The True Way to Open a Golden Finger!

"No! A man must face the consequences of his own actions!"

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

"My wife and son knew nothing about any of this."

"I'm begging you, please spare them."

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

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

Looking at Chen Lao San, who was sobbing uncontrollably, Fang Hong said calmly, "It's not just your family."

"The doctor who treated my mother—his whole family, Steward Liu, and Scholar He and his entire family—I won't let any of them off either."

"With them as company, none of your family will be lonely."

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

"Innocent?"

Fang Hong let out a sneer. "Just because they're your family, just because you harmed my father for their sake, they're not innocent."

"Besides, if you don't pull out the roots, the weeds will grow back when the spring wind blows."

"If I spare your wife and son, who's to say they won't come after me for revenge later? To save myself future trouble, it's better they die."

"No, it's not like that—they won't seek revenge on you!"

Chen Lao San begged desperately. "I can swear it! I'll make them swear it too—they won't come after you!"

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

"Besides, in this world, the most untrustworthy thing is a person's oath."

"Then die!!"

Just as Fang Hong's words trailed off, Chen Lao San, his face streaked with tears and snot, his eyes bloodshot, suddenly lunged at Fang Hong.

Pfft!

A flash of blade, a spray of blood.

A large head thudded to the ground, rolling several times, staining the earth red.

"See? You're always in such a hurry."

Fang Hong calmly flicked the blood off his blade.

Then he turned his calm gaze to Chen Lao San's wife.

This ordinary village woman had been frozen in shock ever since Chen Lao San admitted he was the one who harmed Fang Hong's father.

"Auntie, it's time for you to go too."

With that, Fang Hong swung his blade again, cleaving off Chen Lao San's wife's head.

Then, with little change in expression, he did the same to Chen Lao San's son, who was sound asleep in bed.

In his past life, Fang Hong had read plenty of web novels and watched plenty of films and shows.

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

Some people's hearts were on the right side; stabbing the heart alone wasn't reliable.

If only he had a way to deal with souls right now.

Otherwise, he would have shattered their souls into nothingness, ensuring they never reincarnated.

That would be the surest way to eliminate all future trouble.

As for why he was killing entire families?

Like he said—of course he was afraid that if he didn't pull out the roots, the weeds would grow back when the spring wind blew. He had to cut off all future threats.

After all, he himself was a living example.

Scholar He and Steward Liu hadn't pulled out the roots—they hadn't killed him, this young boy.

So next, it would be their entire families who died.

To prevent this from ever happening to him again, Fang Hong had already made "pulling out the roots" a personal creed.

And Chen Lao San's attempt to counterattack just now only proved how wise Fang Hong had been to force himself to completely change his mindset.

If it had been before he entered the mountains—when he hadn't yet hardened his heart or fully transformed his mentality—

Faced with Chen Lao San's tearful, desperate pleas, he might have actually softened.

And then, while he was weak and careless, Chen Lao San might have succeeded in killing him—or at least wounded him.

But unfortunately, there are no "what ifs" in this world.

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

Chen Lao San had told his wife to pack their things, planning to flee.

So Fang Hong easily found the silver in Chen Lao San's house.

That included the twenty taels Steward Liu had given Chen Lao San after he killed Father Fang.

Weighing the bag of silver in his hand, Fang Hong began dealing with the three corpses and the scene.

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

Every extra day he could keep Chen Lao San's death hidden was another day of preparation.

After considerable effort, he finally finished disposing of the bodies and cleaning the scene.

Only then did Fang Hong slip away from Chen Lao San's house under cover of night.

The disappearance of Chen Lao San's family stirred up no small commotion in the village.

But since it was nighttime when Fang Hong killed them, no one else had noticed.

On top of that, Fang Hong had handled the scene and their bodies.

So for now, the villagers treated them as missing.

They didn't immediately assume death.

Fang Hong didn't care about any of that, though.

Dead men tell no tales, after all.

No one was bored enough to insist on finding out what happened to Chen Lao San's family.

In this world, for ordinary people, just keeping their own family alive was already good enough.

After two days of nourishing his injuries with blood qi and mostly recovering, Fang Hong prepared to leave.

Once he left this time, he probably wouldn't be coming back.

