Chapter 84

“Xue Chiluo is truly capable. We should reward it—do you know what Xue Chiluo likes to eat?” Su Jian asked.

“It loves insects,” Su Jin said. “When I participated in insect extermination, I brought back the corpses of those little bugs—actually, plenty were still alive—for Xue Chiluo to eat. Xue Chiluo has already grown five leaves. Big brother, can you get me more insect corpses?”

“I think the more insects Xue Chiluo eats, the faster it grows. If it consumes a queen insect, it might grow another half to a full foot taller.”

“I’ll ask around later,” Su Jian mused. “But don’t even think about a queen insect—who’d dare trade one? Dead queen insects are extremely rare.”

Su Jin sighed heavily.

My Xue Chiluo is still so small—why hasn’t a queen insect just walked up and offered itself as food?

Soon, Su Jin returned Xue Chiluo to the underground.

Su Jian also invited several friends over, bringing building materials along.

They immediately got to work constructing the house.

Su Jin noticed they could all do masonry, tiling, carpentry—every kind of job.

And it wasn’t just one or two of them—they all could do it.

Total legends!

Though only a few of them, they were practically a construction squad. At this pace, she’d see the completed cultivation chamber by tomorrow morning.

In fact, after Su Jin and Su Hua had gone to sleep, Su Jian set up a soundproof array to avoid disturbing them and accelerated construction. By midnight, he had finished the spiritual well, the small spiritual pond, and the cultivation chamber.

When everyone finally finished, they thoroughly inspected the cultivation chamber inside and out.

Everyone couldn’t help but feel envy, jealousy, and resentment!!

“Jian Ge, you’re living way too well—you even got a spiritual spring cultivation chamber?” a young, round-faced cultivator complained.

“It’s not mine—it’s my uncle’s house,” Su Jian said, exasperated.

“But you can use it for a while, right?” another young man sneered. “Everyone knows your uncle is away on sect missions—he won’t be back for three years. You’re lucky—you get to enjoy his new spiritual spring and its cultivation chamber for three whole years.”

“Three years—tell me, can that match ten years of your own hard cultivation?”

Su Jian stayed silent. It truly could.

He’d originally estimated he’d need another thirty-five years to reach Foundation Establishment.

If he used the spiritual spring cultivation chamber for three years,

then barring any mishaps, his magic power would overflow in another twenty to twenty-five years, readying him for Foundation Establishment.

“I guess I’m just lucky—my uncle only has me, his one adult nephew. So when he went on his sect mission, he left me behind,” Su Jian said, with a touch of humblebrag.

His friends all scoffed at him.

“Alright, your house is done. We should head back,” someone said.

“No way. Stay the night here,” Su Jian immediately objected. “You might as well test out the cultivation chamber you built—see if it’s really that good.”

“Are you kidding? Our homes are all in the clan grounds—you don’t need to worry about us getting attacked,” someone retorted immediately.

“Under current conditions, only patrol squads are safe after dark. You’d all better stay here until after midnight. I don’t have much else, but I’ve got plenty of meditation cushions,” Su Jian said sternly. “We’ve been brothers for years—I don’t want one of you to die just because I built a house.”

Everyone fell silent.

Indeed, going out at night meant passing through many dark, vulnerable alleys prone to ambush.

In the end, everyone chose to stay and soak in the spiritual spring’s energy.

The next morning, Su Jian prepared breakfast for everyone.

After breakfast, those who needed to go to school went, and those like Su Jian who had clan duties headed to work.

The brothers each returned to their own homes.

But as soon as Su Jian arrived at the clan’s official office, he heard a shocking piece of news.

A man-eating monster had appeared in Dongcheng.

Last night, a monster broke through the protective array of a household in Dongcheng and devoured all nine family members down to their skeletons. No other traces remained—only a trail of white footprints.

Some of the footprints were stained with blood.

This was terrifying. He decided that when he got home tonight, he’d upgrade his family’s protective array from low-grade to high-grade. Even if it consumed more spirit stones, it was worth it.

With so many children in the house, he couldn’t afford to be careless or delay.

The Su clan’s patrol squads were being expanded again.

They had no choice—Xiancheng was now seeing all kinds of horrors.

Outside the city, there were monsters of all sizes; inside, not only insect plagues, but now man-eating monsters that broke through doors.

Su Jian heard the insect plague still had loose ends—the mastermind behind it hadn’t been found. Insects usually had a queen nest and a queen insect; during Xiancheng’s extermination, even after wiping out the last batch of black locusts, they never found the queen or her nest.

The Su clan had lived here for generations—they never imagined total annihilation.

So they mobilized every able-bodied youth in the clan: all of you, take to the streets and patrol.

They also opened the clan’s treasure vault and distributed vast quantities of magical artifacts to the patrol squads, arming every single patrol member to the teeth.

The Su clan even deployed large-scale facilities—rarely used tools meant for purging demons and evil—throughout their clan grounds. The entire clan territory was rapidly being transformed into a military fortress.

Weapons stood thick as forests.

It wasn’t just the Su clan—other Xiancheng aristocratic families were doing the same.

After all, no one wanted to die.

The recent events in Xiancheng were unmistakable.

Clearly, some force—or demonic faction—had set its sights on their city.

Until that force revealed its true intent, no one wanted to be a disposable pawn.

If they wanted to swallow these old-line clans whole, they’d better be ready to shatter their own teeth.

These were families who had fought alongside sects for generations, survivors of countless conspiracies and brutal struggles—how could they possibly be easily defeated?

If war was inevitable, then fight with all their might.

The problem was, they didn’t know where the enemy was. Otherwise, they’d already be charging in with swords drawn.

Xiancheng became a city of whispers and paranoia; the atmosphere within the clan grew tense.

Because in just a few days, the Beast Blood Purification Pool would open.

And the Beast Blood Purification Pool was located outside the city.

At this time, going outside to the Beast Blood Purification Pool was undeniably dangerous. When the final list of participants was confirmed, Su Wuji was indeed on it.

But Yang Guan was not selected.