Bloodline Tree

Chapter 37 - Wine

“Very good, it looks like you can really handle it,” Shu Yang said with a pleased smile, rubbing Tianzheng’s head.

About two weeks had passed since the birth of his grandson, and Shu Yang was teaching his youngest son martial arts in the backyard.

“It’s not very difficult, Dad. You just need to train for a few days, and you’ll get it,” Tianzheng answered.

“That’s because you're talented,” Shu Yang said with a laugh, “Don’t let other people hear you say that. Anyway, keep practicing the martial moves I taught you diligently. You’re still young, so there is no need to rush strengthening your body with qi just yet. But it wouldn’t hurt to meditate and get familiar with trying to sense the qi in your body once in a while. That will help you not just to advance to the 3rd-grade stage but all the way to the Innate in the future.”

“Do you really think I can become an Innate warrior in the future, Dad?” Tianzheng asked, looking up at him with bright eyes.

“If you work as hard as your eldest brother, you definitely can,” Shu Yang said, “But it requires a lot of time and effort. Your talent only gives you the possibility; you have to do the hard work on yourself.”

“I understand. I’ll work hard,” Tianzheng said.

“Alright, but not too hard,” Shu Yang said, feeling that his son was still young and shouldn’t only focus on improving himself. He still had a few more years to play around a little if he wanted. “Just a few hours of study and training every day. The rest of the time is for rest and play.”

‘Even if he takes it slow, he will probably advance faster than even Tianxu. Clear Mind seems to make Tianzheng grasp things a lot easier than his brothers ever did. They weren’t even this fast to understand the old Shu Family Art, and the one Tianzheng is learning is many times more difficult.’

Shu Yang had been collecting martial arts for a long time now, working to improve them with the help of the Bloodline Tree. He had a hard time merging them for a long time, but ever since advancing to the Innate stage, things had been going a lot more smoothly.

His talent hadn’t increased much, only a very slight increase after Xinyang was born, but his advancement to the Innate stage made it a lot easier to look back at the earlier stages with a clear view. He had gone through all those stages himself, and he knew just what was needed to lay a solid foundation to reach the Innate stage.

So for the past half year since his advancement, Shu Yang had been spending most of his time trying to combine the martial arts he had in his arsenal to create a more versatile martial art. And a few weeks ago, he finally succeeded.

It wasn’t just a low-grade martial art either, it was a top-grade technique leading all the way to the Innate stage.

While it might not be the most powerful martial art out there, it is leagues above the bare version Shu Yang himself had practiced. It contained all sorts of techniques, but with a focus on movement, kicks, and punches. Shu Yang had aimed for it to be more versatile than specialized.

He guessed that it should be a lot better than most top-grade martial arts created by other Innate warriors, but it probably couldn’t compare to the ones created by Masters. They were in a completely different league, after all.

Fortunately, even if Shu Yang had already advanced to the Innate stage, the new martial art wasn’t useless to him. He could use it to improve his fighting capabilities. While it would require some time in order to create the right qi pathways and train his muscles to be able to make the different movements, he thought it should be worth it to build a more solid foundation for himself.

‘It should be a good time to solidify my foundation now anyway. I still can’t improve my Innate stage for the time being.’

Shu Yang still hadn’t quite figured out the next level of martial arts he would need to advance to the Master stage. But he had made good progress; another few months and he felt he should have deduced a complete martial art.

‘I guess there is no rush, my speed of advancement will probably stagnate for a while, as most of my children have grown up. But in the next ten years or so, I’ll hopefully see a great surge of Bloodline Power and talent as the next generation comes along. And I hope at least one of my grandchildren can give me a surprise and be born with a new exciting trait.’

“Dad, we are finished with the next batch of samples. Do you want to try them?” Tianren came over with Tianan and asked.

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“Sure,” Shu Yang said, “Why don’t you follow along, Tianzheng?”

“Okay, Dad,” Tianzheng nodded with a slightly excited smile.

“You’re not tasting anything, though,” Shu Yang warned.

“I know, I know,” Tianzheng said, nodding.

“Well, let’s go then,” Shu Yang said, and he and his three sons headed to the brewery.

