Chapter 72: A Grand Gift for the Personal Guard
Without their leader Jing Man, although the remaining confederates of the Redbud Tribe raised a loud hue and cry, many of the internal powers that the Jing family had originally suppressed all turned their coats in the face of a large army pressing on the border. They worked in collusion with the army, one from within and the other from the outside. The army took over the Redbud Tribe region with almost no slaughter at all.
The remaining confederates of the Jing family were all rounded up and locked behind bars.
At the same time, a predetermined power from the Jiang family clan took up residence within the Redbud region.
Jiang Chen had made a simple agreement which had to be observed by all the elders of the family clan, and had stuck the son of his third uncle, Jiang Yu, into the Redbud region. Jiang Chen exhorted the clan elders to treat Jiang Yu as a crucial center and cultivate him.
Although jealous, these people all knew that Jiang Yu was the one most intimate with Jiang Chen within the Jiang family clan.
Jiang Chen was Jiang Feng’s only child and son. This meant that Jiang Chen had no other blood brothers or sisters. In this way, since they had been close since childhood, Jiang Yu undoubtedly became like Jiang Chen’s blood brother, just as if Jiang Tong was the same as the Duke of Jiang Han.
Upon seeing Jiang Chen employ lightning-fast methods to cow the various chiefs into submission and quell the Redbud Tribe rebellion, Jiang Chen’s young followers were all privately overjoyed. To have such methods and be able to take on such burdens at this tender age, they all felt that they had done the right thing in following this young duke!
Jiang Chen’s newly recruited eight guards were demonstrating their knowledge of martial dao within the training fields of the Jiang Han manor. Since they were comrades now, none of them wanted to admit to being inferior. All wanted to demonstrate their strength in front of their comrades to avoid being underestimated by others.
Jiang Chen merely observed and didn’t make any evaluations.
After the demonstrations had run through once, he already had a few thoughts in mind.
“From today onwards, the eight of you will eat at the same table now. I won’t ask too much of you but only want to remind you of one point. You can retain your own personalities and your own thoughts. However, from this moment on, you’re all in the same boat and thus are all in this together. You are comrades in the battlefield, which means you are a partner in which one of the others can entrust their back to. If anyone can’t do it, then say so now. There’s still time to back out!”
Jiang Chen’s tone was severely grave.
What was a personal guard? At the heart of the matter, it meant to be death warrior, a type of existence that was willing to die at any time for their master.
Personal guards were often the ones that a master trusted the most, and were entrusted the greatest amount of matters to.
Personal guards were the most intimate battle companions to each other. They were a mutual interdependence and would live and die together!
No one backed out. Resolute determination was written on their faces.
“Good, this is also why I’ve chosen you. I only hope that none of you will disappoint me.”
“And I, Jiang Chen, will absolutely not let you down!”
Jiang Chen was confident and at ease as he swept his gaze over the eight faces. “In order to prove that your decision was correct, I’ve decided to give you a welcome gift in this moment.”
A gift at the first meeting?
Qiao Shan scratched his ears and cheeks, smiling honestly, “Mine uncle says that the young duke is too deep to be fathomable. Looks like uncle he didn’t lie to us’ns!”
Guo Jin was indifferent to the idea of a greeting gift. When he saw Jiang Chen burn incense and pay his respects to his ancestors, he had sworn an oath to himself that he would follow this master until death.
As for the others, Wen Ziqi’s personality was easy going, without greed for anything in particular.
Although traces of expectation flowed in the eyes of others, they didn’t lose their composure.
Jiang Chen nodded, “You must remember that when you accept my gift, it will be as if your body is now imprinted with my brand. You must not reveal this gift to anyone without my permission, even to those you are closest to. Otherwise, I will personally end you.”
These people felt quite perplexed by the increased gravity of Jiang Chen’s tone. It was only a greeting gift, was it really that serious? But seeing that the young duke was acting with such due care and solemness, their hearts tightened as they vaguely guessed that this greeting gift was no ordinary gift!
“Don’t think wild thoughts. The weight of this gift is absolutely beyond your speculation. Even in the entirety of the Eastern Kingdom, no one else would be able to give another gift such as this.”
What?
Everyone was visibly moved. No one else could afford to give such a gift in the Eastern Kingdom? This… can it be that even the royal family would be unable to give such a gift?
Just what was this?
Qiao Shan was quite impatient and could scarcely wait! His eyes stared unblinkingly at Jiang Chen, full of ardent fervor.
“All of you are currently of six meridians true qi right now, but I can help you breakthrough to seven meridians true qi within ten days!”
“What? Breakthrough to seven meridians true qi within ten days?” Qiao Shan was the first to cry out. “Young duke, don’t bluff us’ns. Ah have been stuck on six meridians true qi for around half a year.”
Even the gentle and refined Wen Ziqi shot out looks of incredulity from her eyes.
Guo Jin, on the other hand, had heard many rumors regarding Jiang Chen previously because he was from the capital. He was rather a believer, “Since the young duke has spoken, how could there be falsehood?”
“Six meridians true qi, all of you here have spent either two or three months to half a year to a full year after reaching six meridians true qi. There is no other reason for your inability to breakthrough other than being unable to sense the seventh acupoint, because there is a bank between the intermediate realm of true qi and the advanced realm of true qi. This moat needs to be explored, to be perceived in due time. Have you stopped at six meridians true qi because you cannot perceive the seventh acupoint?”
“That is truly the case.” Qiao Shan complained.
