A Road of No Return—Please Bookmark, Recommend, and Vote

A Road of No Return—Please Bookmark, Recommend, and Vote

Sun Yuan rushed back to Azure Wave City like a wildfire, then charged straight into the Su Family estate.

Then he was dumbfounded: the Su Family was empty.

Not a single person capable of making decisions was home.

"Where did they go?"

"Don't know."

"They leave any message?"

"No."

"Who's still in the house?"

"The madams."

"When will they return?"

"Don't know."

"..."

Sun Yuan was rendered speechless.

What the hell was the Su Family doing?

Wasn't this too outrageous? He swept the entire Su Family estate with his divine sense and failed to find a single person who could take charge, so he could only return to the inn in a foul mood.

Along the way, he cursed the Su Family's ancestors through eight generations.

With no other choice, he had to find Fang Che himself.

When he arrived at the Fang Family, he saw Fang Che trimming deer meat. A slim boning knife danced up and down in Fang Che's hand, swish, swish, swish...

After watching barely a dozen cuts, he could no longer resist revealing himself.

Those few strokes brimmed with an effortless, natural spirit.

Though Fang Che was merely cutting meat, every draw and withdrawal of the blade, every smooth glide, trembling edge, guided tip, and slanting slice...

Carried a feeling of seamless perfection.

It made Sun Yuan's heart burn.

I've found a genius! That was exactly how it felt.

Then he studied the boy's movements and gaze more closely, and grew even more satisfied.

As Fang Che observed the state of the muscles, flesh, blood, and meridians, a faint crystalline sheen showed through.

"This doesn't look like ordinary B-Rank Talent. It looks more like A-Rank Talent."

At that thought, Sun Yuan's heart grew hotter still.

Martial Arts Talent was divided into four grades: A, B, C, and D.

Each grade was further divided into upper, middle, and lower tiers.

D-Grade Lower Tier meant that one could basically only be an ordinary martial practitioner for life, with a little more strength than average. Nothing more.

D-Grade Upper Tier, coupled with diligent study and hard training, could at least bring a life of food, clothing, and wealth.

Once one reached B-Grade, they were basically considered geniuses in the eyes of ordinary people! B-Grade Upper Tier was the minimum standard for great sects selecting disciples.

A-Rank Talent, meanwhile, meant a super genius.

A-Grade Upper Tier was one in ten thousand.

Above A-Rank were the various legendary constitutions, such as Knife Bone, Sword Spirit Body, Innate Spirit Body, Ethereal Body, and so on, as well as certain cultivation talents unique to women.

Sun Yuan had initially believed Fang Che possessed only B-Rank Talent. He had casually planted a Five Elements Spirit Gu and left, barely giving it another thought.

Who would have thought otherwise?

"The Su Family misled me!"

Sun Yuan felt anger rise in his heart.

But when he remembered that the Su Family and Fang Family had always been rivals and enemies, he understood.

"They flattered me while also destroying a genius of the Fang Family. The Su Family's calculations were quite shrewd. No wonder this boy's talent differed from what the Su Family told me. That must be it."

Sun Yuan snorted.

He could not help feeling angry. "I nearly missed such a fine piece of uncut jade."

Then he sensed the Five Elements Spirit Gu lively and active within the boy's body, its feedback exceptionally clear, further proving that Fang Che's talent made the Gu feel comfortable.

That represented supreme talent.

Unable to endure the itch in his heart any longer, he jumped out directly.

"You need a helper?"

Fang Che looked at Sun Yuan and curled his lip. "Who are you?"

Though he had already decided to start from this angle, he could not submit so easily.

As the saying went, the harder something was to obtain, the more one cherished it.

"This old man is Sun Yuan, known in the martial world as the Flying Saber King!" Sun Yuan said with considerable pride.

The Flying Saber King, a King-level expert—this was his public identity. In a tiny place like Azure Wave City, it was enough for him to lord over all! Once he announced his name, it should absolutely make people jump in fright.

"Never heard of you."

"???"

"And I don't like using knives."

Fang Che rolled his White eyes. "Besides, I don't know you. This is my home. How did you get in? Someone! Someone!"

"Don't, don't, don't..."

Sun Yuan was first thrown into a fluster, then had a change of thought. "Fine. It would be good to wait for your family to come and serve as witnesses."

"Witnesses to what?"

"This old man wants to take you as a disciple!"

"But I don't want to find myself a master. And you're only King-level..."

Fang Che had spoken from the heart.

Only King-level... Fang Che did not think much of him.

At the very least, he needed someone with more weight. A King-level expert like you probably did not hold much status in the Sole True Sect, did you?

Sun Yuan was stunned.

I'm a King-level expert, and a Saber King at that. Yet it's this difficult to take a disciple from such a small family?

