Chapter 5

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 .