Chapter 1: The Frivolous NinthPrince

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 passed into another a dimension, I recalled the countless things I learned in schoolI cant do any of them.

Tianyun Continent, in the Chiyun Empires imperial palace, Emperor Hong Wenqings study in the Xuan Qing Pavilion.

Your Majesty, a guard hurriedly cameover 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 guards words, Emperor Hong Wenqing wentblank, then put down the report in his hands and gotup with a smile: Inform him that We are coming.

Hong Wenqing was forty-eight years old and Chiyun Empires eighteenth emperor. His face washandsome and his appearance stately. Furthermore, he lovedthe common people as much as his own children, thus receiving their love and respect in return. He couldbe considered to be one of the rulers who governedhis country the right way.

Yes. The guard receivedthe command and wasjust about to depart when he suddenly haltedhis 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 Pavilions Second Elder Ye Feihong.

The son of Thunder Sound Pavilions Second Elder? Hong Wenqing furrowedhis eyebrows, then lightly wavedhis hand: You may go ahead first.

Yes.

After the guard departed, Hong Wenqing sankinto thought. Instead of dressing in imperial attire, he specifically puton 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 Pavilions Second Elder has come too?

Within the Xuan Yang main hall.

Haha, after not seeing you for twelve years, Preceptors bearing has become even more outstanding than in the past. Im sure youve progressed in your martial studies as well. Worthy to be praised *ah. The moment Emperor Hong Wenqing enteredinto 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 lookedto be around fifty years old. He held a goose-feather fan in his hand and hadtwo cyan head coverings on his head. Three locks of facial hair hungbelow 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 wasprecisely Chiyun Empires 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 wasexceedingly good. To act on equal footing wasnot out of ones expectations either, so Yun Shengxuan saidwith a faint smile: The reason why *Yun has returned is actually for my daughter Caixiaos marriage affair.

(*TL: refers to himself as . = his surname, and simply refers to himself)

As expected!

Hearing Yun Shengxuans words, Hong Wenqing immediately lookedtoward the young lady standing not far away from Yun Shengxuan.

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

Yun Caixiao greets His Majesty. Seeing Hong Wenqing look in her direction, the young lady greetedhim at once.

A person of absolutely beauty and optimal background.

This wasno other than the apple of national protector and martial deity Yun Shengxuans eye, his beloved daughter Yun Caixiao!

Aiyah, in the twelve years we havent seen each other, Caixiao has actually grown to become this beautiful! Hong Wenqing hadalready noticed this outstanding young lady a while ago, but now that he had received confirmation of her identity, the more appreciative he wasas he spokewith a laugh: We are not outsiders, so how about you call me Uncle. This way, it makes us seem closer.

Yun Caixiao answeredwith a soft En as her response.

After the two of them exchangedpleasantries, Hong Wenqing finally tooka look at the youth whom the guard spoke of and askedwith a faint smile: This young gallant is.

Hearing Hong Wenqings inquiry, the youth immediately cuppedhis 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 Jinnings appearance wasquite majestic. He hadsword-like eyebrows, shining eyes, and wasdressed in clothing as white as snow, giving him good image. However, although he wasgreeting Hong Wenqing, his eyes occasionally flitted surreptitiously towards Yun Caixiao, which madefor weird behavior.

En, a valiant youth. Not bad, not bad. Ye Jinnings expression wasimmediately noticed by Hong Wenqing, so Hong Wenqing understoodwhat was going on at once. His eyebrows knitted together slightly, but eased up very soon. Giving a slight nod of his head, he spoketo 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 todays matters will not be so simple.

Haha, Your Majesty, Yun Shengxuan gently waved his fan after the introductions and gavea 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 generations protective martial deity hadto set up a marriage agreement to strengthen the friendship between the two sides.

If the protective martial deity chose a male, the emperors side wouldchoose a princess to marry off; if the protective martial deitys side wasa female, the emperors side wouldchoose a prince to take her as a wife.

