Chapter 252: “Preparations”
These few days, Jun Xian had been suffering from headaches for a different reason. The Lin Palace was not accustomed to mixing with officials of the Imperial Court. Military generals had shunned them to avoid gossip and Jun Xian could not stand the endless gabbing of the literary officials.
But over the course of the past few days, all the court officials, be it military or literary, had seemingly all agreed to come visit the Lin Palace daily. As they stepped in with their smiles in full bloom, all their conversations led to queries on Jun Wu Xie.
Jun Xian had initially been clueless on their various unannounced visits. But as all the conversations tended to fall upon the topic of his granddaughter, it finally dawned on Jun Xian.
These court officials all had their eyes set on his Wu Xie, and had all come to propose a betrothal!
Jun Wu Xie’s reputation in the Qi Kingdom had previously been so bad that it couldn’t have gotten any worse. She was wilful and unruly, and the addition of her dalliance with the previous Second Prince, Mo Xuan Fei had many of the court officials deemed a disgrace. Even when the newly crowned Emperor had heaped loads of praise upon Jun Wu Xie, it had not been enough to change the perception that the court officials had for Jun Wu Xie.
But! The tables seemed to have turned!
Jun Wu Xie’s heroic and glorious deed of breaking into the Imperial Palace to rescue the Emperor of Qi, had spread like wildfire throughout the entire Imperial City, and the prenotions that all the court officials, be it military or literary, had of Jun Wu Xie had drastically been altered and overturned then!
The young maiden was stunningly beautiful, and possessed both brawn and brains. She would make the perfect daughter-in-law!
Hence, any with a son or grandson in their family, started to fix their eye on the exquisite Jun Wu Xie, who had bloomed delicate as a flower and grown refined as the finest jade. If it wasn’t for the prodigious prestige of the Lin Palace, the various officials might have been tempted to carry out an abduction for the marriage.
But the Lin Palace had the Rui Lin Army standing guard and that had quelled any thoughts in that direction, and they were left with the lone option of attempting to move them through emotions and have them listen to reason. They praised their own sons and grandsons to the skies, and expounded on the heroics of Jun Wu Xie, and criticised the other candidates of the competition.
It had sure been lively for the Lin Palace!
Jun Xian had been helpless against them, as he had lived never to rebuff a smiling face. When the court officials had shown up cordially, he could not make himself expel them out, and sat through the pompous spectacle patiently as they presented their plans to steal his precious granddaughter from him.
Jun Wu Xie had not been aware of this, as Jun Xian had held them off at the front yard, and any who decided to attempt to enter the premises were shown their way out firmly by Long Qi, who stood guard before the doors.
There were twenty three more days before the Qing Yun Clan opened their doors to receive the next batch of applicants to enter under their tutelage. During this period, there was not much that Jun Wu Xie had wanted to do except to prepare for her long trip.
Before she was to leave the Qi Kingdom, she wanted to ensure that there was adequate elixirs and medicine for the Lin Palace, and another frustration that bugged her was the development of her spiritual powers.
Her current development of her spiritual powers had been wholly based on the methods shown on the ancient text to cultivate the Snow Lotus, and the cultivation of Snow Lotuses needed Jade Nectar. But it was impossible for Jun Wu Xie to lug jars and jars of Jade Nectar all the way into the Qing Yun Clan.
Without Jade Nectar, she would be unable to cultivate Snow Lotuses, and that had also meant, Jun Wu Xie would not be able to develop her spiritual powers in the months that she would be in the Qing Yun Clan.
That was not what she wanted. This was not a desirable outcome for her!
Without any other choice, Jun Wu Xie could only continue to flip through the delicate pages of ancient texts to find other plants she could cultivate to develop her spiritual powers.
But all she could find recorded within were names of plants that she had never even heard of before. It seemed that finding an alternative to develop her spiritual powers was not going to be that easy.
On the seventh day after Qin Yu Yan was imprisoned within the Royal Dungeons, Mo Qian Yuan sent word on the passing of Qin Yu Yan.
Qin Yu Yan had not expected till the end of her days, that as the Eldest Miss of the mighty Qing Yun Clan, she would die so pitifully within the dungeons of such a tiny and insignificant kingdom.