At the very highest, your family only has a Grandmaster—and merely a Little Grandmaster! Between that and my Martial King stand four major realms: Great Grandmaster, Martial General, Martial Marshal, and Martial Marquis. That was equivalent to thirty-six minor tiers! What made this brat think a Martial King like me was weak?

He even said "only"? "You look down on me? I may not necessarily insist on taking you in."

Sun Yuan snorted and flicked out a small white jade pagoda. It was the Fish Dragon Pagoda used by cultivators to test talent.

Damn it!

If this kid was merely Grade A Bottom, he would just recommend him to the sect and complete the mission, then let someone else take him in.

If he was Grade A Middle or above, then I'll find a way to accept him myself.

First, test him. Don't waste my feelings.

"Give me your hand!"

"What for?"

Sun Yuan snorted and roughly grabbed Fang Che's hand, pressing it against the Fish Dragon Pagoda. Then he placed one hand against Fang Che's back and sent a stream of Spiritual Power into him.

In an instant, the bottom six levels of the Fish Dragon Pagoda lit up.

It had directly skipped over the three grades of D, C, and B.

"So fast!"

Sun Yuan sucked in a cold breath.

Had the spiritual energy even begun circulating?

Then the seventh level lit up—Grade A Bottom. Next came the eighth level, shining brightly, followed immediately by the ninth, blazing with golden radiance.

"Grade A Top... So fast!"

Sun Yuan swallowed.

What came next was the supreme tenth level, the legendary tier of talent.

There was no obstruction whatsoever!

All ten levels lit up at once, erupting with dazzling golden light. Then the radiance shot straight through the pagoda's peak, golden light bursting out of the tower! Pop! The Fish Dragon Pagoda's light instantly went out.

It was ruined.

Sun Yuan stood frozen as a wooden chicken!

A legendary level—and beyond even that! The divine light of the talent test had broken through the Fish Dragon Pagoda!

Never in his life had he even imagined that such a thing could exist in this world.

His eyes nearly fell from their sockets. Forgetting the ruined Fish Dragon Pagoda, he grabbed Fang Che's hand and refused to let go even if beaten to death. "You—you must acknowledge this old man as your master!"

What the hell...

Talent beyond legend! Sun Yuan was so excited he could have cried.

This old man only has Grade A Bottom talent, and I was injured years ago. I had thought there was no hope left in this lifetime, yet now such a fine piece of uncut jade has been delivered before me!

If I let him go, heaven and earth would never forgive me.

I've decided. He will be my inheritor!

Fang Che was somewhat dumbfounded as well.

He had only agreed to the test halfheartedly, since he himself wanted to know what his current talent was like.

Naturally, he knew about the Fish Dragon Pagoda. Ever since it had been successfully refined, it had swept through the entire cultivation world.

He knew that the original owner of this body had at most B-Grade Upper Tier talent. Yet three Heavenly Vein Vermillion Fruits, combined with the marrow cleansing of the Limitless True Scripture, had directly raised it to legendary quality in one stroke! It was several levels higher than the Grade A Top talent he had possessed in his previous life.

But the Heavenly Vein Vermillion Fruit clearly could not possess such power. Could it be the effect of combining the Limitless True Scripture with the Heavenly Vein Vermillion Fruit? After that, Sun Yuan began displaying all manner of feats in order to take him as a disciple.

Kneading steel with his bare hands!

Blowing air into steel!

Smashing a great hammer with his head!

His saber turned into a rain of stars! Then came all sorts of promises: as long as you become my disciple, I won't restrict you; in the future, you can take other masters too, and your movements will remain free—I won't force you; at most, you'll do a few sect missions...

And the sect's resources will be prioritized for you. My master's entire life savings will be yours. I can even secure greater preferential treatment for you.

In short, every kind of benefit, every kind of coaxing.

Sun Yuan knew very well that there was no way he could keep a genius like this to himself!

Once Fang Che's cultivation rose, he completed a few missions, and entered the sight of others, some Great Power would inevitably come to take him as a disciple.

With Sun Yuan's strength, he absolutely could not stop them. If he showed even the slightest unwillingness, he would undoubtedly be wiped out.

And if he died then, wouldn't others still take Fang Che as a disciple anyway? So from the start, he could not monopolize him.

Sun Yuan's demand was simple: he only wanted to hold the title of master. For that, he was willing to pay everything. Once Fang Che grew up, Sun Yuan's Lineage would naturally receive the greatest protection!

With such talent, Fang Che was almost certain to enter the upper ranks of the Sole True Sect in the future! By then, the title of "high-ranking master" alone would be enough for him, his children, and his descendants to enjoy for a lifetime! In the end...

Fang Che naturally agreed.

Though he looked very reluctant.