“The seventh acupoint is fleeting and intransient, and indeed hard to sense.” Guo Jin also nodded.
Wen Ziqi didn’t say anything, but her expression as if deep in thought already verified the accuracy of this statement.
The others all nodded as well.
“I have a set of methods that can teach you how to locate the acupoints. You will no longer have to fret over being unable to locate the acupoints when training in the realm of true qi in the future. You will be able to easily locate the acupoints with this method, allowing you to achieve double the results with half the effort on your path of training!”
The eight guards were noticeably moved after these words were said.
Easily locate acupoints!
Was… was this true?
One had to know that the most difficult thing when training in the realm of true qi wasn’t clearing the meridians, but locating the acupoints. If the acupoints couldn’t be located, then there was no way of clearing the meridians, how could be a breakthrough be achieved then?
It could be said that the most amount of time in training martial dao was spent on perceiving the acupoints. If the process of locating the acupoints could be skipped, how could this only be doubling the results with half the effort?
This would be saving tons of effort compared to others!
The method of “True Acupoint Resonance” was without a doubt, a revolutionary secret method for the entire Eastern Kingdom. However, it was only a lowly sort of existence in Jiang Chen’s memory banks.
Jiang Chen was the epitome of cautiousness not because of how valuable “True Acupoint Resonance” might be, but because if word of this matter got out, many hidden troubles would lurk in the background.
Jiang Chen had previously passed on the “True Acupoint Resonance” method to his father and his two best friends.
These eight personal guards were the third set of people worthy of receiving this inheritance.
“I will be passing on this method to you. If any of you secretly pass it on and word of this travels out, the others will rise together and attack the person in a group, and I, Jiang Chen, will not go easy on this person!” Jiang Chen once again issued a warning.
“The young duke treats us so kindly and generously, how could we dare to fail and let him down?” Ke Mu from the Summer Tribe of the Jiang Han territory was the first to step forward and make a pledge.
The others all stepped forward and swore an oath afterwards.
“Perk your ears up and listen carefully, I will only verbally pass on this inheritance and won’t give you any books to record this down in. How much you can comprehend and remember will be up to you. I will only say this three times.”
Only three times!
The faces of the eight personal guards all became quite grave. Three times, but they needed to receive the method with their strong memories and comprehension abilities.
Just as he said, Jiang Chen went over the method three times.
What Jiang Chen hadn’t expected was that the first person who seemed to think of something and sit down cross-legged where he stood to contemplate theory was Xue Tong, that thin, young man buried in oblivion.
Afterwards, Guo Jin and Wen Ziqi also seemed to be deep in thought as they sat down cross-legged.
Brothers Qiao Shan and Qiao Chuan, Ke Mu, Shen Yifan, and Bi Yun all sat down cross-legged as well, meditating on the theory and using the newly learnt method to perceive the seventh acupoint.
There truly was a difference in potential when it came to martial dao training.
Xue Tong was the first to contemplate and the first to see results.
Xue Tong’s eyes opened after an hour, with various sorts of incredulous looks shooting out of his eyes. His gaze at Jiang Chen was suffused with endless gratitude and admiration.
“Elder cousin Jiang Chen and I have never interacted much since we were young. To think that cousin Jiang Chen would rather offend aunt and uncle to choose me instead of Lan Yizhou. What do I, Xue Tong, have? My parents died early and I was bullied by Lan Yizhou since I was young. Compared to Lan Yizhou, I have nothing, and yet elder cousin still chose me, trust me, and bestowed upon me this great change in fortune. If in this life I, Xue Tong, don’t follow elder cousin to accomplish something grand, then how could I face my parents in the other world? How would I be worthy of elder cousin’s generous treatment of me?”
Although Xue Tong appeared cold and aloof, he was only cold on the outside and actually warm on the inside. He would remember steadfastly the drops of kindness from others. Jiang Chen had practically helped him be reborn by choosing him and changing his fortunes. How could Xue Tong not understand the concept of gratitude?
Lan Yizhou’s training wasn’t enough? Not up to standard? These were all pretexts that elder cousin had used to fob off his aunt. Elder cousin was so capable, would he worry about not being able to raise Lan Yizhou’s training to six meridians true qi?
What did this mean?
This meant that in elder cousin’s heart, the position of him, Xue Tong, was greater than Lan Yizhou’s!
A gentleman is ready to die for his bosom friends!
Xue Tong’s blood was thrumming ardently at this moment as he was filled with gratitude and adoration towards Jiang chen.
Jiang Chen flicked a glance at Xue Tong, knowing that Xue Tong had already located the seventh acupoint and was merely waiting for the prime opportunity to breakthrough.
He smiled faintly and nodded at Xue Tong, indicating for him not to speak anymore, less he affect other people’s comprehension.
A single glance made Xue Tong feel as if he was bathed by the spring wind and his heart surged with emotions.
After not too much longer, the others also successfully located the seventh acupoint.
“Wonderful, awesome, haha, to think that it would really work!” Qiao Shan capered in his extreme delight. “Haha, Ah finally have the chance to assail seven meridians true qi!”
Although the others didn’t lose their composure like Qiao Shan, happiness was written all over their faces and their looks towards Jiang Chen changed as well.
If it was said that they had the respect and loyalty of a subordinate to the young duke before, then they absolutely worshipped Jiang Chen like paying homage to deities or Buddha now.
They were well too aware of what this method meant.
Such a method in defiance of nature was likely the only one of its kind in the surrounding sixteen kingdoms, not to mention the Jiang Han territory or Eastern Kingdom!