Chapter 160: This is a breeze for me!

During the treatment of Jiang Guoxing, Chu Fei had used his spiritual energy to detect the damaged martial veins within his body. This indicated that Jiang Guoxing had once been a martial artist. For some unknown reason, his martial veins had been destroyed, leaving him unable to channel spiritual energy, just like an ordinary person!

"Dad, I have something I'd like to ask you."

Without beating around the bush, Chu Fei went straight to the point and asked, "Were your martial veins damaged by someone's deliberate action, or was it a result of cultivating martial arts?"

Hearing this, Jiang Guoxing’s expression turned vacant for a split second as memories from the past assaulted him. But soon, he gave a helpless, bitter smile. "I knew I wouldn't be able to hide it from you..."

As a martial artist, he naturally understood that given the strength Chu Fei had just demonstrated, it would hardly be difficult to see that he too had once been a martial artist.

Dai Qin's expression also dimmed slightly, clearly aware of what had happened in the past.

Only Jiang Yunqi looked at her father in utter astonishment. She asked with a hint of excitement, "Dad, you used to be a martial artist? How come you've never mentioned it to me!"

"What's there to mention? It's all ancient history," Jiang Guoxing said with self-deprecation. "Even if I was a martial artist before, now I'm just good for nothing."

From Jiang Guoxing's expression, Chu Fei could deduce that there was a high probability his martial veins had been crippled by someone else. As his prospective son-in-law, he naturally had the obligation to exact revenge for him and vent this deep grievance. Therefore, even though he could tell Jiang Guoxing was reluctant to speak of it, Chu Fei continued to press on. "Dad, can you tell me what actually happened back then?"

"There's no harm in telling you," Jiang Guoxing began, recounting the tale slowly. "When I was very young, I ignored my family's objections and joined the Martial Suppression Bureau, accepting their training. My cultivation realm reached the peak of the Martial Ancestor stage, just a step away from becoming a Martial Venerable. The branch bureau even intended to promote me to deputy director. Back then, I thought my future was boundless. But during a pursuit mission, I was ambushed; my martial veins were shattered, and I was reduced to a complete cripple. After that, I resigned from the Martial Suppression Bureau and began a quiet life..."

Jiang Yunqi clearly had not expected that her father was not only a martial artist, but had also nearly become the deputy director of a Martial Suppression Bureau branch. If not for that ambush, her father would undoubtedly be living a completely different and brilliant life right now!

At this thought, Jiang Yunqi asked with lingering resentment, "Then who on earth was the person who ambushed you?!"

"I don't know. He was wearing a mask when he launched a sneak attack on me," Jiang Guoxing replied. "However, although I didn't pull off his mask at the time, I tore his clothes and saw a wolf head tattoo on his back. I reported this incident to the Martial Suppression Bureau, but to this day, we haven't been able to trace that person's true identity!"

Chu Fei asked, "Do you have any suspects?"

Jiang Guoxing's gaze flickered. After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head to indicate he had none.

Chu Fei could tell that Jiang Guoxing did indeed have suspects in mind. Perhaps due to a lack of evidence or for other reasons, he chose not to spell it out to Chu Fei.

Chu Fei respected Jiang Guoxing's choice. After all, the Martial Suppression Bureau was currently falling all over themselves to curry favor with him. As long as he asked Mia or Fatty Wang to investigate this matter, the truth would likely come to light very soon.

"Dad, you ended up like this because of your work..." Jiang Yunqi said with a trace of dissatisfaction, "As for this matter with the Tang family, didn't your former colleagues ever think of helping you?"

Logically speaking, Jiang Guoxing had served the Martial Suppression Bureau for so many years. When such a misfortune befell him, his former colleagues or the students he had once mentored should have extended a helping hand—at least to the point where he wouldn't be bullied to this extent!

"After leaving the Martial Suppression Bureau, I cut off contact with those people," Jiang Guoxing shook his head.

Dai Qin looked somewhat displeased at this. "Even if you cut off contact, as long as you took the initiative to find them, they would certainly help you. After all, several of the current directors were students you mentored back in the day. To put it bluntly, you just can't swallow your old pride!"

Ever since the incident with the Tang family, Dai Qin had thought about seeking help from the Martial Suppression Bureau. It was just a pity...

"Oh, look at how down and out I am now," Jiang Guoxing said. "At least let me retain a shred of dignity in front of my former students!"

Men valued their dignity and face above all else, especially someone of Jiang Guoxing's old-school temperament. Asking him to beg his former students was something he simply could not bring himself to do.

