16: Chapter 16 Successfully Establishing the Foundation, Su Hao's Choice

"Hao'er! Quickly... quickly kill these thieves! Avenge your dead uncles!"

Patriarch Su Changhe struggled to crawl forward a few steps, crying out shrilly toward his son in mid-air.

In mid-air, Su Hao's gaze swept coldly across the scene.

He saw the corpses of his clansmen littering the ground, saw his father lying wounded and dying, and more clearly, he saw the two Half-step Foundation Establishment cultivators and dozens of late-stage Qi Refining Stage cultivators waiting in battle formation opposite him.

To outsiders, he possessed immense pressure, like a god.

But only Su Hao knew in his heart just how terrible his internal condition was.

The foundation establishment pill that the family had spent a fortune to auction from the black market was highly toxic, with impure medicinal properties.

Although he had forcibly used it to break through the natural barrier, the Dao foundation he condensed could not even be considered the lowest grade.

At this moment, the true essence in his dantian was unstable, and his forcibly widened meridians were covered in fine cracks, throbbing with pain.

In this state of damaged foundation, even flying with a sword required extreme caution.

If the opponents were just a few ordinary Qi Refining Stage cultivators, he could have crushed them with the pressure of his cultivation realm.

But facing two Half-step Foundation Establishment cultivators and dozens of desperate outlaws.

Once he engaged in a forced magical battle, his fragile Dao foundation would likely shatter on the spot; not only would his cultivation plummet, but there was even the danger of falling here.

Sacrifice the longevity path he had just fought for, for this group of old, weak, sick, and disabled people whose potential was exhausted and from whom no value could be squeezed?

A trace of extreme rationality and ruthlessness flashed in Su Hao's eyes.

The family existed to provide for him, this genius.

Now that the family's nourishment had been sucked dry by him, this empty shell could be discarded.

His figure flashed, and like a teleportation, he landed beside Patriarch Su Changhe.

"Hao'er..."

Patriarch Su Changhe's eyes were filled with wild joy and relief, and he was about to reach out and grab his son's hem.

Just at this moment, Patriarch Zhao's probing black banner magical artifact in the sky descended with earth-shattering power.

Su Hao's expression remained unchanged. Instead of casting a magical artifact to meet the enemy, in the shocked gaze of everyone,

He grabbed his father's shoulder and violently threw him upward, directly into the path of that overwhelming black evil energy!

"Squish!"

Patriarch Su Changhe, who was already heavily wounded and completely caught off guard, was instantly mangled into bloody pulp by the black banner.

And using the opportunity of his father's body blocking the blow, Su Hao skillfully snatched Patriarch Su Changhe's storage bag.

"No—!"

Several elders who hadn't died yet saw this scene, their eyes splitting with rage, and even their voices turned shrill and distorted.

"I have already achieved Foundation Establishment. As long as I do not die, the Qingmu Su Clan will exist."

Su Hao didn't even glance at his father's falling corpse. Enduring the hidden pain of his tearing meridians, his tone was as cold as eternal ice.

"Taking you burdens with me, I won't be able to escape."

Before the words faded, he unhesitatingly drove the true essence he had just condensed, pushing his sword-flying speed to the limit.

Su Hao transformed into a cyan rainbow, tearing through the rain curtain, and fled toward the distant horizon without a hint of attachment, disappearing without a trace in a few flashes.

The entire scene was dead silent.

Whether it was the surviving clansmen of the Su Family or the killers from the Zhao and Lin clans, all stood frozen in place, their minds blank.

That genius, for whom the entire clan had exhausted its foundation to support, had actually used his own father as a meat shield, looted the final central inheritance, and fled alone?!

"Hahahaha... Retribution! This is all retribution!"

A Su Family elder spat out a mouthful of blood toward the sky. The complete collapse of the family's belief caused him to succumb to qi deviation and die on the spot.

"We can't catch him! If a damaged Foundation Establishment cultivator is determined to escape, we can't hold him."

Patriarch Zhao was the first to recover. He saw through the instability of Su Hao's aura just now, a flash of wariness appearing in his eyes, and then he gave a ruthless order.

"Kill this group of remnants first, then go seize the warehouse in the market!"

The massacre escalated again.

Having lost their last pillar of spiritual support, the Su Family members no longer had the will to resist.

Meanwhile, in the South Street of the market, deep in the manager's residence's secret room.

Su Yu stood quietly in front of the formation's light screen, feeling that aura disappearing in the distant sky, and the subsequent total collapse of the market.

Regarding Su Hao's escape, there was no surprise in his eyes.

In his previous life as the Prince of Zhennan, he had seen enough of imperial power struggles and the treachery of the human heart.

What kind of person Su Hao was, he had seen clearly years ago when the other party openly robbed collateral branch spirit stones at the Internal Affairs Hall.

A pseudo-genius who had been accustomed to knocking the bones and sucking the marrow of his own clansmen since childhood, and who comfortably turned the flesh and blood of others into his own resources for longevity, was selfish to the core.

