The Nine Godheads

“My name is Hong Xiaobao. I am an extremely superior and awesome spendthrift rich kid, but on one dark and windy night where I could not even see my own fingers, I was mysteriously kicked to another place by my old man….”

“The moment I pa.s.sed into another a dimension, I recalled the countless things I learned in school—I can’t do any of them….”

　　……

Tianyun Continent, in the Chiyun Empire’s imperial palace, Emperor Hong Wenqing’s study in the Xuan Qing Pavilion.

“Your Majesty,” a guard hurriedly came over to report: “Preceptor Yun has come back from his twelve years of traveling. Right now, he is awaiting Your Majesty in Xuan Yang Hall.”

“Oh? The Preceptor has returned?” Hearing the guard’s words, Emperor Hong Wenqing went blank, then put down the report in his hands and got up with a smile: “Inform him that We are coming.”

Hong Wenqing was forty-eight years old and Chiyun Empire’s eighteenth emperor. His face was handsome and his appearance stately. Furthermore, he loved the common people as much as his own children, thus receiving their love and respect in return. He could be considered to be one of the rulers who governed his country the right way.

“Yes.” The guard received the command and was just about to depart when he suddenly halted his steps and continued: “Oh, right. Your Majesty, besides Lord Preceptor and his daughter Yun Caixiao, there is another youth. Your subordinate did a secret investigation; it is said that he is Ye Jinning, the son of Thunder Sound Pavilion’s Second Elder Ye Feihong.”

“The son of Thunder Sound Pavilion’s Second Elder?” Hong Wenqing furrowed his eyebrows, then lightly waved his hand: “You may go ahead first.”

“Yes.”

After the guard departed, Hong Wenqing sank into thought. Instead of dressing in imperial attire, he specifically put on casual wear, then rubbed the stubble on his chin and murmured: “Preceptor Yun has traveled for twelve years now. Could it be that his return is related to the engagement? En, based on the age, it is probably so. However, why is it that the son of Thunder Sound Pavilion’s Second Elder has come too?”

　　……

Within the Xuan Yang main hall.

“Haha, after not seeing you for twelve years, Preceptor’s bearing has become even more outstanding than in the past. I’m sure you’ve progressed in your martial studies as well. Worthy to be praised *ah.” The moment Emperor Hong Wenqing entered into the main conference hall, he caught sight of a man wearing a cyan robe who hastily took two steps forward to grasp hands with him. Letting out hearty laughter, Hong Wenqing said: “Separating for twelve years is truly trying to kill me!”
(*TL: sentence particle indicating affirmation)

The middle-aged man looked to be around fifty years old. He held a goose-feather fan in his hand and had two cyan head coverings on his head. Three locks of facial hair hung below his jaw, giving him the appearance of an immortal being and bringing about a lofty air.

To be able to make Emperor Hong Wenqing treat him in such a manner, he was precisely Chiyun Empire’s national protector and martial deity, acclaimed as Preceptor and an 8-star martial artist, Yun Shengxuan!

“Your Majesty is too courteous.” As national protector and martial deity, the relationship between Yun Shengxuan and Hong Wenqing was exceedingly good. To act on equal footing was not out of one’s expectations either, so Yun Shengxuan said with a faint smile: “The reason why *Yun has returned is actually for my daughter Caixiao’s marriage affair.”
(*TL: refers to himself as 云某. 云 = his surname, and 某 simply refers to himself)

As expected!

Hearing Yun Shengxuan’s words, Hong Wenqing immediately looked toward the young lady standing not far away from Yun Shengxuan.

The young lady was dressed in a light green cheongsam, and seemed to be at the flowering age of sixteen. Her eyes seemed watery, bright and limpid, while her skin was like congealed fat, snowy white and suffused with hint of pink, seeming as though one could squeeze water out of it. She had a pair of jade hands with ten long, slender fingers that seemed bonelessly soft, and they lightly grasped onto a dark green jade pipe. A head of fine black hair extending to her waist danced along with the wind, and her appearance was as marvelous and pure as a celestial being.

“Yun Caixiao greets His Majesty.” Seeing Hong Wenqing look in her direction, the young lady greeted him at once.

A person of absolutely beauty and optimal background.

This was no other than the apple of national protector and martial deity Yun Shengxuan’s eye, his beloved daughter Yun Caixiao!

“Aiyah, in the twelve years we haven’t seen each other, Caixiao has actually grown to become this beautiful!” Hong Wenqing had already noticed this outstanding young lady a while ago, but now that he had received confirmation of her ident.i.ty, the more appreciative he was as he spoke with a laugh: “We are not outsiders, so how about you call me Uncle. This way, it makes us seem closer.”

Yun Caixiao answered with a soft “En” as her response.

After the two of them exchanged pleasantries, Hong Wenqing finally took a look at the youth whom the guard spoke of and asked with a faint smile: “This young gallant is….”

