<h4>Chapter 8: Constrict then Expand</h4>
<strong>Chapter 8: Constrict then Expand</strong>
<i>So What Grade??</i>
TL Note: Changed “Soul Power” to “Soul Force”, and changed the format of Dao Channel Grades to Grade 9 Dao Channels instead of Ninth-Grade Dao Channels.
“Xu Lingshan, Grade 8 Dao Channels!”
“Xu Jiaju, Grade 8 Dao Channels!”
“…..”
Xu Chen turned his head and said to Xu Xiao, “Young Patriarch, my Yu County branch family has quite a few children with Grade 8 Dao Channels this time. It’s a lot more than previous years.”
The Yu County branch family had a total of 11 children having their Dao Channels measured this time. Among them, there were 2 Grade 8 Dao Channels and 9 Grade 9 Dao Channels.
Xu Xiao nodded his head slightly, then looked at Xu Yan’s branch family.
Xu Yan’s branch family had only two children up for measurement this time: Xu Zhi and Xu Qingcheng. Xu Zhi was dressed from head to toe in a ck robe, and had an indifferent expression.
Xu Qingcheng was extremely beautiful since birth, and she was currently 9 years old. Wearing a white dress, she made her way towards the tform, unexpectedly not showing even the slightest signs of stage fright. She cast a nce over at Xu Yan, who nodded back at her in response.
When the little girl in the white dress arrived in front of the tform, the armored soldier from the Zhenhai Army made a move to pick her up, but she lightly waved her hand to stop him. cing her two hands on the ledge, she gracefully flipped herself up onto the tform, her white dress fluttering in the wind. Although she was still very young, she was already beginning to look very much like a budding beauty. The boys below stared wide-eyed at this sight,pletely enamored by this sight.
The Dao Channel Measurement tform slightly shuddered, and one circle of white light rippled outwards.
Xu Yan’s eyebrows wrinkled, but just as the armored soldier was about to announce that she had no Dao Channels, the stone tform suddenly began to swell with white light. When the brilliant light finally receded, what remained was a total of 6 splendid halos of white light encircling the stone tform!
Xu Chaoyang stood up abruptly, his eyes fixed on the small girl in the white dress atop the stone tform. Almost all the people from every one of the great ns also shot to their feet!
“Xu Qingcheng, Grade 5 Dao Channels!!” the armored soldier from the Zhenhai Army announced in a trembling voice.
“Hahaha, great! My Xu n has yet another with Grade 5 Dao Channels!” Xu Chaoyang bellowed, his unrestrainedughter echoing out.
The other people from the great ns all had varying expressions. The arrogant and lofty youth Bai Xiuyu withdrew his haughty expression, and he was now directing a fiery gaze towards Xu Qingcheng.
“This is the third person with Grade 5 Dao Channels in the whole Ruyang Region!”
“The Xu n has two people with Grade 5 Dao Channels!”
The aristocratic families began to whisper among each other, casting nces over at the Guo n’s seats from time to time. Guo Renhou’s expression was heavy. He took out a secret sealed letter that he had written from within his sleeve and furtively handed it to the attendant behind him.
After the attendant received the letter, he took advantage of a moment where no one was watching and slipped away from the crowd. He quickly mounted a horse and gave it several whips, making his way at a full gallop towards the Guo n’s property in the capital city of the Ruyang Region.
Having Grade 5 Dao Channels meant the possibility for the martial artist to break through to the Xiantian stage, and in the entire Ruyang Region, there were only three! As soon as a Xiantian martial artist were to appear in one of the ns, the Guo n, who had been slowly weakening over the years, would surely lose their position. The whole Ruyang Region would be overturned!
Xu Yan forcibly suppressed the excitement in his heart. In his Yu County branch family, Xu Qingcheng was a niece of his. But when he brought her along this time to have her Dao Channels measured, he never would have guessed that he would get this big of a surprise!
