“Your Father is the same as them. If you want to kill him, then you have to kill Your Father first!”
At this moment, there were many people, countless people, who could step forward and say that they were Great Liang citizens, and therefore anyone who wanted to kill their Lord Warden Commander had to kill them first.
But the person who should least have been standing out at this moment and saying such a thing was Huang Kong.
The white-robed daoist had already found the whole matter absurd, but now it was even more so.
This young martial artist had come to kill Chen Chao in the beginning. But the result? Failing to kill Chen Chao was one thing, but the two of you had fought a battle just moments ago. How had it reached the point where not only were you making peace, you were even protecting Chen Chao?
"What crazy talk are you saying?!"
The green-robed daoist looked at Huang Kong. Huang Kong had absolutely no reason to do this, yet he had done it anyway.
Huang Kong's face was still somewhat pale, but he gripped his horizontal saber tightly and looked at the two daoists before him, sneering, "What would you people understand?"
That was what he said, but in truth, Huang Kong himself did not quite understand what he was doing. He had clearly wished for that young martial artist to die here today. That way, there would still be some others ahead of him on the martial path...
But how could those others compare to him?
He only could not surpass Chen Chao. There was no reason he could not surpass everyone else.
As long as he was given some time, he was destined to become the number one martial artist in the world. From then on, he would always be the one looking down at others. Never again would there be anyone he had to look up at.
But there was a problem.
It was something he had only just figured out.
If Chen Chao died here today, and he had not defeated him before his death, then one day in the future, even if Huang Kong reached the end of Nepenthe, even if he broke through beyond the end of Nepenthe, there would still be people who said this:
Huang Kong might truly be formidable, but that former young Lord Warden Commander had also been formidable. If that young Lord Warden Commander were still alive, who knows which of them would be stronger.
Then someone would shake their head and say, "There's no need to argue. Many years ago, when Huang Kong was still in the Nepenthe Realm, he went to kill that young Lord Warden Commander. In the end, however, he was defeated by the heavily wounded young Lord Warden Commander. If the young Lord Warden Commander had not spared his life back then, Huang Kong would have died long ago."
Thinking of this, Huang Kong shook his head.
To ensure there would never be such an argument in the future, he could not allow Chen Chao to die today!
......
......
Huang Kong was silent for a while, then shook his head.
Yes, the reasons he had found earlier were merely excuses to persuade himself, used to conceal the real reason.
The real reason was that he had begun cultivating at the age of seven. Before the age of seven, he had been just like the sons of countless Great Liang citizens today. His father had been a citizen of the Great Liang Dynasty.
His grandfather had been one as well.
All of his relatives had been.
And those relatives were not all dead yet.
His father had acquired a large residence in their local area and vast tracts of land. Everyone had to address him as Master Huang.
His grandfather, meanwhile, was known as Old Master Huang.
He had come to kill Chen Chao. If his grandfather were to find out about it, the old master would definitely jump up from his reclining chair and beat him viciously with his cane.
At first, he had felt there was nothing much to it.
After all, he was his grandfather's biological grandson. No matter what, he would be more important than Chen Chao. His grandfather might be angry, but he certainly would not disown him as a grandson.
But after seeing these common people like this, Huang Kong understood something.
If he did nothing today, then neither his grandfather nor his father would acknowledge him as a grandson or son anymore. His name might even be removed from the family tree by his grandfather.
And now, he was already the child the Huang Family was most proud of.
He did not care about those things, but his grandfather had treated him extremely well when he was young. He did not want to sever that relationship just like this. He did not want his grandfather's eyes to contain nothing but disappointment when looking at him.
So Huang Kong stepped forward. Even if he was very likely to die here, he did not care.
He did not know whether what he was doing was the right thing, but he knew it was something worth doing.
"Come on then, come on then! If I die, I die! Damn it, Your Father has never done anything this damn conflicting in my whole life!"
After gripping his saber, Huang Kong had already begun rushing forward. This young martial artist, whose body was in fact tempered to an excellent degree, would probably not truly be at a disadvantage against two daoist sages at this moment if he had not been injured in his battle with Chen Chao earlier.
He gripped that horizontal saber, its tip scraping across the ground and scattering sparks. Another streak of flowing light was once again drawn across the long street.
But in the next moment, Chen Chao's voice rang out, "Half a step back."
His voice was not loud, but it was extremely quiet here at this moment, so Huang Kong heard it very clearly. He also knew very clearly that Chen Chao was speaking to him, but he frowned and did not want to retreat.
