Heavenly Dao Engine-Chapter 35 - 00 Qin Pulse

Chapter 35: Chapter 0035: Qin Pulse

Chapter 35 -0035: Qin Pulse

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As Zhao Qian opened the third embroidered box, numerous disciples in Huangque Hall craned their necks and stood on their tiptoes to peek. If the first two boxes held treasures worth their weight in gold, then the third one wouldn’t disappoint either.

At this moment, Zhao Qian opened the box and held it in front of her chest, revealing its content to the crowd. The embroidered box, lined with silk, held ten exquisite jewels bound by a delicate ribbon. Each jewel, the size of a quail egg and slightly egg-shaped, sparkled brilliantly. Half of them were faint red, and the other half a light aquamarine. Under the warm sunlight, the jewels cast enchanting halos, accentuating an otherworldly aura around Zhao Qian.

Qi Tian, looking at the ten jewels, felt a sudden jolt. A surreal thought crossed his mind that he was finding hard to believe. How could Zhao Qian part with such valuable treasures? Yet given her status, she would indeed be capable of offering such gems.

“These are ten spirit stones, five being fire attribute, and five water attribute.” Zhao Qian didn’t let the disciples, including Qi Tian, wait for long and revealed what the jewels were. “You all are cultivators, so I need not go into the uses of spirit stones. I can tell you that every year, our Uncle, the emperor, awards King Zhangbei Manor just twenty such stones. These are half of them.”

There was an immediate uproar. Regardless of whether they understood the value and purpose of spirit stones, everyone’s eyes glowed with excitement looking at the seemingly ordinary colored stones in the box.

The Great Zhao was vast, and its royal family held immense wealth. What treasures could they not acquire? Even so, the royal family was only able to gift King Zhangbei Manor so few spirit stones, speaking volumes about their value. If you sold just one, it could fetch you three or five thousand taels silver without a hitch. With that estimation, the total worth of the ten spirit stones would be at least thirty thousand taels of silver.

Looking at the graceful Zhao Qian standing on the stage, Qi Tian felt a chill. The three treasures revealed by Zhao Qian at this time were undoubtedly worth not less than fifty thousand tales of silver. If she could bring all these out as rewards, she must be aiming for something big.

In fact, many, like Qi Tian, harbored both anticipation and vigilance. Leaving aside the principle of no reward without merit, with just these three boxes and nearly two thousand outer disciples gathered in front of Huangque Hall, could Zhao Qian possibly divide the treasures among everyone?

Zhao Qian announced: “The prosperity of Great Zhao and the stability of King Zhangbei Manor in Zhangshui City are inextricably linked to the strong support of the Imperial Master Mansion. To show gratitude for the support of Imperial Master Mansion to the state, our royal family, and King Zhangbei Manor, I, Zhao Qian, am here, in the name of our king, to reward talent and recruit personnel. The three treasures I brought here are prepared for real talents. I’ve set up three tests here. The first one tests how many meridians you’ve opened. At the same age, at the same realm, whoever has opened the most meridians can obtain the five hundred years wild ginseng root in the first box. The second test is to measure the fitness of spirit qi. Whoever has the highest fitness can win the spirit stones. As for the third test, I’ll discuss it later when the first two tests are over.”

After Zhao Qian finished speaking, she clapped her hands. Immediately, two guards carrying a large box walked up to the stage. When they reached the stage, they opened the box and took out its contents.

It was a musical instrument similar to a harp, but with more careful inspection, it was found to differ significantly from a harp.

An ordinary harp has four main parts – a vertical pillar, a slanting soundbox, a curved harp neck at the top, and multiple strings stretching from top to bottom.

This harp-like instrument also had four parts. There was a pillar, but unlike the support pillar on a normal harp, it had a palm mark. Whether that was imprinted by someone or was part of the original design was uncertain. The instrument’s neck was slanted rather than being at the top – that particular place was occupied by the soundbox. The soundbox had several holes pointing upwards, arranged in a straight line, and corresponding to the number of strings. The instrument had a total of thirty to forty strings of different lengths and thicknesses.

