novellaaa Chapter 72 The Road to Heaven
Chapter 72 The Road to Heaven
"Why are you asking me?" Zhao An asked calmly.
Hu Chongguang lowered his voice and gritted his teeth, saying, "My son has not returned yet, and there is no trace of him in the military camp. He must have been killed by you!"
"Why would I harm your son for no reason?"
"Stop pretending, we both know what's going on!" Hu Chongguang said bitterly.
"I only ask you, is my son still alive!"
Zhao An remained silent, simply gazing at the patriarch of the Hu family before him.
"My Hu family only has a grudge against that scholar, and never intended to be your enemy. Why did you kill him!" Hu Chongguang clenched his fists. Zhao An's tacit agreement at this moment had already explained everything.
He was filled with remorse for a moment.
This is not only the loss of his most prized eldest son, but also a huge loss for the entire Hu family.
After all, it was no easy task for a family to cultivate the next Hu Dingtian and make him a general in the prefectural city.
God knows how much effort he and his family have put into Hu Dingtian over the years.
Hu Dingtian's untimely death was a huge blow to the Hu family.
"How wronged that scholar is! Your Hu family impersonated him and took the top spot in the liberal arts exam, taking away the fruits of his ten years of hard work. Now you even want to kill him. He never thought of being an enemy of your Hu family, but so what?"
"You didn't let him off the hook either," Zhao An said casually.
Whether he's a good person or a bad person, since Hu Dingtian chose to attack him that day, he could not let him go, regardless of whether he was a red name or not.
"Master, we will capture him here!" a martial arts master from the Hu family stepped forward and said.
"Fool! That magistrate is in the outer city right now, just a few steps away!" Hu Chongguang cursed under his breath.
As the head of the family, he suppressed his grief and indignation, said nothing, and left with his men.
"Brother Zhao, that old man might not let this go easily," Li Gou'er said worriedly after the others left.
After all, the other party was a powerful and influential family in the inner city, with a deep foundation and considerable influence in the county.
If the other party doesn't want to let Zhao An go, even if they don't dare to act recklessly on the surface, they will still use some underhanded methods.
"It's alright," Zhao An said, unconcerned.
As his personal strength grew, the threat posed by these powerful families in the inner city became increasingly limited.
And the longer time went on, the less afraid he became.
"Did the Hu family send me any gifts before?" Zhao An asked.
"No, the Hu family has never associated with people from outside the city," Li Gou'er said, shaking his head.
If Zhao An, the top scorer in the county examination, came from the inner city, the Hu family would probably have to come and curry favor with him.
But in the outer city, the Hu family initially looked down on both Li Tianhuai and Zhao An.
"That's good then." Zhao An nodded.
If they confiscate all the benefits, they won't hold back at all if things get serious later!
Several more days passed.
During this time, Zhao An absorbed the cultivation results of two more groups of soul slaves, expanding the internal energy in his Qi Sea to about two inches.
If he were to use his Bone-Piercing Finger to strike the iron stake at this moment, a clear and visible dent would even be left on the hard surface of the iron block!
As his aura grew stronger, among all the martial arts he had mastered, this lost finger technique saw the greatest and fastest increase in power.
Zhao An even felt that it wouldn't be long before he could point his finger out again and even pierce through the iron block!
If that's true, its power is truly terrifying, something even gods and ghosts would fear and avoid at all costs!
It's nothing special, even if you call it a divine skill.
However, Zhao An was not satisfied with mastering only this one divine skill.
Martial arts have a long history, spanning ancient and modern times, and are profound and extensive. There are countless divine skills like these, as vast as the starry sky, dazzling and brilliant.
Unfortunately, many of these are long-lost martial arts techniques, and modern martial artists only know their names but not their true nature.
Zhao An's current vision is to bring these lost ancient skills back to life.
He wanted to combine the strengths of all schools of thought, both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, to create an unparalleled path to heaven and achieve unprecedented and unparalleled results!
He knew very well that as long as he accumulated enough good deeds and had enough soul slaves, he could achieve his goal!
Nothing could stop him from finding this path to the heavens!
If one had to point out a limitation, it would be that his lifespan and time are finite.
Life is short, a mere hundred years; whether that's enough for him remains to be seen...
Fortunately, he is still young and far from needing to worry about this.
He flipped his palm over, and a white, glowing fruit spun in his hand.
A three-foot-long ray of merit emanated from it!
This is all the good deeds Meng Wanyi has done!
The day he saved Meng Wanyi, and after she was safely escorted back to the city by the soldiers along with the old imperial physician, the good deed fell into his hands.
In this way, he has a considerable amount of good deeds that he can perform to make wishes!
On Magistrate Tao Heng, he had previously received a foot of merit and good karma, along with the rest of his small good deeds.
If he combines all his good deeds, he will be able to see a three-foot-six-inch beam of merit light!
The good fruit he used to make the wish for the Heavenly Profound Meridian Severing Finger was only a foot of merit light!
In other words, he can now wish for lost martial arts techniques that are even more profound than the Heavenly Profound Meridian Intercepting Finger.
"Perhaps I should go and take a look at the magistrate's study," Zhao An thought to himself.
He hadn't forgotten that Tao Heng had promised him he could go to his study anytime he wanted to study.
He was very interested in the ancient books in Tao Heng's collection.
That night.
A carriage slowly pulled up in front of the Hu family's gate, and several disheveled, travel-worn wanderers stepped off.
"Gentlemen, you have come from afar. My master has prepared fine wine and meat for you. Please come in," the old steward said politely as he came to greet them.
"Your patriarch is quite sensible. Hurry up and lead the way, I'm hungry!" A thin man with small eyes said, waving his hand.
The old butler didn't blame them for their rudeness and simply led them to the table.
Not long after, Hu Chongguang walked over from the side and saw the group of people who were eating heartily and in a rather unsightly manner. His face showed a bit of disgust, but he still walked over.
"You are all renowned assassins in the martial arts world. I summoned you here to eliminate someone," Hu Chongguang said, cupping his hands in greeting.
"No problem, as long as the money is right, everything is negotiable," the gaunt man mumbled, his mouth stuffed with meat.
"Who do you want to kill?" a man with a sword in his hand asked directly.
Hiring murderers is commonplace in the underworld; these people are wanted criminals who have killed countless people, and this is exactly what they do.
It wasn't just them; disciples from various sects often did the same things when they went out.
However, those others still had sects protecting them, while the rest were just a few wandering ghosts with no one behind them, thus becoming wanted criminals by the imperial court.
"The top martial arts candidate in the county this year is in the outer city. After you finish your match, you can go straight out of the city. It's very convenient," Hu Chongguang said fiercely.
"Okay, let's make it clear beforehand. You invited the three of us to come together, that's your business, but the money has to be split three ways, there's no reason to divide it equally," another man carrying a long sword said in a muffled voice.
"Of course, definitely." Hu Chongguang nodded.