Nine Star Hegemon Body Art c1-2048
Page 939
Tu Qianshang’s expression immediately turned purple. He was someone who had escaped the mundane world. Other than wine and his saber, he had nothing else. What was he supposed to give a little girl as a gift?
He knew Long Chen did this on purpose. This was the revenge for his greeting.
“Chen-er, don’t be rude. You’re the one with the thick face. Gifts are supposed to be given freely by others. How can you demand a gift from others?” said Mrs. Long.
Tu Qianshang was extremely grateful to her. He accompanied them to the High Priest’s residence.
“Long Chen, you’re not doing too bad for yourself. The entire Eastern Xuan Region is in chaos because of you. Compared to you, what I did back in my day was nothing more than a small scuffle.” Tu Qianshang gave Long Chen a thumbs-up
Compared to the other disciples of the Wine God Palace, Tu Qianshang was more connected to the rest of the world. He had a certain understanding of the news sweeping through the continent.
Long Chen’s name had long since shaken the entire Eastern Xuan Region. Even these wine cultivators who didn’t care about the rest of the world had heard of it.
Back in his day, Tu Qianshang had gotten revenge on the ancient races for the death of his brother.
Now, Long Chen was hunted by the entire world. His enemies didn’t just include the ancient races, but also the Righteous path, Corrupt path, ancient family alliance, Bloodkill Hall, and so on.
The most shocking thing was that he had even destroyed a Pill Tower. That was a vicious slap to Pill Valley’s face. So even Tu Qianshang praised Long Chen’s guts.
Previously, whenever Tu Qianshang mentioned how he had fought against the ancient races and exterminated quite a few of them, he had been quite prideful. But now he found that this pride was a joke in front of Long Chen.
“Hehe, I was just blindly messing around. Is the Wine God Palace doing well these days?” Long Chen intentionally changed the subject.
He didn’t want to talk about this here. If it was just the two of them, he naturally wouldn’t mind bragging a bit. But right now, his mother was present. He didn’t want to worry her.
Tu Qianshang wasn’t a fool and immediately understood. He said, “It’s thanks to you. Your medicinal wine formulas have benefitted us greatly. Speaking of which, how was the realm of my greeting?”
“Not bad!” Long Chen forced himself to say this.
“What? What is that supposed to mean?” Long Chen’s reply was very unsatisfactory to Tu Qianshang.
“Do you really need me to say it? Fine, what I mean is, amongst everyone, your progress is the slowest. The attack of yours contained the peak of the Yang path. It was fierce and domineering, but it only contained the slightest trace of the soft, Yin side. If I wasn’t familiar with you, I wouldn’t have even been able to sense it. So I said not bad, mostly because I’ve drunk so much of your wine. I just feel bad criticizing you,” said Long Chen helplessly.
Although Long Chen’s cultivation base was not as high as Tu Qianshang’s, his eyesight was very sharp. Tu Qianshang had always pursued the domineering Yang side, wanting to push that Yang side to the peak. Such a path was limited.
So when Long Chen had prepared the medicinal wine formulas for him, he had added in the softer Yin side. These wine formulas had even been praised by the High Priest, and he had said that they were very suitable for Tu Qianshang.
Unfortunately, this was incredibly difficult for Tu Qianshang. It was like asking a fierce butcher to put down his blade, and wield handkerchiefs in a graceful and light dance. That sight was practically unimaginable.
So even after all this time, Tu Qianshang had only progressed very slightly on that path. His progress was the slowest amongst the Wine God Palace’s disciples. His character was just too fierce, and it was difficult to change it.
“Then what should I do?” demanded Tu Qianshang, vexed. He naturally understood the reasoning behind this, but he just wasn’t capable of doing so.
“Perhaps you should find a female fatty to study with you.” Long Chen shrugged. He raised his eyebrows a couple of times. That appearance, it was a bit… yes, a bit wretched.
“Are you serious?” Tu Qianshang was stunned.
“What, do you think I would trick you?”