Yet subconsciously, he still retreated half a step.
The place where he had originally been standing indeed exploded with a burst of qi.
The white-robed daoist appeared not far away. That had been his technique, incomparably concealed and something that should not have been discovered, but how could such a trick possibly be hidden from Chen Chao?
Chen Chao was now heavily injured and unable to fight, but his vision remained intact, and his powerful divine sense still remained.
"Three steps to the left, raise the saber past your shoulder, pull three inches toward the lower right, retract the saber, hold it horizontally before your chest..."
Chen Chao came to the front of the common people. Looking at the scene before him, he spoke slowly. Huang Kong could be considered a fairly good martial artist, but he was injured after all, and he was facing two opponents, so he had fallen into a disadvantage from the very beginning.
Fortunately, Chen Chao spoke.
He was the strongest martial artist in the world today, and also the person most skilled with a saber. Everything happened to align perfectly with Huang Kong's current situation. Therefore, with Chen Chao's guidance, as long as Huang Kong followed his instructions, he could actually remain in an undefeated position.
At least, that would be the case until Huang Kong's qi was exhausted.
As for whether there were variables in all this, there actually were.
Chen Chao could see the flaws of those two daoists, and he could even tell Huang Kong immediately while the battle was raging, but the problem was this: even if Huang Kong knew about them, could he seize that fleeting opportunity in an instant?
The demands this placed on Huang Kong were still too high.
Huang Kong was not Chen Chao. That was an indisputable fact.
Many things were easy for Chen Chao to do, but that did not mean other martial artists could do them as well.
But at least for the moment, he was safe.
Actually, not entirely. It depended on whether those two daoists were truly stupid.
After being held up by Huang Kong for a while, the white-robed daoist finally understood the key point of the situation. Using voice transmission, he said, "You keep him occupied for a while. I'll go kill Chen Chao directly!"
He had already seen the key to the problem and understood this principle: they had come here now not to do anything else, but simply to kill Chen Chao.
The green-robed daoist had also figured this out. He nodded and likewise transmitted his voice, saying, "Be quick. We've already delayed too long."
Yes.
They had delayed too long.
The group from before had exhausted Chen Chao, and afterward Huang Kong's battle with Chen Chao had also wasted quite a bit of time.
By contrast, those common people coming here to block them had not wasted much time at all.
They did not believe the news here could not get out; they simply did not think it would happen that quickly. But now, if they were delayed any longer, then Chen Chao's reinforcements would probably arrive.
Although Chen Chao's reputation in the foreign lands was terrible, his friends were all among the strongest people. Even if no one came from the foreign lands, those Great Liang Dynasty retainers were no longer what they once had been.
In short, no matter what, they had to be quick.
The white-robed daoist tapped the ground with the tip of his foot and disengaged from the battlefield. A strand of daoist aura rushed ahead of him toward Chen Chao first.
And his entire body also swept toward Chen Chao at tremendous speed.
Zhao Ge had been lying in wait around Chen Chao all along. When he saw this daoist charging in to kill, he immediately leaped up, intending to smash a punch into that aura. But before he had even reached halfway up, Chen Chao grabbed him by the collar and threw him back into the crowd.
Zhao Ge's cultivation realm was too low. If he collided with that aura now, the only thing it would bring him was death.
So Chen Chao threw him away.
Thus that aura slammed into Chen Chao's body.
Chen Chao staggered back several steps and spat out a large mouthful of blood. The common people behind him reached out and supported him.
Then even more people wanted to step in front of him.
Chen Chao spread his arms and stopped them.
These people all wanted to die in his place, but Chen Chao did not want them to die.
Zhu Xia had been the first person who wanted to die in his place, and Chen Chao had not wanted that, not only because Zhu Xia was his friend.
These people were not his friends, and he still did not want them to die in his place.
He was the Great Liang Dynasty's Lord Warden Commander. Protecting them was his duty.
What principle was there behind that?
It was actually very simple.
He had taken their money.
Although ever since going to the Divine Capital, his salary had never actually ended up in his money pouch, that salary was still issued every month.
Since he had taken the money, then he had to do the job.
The principle was very simple. Only eight words.
Take a man's money, help him avert disaster.
Yes, that was also the reason Chen Chao gave himself.
He certainly would not tell anyone that he had long since regarded all the common people under heaven as his own family.
Chen Chao smiled faintly and said, "Who asked my surname to be Chen?"
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