It wasn’t far from their homes, located just next to Shu Yang’s first acres of fields. He had built it long ago, and over the years, the brewery had gotten bigger and bigger to accommodate the increase in production.

“The batches we are trying today are all the ones made from Clover Rice,” Tianren said as they went underground to the wine cellar. “There are about twenty of them in total. I added a few more variations than the ones you suggested, Dad.”

“That’s good, hopefully there is a star among them,” Shu Yang said.

Clover Rice was one of the things he had brought from Fugu City; it was one of the cheaper precious resources, but still about 120 times more expensive than regular rice. Shu Yang had high hopes for this wine because, unlike many of the other precious resources he had brought, Clover Rice could be grown right here in Baishu Village. He had already tried it with a few Clover Rice plants he brought over, and the result was very satisfying.

He could earn a lot more money by growing the rice himself instead of having to ship it over from Fugu City for every new batch.

Shu Yang tried the different wines one after another with Tianren. He reluctantly let Tianan take a few sips as well after some nagging.

“This one is particularly deep in flavor,” Shu Yang commented as he took a sip of the seventh wine.

“It is? I guess it all blends together a little for me,” Tianren said.

“Trust me, for experienced drinkers, this one sticks out as something out of the ordinary,” Shu Yang said, growing more and more pleased with the wine as he took another sip. “What did you do with this one?”

“No extra ingredients really,” Tianren said, “But it’s one of the ones made from the white granite water.”

“I see, I can taste the minerals now,” Shu Yang said with a nod.

They went on to try the other variants, but nothing impressed him as much as the seventh wine.

“What did you guys think?” Shu Yang asked.

“I liked the one with Flame Orchids inside it,” Tianren said.

“I guess that one has a unique taste, even if it’s not quite to my liking. We can try making a few batches of that one as well and have some people over to test them all,” Shu Yang said. His favorite part of brewing wine and whiskey was coming up with a new one and having friends and family over to try them.

“What about you, Tianan?” Shu Yang asked.

“They all taste like poison to me,” Tianan said, scrunching his nose.

“Well, it’s a good thing our target customers aren’t 15-year-old boys,” Shu Yang said with a laugh.

After arranging a few things, Shu Yang left his sons to handle the rest and brought Tianzheng back home.

Shu Yang was quite excited about venturing into the martial artist market. There were still a lot of things he didn’t have access to, but he imagined that as his business grew in importance, he would gradually come into contact with the precious resources the Martial Families had access to. Anything to help his wife and children grow stronger.

But that was still a bit away. The wine made from Clover Rice didn’t have much effect beyond the 1st-grade stage; it wasn’t on the level of the truly important resources. But that was also a good thing, since Shu Yang was still only an Innate warrior. If he came into Fugu City and accidentally stole the important business of a Master, he would have made a powerful enemy who could target him in the future.

Either way, there was a lot of money to be made from the martial warriors below the Innate stage. They might be rare in Baishu Village and Chunsi Town, but when Shu Yang went to Fugu City, he saw that more than half of the people there were at least at the 3rd-grade stage.

“Where did you run off to?” Qianyue asked as Shu Yang and Tianzheng stepped inside. She was playing with Xinyang, cradled in Li Xia’s arms.

“I went with the boys to test our new rice wine,” Shu Yang said, walking to his grandson and pinching his small cheeks, “I’ll arrange a wine testing soon. Xia, you can invite your parents over. I’m sure your sister will come along with her husband, too.”

“Okay, I’ll let them know,” Li Xia nodded with a smile.

“Did the wine turn out well?” Qianyue asked.

“I quite liked one of them. Tianren had another opinion, but he’s still young. I’m sure our guests will agree with my taste,” Shu Yang said, “I can bring over a few samples for you to try tonight if you want.”

“Well…” Qianyue looked over at Li Xia hesitantly before answering, “I might not be able to drink much wine at the moment.”

“Is it…” Shu Yang looked at his wife excitedly.

“I haven’t had Old Ma check yet, but it should be,” Qianyue said, a smile blossoming on her face, though she seemed a little embarrassed.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go right now to confirm,” Shu Yang said, grabbing his wife’s hand and running out of the house.

‘I was starting to worry that Qianyue and I had already had our last child. I really hope Old Ma can confirm the news!’