A few days later, Grandpa Jun suddenly developed an interest in building a tall tower right in the center of the garden! He dug out the roots of the various flowers planted there and had envisioned a seven story structure to be built here. Not only that, he even constructed an observation outpost at the top to help monitor the surrounding areas.
Grandpa Jun often took a stroll to meet with several of the ministers who were in the neighbourhood and his accompanying entourage would create a ruckus. Also, during night time, the neighbours would be able to suddenly hear the sounds of horses’ hooves and the deafening battle cry of the soldiers who were up and training hard!
Even though this training did not matter very much to Grandpa Jun, in the vicinity of his residence, the few households of the officials that were present there were completely scared witless. They were pressured to such a point that they decided to spend a huge amount of money to purchase houses elsewhere and move out of this neighbourhood. Then, Grandpa Jun gave the order and all of these abandoned houses were completely demolished without anybody ever having the chance to move in.
Having nothing else to keep him occupied, Grandpa Jun made his regular, residence guards also undergo harsh military training every single day! The servants working at the Jun residence also leaked news on the daily practices of their master. Whenever Old Man Jun had nothing else to do, he would continue to keep drinking to drown his sorrows and get completely drunk.
The feeling of despair that Grandpa Jun was experiencing was something that everyone could understand. If one saw a ray of hope out of a tough situation and then, if that hope was taken away from them, they would surely feel absolute despair. Thankfully, though, Grandpa Jun had an extremely high tolerance for alcohol, so he would not lose his sanity after drinking.
In fact, one could understand.
His grandson, who was a worthless debauchee,
Who finally decided to change his ways.
But, soon, he had gotten the news of him being killed,
As he was about to go berserk, he received the message of his grandson being alive.
Mo Xie being alive was sure a joyful event, but he was still hurt,
And upon examination, it had been determined that he had become a cripple!
This whole episode of ups and downs would have disastrous effects to one’s heart!
Wasn’t this just fate toying around with people? Such a dramatic sequence of ups and downs, even if experienced by people with extremely strong minds and hearts, then them not going crazy with despair itself would be extremely commendable and praiseworthy. Everyone thought, If I encountered such a situation, I’m afraid that I would have long since completely collapsed and might not even fare as well as that Old Man Jun. Considering that Old Man Jun had to face multiple situations one after another, his behaviour isn’t abnormal in the slightest!
Poor old thing. It was like the heavens themselves were playing around with him. He was already fortunate to not have gone insane. However, as long as I’m not a part of the misery, all is fine! That was the mindset that everyone shared. Even His Majesty The Emperor, who was always wise and brilliant and shared more or less a similar thought.
Within the Jun family’s residence, inside the residence of Jun Mo Xie, Jun Mo Xie sat across Jun Wu Yi. Jun Mo Xie had a joyous smile on his face and poured out some wine into his Uncle’s cup. The wine was extremely exquisite and it was so clear that one was able to see the bottom of the cup very clearly. The wine that was poured had been slightly chilled and had an extremely fragrant smell. This wine was capable of intoxicating a person with its smell alone, even before they had a chance to drink it.
[TL: The wine being discussed here is Baijiu which happens to be colourless.]
“I never would have thought that you would posses this kind of an ability, Mo Xie! This wine really is a masterpiece among all wines! All the so-called high class wines that I’ve had before are trash when you compare them to this. Comparing them is akin to comparing the mighty heavens with the earth!” Jun Wu Yi took a sip from his cup lightly and savoured the remnant taste in his mouth and his eyes showed signs of intoxication. In another corner of the house, four big and burly warriors were cowering over a smithy. One was wielding a hammer, other pushing on the bellows and other work that a blacksmith did. A hot flame was burning so brightly that it had almost turned silvery white in colour. On the inside of those flames, there lay a large piece of iron which burned with a fiery red colour. One of the guys, slowly took the iron piece out with a pair of tongs. The warrior sniffed the air, taking in the lovely smell of the top class wine which was lingering in the air. He energetically raised his sledgehammer up and bought it down with full force on the piece of burning hot iron. But, even under the immense pressure of the sledgehammer, the piece of iron did not show much of a change in its appearance which signified that this little piece had reached a frightening level of purity and hardness!
[TL: This is the forging process which is used to remove impurities from a metal piece. The more you forge, the purer the metal.]
Young Master has said that as long as we hammer this piece of iron to his satisfaction every single day, we would all be able to drink a whole pot of that amazing wine every day! God…this wine!
This was an exquisite and carefully crafted wine that had reached a level that not even the Emperor himself could have ever tasted, let alone these four, brutish warriors.
