Chapter 16: The Breathing Ancient Tree

The "little grandfather" Su Jin mentioned was her father Su Yan's biological father, the eldest great-grandfather's own full cousin.

Su Jin's eldest great-grandfather and the little grandfather's biological father were the true pair of full brothers.

Back then, Su Jin's biological mother married into the Su family through a tribal political marriage.

She represented the dignity of the Wood Witch tribe.

She was originally married to the eldest great-grandfather's eldest legitimate son, Su Zhang. Su Zhang was Su Jin and her younger sister Su Shen's biological father.

But back when Su Jin's biological mother was pregnant with the second child, Su Shen, Su Zhang's original sweetheart came back.

Su Zhang insisted on a divorce and remarrying no matter what, even if it meant being cast out of the clan.

After confirming his eldest legitimate son's true intentions, Su Jin's eldest great-grandfather immediately cast the eldest son out of the clan.

Having a disobedient son is no better than having a char siu bun.

Back when the political marriage was needed, he had even asked his eldest son whether he could accept it.

His good eldest son had clearly agreed quite readily.

Yet halfway through, he wanted to run off.

How could a political marriage like this be abandoned halfway?

Wasn't this just rubbing his old face against the stone-brick floor?

The old master was so angry he told his good eldest son to get lost on the spot.

Then he married the pregnant former eldest daughter-in-law off to his adopted son, the fourth son Su Yan, who was still unmarried at the time.

Thus Su Yan instantly became a father for free, not only picking up a wife but also gaining two children in the bargain.

Of course, since neither party was at fault, the old master couldn't let Su Yan and the former eldest daughter-in-law, now fourth daughter-in-law, suffer a loss.

So he directly used his own resources and quota to exchange a Foundation Establishment Pill for the fourth son. In the future, once the fourth son's cultivation reached the right point, he could go straight to the spirit cave controlled by the family and enter closed-door cultivation to break through to Foundation Establishment.

He also transferred the residence originally under the eldest son's name — the courtyard next door to the one Su Jin's family currently lives in — to the fourth daughter-in-law, Lin Linghua.

That single residence alone was worth over a hundred thousand spirit stones.

Lin Linghua had grown up among the Witch tribe and was long accustomed to such matters of an elder brother being unsuitable and marrying the younger brother instead.

After all, she had come as a political bride; she couldn't possibly marry in and then run back.

Besides, she still had two children, and Su Yan had a better temper, was more handsome, was six years younger than her, and was both well-behaved and obedient.

So Lin Linghua declined twice but couldn't get out of it. After confirming that Su Yan himself agreed, she "reluctantly" accepted the new marriage of being transferred to the younger brother.

After giving birth to the second child, Su Shen, Lin Linghua had another child a year later — this time she gave birth to a pair of twin boys.

Those were Su Jin's third and fourth younger brothers, who had just turned one this year.

With four children in the family, the young couple of two couldn't quite manage them all, so they decided to stop having more — just the four.

"What? My grandfather even left a stash of spirit stones with the eldest great-grandfather?" Su Jian was greatly shocked, thinking, there's such a thing?

"That's right. When my father told my mother about it, I was sitting on a little stool listening." Su Jin said.

The moment Su Jian heard that, he immediately thought to himself, from now on I'll never gossip carelessly with my wife in front of Su Xiaohe again.

"Xiao Hua, you can rest easy now, right? Our family has spirit stones. You just need to cultivate properly and strive hard to break through to the fourth layer. Leave the rest to your father and mother." Su Jian turned and said to his daughter.

Su Hua: Looks like I'll have to go all out this time.

"Father, I definitely won't let you down."

"Xiao Hua, we should just do our best however we can, just give it our all — no need to force it too much. If you really can't break through, then so be it." Liu Yunniang saw Su Hua tensing up her little body and immediately spoke up to comfort her.

"Don't talk like it's hopeless. We haven't reached the final moment yet. We can't give up — Xiao Hua will definitely work hard." Su Jian encouraged his eldest daughter.

Looking at her father's expectant, approving gaze, Su Hua guiltily swallowed.

Then she nodded hard.

"Don't worry, tomorrow your father will go find Instructor Cai for a chat."

"Mm."

Su Jin returned to her own room and first made up the cultivation she owed for the day.

Then she took out the "Great Expansion Spirit Refining Art" and began pondering it.

While pondering the Cultivation Technique, Su Jin also mulled over other matters.

Everything Instructor Liu had said, she understood — but what visualization object should she visualize?

How about she visualize a willow tree? Willows were easier to visualize, after all — there was a big willow tree right in her family's courtyard. It had been planted many years ago and was almost becoming a spirit tree.

Let's go with that one, then.

She didn't really have any other good options anyway.

After choosing her visualization object, Su Jin began to visualize…

After thinking for a while, she gave up.

Rested a bit, then thought again for a while…

Rested again, then thought again…

After struggling through five or six rounds, Su Jin was thoroughly frustrated.

It turned out that every time she tried to visualize a willow tree in her consciousness sea, a massive ancient tree's silhouette would appear in her consciousness sea and interfere with her visualization.

Every time she thought of a willow, the ancient tree appeared.

It was so enormous, and its silhouette was eerily blurry and indistinct.

How was she supposed to visualize it?

Unable to visualize any longer, Su Jin decided to sleep first and ask Instructor Liu tomorrow how to deal with this constant interference problem.

Su Jin burrowed into her blankets and was sound asleep within a few breaths.

The moment she fell into deep sleep, the "Great Expansion Spirit Refining Art" began circulating on its own.

It was as if a brush were slowly painting stroke by stroke within her consciousness sea.

At first, the brush force was insubstantial; the strokes she drew would vanish, forcing her to redraw them. Or else the completed strokes looked as if they were stuck with several layers of phantom shadows, not real at all.

But gradually, every stroke, though short, became extremely clear and real, connecting one stroke after another.

The pattern slowly took shape.

The night was nearly over.

In Su Jin's sea of consciousness, a simple-line drawing of a green tree was finished.

The moment this tree was completed, it fell directly into the central area of Little Wu Tian.

There, the phantom shadow of a colossal ancient tree flickered faintly a few times; after merging with the green tree, in less than three breaths, a verdant, solid tree over two meters tall appeared out of thin air.

It took firm root in the black, fertile soil.

Do not think this tree is very tall; it carries a mysterious charm of its own.

Most importantly, it seems to be alive.

At dawn, Su Jin had just gotten up. Although she was full of vitality and her spirit was not listless, she still wanted to complain about the strange thing from last night: she had visualized nothing at all.

Before she could even complain, she suddenly sensed with surprise that there seemed to be a tree in her Little Wu Tian??!

Her consciousness immediately dove into Little Wu Tian.

Right in the central area of Little Wu Tian, a verdant tree with an ancient and mysterious charm stood towering.

Was this not the ancient tree that had appeared many times in her sea of consciousness, harassing her while she visualized the willow tree?

How did it appear?

Where did it come from?

Su Jin stared at the ancient tree in shock; she even reached out and touched it.

This tree...

Seems to be breathing.

?? The editor said I update too fast and won't allow two chapters a day, so the author can only update one chapter a day.

? However, this book should go on sale during the May Day holiday, so I will resume two updates per day then.