“But… the Wine God Palace’s are prohibited from marrying,” said Tu Qianshang.
“What? How are you so perverted? What I was saying is, you should find a woman to discuss the Dao with. You should learn from each other, one man and woman, one Yin and one Yang, one soft and one hard. Yin and Yang cannot exist without each other. You need to learn how to control Yin energy, and to do that, you need to learn what Yin is, what softness is. It’s not like I was telling you to do that. How are you so dirty-minded? What are you thinking about all day?” demanded Long Chen disdainfully.
Tu Qianshang glared at him, knowing that he had been conned again.
“Young friend Long Chen, you really are the blessing of my Wine God Palace.”
Long Chen came to a stop. He realized that they had arrived in front of the High Priest’s residence without him noticing. The lean and hearty High Priest looked the same as ever and was standing outside.
Seeing him actually come out to greet him, Long Chen hastily bowed. Long Tianxiao, Mrs. Long, and Xiaoyu followed suit.
When Long Chen stated his true purpose in coming here, the High Priest laughed, “My Wine God Palace hasn’t had guests staying long-term for a long time. Just like you said, Yin and Yang cannot exist on their own. We must be both apart from the world and a part of the world. The Wine God Palace has been cheerless lately, and having a few guests will be good. I will represent the Wine God Palace in welcoming our new guests. Hong Yan, bring our respected guests for a tour.”
A female disciple appeared and smilingly held Xiaoyu’s hand as she led Long Chen’s family away to familiarize themselves with their new home.
“Many thanks, High Priest.” Long Chen gratefully bowed.
Long Chen was especially grateful now. The Wine God Palace was supposed to be a pure cultivation land for wine, and it never allowed outsiders in. The High Priest was entirely giving him face.
Originally, with Long Chen’s pride, he would never beg others. But within the entire continent, only the Wine God Palace had the power to guarantee his family’s protection, and the High Priest hadn’t hesitated to agree. Long Chen made sure to remember this favor.
“Come in.” The High Priest smiled and beckoned Long Chen into his residence. He took out a jar of wine and poured out two cups, handing one to Long Chen.
Long Chen gratefully received it with two hands. Looking at the wine, he cried out in shock, “High Priest, you… you succeeded?”
Long Chen saw that the wine had countless small bubbles flowing within it naturally. They were flowing slowly but never paused, revolving according to a profound trajectory. It was like the transformations of heaven and earth were represented within it.
“It can’t count as a success. It’s just an initial advance, and it’s thanks to your help. Your brazen ideas and inferences were what gave me the insights to break through my bottleneck and advance once more. Don’t you want to taste it?” The High Priest smiled warmly.
Long Chen took a sip of the wine and almost choked. Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, all the flavors of life were intertwining. This flavor was overwhelming.
This definitely couldn’t count as fine wine, but it couldn’t count as bad wine either. It was almost impossible to swallow.
However, when it entered his stomach, the wine began to circulate in it, and then streams of energy flowed through his body.
What shocked him was that his 108,000 stars activated on their own to absorb the wine energy.
At the same time, streams of energy entered his mind, and it immediately became empty. He entered a state of total enlightenment. His thought process became incomparably clear, and he almost seemed to grasp some kind of profound law. That feeling was indescribable.<
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“Good wine!”
After an unknown amount of time, Long Chen slowly opened his eyes.
Chapter 1525 Time Sensitive Mission
“Oh? What about it is good?” asked the High Priest with a smile.
“It’s good in that… it’s free.” Long Chen also smiled.
“Hahaha,” laughed the High Priest.
“Hehe, it was just a joke. If I were to compare your wine to a painting, then last time, the wine you gave me was a vast masterpiece containing every aspect of the world and endless profundities. However, my cultivation base was too low to comprehend those profundities. Yet this time, you didn’t give me a painting but a white piece of paper. You also provided every possible color of the paint. The first one was too profound for me to understand, and even if I did, I would only be able to copy it. But now you’ve given me my own canvas and paint, along with the hundred flavors of life, so I can plot and extrapolate my own Dao onto it. I can clearly sense the difference between the two realms contained within your first and second wines. The former was a shaped demonstration, while the latter is a shapeless teaching.”
