Chapter 159 – The warriors return
“Ah?” Jin Feng Lie suddenly stood up despite his injuries “What do you mean by that?”
“What do I mean? Brother Jin, you need not be present in the woods when I confront the man.” Hai Chen Feng turned away and sighed: “I will deal with this man in black alone!”
If you’re there and you watch me lose, then wouldn’t you recklessly jump in to save me? It is completely unnecessary to increase the number of causalities.
Whether I defeat him or die trying, it’s better that you don’t witness either…….this is the least that I can do after so many years of friendship to save you…….
Once Hai Chen Feng was finished speaking, he turned around to face the wall and sat down cross-legged, unwilling to speak any further.
“Brother Hai……” Jin Feng Lie cried out as a sudden and heavy feeling clogged his heart. His mind was crowded with concerns about his friend’s safety: was involving Brother Hai a bad thing? Is Brother Hai’s life in danger? Brother Hai has always been very confident about himself…. I’ve never seen him worry like this before. I think everything will be fine once he gets his confidence back! Brother Hai has never ever failed at any task before!
Since Hai Chen Feng didn’t seem interested in any further conversations, Jin Feng Lie sighed in a low voice and then exited the room.
Jun Mo Xie sensed a difference in the aura around his courtyard, so he put on his robes and stepped out into his courtyard under the twilight sky.
Jun Mo Xie’s small courtyard was at present housing over two hundred men, who were neatly organized in lines. They stood up straight as soon as they saw Jun Mo Xie, brushed their uniforms, and shouted in unison: “Master, we’ve returned!”
Jun Mo Xie smiled in return. His eyes scanned each and every one of the men in his courtyard, and then inwardly nodded in approval. The incompetence of these men had been completely annihilated by the training they had undergone, and these originally useless soldiers had now turned into iron-blooded warriors with the blood thirst of an unrestrained beast.
“What’s the report?” Jun Mo Xie asked with a smile.
“The report, Master, is this; twenty seven men dropped out of the training, nineteen lost their lives, making our total downsizing of forty six, while the remaining two hundred and fifty four men stand here in front of you! One hundred and thirty people broke into the ninth layer, eighty four men advanced to the Silver Xuan, while another thirty six men advanced to the peak of the Silver Xuan realm. A total of four men have already made it to the Gold Xuan! Also, we hunted down all the Beasts that we were required to, young master!” one of the men stepped out from the ranks and debriefed Jun Mo Xie. The man’s voice was clearly expressing his excitement! These people seemed very happy and proud of their progress!
“Very good!” Jun Mo Xie praised approvingly: “You all have done a lot better than I expected. Can everyone feel that change in their bodies?”
Jun Mo Xie’s sentence left the entire lot laughing in embarrassment as they recalled their days in the forest, and the times when they didn’t even have enough food to eat…… who could have ever imagined that they would return victorious, and the suicide training mission that their young master had sent them on would force out their skills! The strength of these men had more than doubled over the course of their training!
“Remember, you’ve only managed to achieve this result because you pushed yourself to the limits! Pushing oneself is the only way to tap into the infinite potential of the human body! Even cowards can become warriors! But if you stop pushing yourself, then your body will start decaying, and the warrior inside you will transform into a coward!”
Jun Mo Xie continued in a loud voice: “You have made excellent progress and it is your right to celebrate, but let me tell you that you’ve only taken your first step. Even the best of you has only reached the Gold Xuan, what’s the value of that in this world? There’s still Jade Xuan, Earth Xuan, Sky Xuan and then the Supreme Xuan realms left! There’s a long way to go, and I find it very strange that you haven’t realized that yet…… always keep your eyes and ears open and one day you may be able to attain the Supreme Xuan realm as well! There’s still a long way for you all to go, but haste makes waste, and you need not look too far now. Just keep pushing yourself everyday… one step at a time, and unknowingly one day you’ll realize that you’ve achieved the heights you could never even have dreamt about!”
“Yes! We honor and respect the young master’s instructions!” everyone replied in unison.
Before accepting the training mission, these men didn’t really think very highly of Jun Mo Xie. But these men were alarmed to realize that Jun Mo Xie’s instructions had helped them in avoiding several life threatening situations inside the forest, owing to which these two hundred and fifty four men were convinced of Jun Mo Xie’s leadership qualities and foresight.
“You must go and report to third uncle, and he will assign you to your tasks.” Jun Mo Xie waved his hand.
“Master…..” several of the men stepped forward in excitement: “We know that we don’t deserve it, but….. Master… can you allow us to follow …. You?”
“Third Uncle will make the decisions.” Jun Mo Xie smiled since he knew that Jun Wu Yi would assign these men back to him. The uncle and nephew duo had a very clear tacit understanding in this respect!
