章 24: 24 chapters, 50 years of vicissitudes
Noise!
Zhao Sheng's clothing suddenly moved without wind, his aura as an Innate Extreme Martial Artist explosively erupted, instantly "submerging" the entire reception hall like a massive wave.
In that moment, the air seemed to solidify.
Blood Saber Ancestor, caught off guard, bulged his eyes out, seeing nothing but blood before him, with endless killing intent rushing towards him.
For a moment, he felt his limbs icy cold and stiff, a chill seeping through his neck, and he seemed to smell the scent of blood.
The next instant, Chang Meng suddenly felt dizzy, his vision elevated significantly, but it quickly fell, and finally, a headless corpse wearing a long red robe appeared in his view.
"It looks very familiar. Who is it? It seems like—"
The next moment, he suddenly plunged into boundless darkness, but just as he lost his last bit of consciousness, Chang Meng suddenly realized, "...It seems like... it's me!"
However, to everyone else, all they saw was Blood Saber Ancestor's head suddenly, without any warning, falling off his neck as soon as the noise erupted.
But there was one who witnessed the entire process of Zhao Sheng's action.
This person was the old Taoist from Chang Meng's side.
He saw an incredibly fast blue light fly out from the sleeve of the one-armed elder, passing through Blood Saber Ancestor's neck instantly, as easy as slicing a watermelon.
Besides, he didn't sense any fluctuation of spiritual energy.
However, this only made it seem even more terrifying!
"Senior, spare my life!" The old Taoist suddenly knelt down with a thud, kowtowing continuously to Zhao Sheng, begging for mercy.
The Zhao Family Elders, seeing Blood Saber Ancestor being dealt with so easily, were greatly delighted and looked at Zhao Sheng with awe and closeness.
At this moment, Zhao Sheng quickly calmed down from his anger.
His complexion was calm, as if he had just done something trivial.
In fact, this deed truly was trivial.
Over the years, Zhao Sheng had killed more than two dozen Qi Refining Immortal Cultivators, so what was an Innate Grandmaster worth mentioning.
Zhao Sheng paid no heed to the old Taoist but looked towards Zhao Zhijing.
Zhao Zhijing coughed once and said to the old Taoist, "Explain the situation clearly, and you may live. But if there's any concealment, I will make your life worse than death!"
Seeing this, the old Taoist was overjoyed, immediately spilling all the antecedents and consequences.
It turned out that three months ago, Liang Kingdom's Black Ice Platform suddenly issued a secret bounty mission. The mission was to "invite" Zhao Family's third young master, Zhao Yujie, to Qingfeng City, the capital of Liang Kingdom.
Blood Saber Ancestor Chang Meng was not only a Martial World magnate but also a gold medal client elder of the Black Ice Platform.
He, coveting the hefty bounty, had quickly taken up this task.
However, after arriving in Nanyang City, Chang Meng couldn't find Zhao Yujie's whereabouts, so he resorted to using the guise of taking in disciples to track down Zhao Yujie.
"...So we really only wanted to invite your esteemed house's third young master to make a trip to Qingfeng City; there really was no malicious intent. Please, senior, raise your esteemed hand and spare this humble one's life." The old Taoist frantically looked at Zhao Sheng after finishing his plea.
After Zhao Zhijing understood the whole situation, his expression darkened, as if he had a tough decision to make.
But Zhao Xuanyi and the four family elders suddenly revealed expressions of sudden realization.
So that was it!
"It appears that Dongling Duke's avaricious intentions haven't ceased; our Zhao family has repeatedly refused him, yet he still wishes to forcibly wed Yu Jie. Absolutely unreasonable!" an elder spoke angrily.
Yet, Zhao Xuanyi just wore a face full of bitter smiles.
Dongling Duke was a collateral member of the Liang Family, part of Liang Kingdom's imperial family, and the Liang Family was also a Foundation Establishment Cultivation Family.