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

The reason why he wascalled Hong Xiaobao wasbecause when he was born, the Ninth Princes condition was quite weak. Furthermore, he wasthe youngest of the children, so his name turned out to be Xiaobao. Its meaning conveyedthe hope that he wouldbe as strong as a family treasurenow that this wasmentioned, it should be said that this name was actually personally chosen by Yun Shengxuan himself.

(TL: Xiaobao = little treasure)

Ai, my familys Xiaobao, this child. Reminded of the ninth child who he loved the most yet also suffered the most headaches for, Hong Wenqing wasa bit depressed: His days are actually spent quite happily. Its just that he is a bit frivolous and causes peoples head to hurt.

Oh? Frivolous? Hearing these words, Yun Shengxuan immediately knithis eyebrows and said: Could it be that he never cultivated theFlowing Dragon Claw ArtI left him that year?

Yun Shengxuan wasalready aware that Hong Xiaobaos physique wasa 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 Wenqings words, it seemedthat he has not cultivated the art?

Ai, its hard to explain ah. Hong Wenqing let out a long sigh and shookhis head helplessly, saying: Preceptor, its still better that you come with me to take a look before discussing this.

What wasthe matter? It seemed that the situation wasnot quite right.

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

However, once they entered through Xuan Xiao Pavilions entrance, they sawa 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 sawseveral 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 wasimmediately 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 wasa perfect summary of the situation, so the four people wereno 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 tooka look to see exactly what wasgoing on.

As they walked forward, the four peoples 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 wasnot deep or strong, it wasstill quite comfortable on the ears, and Hong Wenqing spokewith a laugh: This child, Xiaobao, is doing something I cant understand. Lets first take a look!

Yun Shengxuan and Yun Caixiao werealso 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 waslocated in the rear garden of the Xuan Xiao Pavilion, so the greenery wasthick and verdant while little bridges bentover flowing water, resulting in immensely beautiful scenery. On the other hand, Ninth Prince Hong Xiaobao wascurrently 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 wasthat in a place not far away from Hong Xiaobao, there wasa bizarre, porcelain object.

The object hada circular opening while there wasa pedestal-like base at the bottom. At the posterior end, there waseven a square-shaped chest whose use wasunknown.

However, the answer to this question wasvery 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? Its very precious and manufactured using porcelain. Dont break it!

Toilet? What wasthat?

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, Ive 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 Xiaobaos hand. The object wasquite dirty and caked with mud. However, Hong Xiaobao didnot care the least bit and instead used his sleeve to wipe it clean to finally see what it was.

It wasan extremely pretty bracelet with nine gems embedded into it, and their colors werered, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, and white. Even a vapor wasfaintly being emitted from the gems, and under the princes touch, it still feltwarm, which wassomething quite magical.

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

All the servants weredeeply grateful: Many thanks to Ninth Prince! They then continued digging!

This digging process tooknearly an entire hour until it wasfinally finished. The Ninth Prince first ordered people to place the porcelain sheet that wasaround 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 toldthem to pile the entire cart of dung insidenow it waseven stinkier.

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

Xiaobao, what are you tinkering with? Only after Hong Wenqing and the others sawthat the servants beganconstructing a small shed around the toilet didthey 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 embarrassment 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 weredumbstruck!

Yun Shengxuan and Yun Caixiao wereespecially surprised as they dropped their jaws in stupefaction after hearing his words! On the other hand, Ye Jinning simply turnedhis 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 couldno longer continue listeningfailing to train properly and instead messing around with all these things. Wasit useful?

En, Xiaobao ah, Yun Shengxuan tooka step forward: Have you practiced theFlowing Dragon Claw ArtI left for you before?

Are *you Uncle Yun? Seeing Yun Shengxuan, Hong Xiaobao hastily cameforth 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 askedurgently.

Ah, Im afraid that wont do, Hong Xiaobao responded with some embarrassment: Its true that Ive practiced it, but I havent ever succeeded!

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