The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 297: Life 76, Age 16, Martial Disciple 2
All of TaiZong’s closest supporters had already been subdued, so when TaiZu suggested that he step down as Patriarch, not one person protested. YuanFei, YuanFeng, and a couple of the Grandmasters who supported them had not yet been made to swear Oaths, but since they had ambitions of their own, they were more than happy to see the TaiZong lose his position. This being the case, Su TaiZong, Patriarch of the Su Clan, had no choice but to surrender. However, that didn’t mean he was happy about it.
TaiZong glared at TaiZu. “You want to throw me away to try and appease the Pavilion? Fine. But who is going to replace me? You? You are the reason we’re even in this mess. If you hadn’t forced the brat to swear that damned Oath, he wouldn’t have died!”
TaiZu shook his head. “If he had been thinking of the clan instead of only worrying about himself, this would never have happened. The younger generation has become far too reckless. But no, I will not be taking over as Patriarch. I am not suited for such a position.”
Off to the side, YuanFei stepped forward. “As father’s eldest son, if he abdicates, then the position of Patriarch falls to me. Do not worry. Once this mess with the Blue Wind Pavilion is all sorted out, I will lead the Su Clan to a prosperous future.”
On the other side of the room, YuanFeng cleared his throat. “Do not be so hasty, brother. We must consider things carefully. As father’s most powerful son, I believe that I am the more suitable choice.”
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YuanFei snorted. “It was your grandson that got us into this mess. Did you use him to frame father just so that you could usurp the position of Patriarch? I will not allow that to happen.”
YuanFeng ground his teeth together. “ShouDu was a… disappointment, but even in his folly, he is far better than any of the spawn that you have produced.”
YuanFei’s face heated up. “How dare—”
“Enough!” From his broken throne, TaiZong stared down at his two bickering children. “Are you that eager to snatch away what is mine? Be silent!”
Once the room quieted down, TaiZu released a suppressive wave of qi and took control of the conversation. “We must approach this situation with the requisite level of caution. While we do not wish to be beholden to the Pavilion, as a Sovereign-level force, they can crush us to dust with only a thought.”
While no one was happy about this, no one spoke up to directly contradict the Grand Elder, so he continued. “We must consult the ancestor. He established our relationship with the Pavilion. He will know best how we should move forward.”
TaiZong closed his eyes and nodded. “Very well, I will go and meet with father. I will let you know what he says.”
At that moment, a formation activated, and two words boomed out loud enough to cause the entire palace to vibrate. “Everyone. Now.”
Shocked, TaiZong bowed to the air and led the assembled Grandmasters to HongYi’s residence. Still hidden by the effects of a Shadowed Soul Pill, I followed them.
When the group arrived at the Hall of Ancestral Worship, HongYi was already standing in the middle of the courtyard, waiting for us. Before anyone could even greet him, he waved toward the southern exit of the compound and began marching in that direction.
Silently, the group followed after him.
While HongYi’s level of cultivation wasn’t much higher than anyone else present, his position in the hearts and minds of the Su Clan’s elders was absolute. No one was willing to challenge his authority.
Led by HongYi, the group entered the long, rectangular courtyard that lay to the south. After circling around the three-story building that served as the clan’s library and primary technique hall, we made our way to a wide, pentagonal marble platform. At each corner of this pentagon, there were buildings where the Grandmasters could enter secluded cultivation. The center, however, was empty. It held nothing but a large open square that had been paved with marble bricks.
HongYi led everyone to the center of this square and then turned to glare at them.
“I have done my best to guide this clan forward, but it is clear that I have failed. Therefore, we must seek guidance from the true leaders of our clan.” Murmuring began at these words, but HongYi released a wave of qi to silence them. “Release your grip on your qi. Calm your minds. Relax your muscles.”
Hidden from view, I waded through the crowd and examined everyone as I passed. Then, walked up to HongYi and whispered in his ear. “TaiZong, YuanKong, two Grandmasters on the left that I don’t know.”
HongYi focused his qi and blasted it toward his targets. “I said release your qi!”
With a strand of soul power spread out among the group, everyone in the square was within the bounds of my intent. When HongYi first released this blast, everyone instinctively pulled on their qi to defend themselves, but the moment they understood the reason for this attack, they did their best to release their grips and calm their thoughts.
The instant I felt everyone relax, I focused my mind, ripped them away from this place, and shoved them into my inner world.
HongYi, TaiZu, TaiZong, and all the others appeared in a stone square that was surrounded by gently rolling hills covered in shoots of young herbs. Some people stared at the herbs, some stared at the enormous stone wall that encircled them, and some stared at the sky where a halo of light circled high overhead.
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HongYi, however, took a deep breath. “The qi here is so… dense. It’s like the entire place is held within a high-level Qi Gathering Formation.”
TaiZong looked around warily. “Where… are we?”
At this, a young man who looked no older than 20 approached the group with his face fixed in a firm expression. He was wearing white, formation-enhanced robes cut in a martial style, with the sleeves and legs fastened to his wrists and ankles with leather straps. When he reached the group, he did not salute or bow. He merely stood straight with his arms clasped behind his back.
“Welcome to Chang’an, the Ancestral Home of the Su Clan. Follow me.”
As the man turned to leave, mutters of discontent began to emerge from the group of old Grandmasters. “Who does he think he is? How dare a child speak to us in that manner?”
Unfortunately for them, the man who had come to meet them was one of NiangBa’s lieutenants, a true Martial King. When he heard these murmurs of discontent, he glanced back and froze the entire group of Grandmasters in place with his will-lock. No matter how hard they tried, no one could do so much as take a breath or blink their eyes.
