57: Chapter 57 Development

Cut flesh!

Not only must they cut, but they must do it willingly, cutting in a way that this Golden Core cultivator cannot find the slightest fault.

The four of them have held power in a place as mixed as Tianyun Market for hundreds of years; their insight is naturally not bad.

This Su Yu is barely over a hundred years old in bone age.

For a Golden Core cultivator with a thousand-year lifespan.

One hundred years old is as young as the rising morning sun.

What does this mean?

It means that as long as Su Yu does not fall midway, he can live in this region for at least another thousand years!

One thousand years!

For Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators like them, most of whom can only live for three to four hundred years, that is a span of time that would require passing through several generations to endure.

Befriending a long-lived Golden Core cultivator who is destined to be stationed here for a long time is the only way to ensure the peace of their respective families for the next few hundred years.

Short-term concessions are not worth mentioning in the face of long-term family continuation.

Li Family head Li Chongshan took half a step forward first and bowed again.

"The cultivator's decree, we juniors will naturally obey."

"The main peak of Tianyun Market, 'Luoyun Mountain', is where the core array eye of this third-grade low-tier spirit vein is located, and the spiritual energy is the most concentrated. The Li Family is willing to vacate all the spirit fields and cave abodes within a hundred miles of Luoyun Mountain for the Su Family to settle in."

Chen Family head Chen Daoan was not to be outdone and immediately followed up.

"The Chen Family is willing to cede thirty grade-A shops on the South Street of Tianyun Market as the Su Family's foundation in the market."

The Wang Family head and the President of the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce also expressed their stances, each ceding the core mining rights and partial monopoly rights of medicinal pills within the market.

The four of them spoke one after another.

In less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, they had offered up nearly thirty percent of the core interests of Tianyun Market.

Su Yu listened quietly, his expression without a ripple.

He did not find it surprising.

This is the absolute privilege brought by high-level combat power.

You don't need to draw your sword, and you don't need to calculate.

As long as you sit in this position, the people below will naturally cut up the fattest benefits and serve them to your table.

"Troubling the four of you."

Su Yu nodded slightly, considering it an acceptance of this favor.

"The Su Family is new here and is not yet familiar with many rules. In the future, I will have to rely on you all to look after the many worldly affairs in the market."

A simple polite remark made the hearts of the four people below settle.

This meant that this Golden Core cultivator had no intention of exterminating them.

As long as they understood the rules, they would still have a meal to eat in Tianyun Market.

"We juniors will certainly do our best and will never dare to be even the slightest bit negligent!"

The four spoke in unison.

...

Three months later.

A massive caravan and spirit boats departed from Qingmu Market on the border of the Yue Kingdom, and after a long journey, finally arrived at Tianyun Market.

The Qianlong Su Family officially completed the second major migration in the family's history.

On Luoyun Mountain, the Su Family's banner fluttered high.

In the inner hall, Su Yuan and Su Yao stood before Su Yu, reporting the progress of the settlement.

"Yu'er, the clansmen have all been settled properly."

Su Yuan's face was full of joy.

Although in front of his daughter Su Yao, he still had to reluctantly maintain the airs of an "old father" on the surface.

But facing Su Yu, who had already formed a Golden Core, Su Yuan's tone and posture had long since unconsciously revealed a kind of compliance and reliance.

In the world of immortal cultivation, the capable come first.

Su Yao only took it as her father's awe for a Golden Core cultivator and did not notice anything unusual.

"The concentration of spiritual energy in this Tianyun Market is simply breathtaking. Several good seedlings in the clan have shown signs of breaking through just a few days after moving in."

Su Yuan continued to report.

Su Yao also nodded along.

She was now at the early Foundation Establishment Stage, and cultivating on this third-grade spirit vein, she also felt that she was getting twice the result with half the effort, her eyes full of admiration as she looked at Su Yu.

"Brother, thanks to you, our Su Family can have today."

Su Yu sat in the main seat, his expression calm, not blindly optimistic because of the success before him.

"Settling down is just the first step."

Su Yu's tone was calm, directly pointing out the Su Family's most fatal shortcoming at present.

"Have you noticed the spirit root aptitude of the younger generation of the Li, Chen, and Wang families?"

Su Yuan was stunned, and then his expression became serious.

Having been responsible for the handover these past few months, he had naturally investigated the background of these three families.

"I noticed."

Su Yuan sighed, "The foundation of these three families is terrifyingly deep. Among them, although there aren't many descendants with Fourth-grade or Fifth-grade Spirit Roots, they can basically produce a few in every generation."

"In contrast, besides you, Yu'er, the one with the best aptitude in our Su Family is Su Yao with a Sixth-grade Spirit Root."

