A carefree soldier king in the city

Chapter 578 Long term plan

"What happened to my father?" Chao Bufan asked, his voice trembling with sobs, as he gripped Chu Xiong's shoulders tightly.

Chu Xiong didn't feel the pain in his shoulders. Overwhelmed with grief, he lowered his head and whispered, "My master has passed away."

"Wh-what?" Chao Bufan could no longer control his emotions. He roared, as if he had suddenly lost his soul. He stared blankly at Wang Er and the dwarf, asking, "Second Senior Brother, Third Senior Brother, my father..."

At this moment, Wang Er, the two short men, also looked somber and filled with grief. Wang Er whispered, "Junior Brother, Master has already..."

"father……"

Before Wang Er could finish speaking, Chao Bufan shouted and dashed towards the ancestral hall like an arrow.

She finally understood why her three senior brothers had been at the entrance of the ancestral hall, why they hadn't let her go in to offer incense to her deceased uncles and aunts, and why they had hesitated when they mentioned her father. It all made sense now…

The moment Chao Bufan rushed into the ancestral hall, he secretly told himself that his three senior brothers must be joking with him. He hoped that everything inside would be as it was, with no more and no less memorial tablets. However, when he saw the conspicuous memorial tablet on the altar, his legs could no longer bear any weight, and as if his soul had been pulled out of his body, he knelt down on the ground with a "thud" and then moved towards the conspicuous memorial tablet.

"How could this be? This can't be real, it can't be real!" Deep within his heart, he cried out, seemingly unable to believe what he was seeing. Yet, the words on the memorial tablet were so glaring, like a sharp knife piercing his heart. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He reached out, his hands trembling as he cradled the memorial tablet. Finally, he could no longer control himself; his heart collapsed in that instant. He clutched the tablet tightly to his chest, sobbing—

“爹～爹～爹～”

He called out again and again, tears already blurring his vision. Suddenly, as if struck by something, he abruptly looked up and cried out loudly, "Father... Father..."

He called out twice, then burst into loud sobs. After a moment, he swayed his body, as if he had lost his soul, and cried, "Father, how could you just leave like that? Your health has always been very good."

Before anyone knew it, Chu Xiong and his two fellow disciples had already stood behind Chao Bufan. The three of them were also filled with grief, their faces streaked with tears. Behind them, Baihe and the others stood side by side. Seeing their husbands so sad, they too felt a pang of heartache and wept uncontrollably.

The ancestral hall was silent, yet filled with an atmosphere of sorrow.

Chao Bufan tightly hugged his father's memorial tablet, sitting on the ground, his body swaying back and forth. At this moment, he no longer shed tears, no longer spoke, only trembled all over, and sobbed fiercely from the depths of his heart.

After an unknown amount of time, Chu Xiong wiped his eyes, then walked to Chao Bufan's side and whispered, "Junior Brother, please accept my condolences!"

Lily came over and comforted him, "Bufan, the dead cannot be brought back to life. Please accept my condolences."

Chao Bufan showed no reaction, still tightly and woodenly holding his father's memorial tablet and shaking it, as if afraid someone would snatch it away. After a long while, he wiped his eyes, then put his father's memorial tablet back in its original place, kowtowed three times heavily to his father's memorial tablet, and then said, "Father, your son is unfilial and failed to come back to visit you in time. I hope that your spirit in heaven will forgive your son."

As he spoke, he kowtowed again before standing up and saying to Baihe and the others, "Baihe, all of you come forward."

Chu Xiong and the other two quickly moved aside.

“Extraordinary,” Lily exclaimed.

Chao Bufan nodded and said, "You should all offer incense to your father! Although I have never met you, you are all my daughters-in-law."

“Yes, extraordinary,” Lily said.

Baihe and the others lit an incense stick in front of their father's memorial tablet and called him "Dad."

Then, Chao Bufan asked Chu Xiong, "Senior Brother, how did my father die?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Xiong sighed softly and said, "Junior Brother, our Master was killed by the Moon Goddess."

"The Moon Goddess?" Chao Bufan frowned and asked, "Is it the Moon Goddess from Moon God Island?"

Chu Xiong grunted in agreement and said, "That day, when Master was casting a spell to save you, the Moon Goddess interfered. Master exhausted all his strength to send you to the future, but he was also severely injured in the process. The next day, the Moon Goddess, wanting to seize the divine artifact in Master's possession, led the people of Moon Goddess Island to attack. Master was no match for her and was severely injured by the Moon Goddess. A few days later, Master..."

Upon hearing this, Chao Bufan suddenly raised an eyebrow, clenched his fists, and as his bones cracked, his two fleshy fists burst into flames—

The three Chu brothers were all shocked when they saw this; this was the first time they had ever encountered someone who could materialize anger.

"Moon Goddess," Chao Bufan said coldly, "Hmph..."

He merely snorted coldly and didn't continue speaking. Instead, he asked Chu Xiong, "Senior Brother, where is Moon Goddess Island?"

“Junior Brother,” Wang Er said quickly, fearing that his junior brother might do something foolish, “You must not act recklessly! The Moon Goddess has now become the leader of the martial arts alliance. Even we are no match for her, let alone you.”

“Junior Brother,” Chu Xiong said, “we will definitely avenge our master. However, now is not the time for revenge. Before he passed away, our master passed on the incantation of the Nine Heavens Nine Swords to me and also gave me this Seven Kill Sword. However, I have only learned the third sword of the Nine Heavens Nine Swords and I am still no match for the Moon Goddess. But I will definitely cultivate diligently and strive to avenge our master as soon as possible.”

“Senior Brother,” Chao Bufan said, “I am no longer the same as before. I can take the life of a mere Moon God with just a flick of my finger.”

“Junior brother,” the dwarf said, “this is no joke. The entire martial world is now under the control of the Moon Goddess. I know you are eager for revenge, and so are we. But with our current strength, we are no match for the Moon Goddess and would only lose our lives in vain.”

“Yes, junior brother,” Wang Er chimed in, “we need to plan our revenge carefully.”

Chao Bufan naturally understood what his three senior brothers meant. He smiled and said, "Senior brothers, I know you all mean well, but I really have the ability to kill this Moon God. Let alone one Moon God, even a thousand or ten thousand Moon Gods, I can still take their lives with a wave of my hand."