Chapter 103: Relatives Arrive

“The good news is that the Golden Command Flag has been suppressed by the Immortal Prison Pagoda, meaning it’s completely under your control now. Look, I can even play with it.” Inside the Immortal Prison, Lao He waved the flag around casually.
“Mm,” Su Che nodded in thought. “It’s certain now that this flag is a sacred artifact of the ancient Witch Tribe. When they migrated to the Immortal Realm, they failed to take it with them. Moreover, based on the visions in my mind, this flag is used to command Witch Tribe warriors to fight against cultivators and to seize their vital spirits… This means it must be closely related to the Mi Xian Realm.”
“Yes, master. With this flag, we’ll have more protection when entering the Lesser Mi Xian Realm.” Lao He tucked the flag under his arm, unafraid of desecrating this sacred artifact of the Witch Tribe.
“Hard to say,” Su Che mused. “It’s possible that the more we carry this flag, the more trouble it might bring. In any case, we shouldn’t take it out casually unless it’s a critical moment.”
After discussing the flag, Su Che endured his headache and began to examine the massive black stone beneath him.
“The flag is already in our possession. Can we take this black stone along too? It’s really inconvenient to keep coming to the Yin Wind Gorge for cultivation…”
As he thought this, Su Che took out the golden Mi Xian Command Flag from the Immortal Prison and held it in his right hand. Then, he placed his left hand on the black stone and silently commanded, “Consume!”
Unfortunately, nothing happened.
Thinking again, he shouted, “Consume!”
Still no response.
Su Che shook the flag a few times and then yelled, “Command flag at hand! Obey my order—enter my domain!”
With a whoosh, Su Che lost his footing and fell downward.
The black stone indeed disappeared. About ten feet below was the cave where Su Che had once meditated. At that moment, the surrounding magma hadn’t yet closed in. Su Che quickly summoned the Red Flame Dharma Wheel mid-air, activating it instantly. A faint red light enveloped his body.
Thud—falling into the magma, he was protected by the Dharma Wheel and suffered no harm. The Red Flame Dharma Wheel was originally a fire-type magic artifact, making it especially suitable for use in environments like underground fire veins.
As the magma surged, Su Che rode the Red Flame Dharma Wheel back up. Glancing around, he saw that the massive black stone was indeed back in the Immortal Prison.
“It’s in! It really got consumed!” Lao He exclaimed joyfully. “Master, this is much better now. With this stone, you can cultivate anytime, anywhere.”
“Yiya!”

A red shadow rushed over from afar—it was the red-tailed fox, sensing the presence of the black stone and flying over with great joy. It had lain on this stone for nearly a hundred years, so it was only natural that it could sense something there.

“Get lost!”

Lao He always treated the prisoners in the Immortal Prison with cruelty, regardless of whether they were humans or demons, men or women. Now that the black stone fully belonged to its master, it certainly wouldn’t allow that dead fox to touch it.

“It’s okay,” Su Che was kind-hearted. He thought to himself, “The little fox can’t absorb too much energy. From now on, as long as it completes its tasks on time and helps Luo Lianqiao refine pills wholeheartedly, it can lie on the black stone in its free time as a reward.”

“Understood, master.”

Lao He, who understood the language of beasts, conveyed Su Che’s words to the red-tailed fox. The little fox happily did a few somersaults in place before lying down again and nodding repeatedly at Lao He.

“It’s gotten what it wanted. It can leave now.”

Su Che activated his magic wheel and quickly left the underground fire veins. After that, he rested in the Windy Gorge for a day, collecting specialty goods worth twenty to thirty thousand from the army of Windy Rats. His headache gradually subsided as well.

Back at Tianxuan Sect, Su Che resumed his peaceful life. Of course, he still went to Wuhua Peak regularly to sell the specialties from the Windy Gorge. He also asked Lei Xiao’s uncle to sell a few medium-grade spirit herbs that were five hundred years old, exchanging them only for spirit stones, nothing else.

Why did he need so many spirit stones?

Because, thanks to his experience suppressing the ‘Mi Xian Ling Banner’ last time, Su Che knew that the Immortal Prison Pagoda was not just a prison—it could also save itself by absorbing energy at critical moments. So, to have an extra means of survival, Su Che planned to keep at least a hundred thousand spirit stones in the Immortal Prison as a life-saving fund. Whenever the pagoda wanted to absorb spirit stones, it could do so—after all, the Immortal Prison was his greatest reliance, and his needs had to be met at all costs.

There were less than two months left until the opening of the Little Mi Xian Realm. One day, Su Che received a message from the city hall in Xuanji City, saying that a relative had come to see him.

A relative?

