However, not long after Ning Fa's parents passed away, the deed to this shop fell into the hands of Ning Fa's paternal aunt, Ning Muchun, and her husband, Meng Jinliang.
The shop was originally rented out to someone else. Ning Fa's aunt and uncle approached him, saying they wanted to rent the shop to conduct business with Spiritual Materials.
His predecessor, remembering they were relatives from the same branch, agreed without much thought, even offering a slightly lower rent than before.
Thinking about this, Ning Fa couldn't help but feel speechless. His predecessor was truly a fool.
Not only did he rent it out, but his aunt and uncle managed to trick him out of the deed with their sweet talk. Ning Fa, the successor, was so angry he felt like spitting blood.
Initially, this aunt paid the rent normally, but later, the rent became less and less, and eventually, she stopped paying altogether.
The year before last, when his predecessor was desperate for Spirit Stones and wanted to get the deed back to sell the shop.
His aunt and uncle found all sorts of excuses to obstruct him, and he was never able to succeed.
Furthermore, after Ning Zhiyuan's death, his aunt and uncle, being the highest cultivators in their branch, naturally became the spokespersons for their branch.
Especially his uncle, Meng Jinliang, although a live-in son-in-law, was the only cultivator in the late stage of Qi Condensation in their branch.
With his backing, Ning Muchun, despite being a woman, also held the decision-making power within the branch.
In this situation, the other two uncles couldn't do much to help, even if they wanted to.
Moreover, neither of those two families had any exceptionally talented cultivators, so their influence within the branch wasn't very high.
Thinking this, Ning Fa let out a soft sigh.
He still decided to go find his aunt first. Even if he couldn't get the deed back, just getting fifty Spirit Stones would be enough.
As for the deed, there was no rush. He would settle the score with his aunt properly once he officially became a family Alchemist.
Time was precious, and Ning Fa couldn't afford to rest. He immediately left his home and headed to Ning Muchun's residence.
After Ning Fa left his home, he vaguely heard the sound of waves, and the air felt noticeably moist.
This was because Ning Fa was currently in a coastal area of an island called Pingchang Island.
In reality, the entire Ning Family resided on a large lake known as Thousand Wave Lake.
This lake was as vast as the largest lake on Earth, so much so that it could be considered a sea.
With Thousand Wave Lake being so expansive, it naturally wasn't home to only the Ning Family.
There were dozens of other cultivation families, both large and small, as well as numerous rogue cultivator forces.
The Ning Family was considered one of the stronger powers among them, ranking within the top three.
The family possessed four Foundation Establishment cultivators and nearly five hundred cultivators in total, with sixty to seventy of them being in the late stage of Qi Condensation.
Their mortal lineage members numbered in the millions.
With such strength, only the Xue Family and the Qian Family could be considered comparable.
Although there were other Foundation Establishment Families, they generally only had one Foundation Establishment ancestor, making them far inferior to these major families.
The majority were Qi Condensation Families or minor forces that didn't even have Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Moreover, Thousand Wave Lake was not a peaceful place.
Not only were there frequent attacks by lake monsters, but rogue cultivators also ran rampant.
This was because the environment of Thousand Wave Lake was naturally conducive to rogue cultivators' survival.
Thousand Wave Lake had even formed a rogue cultivator organization called the [Ironclad Alliance].
It even boasted two leaders at the Foundation Establishment stage.
With such strength, they could be considered a second-tier force within Thousand Wave Lake.
Smaller forces could only band together for warmth.
Only major powers like the Ning Family were safe from the intrusion of rogue cultivators.
The Ning Family's growth from a small Qi Condensation Family in Thousand Wave Lake to its current status over six hundred years, through hardship and struggle, was truly not easy.
Besides favorable timing and location.
It was more about the people.
And the Ning Family's internal dynamics were unusual.
It didn't refer to family unity.
Instead, it was like a wolf pack.
Because the Ning Family had consistently implemented a wolf-like strategy, closely resembling the practices of demonic cultivation sects.
The Ning Family encouraged competition among its disciples, advocating for survival of the fittest.
Aside from basic family provisions, all other good things had to be fought for and seized by oneself.
They could even resort to any means necessary.
This was akin to raising gu worms.
The family disciples who emerged victorious through this system were typically ruthless individuals, possessing both strength and cunning.
Compared to other cultivation families of similar scale, they were like docile sheep.
Because of this, the Ning Family always emerged victorious in countless external wars, their strength continuously growing.
This allowed them to reach their current scale step by step.
This method of managing the family naturally had its drawbacks.
That is, it easily made the family disciples selfish and self-serving, even lacking loyalty to the family, making them prone to betrayal.
This required strong family leadership for control.
Fortunately, over the years, the Ning Family's leadership had largely consisted of ambitious and strategic individuals.
They established extremely strict family laws, with severe punishments for acts of rebellion against the family.
Even collateral relatives were directly executed without any room for leniency.
Simultaneously, the rewards for external wars were extremely generous; the family took a small portion of the spoils, while the participating family disciples received the lion's share.
To Ning Fa, the Ning Family's strategy felt very much like Qin before its unification of the six states.
This approach ensured the Ning Family disciples' ferocity while also maintaining a certain degree of family cohesion.
As a result, in external wars, Ning Family cultivators were like wolves and tigers, resorting to any means necessary.
Even if their methods violated morality or heavenly harmony, as long as it wasn't too severe, the Ning Family turned a blind eye.
This also led to the Ning Family's notorious reputation throughout Thousand Wave Lake.
There was even a saying: "Better to provoke a tribulation cultivator than to provoke the Ning Family."
Currently, several years ago, the Ning Family had decisively defeated the old Foundation Establishment Family, the Qian Family.
They had replaced the Qian Family's position, becoming the second-largest power in Thousand Wave Lake, second only to the Xue Family.
Only then did the Ning Family halt its conquests, retracting its sharp claws, and begin to develop steadily.
However, the long-standing atmosphere had not changed.
Even Ning Fa's aunt forcibly occupying Ning Fa's shop could be seen as a manifestation of this atmosphere.
This also left Ning Fa quite speechless, wondering why he couldn't be reborn into a harmonious and amicable cultivator family.
Now, with the Ning Family's vast enterprise and numerous internal branches, the infighting among them was even more intense.
Although Ning Fa was currently at the bottom rung of the Ning Family, he had heard whispers of these matters.
But these did not hinder the Ning Family's current prosperity.
The Ning Family now controlled hundreds of islands, large and small, in Thousand Wave Lake. The numerous Ning Family cultivators and their mortal bloodlines were scattered across these islands.
Among them, over forty islands contained spiritual veins, with the best reaching the second-grade high-rank spiritual veins.
That was the Ning Family's ancestral land, Ningchang Island, where only core Ning Family members could reside.
Originally, after his Lightning Spiritual Root was detected, Ning Fa was brought to Ningchang Island by the family to cultivate.
But later, he unexpectedly lost his qualification to reside there and returned to his original island, Pingchang Island.
Pingchang Island was also where Ning Fa's lineage and several other collateral branches of the family resided. It was not small in area and had a spiritual vein that barely reached the first-grade mid-rank.
The island was mainly inhabited by cultivators from several collateral branches, along with their direct mortal family members.
Most mortal bloodlines did not have the qualification to reside on islands with spiritual veins.