Chapter 135: The Ancestral Hall
An hour had passed since Su Tianhao left Su Huiqing's chambers, yet no summons had come. But he wasn't in a hurry. In fact, he was inwardly glad.
After carefully drafting the three scrolls and enduring the mental strain of combing through his inherited memories, his mind was naturally taxed. The unexpected delay gave him time to recover.
He settled back into the study chair, shoulders relaxed, back against the rest, legs hanging carelessly over the edge of the table.
But the reprieve didn't last long.
Only a few minutes after he settled in, something resounded through the silent archive—something that hadn't been there before.
A sound.
Knock. Knock.
Two quiet knocks. Then silence again.
Su Tianhao didn't need anyone to tell him. He could feel it.
The time had come.
He stood, the soft creak of his chair breaking the stillness. As he made his way toward the exit, his gaze drifted briefly to the study area where Xie Ling had been sitting—but she was gone. He hadn't even noticed when she left.
He shrugged. It wasn't as though he had anything else to say to her. His actions would be enough to show his sincerity.
'I'll definitely give her back her freedom.'
Sunlight filtered down through the high library windows, cutting through layers of dust and casting golden rays across the polished floor. Each step echoed like a countdown to change.
"Let's see how the Su family handles a true counteroffensive," he murmured as he walked out.
---
Standing outside the double doors was a young man dressed in the Su family inner guard's uniform.
Creak—
The library door swung open and Su Tianhao stepped out, dark hair fluttering behind him.
"Second Young Master!"
The guard greeted him immediately, voice heavy with respect.
Su Tianhao acknowledged him with a nod, golden eyes narrowing with a quiet, questioning look.
The guard's brows twitched nervously.
"T-The Patriarch requests your presence in the ancestral hall," he said, each word coming out heavier than the last.
He couldn't quite wrap his head around it. Foster son or not, the ancestral hall wasn't a place a sixteen-year-old should have access to. It was a sacred meeting ground for the upper echelons of the family—where decisions affecting the entire clan were made. Even now, the guard struggled to reconcile what he'd been asked to do.
'You think I'm not worthy to enter, huh?' Su Tianhao noted inwardly.
He hadn't needed the guard to say it aloud. His inherited experience gave him a perspective that let him see what others tried to conceal. If he had been able to see through Ye Wenjie's facade, then this guard was no different from an open book.
Under Su Tianhao's penetrating gaze, the guard broke into a cold sweat. A profound sense of unease washed over him—as though he wasn't standing before a boy, but before something far more dangerous.
Fortunately, Su Tianhao wasn't petty and let it slide—giving the guard the opportunity to catch his breath.
"Show me the way," he said calmly, averting his gaze.
"Y-Yes. This way, please."
The guard turned and led on, almost as if he were afraid to spare Su Tianhao another glance.
'Am I really that frightening?' Su Tianhao thought with a raised eyebrow. 'First the disciples, and now this...'
It was one thing for the disciples to feel intimidated—he was considerably stronger than any of them. But this guard was a Martial Adept, and not an ordinary one. His cultivation base had already surpassed Blood Grin's. Yet even he seemed unsettled simply standing in Su Tianhao's presence.
'Is my killing intent bleeding into my natural aura? Or is the dragon aura leaking out subconsciously?'
He briefly considered suppressing the effect with the Shrouded Dragon Veil's second layer—Illusory Flow. He had already unlocked the first three layers and was currently using only the first—Silent Pulse—to conceal his cultivation base. With Illusory Flow, his unfathomable presence could be masked as well.
But the more he thought about it, the more he dismissed the idea.
'I'm about to meet the strongest people in the Su family. It's better to appear mysterious and unfathomable than ordinary.'
With that thought settled, Su Tianhao followed quietly behind the guard, all the way up to the third floor.
Soon, they arrived before a massive obsidian door—embossed with ancient markings and reliefs of mystical creatures. Just standing before it stirred something in the heart. It radiated authority and legacy, as if the weight of generations had pressed itself into the stone.
"This is the ancestral hall," the guard said politely. "May I take my leave?"
