The Impoverished Family

"Father... I've looked over our family's trade ledgers. The Mo Family has long wanted to swallow up our last two shops. Those shops are the Su Clan's ancestral property and our final source of income. We absolutely cannot let the Mo Family seize them!"

"A few days ago, I went to Lord Bo'er, the city lord, as an Alchemist Guild apprentice and asked him to protect the Su Clan just this once."

"We agreed on a one-year term. Within one year, I must become a ranked alchemist and then serve Bo'er's family."

"If I fail to become a formal alchemist after one year, City Lord Bo'er will no longer protect the Su Clan."

"By then, I think he'll join the Mo Family in dividing up the Su Clan's assets."

After hearing Su Heng's words, Su Yan finally understood. He shut his eyes in anguish, and the joy from moments ago vanished completely, turning into endless melancholy and grief.

"Heng'er... it's your father who is useless. Your father is the one who has harmed you..."

His own son had used what was essentially a signed contract of servitude to temporarily preserve the entire family.

No matter what, Su Yan had never wanted to pay such a price. But at this moment, he had no better choice.

Watching his "father" weep bitterly, Su Heng felt waves of pain in his heart as well.

But in this familiar yet unfamiliar world of the Dou Qi Continent, without strength to rely on, one could only pay a greater price than others in order to survive.

They say being reborn is a skill. My fate really is miserable!

Su Heng remained silent and looked up at the clear blue sky. Deep within his soul, he let out a mournful sigh.

Eleven years ago, when Su Heng was six years old, a soul from Blue Star had transmigrated here and merged with this body that should have died young.

The newly reborn "Su Heng" had taken several months to fully accept reality. He discovered that he had arrived in the Dou Qi Continent from the novel Battle Through the Heavens, a world where the strong were revered.

Transmigrating into the world of a novel should have been a good thing, but forgetting the plot of that novel was extremely bad!

For Su Heng, the greatest tragedy was that, despite being a transmigrator, he did not remember the plot of Battle Through the Heavens.

He had last read the book more than ten years ago. He had only picked it up again recently because he was following the animated adaptation. Aside from the beginning, he had long forgotten most of the later plot.

All he knew was that someone named Hun Tiandi wanted to destroy the world, and that transmigrators possessed exceptionally powerful soul strength and could become alchemists.

Being reborn was a skill, but Su Heng's skill was clearly at black iron level.

The Su Clan, where Su Heng lived, was merely a small family in Salt City of the Gama Empire. Its resources could only be described with one word: scarce!

The strongest cultivation method in the family was merely Mid-Yellow Tier, while its Dou Techniques only reached High-Yellow Tier.

Though the Su Clan had more than fifty members, they had traded in Salt City for generations. In terms of strength, they were not even comparable to some small-town mercenary groups.

He had begun Qi Refining at four and advanced to Dou Practitioner at seventeen. Although that speed seemed terrifying to others, Su Heng knew that compared to true powerhouses, his cultivation speed was no more than a crawling snail.

If he wanted to truly defy fate and change his life, becoming an alchemist was Su Heng's only path.

Alchemists held an exceptionally high status on the Dou Qi Continent. Compared to experts of the same realm, an alchemist of the corresponding grade could stand half a rank above them upon meeting.

A Third-grade Alchemist could run rampant in a place like Salt City. Even a Dou King would have to be polite to a Fourth-grade Alchemist. As for Fifth-grade and Sixth-grade Alchemists, even across the entire Dou Qi Continent, most families and factions would treat them as honored guests.

Having lived two lives, Su Heng had absolute confidence in his soul strength, but he knew nothing about his body's elemental attributes.

To become an alchemist, one's body needed fire as its primary attribute along with a trace of Wood Qi—in other words, dual fire-and-wood attributes. Only those possessing both fire and wood attributes could become alchemists.

With the Su Clan's strength, they did not even possess a Magic Measuring Stone Stele to test cultivation realms. The level of one's cultivation was judged entirely by feeling.

Therefore, the Su Clan had no way to determine their own elemental attributes. Worst of all, every member of the Su Clan cultivated the same cultivation method, and that method was earth-attributed...

Su Heng was helpless about the fact that the entire family possessed only one cultivation method, but he could only quietly accept it.

One could not choose one's birth. Su Heng could only devote everything to cultivating diligently, hoping that when he advanced to Dou Practitioner, he could go to the Alchemist Guild for testing.

Every so often, the Salt City Alchemist Guild would charge the younger generation to test their aptitude. On one hand, it generated income to support the guild; on the other, it allowed them to discover promising talent.

Over the years, Su Heng had scrimped and saved enough money. The day after advancing to Dou Practitioner, he ran off to take the alchemist qualification test.

After waiting in a long line for four hours, Su Heng finally completed the test. The final result also caused the heavy stone in his heart to fall completely away.

He possessed dual fire-and-wood attributes, and his soul strength had also reached the standard for an alchemist. Su Heng smoothly obtained apprentice certification from the Salt City Alchemist Guild.

But just as he accepted the certificate of qualification, the mentor overseeing the test poured a bucket of ice water over his head.

"Congratulations. You qualify to become an alchemist apprentice. However, I'm sorry, but our Salt City Alchemist Guild cannot provide you with learning resources."

As he handed Su Heng an antique bronze scroll certifying that he had passed, the mentor overseeing the examination looked at the young man with heartfelt regret.

