The Golden Finger's True Purpose

"No! A man took responsibility for his own actions!"

"I was the one who harmed your father. If you want to kill someone, kill me."

"My wife and son knew absolutely nothing about this."

"I beg you, please spare them."

Hearing that Fang Hong intended to slaughter his entire family for revenge, Chen Lao San pleaded even more sorrowfully.

"Third Uncle Chen, there's no need for this."

Looking at the weeping Chen Lao San, Fang Hong said calmly, "It's not just your family."

"The doctor who treated my mother, Steward Liu, and Scholar He—I won't spare any of their families either."

"With them keeping you company, your family won't be lonely on the road."

"No, no!" Chen Lao San sobbed and begged. "My wife and son are innocent. Please spare them."

"Innocent?"

Fang Hong let out a cold laugh. "Just because they are your family, and just because you harmed my father for their sake, they are not innocent."

"Besides, if the weeds are not pulled out by the roots, the spring breeze will make them grow again."

"If I spare your wife and son, who can say they won't seek revenge on me later? To save myself trouble in the future, they'd better die."

"No, it's not like that. They won't seek revenge on you."

Chen Lao San begged bitterly, "I can swear it! I'll make them swear it too—they'll never seek revenge on you!"

Fang Hong shook his head. "Really? I don't believe you."

"Besides, in this world, nothing is less trustworthy than a person's oath."

"Then go to hell!!"

Before Fang Hong had even finished speaking, the tear-streaked Chen Lao San suddenly lunged at him with bloodshot eyes.

Squelch!

A flash of saber light swept out, accompanied by a spray of blood.

A large head rolled onto the ground with a rumble, tumbling several times and staining the earth red.

"Look at you. So impatient again."

Fang Hong calmly flicked the blood from his blade.

Only then did he turn his calm gaze toward Chen Lao San's wife.

This ordinary village woman had stood frozen in shock ever since Chen Lao San admitted that he had harmed Fang Hong's father.

"Auntie, it's time for you to be on your way too."

With that, Fang Hong swung his saber again and cut off Chen Lao San's wife's head as well.

Then, with little change in expression, Fang Hong did the same to Chen Lao San's son, who was sleeping soundly in bed.

Fang Hong had read plenty of webnovels and watched plenty of television dramas in his previous life.

If possible, when killing someone, beheading was still the safest method.

After all, some people had their hearts on the right side. Simply stabbing the heart was not reliable enough.

The only reason was that he currently lacked any means to deal with souls.

Otherwise, he would have scattered all three souls to the winds, ensuring they would never reincarnate.

That was the true way to eliminate all future trouble.

As for why he had to slaughter an entire family—

Just as he had said, it was naturally because if the weeds were not pulled out by the roots, the spring breeze would make them grow again. He had to cut off all future trouble.

After all, he himself was a living example.

Scholar He and Steward Liu had failed to pull out the weeds by the roots. They had not killed him, this young boy.

So next, their entire families would die.

To prevent such a thing from ever happening to himself in the future—

Fang Hong had already made rooting out the weeds completely one of his life's creeds.

And Chen Lao San's attempted counterattack had once again proved just how wise Fang Hong had been to force himself into a complete change of mindset.

If it had been Fang Hong before entering the mountains, before he had truly hardened his heart and changed his mentality—

Faced with Chen Lao San weeping bitterly and begging so desperately, he might really have softened.

At that time, Chen Lao San might truly have succeeded in turning the tables on him, or at least wounded him, while he was careless from softheartedness.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in life.

Afterward, Fang Hong searched Chen Lao San's home.

Since Chen Lao San had told his wife to pack their belongings in preparation for fleeing—

Fang Hong easily found the family's silver.

Included among it were the twenty taels of silver Steward Liu had given Chen Lao San after he caused Father Fang's death.

Tossing the pouch of silver in his hand, Fang Hong began handling the three corpses and cleaning up the scene.

He still needed time to recover from his injuries and scout out the town.

For every additional day he could keep the news of Chen Lao San's family's deaths hidden, he would gain another day to prepare.

After spending quite some effort and finally dealing with the corpses and the scene—

Fang Hong left Chen Lao San's home under the cover of night.

The disappearance of Chen Lao San's family caused quite a stir in the village.

But since it had been nighttime, Fang Hong's killings had not drawn anyone else's attention.

Moreover, Fang Hong had cleaned up both the scene and their bodies.

So for the time being, the villagers treated the entire family as missing.

They did not immediately conclude that they were dead.

Fang Hong did not care about any of that.

After all, the dead could tell no tales.

No one was so full and idle that they had to uncover the whereabouts of Chen Lao San's family.

In these times, for ordinary people, managing to keep their own family alive was already quite good.

After nourishing his injuries with qi and blood for two days and recovering for the most part, Fang Hong prepared to leave.

Once he left this time, he would most likely never return.

