Li Zhiqiang couldn't help but look at his only son helplessly.
Li Yu swaggered into the ancient study and took a seat on a comfy chair made from level-two mortal-grade wood and wool shed from a red-eyed Liger spirit beast, which was also a level-two mortal-grade beast.
These two materials were so rare and valuable in the Xuan Empire that any ordinary family would treat even the slightest piece as their family heirloom, but in this study, they only served as furniture.
Every single piece of furniture in the study was made of similar materials: desks, shelves, windowsills, doors, and so on.
All the families, including the top five clans in the Xuan empire, would be amazed by this level of lavishness, but Li Yu, who had seen the real world in his past life and saw buildings built from immortal-grade items, felt that this clan was completely poor based on everything he had seen so far.
"Son."
Li Zhiqiang, who knew how stubborn his son was, finally decided to let him be.
Although Li Zhiqiang was not showing it on his face, the excitement and gratitude he was feeling at this moment were so big that they would be capable of destroying a complete country if turned into a physical force.
"Yes, dad," Li Yu replied lazily.
"Now that the poison in your body has magically disappeared, I hope you will begin to take extra care of yourself from now on and watch what you consume." Li Zhiqiang advised his son.
Li Zhiqiang who does not know the sort of son he has, also think like everyone else, that his son is a complete playboy.
He, who had had high hopes for his son when he was young, had lost every trace of those hopes by now after knowing that his son would never change.
All he wishes for now is that his son will live a stress-free life.
Li Yu nodded in acknowledgment.
He raised his head to look at the face of this father he suddenly got from nowhere.
His heart ached a bit when he saw how tired the man was.
He realized that his father must have gone through a lot during the past few days.
Li Yu knew how hard his father's life was.
Although he's the patriarch of the clan, he was always busy attending to the family's matters every day from dawn to dust. Added to that was the first elder, who had ganged up with most of the elders to always go against and contradict him.
Now, his own situation had been added to it.
Li Yu was currently 17 years old.
Growing up, Li Yu was filled with a deep passion for cultivation and strength, but then he saw the situation he and his father were in.
How the first elder had always been scheming against his father and constantly looking for different opportunities to take them out of the way so that he could take the clan's head position for himself and his son's.
If not because Li Zhiqiang was stronger than the first elder and the other elders, he would have long been gotten rid of.
Apart from the grand elder, whose level of strength no one knows, Li Zhiqiang was publicly acknowledged as the most powerful person in the entire Li clan; he was in the fourth rank of the golden core realm, and the first elder was publicly acknowledged as the second most powerful; he was in the first level of the golden core realm.
So back to the narration.
They decided to take a different approach since Li Zhiqiang seemed to be untouchable.
They all knew that Li Yu would be the key point to getting to Li Zhuqiang, that they only needed to get rid of Li Yu, then Li Zhuqiang would be deeply affected, which would in turn allow them to gang up against him.
But after a deep study of Li Yu, the elders realized that he was just a complete playboy who had zero interest in or talent for cultivation and that he would not be a threat to them.
They immediately decided to leave him alone, waiting for the day Li Yu would cause great trouble for the family, which would make the grand elder banish him. In turn, that would make Li Zhiqiang step down willingly, as he would not want his son to suffer alone due to the deep love he has for him.
They felt that they would be killing two birds with a stone by then.
They would not be risking their lives to go against the strong Zhiqiang, yet they would be getting the patriarch's position to themselves.
Li Yu, who had been filled with great wisdom since birth, immediately understood these points after his analysis, which had made him give up every hope he had for cultivation.
Li Yu curbed all his wishes for strength and decided to build up a powerful organization that would be able to help and protect his father in the dark.
During the process of building this power and network, Li Yu had lost all the interests he had ever had in cultivations
...
"Dad, don't worry; I promise that I will always watch out for safety from now on."
Li Yu sighed deeply in his heart; he couldn't help but think of the stark contrast between himself and the dead Li Yu.
He was loved and protected by everyone in his family, while the dead Li Yu was hated and despised by almost all the members of his family.
Li Yu decided to put away all the unnecessary thoughts in his mind for now and focus on the main reason he was here in the first place.
"Father, I know you love me and would not allow any flies to touch me, Sigh…"
Li Yu began with a passionate voice, which stunned his sturdy father out of his wit, as he had never in his entire life heard his son talk like this before.
He hurriedly turned a weirdly look at his son .
Seeing that he had gotten his father's attention, Li Yu continued.
"Father, I know you cared for me, okay? So I like you to promise me one thing," Li Yu said quietly, looking at his father hopefully.
Seeing the hopeful gaze of his son, the fatherly love in Li Zhiqiang immediately got triggered.
"Go ahead and ask, son."
Although Li Zhiqiang had realized that his son was scheming against him, could he still do anything when he was given that hopefully elusive gaze?
"Dad, will you promise to let this case of me being poisoned die down?"
"What?!"
Hearing his son's request, Li Zhiqiang jumped up from his seat with a start and looked at his son furiously.
"No!! I will never give up. I must make sure to get to the bottom of this and destroy the entire clan of the one who dared to go after my son's life."
Li Zhiqiang who had only been forcing himself to finish dealing with the clan's matter first, then go to the plum blossom inn to go do his findings, finally lost all his rationales when he heard his son's request.
He couldn't help but remember how scared he had been when he thought he would be losing the only thing that had kept him moving all this year.
He flicked hard in fear.
Li Yu, who was already expecting this, thanks to the instincts of the previous body's owner, was not shocked at all; instead, he began to apply different strategies to his father.
From begging to threatening, to flattering him, to making loads of promises, and so on.
"Son, do you know the person who poisoned you?"
Li Zhiqiang suddenly had a scary look on his face.
He thought Li Yu did not want him to be involved due to knowing the culprit and wanting to protect them.
Li Yu smiled gently and looked at his father.
"Dad, I did not say I'm letting the culprit go, but I just want you not to interfere for now."
"I don't understand you, son!"
"Dad, just trust me first, please!!"
"Sigh!!! Fine."
...…
"My lord… my lord…. The patriarch's son had woken up. He's not dead!!!!"
An urgent step was running at the top of his speed, and then "bang!" the owner barged into a wide room.
At this moment, an old man and a maiden were sweating profusely like goats, moaning to each other in pleasure on a wide bed inside the room.
'Wasn't this elder Li Gu's third wife, the one he just married some weeks ago?"
The person that barged in suddenly had a shocked look appear on his face when he saw the woman, and then the expression on his face immediately reverted to how it was before.
The man who was moving up and down on this maiden stopped when he heard what the third party that just entered said.
He rushed down from the maiden's body, who in turn hurriedly covered her body due to shame.
'Whore,' the man that just entered thought speechlessly.
The old man strutted toward this man who had just entered and stared at him with so much oppression in his eyes.
"What... What did you just say?!" The old man asked with a black face.
The man who had just entered was just an ordinary mortal who had never cultivated before.
He immediately felt that he would be turned into a lump of minced meat by the force transmitted by the oppression.
"Mercy- mercy, my lord."
The man pleaded with blood oozing out of his seven orifices.
The old man finally seized the oppression he had focused on the person that just entered.
He realized he seemed to have overreacted. "What did you just say?" He asked word for word this time around with gritted teeth, not caring about the damage he just did.