Hearing Hong Wenqing’s inquiry, the youth immediately cupped his hand in greeting: “Ye Jinning, son of the Second Elder of one of the Six Great Orthodoxies, Thunder Sound Pavilion, greets His Majesty.” This Ye Jinning’s appearance was quite majestic. He had sword-like eyebrows, shining eyes, and was dressed in clothing as white as snow, giving him good image. However, although he was greeting Hong Wenqing, his eyes occasionally flitted surrept.i.tiously towards Yun Caixiao, which made for weird behavior.

“En, a valiant youth. Not bad, not bad.” Ye Jinning’s expression was immediately noticed by Hong Wenqing, so Hong Wenqing understood what was going on at once. His eyebrows knitted together slightly, but eased up very soon. Giving a slight nod of his head, he spoke to himself inwardly: “Because Caixiao possessed outstanding talent when she was young, she was sent to Thunder Sound Pavilion of the Six Great Orthodoxies to cultivate. She has returned now, but is accompanied by such a person. It seems today’s matters will not be so simple.”

“Haha, Your Majesty,” Yun Shengxuan gently waved his fan after the introductions and gave a soft reminder: “According to the marriage agreement that year, I do not know if Ninth Prince is still well?”

For the Chiyun Empire, every emperor and their respective generation’s protective martial deity had to set up a marriage agreement to strengthen the friendship between the two sides.

If the protective martial deity chose a male, the emperor’s side would choose a princess to marry off; if the protective martial deity’s side was a female, the emperor’s side would choose a prince to take her as a wife.

This generation’s protective martial deity Yun Shengxuan only had one daughter, so Hong Wenqing chose a prince to set up the marriage agreement, and this chosen prince was precisely the one whose age was the same as Yun Caixiao. He was the beloved Ninth Prince who received the most favor from Hong Wenqing, Hong Xiaobao!

The reason why he was called Hong Xiaobao was because when he was born, the Ninth Prince’s condition was quite weak. Furthermore, he was the youngest of the children, so his name turned out to be Xiaobao. Its meaning conveyed the hope that he would be as strong as a family treasure—now that this was mentioned, it should be said that this name was actually personally chosen by Yun Shengxuan himself. 
(TL: Xiaobao = 小宝 – little treasure)

“Ai, my family’s Xiaobao, this child.” Reminded of the ninth child who he loved the most yet also suffered the most headaches for, Hong Wenqing was a bit depressed: “His days are actually spent quite happily. It’s just that he is a bit frivolous and causes people’s head to hurt.”

“Oh? Frivolous?” Hearing these words, Yun Shengxuan immediately knit his eyebrows and said: “Could it be that he never cultivated the《Flowing Dragon Claw Art》I left him that year?”

Yun Shengxuan was already aware that Hong Xiaobao’s physique was a bit weak, so he specifically left behind a special art before he went traveling to tell Hong Xiaobao to strengthen his physique. However, listening to Hong Wenqing’s words, it seemed that he has not cultivated the art?

“Ai, it’s hard to explain ah.” Hong Wenqing let out a long sigh and shook his head helplessly, saying: “Preceptor, it’s still better that you come with me to take a look before discussing this.”

What was the matter? It seemed that the situation was not quite right.

Yun Shengxuan exchanged a look with his daughter Yun Caixiao, then they both nodded: “Alright.” Just like that, they departed from the hall and headed towards the Ninth Prince’s Xuan Xiao Pavilion. On the road, Ye Jinning followed closely next to Yun Caixiao. Seeing this, Hong Wenqing was already quite clear about the situation.

However, once they entered through Xuan Xiao Pavilion’s entrance, they saw a countless number of servants scurrying about with shovels and spades in their hands. At the same time, a repugnant smell wafted over, and when Hong Wenqing and the others turned their heads to look, they unexpectedly saw several servants pushing in a cartful of dung!

The Yun Shengxuan who always carried a graceful bearing and seemed to give off the air of a transcendent being was immediately stunned into a daze: “What is all this?”

The so-called phrase of when something unexpected occurs, there will always be a devil behind it was a perfect summary of the situation, so the four people were no longer alarmed. Hong Wenqing prevented the servants who wished to pay their respects from speaking and gestured to keep silent. He then followed behind them and took a look to see exactly what was going on.

As they walked forward, the four people’s ears immediately heard a voice that sounded a bit youthful—

“Ai, the actions must be done a bit more carefully, do you hear me? This is the most important step. No errors can be made!” The voice seemed to sound like a twenty-year-old. Although it was not deep or strong, it was still quite comfortable on the ears, and Hong Wenqing spoke with a laugh: “This child, Xiaobao, is doing something I can’t understand. Let’s first take a look!”