While some property of my inner world had made it extremely difficult for anyone but an earth cultivator to control qi, the will-locks of Rulers had become substantially more powerful. In the outside world, locking down dozens of Grandmasters so thoroughly would have been a struggle, even for a Peak King, but here, NiangBa’s lieutenant was able to do it without issue.
“Follow. If you do not, that is your choice, and you will bear the consequences, not me.”
Then, he snorted, released his will-lock, and continued on his way.
The Grandmasters, scared out of their wits, hurried after him.
Over the past week, GuiMing and his team had constructed a small pavilion both to host this group of Grandmasters and to serve as a temporary meeting place for the leadership council. It had been built out of the waste materials produced from excavating the outer wall and was little more than a solid stone slab held up by a dozen pillars. However, because of the skills the GuiMing’s group had developed over the years, no one would know that by looking at it.
The floor was a simple three-meter-thick foundation gleaming white quartzite.
The canopy appeared to be a traditional wood-framed gabled roof that had been covered in yellow tiles. However, in reality, it was a solid block of carefully shaped quartzite that had been colored in shades of red, yellow, and brown.
The stone pillars that held up this roof were carved with scenes from the clan’s short history. One showed a pristine and untouched Mount Jiang, one showed the attack on Mount Jiang, and another depicted our relocation to TongBei.
All of these scenes were colored in stunning detail, but like the floor and roof, no paints or pigments had been used. One of GuiMing’s earth cultivators had been experimenting with shaping rocks to produce specific colors, and she was getting rather good at it.
When the Grandmasters arrived at this pavilion, they looked around in stunned silence. They were all earth cultivators, so while they might not have known the details, they could sense a bit of what constructing this place entailed.
Because of this, when they were brought in front of a group of three tables where nine youths who looked no older than 20 were waiting for them, they didn’t immediately lash out.
ShouLi, whose appearance was that of a 17- or 18-year-old girl, glared at them.
“Su HongYi, ancestor of the Su Clan. Su TaiZong, Patriarch of the Su Clan. Elders. Grandmasters. You have failed.” She clasped her hands on the table in front of her. “Your actions have brought ruin to your branch of the Su Clan. As such, we are taking control. The Su Clan of the Western Wastes is no more. It shall be subsumed into the Su Clan of Chang’an. Any roles or positions of leadership that you once possessed are no more.”
ShouLi gestured to the eight others around her. “We, the leadership council, are now in charge. We will appoint new elders to manage things in the Wastes. If you wish to one day reclaim your positions of importance, then you must earn them. Is that understood?”
While the setting had done a lot to overawe the Su Clan’s Grandmasters, they were, after all, old men whose minds had long since fallen to cultivation madness. Even after everything they had seen, there was inevitably someone who chose to fight back.
“How dare you, child! I will not be dictated to in such a way. I am—”
ShouLi waved a hand, locking him in place. “I do not care who you are. I am Su ShouLi. You will refer to me as Elder ShouLi. If you are too blind to recognize the power of the people before you, then your continued existence will do nothing but harm my Su Clan.”
ShouLi, a water cultivator, couldn’t use her qi within my inner world. So, she reached to the side, picked up a small stone, and casually flicked it toward the Grandmaster’s forehead. As she had long reached Peak Rank 3 in body cultivation, none of the Grandmasters were even close to being able to react to this attack in time.
After this Grandmaster’s head exploded, ShouLi looked around at the others. “Does anyone else have a problem?”
Frozen by shock, not by a will-lock, no one could respond.
ShouLi smiled. “Good. Then let’s proceed.”
While I wanted my clan’s leadership council to take control of things, the fact that they were barred from entering the Wastes because of their cultivation levels had been a bit of a problem. To resolve this, we had needed to both rework our leadership structure and establish a regular schedule for transferring people into and out of my inner world.
Each member of the leadership council was given the title of core elder, and the elders whose responsibilities lay within my inner world became our new inner elders. Our most powerful Grandmasters were promoted to positions as outer elders and tasked with taking over the Su Clan’s territories in the Wastes.
Along with these changes, the council announced the reinstatement of yearly competitions where any member of the clan could try to prove that they were worthy of a position on the council. The council was divided into three branches: the Administrative Branch, led by ShouLi, the Profession Guilds, led by Mo, and the Public Works Branch, led by GuiAi. Each branch had three seats on the council, and each year, the seat that was up for grabs would rotate between the three branches.
As for dealing with transfers into and out of my inner world, one of the arenas in the central courtyard of the Su Clan’s palace complex was designated the official transit point. At regular intervals, I would transfer anyone who was standing in this arena to Chang’an, and anyone who was standing in the square where the Grandmasters had first arrived in my inner world would be transferred to this arena.
At first, as things were getting set up, this would happen once a day. Eventually, the transfers would only occur once a week, and after the first year, they would only occur once a month. This wasn’t a perfect solution since if something came up, I might have to miss a transfer or two, but until I figured out how to make one of the Nine Rivers Sect’s teleportation gates, it was the best that we could do.
With this, I considered events in the Su Clan settled. ShouLi and the council were in charge, and the clan’s original leadership, including both TaiZu and TaiZong, were doing their best simply to remain relevant. The clan’s leadership still had to hash things out with the Pavilion, but after a token apology, that situation would quietly die down.
As for me, I stepped back and did what an ancestor was supposed to do. I entered secluded cultivation and kept out of the clan’s affairs until I was needed.
