596: Chapter 596 Longevity Elixir

An hour later, Su Family Village.

The sun had already tilted westward, and the orange afterglow enveloped the entire village in a layer of warm halo.

Su Ming stopped under an old locust tree that was thick enough for three people to embrace.

He activated the Breath Concealment Art, and his whole being seemed to merge with the old locust tree; even if a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator stood before him, they would absolutely be unable to detect his presence.

Ying poked its little head out from his embrace, its golden pupils reflecting this small village filled with the atmosphere of Mortal life.

It was not as mischievous as usual, but instead curled up unusually quietly, like a lifeless black stone.

Su Ming's gaze crossed the low earthen wall and landed on the residence that was twice as large as in his memory.

That was the Su Family's old residence.

Back then, he had used a new papermaking method to earn the village its first pot of gold, changing the fate of the Su Family.

Now it seemed that this industry had been completely stabilized.

The courtyard wall had been renovated, built with neat blue bricks, and covered with withered loofah vines on top.

The main gate was wide open.

On the threshold sat an old man whose back was severely hunched.

That was Su Ming's father, Su Shan.

Su Shan was wearing a brand-new silk padded jacket, looking like he was living a very prosperous life.

But he had grown old.

That face, which was once troubled but still sturdy, was now covered in deep wrinkles like gullies.

He held a dry tobacco pipe in his hand, trembling as he pinched a pinch of tobacco from a tobacco pouch and pressed it into the pipe bowl.

When lighting it, his hands shook severely, and it took him three tries with the fire starter to light the tobacco.

"Puff, puff."

Su Shan took two puffs, then gently tapped the pipe bowl three times on the sole of his shoe.

That movement was much slower than in Su Ming's memory, revealing a sluggishness of someone nearing the end of their life.

"Old man, stop smoking, come in and eat!"

An aged but still resonant female voice came from the courtyard.

Su Ming's mother was holding a winnowing basket, sitting on a low stool in the courtyard picking vegetables.

Her hair was also mixed with a few strands of silver, and her eyesight seemed poor; she brought the vegetable leaves close to her eyes to look at them carefully, her movements slow.

"Got it!" Su Shan replied, supporting himself on the door frame with both hands, trembling as he stood up.

He hunched his back, as if carrying an invisible mountain, and moved step by step into the courtyard.

Just then, a commotion came from the entrance of the village.

A carriage fully loaded with goods stopped outside the Su Family's main gate.

A stout middle-aged man wearing a silk robe jumped off the carriage, loudly directing the Waiters to unload the goods.

"Be careful! This is the top-grade Cloud Pattern Paper to be sent to the capital!"

That was Su Ming's second brother, Su Yang.

The honest man who used to always save the good food for his younger brother and fight with others at the village entrance had now become a shrewd, capable, and pot-bellied merchant.

There were fine lines at the corners of his eyes, and a few strands of white hair had crept onto his temples, but his brows revealed an undisguisable sense of self-satisfaction.

"Dad, Mom! I'm back!" Su Yang walked into the courtyard with big strides, carrying two boxes of exquisite pastries in his hands.

Laughter and joy from the family came from the courtyard, mixed with the crisp playful sounds of children.

Su Ming stood in the shadow of the old locust tree, quietly watching all this.

The autumn wind blew past, rustling his gray long robe.

His hands were tucked into his sleeves, his fingertips digging tightly into his palms, trembling slightly.

He did not use his Divine Sense to probe, but only used his naked eyes, in the manner of a Mortal, greedily engraving these scenes into his mind.

Immortality is the ultimate pursuit of everyone in the Cultivation World.

But only when standing here, watching his former loved ones grow old day by day and head toward death, while he himself remained unchanged, did Su Ming truly realize what a vicious punishment this immortality was.

He only needed to walk out, take out a few low-grade life-prolonging Medicinal Pills, and he could let his parents live for another few decades.

He only needed one word, and he could let the Su Family be untouchable in the Daxing Kingdom.

But he could not.

The paths of Immortals and Mortals are different, and the Karma is entangled.

If he appeared, what he would bring to the Su Family would no longer be wealth, but the catastrophic disaster brought by those Cultivators who coveted the secrets on him.

His world was full of schemes, slaughter, and precariousness.

He could not bring these back to this peaceful little village.

In the Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yu felt Su Ming's violently fluctuating emotions and sighed extremely, extremely lightly.

The setting sun finally sank completely below the horizon, and the sky darkened.

The pair of red couplets pasted on the Su Family's main gate faded slightly in the wind, with the words "Peace is a blessing, family harmony leads to prosperity in all undertakings" written on them.

Su Ming stood for a full two hours, until the lights in the Su Family courtyard went out one by one.

"Let's go." Su Ming said to himself in his heart.

He turned around, did not look back again, stepped on the muddy path he had come on, and disappeared into the vast night.

Returning to the small town, Luo Feng had already opened a room in the inn and was boredly fiddling with the Formation Plate in his hand.

Seeing Su Ming push the door and enter, he immediately stood up.

"Finished looking?" Luo Feng carefully observed Su Ming's expression.

Su Ming's expression was calm without a ripple, as if nothing had happened just now.

He walked to the table, poured himself a cup of cold water, and drank it in one gulp.

"Senior Brother." Su Ming put down the teacup, turned to look at Luo Feng, "Rest here tonight. I still have things to do."

Luo Feng was stunned for a moment, opened his mouth as if to ask something, but finally nodded: "Okay. If there is trouble, remember to send a communication talisman."

Su Ming did not explain, turned around, and walked out of the inn again.

The night was as deep as thick ink.

Su Ming's figure was like a wisp of dim blue smoke, avoiding the native dogs that occasionally barked wildly in the village, and silently vaulted over the high courtyard wall of the Su Family's old residence.

He did not disturb anyone and went directly to the window outside his parents' bedroom.

Inside the room, the long and heavy breathing of the two old people could be heard, occasionally mixed with a few suppressed coughs.

Su Ming stood outside the window and listened quietly for a while.

He took out three pieces of warm-colored mutton-fat jade pendants from his Storage Pouch.

These were Magical Artifacts he had specially carved from low-grade spirit jade while at the Cloud Hidden Sect, and into which he had carefully infused a trace amount of "life-prolonging spiritual liquid".

These jade pendants had no defensive or offensive functions; their only purpose was to subtly nourish a Mortal's Physical Body, ensuring the wearer would be free of illness and pain, and extending their life by another twenty years.

This was already the limit of what he could do.

Any stronger medicinal power, and a Mortal's Meridians would simply be unable to withstand it, and instead, they would explode and die.

Su Ming flicked his fingers lightly, and the three jade pendants turned into three streams of light, silently passing through the gaps in the window.

With three extremely light "click" sounds, the jade pendants precisely sank into the gaps of the blue bricks under his parents' bed, and were then covered by a layer of faint concealment Array Patterns; unless a Cultivator above the Foundation Establishment Stage intentionally probed, they would absolutely not be discovered.

After finishing all this, Su Ming turned around and walked toward the main hall of the Su Family.