Chapter 20: Heroes Truly Do Emerge from Youth
In a small grove not far from the Xue family estate.
By the time Su Hao arrived, two figures had already been waiting here for quite some time.
One of them was an elderly man, and the closer Su Hao got, the thinner the air seemed to become.
This was the oppressive aura of a master!
Judging by his strength, he must have just broken through to become a Martial Arts Grandmaster!
"Speak. Why did you summon me here?"
The old man smiled. "Mr. Su's perception is truly astonishing. I am Song Zhongji, and the person beside me is Jiang Dao. We witnessed your strength this morning, so you could say we only got to know each other through our clash."
"Enough with the pleasantries. State your business directly. Let's not waste each other's time."
Su Hao's attitude toward the two was as cold as frost. He had no desire to exchange idle words with them, wishing only to hear what on earth these two were plotting by lying in wait for him.
Song Zhongji quickly provided an answer, yet his words only made Su Hao's expression grow even colder.
"Mr. Su, we actually harbor no ill intentions. We simply hope to ask for your help in treating someone's illness."
"Heh, you people really are something. You ask for a favor, yet you don't have the decency to be straightforward, preferring instead to resort to petty, thievish antics."
Su Hao's attitude made it clear he had no intention of helping. He turned on his heel to leave.
"Audacious! Did we give you permission to leave?"
Jiang Dao barked coldly, stepping forward to block Su Hao's path.
Before he could manage to subdue Su Hao, however, Su Hao struck first, landing an inch-punch directly on Jiang Dao's chest.
Jiang Dao was knocked back several paces, his face turning ashen as he suffered severe internal injuries.
"What immense punch force! It looks ordinary on the surface, but it actually carries a penetrating shockwave. Without decades of mastery in fist techniques, achieving this is utterly impossible."
Seeing this, Song Zhongji could not help but draw a sharp breath.
The morning when Su Hao injured him with a mere stone had already demonstrated formidable strength.
Now, seeing it up close, he realized that Su Hao was unassuming only on the surface; his martial prowess far exceeded anything he had imagined.
One had to know that even he, a Martial Arts Grandmaster who had cultivated for decades, couldn't have beaten Jiang Dao into such a state with a single punch. Yet Su Hao had accomplished it with effortless casualness.
He hadn't even channeled his internal energy beforehand, as if all of this was simply second nature to him.
"I merely let my guard down," Jiang Dao grunted, refusing to admit defeat.
"Is that so?"
Su Hao sneered and plucked a leaf from a branch.
"If you can block this leaf, I'll count it as your win."
With a flick of his finger, the leaf—which possessed no inherent power whatsoever—instantly transformed into a lethal projectile akin to a bullet, hurtling toward Jiang Dao with lightning speed.
"Watch out!"
Song Zhongji's pupils contracted as he instinctively yanked Jiang Dao out of the way.
*Swoosh!*
The leaf struck the poplar tree behind Jiang Dao, piercing straight through the trunk.
"Gasp!"
Witnessing this, Jiang Dao was scared out of his wits.
What kind of terrifying strength was required to pluck a leaf and pierce through a poplar tree?!
"Heroes truly do emerge from youth. Mr. Su is indeed a peerless expert." Over the past two days, Song Zhongji had heard Song Keke endlessly boast about Su Hao's strength. He had always assumed Song Keke simply lacked worldly experience, blowing an ordinary pheasant out of proportion into a golden phoenix.
Seeing it now, he realized that it was he who had been narrow-minded and foolish.
"Let this be a lesson. State your business when you have one. If you ever dare to hide in the shadows and play hide-and-seek again, I won't let you off so lightly." Su Hao dusted off his hands, preparing to leave.
Not daring to put on airs any longer, Song Zhongji immediately cupped his fists, bowed, and pleaded, "Mr. Su, we were out of line with our previous offenses. We were in the wrong. Please calm your anger and give us another chance."
"Give you a chance? On what grounds?"
Song Zhongji's aged face flushed red. "Well... Song Keke is my granddaughter. Could you perhaps do me this favor for the sake of her ties to your wife's sister?"
"You should've said so earlier. Fine, I'll spare you some face." Su Hao realized belatedly, his attitude softening slightly.
Song Zhongji was left torn between laughter and tears.
Who would have thought that he, the dignified President of the Jinling Martial Arts Association—a grandmaster standing above ten thousand people with only one person above him—would actually have to rely on his granddaughter to negotiate terms?
"Mr. Su, the person I wish for you to save is the Prince Xia of the Northern Frontier. If this matter succeeds, it will bring you boundless benefits!"
Prince Xia—the supreme military commander of Huaxia's combat zones, a symbol of glory and invincibility.
Anyone capable of becoming Prince Xia was a monstrous talent chosen out of hundreds of millions.
