Su Changyu immediately stopped Su Yu from leaving the herb garden. He held Su Yu, the herb apprentice, in high regard: "Don't return to Jiangcheng for now. The Lin Family has sent many people outside, setting ambushes and plotting against our Su Family."
"The Third Elder has already taken people to handle this matter, and the family has also sent reinforcements. I believe the situation will be resolved soon."
Su Yu pretended to be clueless and slightly panicked, asking, "Teacher, why is the Lin Family targeting us? How dare they?"
Su Changyu hesitated for a moment before replying, "You know about the recent appearance of the Earth Rock Rat demon horde in the herb garden. Although the family ordered the news not to be leaked, the Lin Family somehow found out."
"Earth Rock Rats are demon beasts that specifically inhabit areas near spiritual veins. Moreover, the spiritual energy in the herb garden has indeed become much denser over the past year."
"This suggests that there might be a first-grade spiritual vein beneath our herb garden."
"Neither our Su Family nor the Lin Family had control over a spiritual vein before. Now that the Lin Family knows about this, they naturally won't sit idly by."
"The people outside are likely trying to verify the truth about the spiritual vein."
As Su Changyu had said, shortly after Su Qingyi and the others were ambushed, the Third Elder, Su Chang, personally led a team to confront the Lin Family.
At the same time, the family dispatched several elders to lead teams and cause trouble for the Lin Family.
In just over half a month, there were no fewer than thirty conflicts and skirmishes between the two major cultivation families of Jiangcheng.
Both the Su Family and the Lin Family suffered losses among their cultivators.
Even the elders from both sides clashed once, but the Lin Family, realizing they couldn't gain an advantage, eventually retreated on their own.
A month later.
Su Yu quietly returned to Jiangcheng, safe and sound.
However, upon returning, Su Yu realized that compared to the current calm of the herb garden, the tense atmosphere between the two families in Jiangcheng seemed unchanged.
People on the streets hurried about, no longer enjoying the peace Jiangcheng once had.
Su Yu frowned slightly as he walked back to the Su residence. Suddenly, a voice came from a nearby tavern: "Huh? Someone from the Su Family?"
Before Su Yu could turn to look, a magical water snake materialized in the air.
Whoosh! In the next moment, the water snake shot toward Su Yu at an incredible speed, seemingly aiming to bind and trap him.
But just as the water snake reached Su Yu, crimson patterns appeared on his body, glowing brightly. With a fist like the claw of a giant crocodile, Su Yu struck out.
"Boom!"
The water snake was instantly shattered by the punch.
On the third floor of the tavern, a young man in his twenties standing by the window suddenly paled.
He had just noticed Su Yu passing by. He recognized all the young cultivators from the Lin Family, but Su Yu was a stranger, younger and more inexperienced than himself.
Moreover, he had sensed Su Yu's aura—only at the second level of Qi Refinement.
Being at the third level of Qi Refinement himself, dealing with a second-level novice should have been as easy as slaughtering a chicken. Without hesitation, he cast a water snake spell, intending to bind Su Yu and humiliate him.
To his shock, his spell was shattered by a single punch from Su Yu's body!?
"Body Refinement Technique?"
The young man's expression changed instantly. Without a second thought, he turned and fled, trying to escape through the other side of the tavern.
But in the next moment, a loud crash sounded behind him as the tavern's third-floor wall and window exploded.
"Roar!!!"
In the distance, a terrifying beast's roar echoed, causing even the young man at the third level of Qi Refining to instinctively freeze in place, his steps halting momentarily.
And that moment was enough to be fatal.
"Boom!!!"
"Bang!" Su Yu, enveloped in a crimson glow, transformed into a nearly ten-foot-tall humanoid crocodile. With speed far surpassing the young man's, he leaped from the street into the tavern, delivering a powerful punch to the man's back.
Bang!!! The explosive force of the fourth level of the Crocodile Demon's 108 Body Refining Techniques erupted like a torrent, pouring out through Su Yu's arm.
The young man's body, barely stronger than an ordinary person's, was instantly shattered into pieces by Su Yu's punch.
Blood splattered, and dismembered limbs and flesh scattered across the ground.
Having killed the young man, Su Yu, his eyes bloodshot, roared, "Dare to ambush me? You're seeking death!"
In the tavern's private room, two beautiful women collapsed to the ground in terror, a faint smell of urine emanating from between their legs as they were scared out of their wits.
They stared in horror at the 'monster' wrapped in crimson patterns.
The next moment, Su Yu turned and glared at them.
"Ah!"
They screamed, their eyes rolling back as they fainted from fear, collapsing to the floor.
Su Yu snorted, his eyes scanning the room until they landed on a leather pouch in the corner. He quickly picked it up, not even bothering to open it, and with a flicker of his figure, he vanished.
Much later, the tavern owner, trembling with fear, arrived at the scene. Seeing the Lin Family cultivator reduced to chunks of flesh, he let out a despairing wail, "It's over."
With a Lin Family cultivator dead in his establishment, wouldn't the Lin Family kill him? Thinking this, the owner shuddered and ran downstairs, hastily gathering his belongings and family to flee Jiang City.
Meanwhile, the Lin Family only learned of the incident nearly half an hour later, and several cultivators descended upon the tavern.
Seeing the gruesome scene, their eyes turned red with fury.
"Lin Xiu!!!"
One of them bellowed, "Damn it, to be so ruthless and cruel, and to dare kill a member of our Lin Family! Su Family, are you looking to start a war?!"
It was too tragic.
The men, suppressing their nausea, collected Lin Xiu's remains and hurriedly brought the dismembered body back to the family, seeking justice from the elders.
On the other side, the 'culprit' had already returned to his original form and quietly slipped back into his courtyard in the Su residence.
"Young Master, you're finally back," Lin Dong exclaimed with joy upon seeing Su Yu, almost rushing into his arms if not for Su Yu stopping him.
After chatting for a while, Lin Dong happily went to prepare a lavish dinner for Su Yu, as the young master's return called for a grand feast.
Su Yu, meanwhile, returned to his room and opened the leather pouch to inspect its contents.
"Huh?"
Inside the pouch, besides fifteen low-grade spirit stones, there was also a jade bottle, a water attribute cultivation technique, and a water attribute spell.
The jade bottle contained Qi Refining Pills, originally ten in number, but now only three remained.
The water attribute cultivation technique was called "Mystic Water Art," the primary and most widely practiced technique of the Lin Family, capable of reaching up to the ninth level of Qi Refining.
Here, the first six levels of the technique were present.
The water attribute spell was called "Mystic Serpent Technique," a versatile and powerful spell that could be used for both offense and defense.
Seeing this reward, Su Yu was overjoyed: "This is a huge win."
No wonder many wealthy players in cultivation games liked to play as bandits; the spoils came fast and were incredibly satisfying.