In Su Hao's eyes, the so-called family was never a foundation that needed to be protected with one's life, but merely a blood bag used to nourish him, this great tree.

Now that the blood bag had been sucked dry, it had even become a burden hindering his escape.

Facing a life-and-death crisis, expecting such a person to risk his life for a group of worthless old, weak, sick, and disabled people was simply wishful thinking on the part of the main branch elders.

It was precisely because he had seen through this underlying logic early on that Su Yu dared to unscrupulously attach himself to them, while secretly stealing the family's resources.

Because he knew that as long as he, this vicious dog, could still bite for his master and gather wealth for his master, Su Hao would never investigate his little private actions.

Everyone was just taking what they needed.

"This play is finally over."

Su Yu withdrew his thoughts and turned to look at the luggage that had been packed long ago behind him.

His wife Song Qingwan and several concubines, although pale from hearing the screams outside, had been trained by Su Yu to be extremely disciplined.

At this moment, they all clutched their bundles tightly without saying a word, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Behind Song Qingwan and the other wives and concubines, seventeen-year-old Su Cheng stood quietly.

Although he had no Spirit Root, in these ten years, under Su Yu's unsparing medicinal baths and training from his peak martial arts experience in his previous life.

His blood energy was so vigorous that he was like a dormant fierce beast.

And beside Su Cheng, fifteen-year-old second son Su Yuan was pale, his lips trembling uncontrollably.

Previously, his father had used an unquestionable, tough attitude to forcibly confine him in the secret room of the residence for several months.

At that time, Su Yuan had quite a few complaints in his heart.

But just now, listening to the earth-shattering desperate screams outside, and the Foundation Establishment Stage pressure that had fled without hesitation in the sky.

Su Yuan's heart of cultivation, which had been brainwashed by the main branch for ten years, was completely shattered at this moment!

The high-level members of the main branch were all dead!

That Young Clan Leader, who was regarded as the hope of the whole clan and stood high above, not only used his own father as a shield but also took everything and threw the whole family to the pack of wolves as abandoned pawns!

If he hadn't listened to his father at that time and insisted on going to the school...

At this moment, he would definitely have become a cold corpse in the clan school, trampled by others!

"Father..."

Su Yuan suddenly raised his head and looked at the back standing with hands behind his back, whose expression was still chillingly calm. His voice carried deep lingering fear and trembling.

"Are the Clan Leader and the others... really all abandoned pawns?"

"Is it surprising?"

Su Yu turned around, looking deeply at this second son who possessed a Seventh-grade Spirit Root and had once been complacent.

"I taught you ten years ago that in this world of cultivation, those without talent are just consumable materials."

"And those like you, who have some talent but attach themselves to others, are pawns that can be sacrificed at any time."

"The main branch used the lives of the whole clan to fill that foundation establishment pill; Su Hao used the lives of the whole clan to buy time for his escape."

"This is the truest reality of the law of the jungle in the cultivation world!"

Su Yu's voice was not loud, but every word was like a knife, ruthlessly scraping away the dreamy and noble filter that his children had for the cultivation world.

"Don't think you can be lucky in this kind of struggle. Yuan'er, Cheng'er, you must remember this bloody lesson tonight!"

Su Yu's gaze swept over his two grown sons, his tone filled with suffocating majesty.

"So-called loyalty exists because the stakes for betrayal are not high enough! A so-called family, without absolute strength to protect it, is nothing but a sandcastle that can collapse at any moment!"

"You remember, from now on, no matter where you go, your own life must always be held in your own hands!"

Su Yuan and Su Cheng looked at each other, both trembling, and nodded heavily.

"We will keep Father's teachings in mind and never forget them until death!"

Su Yu withdrew his gaze and looked at the three daughters and two young sons huddled in the corner.

The eldest daughter was only eleven this year, and the youngest son had just turned three.

At this moment, the earth-shattering battle sounds outside frightened the children into tears, but because their mothers were covering their mouths tightly, they didn't dare to cry out.

"Boom!"

Just at this moment, a deafening roar of magic came from above the residence, and the formation light screen hiding the underground secret room began to flicker violently, dropping dusty debris.

Apparently, after the Zhao and Lin clans slaughtered the main branch in the back mountain.

That group of red-eyed cultivators had begun to split their forces to loot the wealthiest Spirit Herb Pavilion in the market.

"Husband..."

Song Qingwan subconsciously hugged her young youngest son tightly, her eyes full of fear.

"Do not panic."

Su Yu's tone was steady, like a needle in the sea, instantly calming the panic in the secret room.

He looked through the stone wall toward the top.

The building had already collapsed, and the secret passage had long been dug.

But before diving into the secret passage and flying far away, he still needed to clear out the trouble overhead that might discover the entrance to the tunnel at any time.

"Cheng'er, Yuan'er, guard your mother and watch this door."

Su Yu straightened his manager's brocade robe, left a calm instruction, and turned to walk up the stone stairs of the secret room.