Su Hao's master was one of the Princes Xia, though of an extremely senior generation. In recent years, he had ceased serving in the Hall of Prince Xia and had likely long since retired.
"The Prince Xia of the Northern Frontier is a top-tier powerhouse. What kind of illness could he possibly contract?"
Song Zhongji stated bluntly, "Improper cultivation, resulting in a deviation of his cultivation deviation..."
"Cultivation deviation? Heh, now you're making things difficult. Ignorant as you may be, you should at least know that such a condition is virtually incurable. Unless someone proficient in the exact same cultivation technique can help guide and transfer their internal Qi, reversing it is simply impossible," Su Hao said speechlessly.
"How on earth did he manage to suffer a cultivation deviation, anyway?"
Song Zhongji sighed helplessly. "The Prince Xia of the Northern Frontier fell victim to a malicious scheme. Someone added aphrodisiacs to the sandalwood incense he used during his cultivation, preventing him from concentrating. That was how he accidentally suffered a cultivation deviation."
"Tsk, even the Prince Xia of the Northern Frontier could fall to such cheap tricks? Was his title of Prince Xia stolen?"
Su Hao was utterly flabbergasted.
It was like a giant, completely unharmed when facing thousands of armies, tripping over a tiny pebble and crashing to the ground, unable to get back up.
Feeling extremely embarrassed as well, Song Zhongji hurriedly changed the subject. "Mr. Su, can you cure him or not?"
"What's in it for me?"
Jiang Dao interjected, "You will receive the recommendation of the Prince Xia of the Northern Frontier, becoming a reserve member of the Hall of Prince Xia, with the potential to become Prince Xia yourself one day."
"Just that?"
"Isn't that enough?" Jiang Dao's eye twitched.
Every single martial practitioner regarded becoming Prince Xia as their ultimate goal.
Yet Su Hao actually looked down upon it with disdain?
You've got to be kidding me!
"If that's the only condition, forget it. I don't need it." Su Hao waved his hand dismissively.
The Commander-in-Chief had personally invited him to become Prince Xia the year before last, but he had been busy learning the acupuncture techniques for infertility from his senior martial sister at the time, so he had casually brushed the offer aside.
Such reserve membership qualifications were completely useless to him.
"Mr. Su, what conditions do you want?"
Su Hao flicked his fingers. "I haven't thought of it yet, but both you and the Prince Xia of the Northern Frontier will owe me a favor. You will do my bidding in the future. If you agree to that, I'll treat him."
"Very well." Song Zhongji thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
"May I ask what probability of success Mr. Su has?"
Su Hao said indifferently, "Without seeing the patient, I'll tentatively call it fifty percent. I can only do my utmost and use silver needles to realign his meridians. If it succeeds, he will emerge completely unharmed; if it fails, it probably won't cause any further harm either."
"Mr. Su, I hope you take responsibility for your words!"
Jiang Dao felt that Su Hao's attitude was far too cavalier, treating the matter as if it were of no real importance, which filled him with dissatisfaction.
"Since this matter is so vital, I'm afraid I'm hardly up to the heavy responsibility. You'd better find someone else who can guarantee a hundred percent success with absolute certainty." Su Hao couldn't be bothered to bicker with such an idiot.
An illness like cultivation deviation was not something a doctor could simply cure by decree.
Different techniques followed different paths. A deviation of a millimeter could lead to a thousand miles of error; one could only proceed by trial and error.
For Jiang Dao to demand a definitive guarantee from him was asking the impossible and utterly ridiculous.
"Mr. Su, please allow me a few days to consider. Is that acceptable?" Song Zhongji proposed.
"For Song Keke's sake, I'll give you three days at most."
With his hands shoved deep into his pockets, Su Hao slowly walked away.
Song Zhongji and Jiang Dao exchanged glances for a long time, neither of them able to reach a decision.
"What should we do now? Anyone else probably wouldn't even have half this chance..."
"But a mere fifty percent chance is far too risky..."
***
Chapter 21: Troubles Come One After Another
When Su Hao returned to the Xue family estate, Xue Rou was staring blankly at her phone.
Judging by her appearance, she had likely contacted numerous business partners without managing to secure any favorable results, leaving her utterly crestfallen.
Hearing Su Hao's voice, Xue Rou looked up and said with utter helplessness, "What are we going to do, Su Hao? I really feel like I can't hold on much longer..."
"How can that be? When you reach the mountain, there's always a way through; when the boat reaches the pier, it will naturally align with the bridge!"
"It's easy for you to say! The technologies of other large companies are constantly innovating, but our company's R&D has stagnated. Now we've run into such a massive crisis. What are we supposed to do?"
As for the research and development of Shangxue Company, Su Hao naturally understood nothing about it.
However, he understood one principle: money makes the mare go.