“My true relatives are long gone. So, the relative who appears now must be from the declining Su family of cultivators,” Su Che guessed. “It’s been over two years since I officially joined their sect. During this time, I never contacted the Su family. Today, they finally came looking for me…”

Lao He suggested, “Master, if you’re too lazy to deal with them, just find an excuse like going into seclusion to avoid it.”
“No, one can’t be so heartless. After all, this body is connected to them through blood relations. It can still be considered a degree of kinship,” Su Che replied. “It’s no big deal to give them some support from time to time. We can’t end up being labeled heartless and ungrateful.”
Lao He nodded. “That’s true. If our reputation gets ruined, we’ll face criticism when competing for the position of true disciple, and our rivals might use public opinion against us.”
So, Su Che flew swiftly to the Internal Affairs Hall in Xuanji City, where he met two Su family members—one old and one young.
The so-called ‘elder’ wasn’t actually old at all; he was only in his forties. As a cultivator, he appeared even younger, looking like he was in his early thirties.
The younger one was a girl whose bone age was only twelve. She looked like a delicate porcelain doll, extremely cute and beautiful.
“Cheer!”
Su Che’s father, Su Qinglin, had been waiting in the courtyard of the Internal Affairs Hall with his niece. As soon as he saw Su Che enter, he rushed up to him, filled with excitement.
“Dad.”
According to his past memories, the former ‘Su Che’ always called his father that way. It was a custom in their region. Moreover, in his memories, the father and son had a very good relationship. Su Qinglin hadn’t failed to fulfill his duties toward his son. To send his son to Tianxuan Sect, he had almost sold everything of value…
Seeing that Su Qinglin was still at the third level of Qi Cultivation, having not advanced to the middle stage even after four years, Su Che felt an inexplicable pain in his heart. Although this body now had a different soul owner, the innate blood kinship could not be changed. Su Che wasn’t a heartless person, so he would surely be influenced to some extent.
“Great, great!”
Su Qinglin stepped forward quickly, placed his hands on Su Che’s shoulders, and couldn’t contain his excitement and smile. His voice trembled as he said, “Good son! You’ve made it! You’re truly an inner sect disciple now!”
Su Che could only nod silently, looking somewhat awkward. After all, deep down, he always felt that he wasn’t his ‘biological father’.

At that moment, a disciple in charge emerged from the main hall of the Internal Affairs Hall. In his twenties, he was merely an outer sect disciple at the sixth level of Qi cultivation. He walked over quickly, bowed deeply, and said to Su Che with great respect, “I greet my senior from the internal sect. May I ask if you need to arrange accommodation for my uncle?”
“Okay, please take care of it,” Su Che nodded gently.
Su Qinglin, who stepped aside, saw how highly respected the head of the Internal Affairs Hall in Xuanji City was, and yet he treated his own son with such respect. A sense of pride surged in him, but at the same time, he had the simplest thoughts of a father: My son is truly extraordinary—he’s really made it!
Following that disciple, the three of them arrived at a quiet and elegant small courtyard behind the main hall of the Internal Affairs Hall. The disciple bowed respectfully once more and then left.
Su Che led Su Qinglin and the little girl inside and sat down. He immediately asked, “Dad, it’s thousands of miles away—why did you come here in person?”
Su Qinglin’s expression froze. He clearly sensed a sense of strangeness in Su Che’s tone and demeanor, which caused him pain. But it quickly turned into deep guilt and self-reproach: Over the years, his son must have gone through countless hardships. It only took him five years to stand out among over a million self-cultivating disciples in Xuanji City and become a high-ranking internal sect disciple. During that time, he must have suffered countless trials and injustices… Alas, it’s all because of his own incompetence as a father!
Su Che could sense some of his thoughts, but due to a sense of awkwardness in his own heart, he found it hard to force himself to show affectionate gestures or words. Well, he could only make up for it in other ways.
Su Qinglin adjusted his mindset and said softly, “Firstly, I haven’t heard from you in over two years. Your father was very worried, so I had to come in person…”
As he spoke, he pulled the little girl standing beside him into his arms. “Secondly, do you still remember your cousin ‘Nian Er’? She has decent aptitude too. She wants to strive hard in Tianxuan Sect just like you, so I brought her along.”
Su Che turned his gaze to the little girl and used his spiritual eye technique to immediately detect that she had spiritual roots of metal, water, and earth. Her innate aptitude was similar to his own, only considered average. But for a small cultivation family, it was already quite good to have a family disciple with such aptitude.
The little girl looked at Su Che timidly and whispered, “Brother Su Che, do you still remember Nian Er?”

“Of course I remember,” Su Che said with a smile as he searched through his memory for those vague figures. “The little girl with pigtails back then has grown up so much.”
The little girl looked stunned for a moment, then showed a hint of disappointment as she softly corrected him, “Brother Su Che, I’m not the little girl with pigtails. She’s the seventh sister. She doesn’t have a spiritual root and can’t cultivate.”
“Oh…” Su Che smiled awkwardly and tried to explain, “You two look too alike, that’s why I got confused.”
“Hmm, it’s okay,” the little girl replied softly, lowering her head, though in her heart she thought, “I’m not similar to the seventh sister at all.”
“Great!” Su Che turned to Su Qinglin and said, “It works. Father, with my status, I can bring Nian directly into the sect without having to start as a lowest-level self-cultivating disciple.”
“That’s good, that’s good,” Su Qinglin nodded with a smile. Yet, he felt increasingly that his son’s temperament had changed a lot. Perhaps this meant he had grown up and was ready to fly on his own, but the distance between him and his parents would also grow wider and wider…