lmets and carried an automatic rifle on their backs.Zhang Dahan walked to stand in front of the lined-up troops. He cast his eyes over them and said, "Zhang Qiang, Er Bao, you two stay behind to monit...Chapter 660: Zhao Lingyun's Life and Death

After Musashi Ichirou fell, black mist immediately rose from his body, gradually taking the form of Musashi Ichirou himself. This was his soul.

The moment Musashi Ichirou's soul took shape, a black vortex appeared not far behind him.

Xiao Yu's expression changed when he saw this vortex. As he had yet to receive any news about Zhao Lingyun, he did not want Musashi Ichirou's soul to enter the netherworld at that moment. Therefore, Xiao Yu’s ghostly head suddenly expanded, growing to a diameter of two zhang.

Currently, Xiao Yu’s yin soul had already recovered and improved significantly. Thus, when he used the Soul Refining Art, its power was much stronger than before.

Xiao Yu's massive head sucked in Musashi Ichirou's soul with a sudden movement. 'Whoosh,' and while still confused, Musashi Ichirou’s soul was pulled into Xiao Yu’s stomach. The vortex, unable to sense the existence of any soul anymore, vanished with a boom.

After swallowing Musashi Ichirou's soul, Xiao Yu’s yin soul slowly closed its eyes, digesting his soul.

Note that Musashi Ichirou was a master-level expert, and his soul was exceptionally pure. As such, this single soul made Xiao Yu’s yin soul solidify again.

Time passed as Xiao Yu's yin soul floated in mid-air with its eyes closed, waiting for about half an hour before slowly opening them.

The moment his eyes opened, he instantly looked at Musashi Ichirou's corpse. A trace of anger flashed across his gaze when looking at the body.

However, seeing that Musashi Ichirou had already been reduced to nothing more than a corpse, Xiao Yu shifted his attention away from it and vanished in a flash, returning to his physical body within moments.

At this point, Xiao Yu's physical body slowly opened its eyes. As his body was extremely weak, upon opening them, he staggered unsteadily as if about to fall.

Xiao Yu steadied himself before slowly walking towards the pier exit.

He had already fully assimilated Musashi Ichiro's memories and understood why he knew Zhao Lingyun.

It turned out that when Zhao Lingyun was executing a mission and stayed behind to cover, although the ninjas from Japan were quite formidable, Zhao Lingyun managed to escape even at the cost of getting injured. But just as he planned to escape, Musashi Ichiro appeared; back then, Musashi Ichiro had already reached the late stage of Transformation Force (Hua Jin) and was close to its peak, so despite Zhao Lingyun being a prodigy about to enter Transformation Force in his twenties, he was far from Musashi Ichiro's match.

Zhao Lingyun couldn't escape from Musashi Ichiro even at the cost of his life; instead, he was severely injured and captured. He hoped to get some secrets about Chinese martial arts and China out of Zhao Lingyun but no matter what cruel torture he used, Zhao Lingyun didn't utter a single word.

Helpless, he handed Zhao Lingyun over to a grand Onmyoji under the emperor's command because during their conversation, this grand Onmyoji had mentioned that he could make Zhao Lingyun talk or at least put his soul through immense suffering even if he didn't speak.

The place where Zhao Lingyun was taken after being handed over to this grand Onmyoji, Musashi Ichiro wasn't aware of. But since he couldn't get any useful information from that Onmyoji either, the matter gradually faded away. Later on, as he sought opportunities for breakthroughs, he left Japan and never inquired about this again.

Only now did he remember Zhao Lingyun after seeing Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu felt a bit excited as he finished digesting Musashi Ichiro's memories; according to the records in his memories, it seemed that his father hadn't died back then.

But more than twenty years had passed since then. He didn’t know whether his father was alive or dead now. However, regardless of how things turned out, hope stirred within him as his father hadn't perished at the time.

However, Xiao Yu's expression quickly darkened because in Musashi Ichiro's memories were scenes of his father suffering torture. And when physical torment didn’t work, he was handed over to an Onmyoji; this could only mean one thing: Zhao Lingyun’s soul would be directly subjected to torture.

Xiao Yu had a fair understanding of the methods used by Onmyojis now, so he felt deeply worried about Zhao Lingyun and didn't know if he had endured it back then.

Xiao Yu's figure gradually vanished into the night. More than two hours later, Xiao Yu hailed a taxi and arrived at Jin Xianglin’s villa.

At this time, Jin Xianglin's villa was brightly lit; it turned out that Jin Xianglin had not slept at all. He didn't know what Xiao Yu was going to do and thus felt worried. Furthermore, he had personally witnessed the prowess of the old Japanese man—perhaps no martial artists on TV were as formidable!

