Chapter 246 — A Rather Troublesome Choice
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Only after the lawyer had left the ward did Black Panther's face turn grave. "Young Master Zhong, if you want revenge on Wei Zhao, the only way is to raise your own strength! Make yourself stronger than the peak of the late Yellow Rank—only then can you kill him! Otherwise... the peak of the late Yellow Rank is not something a crowd can simply overwhelm. Send a pack of ordinary thugs to surround him, and it's nothing but throwing lives away, again and again!"
"Raise my own strength?" Zhong Yongliang was taken aback, then said, "Brother Black Panther, you mean I too can raise my strength to the peak of the late Yellow Rank, or even higher?"
"Exactly!" Black Panther nodded. "But to gain something, you must give something up... Once you cultivate the secret manual of my school, you can no longer touch women. Otherwise, at best your power will scatter; at worst, your life will be in danger!"
"What? No more women?" Zhong Yongliang was stunned. Damn it, he thought—the whole reason I want to kill Wei Zhao is that the brat is a stumbling block in my pursuit of Gu Mengyao. If I can't touch women anymore, what the hell is the point of killing Wei Zhao?
"Yes!" Black Panther said. "Back then, it was precisely because I couldn't endure that ascetic life of cultivation that I fled my school—and in the end I never amounted to much. What I carried away with me was only a short-term method for boosting one's strength, one that can swiftly raise an ordinary person to the middle-to-late Yellow Rank! I had a little martial foundation to begin with, so I was raised to the peak of the late Yellow Rank."
"If you already stand at the very peak of the late Huang stage, this secret technique can push you into the early Xuan stage—or even the middle of it. But it may only be used in extremis. Its effects last a mere month or two, after which your power collapses back to what it was, and five years of your lifespan go with it. So unless the moment is truly critical, it is of no practical use—and even if you reached the peak of the late Huang stage, exactly as I am, Young Master Zhong, you still could not take out Wei Zhao."
"Ah? But asking me to keep my hands off women..." To Zhong Yongliang, a life without women was hardly worth living. Suppose he did master the body techniques Brother Black Panther described, and it did let him kill Wei Zhao—if he could shed the power as easily as all that, fine. The trouble was that if something went wrong, he could very well lose his life in the process. That was a bit too close to the edge for comfort.
"Young Master Zhong, I have said all there is to say. I owed your boss a great kindness in years past, and so, before I go to prison, I am laying all of this out for you. What you decide from here is beyond my reach." Black Panther went on, "If you make up your mind, go to Chunxing Mountain. Say that Black Panther sent you. My eldest senior brother has since risen to sect master. I may be nothing but a cast-off disciple, but he will still grant me that much face."
"Chunxing Mountain? What mountain is that?" Zhong Yongliang blinked. His geography had never been much good, but he was quite certain he had never heard of such a mountain—let alone of any sect that might dwell upon it.
"I will draw you a detailed map," Black Panther said. "And if you have someone you trust absolutely, you may send him in your place. When he returns with the art in hand, he can help you kill Wei Zhao and settle your score—my score as well. That is the whole reason I am telling you this. I am hoping you will avenge me, Young Master Zhong."
"Someone I trust absolutely?" Zhong Yongliang frowned, his eyes narrowing as they darted about—and then a name surfaced in his mind. Yes! He could send him! In that instant Zhong Yongliang thought of Zhang Naipao.
Could there be a better candidate?