Qi Tian, who was a fan of classical music in his previous life, had seen some harps but he couldn’t help but find this instrument that Zhao Qian had brought to be rather incongruous.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Zhao Qian then spoke: “This instrument is called the Qin Pulse. It was specially made by an ancient Great Master to test the condition of meridian passage in cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Period. This palm mark is where the tester places their hand. During the test, place your hand here, inject your True Essence, and the Qin Pulse will react accordingly. Each string corresponds to a meridian. For every meridian you’ve opened, a string will vibrate, and the corresponding ‘acupoint hole’ will shoot out a stream of specially concocted water. The details of how the water is formulated and infused are beyond me. All I know is, the stronger the True Essence flowing through your meridians, the higher the water column. Now, I’ll show you a demonstration.”

Zhao Qian walked to the Qin Pulse, placed her delicate hand on the palm mark, and let her True Essence naturally flow into the instrument. Soon, the first string of the Qin Pulse vibrated and produced a crisp sound. Immediately, a two feet seven inches high column of water gushed out from its corresponding acupoint hole. It stopped only when the second string vibrated and another column of water, the exact same height as before, shot up. Then came the third string and third water column…

Zing…Zing…Zing…

The strings vibrated in quick succession, generating pleasant, melodic sounds, akin to the tinkling of a spring.

Just as people were expecting Zhao Qian to vibrate more strings, Zhao Qian had already withdrawn her delicate hand. She calmly stated, “That’s all to it. Brothers and sisters of Huangque Hall, you may try your hands. The five-hundred-year old wild ginseng is waiting for you.”

Immediately, hands raised, everyone confident in their abilities. Even though Zhao Qian had made things very clear, they still considered themselves up to the task. Some merely wanted to fish in troubled waters.

Zhao Qian didn’t mind, and casually pointed at one of them, saying, “You, come on stage.”

The one Zhao Qian called out was a teenager about thirteen or fourteen. He was quite handsome. After he was selected by Zhao Qian, many of his friends looked enviously at him. Some even patted him on the shoulder, winking at Zhao Qian, telling him to perform well in front of her. Perhaps he might win the princess’s heart and his prosperity was just around the corner.

The young boy went up the stage and bowed to Zhao Qian, saying, “My name is Kang Ning, greetings Princess.”

Zhao Qian returned the courtesy, her movements elegant, saying, “Kang, you are polite. Please share some basic information about yourself. For instance, your age, cultivation level, and the number of meridians you’ve opened?”

Kang Ning replied, “I’m thirteen years and nine months old, at the Qi cultivation 3rd level, having opened three meridians.”

“Young Kang has achieved Qi cultivation 3rd level at such a tender age, I admire you. Please, show us your skills at the Qin Pulse,” Zhao Qian praised Kang Ning slightly.

Kang Ning’s face turned beet red as he walked toward the Qin Pulse, a spring in his step. Did the princess complimenting him mean that she was interested in him? He felt slightly dizzy as he approached the Qin Pulse. The guards by its side had to remind him a few times before he remembered why he was up there. Hastily placing his hand on the palm imprint of the Qin Pulse, he channeled his True Essence into it.

Zing…

Very quickly, the first string had been vibrated. But when people were expecting a gush of water to soar from the acupoint hole, nothing came. Even the second string of the Qin Pulse remained silent.

Murmuring broke out among the crowd, and Kang Ning’s face turned deep red. He pushed all the distracting thoughts out of his mind and focused on forcing the True Essence out of his meridians into the Qin Pulse.

At last, there was a movement from the first acupoint hole. But unlike the column of water the Princess had triggered that had shot up high into the air, this one lacked force. It made its laborious way up to a height of only one foot and an inch, and then stopped moving.

Laughter emanated from the audience below. The column of water that Zhao Qian had caused to soar up had reached a height of two feet and seven inches. The column Kang Ning had triggered hadn’t even reached half the height of the princess’s.

“Look at Kang Ning’s water column, what is that? Did it just wilt at the start?”

“Kang Ning, are you even a man? Are you up to it or not?”

.

Heckling sounds erupted from below, Kang Ning’s handsome face turned as red as a monkey’s buttocks. But now that he was up on stage, he couldn’t just step down. If he did, he would lose the chance to redeem himself from this humiliation.

Kang Ning decided to turn a deaf ear to the sarcastic comments from below. He mustered all his energy and started mobilizing the True Essence from his second meridian. Soon, the second string on the Qin Pulse started vibrating, eliciting a zinging sound. But to everyone’s surprise, it was not the string next to the first one that vibrated, but the fifth one in ascending order of length or rather, the second-thickest of the strings in ascending order

Then, a column of water also rushed up from the acupoint hole above the fifth string. However, the water column was not very high, only about an inch taller than the first one.