Ch 3: Ancestor Manifesting? Or a Peerless Genius of the Ages?
【 Silently, you pondered in your heart. In this life, your Zhao Family Fortress was a powerful local force in the Jiangnan region, comparable to a marquis ruling a hundred li, a top-tier existence even within the county! It was said that your ancestors could even be traced back to the Zhao Song imperial family…
Even so, it was still possible to be suddenly slaughtered by demons… Even so, the very foundation of your family’s martial arts had been castrated and lacked crucial elements.
You somewhat suspected that the current imperial court was behind it, but you couldn’t be certain… Because even the imperial court shouldn’t be able to interfere with or even alter the inherited secret arts of local powerful families, right?】
【 In your seventieth year, you truly reached the point of no further progress, no further path to take, in the Taizu Long Fist! 】
Chu Mo quietly observed, feeling the warm current flowing within his body growing stronger and stronger. Eventually, a faint sound of waves emanated from his body, as if his blood was flowing too quickly.
At the same time, the flow of life, the improvement of cultivation, continued…
“Hmm?!” The tiger demon, as strong as a small mountain, had just lashed out with its tail, like a steel whip, but before it could actually strike the strong man, it sensed something was wrong… It smelled a faint scent of danger…
The steel blade struck its fur, producing a sound of metal clashing, sparks flying. But it seemed as if the demon hadn’t noticed.
“A Taoist priest with a sharp nose, or those meddlesome monks?” The tiger demon’s voice was low, a sinister grin forming on its lips. “If you want to come out and die… hurry up! Master Tiger hasn’t eaten his fill yet… I’ll just use you as a snack!”
“Still not coming out, huh? Very well… I’ll use this little cub as a small pastry! Let’s see if you can still sit still…” The tiger demon impatiently snapped the constantly hacking steel blade, lightly stomped its paw, and instantly appeared in front of Chu Mo like a cannonball. Its huge, basin-sized tiger paw was about to cover and crush him…
Chu Mo calmly gazed at the tiger demon, gazing at the end of the point allocation.
【 In your eighty-ninth year, at the end of your life, your life flashed before your eyes like a revolving lantern… You saw your eighty-nine years of pondering the Taizu Long Fist!
You seemed to have broken through some restriction. Countless pieces of information converged at this moment. You understood something, you grasped the essence of the Taizu Long Fist!
An indescribable fist intent was born from the center of your brow.
You laughed heartily, then passed away peacefully! 】
The strong man had originally watched the tiger demon attack, his eyes filled with fear and despair. But in the next moment, he saw a divine light, vast and revealing a majestic aura.
Chu Mo moved his wrists. His tender fists had no calluses, but the skin beneath, the sinews and bones beneath the skin, were transforming every second.
The tiger demon’s body suddenly froze. Its huge paw twisted in three large circles, its entire arm almost completely torn off.
“Roar!” The tiger demon’s body stiffened for a while before it finally let out a low, painful howl. It instinctively took a step back, but collapsed directly onto the ground, writhing in extreme pain.
It couldn’t understand what had happened.
Did this child in front of him do it? Impossible… He’d rather believe that a Taoist priest used some method to make him hallucinate, that he was actually fighting a Taoist priest! Moreover, the child’s fist hadn’t even touched his paw just now…
“Rest in peace!” Chu Mo slowly took a step forward and lightly threw another punch.
The strong man’s eyes slowly widened. This time he saw clearly. Was that the Taizu Long Fist? It looked similar, but it felt like there was some fundamental difference… Subconsciously, he recalled the record on the last page of the Taizu Long Fist manual.
Even after so many years, the desperate howl of the ancestor who experienced the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, when the world was overturned, seemed to still resonate through that page, echoing in the ears of all the Zhao clan members who saw it.
“The road is cut off… There is no possibility. Fist intent… Hahahaha, only by breaking free from the shackles of this world is there a chance… But how can one break free from this world except through death?”
“…Taizu Fist Intent.” The strong man uttered four words. The ultimate secret that only existed in family legends, the ultimate secret that could only be born from cultivating the Taizu Long Fist to its peak… had appeared before his eyes? This supreme secret, which hadn’t appeared in hundreds of years, had appeared so suddenly?!
He stared blankly, tears falling uncontrollably.
◈◈◈
“Grand Ancestor, have you manifested?!”
Just like before, Chu Mo’s fist didn’t even make contact with the tiger’s head.
However, the tiger demon, which had revealed its true form, had its head explode as if struck by a heavy blow, becoming flattened, blood and brains splattering everywhere. Its massive, mountain-like body twitched a few times, then gradually became still.
Chu Mo completely ignored the tiger demon. He just lowered his head and gazed at his hand, still young, with smooth skin. He clenched his fist, still full of youthful vigor.
“…I thought!” Chu Mo said to himself. He was already fully prepared for himself to instantly become a ninety-seven-year-old man! He felt he could accept this price… After all, this wasn’t his true body!
However…
“Only one year left?” Chu Mo murmured inwardly. When this life ended, his soul would naturally return to his body in the main world. But the problem was…
“Can this fist intent solve the crisis I’m facing?”
Chu Mo pondered. Returning, the condensed Heroic Spirit should possess the power of fist intent.
He at that time might be able to solve it, or he might not. Because he still hadn’t truly determined what he was facing in the main world. He had previously guessed it was an Illusionary Dream Demon, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility of other demons… Clearly, it was safer to become as strong as possible!
“If I can’t win… In this remaining year! Can I continue to become stronger? Or continue to extend my lifespan, continue to spend money? Damn it… Are there any methods of longevity in this world? How come I’ve never heard of any… Damn it!” Chu Mo started to panic a little. Anyway, with the status and connections of the Zhao Family Fortress, they hadn’t seen many people over a hundred years old… So he estimated that there probably weren’t any…
“Y-Young Master!” The strong man, his legs trembling, crawled to Chu Mo. His name was Zhao Ruchen, and he was the youngest brother of the current clan leader, technically Chu Mo’s uncle. However, he was born of a concubine, and his martial arts talent was not outstanding… Naturally, his status was…
If it weren’t for Chu Mo’s father taking good care of him, he would have been given a few acres of poor land and kicked out of the Zhao Family Fortress long ago.
In that case, let alone practicing martial arts, he probably wouldn’t even be able to eat. Therefore, he had a deep affection for his elder brother. And since he had no children of his own, he naturally regarded Chu Mo as his own child.
This was also the fundamental reason why, even though his family was almost dead, his first reaction upon seeing Chu Mo was not to flee in panic, but to fight to the death!
“You…?” After hesitating several times, Zhao Ruchen asked softly. Even though this was a junior from the clan he had been with for many years, he subconsciously used honorifics!
“When facing danger, it just came naturally!” Chu Mo’s face was expressionless, sparing his words. Experience told him that the more he said, the more mistakes he would make… When facing questions, it was better to let others fill in the blanks than to rack his own brains for reasons.
“The ancestor has manifested, the ancestor has manifested!” Zhao Ruchen suddenly knelt on the ground with a thud, crying and laughing at the same time, completely losing his composure.
In his eyes, there were undoubtedly two possibilities for the current situation. One was that his elder brother’s son was the reincarnation of the Zhao family’s ancestor. Although there was no confirmed theory of reincarnation in the world… But apart from this explanation, the only other possibility was that his elder brother’s son was a peerless martial arts genius, a once-in-a-millennium prodigy.
Either way, it was a matter of great fortune!
At this moment, the only thing that made him regretful and pained was… that his elder brother and sister-in-law would never know about this.