She would henceforth be taken into the main branch of the n, but…
“As rewards for Xu Yan’s merits, he will be granted 50 servants, 20 maids, 1000 taels of gold, 100 rolls of silk, 100 good horses, and 10 units of 100-year spirit medicine!” Xu Chaoyang announced in a deep voice.
“Thank you for the generosity, Patriarch!” Xu Yan revealed a delighted expression. Even though he had to split a portion to the parents of Xu Qingcheng, he would still be able to keep a majority of it.
Also, with those gold taels, he could purchase medicinal ingredients to assist with his cultivation, or Martial Skills to increase hisbat strength!
“Bring her over!”
“At once, Patriarch!”
Xu Qingcheng was soon brought before Xu Chaoyang. He had Grade 5 Dao Channels himself, so he was fully aware of how fast her cultivation of Martial Techniques would be. A smile appeared on his face as he sized up Xu Qingcheng.
“Qingcheng greets Patriarch!” she chirped sweetly. Although her age was small, she was thoughtful in her etiquette, which gave people a good impression of her.
“No need to be too courteous! You can just call me Grandpa,” Xu Chaoyang said with a chuckle.
If she didn’t possess Grade 5 Dao Channels, Xu Chaoyang would never have even spared this little brat from a branch family a second nce, much less allow her to call him “grandpa”. The rest of the nsmen knew what Xu Chaoyang’s personality was like, and cursed inwardly when they heard this.
“You can stand behind me for now.”
“Yes, grandpa.”
“Continue the Dao Channel measurements,” Xu Chaoyang instructed.
“Understood, Father.” Xu Xiao saw that Xu Chaoyang was in a wonderful mood, and he smiled. Whenever Xu Chaoyang was around, as the Young Patriarch, he would be left with almost no say at all. Now that the pressure had been alleviated somewhat, he turned his head to Xu Yan and told him to rmence the measuring of the Dao Channels.
“As you wish, Young Patriarch.”
At this moment, the only ones who haven’t had their Dao Channels measured yet were the 5 children from the main branch of the Xu n, and Xu Zhi, the other from Xu Yan’s branch family who was the same age as Xu Qingcheng.
With an indifferent expression, Xu Zhi walked up to the stone tform and flipped up onto the stage, where he took a seat.
In an instant, the stone tform released a single circle of white light which didn’t show any signs of further change.
The crowd was stunned. It was known that every person in the Xu n’s main family and branch families possessed at least Grade 9 Channels at the very minimum, and there were almost no cases where they had no Dao Channels.
“No problem, you cane down,” Xu Chaoyang said with a smile.
Evidently, the fact that Xu Qingcheng had Grade 5 Dao Channels had made him extremely pleased. Xu Zhi was Xu Qingcheng’s little brother, so even though he somewhat lost face for the Xu n by having no Dao Channels, he didn’t see it as a big problem.
Xu Zhi’s expression became even more detached, and he jumped down from the tform. Without a word, he returned back to the crowd where the branch family was seated.
The remaining five were the sons and daughters of Xu Xiao, and thus the direct blood kin of Xu Chaoyang. However, in face of the value in Xu Qingcheng’s Grade 5 Dao Channels, Xu Chaoyang actually didn’t hold that much expectations towards these children. Aside from the small boy in the ck robe, that is.
That secret had been protected for thesest five years. At that time, the elders of the Xu n held a meeting and made the decision to raise him as a normal heir, and only when his Dao Channels were measured would they decide on his cultivation agenda. This secret was forbidden to be told to any outsiders, and they even got rid of several soldiers of the Zhenhai Army who happened to be around at his birth in order to hide it. The only remaining people who were privy to this knowledge were the n elders, Xu Xiao, and his wives.
Xu Xiao’s wives were all heavily guarded. In thest five years, many imperial guards were ced on patrol, and vignce was demanded of them at all times. This measure guaranteed that even at the slightest hint of trouble, there wouldn’t be any leak of information outside of Zhenhai City.
“Xu Qian, Grade 6 Dao Channels!”
“Xu Ziyu, Grade 8 Dao Channels!”