This is the gap in foundation between an upstart and an immortal cultivation family.

The Su Family achieved dimensionality reduction strikes in terms of force due to Su Yu's sudden emergence.

But in terms of the breadth and quality of bloodlines, it is far from comparable to these families.

If the Qianlong Su Family wants to truly become an immortal cultivation family, quantity alone is not enough; the quality of the bloodline must be optimized.

Thus, marriage alliances became an extremely necessary means.

And when the Su Family released the news of marriage alliances.

Although the three major families knew the Su Family's plan in their hearts, they did not dare to refuse.

To curry favor with Su Yu, they would even take the initiative to send their excellent sons and daughters to the door to stabilize their relationship with the Golden Core guardian.

Of course, Su Yu handed over these specific trivial matters of marriage and resource exchange entirely to Su Yuan and Su Yao to handle.

He only needed to sit in the position of the supreme ruler and control the general direction of the family.

...

In the blink of an eye, fifty years of time passed quietly in the prosperity and bustle of Tianyun Market.

Tianyun Market, South Street.

This prosperous commercial street that originally belonged to the Chen Family is now completely hung with the Su Family's banner.

Moreover, the way the entire market operates has also undergone extremely subtle changes over these years.

In the hundred acres of spirit fields on the outskirts of Luoyun Mountain.

The chores that used to require low-level loose cultivators to spend half a day of spiritual power to complete irrigation have now become extremely easy.

By the side of the spirit fields, there are dozens of huge machines made of refined steel and wooden tenons installed.

This is a device called a "Water Dragon Machine".

With just one low-grade spirit stone as the power source for the array, this machine can evenly spray the spiritual water from underground onto ten acres of spirit fields.

The efficiency has increased by more than ten times, and the consumption of labor and magic power has been greatly saved.

In the courtyards of every household, there is even running water piping that does not require spiritual power to drive.

In the teahouses of the firms, one can even hear tunes coming from an extremely simple clockwork gramophone.

These strange objects that seem incompatible with the traditional immortal cultivation world and even carry a touch of Earth's industrial color.

All came from the hands of one person.

A mortal descendant of the Su Family, Su Mo.

Su Mo is a great-grandson of the eldest branch.

He did not test for a spirit root, and according to previous rules, he could only start from the bottom in the worldly firms.

But his brain was like a treasure trove filled with mechanical drawings; he was an extremely rare scientific genius.

During a family grand sacrifice.

The teenage Su Mo dared to show Su Yu a mechanical wooden kite he had tinkered with that could automatically pour tea.

At the time, several immortal cultivation elders were furious, scolding him for neglecting his proper work and showing off clever but useless tricks in front of the Golden Core ancestor.

But Su Yu did not get angry.

As a person who traveled from modern society, he saw the little ingenuity of this toy at a glance.

This is a true scientific genius.

In the immortal cultivation world where strength is respected, such Mortal are often treated as freaks and suffer from cold eyes.

But Su Yu recognized the hero with discerning eyes and gave him extremely high treatment and research funds.

Over the past fifty years.

Su Mo did not live up to Su Yu's expectations.

Although the gadgets he tinkered with could not be used for high-level combat, they terrifically improved the efficiency of the Su Family's resource production.

The Su Family's spirit rice production and ore mining volume doubled several times in just a few decades.

Relying on these continuous material foundations and frequent marriages with the three major families.

The Su Family firmly sat on the throne of the number one family in Tianyun Market.

And Su Yao, under Su Yu's guidance and the piling of massive resources, successfully broke through to the late Foundation Establishment Stage.

Moreover, the marriage strategy also began to bear fruitful results.

Among the new generation of the Su Family, although there are no children with Fourth-grade or Fifth-grade Spirit Roots yet, Sixth-grade and Seventh-grade Spirit Roots are no longer rare.

Everything is developing in the best direction.

But time never stops for anyone.

...

Luoyun Mountain, Ancestral Peak secret room.

The room was filled with an extremely thick smell of decoction and a decay of death that could not be covered up.

On the bed lay an old man who was extremely aged.

It was Su Yuan, who was already three hundred and twenty-three years old.

The maximum lifespan of Human Dao Foundation Establishment is three hundred years.

And as early as forty years ago, Su Yuan's lifespan had reached its end.

To keep this cheap son, Su Yu spent a great price to exchange for a "Life-Extending Fruit" from the inner treasury of the Cangxuan Sect, which forcibly dragged him to the present.

But now, the medicinal power has been completely exhausted.

Su Yu sat on the round stool beside the bed, looking at this "old father" of his, who was actually the son he had raised himself.