Su Tianhao nodded.
The guard turned to go—but paused a few steps away, stealing one last glance back.
"The Second Young Master is truly something else," he murmured quietly to himself, a small, reluctant smile crossing his face. Even now, the unease from that stare hadn't fully left him.
Su Tianhao stood before the door in silence. No sound reached him from the other side—and yet he could sense it with complete certainty.
A heated debate was underway within.
'This must be the dragon instincts at work,' he thought with a faint smile. 'Finally seeing their true benefits.'
He exhaled slowly, then knocked.
Knock.
The sound barely carried—swallowed by the dense obsidian as if it had never happened. Su Tianhao frowned and knocked again, this time with more force.
Knock.
Still insufficient. Absorbed completely by the door's construction.
His knuckles tightened. Golden spiritual energy surged to life, enveloping his fist in a radiant glow. He channeled the full force of a 3rd level Martial Adept into a single strike.
BAM!
The impact sent visible ripples through the air. His robes whipped outward from the force.
No response.
---
Within the ancestral hall, Su Huiqing and the Su family elders sat arranged around a massive mahogany table.
The room, however, was anything but orderly.
"Patriarch!" Su Liang's voice cut through the chamber. "Don't tell me you're seriously considering taking advice from a boy who hasn't even lived long enough to understand the harsh realities of the cultivation world!"
Su Huiqing maintained his composure, expression unreadable. "And?" he asked calmly.
"It's unacceptable!" Su Liang's hand came down against the table with a thunderous crack. "This isn't some minor problem to be solved with clever words. This is a crisis that could decide our family's fate!"
"Calm down, Second Elder," Su Yuan said, his voice even and measured. "Little Tian has shown remarkable intelligence since childhood and has helped us navigate countless difficult situations. We should give him the chance to prove himself."
"A chance?" Su Liang sneered. "You say that because you've always favored him."
"I understand your concern..." Su Yuan began. "But—"
"There are no buts here," Su Liang cut in sharply.
He turned to the other Elders, eyes narrowing. "Surely you don't think relying on Su Tianhao is a sound idea."
Su Minghe shook his head calmly. "While Su Tianhao is undeniably gifted in the sword dao, the same cannot be said for alchemy. The two paths are entirely different."
"Indeed." Su Qingfeng ran a slow hand across his long beard. "The alchemy world does not follow the same rules as the martial world. It is highly unlikely that Su Tianhao could produce a viable plan in such a short amount of time."
As someone who had practiced alchemy for decades, he knew precisely how complex and unforgiving the discipline could be.
Su Liang's expression brightened. He turned back to Su Huiqing. "You've heard from the First Elder himself—a man who has spent a lifetime in alchemy. His assessment cannot be dismissed."
Su Huiqing ignored him entirely. Instead, he turned to Su Yuntian, who had sat removed from the debate since it began—silent, cold, as still as an ice sculpture.
"What do you think, Fourth Elder?" his voice carried across the now-quiet room.
All eyes shifted to her.
Su Yuntian's expression didn't change. Indifferent. Aloof. Unshaken.
"I think Su Tianhao deserves a chance," she said, her voice flat and certain. "That boy is more than meets the eye. If he says he has a plan—he has one."
Silence settled over the room. Several elders exchanged quiet glances.
Then—
BAM!
A sound like a war drum shook the chamber. The entrance door groaned on its hinges, and Su Tianhao stepped inside.
Su Liang's eyes hardened the moment he saw him. "What kind of disrespect is this? Has no one taught you how to knock before entering?"
Su Tianhao raised an eyebrow at the open hostility—not that it surprised him. Su Liang had made his disdain clear on more than one occasion. What struck him was something else entirely.
'They didn't hear me,' he realized.
Su Huiqing's composure broke the moment he saw him—warmth and anticipation surfacing behind the mask.
"Do you have the plans ready?" he asked.
"Of course."
Su Tianhao's voice rang out with quiet, unwavering confidence. He raised the three bound scrolls.
"This," he said, "is the key to turning the tide against the Ye and He families—for good."