Chen Family

The Lin Family's destruction might have been summed up in a single simple sentence, but this was the truest face of the cultivation world.

Cultivators fell every day, and cultivation families declined or perished every day.

A great many of those cases stemmed from old family feuds.

From the moment the Lin Family and the Su Family, two small cultivation families, discovered the first-grade Spirit Vein in Azure Mountain, it was destined that only one of them could remain in Jiang City and become its master.

If the Lin Family had been able to crush the Su Family before, or even drive them back and seize the Spirit Vein, then the Lin Family would have held the initiative.

As long as they digested the blessings brought by the Spirit Vein and produced a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, the Su Family would have been the one facing utter annihilation.

However.

It was the Su Family that had held the Spirit Vein. By a twist of fate, they had also paid an astronomical price to auction off a Foundation Establishment Pill.

This allowed Fifth Elder Su Bin to successfully break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

That single Foundation Establishment stage cultivator completely shattered the balance of power between the Su Family and the Lin Family.

The Su Family had risen to an entirely new tier.

When they turned back to deal with the Lin Family, it truly was no different from casually crushing an ant.

"From now on, the Su Family can be called the Jiang City Su Family. With the Lin Family gone, we hold a first-grade Spirit Vein blessed land, a Medicine Garden, a Spirit Moon Lake, and the Alchemy Pavilion—four major assets in all."

Su Yu counted up the family's current foundations. It was a fairly substantial inheritance.

It was enough to support the Su Family's influence and strength as they climbed another step.

As long as they remained steady and kept their heads down, the Su Family would not need to worry about resources for the next twenty or thirty years. They only needed to focus on developing peacefully.

The first-grade Spirit Vein produced more than a thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones each year.

The Medicine Garden had an annual output worth around a thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.

The Alchemy Pavilion did even better, currently bringing in roughly two or three thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.

If the Moonlight Fish at Spirit Moon Lake multiplied well, it could generate two thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones a year.

Altogether, that came to a full six or seven thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones annually.

After deducting the family's upkeep costs, they should be able to save one or two thousand Spirit Stones every year, no matter what.

At the Alchemy Pavilion, I can also use Premium Pills to increase its sales. The family should be able to earn a few hundred more Spirit Stones each year. Su Yu calculated inwardly.

Thinking of all those Spirit Stones made Su Yu's eyes shine even brighter.

He hoped that, in the time ahead, the family could produce one or two more Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

That way, the Su Family would count as a powerful cultivation family within the Cloud Sword Sect's sphere of influence, and he himself would receive greater security.

News of the Lin Family's destruction prompted Su Yun to hold feasts at the Alchemy Pavilion for three days in a row. He even got drunk once. After getting drunk, he grabbed his disciple Su Yu, laughing and crying as he spoke of the past.

Within the family, Su Yun was of Su Yu's grandfather's generation.

When Su Yun had been young, his father and many of his elders had either died at the Lin Family's hands, suffered grave injuries, or been left crippled.

Those debts of blood had forged the deep-seated feud between the Su Family elders and the Lin Family. It could also be called a feud unto death.

"More than twenty years ago, our Su Family suffered a calamity. We nearly got wiped out by the Lin Family that time. Fortunately, the old Family Head fought to the death and killed that old bastard from the Lin Family, while seriously wounding another Qi Refining Stage Nine cultivator."

"Times and fate, times and fate! Hahaha! Who would have thought that the Lin Family would now be destroyed by our Su Family?"

Su Yun was thoroughly drunk, his tongue curling as his words came out unclearly.

Yet Su Yu could tell that his master was happy—happier than he had ever been.

Seeing Su Yun happy made Su Yu happy as well.

The aftereffects of spirit wine were incredibly strong. When Su Yun sobered up the next day, his head ached and his eyes felt swollen. He quietly sought out Su Yu and asked in a low voice, "I didn't make a fool of myself yesterday, did I?"

Su Yu shook his head. "No."

But the Earth Fire Ape, only half a foot tall and covered in jujube-red fur, kept nodding as it looked at Su Yun. Its hands waved about, its mouth chattered nonstop, and its expression shifted between laughter and tears.

It reenacted Su Yun's performance from the day before.