Chu Fei could understand this. Moreover, the Martial Suppression Bureau was currently still seeking things from him; as long as Chu Fei spoke a word, getting Jiang Guoxing a position as a bureau director would be a breeze. However, the most urgent task was to repair Jiang Guoxing's martial veins first. Once his strength was restored, even if he wasn't in the Martial Suppression Bureau anymore, no one would dare bully him!

"Dad, actually, I can repair your martial veins," Chu Fei said to Jiang Guoxing. "You must have heard of the Vein-Connecting Pill, right?"

It was an understatement to say Jiang Guoxing had heard of it. He also knew that this pill was specifically used by martial artists to repair damaged martial veins. Unfortunately, the lowest grade for a Vein-Connecting Pill was Mysterious-tier Intermediate. An ordinary Yellow-tier Primary pill was already worth hundreds of thousands, let alone a Mysterious-tier Intermediate pill which was four grades higher! Not only was this stuff exorbitantly expensive, but it was also the kind of item that had a market price but was entirely unavailable. Furthermore, unlike ordinary Mysterious-tier pills, the refinement technique for the Vein-Connecting Pill was extremely difficult. Even second or third-grade alchemists might not necessarily be able to successfully refine it. As for alchemists of the fourth grade and above, which of them wasn't a prominent and renowned figure? Why would they lower their status to refine pills for someone like Jiang Guoxing who had neither power nor influence? Society was brutally realistic, and alchemists were no exception to this worldly rule!

Therefore, Jiang Guoxing had long since given up on searching for a Vein-Connecting Pill. Yet hearing Chu Fei proactively bring it up now caused a glimmer of hope to rise uncontrollably in his heart. Of course he wanted to repair his martial veins, become a martial artist once more, and reclaim everything that rightfully belonged to him!

"Little Chu, could it be that you are also an alchemist?"

When Jiang Guoxing said this, he felt that he was being somewhat wishful. After all, the conditions to become an alchemist were far too harsh; they were an extremely rare species across the entire Dragon Xia. The Alchemist Pavilion had once kept statistics, and fewer than five thousand alchemists were registered—their numbers were a mere twentieth of the martial artist population!

"Consider me one," Chu Fei answered truthfully. "However, I'm different from those ordinary alchemists. I've never been graded."

Every formal alchemist had to be recognized and graded by the Alchemist Pavilion. Of course, certain heterodox practitioners were the exception. Chu Fei clearly belonged to this latter camp!

Jiang Guoxing said with suppressed excitement, "So you're confident you can refine the Vein-Connecting Pill?"

"As long as you provide the herbs, this matter is to me..."

Chu Fei narrowed his eyes with a smile and gave a hand-flipping gesture with his palm. The meaning couldn't be clearer—it was as easy as turning over his hand!

The sudden burst of extraordinary self-confidence exuded by Chu Fei carried an overwhelming aura of absolute dominance. Watching him like this, Jiang Yunqi was completely dazzled. The current Chu Fei had her utterly infatuated!

However, just as Chu Fei intended to write down a list of ingredients and have Jiang Yunqi go purchase them, someone else arrived. This time, they didn't ring the doorbell; they simply barged right in!

The first things that met the eye were the familiar, matching uniforms. There were over a dozen people in total, every single one of them from the Martial Suppression Bureau. Without a word after bursting in, they moved to detain Chu Fei, their attitude extremely aggressive!

Only a somewhat older middle-aged man froze upon seeing Jiang Guoxing.

Jiang Guoxing also spotted the other person. After recognizing him for a good while, he finally realized this was one of his former students, Zheng Yucheng!

"Teacher, why are you here?" Zheng Yucheng asked with some surprise. It was evident that he still held a deep respect for Jiang Guoxing!

"It's a long story." Jiang Guoxing felt somewhat awkward, but for Chu Fei's sake, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask, "Why are you trying to arrest my son-in-law?"

Zheng Yucheng clearly had not expected Chu Fei to have this kind of familial connection with Jiang Guoxing, and he could only offer an explanation. "He injured Tang Feiyu, and since he is also a martial artist, this falls under our jurisdiction."

*Little trash, can't afford to lose so you resort to calling the cops?* Chu Fei scoffed inwardly with disdain.

Jiang Guoxing then spoke up, "Well... Little Zheng... can you give me some face..."

Before he could finish, Zheng Yucheng interrupted him. "Teacher, I'm just following orders. Please don't make things difficult for me. This order came directly from Bureau Chief Ji. Why don't you give him a call? You saved his life back in the day, so he should be willing to grant you this favor!"