After going to town and killing his many enemies, he would leave town directly and seek an opportunity to enter a Martial Dao Sect.

As for paying respects to Father Fang and Mother Fang, he would do so if he had time in the future.

After all, he was not the original owner of this body. Avenging the original owner's family's blood feud was enough to settle the karmic ties.

As for regularly worshipping them and treating Father Fang and Mother Fang as his own biological parents—that was pure nonsense.

Thus, two days later—

Using the excuse that he was going to town to look for work, Fang Hong left East Mountain Village.

After half a day's journey, he arrived in town from the village.

The town was called Fenshui Town, named after a nearby Fen River tributary.

Fenshui Town was not particularly large.

But it was obviously countless times more prosperous than East Mountain Village.

Especially because of the Fen River tributary, its water transport had made Fenshui Town's trade flourish.

After entering Fenshui Town, Fang Hong first bought two sets of clothes, then went to an inn and rented a room.

The doctor was nothing to worry about.

But Scholar He was a wealthy landlord with many household guards, so Fang Hong still needed to scout the place and gather information.

That way, no unexpected situation would arise when the time came.

Especially not any fish that slipped through the net.

When one walked the jianghu, one had to keep one's word. If he said he would kill their whole family, then he would kill their whole family.

On the second floor of Xuan Yue Inn, at a window-side table facing the street—

Fang Hong quietly ate the delicacies before him.

It had to be said, although ancient times had so many ruthless tricks and seasonings—

The freshness of the ingredients gave the food a flavor all its own.

As he savored the food, Fang Hong pondered at the same time.

Horse Stance: Perfected

Military Formation Saber Art: Perfected

Fang Family Archery: Perfected

The Horse Stance, Military Formation Saber Art, and archery he practiced now were ultimately too low in grade.

Father Fang had only been an ordinary soldier, after all. Naturally, the techniques he could practice were merely the most basic methods in the military.

By relying on the heaven-defying ability of his Golden Finger, Fang Hong had reached Flesh Refinement Mastery.

He had basically squeezed every last drop of potential from these few techniques.

If he wanted to push his strength another step forward and enter the realm of Skin Refinement—

He needed better cultivation techniques.

"Unfortunately, although my Golden Finger's effects are heaven-defying, it doesn't possess Deep Blue's ability to forcefully add points and break through a technique's limits."

"If it did, I wouldn't need cultivation manuals so badly."

But Fang Hong quickly smiled and shook his head again.

He really was like a snake trying to swallow an elephant, never satisfied with what he had.

The ability of his Golden Finger was already heaven-defying enough.

In some ways, it was even more powerful than those Golden Fingers that could forcibly add points and break through limits.

Fixed 100 Proficiency Points.

What was more, his Golden Finger had only formed after a Cheat Program fused with a few motes of light shed by the Primordial Indestructible Spiritual Light.

If it could fuse with that Primordial Indestructible Spiritual Light...

But as soon as Fang Hong thought of this, he immediately gathered his thoughts.

What am I thinking?

Setting aside whether that Primordial Indestructible Spiritual Light was even still within his soul—

Even if it was still there, he knew very well that something of that level was far beyond what he could covet right now.

Better not think about it. The more he thought, the more needless troubles he would create for himself.

If he gained it, it would be his fortune. If not, it did not matter. His current Golden Finger was already heaven-defying enough.

With an indifferent mindset, perhaps a surprise might appear someday.

Fang Hong's thoughts then gradually spread outward, and for no apparent reason, they turned to the cultivation techniques he needed most urgently.

"If I can't find a cultivation technique for now, can I create one myself?"

"Would the Golden Finger recognize a technique I created?"

Thought after thought surfaced in Fang Hong's mind.

The more he considered it, the more viable he found the idea.

But after thinking it over repeatedly, Fang Hong still temporarily set aside the thought of creating his own technique.

Creating a cultivation technique was not such a simple matter.

It was even less something that could be created merely because one wanted to create it.

Without sufficient foundations and an understanding of the essence of cultivation techniques—

Trying to create one through empty imagination would be no different from building a tower in the sky.

Most likely, the Golden Finger would not record it at all.

"But if I become stronger and cultivate enough different techniques, could I try it someday..."

"If it really can record created techniques, then couldn't I specifically create techniques with incomparably powerful effects that can only theoretically be cultivated?"

"Then I could use the Golden Finger's heaven-defying characteristics to take shortcuts in cultivating them."

"Would that count as exploiting a loophole in the Golden Finger, taking advantage of a bug?"

"Wait. The Cheat Program within my Golden Finger was written by me. My skills were limited, so what was wrong with the program having a few bugs?"

"No, who said it was a bug!!"

"This was clearly a special function I specifically wrote when I developed the program!"

"Could this be the Golden Finger's true purpose?"

As he thought, a sharp gleam gradually began to flicker in Fang Hong's eyes.