It seemed to be saying that he had made an utter fool of himself.

Su Yun's face darkened. Gritting his teeth, he asked Su Yu, "Its intelligence isn't actually that high, right? So it doesn't know anything, right?"

The Earth Fire Ape immediately grew dissatisfied. With a flash, it climbed onto Su Yu's shoulder, planted its hands on its hips, and glared at Su Yun with its fiery red little eyes as it muttered a few words at him.

Of course, Su Yun could not understand what it was saying.

Only after Su Yu gave it a bottle of Hundred Beasts Pills did it finally allow itself to be coaxed into calming down.

After sobering up, Su Yun returned to his usual self, though he was no longer as cold and distant as before. He handed most of the Alchemy Pavilion's affairs over to Su Yu.

Usually, he only refined high-grade Rank 1 pills, leaving all other pills and matters for Su Yu to handle.

That was because the mid-grade and low-grade Rank 1 pills Su Yu refined were now of better quality than his own.

The increasingly superior quality of the Su Family Alchemy Pavilion's pills also drew more customers to the pavilion.

West Water Chen Family.

Above a waterway, Su Qingyi roared as he controlled the Golden Seal, which had transformed into a small mountain, and smashed it down. He blasted the powerful Qi Refining Stage Seven enemy, whose consciousness had already become muddled, from the air and slammed him into the ground on the opposite bank.

By the time Su Qingyi raised the Golden Seal, that man's body had already been flattened into a meat patty.

Only upon seeing this did Su Qingyi's tightly strung nerves finally relax.

Pfft.

Su Qingyi spat out a mouthful of blood. His body swayed on the verge of collapse, and he hurriedly landed carefully on the ground. He pulled out a mid-grade Rank 1 Premium healing pill gifted by Su Yu from his Cosmos Bag and swallowed it.

Without bothering to treat his injuries, he went to the opposite bank and skillfully looted the corpse, taking the man's Cosmos Bag and a defensive magical artifact from his body.

Then he hurriedly found Chen Sisi, who had fainted on the ground, picked her up, and raced back toward the Chen Family.

They had encountered people from the Maple City Bai Family.

If not for the few trump cards he had on hand, Chen Sisi's considerable strength, and something as valuable as Spirit Bewildering Liquid, the two of them might have fallen this time.

Half an hour later.

A group of people found the place. Seeing the three dead men, they were enraged beyond measure.

"It would have been one thing if they failed to kill Chen Sisi, but they got counter-killed instead? Utter trash!"

"Chen Sisi wasn't alone. There seemed to be an outsider, a male cultivator, with her!"

"Judging by these traces, he was likely the reason!"

"They dared to kill members of my Bai Family? They truly seek death! Find out who he is!"

The group glared hatefully in the direction of the Chen Family before carrying away the corpses and remains of their three clansmen.

Meanwhile, the Maple City Bai Family received several guests.

In order to deal with the Chen Family and seize the Purple Gold Sand Vein, the Bai Family had already paid no small price.

Su Qingyi remained at the Chen Family for more than a month, caring for the severely injured Chen Sisi. Not long after, Su Qingyi received some news and was immediately overjoyed.

He looked at Chen Sisi beside him, pondered for a moment, then gritted his teeth and went to seek out the Chen Family Head.

Cloud Mountain Market.

Cloud Mountain Market had been anything but peaceful lately. Bandit Cultivators appeared from time to time, ambushing and killing cultivators or merchants traveling to and from the market. Although the Cloud Sword Sect had dispatched additional sect disciples and powerful cultivators to hunt them down, it treated the symptoms but not the root cause. Several merchants had their goods stolen, and more than a dozen cultivators traveling to and from the market had been killed, leaving everyone in the market anxious and unsettled.

A year had passed since the last auction, yet the number of Bandit Cultivators outside seemed to have increased rather than decreased.

The people in the market could all sense that something was amiss. The atmosphere had grown more tense.

Heavenly Script Pavilion.

When the old man behind the counter saw Su Yu arrive, his eyes lit up. He hurriedly greeted him, "Little Friend Su, you're here? What are you looking for this time? I've received a batch of Premium Ancient Jade Boxes. They definitely came from a good place. A Great Opportunity might be hidden inside—would you like to open a few?"