249: Chapter 244 Starting a Business Empire

Since the Sickly Middle-aged Man had let Cao Xiao make the first move, Cao Xiao saw no need to be polite or waste any more words with him.

Cao Xiao cast a contemptuous glance at his opponent. Forget the fact that the man's cultivation had not even reached the Transformation Realm; even if it had, Cao Xiao would not have spared him a second thought.

Nowadays, even without using the industrial mother machine's spatial conversion ability or the support of the AI brain, Cao Xiao could easily defeat his opponent based on his own cultivation alone.

Ever since Cao Xiao had thoroughly comprehended the text of the boxing classic, his Eight Extremes Fist had long since reached a level of perfection and mastery, successfully breaking through the Transformation Realm and entering the Profound Realm.

In particular, after Cao Xiao combined the AI brain with the boxing classic and used extensive virtual simulations to formulate top-grade Yellow-rank spiritual items and pills, killing any ordinary Ability User would take but a mere instant.

However, Cao Xiao did not intend to use any of those. This low-level martial artist before him was not worth using his ultimate moves on; after all, using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken was simply a waste of resources.

Cao Xiao planned to use his mental power and divine sense to defeat this arrogant, consumptive ghost who failed to recognize greatness.

For a true martial artist, the stronger the mental power, the better their combat state, and the faster their thinking and neural reflexes, which in turn accelerated cultivation speed and improved comprehension. When mental power grew strong enough, it would condense and transform into what Taoism called 'Divine Sense.' For a Profound Realm martial artist like Cao Xiao, he could defeat an opponent using only his divine sense, without even resorting to techniques or physical combat.

Standing in the middle of the field, Cao Xiao began to gather the divine sense within his body bit by bit.

The young man watching from not far away saw that Cao Xiao hadn't moved for a long time and assumed he was afraid to fight. Just as he was about to voice some mockery, he caught a glimpse of the terror on the Sickly Middle-aged Man's face.

The Sickly Middle-aged Man was clearly not as useless as the youth. As an Ability User with a certain level of cultivation, he had already sensed a powerful force constantly accumulating within Cao Xiao.

This was a powerful Yuan Energy unlike anything the Sickly Middle-aged Man had ever seen, yet it was also vastly different from the Yuan Energy produced by typical Ability Users.

Just as the Sickly Middle-aged Man was racking his brains for an explanation, a potent surge of divine sense rose from the top of Cao Xiao's head.

Even though they were separated by more than ten meters, the Sickly Middle-aged Man could feel a powerful current of divine sense pressing down on his body as it swept toward him.

This was merely the overflow from the outermost edges of the divine sense current, yet it was already so strong that the Sickly Middle-aged Man had to exert all his strength to resist being crushed to the ground.

"This... how is this possible..." the Sickly Middle-aged Man muttered to himself as he stared at Cao Xiao, using his entire cultivation to resist the pressure on his body.

"Do you yield?" Cao Xiao demanded as his divine sense current was about to strike the Sickly Middle-aged Man.

"I... I don't accept this, I won't accept it even in death! You're not an Ability User, what exactly are you...?" The Sickly Middle-aged Man spoke with slurred speech, his facial features already squeezed together by the force of the divine sense current.

"Fine, then I shall fulfill your wish," Cao Xiao said.

With that, the powerful current of divine sense gathered above Cao Xiao's head shot toward the Sickly Middle-aged Man's body like a beam of light particles.

The Sickly Middle-aged Man knew he had no way to block this divine sense, so he could only close his eyes and wait for death.

Right then, the sound of a high-powered loudspeaker came from the distant sky.

Cao Xiao clearly heard the loudspeaker shouting: "Major Cao, please show mercy!"

Furthermore, the voice was very familiar to Cao Xiao.

Soon, the shouting, mixed with the loud roar of helicopter rotors, approached their position.

A few minutes later, an armed helicopter landed dozens of meters away from Cao Xiao and the others.

