I died young at the start, but I'm reincarnated with unlimited skill points!

Time flies by like a fleeting moment.

In the blink of an eye, thirty years have passed since Su Yu failed to establish his foundation.

Inside Black Wind Valley, the autumn wind howled, and the falling leaves fell silently.

The once hidden and dormant Qianlong Manor has grown several times in size over the past thirty years.

Among the third and fourth generation descendants, children with spiritual roots were born one after another. Although their rank was mostly not high, they filled the entire manor with vitality.

Eighty-year-old Su Yu, dressed in a simple, loose-fitting robe, sat quietly on a blue stone by the lake, fishing.

Time hasn't left many marks of hardship on his face.

He benefited from his cultivation at the ninth level of Qi Refining and the nourishment of his extremely pure true essence.

Although his hair was completely white, his face still looked like that of someone in their thirties or forties, with white hair and a youthful face, and an air of profound composure.

However, cultivators can resist the erosion of time, while mortals cannot.

"Father."

A slightly heavy footstep came from behind.

Fifty-nine-year-old Su Yuan walked behind the bluestone and bowed respectfully.

Time has added a few fine lines to Su Yuan's eyes, but the fluctuations of his magical power have become increasingly unfathomable, and he has already reached the Great Perfection of the Ninth Level of Qi Refining!

"My older brother... he's dying."

Su Yuan's voice was slightly hoarse, revealing a trace of sorrow that was hard to conceal.

Su Yu's hand holding the fishing rod paused slightly, causing a very subtle ripple to spread across the surface of the lake.

He didn't say anything, but slowly put away his fishing rod, stood up, and walked towards the front yard.

……

The courtyard of the eldest son's residence was filled with the strong smell of medicinal soup.

The room was filled with Su Cheng's wives, concubines, children, and grandchildren.

On the bed, 61-year-old Su Cheng looked withered and his eyes were sunken.

As a mortal without spiritual roots, even though he had the martial arts skills taught by Su Yu in his early years and had developed a body of steel, he was still a mortal.

But he spent most of his life fighting amidst the clash of swords in Dingzhou City and scheming amidst the deceit and intrigue of the Dingyuan Trading Company.

He exhausted too much effort and energy in order to lay a dark web for the manor and to clean up those blood-stained cultivation resources.

The foundation built up in one's early years turns into an irreversible decline in health and vitality in later years.

The oil has run out and the lamp is extinguished.

A burly middle-aged man was kneeling beside the bed.

That was Su Yu's third son, Su Lin.

They were both mortals without spiritual roots.

With trembling hands, Su Cheng solemnly placed two tokens engraved with dark patterns into the hands of his third brother, Su Lin.

"Third brother..."

Su Cheng's voice was extremely weak, yet it carried an undeniable and powerful aura.

"The general ledger of Dingyuan Trading Company, as well as the roster of Dark Web assassins, will be handed over to you today."

"Remember my words: disciples who cultivate immortality should focus on their cultivation in the manor and must never be allowed to get involved in worldly affairs."

"Worldly wealth and slaughter can only be controlled by us mortals. This is a rule set by my father, and it's also to prevent cultivators from being blinded by worldly power..."

Even at the very last moment when all the oil is used up and the lamp is about to burn out.

This eldest son, who had devoted his entire life to the Qianlong Manor, still had the mundane affairs of the family on his mind.

Su Lin held the token in both hands, his eyes red and he was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Don't worry, brother, I will defend Dingzhou City to the death."

Using ordinary people to control ordinary people's businesses, and using ordinary wealth to support the cultivators in the manor, while simultaneously creating a system of checks and balances within the family.

This is the family power structure that Su Cheng and Su Yu jointly established during the thirty years that Su Cheng was in power.

Just then, a very light footstep sound came from outside the door.

The women and descendants who had been sobbing quietly inside immediately fell silent and respectfully stepped aside.

Su Yu slowly walked into the house.

Looking at his eldest son, who was once decisive and ruthless in the world but now struggles to even lift his hand, a complex light flashed in Su Yu's eyes.

The elderly bury their children.

The cruelest separation of life and death arrives silently at this moment.

"Father……"

Upon seeing Su Yu, Su Cheng's previously unfocused gaze suddenly sharpened.

He struggled to get up and bow, but Su Yu pressed down on his shoulder.

"Lie down."

Su Yu sat down on the round stool beside the bed, his voice calm and gentle.

