Chapter 755: What Have You Been Learning?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Hence, the wine that fell into Yun Yang's possession is truly the last from the God of Wine - the final entity from him that would cease to exist in this world."
Yun Yang laughed heartily. "Big Brother Ling has spoken truly. Besides us, not many in this world deserve to drink such wine. Let's just treat it as a gift from Mr. Nian. Drink up, drink up… all of you drink up! Feel free to lose all sense of sobriety! Don't you dare leave if you ain't drunk!"
Just like that, he tossed out ten pots of wine generously.
"Astounding!" Xiao Shaoqing let out a hearty laugh as his eyes shimmered. "Young Master Yun is truly a straightforward man!"
It was then followed by a gesture which was unexpected by all.
Crack!
With a snap of his fingers, he sealed up the mystical Qi from his own cultivation base completely.
The minds of everybody present spun quickly to process what they had just witnessed, but they could not grasp what this fellow was playing at. What the hell do you think you're doing?
"To drink, one must seal up his mystical Qi. The way the high-level practitioners activate their mystical Qi has already become basic instinct - they don't have to do this deliberately. This could also - to a large degree - prevent the feeling of dizziness and drunkenness and keep your head clear - but this ability in itself is very irritating to drinkers."
"Drinking - why do we drink? What do we accomplish by drinking?" Xiao Shaoqing was completely enraptured by the moment. "We drink to get drunk, to experience the dizziness after that. Oh yes, that floating feeling like a God, that feeling of strolling on the edge of the clouds - that satisfaction, that free and easy vibe, that state of mind… tsk tsk…"
Xiao Shaoqing closed his eyes, shaking his head while he was at it as if he was recalling past sentiments.
"Therefore, I have confirmed that mystical Qi should not be activated when drinking."
Xiao Shaoqing was fervently promoting his twisted ideas to the crowd, but they only reacted with the rolling of their eyes. Not a single person responded to his nonsensical insights - not even Bai Yixue, whom Xiao Shaoqing had accepted his abilities and teachings from.
Yun Yang, the host of the banquet, was rolling his eyes innumerable times upon hearing this fellow's torrent of nonsense. He remained speechless for a long time.
Those present today were all highly-esteemed guests of stellar reputation. They knew that there was no real threat to it - but who would dare to seal off their mystical Qi for real - just to drink?
Everything else aside, if this table of men were to seal off their mystical Qi for the pleasure of drinking… what would happen if they were attacked by enemies that decided to show up suddenly? Would they all not be wiped out at one go by the incoming enemy?
If it ever played out to such an end, they would be jeered and laughed at until the end of time before they could even explain the absurdity of the situation.
"Piece of shit!"
Dugu Chou was swimming in a sea of wrath.
He finally knew the reason behind the careless, low-level mistakes committed by this fellow. He would lose his things for the longest of times and not realize it himself.
So this was the reason why!
This fellow had always been sealing off his mystical Qi before drinking…
"The fact that you can wander around out there for so long and not perish yet - that in itself is a humongous blessing of its own!" Dugu Chou's face was as black as the bottom of a wok.
"Oh master, you praise me too much! Although this is the truth…" Xiao Shaoqing rambled on, thick-skinned. "My fortune and luck were both bestowed by you, my master-"
"Get lost!"
Before he even finished his sentence, he was kicked out of the way by Dugu Chou.
"Don't learn from your master! Sigh..." Dugu Chou said.
Seated at a corner, Bai Yixue kept as silent as possible and was trying his very best to minimize his presence by compressing his body to it's tiniest possible form. Yet, he was unexpectedly called upon, and had no choice but to comply bitterly, "This disciple shall do as you say, and will try his very best…"
Bao'er, whose presence was long-awaited, clambered up the emperor's knees at this moment, his little face etched with reluctance.
I'm already such a big boy… how can you still see me as some two or three-year-old child… isn't an adult's knees prepared for children to sit on?
However, as the emperor saw how Bao'er stopped in his tracks midway, he scooped him up onto his lap - and that was something that could not be resisted by anyone at all.
The emperor looked at everybody seated at the table, moving his gaze from one person to another, celebrating this moment with great joy!
This, perhaps, was a long overdue feeling of familial kinship craved by the emperor of Yutang. This indescribable feeling had been obtained at the queerest of moments!
Actually, it was rather expected for the emperor of Yutang to crave such thoughts. The people before him were dear to him, and the wine was one of the rarities in the world; the surrounding atmosphere was comfortable, relaxed and rid of any worries; there were no strained formalities between ruler and minister, but only the kinship between brothers - the joy of a familial kinship!
In an atmosphere like this, the only sentiment felt by the emperor was that this, perhaps, was the happiest meal he had ever had in his entire life.
Even when Bao'er's tiny body was squirming and would not sit still in his lap, the emperor could truly feel the subtlest sense of having the whole world in his arms.
This night, endless streams of laughter came from the emperor. Gradually, he drank a little too much and became a little high from it.
Still, nobody stepped in to put a stop to it.
Even Qiu Jianhan and Fang Qingtian did not attempt to stop him. From their point of view, His Majesty had not had such a moment to relax in a long time; to be able to get drunk joyfully this time was too rare of an opportunity to relax - how could they have the heart to interrupt the moment?
Thinking about it, the Empire of Yutang had endured countless predicaments in recent years - the emperor and the few of the old fellows had been carrying legions of stress upon their backs!
As they had endured similar sentiments, this only led them to share similar experiences and ideas!
Today, all that stress and tension was gone. Enduring it for so many years was not an easy feat indeed.
If it had been men with a weaker spirit, they would have broken down a long time ago. The number of times they would have ended their lives due to the stress would have been uncountable!
"Bao'er, hahaha, dear grandson… come over here - today your grandpa emperor would like to give you a test." The emperor twirled his beard, his eyes twinkling with affection. He smiled with such fondness and kindness - where was the solemnity of a ruler? He was not an emperor at the moment - his only role now was that of a grandfather.
The crowd smiled as they watched this little interaction between grandfather and grandson from the side.
"What does Grandpa Emperor want to test Bao'er about?" Bao'er cocked his little head to a side.
"Hmm, your grandpa emperor would like to test you on… what you have learned thus far… hmm… let me think." The Emperor knocked his forehead, racking his brains to come up with a question to ask. It should be something not too difficult, and it should not be something completely void of difficulty; this itself was a problem on its own - he was not even aware of Bao'er's current learning progress!
He could not come up with anything after thinking for half a day. Hence, he resorted to asking gently, "Bao'er, what have you learned in these past few days?"
Bao'er replied, "Nothing much. Uncle asked me to ponder a little on a question a few days ago, so that was what I've been doing these few days - thinking about this question."
His Majesty was clearly interested in the topic of conversation. He followed up with a question, smiling, "What did he ask you to ponder about? Let Grandpa Emperor know about it!"
"That day... Uncle was telling me about the allusions to 'When the birds are gone, the bow is cast aside'… and the parallels between that idiom and our present reality," replied Bao'er with utmost innocence.
In the beginning, the crowd was looking on with fondness as the emperor interacted with his grandson, doing everything possible to maintain the interest, reacting appropriately to the scene before them.
However, upon hearing this statement, especially when paired with Bao'er's childish voice, everybody felt as though there were dark clouds looming above their heads as if there was an impending storm ahead!
At that very moment, their eyes twitched as their lips trembled with shock - if it was not for the years of practice in controlling their emotions, they would have embarrassed themselves today.
This was especially true of the two veterans, Qiu Jianhan, and Fang Qingtian - they stared blankly ahead in absolute bewilderment.