Chapter 97: Scarlet Mountain Range, Part 3

Upon seeing the Origin Stones on Su Chen had thrown on the table, Su Changche was left speechless for some time.

After a long time, he finally spoke out “It seems as if you have considered doing this for more than just one or two days. You were able to pull out thirty thousand Origin Stones so easily. You have earned quite a bit of money lately.”

This was thirty thousand Origin Stones!

Even if Su Cheng’an, Su Keji, and Su Feihu combined their earnings they would only make so much after a few years of working. Yet, this kid was actually able to so easily pull out such a large sum?

Although his expression remained calm, Su Changche’s heart was in turmoil.

Su Chen replied, “Scarlet Punishment may be dangerous, but it also contains great opportunities.”

Su Changche nodded his head. “Only two trips into the Scarlet Mountain Range and yet you were able to earn thirty thousand Origin Stones as well as many Origin Skills. You were also able to stay at the peak of the third generation without the clan’s support. Everyone misjudged you, truly misjudged you!”

Su Chen’s expression was filled with mockery and derision. “Is Patriarch feeling regret for his previous actions?”

Su Changche did not get angry. Instead, he laughed, “Yes, I feel great regret for wronging you. You are correct; in my eyes, all of the Su Clan disciples have value of different degrees. You can blame me for being cold-blooded, and you can hate me for being without affection, but this is something that the leader of a large Clan must do. In such a clan with so many people, it is not responsible of me to do thing according to affection. If I acted only on how I felt and gave all the resources to the wrong person, then the Su Clan would not last. If I put it this way, do you understand?”

“I can. And if it were merely not giving me any excess resources, I wouldn’t be disappointed, wouldn’t be angered, and wouldn’t be filled with hatred. But can you call what the Su Clan did to me simply withholding resources? You took away what was rightfully mine!” Su Chen said with rage.

That was right. If it was just a matter of not giving resources, Su Chen would have just let it go.

The main issue was that the prize of the end-of-year competition was not given to him as charity or as a grant by someone. Rather, he had fought hard to earn it!

But Su Keji still wanted to scheme, to plot, to seize even such a small amount of resources!

Su Changche was well aware of this, but he silently allowed it to happen.

Because he felt that giving the Verdant Wood Essence to Su Chen was too great of waste, so he silently allowed the movements of those under him.

In this entire process, he only considered the value of the resources, but he had overlooked fairness, justice – overlooked Su Chen’s feeling.

Put plainly, he was still acting in his own interest.

Not to mention the conduct of Su Keji and Yan Wushuang afterwards.

Su Changche sighed, “What you said is correct. In this matter, the Su Clan has let you down. If I apologized to you, could you accept it?”

Su Chen didn’t reply, but from his appearance it was obvious that he was not planning on accepting it.

Su Changche knitted his eyebrows. “Su Chen, shouldn’t there be a mutual forgiveness between family members? What is more precious than a family member? The elders did something wrong, and this apology should be sufficient. Why do you continue to hold out? Can you truly not forgive them?”

Su Chen replied, “If you had said this to me earlier, before you discovered that my eyes had recovered, I would have been moved. I could have given up on all the hatred, and I would not have argued. But now......”

Su Chen laughed.

He shook his head. “The family that you need is the Su Chen that regained his sight, while I am just the blind Su Chen.”

As he spoke, he turned around and left.

————————————

The conclusion to the matter of Su Chen beating Lan Zhi to death spread very quickly, but it exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Su Chen had beaten Lan Zhi to death and ruined Yan Wushuang’s face, overstepping his authority. He volunteered for Scarlet Punishment for a hundred fifty days. Yan Wushuang had spread rumors, gravely injuring the head wife, and according to law she should have been executed. However, seeing that she still had a son, she was spared. Instead, she was punished with thirty staff strikes and further demoted to housewife.

Su Cheng’an had been blinded by feminine charm. He was not strict nor unbiased when disciplining his household. Of his thirty-two properties, nine were taken away, and he was only allowed to manage three foreign businesses. He was set to the side and forgotten. The severity of his punishment exceeded everyone’s expectations.

It wasn’t just Su Cheng’an. Even Su Changqing, Su Keji, and a horde of others all were subject to Su Changche’s discipline and lashing out. Su Yue himself was given sixty staff strikes for a small matter and sent off to the mines for a year.

Su Feihu was the only person that benefitted from this turmoil. The businesses that Su Cheng’an had been relieved of were all given to Su Feihu to oversee, and he began to be publicly known as the person who was most likely to inherit the Su Clan.

Su Changche had also spent a large sum of money to invite doctors to treat Tang Hongrui’s illness.

Su Chen knew that this was the repayment that Su Changche was giving him.

Didn’t the Su Clan let you down?

No matter, there had to be some people who had treated you well.

If I sweep aside the people who weren’t good to you and hand over the clan to those who were good to you, there’s nothing you can say about it, right?

Old grandfathers were still old grandfathers. Their vision was poisonous and their methods were vicious, and they were extremely decisive when doing things.

Even so, this allowed Su Chen to see the situation even more clearly.

In a large clan, familial affection was really the least important.

Everything depended on value.

What Su Chen said was absolutely correct. Su Changche only valued the Su Chen who had recovered his sight. Because of this, he had become useful.

If Su Chen had not recovered his sight, Su Changche would not have protected Su Chen. If Su Chen had not taken out thirty thousand Origin Stones in a heartbeat, displaying his extraordinary qualities, Su Changche would not have acted so decisively, demoting Su Cheng’an and promoting Su Feihu.

It was just as Su Chen had said. He was like a rigorous machine, doing everything based on its benefit to him. When Su Chen had no value, even that which should have belonged to Su Chen would be stripped away from him. When Su Chen displayed his extraordinary qualities, even his own son or his own younger brother were like chess pieces, which could be disposed of very easily.

Even though Su Chen had seen through this old man, Su Changche’s actions still had an effect.

His mother was still here, as was Su Feihu. All the people who were good to him were still here, and he could not just leave the clan just like that.

A day later, Su Changche sent someone to return the thirty thousand Origin Stones.

However, Su Chen told that person to return the Origin Stones, only keeping two of them.

Thus, Su Changche understood Su Chen’s intentions.

Don’t anticipate that Su Chen would recover his old affection for the Su Clan because of Su Changche’s string of actions.

The affection that had been extinguished could not be rekindled.

But as long as those two people were still in the Su Clan, then Su Chen and the Su Clan would still have a thread connecting them, and Su Chen would not leave.

Of course, this only meant that he would not leave.

He no longer had any affection for the Su Clan. Any future interactions would depend on how the situation progressed.

Although it wasn’t the result that he had wanted, he had an answer, and Su Changche was much more at ease.

As long as the person remained, the affection could slowly return.

Thus, matters passed just like that.

Two days later, Su Chen once again entered the Scarlet Mountain Range.

He brought Iron Cliff with him, assuming the identity of a blind person.

No one knew that he had regained his sight – the old grandfather was still too busy trying to suck up to Su Chen, so how could he possibly expose him.

Even so, not many people would be worried for Su Chen.

When he wasn’t an Origin Qi Scholar, he had entered and exited the Scarlet Mountain Range twice. Now that he was an Origin Qi Scholar and he had Iron Cliff with him, he would be even more free in the Scarlet Mountain Range.

The dangerous Scarlet Mountain Range had become a protective talisman that Su Chen could use to escape from receiving punishment. This was the confidence a strong person had.

Before entering, Su Chen found Night Demon and bought an absorbance technique, giving it to Mingshu and Zhou Hong so they could cultivate it on their own.