The reason Dongling Duke was so persistent was probably not just to seek a son-in-law but possibly to use Jie as a breeding tool.
The elders didn't know the details; thus they couldn't understand Dongling Duke's insane actions.
You must know that the descendants of cultivators do not necessarily have Spirit Roots, and most are mortals. Moreover, the rate at which Spirit Roots are born in successive generations declines swiftly.
If five consecutive generations lack Spirit Roots, it means that descendants with Spirit Roots will not be born in the future.
The Dongling Duke family is now facing such an extremely embarrassing situation.
At that moment, Zhao Zhijing had made a decision.
He began to command, "Xuan Yong, Xuanxin, the two of you take this person down and interrogate him again to see if any details were missed. Xuanhua and Xuanwei, you two take people and clean this place up."
"Yes, Great Uncle," the four Zhao family elders immediately bowed and complied.
After Zhao Zhijing finished, he turned to look at Zhao Sheng and invited, "Ninth, let's go to the inner study for a talk, shall we?"
Zhao Sheng nodded gravely.
Zhao Zhijing then looked at Zhao Xuanyi and said, "Xuanyi, come along with us! You have worked hard all these years."
...
Four hours later, when Zhao Sheng had heard all about the struggles and turmoil the Zhao family had faced over the years, he felt both sorrow and profound emotion in his heart.
For their one family, the Zhao family could indeed be said to have been severely weakened.
After Zhao Sheng's family had dispersed and fled, the then Family Head, Zhao Hexing, suddenly killed all those who were in the know, then ordered his clan to scatter and hide. Finally, he took his own life, dying a heroic death.
Just one day later, the Zhou Family indeed traced them and arrived, but all those who knew about Zhao Sheng's family fleeing had already died.
With no clues found, the Zhou Family went on a rampage, committing a massive slaughter in the Zhao family.
After the Zhou Family left, the Zhao family's Ren, Li, and Yi branches suffered horrendous casualties, and the direct lineage children were decimated.
The Zhao family was gravely weakened and had no choice but to actively retract their influence and choose to lay low while nursing their wounds.
It was not until thirty years later, when Zhao Zhijing advanced to Innate, that the Zhao family began to recover their strength.
During those decades, only Zhao Chenggong, the eldest of Zhao Sheng's seven children, returned to the Zhao family ten years later with his wife and children.
And his son was exactly Zhao Xuanyi.
When Zhao Xuanyi knelt before Zhao Sheng, Zhao Sheng was overwhelmed with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.
His eldest son, Zhao Chenggong, had not lived to see his return and had died three years prior.
However, Zhao Chenggong was fortunate, as he at least could be buried in his ancestral land. On the other hand, Cheng Feng and Cheng Zhao, among the six, had always been missing over the years, with no word on whether they were still alive.
After recognizing his grandson, Zhao Sheng briefly recounted the various events on his side over the last few decades.
He did not clarify things very clearly, deliberately keeping some details vague.
He wasn't intentionally hiding something, but rather, was protecting the Zhao family.
Because Zhao Sheng wasn't sure whether the Zhou family had already given up on tracing their whereabouts.
This was also one of the reasons why Zhao Sheng returned to his hometown alone.
Before coming back, he had prepared himself to commit suicide at any moment.
Because the concept of time in the Cultivation World is different from that in the Mortal World.
A Foundation Establishment Cultivator could live for over two hundred years, while a False Core Master might live for five hundred years, and a Golden Core Master could rival Peng Zu, living for as much as eight hundred years.
Thus, in the mindset of a Cultivation Family, a century is not considered long.
Even though Zhao Sheng spoke ambiguously, it was already enough for Zhao Zhijing and Zhao Xuanyi.
The magnificent and mystical Cultivation World, the cultivators who flew with magic tools and cast spells, the various unheard-of Spirit Plants and medicines, and more.
All of this profoundly shocked both of them, making them even more envious of those cultivators who could live for several hundreds to thousands of years.
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