As soon as the helicopter came to a halt, the cabin door was quickly opened, and a familiar figure jumped out, running rapidly toward Cao Xiao.

The newcomer was Xiahou Anbang.

"Brother Xiahou, why are you here?" Cao Xiao asked with some excitement.

Xiahou Anbang nodded to Cao Xiao and then looked around. Seeing Major General Jin Shangdong and a group of soldiers lying motionless on the ground, as well as the Sickly Middle-aged Man and the youth pinned down by Cao Xiao's powerful divine sense, he asked Cao Xiao anxiously, "Major Cao, what about Major General Jin and the others?"

"Don't worry, Brother Xiahou. Major General Jin was knocked unconscious by his own people; he's fine. As for him, he's also fine, though I've dissolved about seventy to eighty percent of his Yuan Energy cultivation," Cao Xiao said, pointing to the culprit, the Sickly Middle-aged Man, who was slumped on the ground.

"It's good that no one was killed," Xiahou Anbang said with relief.

Cao Xiao only wanted to teach the Sickly Middle-aged Man a lesson and never intended to take his life. Even if Xiahou Anbang hadn't appeared, he wouldn't have dealt a fatal blow. However, none of that mattered now because Cao Xiao had a stomach full of questions that needed answering.

"What exactly happened with the Supervision Department? Why was I relieved of my duties?" Cao Xiao wanted to confirm his suspicions.

"Let's find another place to talk in detail," Xiahou Anbang suggested.

"Very well," Cao Xiao agreed.

After waking the unconscious Duan Hong, Li Quanshuo, and the others, Cao Xiao took He Yueyou and left with Xiahou Anbang on the helicopter.

On the helicopter, Xiahou Anbang told Cao Xiao everything that had happened in the Supervision Department.

It turned out that after Cao Xiao had brought down Major General Shen of the Golden Army, he had stepped on the toes of certain people. These people banded together to pressure the Supervision Department, which was forced to relieve Cao Xiao of his rank as Major.

However, some were not satisfied with just removing him from his post, so they privately sent Jin Shangdong to detain Cao Xiao.

Fortunately, the Supervision Department received intelligence and came with orders from the high-level leadership to rescue Cao Xiao.

"It's a good thing you didn't harm Major General Jin; otherwise, they would never have let you off the hook," Xiahou Anbang said.

"I'm not afraid of them," Cao Xiao replied.

"You can be fearless, but have you thought about Miss He and her family?" Xiahou Anbang said softly to Cao Xiao, glancing at He Yueyou, who was sitting at the back of the helicopter cabin.

Hearing Xiahou Anbang's words, Cao Xiao fell silent for a moment.

Indeed, he, Cao Xiao, could be afraid of no one, but what about his fiancée? He couldn't push her into a fire pit as well.

Cao Xiao could rely on his own abilities to turn danger into safety every time, but what about He Yueyou and her family? They were powerless against a mighty state apparatus.

Seeing Cao Xiao lowering his head in silent thought, Xiahou Anbang continued, "Leaving the Supervision Department might not be a bad thing. It's good to stay away from power struggles and live a carefree life. I guarantee that no one will come looking for trouble with you again."

Cao Xiao nodded and said, "Actually, I've had thoughts of retiring for a while now."

"What are your plans after you retire?" Xiahou Anbang inquired.

"Me? I'm interested in mining, so I'll just do some small business related to that. Also, I plan to go back with Yueyou and get married," Cao Xiao said.

"I've heard a bit about your affairs. I'm afraid what you're doing isn't exactly a 'small' business," Xiahou Anbang said with a smile.

Cao Xiao smiled knowingly and said nothing more.

"Then I'll offer my congratulations to you and Miss He in advance," Xiahou Anbang said, extending his right hand.

The two men's strong, powerful hands gripped each other tightly.

After returning to Huanghe City, Cao Xiao immediately began planning the blueprint for his business empire.