"Su Heng, this is a letter of introduction from the Alchemist Guild. Take it to Black Rock City. The Alchemist Guild there is larger than ours in Salt City. Perhaps you can obtain the resources you need there."

After hesitating for a long time, Su Heng's examiner took a letter of introduction from his robes and shakily handed it to him.

The letter had clearly been prepared in advance, except that the name field had been left blank. It was obvious that no matter who passed the examination, they would not be allowed to remain in Salt City to study alchemy.

"It's the Mo Family!"

Several hundred people had come to take the examination, yet Su Heng was the only one to pass. Under such circumstances, the Salt City Alchemist Guild was actually unwilling to accept him as an apprentice?

Anyone with even a little sense could easily figure out why!

An alchemist had once emerged from the Mo Family's ancestors. It was precisely because of that ancestor's legacy that the Mo Family of Salt City existed as it did today.

And now, one member of the Mo Family was studying at the Salt City Alchemist Guild. Under the Mo Family's pressure, all the guild's resources had been poured into him.

The Mo Family would not allow the Salt City Alchemist Guild to accept any more apprentices—not even one!

Although he could not join the Salt City Alchemist Guild, possessing apprentice status was enough. Though it was only a small bargaining chip, Su Heng believed he could use it to save his family and his own future.

Using his identity as an alchemist apprentice, Su Heng secretly met with Bo'er, Salt City's city lord, and asked him to aid the Su Clan once.

Once it was done, Su Heng would become the alchemist of Bo'er and his family.

Such an exchange of benefits was not especially appealing to Bo'er, the city lord of Salt City.

However, one sentence from Su Heng moved him.

"City Lord Bo'er, you are a One-Star Dou King, while Mo Cheng is a Five-Star Dou Spirit. The Mo Family controls more than half of Salt City's resources. Once he advances to Dou King, will you still be the lord of Salt City?"

Supporting the Su Clan meant nothing to Bo'er, but he did not want the Mo Family to continue expanding. Otherwise, the day the Mo Family produced a Dou King would be the day the Boer Family perished.

The enemy of one's enemy was a friend, even if that friend was useless.

What Bo'er wanted was not the Su Clan as an ally, but an opportunity to use them to warn the Mo Family. Su Heng gave him that opportunity, and he was willing to make use of it.

At the crucial moment when the Mo Family was about to seize the Su Clan's assets, Bo'er arrived. He had paid almost no price, yet secured a deal with guaranteed profit and no loss.

Several days after Mo Lin left, an old carriage stopped outside the Su Clan estate. They had come to pick him up.

"Heng'er, you must be careful on this journey to Black Rock City to study. Do not act rashly when trouble arises. Naturally, it would be best if you succeed in your studies, but if you cannot, do not force yourself. You must return safely."

His mother, Xue Yu, looked at her son who was about to travel far away, tears filling her eyes and reluctance written all over her face. Again and again, she checked Su Heng's luggage, afraid that she might have forgotten something.

"Mother, don't worry. Not only will your son become an alchemist, I'll become a Second-grade Alchemist, maybe even a Third-grade Alchemist!"

Su Heng comforted his mother as best he could. Though she had been the mother of the "Su Heng" from this world, after ten years of raising him, the current Su Heng had already come to regard her as his own mother.

His father, Su Yan, was also reluctant to part with him, but his expression was clearly much brighter. His face was full of relief as he gently patted his son's shoulder, then took a crimson scroll from his Storage Ring and handed it to Su Heng.

"This is a Low-Yellow Tier fire-attributed cultivation method. It suits you perfectly. Don't cultivate our family's inherited one anymore."

A Low-Yellow Tier cultivation method was considered nothing more than a paving brick at the bottom of the gutter throughout the Dou Qi Continent. Yet for the Su Clan of Salt City, which was nearing its end, merely buying such a cultivation method at an auction would cost more than thirty percent of the family's entire savings.

Hiring a mercenary group to escort Su Heng to Black Rock City had directly emptied the Su Clan's reserves. It could be said that the entire clan was now pooling its strength to support Su Heng's study of alchemy.

After settling his son and the two Su Clan guards, Su Yan turned his gaze toward the young man standing beside the carriage. He was tall and powerfully built. Though he wore a broad smile, there was a trace of the ruthless ferocity of a battle-hardened man hidden beneath it.

"Captain Xiao Li, I'll have to trouble you with escorting my son."

Evil Wolf Xiao Li, the second captain of the Desert Iron Mercenary Group from Stone Desert City, was only in his twenties and already a Four-Star Dou Master. Whenever Su Yan looked into his eyes, he could not help but feel a sense of fear.

And it was precisely that sense of fear that made Su Yan decide to entrust his son's protection to him.

Nearly all the mercenary groups in Salt City were controlled by the Mo Family. The Su Clan could not possibly hire a Salt City mercenary group as guards, so Su Yan had no choice but to seek help farther away and hire escorts from Stone Desert City.

"Clan Head Su, rest assured. Our Desert Iron Mercenary Group will definitely escort Brother Su safely to Black Rock City."

Xiao Li smiled and nodded at Su Heng. For the long stretch of time ahead, they would all be living together.

Traveling from Salt City to Black Rock City required crossing more than half of the Tagor Desert. This truly would not be an easy journey.