"Su Chen, we walk different paths now."
"I am already a disciple of the Tianlan Sect. Do you have any idea what kind of place the Tianlan Sect is?"
"It's a place you could never reach in your entire life!"
The beautiful woman looked down on him, her expression condescending.
On that day, Su Chen never expected something so cliché would happen to him.
*Hiss!*
This is great! Breaking the engagement is a good thing!
Su Chen followed the script and wrote a letter of annulment.
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Do not bully a young man for his poverty! Li Qingyue, I hope you don't regret this in the future!"
That day, the rain was heavy.
Su Chen was ecstatic.
Everyone else thought the shock had driven Su Chen mad.
Even Li Qingyue thought he had lost his mind.
She left without a backward glance, not bothering to argue with a fool.
Only Su Chen knew what this all meant.
He was a transmigrator, and he had just been handed the "broken engagement" script.
If this didn't make him the protagonist, then who was?
.....
Three days passed. Nothing happened.
"Strange... Is my golden finger running low on energy?"
Su Chen waited for three days.
The golden finger never came.
No matter. He was patient. He had said "thirty years east, thirty years west," hadn't he? Didn't that mean he had thirty years?
......
Three months later.
"Could it be... that my golden finger was stolen?"
Su Chen had a sudden realization. Damn it, could some great villain have awakened early and secretly stolen his golden finger?
In the years before he transmigrated, novels featuring great villains who specialized in stealing others' golden fingers were all the rage.
Su Chen busied himself, beginning the search for his missing golden finger.
.......
Three years later.
Su Chen had found nothing. Even his cultivation had stagnated, leaving his father utterly disappointed. His father believed that Su Chen had gone mad after the engagement was broken.
He gave up on cultivating Su Chen and instead focused on Su Chen's younger half-brother.
Although his aptitude was slightly worse than Su Chen's, he had the advantage of being clever and sharp-witted.
The struggle for the heir's position had always been this way.
By the time Su Chen realized what was happening, it was already too late.
All of his resources had been taken by his own younger brother.
He had become a discarded pawn.
......
Thirty years later.
Recalling that period of his life, Su Chen sighed with emotion. Ever since his father, Su Nan, had given all his resources to his half-brother, Su Xuehe, Su Chen had a huge fight with Su Nan and left the family.
He was determined to prove that even without the Su Family, he could still become an overlord in his own right!
Now... he wasn't exactly an overlord. But he had managed to become the leader of a mercenary group.
Leading his small team to hunt some demonic beasts, life was comfortable enough.
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Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he saw a middle-aged face, weathered and weary, devoid of the reckless arrogance of his youth.
Thirty years ago, he had declared, "Do not bully a young man for his poverty."
Thirty years later, it was, "Do not bully a middle-aged man for his poverty."
He thought of Li Qingyue, the woman who had broken their engagement. She had long since broken through to the Spirit Mark Realm and become a direct disciple of a Tianlan Sect Elder.
Su Chen felt it was about time for his cheat to activate. He was already middle-aged. If it didn't arrive soon, he'd be an old man.
"Could it be... that my cheat is 'more children, more blessings'?"
Su Chen pondered for a moment. The image of a woman from his mercenary group who had always followed him came to mind. She was a young girl he had met on the road after leaving his family, one who had also left her own. Her name was Liu Shuyi.
Now, they were both over forty.
That very day, Su Chen got married.
......
In the blink of an eye, another thirty years of trials and tribulations had passed.
The "more children, more blessings" system that Su Chen had long awaited never came.
He and Liu Shuyi had a lovely daughter and then a son. Both had good talent and had reached the Spirit Gathering Realm.
His son and daughter were both studying at the Martial Academy. In the future, they wouldn't have to live on the edge of a blade in a mercenary group like he did.
Su Chen suddenly recalled hearing yesterday that Li Qingyue had already broken through to the Spirit Sea Realm and had become an Elder of the Tianlan Sect.
Perhaps, by now, Li Qingyue no longer even knew who he was.
Su Chen had a headache. He had led his brothers to join a large mercenary guild, but their leader had passed away just yesterday.
His cultivation was only at the peak of the Spirit Gathering Realm; he wasn't strong enough to take up the mantle.
He didn't possess the strength to be invincible within his realm.
Not wanting to get caught in the fallout, Su Chen took his small group and left the mercenary guild, settling down in a place called Chongchuan City.
Here, Su Chen established a Su Family.
On the night he invited the major powers, an uninvited guest arrived at the Su Family residence.
Looking at his younger brother, whose temples were also streaked with white just like his own, Su Chen suddenly felt very calm.
He held hatred, but that hatred had been worn away by time.
"Brother, after you left, Mother fell ill with a heart ailment. She passed away twenty years ago."
"Brother, just last year, Father also passed away. Before he died, he was still murmuring your name, wanting to see you one last time."
"Brother, I know you still resent me for the wrong I did back then. I will atone for my sins. Please, come back to the family with me."
Su Chen coldly refused.
Su Xuehe left, helpless.
"Why is the wind so dusty today?"
Watching Su Xuehe's departing figure, Su Chen touched the corner of his eye. It was wet.
He could never go back to that other Su Family.
This place, now, was his home.
That night, Su Chen got blind drunk.
......
Do not bully an old man for his poverty.
Su Chen was old now.
He had even buried Liu Shuyi with his own hands.
He didn't bury her here, but in the place where they first met.
It wasn't for romance, but because Su Chen didn't want anyone to disturb her.
This time, it wasn't thirty years that had passed, but twenty.
On his hundredth birthday, he still had no system.
He knew that this day was not only his great birthday, but also his final day.
Fortunately, his son, his daughter, his grandsons, his granddaughters, and the core younger generation of the Su Family had all been sent away.
Outside the gates, swords flashed and shadows danced.
Su Chen picked up his longsword, which was covered in a thick layer of dust.
The old geezer from the neighboring Xu Family had broken through to the Spirit Mark Realm.
Chongchuan City would not allow a second voice of authority.
Su Chen had backed the wrong horse. He thought the City Lord would be the first to break through.
Instead, he was completely crushed in a counter-attack.
The consequence, naturally, was to be purged.
The main gate was kicked open, and an old man dressed in slate-blue brocade slowly walked in.
This was the Xu Family's old ancestor, Xu Ba, a Spirit Mark Realm expert.
Su Chen faced death as if it were a homecoming. Even though he was old, his years in the mercenary groups had not been for nothing.
From behind him, a young man emerged, holding several severed heads in his hand.
The heads rolled and tumbled to a stop at Su Chen's feet.
Recognizing the faces on the heads, Su Chen's expression turned grim.
And then, he died.
A hundred years of drifting through storms, only to end with his clan exterminated and himself dead.
Dimly, he seemed to hear the young man who had walked in muttering to himself.
"A pity. Su Chen's two children and a few elders fought to the death to protect them. Even though we knew the Su Family's escape route in advance and sent a large force to intercept them, some of the younger generation still managed to escape."
"If they've escaped, then send people to chase them, to find them, to put out a bounty. That old fox Su Chen had many burrows. He was always cautious. The disciples he arranged to send away must be exceptionally talented. If they are allowed to grow, they will become a great threat to our Xu Family."
"If not for obtaining the inheritance of a Spirit Sea Realm expert, it might have been my Xu Family that was annihilated."
Su Chen's consciousness faded.
But... he wasn't completely dead!
Realms: Spirit Awakening, Spirit Gathering, Spirit Mark, Spirit Sea, Spirit Soul, Profound Connection, Void Piercing, Nirvana, Saint, Saint King, Great Saint, Quasi-Emperor, Great Emperor... (To be continued)
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