Tang Yuan’s snoring was loud enough to shake the very foundations of the Jun residence, and occasionally he’d even scream out: “ah…. My ass in paining…..!!” Everyone preferred his snoring over his complaining.
The Sun had just risen in the sky when Jun Wu Yi rolled out in his wheelchair and came into Jun Mo Xie’s courtyard. Jun Wu Yi could sense that Jun Mo Xie’s courtyard seemed a bit different again, almost as if the already sunk ground level was missing a chip now!
It was a lot harder for Jun Wu Yi to manipulate his wheelchair these days since he had gotten used to walking around on his own two feet during the night time. But he still enjoyed sitting in his wheelchair since it gave him a very solid alibi for all his covert operations.
“You assign them work.” Jun Wu Yi said: “I’m very busy at the moment.”
“Busy killing people?” Jun Mo Xie’s keen sense of perception sensed the taste of a very familiar feeling coming out of his uncle’s body: “Uncle, you’re becoming very selfish… you actually went out alone for a party….. why didn’t you invite me along?”
Jun Wu Yi hesitated as he looked up, but couldn’t help a laugh: “I came back, took a bath and changed my clothes…. But the little devil you are…. You still figured it out.”
“Killing isn’t just a manual labor; it’s a job which requires a lot of mental strength as well.” Jun Mo Xie smiled interestingly: “Those who kill people, do it out of anger or sadness or hatred, which evokes an outrage in their minds at the time of the deed. Therefore, once you’ve killed a person and dismembered their body, your mind also loses its focus and purpose. After killing someone, the hostility of that viciousness continues to linger within one’s temperament, and the killer tends to become socially elusive and odd; even a war general is no exception to this.”
“This is one of the reasons why most people are unable to progress very far in their lives!” Jun Mo Xie smiled coldly: “So after killing people, it is very important to clean up your mind as quickly as possible, by doing something that you enjoy. This is necessary to relax and loosen up your mind, or else you’ll never rid yourself of that hostility and you’ll eventually lose your mind. Drinking is always a good way to do just that, which is why most warriors are alcoholics; in fact this is the main reason why most military men drink!”
“Therefore, just taking a bath isn’t enough, Uncle.” Jun Mo Xie winked: “However, I don’t think that a lot of people will be able to tell this apart from me, so you needn’t worry about it ha ha ha…….”
Jun Wu Yi blushed with embarrassment since he had never even imagined that Jun Mo Xie would catch his lie: “Now even toddlers have the audacity to tease an old man like me!”
Jun Mo Xie looked up skywards: “Uncle, you’ll have to get me an aunt before you go about calling yourself an old man!”
Even though these words were only meant as a joke, they had a base in reality as well. Even though Jun Wu Yi had been crippled for over a decade, his Xuan Qi had never slacked off, which reflected on his face, and even though he was in his thirties, he didn’t look any older than mid-twenties. His young looks coupled with his middle-aged demeanor made his personality and appearance very contrasting.
And now he’s also suddenly claiming to be an old man? What’s wrong with this world!
Jun Wu Yi was speechless: “And why would I need to do that?…. When the youngest generation of the house starts maturing, the previous one automatically becomes old…..”
“So according to that, if and when I have nieces and nephews as old as I am at the moment, I should also be calling myself an old man?” Jun Mo Xie deliberately asked this with difficulty: “But I’m only sixteen years old!”
“Of course.” Jun Wu Yi replied sternly.
What kind of a justification is that…. this world is going crazy!
Jun Mo Xie practically collapsed to the ground. How’s being uncle to a sixteen year old a valid reason for being old??? God, let me die now…. I can’t take this anymore!
“You’ve nothing important today, right?” Jun Wu Yi smiled gently: “Remember to come back early in the evening today, we have guests and we need to entertain them by hosting a feast tonight.”
“Uncle, why are they here?” Jun Mo Xie took the opportunity to ask his question.
“Given then current situation, they shouldn’t be here for more than two reasons. One is obviously the Xuan Core; and secondly, they are here to fetch your sister-in-law, which they have already conveyed.”
Jun Wu Yi brandished a faint smile: “Qing Han has been staying with us for several years now, which has been greatly detrimental to her reputation, so if she’s decided to return to her home, then the Jun Family must compensate her in whichever way possible. For example, telling the world that she’s going back by her own free will and hasn’t been abandoned by us for any reason!”
“The Xuan Core situation is difficult to assess, so we’ll have to put that aside for now. As for sister-in-law’s return, I’m afraid that it’s not that simple either…. They’ve only been conveying their interest of taking her back verbally all these years, so why have they showed up here in the middle of all this fanfare? Third Uncle, doesn’t something seem a bit fishy? And there’s the perspective of sister-in-law’s identity and happiness…. She chose to be a part of the Jun Family, and has been so all these years….. wouldn’t this be a mockery to our name and her decision?!” Jun Mo Xie skeptically analyzed the issues.