After he killed all his enemies in town, he'd head straight out and seek a chance to join a Martial Dao Sect.

As for paying respects to Father Fang and Mother Fang, he'd do that when he had time.

After all, he wasn't the original owner. Avenging the original owner's entire family was already settling that karmic debt.

If he had to visit their graves regularly and treat them as his own parents, that was pure nonsense.

So two days later.

Using the excuse of looking for work in town, Fang Hong left East Mountain Village.

It took him half a day to travel from the village to the town.

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

Fenshui Town wasn't very large in scale.

But it was clearly many times more prosperous than East Mountain Village.

Especially with the Fen River tributary nearby, the town's commerce thrived on water transport.

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

The doctor was no concern.

But Scholar He, as a wealthy landlord with many guards, needed scouting and reconnaissance.

To avoid any unexpected complications.

Especially to make sure there were no survivors.

In this line of work, you had to keep your word. When you said you'd kill his whole family, you killed his whole family.

On the second floor of Xuan Yue Inn, a street-facing inn, by the window.

Fang Hong quietly enjoyed his meal.

He had to say, even though ancient times lacked so many modern tricks and seasonings.

The freshness of the ingredients gave it a unique flavor.

While savoring the food, Fang Hong was also thinking.

Horse Stance: Perfection

Military Formation Saber Art: Perfection

Fang Family Archery: Perfection

The Horse Stance, Military Formation Saber Art, and Archery he was currently training were ultimately too low-level.

Father Fang had only been an ordinary soldier, so naturally, the techniques he could train were the most basic military ones.

Relying on his Golden Finger's heaven-defying ability, he had managed to reach Flesh Refinement Mastery.

That had basically squeezed every last drop of potential out of these skills.

If he wanted to push his strength further and step into Skin Refinement.

He would need better techniques.

"Unfortunately, while my Golden Finger has an outrageous effect, it lacks Deep Blue's ability to directly force breakthroughs by adding points to a technique's limits."

"If it had that, my need for technique manuals wouldn't be so severe."

But then Fang Hong shook his head with a smile.

He really was a glutton who wanted to swallow an elephant.

His Golden Finger's ability was already outrageous enough.

In some ways, it was even more formidable than those Golden Fingers that could force breakthroughs by adding points.

Fixed 100 Proficiency Points, after all.

What's more, his Golden Finger was only formed from a Cheat Program fusing with a few specks of light shed by the Primordial Indestructible Spiritual Light.

If he could fuse with that Primordial Indestructible Spiritual Light itself...

But just thinking about it, Fang Hong immediately reined in his thoughts.

What was he thinking?

For one thing, he wasn't even sure that Primordial Indestructible Spiritual Light was still inside his soul.

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

Better to stop thinking about it—dwelling on it would only bring him pointless trouble.

If he got it, it was his fortune; if not, no matter—his current Golden Finger was already outrageous enough.

With a carefree attitude, maybe some surprises would come his way.

Then Fang Hong's thoughts gradually drifted, and out of nowhere, he landed on his most pressing need: a cultivation technique.

"I can't find a technique to cultivate for now—can I create one myself?"

"Would the Golden Finger even recognize a technique I create?"

One thought after another kept popping into Fang Hong's mind.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt this idea had real potential.

But after repeated deliberation, Fang Hong temporarily shelved the idea of creating a technique.

Creating a technique wasn't that simple.

It wasn't something you could just will into existence.

Without a solid foundation and an understanding of a technique's essence, trying to create one out of thin air was like building a castle in the sky.

The Golden Finger would most likely not even record it.

"But if I get stronger and cultivate enough techniques first, maybe I can give it a try..."

"If it really can record a created technique, then couldn't I specifically create techniques with overwhelmingly powerful effects that are only theoretically cultivable?"

"Then I could use the Golden Finger's outrageous trait to take shortcuts in cultivation."

"Would that count as exploiting a loophole in the Golden Finger, using a bug?"

"Wait, I wrote the Cheat Program for my Golden Finger—my skills are limited, so what if my program has a few bugs?"

"No, who says it's a bug!!"

"This was clearly a special feature I deliberately programmed when I developed it!"

"Could this be the real way to use the Golden Finger?"

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