"If you can't research it, just buy the usage rights for the patents first. Technology transfers should work too, right?"
"Sigh, but wanting to acquire a technology transfer not only requires paying an astronomical transfer fee, but it also might involve all sorts of security issues. It's so difficult..." Xue Rou let out a long sigh.
"Forget it. Even if I told you, you wouldn't have a solution. You should go get some sleep."
"I've arranged a guest room on the second floor for you. Stay here at the Xue family for the next few days so it's convenient to look after Grandfather."
Su Hao didn't refuse, turning to head upstairs.
Watching his retreating figure, Xue Rou recalled what her parents had told her in private earlier.
Both of them hoped she and Su Hao would quickly consummate their relationship so that once Su Hao's strength became known to everyone, she wouldn't have to face a horde of formidable romantic rivals.
"Um... Su Hao..."
"What is it?" Su Hao asked.
"I... it's nothing..."
Such things as proactively confessing her love were simply too difficult for Xue Rou to bring herself to say, and in the end, she failed to muster the resolve.
"Don't worry. I'll help think of a solution for the company's problems."
Su Hao offered a reassuring smile before heading to the guest room and placing a call to the acting master of the Hall of Omniscience—Ye Tianming!
"Oh my sweet goodness, Brother Hao, are you running a fever? You usually go half a year without contacting me, and now you've called me twice in a row recently?"
"Cut the chatter. I need your help with something."
Su Hao had Ye Tianming look into the technological issues facing Shangxue Company, then continued, "Can you arrange for photolithography technology?"
"Brother Hao, other things can be sorted out, but photolithography technology belongs to cutting-edge science. Both quality and stability are bottlenecked by shortfalls in precision components, key processes, and materials. We have to get it from overseas; domestic channels are completely blockaded," Ye Tianming replied, shaking his head.
"For a small conglomerate like Shangxue Company, meddling with photolithography technology is still far too premature. Grab some other technologies instead, and they'll effortlessly become the leading enterprise. There's no need to torture yourself taking on hell-difficulty challenges."
"Alright, I want to see results within a week."
With that, Su Hao hung up the phone, completely unconcerned about how much effort Ye Tianming would have to expend just to fulfill this single command.
***
The next day, a piece of news bringing both good and bad tidings reached Su Hao's ears.
After a full night of sleep, Xue Kangning's condition had improved dramatically, and he was already able to get out of bed and walk around.
Yet the bad news followed closely behind.
Xue Kangning had actually lost his memory!
He had forgotten Su Hao completely, and naturally, he could no longer remember anything about the engagement.
Forget the engagement; Xue Kangning didn't even remember that he had liver cancer and had been poisoned, continuously insisting that there was nothing wrong with him.
"Enough, stop talking! I've known all along that your family is capable of anything when it comes to fighting over property. It turns out the eldest was right all along!"
Hearing this, Shen Yue felt a splitting headache coming on.
Back to square one overnight.
Xue Kangning once again viewed Xue Yi as a good person and regarded Xue Er's family as villains.
No matter how much she tried to reason with him, Xue Kangning simply refused to believe her words and ended up driving them all out of the room.
Su Hao was deeply disappointed as well.
It wasn't because his credit hadn't been remembered, but rather because he had originally planned to ask Xue Kangning about his own background once he woke up. But how could an amnesiac Xue Kangning possibly remember a place like Qili Village?
Distrustful of Xue Er's family and harboring a lingering fear that they would harm him, Xue Kangning anxiously demanded to see Xue Yi.
Having been driven out, Xue Rou wore a tearful expression as she apologized to Su Hao. "I've dragged you into this humiliation along with us. Grandfather has lost his memory now, and he won't say a word about the Peach Blossom Spring villa. I'm afraid he won't be transferring the deed to us anytime soon."
"It doesn't matter. Living at your place is quite nice anyway."
Xue Rou said with reluctance, "Living in Peach Blossom Spring isn't just about having a place to stay—the connections you can make there are vastly different!"
"It's fine. What's yours will be yours sooner or later," Su Hao comforted her.
"Later on, I'll add some ingredients to Grandpa Xue's medicine to strengthen his memory nerves so he can recover as soon as possible."
Hearing Su Hao say this, Xue Rou finally let out a breath of relief.
After breakfast, Su Hao found an excuse to wander over to the security monitoring room.
He sneaked inside quietly and copied all the surveillance footage from around the Xue family estate over the past few days onto his own phone, intending to nail down the evidence against Xue Zhiyi, the prime suspect for the poisoning.
No sooner had he stepped out of the security room than he ran into the two investigators from yesterday, who explicitly requested to question Su Hao alone.
Su Hao got into the car with them, and one of the investigators opened a video recording and said, "Mr. Su, the clues you provided yesterday happen to correspond with some information we've uncovered. That driver really did rack up heavy debts from gambling, and his creditors threatened to hack him to death and murder his entire family. That was why he took this job off the bounty board."