The people inside the house tactfully withdrew, leaving only the father and son.

Su Cheng looked at his father, who had white hair and a youthful face, like an immortal, and then looked at his own withered body, which was as rotten as a broken piece of wood.

A barely concealed sense of inferiority flashed across his cloudy eyes.

He tried his best to hide this inferiority complex, unwilling to show even the slightest weakness or groveling in front of his father, who was like a banished immortal.

Because he was the eldest son, even if he were a mortal without spiritual roots, he did not need his father's pity or comfort.

Su Chengqian's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty as he forced a stiff smile, attempting to use the explanation of clan affairs to cover up his crumbling self-esteem.

"Father... I have already handed over the secret agents and assassins of Dingyuan Trading Company to my third brother."

"The worldly income... is very stable. As long as the trade routes remain, the cultivators in the manor will never run out of elixirs..."

He spoke haltingly, as if only by constantly emphasizing his worldly value could he prove his life's worth.

Su Yu listened quietly.

Having lived for two hundred years and experienced the ups and downs of two lifetimes, his insight into human nature was remarkably keen.

Without Su Cheng even needing to speak, he already understood that beneath his eldest son's feigned composure lay unfulfilled words, words he had kept hidden for a lifetime.

Su Cheng was afraid.

He feared that in the eyes of cultivators, his humble struggles in the mundane world, amidst mountains of knives and seas of blood, would be nothing more than the mundane labor of an ordinary mortal, not worth mentioning.

He was even more afraid of seeing the slightest bit of pity in his father's eyes.

Su Yu did not interrupt him, but simply reached out and naturally grasped Su Cheng's withered and thin hand.

"Cheng'er."

Su Yu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the power to calm any turmoil.

"You don't need to force yourself anymore."

Su Cheng's voice stopped abruptly, and his cloudy pupils trembled slightly.

He instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but Su Yu held it firmly.

"Do you feel that because you have no spiritual roots, you're destined to be nothing more than a mortal manager on your family's path to immortality, someone who can be forgotten at any moment?"

Su Yu looked into Su Cheng's eyes, his tone devoid of any condescending pity, only pure affirmation.

"The reason why Qianlong Manor is where it is today is because of spirit stones, pills, formations, and even the fact that Yuan'er and the others can sit peacefully in the spirit gathering formation to practice breathing exercises."

"Every inch of this foundation, every breath of spiritual energy, was fought for by you with your mortal flesh and blood and your own hands, in the mire of the secular world, one sword and one spear."

"Back then, those hot potatoes I brought out would have been wiped out countless times if you hadn't cleaned them up in Dingzhou City with your mortal body."

Upon hearing these words, Su Cheng's withered chest began to heave violently.

He gritted his teeth, trying to maintain the dignity of the eldest son, but he couldn't suppress the tears welling up in his eyes.

"Without your mortal body as a stepping stone, the Su family's path to immortality would not have reached this point."

Su Yu gazed at him and gave him the most profound evaluation of her life.

"You are the son I, Su Tian, ​​am most proud of in my life, and no one can replace you."

The moment those words were spoken.

The armor of self-esteem that Su Cheng had painstakingly maintained his entire life completely melted away.

Two streams of turbid tears slid down his cheeks and landed on the pillow.

That was the recognition he most longed for and most feared in his life that he could not obtain.

All the inferiority complex, all the resentment, and the endless exhaustion brought on by scheming and killing in the secular world were truly redeemed at this moment.

"Thank you... Father."

Su Cheng shook Su Yu's hand in return.

With great effort, he managed to lift the corners of his mouth, forming a relieved and satisfied smile.

Then, that withered hand fell limply to its side.

Sixty-nine-year-old Su Cheng closed his eyes with a smile.

Su Yu sat quietly in front of the bed, looking at her eldest son's peaceful face.

After a long while, he slowly stood up and pushed open the door.

"Prepare for mourning."

……

Two days later.

White banners were hung inside and outside Qianlong Manor.

The mourning hall was set up in the main hall at the heart of the mountain resort.

A fine coffin made of Phoebe zhennan wood rests in the center.

Su Yu did not wear the robes of a cultivator, but changed into plain clothes and sat alone in front of the coffin.

He forbade anyone to come in to offer condolences, but instead sat on a prayer mat, carrying two jars of the strongest mortal liquor.

One bowl is offered to Heaven and Earth, and another to the eldest son.