Last time, because the High Priest’s wine contained a realm that was far too distant from his level, Long Chen could only feel that he was extremely minute, and he didn’t gain anything.
This time, the High Priest’s realm had clearly increased to a whole new level. Before, his wine was vast like a sea, surging with such power that only peerless experts could control it. Now, his wine was a clear spring, and the water could be drawn up at will. Although the opening to the spring looked small, who knew how vast the source of its water was? Who would dare to say for sure that the source of the spring was not just as vast as a sea?
One looked vast, but while it looked big, it had to have an end.
The other looked smaller and more reserved, but had a limitless foundation. The possibilities that existed for it were limitless.
“Hahaha, no wonder you were capable of shaking the entire Eastern Xuan Region. This perception is quite terrifying. I gave all my Wine God Palace’s disciples a chance to taste this new wine, but none of them were capable of putting it like this,” praised the High Priest.
“Hehe, that’s because I’m examining it from the viewpoint of someone outside the Wine Dao. When I drink this wine, I am a blank piece of paper. But their papers already have their colors on them, which have restricted their cultivation paths. That’s why they can only see things related to their own paths. High Priest, this wine is a priceless treasure to me. This state of clear-mindedness can allow me to extrapolate many things. So about that…” Long Chen laughed mischievously, his meaning obvious.
The High Priest laughed, “Even if we had no relationship, I would have to reward you for evaluating the essence of my wine. Tell me, how much do you want?”
“Hehe, you know me. I’m not greedy. However much you want to give, I’ll take.” Long Chen’s skin was definitely as thick as a city wall.
In one way, it sounded like Long Chen wouldn’t mind no matter how much the High Priest gave, but the real meaning was that Long Chen wanted as much as he could have.
The High Priest didn’t mind. He took out two-foot-tall jugs. “This wine is extremely difficult to make. Of nine jugs, six failed and are essentially poison wine. Only three succeeded. If you like it, you can take them all.”
This wine was so difficult to make that even the High Priest wasn’t able to have a high success rate from creating it. The poison wine’s realm had become muddled, and a person who drank might become insane.
“Many thanks, High Priest.” Long Chen was delighted. He naturally wanted it. This was practically divine wine to him.
He could use this wine’s special ability to create his own magical arts. The most marvelous aspect of this wine was the clear-minded state it allowed someone to enter. It gave them a blank piece of paper.
Long Chen could add his own paint to this blank paper to test things. If the test failed, that was fine. He would retreat from that realm and enter again. It was like switching out to another blank piece of paper.
Long Chen graciously accepted the two new jugs and the original jug the High Priest had taken out. The original was half empty, but his skin was still thick enough to take it. Standing on courtesy? No, that wasn’t Long Chen’s style.
“I should be thanking you. Your brazen thinking has benefited me greatly,” said the High Priest.
As Long Chen and the High Priest were talking, the sound of footsteps rang out from outside. Xia Yunchong and Xia Youluo had arrived.
Xia Yunchong still looked the same, but his aura had become more reserved. He had reached the Soul Transformation realm. Because he had just advanced, his aura was in the midst of slowly condensing. He was about to reach the first Heavenstage.
As for Xiao Youluo, she was still as beautiful as ever, but that arrogance and willfulness of a princess had vanished, replaced with maturity and humility.
Although the Xia Youluo in front of him was much easier to be friends with, Long Chen still preferred that willful girl. Sometimes, a person’s flaws would be more memorable than their strong points. Perhaps this was individuality.
However, individuality would often change through the baptism of time and trials. To adapt to life, it might vanish forever.
“It’s been a few days, but the two of you are as graceful as ever. That’s worthy of celebration, so come, let me treat you to some wine.” Long Chen beckoned the two of them. Being unconstrained when it came to old friends would make them feel closer.