“Xu Yufeng, Grade 7 Dao Channels!”
“Xu Xuan, Grade 7 Dao Channels!”
Xu Qian was the only one with Grade 6 Dao Channels, and the others all had Seventh or Grade 8 Dao Channels, yet this result wasn’t shocking in the least to the crowd.
There weren’t many with Grade 6 Dao Channels, but to these great ns who passed on their blood for hundreds of years, they weren’t necessarily considered that rare either.
Xu Disheng was constantly circting his Soul Force throughout his body’s circuit this whole time, starting from the Shenque meridian point, going up to the Jianggong meridian point, andstly to the Baihui meridian, where it would congregate within his sea of consciousness.
At this moment, he opened his eyes and stood up, and began to walk slowly towards the stone tform. Jin Yu’er was watching him unblinkingly, while Xu Qingcheng, who was standing behind Xu Chaoyang, looked on at Xu Disheng with interest. Only Xu Chaoyang and Xu Xiao’s expressions had a hint of nervousness in them.
Xu Disheng lightly flipped onto the stone tform and sat down cross-legged upon it. He felt a strand of foreign energy spring up from the tform below, which entered his meridians and circted around, then disappeared back into the stone tform.
This was the probing technique of this stone tform Martial Treasure, which could only be refined by those in the Xiantian stage. It was also a Martial Treasure distributed by the Grand Chu Dynasty, so as expected, it wasn’t an ordinary item.
Xu Disheng was trying to use his Soul Force to feel out the strand of probing energy, but he waspletely blocked. After a while, he stopped trying and let the strand of energy wander about in his meridians several times. The Dao Channel Measurement tform suddenly started shaking, and the white circle of light constricted, where it was stuck closely to the top of the tform.
The crowd waspletely bbergasted. They had only ever seen the white halo of light expand outwards, and had never seen it constrict inwards like this. The halo of light kept shrinking smaller and smaller, as if it would expand outwards violently in the next second.
“Expand?!” Xu Chaoyang began to feel inwardly that something bad was going to happen, and he wanted to fly to the front, but he was already toote.
A phantom image of a hand suddenly appeared, covering the Dao Channel Measurement tform. The white light that looked like it was about to explode was contained within the palm, and after it closed into a fist with a firm grasp, there was no more sound.
An eagle-eyed elder appeared on the tform, his appearance somewhat simr to Xu Chaoyang.
“Respect to the Great Elder!”
“Greetings to Grandpa Elder!”
Everyone from the Xu n still couldn’t wrap their heads around what just happened, but when they saw the eagle-eyed elder, they suppressed their astonishment and each of them immediately began to greet him with respect.
This person was the Great Elder of the Xu n, Xu Qinying. He was the previous Patriarch and also the father of Xu Chaoyang. It was rumored that he had long since reached the half-step to Xiantian stage, and he was known for possessing incredible fighting prowess. However, Xu Qinying had long since withdrawn from the main stage, and over 20 years ago, he had retired to the Council of Elders. Many people thought he was already dead, but now he had suddenly showed up to interrupt this Dao Channel Measurement Ceremony.
“This time’s Dao Channel Measurement Ceremony is over!” Xu Qinying dered in a deep voice. He nced at Xu Disheng, picked him up, and then flew off.
The crowd had all kinds of expressions on their faces, but they soon began to say their farewells to Xu Chaoyang in turn, wanting to return to their own ns as soon as possible. The Zhenhai Army and Imperial Guards began to direct people to make a methodical exit.
Those children who were measured to have Dao Channels stayed in the capital, and their parents received their rewards, returning home to have their celebratory feasts. But for the numerous aristocratic families of the Ruyang Region, as well as the four great ns, stormy undercurrents began to brew. The Ruyang Region was about to experience a great change.
<h4>Footnotes</h4>
Xu Chaoyang wants her to call him 叔爷爷, which literally means “grandpa from uncle’s side”, but it doesn’t quite trante so I decided to leave it as “grandpa”.