"I still have a Millennium Turtle Breath Vine in my hand."

Su Yu's tone was calm, just as if he were discussing an ordinary item.

"If I give it to you to take, it can at least let you hold on for another fifty years."

But Su Yuan shook his head with extreme difficulty, a look of relief pulling at the corners of his shriveled mouth.

"Father... no need."

Su Yuan's voice was extremely weak, like a flickering candle in the wind.

"A divine object like the Millennium Turtle Breath Vine... using it on a piece of withered wood like me, who is about to burn out, is a waste of heaven's gift."

"The family now has ten Foundation Establishment juniors... sooner or later there will be those Fourth-grade, Fifth-grade rising stars."

"Leave this pill for them... it can save their lives at a critical moment... and leave more foundation for the family."

Su Yu listened quietly, not speaking to interrupt, nor persuading further.

He knew in his heart that the temptation of fifty years of life extension is hard to refuse for any dying cultivator.

But Su Yuan refused.

Because Su Yuan knew that even if his withered body lasted another fifty years, it would not be of any substantial help to the family's upper limit.

Instead, it would be like a bottomless pit, sucking away the opportunities that belonged to the juniors.

Each generation has its own destiny; this old firewood of his had burned to the end and it was time to make room for new buds.

This was also the last trade-off made for the family by a former family head who had lived for three hundred and thirty years at the last moment of his life.

Su Yuan reached out with a trembling hand, looking at Su Yu's face, which still maintained the appearance of a young man due to his re-cultivation.

Although his appearance had changed, in the depths of Su Yuan's soul, this was still the father who had carried everything for him.

His consciousness had begun to blur, and his vision was gradually swallowed by darkness.

But at the last moment, in his mind, his life of three hundred and thirty years flashed by like a revolving lantern.

There was the despair of the night when Qingmu Market was destroyed.

There was the boredom of practicing the sword in a broken house in Black Wind Valley.

There was the heart-tearing pain when he was forced to establish his foundation without a pill in the secret room.

There was the pleasure of slapping Patriarch Zhao to death in the sky above Qingmu Market.

And there was that sense of extreme ecstasy and solid security when he looked at his father descending as a purple-gold rainbow outside the city-protecting array that day.

He watched with his own eyes as the family grew from exiled refugees to the number one family in Tianyun Market, step by step.

In this life, he is truly satisfied.

He used the last bit of strength in his whole body, calling out the final word with extreme satisfaction and lingering attachment.

"Father..."

The voice fell.

The hand hanging in the air fell powerlessly.

Su Yuan closed his eyes.

A look of extreme serenity, without any regrets, solidified on his face.

The second-generation head of the Qianlong Su Family, Su Yuan.

Died of old age, at the age of three hundred and thirty.

Su Yu sat by the bed, quietly looking at Su Yuan's remains.

This true pillar of the second generation of the Qianlong Su Family, and the only blood relative in the world who knew the mystery of his reincarnation, had completely ended.

He did not cry.

At his level, life and death separation is an inevitability that he had long seen through.

He just reached out and gently tidied up Su Yuan's somewhat messy white hair.

"Go, I will watch them walk the rest of the road."

...

Three days later.

The entire city of Tianyun Market was in mourning.

The scale of this funeral was extremely grand.

The heads of the three major families of Tianyun Market, as well as the leaders of dozens of small families and chambers of commerce attached to the Su Family, all wore mourning clothes and came to the foot of Luoyun Mountain to mourn.

The mourning hall was set up in the main peak hall.

Thousands of Su Family cultivators and core mortal descendants knelt densely in the square according to their seniority.

Mournful music played softly.

Su Yu wore a plain-colored robe, not using the pressure of a Golden Core cultivator to intimidate anyone.

He just stood there extremely calmly in front of Su Yuan's coffin, then personally held a handful of yellow soil and sprinkled it on the coffin.

At the very front of the crowd.

Su Yao wore black mourning clothes, leading ten Foundation Establishment Stage elders of the Su Family, and kowtowed heavily.

Among these ten Foundation Establishment elders, there were old people who had survived from the Qingmu Market period, and young geniuses who had recently been promoted due to their high-grade spirit roots.

After the funeral.

The Su Family did not experience any power transition turmoil.

Su Yao, as a late Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, continued to sit firmly in the position of family head, managing all internal and external affairs of the family.

And Su Yu remained the supreme ruler who sat on the Ancestral Peak, serving as the family's absolute foundation and deterrent.

A strong wind blew over Luoyun Mountain, rolling up paper money into the sky.

Su Yuan had left.

But the story of the Qianlong Su Family was still moving forward steadily.