Su Ting stretched out his broad hands and clapped them on Su Yun's shoulders.
He used considerable force, enough to make even Su Yun frown.
After all, one was at the Great Perfection Peak Emperor Realm, while the other was at the Minor Perfection Peak Emperor Realm. The gap between them was considerable.
"Out with it! You've never been one to hem and haw!"
Su Ting had also noticed something was amiss and spoke bluntly.
Su Shuang'er and the others beside them also realized that Su Yun was probably keeping a huge secret bottled up.
There was almost nothing in this world that could make him hesitate like this, except...
Su Chen, who had lived a second life!!
At that thought, Su Shuang'er and the others held their breath.
"Alas!" Under their watchful gazes, Su Yun waved a hand and spread an energy barrier, then spoke in a voice only they could hear. "Elder brother, Brother Hao, Brother Yi, Sister Shuang, our... father is not the same father!"
The moment the words left his mouth, everything around them seemed to fall deathly silent.
They knew what those words meant!
Seemingly thinking they didn't believe him, Su Yun continued, "Just before, when my Eye of Illusion Breaking evolved into the Immortal Eye of Illusion Breaking, I caught a glimpse of a young soul inside Father's body!"
"That soul was completely different from Father's current youthful appearance. Or rather, they weren't the same person at all!"
Su Shuang'er and the others were visibly shocked.
That meant someone had taken over their father's body, replacing him and becoming the new patriarch of the Su Imperial Clan!
They didn't know who that soul was, but it definitely wasn't their original father!
Perhaps that soul was itself a true immortal, which was why...
"I know!"
Suddenly, Su Ting spoke.
He looked calm, as though he had known before Su Yun said it.
Su Yun was somewhat taken aback. "You knew?"
Without his Immortal Eye of Illusion Breaking, even he probably wouldn't have been able to tell. Su Ting didn't have a third eye, so how could he have seen through it?
"I knew it back when he helped me clear the Corpse Devil Qi from my body!" Su Ting didn't beat around the bush. "Want to know why?"
Su Ting looked at Su Yun and the others staring at him and smiled. "Because when he beat me up then, his fists weren't heavy enough, and he didn't hit hard enough!"
His father had indeed loved them dearly, but he had also truly hit hard when he beat them.
To put it plainly, if it didn't hurt, they wouldn't remember the beating, and they wouldn't remember the lesson!
They were different from other people. They had to fight the Devil Race at any moment, and a single mistake or lapse of attention could get them killed by the Devil Race.
That was a miserable end indeed!
So Su Chen would rather be a little stricter with Su Ting and the others than have them die at the hands of the Devil Race because they had let their guard down without knowing better.
Once he said that, Su Yun and the others found themselves unable to argue.
Of the four of them, Su Ting had taken the most beatings and caused the most trouble, yet Su Ting was also the one who had truly managed to keep up with Su Chen and become a Great Perfection Peak Emperor Realm expert!
Su Yun's voice trembled slightly. "Then why didn't you say anything? That's our father!"
Su Ting asked in return, "Say what? Tell him, 'You're not our father, nor are you the patriarch of the Su Clan, but a cuckoo occupying a magpie's nest? Get out of our father's body'?"
Su Shuang'er and the others said nothing, but their eyes trembled slightly, showing that their hearts weren't calm either!
"Actually, you and I all know what Father's condition was!" After a few seconds of silence, Su Ting continued, "Father's lifespan should have run out and he should have passed away five hundred years ago, but for the sake of the entire Su Clan, he forced himself to hold on for five hundred years!"
"Judging by the timing, Father ultimately couldn't hold on and failed to take that step. Just then, that senior's divine soul happened to enter Father's body, and that was how he became the so-called 'patriarch' we saw who had lived a second life!"
"You've all had your suspicions. You just didn't want to believe them!"
Su Ting raised his eyes and spoke earnestly to Su Yun and the others. "Even if Father had taken that step, he would have reached the Half-Immortal realm at most. But everyone has seen the truth."
"With a turn of his hand, he wiped out millions of the Devil Race, and with a glance, he drove back this world's Heavenly Dao. The changes in us, the new ancestral land-all these things are beyond the ability of an ordinary immortal!"
Hearing this, Su Yun and the others exchanged glances.
Yes!
They should have guessed it long ago. They simply hadn't wanted to believe it in their hearts.
Or perhaps, by refusing to believe it, they could still regard this person as the patriarch of their Su Clan!
"There's one thing I need to make clear to you!"
Without giving them much time to think, Su Ting said solemnly, "You must understand that if not for that senior, I would have died from the Corpse Devil Emperor's Corpse Devil Qi. No one under heaven would have come to save me!"
"And you would likewise have died in the Realm Sea. Once the Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array broke, our Su Imperial Clan would have been the first to bear the brunt, and we would all have become departed souls!"
"He gave our entire Su Clan a second life. Even if we don't know where he came from, that is a fact!"
Su Yun's lips moved slightly, but he said nothing.
As Su Ting had said, they had anticipated that without outside help, and having lost Su Ting, their main fighting force, the Devil Race would be able to break through completely in roughly a hundred years.
In reality, the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings had broken through to Half-Immortal, throwing all their expectations into disarray.
Under normal circumstances, their entire Su Clan would have already fallen completely by now.
How could things be as they were today?
"I don't care what you do, but this matter must never reach the ears of the other clan members! Nor may you show him any disrespect!"
"No matter where this senior came from, he is now Su Chen, the Su Clan's patriarch in both name and reality. Look at it another way: a person who gives you a second life is like a parent who gave you life again. Calling him Father isn't our loss; on the contrary, it's an enormous windfall for us!"
"As for Father, his allotted fate had come to an end. If he knew how the Su Clan was now, he could rest in peace beneath the nine springs. And one day, our lifespans too will run out. When that time comes, we too will pass away and fall!"
"The cycle of reincarnation for all living beings is a path every living creature must walk!"
After a long while, Su Shuang'er was the first to speak. "Elder brother, we know what to do!"
Su Ting looked at the other three. "And you?"
"Mm!" Su Yun and the others nodded in unison.
Su Ting assumed the bearing of an elder brother. "In that case, forget everything we just said. From now on, our Su Clan will surpass everything it once was and carve out a new path to the pinnacle!"
"Go back, all of you!"
With that, Su Ting didn't look at them again and flew off toward his Tingxiao Imperial Palace.
Seeing this, Su Yun and the other three didn't linger either.
Although they had made their decision, they still needed a little time to accept it.
Meanwhile, in a small space separated from the rest of the Eternal Imperial Palace.
Su Chen was reclining leisurely on a lounge chair.
This was a small courtyard he had carved out with supreme power.
Projected before him was the very spot where Su Ting and the others had just been standing and talking.
How could Su Yun's barrier possibly block his perception?
He had even deliberately allowed Su Yun to see through to his true divine soul. Otherwise, how could Su Yun have discovered it?
At least in front of Su Ting and the others, he wanted to be frank and open, rather than wear a false mask forever!
As things stood, they seemed fairly accepting. Although they knew he wasn't the real Su Chen, they would still revere him and regard him as the Su Clan's patriarch in the future.
Su Ting, however, had surprised him somewhat.
Sure enough, there had been some discrepancies when he received the original owner's memories. If he had known, he would have used a bit more force then.
He really had beaten him too lightly!