Admiral’s Mansion.
In the parlor, 2 men sat at the head seats, one of them was the current Emperor of Heavenly Bow Empire, Di Fengling. On the other side was a sturdy man who was like an iron pagoda, looking around 50 years of age, with bronzed skin that seemed the shine with a healthy glow, with a squarish face, a set of tiger-like eyes, straight nose and squarish mouth*. Although he was seated, anyone could easily see his tall, large frame. The muscles that seemed hard as rock were accentuated by his uniform, and his eyes were full of energy, the black irises seemed to glow from within. This man was the pillar of Heavenly Bow Empire, Admiral Zhou Shuiniu**, also Zhou Weiqing’s father.
Admiral Zhou was similar to Shangguan Bing’er, he was also born from a common family, and he grew up taking care of water buffaloes for a living, which was the reason for his name. Of course, no one dared to laugh at his name, anyone who did so was already dead.
“Your Majesty, look at this. Someone sent it to me this morning, it’s that little brat’s handwriting.” Zhou Shuiniu handed Di Fengling a letter.
“Big Bro Zhou, are you making this up to comfort me? I’ve made up my mind already, if anything happens to Weiqing, Difuya will accompany him in death.” Di Fengling said firmly. He had brought Difuya to the mansion yesterday to apologise personally, but had then heard that Zhou Weiqing had not returned, and immediately sent a large number of men to search around the city to no avail.
Zhou Shuiniu said gravely: “Your Majesty, how would this official dare lie to you? You shouldn’t be tricked by that brat’s honest appearance, he’s actually more cunning than anyone, even I have been tricked by him many times. My guess is this time he knows that he has gotten in serious trouble and is afraid that I’ll beat him up that’s why he doesn’t dare to run home*. He has described it so beautifully, hmph, going out and making a living by traveling; I call bullshit, it’s more likely he doesn’t dare to come home, we can just ignore him.”
Di Fengling said with a bitter smile: “As long as Weiqing does not come home safely, I can’t be at peace! This situation is Difuya’s fault after all, big bro, if Weiqing returns home you must not beat him. After all, this child, such a poor thing, he didn’t ask to be born with his meridians blocked, you shouldn’t make things more difficult for him already.”
“Hmph” Zhou Shuiniu gave a sound of displeasure, saying: “Tiger father, dog son. But that little rascal knows his own limits at least. He’s right, how can he be a match for Her Highness the Princess? In my opinion, we should do as he says and call off the engagement.”
Di Fengling’s face changed, “How can that be! Difuya is now part of your Zhou Family, and will die as a Zhou Family ghost. Big bro, you know that kings do not say things lightly. There should be no more discussion of this matter, if I look down on Weiqing just because he isn’t a Jewel Master and break the engagement, how can I have the face to call you bro.”
……
When Zhou Weiqing regained consciousness, he found himself back in his own tent. As soon as he awoke, he felt that his whole body was in pain, and his body was unbearable with the stench of sweat. His legs hurt especially so, feeling like they were made of lead, and any movement was as if a thousand needles were jabbing into him, causing him to moan in pain.
“Shangguan Bing’er you just wait, some day I will press you under me and ravage you.”
After resting for a while, Zhou Weiqing managed to crawl up from his bunk. As soon as he sat up, he saw that beside the bunk lay 2 large bowls as well as a handwritten note.
In the two large bowls, one of them held 3 large steam buns, and the other had 2 dishes of food, one fried vegetables and the other was stewed meat. Zhou Weiqing had expended all his energy in the afternoon and was starving, so he immediately helped himself to the food, thinking: At least she has some conscience. The steamed buns and dishes are still warm, and the taste is quite good, it definitely did not come from the normal soldiers’ mess. As he ate, Zhou Weiqing looked at the note, which only had 4 words on it: We will continue tomorrow.
“Damnit, it hasn’t ended! I just touched you once!” Zhou Weiqing said in exasperation, then wretchedly squeezed the steamed bun in his hands with all his mind, as if trying to remember the feeling in his hands.
Zhou Weiqing made short work of dinner, then quickly left the tent, enduring with great difficulty the pain while taking a bath. Although this rascal was cunning and afraid of death, but he had one good point at least, he loved to be clean. He also washed his clothes; do not think that because he was of noble birth he did not know how to do household chores, in fact it was the opposite, he was experienced in all the various household chores from cooking to cleaning, mainly because of his strict father. In the Admiral’s mansion, Zhou Weiqing stayed alone in a little courtyard, after the age of 6 he was forced to be self reliant, with no servants to wait upon him, although everything he needed was supplied. Because of this, Admiral Zhou and his wife got into many fights, but Admiral Zhou was stubborn about it, and in the end the Lady Admiral could only get the right to teach Zhou Weiqing to do the chores personally.
After cleansing himself and the uniform, Zhou Weiqing changed to a fresh set of uniform and returned to his tent. By now, the entire camp was quiet.
After returning to his tent, Zhou Weiqing opened the cloth bag that he carried with him, inside were the sundry goods that he had bought after leaving the blacksmith, including powdered cooking condiments, lamp oil etc, though they were trivial items but still necessary for living. The thing he was most worried about becoming a soldier was not being fed well, so he bought those condiments so it would make it easier for him to make some food if necessary. As for the lamp oil, that would come in handy right now.
Zhou Weiqing took out the rice bowl that he had washed, and poured some lamp oil into it before taking a few thin threads twisted together and soaked them in the oil for a while before making it into a wick. He then lighted it, thus creating a temporary lamp, lighting up his small tent.
After doing that, he stuck his head out of his tent and looked around to ascertain that he was alone, before bringing his head back in. He then reached into his shirt carefully and took out a oil-cloth bag that was kept there.
“Luckily I wrapped it carefully with this oil-cloth bag, I sweated so much today, if it had been ruined then I’d be in deep trouble.”
He carefully opened the bag to reveal an old book resting inside; it wasn’t even made of paper but was bound together using high quality goat leather, was around 2 inches thick and was around several tens of pages long. It definitely looked primitive in nature, and the edges were all frayed. On top of the book were 4 large words: The Immortal Deity Technique*.
*不死神功 – Literally 不死 means Not dying or Undying – I used Immortal in place here
This was the treasure that Zhou Weiqing went to retrieve in the Stars Forest yesterday. It was something he had found when he was ten years old and Admiral Zhou had thrown him into a deep old patch of forest to train his survival skills; he had found it on a skeleton then, and hadn’t told anyone else even Admiral Zhou, but hid it in a small hole in a tree within the Stars Forest since then.
As he opened the cover to reveal the first page, it showed a small line of words: Immortal Deity Technique General Principles.
Those without strong willpower cannot learn this, those who do not have the will to die learning this cannot do so. Immortal Deity Technique is actually Definite-Death Deity Technique, but it is to turn the impossible into the possible, using the 36 Large Death Acupuncture Points as cultivation points, retrieving life from death, if not careful it will mark certain death. Be careful, be careful. Those who can break through the 36 Large Death Acupuncture Points will be able to receive and use the energy of the world, to live as long as the world.