"...Fine. Master, please accept..."

"Wait!"

Sun Yuan was unwilling. "Your family elders must be present to witness this. The apprenticeship ceremony must be grand and solemn."

Fang Che immediately objected. "I'm the one taking a master, not them. Why should the family witness it?"

He understood clearly that if the family bore witness, then once Sun Yuan's identity was exposed in the future, the Fang Family would inevitably be implicated.

If it was only his personal action, he would still have room to maneuver. At worst, only he would be implicated. That was precisely what the Guardian Codex stipulated.

And now, using the excuse of "teenage rebellion" to refuse was exactly right.

The two could not settle the dispute.

In the end, Sun Yuan took a step back.

After all, geniuses were entitled to special privileges.

"I only need to register it within the sect."

Sun Yuan had his own plans.

What followed was cause for celebration all around.

"Master above, please accept a bow from your disciple, Fang Che."

Fang Che did not care about this either.

To him, all that mattered now was getting inside. There would naturally be a path for the future when the future came.

The one acknowledging you as master is Fang Che. What does that have to do with me? Though I don't know who I am...

But from this moment onward, Fang Che knew he had chosen an incomparably difficult road: a standard undercover agent, yet with neither an upstream contact nor a downstream contact.

Fighting alone, misunderstood by all.

Perhaps one day in the future, he would die inexplicably at the hands of his own people.

But Fang Che did not regret this choice.

In his previous life, he had begun as an ordinary martial artist, passed the trials, and joined the Town Guard Army. Once his cultivation reached a certain level, he left the Town Guard Army, completed missions for points, and gradually rose to become a Guardian.

Then he climbed from an Iron-Plate Guardian all the way to Silver Medals. The last time, he had been eligible to advance to Gold Medal, but he died.

Yet along that road, countless comrades, brothers-in-arms, and fellow warriors had died miserably at the hands of the Sole True Sect.

His master, master's wife, senior brothers, junior brothers... and junior sisters! Every relative, and the countless brothers and Comrades who had fought alongside him, had died at the hands of the Sole True Sect.

He had also witnessed the harm the Sole True Sect inflicted upon the whole world.

Corpses filling village after village.

White bones covering mountain after mountain.

Beacon smoke rising from city after city, town after town!

He remembered entering that small city, silent as a realm of death.

Those carrion birds rising and falling in flocks, their shrill cries enough to make one's scalp go numb.

Walking down the streets, the hollow echo of his own footsteps.

Bodies lay everywhere—old and young, men and women in their prime—none had been spared. So many corpses, every face blank with bewilderment.

They did not understand. They had merely lived lives untouched by the world's strife; why had they died like this?

Fang Che loathed the Sole True Sect with a hatred that gnawed to the bone, one that made his teeth grind.

And now the Sole True Sect had grown ever more powerful, while the Guardians had already fallen into a disadvantage.

Now that he had a chance to infiltrate the Sole True Sect, Fang Che would not change his mind even if it meant being crushed to dust.

He retained the memories of his previous life and remembered every contact code, though those codes might have changed by now.

He also knew countless secrets.

But he knew even more clearly that spies from the Sole True Sect were hidden within the Guardians as well, even among their upper ranks.

Someone with an identity like his, with neither superior nor subordinate, as if he had simply fallen from the sky, was the perfect candidate for an undercover agent.

Because... no matter how the Sole True Sect investigated, they would never find him in their records! All he had to do next was pass the Sole True Sect's test!...

Sun Yuan's grin nearly split his face! He had taken in an absolute genius as his disciple.

He could already see the day he rose through the ranks of the sect.

He felt certain that this disciple of his would forge glory and one day become part of the sect's upper ranks. That was as sure as a nail driven into a board.

At the very least, becoming one of the One Heart Divine Sect's higher-ups would be as easy as taking something from his pocket. Becoming a Sect Leader or Vice Sect Leader was not impossible either; even at worst, commanding a hall with great power in his grasp was a future he could fully foresee and count on.

When that time came, I, Sun Yuan... hahaha.

The more he thought about it, the closer he came to laughing aloud.

Heaven-grade Talent!

Beyond legend!

Who wouldn't envy me? Just ask—who else is there! Wahahaha...

So he immediately began taking things out.

Update schedule: two chapters daily, around six thousand words in total, released at roughly 11:30 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening. Any exceptions will be announced in advance.

An extra chapter will be released at midnight every Monday.

For special circumstances, I will explain things to everyone when they arise.

The new book has only just begun, and there are countless matters to handle. As everyone knows, before a new book has unfolded and received everyone's response, no one dares to write too much of a backlog.

So the saved chapters are very limited—just over sixty thousand words—and thirty thousand of them were already sent out on the first day.

I'll have to work harder from here on.

Cheer me on.