He wasn’t sure if Xiao Yu’s presence would be enough to match up against that old man. Although Jin Xianglin didn't understand much about this, he knew that their emphases differed. Therefore, since his return, he hadn’t dared to sleep and had been waiting for Xiao Yu in the living room.

When Jin Xianglin saw Xiao Yu safely back home at this moment, he finally put his mind at ease. Although Xiao Yu looked extremely weak now, Jin Xianglin knew that there were some things better left unasked about. After asking if Xiao Yu was okay, he escorted him back to his room for rest.

After entering the room, Xiao Yu sat cross-legged and started meditating directly—he had forced himself to return in this state. Musashi Ichiro was a master-level martial artist; even using all of his physical abilities, he could only end up with mutual destruction against Musashi Ichiro.

Xiao Yu's meditation lasted an entire day and night. When he woke again, it was the early morning on the third day.

After this day and night of sitting in meditation, Xiao Yu’s spirits had recovered. Although his righteous energy within wasn’t fully restored, its impact had been significantly reduced.

The entire day and night Jin Xianglin waited anxiously outside but dared not disturb Xiao Yu—he could only wait quietly outside.

In the afternoon, the police discovered Musashi Ichiro's body. Jin Xianglin saw this news on TV, and recalling how Xiao Yu had looked when he returned, he knew that Musashi Ichiro was definitely killed by Xiao Yu. As for why he was killed, it must have something to do with Zhao Lingyun; otherwise, Jin Xianglin couldn't think of any reason for Xiao Yu to kill someone.

At this time, the news had also reached the Zhonghua Lou Martial Arts Academy, especially Li Yao who felt elated when he heard. He wanted to find the Japanese martial arts dojo and burn it down again, but before he could act on his impulse, an old traditional Chinese doctor from Hongmen specializing in treating internal injuries for martial artists arrived.

The news of Musashi Ichiro's death also reached Zhou Changxing’s ears at this time. However, when he heard the news, he wasn’t excited; instead, he was deeply contemplative. He knew the strength of Musashi Ichiro better than anyone else—Musashi Ichiro was a master-level martial artist! Such a level wasn't something everyone could achieve.

To reach that level, one needed both talent and opportunity. If you had talent but no opportunity, even if your talent was great, it wouldn’t be enough to enter the realm of masters. At this stage, Zhou Changxing knew many such cases—Hongmen had quite a few people in the late muscle transformation period, some even at the peak of muscle transformation, yet none were master-level martial artists.

The reason for all this was that these individuals lacked sufficient opportunity. If they got the right chance and had an epiphany, they might break through to become masters, but up until now, no one had achieved it, showing just how difficult reaching such a realm truly was.

But now, a master-level expert died at a pier after leaving him, and according to the information gathered by Zhonghua Lou, Mushashi Ichiro was brutally killed there.

"Who could have done this" Upon seeing this news, Zhou Changxing fell into deep thought.

The next day, when Xiao Yu woke up, although he felt energetic, his stomach started growling. Normally, he rarely felt hungry even if he didn't eat for several days, but that night's intense expenditure made him feel the hunger too. Therefore, upon waking up, Xiao Yu went downstairs knowing that Jin Xianglin's restaurant always had food.

"Mr. Jin, I want to return home today!" The next morning, after washing up and coming down, Xiao Yu saw Jin Xianglin sitting on the sofa watching TV and told him this.

Xiao Yu couldn't stay here anymore as he now had a lead on his father's whereabouts. His father was still in unknown danger, and if he were alive, he must be suffering unimaginable pain. Therefore, Xiao Yu wanted to return home urgently for Beijing where Lao Li and others would provide more accurate intelligence.

Hearing this, Jin Xianglin was taken aback; he didn't expect Xiao Yu to want to go back so soon after two days in M nation. Seeing his serious expression, however, Jin Xianglin nodded solemnly without further questioning.

Xiao Yu went to the restaurant for breakfast while Jin Xianglin made a phone call.

Later that afternoon, Xiao Yu took a direct flight to Beijing from the airport, and Jin Xianglin returned to Shenzhen.

The Beijing airport was midday when Xiao Yu arrived. Rather than going home, he went straight to Li Sujun's place because it wasn't appropriate for his family to know about these matters yet.

Xiao Yu took a taxi to the military camp where the canteen was located; by now he was very familiar with the area and no guard stopped him since Xiao Yu had registered here allowing him free access.

When Li Sujun saw Xiao Yu appear in front of him, he showed an extremely surprised expression. Xiao Yu never came to see him directly before, and his serious demeanor suggested something significant was happening.

"Xiao Yu, is there anything" Looking at the stern-faced Xiao Yu standing before him, Li Sujun asked solemnly. bitter gall in silence.Du Zhiping walked up to the hotel entrance, glanced at the building, and then went inside.After entering the hotel, he directly headed towards Xiao Yu's room. When he arrived o...