"Our leadership greatly appreciates your investigative skills, but they also have some doubts about your identity—after all, ordinary people don't possess that kind of analytical thinking. Could you provide your identification information so we can run an investigation and report back to close the case?"
Indicating his understanding, Su Hao handed over his ID card.
The female investigator named Hua Linglong took a look at Su Hao's ID card and froze.
"Where did you get this ID card? Something looks off about it."
Su Hao smiled faintly. "It was issued officially, of course. Could I possibly forge a fake ID for myself?"
"Then why don't you even have a native place listed? The address just says Nameless Mountain. That doesn't make any sense."
Su Hao shrugged and replied, "I've used this ID card since I was a child. If you think there's a problem, you can look it up in your system."
Upon hearing this, Hua Linglong immediately called her colleague and sent over the scanned ID card.
After a round of verification, the ID card proved to be completely genuine. As for why his identification was so unusual, there were no additional remarks in the system.
"How bizarre." Looking suspicious, Hua Linglong handed the ID card back to Su Hao and began questioning him about his purpose in coming to the Xue family and when he had arrived.
Maintaining his patience, Su Hao answered everything point by point.
"You say you have an engagement with the Xue family? But why did something happen to Elder Xue the moment you arrived? Could it be because Elder Xue opposed the engagement between the two of you, so you simply went ahead and made a clean sweep..."
Seeing that Hua Linglong's accusations were growing more and more far-fetched, Su Hao couldn't help interrupting her.
"Investigator, you can eat your words, but you can't just run your mouth like that."
"Making such wild guesses about me without a shred of evidence—doesn't that violate your interrogation protocols?"
Hua Linglong hadn't expected Su Hao to talk back to her on the spot. Hardening her heart, she said, "We originally just wanted to verify the situation with you, but now it seems you really are a major suspect. I must ask you to cooperate with the investigation and come with us."
"Sorry, I don't have time to waste on you."
Su Hao shook his head, showing no intention of accompanying them for questioning.
"Mr. Su, this isn't a matter of whether you have time or not. Cooperating with an investigator's probe is every citizen's bounden duty!"
With that, Hua Linglong pulled out the gloves she carried with her, intending to get physical with Su Hao.
Su Hao frowned, just as he was about to counterattack, when a *bang* rang out—the car's explosion-proof glass was smashed apart by brute force!
The person who made the move... was actually Jiang Dao!
Just as Hua Linglong and her colleague were about to fly into a rage, Jiang Dao tossed a small black booklet into the car.
It landed squarely in Hua Linglong's hands.
She opened the booklet and glanced at it, her complexion changing instantly.
Her colleague gave a start, hurriedly pulling Hua Linglong out of the car and snapping off a textbook salute.
"Greetings, Minister of War!"
***
Chapter 22: The Purchase Turns Out to Be a Sex Toy
The War Department.
The Huaxia combat zone sector.
Representing the border defense forces and the defenders of the people.
The War Department maintained a strict hierarchy, ranked from lowest to highest as follows: Warrior, Squad Commander, Department Minister, Department Director, and God of War.
Those who managed to climb to the rank of Department Minister were already exceedingly rare, wielding authority over tens of thousands of troops at the very least. They were not figures that minor district-level investigators like them could afford to offend.
No wonder Jiang Dao was so daring and acted with such lightning speed, easily shattering explosion-proof glass—his strength was right there for all to see!
"Mr. Su, are you alright?"
Su Hao cast a casual glance at Jiang Dao, who was pocketing his credentials, feeling a hint of surprise.
He had thought the person following Song Zhongji yesterday was just a minor character, but it turned out his rank was respectable enough.
"What could possibly happen to me? You..."
*Screeech!*
Before Su Hao could finish his sentence, a Red Flag sedan drove up.
The door swung open, and the Mayor of Jinling stepped out.
Daring not to show the slightest negligence, he straightened his posture and greeted Jiang Dao with utmost politeness.
"Minister of War Jiang, long time no see."
Jiang Dao cast a condescending glare down at the Mayor of Jinling, his expression gloomy.
"You incompetent piece of trash. Not only can you not handle a simple little task you were given, but you also run over here making such a fuss in front of me? Are you afraid my identity might remain hidden?"
The Mayor of Jinling rubbed his hands awkwardly, offering a ingratiating smile. "Minister Jiang, please don't be angry. I wanted to contact Prince Xia..."
"Shut your mouth. You're not even worthy of making connections with Prince Xia. Get lost as far as you can!"
Radiating an unquestionable aura of murderous intent, Jiang Dao scared the high-ranking official of Jinling so badly he nearly wet himself. Not daring to utter a single word of retort, the mayor scuttled away in a panic.