He drank all night.

Images of Su Cheng's life flashed through Su Yu's mind.

The stubbornness of practicing horse stance in the courtyard when he was six years old.

He left the mountain at the age of eighteen and set up a signboard in Dingzhou City all by himself.

At the age of thirty, he ruthlessly used worldly assassins to kill the pride of the Zhao family, thus averting a great calamity for the manor.

A mortal's life is but a few decades.

In the eyes of cultivators, it is nothing more than the time spent in a long period of seclusion.

But Su Cheng's life burned as brightly as a shooting star, using his mortal flesh and blood to pave a broad road for his immortal clan.

The next day.

Outside the mourning hall, hundreds of descendants and managers of the manor knelt down in unison.

When the eldest son died, the entire clan wore mourning clothes.

According to the rules, all the disciples in the manor, whether mortals or cultivators, must kneel and keep vigil before the spirit tablet.

However, on the prayer mat on the left side of the mourning hall.

Several young members of the fourth generation, who possessed spiritual roots and had already entered the early stage of Qi Refining, were kneeling on the ground, but their expressions revealed a hint of impatience.

"I really don't understand. My great-uncle is just a mortal without any magical power. Why does he require us cultivators to stop our evening lessons and kneel to keep vigil?"

A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with an eighth-grade spiritual root complained in a low voice, his eyes carrying a natural arrogance that belonged to cultivators.

"That's right. The lifespan of mortals is only around seventy years old. Birth, aging, sickness and death are the norm. Such a big fuss will only delay our time for absorbing spiritual energy."

Several junior cultivators nearby nodded in agreement.

In the understanding they are born with, they believe they possess spiritual roots and are superior.

Those ordinary relatives who farm and do odd jobs are nothing more than ants that depend on them for survival.

These few murmurs, though faint, sounded particularly jarring in the otherwise silent room.

Su Yuan's face darkened, and he was about to reprimand Su Yuan.

"Bang!"

The wooden door of the mourning hall opened by itself without any wind.

Su Yu, dressed in plain clothes, slowly walked into the mourning hall.

He didn't look at the young people whose expressions had changed slightly, but went straight to Su Cheng's memorial tablet and personally lit an incense stick.

The smoke from the cigarette rose gently.

Su Yu turned around.

"Buzz—"

A terrifying pressure, like a solid Mount Tai, crashed down on the entire mourning hall, as if it were a ninth-level Qi Refining Perfection Realm expert.

Those junior cultivators who had just been speaking rudely were instantly forced to their knees by this oppressive aura, their faces turning deathly pale, and even breathing became extremely difficult.

The mourning hall was deathly silent; everyone was terrified.

"Do you think that keeping vigil for mortal elders is beneath your status as cultivators?"

Su Yu's gaze swept coldly over the fourth-generation disciples lying on the ground. His voice was not loud, but every word was piercing.

"Who bought those Qi-gathering pills you consume every day, using worldly assets, a single tael of silver, and a single tael of blood?"

"While you all peacefully cultivate within this great formation, detached from worldly affairs, who is outside dealing with those bloodstained contraband, shielding you from the open and hidden attacks of the rogue cultivators?"

Su Yu walked down the steps one by one.

"Without this mortal lying in the coffin, you would all have become souls beneath someone else's sword long ago. What right do you have to talk about the lofty ideals of immortality here!"

Several young people were trembling with fear and regret after being scolded.

"Yuan'er," Su Yu said coldly.

"Your son is here." Su Yuan immediately stepped forward and knelt down.

"Inscribe these words into the ancestral precepts and proclaim them to the whole village."

Su Yu stood in the center of the mourning hall, establishing the core foundation for the Qianlong Manor's legacy to last for generations with an extremely absolute and unquestionable attitude.

"In my Su family, regardless of the grade of spiritual roots or whether one is a mortal cultivator, we only recognize human relationships and seniority."

"Mortals offer resources, and cultivators protect their families. They are of the same lineage and origin, and their status is absolutely equal."

"In the future, if any cultivator dares to slight the elders of mortal clans with their cultivation level and act arrogantly..."

A murderous glint flashed in Su Yu's eyes.

"His cultivation is immediately abolished, he is expelled from the manor, and his life or death is irrelevant!"

The ironclad rules were established.

Those ordinary people who originally felt a little inferior all had tears in their eyes and buried their heads in the ground.