From the family treasure tree to build an eternal family

Chapter 173 Jealousy
Liu Hongzhan fantasized about returning home in glory and shocking everyone.

However, thinking of his identity as a "demonic cultivator," he shook his head and said, "I'd better hide my identity and send some benefits to my family."

If necessary, he would only reveal his identity to his eldest and third brothers.

At dawn.

Liu Hongzhan concealed his aura, disguised himself, and arrived at Baihe Village.

Having been away from home for forty years, he looks so different now that even those who knew him back then wouldn't recognize him.

He was dressed in ordinary clothes and looked to be in his thirties. His fair skin had a reddish tinge, which was due to frequent blood and marrow replacements, causing his skin to become congested.

"What a big change!"

Forty years later, passing by the village's forest farm again, I felt as if I had lived through another world.

Entering from the village entrance, walk along the road to the three-courtyard house in the village.

None of the villagers we encountered along the way were familiar faces.

Many new houses have been built in Baihe Village, and many old houses have disappeared, but some of their original layouts have been preserved.

Both strange and familiar, that's how Liu Hongzhan felt at that moment.

Memories from many years ago came flooding back.

"It's been expanded?"

Liu Hongzhan walked to the middle of the village and saw that his family's original three-courtyard house had been renovated and expanded.

"With the abilities of my eldest brother and third brother, my family must be thriving, and it's time to expand."

He stepped forward and knocked on the courtyard gate.

Soon the heavy wooden door was pushed open, and a pretty maid peeked out: "May I ask who you are, sir?"

The maid had never seen this person before.

"I'm looking for Liu Hongwei and Liu Hongtu, who are friends they haven't seen for many years."

"Who?"

"Liu Hongwei and Liu Hongtu, that's your great-grandfather."

Liu Hongzhan guessed that Liu Hongwei and Liu Hongtu must be the great-grandfathers, and judging by their age, their grandsons must be quite old.

The Liu family was wiped out fifteen years ago. The maid was only sixteen or seventeen years old and had no idea what the Liu family was.

“You’ve got the wrong family. Our family’s surname is Du.”

The maid left a message and then closed the courtyard gate.

"and many more……"

Liu Hongzhan looked completely bewildered. The master's surname was Du?

Did his family sell this old house and buy another one?
He initially wanted to knock on the door again, but then he thought that too much time had passed—forty years had gone by—so he should first go and find out what had happened.

He took a tour of Baihe Village and saw what it was like now.

They then arrived at the inn in the village.

Didian was a simple inn for merchants and travelers passing through Baihe Village to rest and eat.

The inn is run by local villagers from Baihe Village.

Liu Hongzhan recognized the family, but the current owner of the shop was the grandson of the original owner.

"Give me two catties of pig's head meat and a jar of good wine."

He entered the inn, sat down near the entrance, and greeted them familiarly.

Seeing that he was a stranger, the shop owner warmly greeted him: "Please have a seat, sir. Our best dish is braised pig's head. Please wait a moment. Our best wine is Yanqi Fine Wine. I don't know if you've tried it before, but I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Yanqi Fine Wine?

Liu Hongzhan had never heard of it: "Okay, give me a jar to try."

A moment later, a plate of braised pig's head and a bottle of Yanqi wine were served, along with two side dishes.

"Tsk, this wine is strong!" Liu Hongzhan ate and drank, chatting with the shopkeeper: "Your family has been running a shop in Baihe Village for many years, right? I was a native of Baihe Village decades ago, and I ate pig's head meat at your shop."

"Decades ago? Sir, you look to be in your early thirties. But your accent does have the flavor of our Baihe Village."

"Haha, I'm over forty, I just look young."

Liu Hongzhan is actually over sixty years old, but he was full of lies: "I was still young back then, around ten years old, and I went to another place with my parents to make a living. Oh right, I remember the landlords were the Liu family back then, but where is the Liu family now?"

The Liu family, the landlords?

Upon hearing these words, the shopkeeper became interested: "The Liu family was wiped out more than ten years ago, and the whole village applauded. That Liu family was too bullying. How many households in the village haven't been bullied? They deserved to be wiped out."

Upon hearing the words "the whole family was wiped out," Liu Hongzhan's body trembled slightly.

He forced down his anger and forced a smile: "That's right, my family rented their land back then and we were bullied too. Tell me what happened, so I can have a laugh too."

"That's a long story, it all started with the feud between the Liu and Zhao families..."

Later, Liu Hongzhan learned that after he joined the army, Zhao Shuai of the Zhao family was found to have spiritual roots by an immortal and was taken in as his successor.

More than a decade ago, Zhao Shuai returned, became a demonic cultivator, and wiped out the entire Liu family, not even sparing a three-year-old child.

The Liu family's old house is now occupied by the Du family.

In Liu Hongzhan's memory, the Du family was headed by Du Hai, who taught martial arts in Baihe Village and held a prominent position in the village back then. Du Hai had long since died, and now the head of the Du family was his second son, Du Meng.

His eldest son, Du Yong, was conscripted into the army and never returned.

Liu Hongzhan chatted with the shopkeeper, and they ordered two more dishes and some wine. He listened to the general situation that had happened in Baihe Village over the past few decades.

The massacre of the Liu family enraged him.

The Du family, on the other hand, benefited from the situation and became the major landowners in Baihe Village.

However, the rise of another family was completely unexpected: the Xu family.

When Liu Hongzhan first heard the "Xu family," he couldn't even remember which Xu family it was.

When he left Baihe Village, the Xu family was really not well-known.

When Liu Hongzhan heard that Xu Xiaoniu, the eldest son of the Xu family, had returned from the battlefield and become a military officer and county magistrate, and that he had been promoted to a celestial official for killing the demonic cultivator Zhao Shuai...

The Xu family has little influence in Baihe Village now because they occupy Baihe Mountain!

The many fields in the village that originally belonged to the Xu family were sold to the Du family because it was inconvenient for them to manage them.

What the Xu family has left now is their old house and the eighty acres of land next to it.

That's where the Xu family made their fortune; they couldn't bear to sell it.

"The Du family, the Xu family!"

Suppressing his anger, Liu Hongzhan went to investigate.

Why was his Liu family wiped out, with not a single survivor left?

The Du family prospered, and the Xu family became a well-known and prominent family in Tonggu County.
Because the matter occurred a long time ago, it is difficult to investigate.

However, Liu Hongzhan still managed to find out some things after much effort: for example, the person who had the best relationship with Zhao Shuai back then was Xu Xiaogou from the Xu family.

All of Zhao Shuai's family's farmland was given to the Xu family.

After Liu Yaozu was executed, all of his land was bought by the Xu family.

After the Liu family was wiped out, most of the Liu family's land was bought by the Xu family, and the three-courtyard house was bought by the Du family.

Zhao Shuai is dead, and the Xu family is the one who benefits.

"Why?! Did the Xu family rise to power by gradually encroaching on my family's wealth?"

Liu Hongzhan could not suppress the fire of jealousy and resentment in his heart.

As a demonic cultivator, he rarely kills innocent people indiscriminately, which is for the sake of concealment.

Unless he needs a blood transfusion or marrow replacement, he will not do anything to reveal his whereabouts.

However, spurred by the tragedy of the Liu family's massacre, he could not suppress his murderous intent.

(End of this chapter)