Yun Shengxuan and Yun Caixiao were also quite curious, although Ye Jinning simply smirked and revealed a smile of disdain. The three of them tolerated the stench as they followed behind Hong Wenqing and look for a concealed area to observe secretly.

This place was located in the rear garden of the Xuan Xiao Pavilion, so the greenery was thick and verdant while little bridges bent over flowing water, resulting in immensely beautiful scenery. On the other hand, Ninth Prince Hong Xiaobao was currently in the middle of directing the servants to dig something. At the same time, the servants even placed a good amount of metal piping, ceramic instruments, and wooden material in the ground. The most fascinating thing was that in a place not far away from Hong Xiaobao, there was a bizarre, porcelain object.

The object had a circular opening while there was a pedestal-like base at the bottom. At the posterior end, there was even a square-shaped chest whose use was unknown.

However, the answer to this question was very quickly made known to the four of them when they heard Hong Xiaobao saying: “All of you be careful! This is the toilet that I recently developed you know? It’s very precious and manufactured using porcelain. Don’t break it!”

Toilet? What was that?

Resisting the curiosity in their hearts, the four of them continued observing.

“Right, right, right, just like that. Keep digging, en. A bit deeper, bigger! It must be straight from the top to the bottom!” Hong Xiaobao continued to direct the servants, but did not expect one of them to suddenly shout out in the middle of digging: “Ninth Prince, I’ve dug something up!”

Hong Xiaobao responded curiously: “What thing? Let me see!”

“Here it is.” The servant hastily placed the object in Ninth Prince Hong Xiaobao’s hand. The object was quite dirty and caked with mud. However, Hong Xiaobao did not care the least bit and instead used his sleeve to wipe it clean to finally see what it was.

It was an extremely pretty bracelet with nine gems embedded into it, and their colors were red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, and white. Even a vapor was faintly being emitted from the gems, and under the prince’s touch, it still felt warm, which was something quite magical.

“A good item!” Hong Xiaobao was delighted and directly placed it onto his wrist while laughing: “Everybody is rewarded two taels. Go receive it yourself when you return!”

All the servants were deeply grateful: “Many thanks to Ninth Prince!” They then continued digging!

This digging process took nearly an entire hour until it was finally finished. The Ninth Prince first ordered people to place the porcelain sheet that was around two meters long into the ground, then directed them to bring the cart of dung over. Covering his nose to shield it from the awful stench, he told them to pile the entire cart of dung inside—now it was even stinkier….

After all this was finished, they affixed a board to the ground and finally fastened the toilet on top of it. A light breeze blew over, signalling a conclusion to the entire process.

“Xiaobao, what are you tinkering with?” Only after Hong Wenqing and the others saw that the servants began constructing a small shed around the toilet did they walk over. Upon arrival, Hong Wenqing pointed towards the toilet and asked: “What is this thing used for?”

Seeing how his imperial father asked, Hong Xiaobao chuckled with a bit of embarra.s.sment and then answered: “I call this object a flushing toilet. It is actually quite useful! When you go to the latrine, you only need to sit on it to do your business. After you are done with your business, pressing on this mechanism will cause water to flow down and wash it clean. It is very practical!”

“You fiddled around for nearly half a day just to produce a latrine?!” Hong Wenqing and the others were dumbstruck!

Yun Shengxuan and Yun Caixiao were especially surprised as they dropped their jaws in stupefaction after hearing his words! On the other hand, Ye Jinning simply turned his body around, his shoulders shaking nonstop.

Previously, Hong Wenqing called the Ninth Prince frivolous. It seemed that it was quite true!

“Ah. Of course, it is not just a latrine,” Hong Xiaobao gleefully responded: “This is one of my new inventions. I call it a methane tank! In simple terms, just think of it as…. Mhmm, when the yellow and white stuff ferments here, it will result in a sort of gaseous form which can be used to help ignite a fire for cooking. It is convenient, environmentally friendly, and very easily used!”

Yun Shengxuan could no longer continue listening—failing to train properly and instead messing around with all these things. Was it useful?

“En, Xiaobao ah,” Yun Shengxuan took a step forward: “Have you practiced the《Flowing Dragon Claw Art》I left for you before?”

“Are *you Uncle Yun?” Seeing Yun Shengxuan, Hong Xiaobao hastily came forth to greet him: “Uncle Yun, long time no see! Of course I would definitely have practiced the cultivation method you left me!”

“Then how is it coming along? How about you show it to me?” Yun Shengxuan asked urgently.

“Ah, I’m afraid that won’t do,” Hong Xiaobao responded with some embarra.s.sment: “It’s true that I’ve practiced it, but I haven’t ever succeeded!”

At this moment, Yun Caixiao really could not listen to him anymore. Furrowing her eyebrows, she turned her body around while Ye Jinning scoffed and inched close to her ear, saying softly: “As expected, it seems that your fiancé is exactly like the rumors describe. Not only is he frivolous, he’s also a cripple!”