Chapter 146: A Brief Return Home

Su Jin returned not long ago, and Su Hua came back too.

In just a few days, Su Hua had lost weight all around; she looked exhausted.

“Xiao Hua, are you alright?” Su Jin asked with concern.

“Auntie, don’t worry, I’m fine,” Su Hua replied with a forced smile.

Then she went back to her room and burst into sobs.

Su Jin rushed in to check on her.

She saw Su Hua hugging her quilt, weeping bitterly.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on? Don’t hold it in—tell Auntie why you’re crying!” Su Jin climbed onto the bed and patted Su Hua’s back.

“One of my closest female classmates died. We’d planned together to learn how to sew magical robes that afternoon, but by nightfall, she was gone.” Su Hua felt both heartbroken and wronged.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. We’re cultivators—we have to take missions. Besides, Xiao Hua, you almost lost your auntie. Last night, I nearly had my throat torn out by a shadow cat. If I’d been any luckier, you’d be looking at my bones today.”

“Auntie?” Su Hua rolled over and sat up from under the quilt. “Auntie, you’re a first-year student—how could you be assigned dangerous missions? A shadow cat? Don’t the instructors at the clan school intervene?”

“No one expected it to appear there,” Su Jin said helplessly, spreading her hands. “Look at life—it’s full of surprises. We don’t want them, but they show up anyway.”

Su Hua’s tears flowed again, nearly like a river.

When Liu Yunniang carried her youngest daughter home, she heard Su Hua’s loud crying.

Liu Yunniang’s heart skipped, and she dashed into Su Hua’s room in a few strides.

She saw Su Hua clinging to Su Jin, sobbing.

“What’s going on?”

“One of Su Hua’s close classmates died,” Su Jin said.

“As long as it’s not your husband who’s gone, I’m fine. I don’t want to be a widow,” Liu Yunniang said.

Su Hua instantly stopped crying.

“Mama, Dad’s perfectly fine. He sent me a message yesterday saying that if I go on a mission outside the city tomorrow, I should bring him a small coal stove. He also said the water there tastes awful, and told me to bring plenty of Ice-Sunken Dew.”

“We still have plenty of Ice-Sunken Dew—take several jars,” Su Jin said.

“Alright, I’ll bring him one extra jar,” Su Hua said.

Su Jin stared at her in silence.

“My storage ring is too small to hold that many jars,” Su Hua said, blushing slightly.

“I’ll take it to him myself. From now on, let him ask his wife directly. Doesn’t he know his daughter doesn’t have a big enough storage ring?” Liu Yunniang said.

“Sister-in-law, let me go. Tomorrow we’re heading outside the city too,” Su Jin said.

“You’re going too?” Liu Yunniang exclaimed.

“You’re going too?” Su Hua was stunned. “You’re first-years—how could the headmaster even think of this? Has he lost his mind?”

“Su Hua!” Liu Yunniang snapped at her eldest daughter.

Su Hua: “...”

“Master Liu told us to return home to change clothes and bring extra supplies. I think she’s taking us on a mission outside the city,” Su Jin said.

Liu Yunniang immediately frowned.

“The area outside the city is so chaotic now...” Su Hua said.

“But aren’t you going too?” Su Jin said.

“I’m Qi Refining third layer.”

“I’m Qi Refining third layer too, Xiao Hua. Maybe I’ll break into fourth layer before you do.”

“Auntie, you’re going to lose me. That’s too crushing,” Su Hua glared.

Liu Yunniang burst out laughing.

“By the way, how long do you think it’ll take you to break into Qi Refining fourth layer?” Su Jin asked.

“At most two months,” Su Hua said. Missions really build one’s foundation—she already felt the faint pressure of the fourth-layer bottleneck.

Liu Yunniang cooked them a meal of their favorite dishes.

Then she carefully asked about their missions over the past nine days—their experiences had been full of ups and downs.

In Su Hua’s class, nearly every mission cost them a few students; after three missions, five students were gone. “Our class now has only seventeen students left,” Su Hua sighed.

“We lost one too,” Su Jin said. “But we lost fewer than your class—we still have twenty-four students.”

“When we enter the area outside the city tomorrow, Auntie, be careful.”

“You too, Xiao Hua.”

The next morning, Liu Yunniang carried Xiao He and personally escorted Su Jin to the clan school, where they met Su Qingniao being dropped off by a young, beautiful woman.

“Su Jin?” Su Qingniao spotted her and rushed over, pulling the woman who looked strikingly like her. “Su Jin, this is my mother, Tan Shuyu. Mother, this is Su Jin, the one I told you about.”

Su Qingniao winked at her mother.

She silently prayed her mother wouldn’t repeat the things she’d said at home about Su Jin. Tan Shuyu winked back at her daughter and smiled.

“Auntie Tan, hello. I’m Su Jin. This is my sister-in-law, Liu Yunniang. This is my eldest niece, Su Hua, and my youngest niece, Su Xiaohe.”

After a few polite exchanges, Su Hua went to find her class.

Su Jin and Su Qingniao also went to find Master Liu.

That left Tan Shuyu and Liu Yunniang, who were still holding the sleeping Su Xiaohe.

Liu Yunniang chatted with her for a while, found her pleasant, and exchanged a long-distance message talisman before leaving.

Tan Shuyu was pleasantly surprised that Liu Yunniang wanted to be friends.

Though she’d married into the Su family for years, she’d never had any friends—yet she’d accidentally gained one just by dropping off her daughter.

When Su Jin and Su Qingniao found the Mu Class group, they discovered Master Liu was absent.

“Where’s Master Liu? I saw instructors from other classes already here?” Su Qingniao immediately asked Su Cheng.

“Master Liu went to see the headmaster. Four students from our Mu Class voluntarily withdrew—they’re transferring to the Dao Academy,” Su Cheng dropped a shocking piece of news.

“Four at once?” Su Qingniao asked in shock.

“Yes. This morning, their parents came to process the withdrawals. They said the Dao Academy is lowering its admission threshold to take in new students. Their children couldn’t handle the clan school’s mission load, so they decided to try the Dao Academy instead,” Su Wuji said.

“Master Liu’s expression turned grim, but she said nothing—she took the parents to see the headmaster.”

“Couldn’t handle the clan school’s mission load—wasn’t that the same group that failed their previous missions?” Su Jin asked.

“Yes. Three boys and one girl. Once they’re gone, we’ll have exactly twenty students left.”