The High Priest smiled and left, leaving this place for the three of them to reminisce.
“Long Chen, I really missed you.” Once the High Priest was gone, there was no need to be constrained at all. Hence, Xia Yunchong charged forward and gave Long Chen a hug.
From the start, the two of them had been like brothers. Xia Yunchong walked the Undefeatable Dao, and his character was very similar to Long Chen’s.
Now that they met again, although Xia Yunchong had reached the Soul Transformation realm while Long Chen was stuck at the peak of Jade Core, the difference between the two had only grown greater. Now Long Chen was the fiercest figure in the Eastern Xuan Region.
Long Chen hugged back. Suddenly, he let go and turned to Xia Youluo. “Come, little girl, give your big uncle a hug.”
Xia Youluo immediately turned red. She hadn’t even decided whether she wanted to or not, but Long Chen had already embraced her.
Xia Youluo trembled slightly. In his embrace, she felt warmer and safer than she had ever felt before.
Back then, it had been her selfishness that had resulted in her becoming a bargaining chip against Xia Yunchong’s Undefeatable Dao in the Four Nations Ancient Remnant.
Whenever she felt remorse, helplessness, and loneliness, it was this embrace that made her feel warm. Now that she was in it again, everything that had happened back then came rushing back toward her.
The bickering when they had first met on the streets, the con that they had done in the Wine God Palace, the imperial banquet, the fight outside the palace, all those scenes surfaced one by one like she was reliving them.
Just as Xia Youluo was lost in her memories, Long Chen let go of her, returning her to reality. Having lost his embrace, she felt an indescribable feeling of loss.
Now, Long Chen was dragging Xia Yunchong into the room and taking out his wine. Xia Youluo simply followed and sat beside Xia Yunchong silently.
Xia Yunchong glanced at her. Sensing the change in her emotions, he couldn’t help but feel sad for her.
Ever since Xia Youluo had tried to kill herself and Long Chen had saved her, she had matured overnight, practically becoming a new person. To not be arrogant, to not be willful, to become hardworking and earnest, these were good things. But Xia Yunchong knew that her heart would forever have a person’s figure within it. He had tried persuading her to find her own happiness.
However, her response was that she wouldn�
��t fall in love with anyone. She wouldn’t marry anyone either, or if she really had to, she would only do it for the Grand Xia Ancient Nation. She would forever be loyal to the Grand Xia’s people to repay them for her sins.
Xia Youluo thought that it was a stain on her life to have liked one of the Grand Han’s princes. Now she liked Long Chen, but because of that stain, she felt inferior, feeling like she wasn’t a match for him. Hence, she would rather live out her days alone.
Her reaction upon seeing Long Chen further proved that. However, she didn’t allow herself to have any fanciful dreams. This made Xia Yunchong’s heart ache for her, but he was also helpless. The things called emotions were sometimes simply unsolvable.
“Brother Yunchong, what’s happening with the Grand Han? Are they provoking you?” asked Long Chen, getting to the point.
Xia Yunchong’s expression immediately sank. Even Xia Youluo’s expression became unsightly.
“Fu…” Xia Yunchong wanted to swear, but he didn’t end up saying it in front of his sister. However, there was a verb and a noun in the swear he wanted to make.
“These shameless bastards ended up finding a nest full of bastards. And now, more and more bastards come out to humiliate us. I wanted to use martial force to crush them! Those idiots, they’re just asking for a beating!” raged Xia Yunchong. If this wasn’t the Wine God Palace, he might have crushed the table in his anger.
“My imperial father says that this matter isn’t so simple. The Grand Han is now just a pretense, and dealing with them is useless. We have to find a way to handle whoever is acting behind the scenes, or anything else would be useless. Acting rashly would only make things worse. Long Chen, what do you think?” asked Xia Youluo.
“Me? I’ve got an idea. Let’s go. Time is tight and this mission’s important.” Long Chen stood.
It seemed that he was destined to always be working. Now he would have to be a free fighter again.