Chapter 359: Chapter 80: The Foremost in History_2
The third thing she asked Fu Lang to do was to help her get in touch with the investigative team from the provincial capital.
Li Fei nodded, “I was thinking the same, so I will also make contact with the team next.”
“Martial Aunt, when you decided to break with your family, there must have been many who advised you, possibly even your teacher. But did you heed their advice?”
Li Fei asked Shangguan Xiao with such an inquiry.
Shangguan Xiao fell silent.
Indeed, at her age, she had also faced crises with the same resolve to move forward rather than retreat.
How could she ask Li Fei to do what she herself had not managed to do?
“I was sent away to study under a master at the age of nine, and it was back then that I met your teacher.”
Shangguan Xiao slowly began, recounting the past:
“My senior brother’s talent far exceeded mine, and from a young age, our master placed great hopes on him. Master always told him, ‘You are the entire future of a sect!’ Later, senior brother would often repeat this saying.”
“When I turned sixteen, master’s old wounds recurred, leading to his death, and senior brother decided to take me back to Datong Prefecture, aiming to make a name for our sect there and fulfill master’s last wish.”
“At that time, senior brother’s body had just begun to mature. He had not been implanted for long, and when he first brought me to Datong Prefecture, he was only at the Early Stage of Body Breaking in cultivation.”
“Then, in just a year’s time, senior brother broke through after breakthrough, becoming a Refining Strength Martial Master of the Qi Change Middle Stage and made quite a name for himself in Datong Prefecture, never defeated in a duel.”
“My father took notice of senior brother’s talent around that time and wanted to absorb him into the Zhang Family, but senior brother refused. He was wholly focused on making a name for his sect and had no interest in leveraging outside help.”
“Later, senior brother began challenging the geniuses of Datong Prefecture, undefeated just the same!”
“By the time I was eighteen, senior brother had broken through to the Tao Foundation Stage and encountered something that would change the trajectory of his life.”
“He accidentally uncovered a noble house secretly trafficking humans, so he stepped in to rescue those who had been trafficked and blew the whole thing wide open.”
“Normally, with the talent exhibited by senior brother and his realm at the Tao Foundation Stage, the matter would have been minor; that noble house would have simply noted the loss silently. However, after this incident, senior brother saw the vile nature of those noble houses and decided to investigate further, to see if there were more such cases.”
“Upon digging deeper, he uncovered filth too abhorrent to ignore…”
“But senior brother’s approach differed from that of the Green-faced Ghost; he didn’t silently kill the villains he exposed, but instead made their crimes public and left them to the Government’s hands for justice.”
Shangguan Xiao continued her narrative:
“That’s the way of the world. Every family, including the Zhang Family, who are in the upper echelons of society, which of them could truly be as pure as jade? Hence, senior brother’s actions offended many, and what’s worse, he never sought to restrain himself, exposing more and more wrongdoings…”
“Throughout this, senior brother faced many dangers, both overt and covert. His personal strength skyrocketed during this period, reaching the Peak of the Tao Foundation Stage, and he was even nominated for the Fengyun Leaderboard.”
“But the stronger he got, the bigger the trouble he provoked, and the more people he offended. Later, however, he discovered the Government was actually sheltering those criminals; even many officials were colluding in even more disgusting acts. Therefore, senior brother began to expose the wrongdoings of the Government as well.”
He felt that his teacher was like the protagonist of a novel, defiantly challenging heaven, earth, and even thin air, becoming stronger with each defiance.
He could well imagine how spirited and dazzling his teacher must have been back in the day!
But one could infer from Hao Yi’s damaged Tao Foundation, which trapped him in a place as insignificant as Xing City for these years, that this ‘novel protagonist’s’ ending probably wasn’t a happy one.
Shangguan Xiao must have chosen to support Hao Yi, and that was why she completely broke with her family.
After all, the strata Hao Yi aimed to confront and change included noble houses like the Zhang Family.
Shangguan Xiao sighed, “In fact, at that time, there were quite a few who admired senior brother. He found some like-minded friends who wanted to change society together with him, or at least strive to change Datong Prefecture. But what they wanted to achieve was incredibly difficult, almost impossible.”
Li Fei thought of the previous Inspector General of the Inspection Bureau in Xing City—Huang Weiguang.
Hao Yi and Huang Weiguang were old friends of many years. Considering this, the former Inspector General might have been one of those who worked alongside Hao Yi back then.
However, after Hao Yi’s downfall, Huang Weiguang was also ‘demoted’ to Xing City, eventually retiring in disappointment.
“So, how did teacher and the others end up failing?”
Shangguan Xiao’s gaze deepened, “Senior brother and the others ended up confronting the previous Garrison Commander of Datong Prefecture, or rather, they went up against an entire stratum represented by him. You’ve already seen the outcome of confronting such force: the likes of the Iron Blade Sect vanished without a trace! Martial Arts Masters like Gu Xianfeng were sentenced to death!”
“Senior brother was just one step away from becoming a Martial Arts Master. He originally planned to make the Breakthrough and then completely expose them, creating utter chaos! However, he was disturbed during the critical moment of his Breakthrough, resulting not only in a failed Breakthrough but also in damage to his own Tao Foundation, leaving him with almost no hope of ever mastering the Martial Arts Foundation again.”