in him now was extending to his throat from his Dantian area, which made him feel like to puke.
With the holy pulse, not only the progress of practice would be brought forward greatly, Jiang Chen also found a powerful advantage.
Besides many practice methods, he also remembered lots of secret methods.
The Scripture of Spirit Nurturing was a secret method. This kind of method would make his body indestructible, able to resist fire and water, and even grow out three heads and six arms.
The method to take in the spirits of the universe is a practice method.
Besides, to adopt a secret method requires you to enhance your state.
For example, Tai Ji Wan, what was on Jiang Chen's mind now, is a secret method aiming at your genuine Qi.
Manipulating the genuine Qi in a spiral way will have much more power than the normal way.
However, this method requires the practicer to be in the Mind Wander State, since the spiral genuine Qi will hurt the practicer's merdidians. Only by achieving the Mind Wander State will the practicer experience a thorough change and will his meridians be able to bear the tearing of that kind.
But now, he only had one holy pulse.
Oh, holy pulse!
If he couldn't achieve this, it would be impossible to get the complete holy pulse.
""I can take advantage of the winter hunt to practice!""
Jiang Chen lost the desire to sleep. He sat up and got off the bed, changed into his hunting outfit.
He saw Fan Tu, who was about to go somewhere, when he left the room.
"Uncle Fan, how is the east courtyard going recently?"
"Not very good. The west courtyard keeps expanding. It's said that they are going to swallow us up before the spring festival."
"We can do nothing about it. Don't blame yourself for that, Uncle Fan. Let's see whether mother could bring some help."
Jiang Chen found that everyone in the east courtyard, even servants and maids, was in a low mood. The atmosphere was extremely depressing.
It seemed all of them had lost hope.
In these people's opinions, even though the property of the east courtyard could be kept, still, Jiang Chen would be unable to practice. Unless their lord was released from the Black Dragon Pool, otherwise the hands would be changed in the east courtyard.
""If I don't do well enough in the winter hunt, the west courtyard for sure will push us to move out. Fortunately, I've regained the Cloud Six. It's my show time.""
…
The winter hunt was an annual tradition of the Jiang Mansion. All adult disciples had to participate in it. Different awards would be given according to their performance.
The mountain behind the Jiang Mansion was where the hunt took place. All disciples had to gather on the lawn at the foot of the mountain before noon.
When Jiang Chen arrived, many disciples of the Jiang Mansion were already there.
Although we were talking about the disciples of the Jiang Mansion, actually they were the excellent youngsters of the whole Southwind Ridge. They were all from ordinary families. As a result they didn't dress in such a fancy way like the children and young ladies from the mansion.
These disciples were very surprised to see Jiang Chen. Recently there were many rumors about what had happened to the east courtyard, among which Jiang Chen was the center of people's attention.
As people already knew, most of his meridians were damaged and his state went back to the Cloud Two. In their eyes he had no chance to rally for his whole life.
The awkward thing was that he had to take part in the winter hunt since he had turned adult this year.
The hunting result usually represents one's status in the mansion.
In addition, Jiang Chen was the child of the east courtyard.
Considering the current situation of the east courtyard, Jiang Chen was in an awkward dilemma as to whether to come or not.
But he had chosen to come, which was quite admiring.
However, some people were quite scornful of him.
"I cannot believe he has really come."
"After all, he is an adult now. If he doesn't come, it only means that he is a disabled man."
"But what's the point to push himself to come? He was brought back like a dead dog."
Unpleasant gossips kept cropping up around him. The harsh words were all coming from the disciples of the west courtyard. As to the east courtyard, the disciples were suffering a low morale. Some of them were looking at Jiang Chen in a blaming manner.
Probably they were thinking that if Jiang Chen hadn't been found to have a holy pulse, no disasters would have happened to the east courtyard, let alone his father's imprisonment.
…
In previous years it was the lord of the mansion who hosted the hunt. Sometimes there were special occasions in which one of the four lords of the courtyard would host on behalf of him.
However, this time it was the Second Elder of the Jiang Mansion who host the hunt.
He was an old man over 50, with an experienced face, a pair of deep, bright and piercing eyes.
He was very well respected in the Jiang Mansion, famous for his rigidity. All of the disciples of the Jiang Mansion there were standing far away from him.
In addition, a team of Wind Move Guard was also on the lawn. They were the elite forces of Jiang Mansion. Each and every one of them was tall and strong, in black armour and having a cloak hanging down from the shoulder until the floor.
They were fully armed, with longbows and arrow bags on back and long knives in hand.
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