Top class wine? Exquisite wine? Haha…this is just something that I brewed up to drink when I felt like it. Drinking that damn piss you call liquor is really unbearable! Jun Mo Xie closed his eyes while enjoying the wine and slowly spoke out, “Uncle, I heard that my grandfather got drunk for the first time when he drank my wine…”
“I heard that he did indeed get drunk…”, Jun Wu Yi unintentionally frowned and then shouted, “Never talk about your elders behind their backs!”
“Uh…” Jun Mo Xie touched his nose and still in high spirits without giving up on the subject, he asked, “I heard that grandpa started to sing loudly when he was drunk and also inserted his head into a pig’s head that was meant to be served for dinner!”
[TL: I thought he might stick something else in! American Pie flashback!]
[Editor: Lol, this made me crack up so damn much!]
“You’re simply looking for a beating, you little brat! Just stop talking about this and tell me why the hell did you tell that the wine was actually this strong?” Jun Wu Yi was quite amused and distressed at the same time as he continued, “Your grandpa already not attempting to beat you to a pulp is already quite fortunate for you. Did you know that he had to sit and wash his beard for the whole afternoon to clear the filth from it!”
“Oh…”, Jun Mo Xie sighed meaningfully and said loudly while grinning, “Grandpa really doesn’t have any tolerance for alcohol at all!”
“Just stop talking about this already!” Jun Wu Yi did not intend to continue to talk about this subject. After all, it was his own father that they were talking about. “How about you? Shouldn’t you be preparing yourself and get ready?”
A look of sadness flashed past Jun Mo Xie’s face as he raised his cup and drank like he was drinking to bury his sorrows deep within himself while he let out a long sigh.
A few days earlier, Grandpa Jun made a sudden whimsical decision to solve the problem of Jun Mo Xie not having a sparring partner. Due to his extremely low cultivation level and considering the fact that they had to safeguard the secret about Jun Mo Xie’s health, he had decided on a unique and novel solution. It was to have Guan Qing Han spar against him. It was from then on that his life had turn into a living hell!
In truth, this was just Grandpa Jun’s prank on his beloved grandson for hiding his intentions and potential for so many years. He definitely needed a beating!
Jun Mo Xie felt really helpless.
Against this sister-in-law of his who did not marry, he couldn’t just kill her with one move, right? However, if he wasn’t able to subdue her as quickly as possible, wouldn’t he just become a punching bag for her? After all, he had been cultivating the Art of Unlocking Heaven’s Fortune for a period of time that was less than 2 months. How could his level of cultivation be compared to Guan Qing Han’s, who had been cultivating her Xuan Qi since she was a child and was now about to break into the Silver Xuan Qi realm. Not only could he not use his skills as an assassin, but instead had to compete with his own sister-in-law using power alone! This was practically nothing but slaughter as he was trained as an assassin, not as a fighter.
Truth be told, Guan Qing Han had absolutely no interest in sparring with this brat, but since Grandpa Jun had requested this of her, she couldn’t refuse. So, she had reluctantly come to spar with him. But, after the first day, she realized that it was particularly addicting and fun to abuse and beat up this guy till her heart was content. The feeling it gave her was very very comforting.
[Editor:*cough*S*cough*type*cough*]
Also, since there weren’t anymore lecherous stares from Jun Mo Xie, this especially put Guan Qing Han on her guard, but it lowered the uncomfortable feeling that came from Mo Xie in the past. Not only that, there was another reason that made her want to come over everyday. It was the new type of wine that Mo Xie had brewed with fruits. It had a very sweet taste, quite stronger than the average wine. The taste was akin to being in paradise and you couldn’t find it anywhere else! She loved it since the moment she first drank it.
She could beat up her brother-in-law to vent out her anger and frustration while also being given two pots of that exquisite wine as a reward with no consequences for her actions whatsoever even to the point where Grandpa Jun encouraged her to beat Mo Xie up more than eight to ten times a day! Who wouldn’t love to have such a job?
“Oh boy!” Jun Mo Xie sighed and then, he suddenly remembered something and asked, “Uncle, did you gather all the necessary herbs that I had requested for? It has been quite a long time and you should’ve almost finished collecting them all right?”
Jun Wu Yi sighed and said, “Intestinal Cracker Flower, Common Heart Grass, and Persistent Severing Root have all been collected by me in vast quantities. However, I’ve not heard of anything about the Blazing Heart Meridian. And as for the Nine Leaf Grass, this is a relatively rare herb that very few people use and it is not very easy to find. A few days ago, I found out with great difficulty about the news that Jin Xiang Trading Company managed to discover three stalks of the herb and were transporting it to the capital. I quickly arranged for people to go and buy some. However, I didn’t expect that by the time they arrived, the stalks had already been bought by some other people…”
“It was bought?” Jun Mo Xie warily asked. He sat up straight and said, “Unless it were for healing blocked meridians or injuries to them, one should not need this herb. But, how is it that now, at this critical juncture, it was bought? Was it because some news leaked out from our Jun residence and someone is plotting against us?”
