Xiao Clan

Night at the Xiao Clan.

Xiao Yan carefully edged along the rooftop, found a more comfortable spot, and sat down.

"Xiao Zhan! Are you really going to start a war with the other clans over this little marketplace? Being young and hot-blooded is fine, but there has to be a limit!"

The Main Hall beneath him soon erupted into its usual shouting.

The First Elder was so furious that his old face had turned bright red, and his robes billowed with surging Dou Qi. "Do you have any idea how difficult those first two years were? The Xiao Clan had only just established a foothold in Wutan City a few years ago, and you've already forgotten?"

"Eldest Brother, calm down. Calm down..."

The Third Elder tightly held on to the irritable old man, afraid he would leap out and punch Xiao Zhan in the face.

The Second Elder... As an accomplice, the Second Elder had already been slapped to the floor and was currently pretending to be dead.

How many heads did he have, to dare clash head-on with the First Elder?

"Get out of my way!"

The First Elder smacked the Third Elder on the head again.

Unfortunately, that bald head was far too hard. The blow simply wouldn't bring him down. The First Elder could only give up for the moment, turn his attention back to Xiao Zhan, and angrily jab a finger at him again and again.

"You... You kicked that man's shop apart in broad daylight, and that's not all—you kicked two of them! Are you trying to make them join forces against us? Do you even care about the Xiao Clan at all?"

Bang—

Xiao Zhan, seated at the head of the table, slammed his fist onto its surface. "Enough. Since I was the one who provoked this matter, I naturally have a way to resolve it. Don't bring it up again!"

"Xiao... Zhan!"

The First Elder was so furious he could barely speak, and there was also a hint of disappointment in his anger. "I'll say this right now: you'll regret it!"

Oh no. This was going to end badly.

As soon as he finished speaking, the Second Elder and Third Elder instantly widened their eyes. "Eldest Brother, don't say anything yet..."

"First! Elder!"

The moment the First Elder's words left his mouth, Xiao Zhan seemed to have been stabbed in a tender spot. He roared and rose to his feet.

In an instant, the Dou Qi hidden deep within his body poured out. A gale carrying the furious roars of lions and tigers swept through the Main Hall, blasting open the half-closed door.

Visible waves of air gathered into the shape of Wind Blades, sketching out a mighty beast's head behind Xiao Zhan.

Raging Lion Aura!

"You..."

The three old men facing the immense wind pressure froze in place. Even their tugging and embraces halted for a moment as they stared at Xiao Zhan, their eyes filled with stunned disbelief.

A Da Dou Shi? No one knew when he had broken through. Moreover, he had leaped straight from Seven Star Dou Qi to the Da Dou Shi realm.

"Brother Lin..."

The Third Elder murmured subconsciously, as though a shadow had appeared behind Xiao Zhan.

When he raised his head, he met the gaze of the First Elder, who had also turned toward the sound. The moment their eyes crossed, both understood what the other was thinking: the boy who used to address them as clan uncles at every turn could now stand on his own.

"The three elders can rest assured. I will naturally bring this matter to a perfect conclusion. Also..." Xiao Zhan stood at the head of the room, his gaze sweeping across the hall before lingering pointedly on the First Elder.

"I am the clan leader!"

"Hey! Xiao Yan Zi, what are you doing here?"

An arm suddenly draped over Xiao Yan's shoulder, and a voice so familiar he couldn't have mistaken it rang beside his head. A young man with a brazen, fierce expression had somehow taken a seat next to him.

On the other side, someone else had silently approached. His clothes were completely white, and even his shoes had fallen victim to that disastrous taste in fashion.

Unlike the first man, he carried the air of a scholar. Give him a book and he would have made a perfect teacher, though the sharpness in his eyes was somewhat unsettling.

"Eldest Brother, Second Brother."

Xiao Yan's usually tense face finally took on a hint of a smile.

"Hey, hey... I clearly showed up first, so why did you call him first? What, you like Eldest Brother but not me?"

Xiao Li looked ready to pick a fight. He pressed down on Xiao Yan's head and vigorously ruffled his hair, turning it into a bird's nest after only a few scrubs.

Clang! Xiao Ding reversed his folding fan and smacked the Second Brother. "By the way, how did you get up here, Xiao Yan Zi? This place is extremely dangerous."

"A ladder."

Xiao Yan pointed with his thumb toward one side of the roof, then asked, "The Coming of Age Ceremony is coming soon. Eldest Brother, are you really leaving?"

"Mm."

Xiao Ding sat down beside him, gently waving his folding fan as he looked at the moon. "If I stay in the Xiao Clan, I'll only waste the clan's resources. I might as well leave in style and spare myself the gossip..."

There were less than two months left before the Coming of Age Ceremony. Although Xiao Ding had broken through to Seven Stage Dou Qi after a bout of intensive cultivation a few days earlier, he had already come to terms with things.

The Xiao Clan had to face suppression and hostility from two great clans in Wutan City. Not to mention how they would deal with them, the resources of such a small city alone could not support so many mouths, let alone nurture a great clan.

Since that was the case, he might as well go out and make his way in the world, establishing a new enterprise of his own.

Even in the worst case, building a new business would give the future Xiao Clan a way out. If they could no longer survive in Wutan City, they would at least have the option of making a strategic retreat. That way, he would not disgrace his status as the eldest young master.

"It's only Seven Stage Dou Qi. Eldest Brother should be able to break through, right? How could you possibly fail to pass even the Coming of Age Ceremony?"

Xiao Yan seemed somewhat surprised, as though he couldn't believe his Eldest Brother would fail.

"Ah, cultivation should begin early, Xiao Yan Zi~ You need to seize your time while you still have room to grow. Don't end up like Eldest Brother, wasting your days on drinking and womanizing, wandering around everywhere." Xiao Ding looked like a regretful old hand who had learned his lesson the hard way, tapping Xiao Yan's forehead as he nagged on and on.

The Second Brother beside them seemed to have thought of something. His gaze grew heavy as he looked at Eldest Brother, but he said nothing.

Wasting time, my ass...

Xiao Yan nodded like a pecking chicken on the surface, but he understood everything in his heart.

With Xiao Lin's death, the Xiao Clan's relocation, and their settlement in Wutan City, calling this period peaceful would be pure nonsense. For one thing, the fact that Xiao Ding's complexion had only just begun to look healthy even now was enough to reveal part of the truth.

What had happened back then had absolutely not been child's play.

"Being a mercenary is dangerous, right? Will Eldest Brother come back to visit often?"

Xiao Ding's smile instantly stiffened. He waved his folding fan a few times before slowly exhaling. "Since I've chosen to become a mercenary, I'll naturally have to travel outside often. But I'll send letters home regularly and bring back some good things while I'm at it."

"But your health isn't very good, Eldest Brother, is it? Mother has always been worried about you. Have you told her about this?"

"..."

Xiao Ding's lips trembled a few times, and his eyes suddenly dimmed. "I..."

"Eldest Brother."

The Second Brother couldn't bear to watch any longer and tentatively spoke up. He had been raised by Xiao Ding's own hand all those years, and he didn't want his real Eldest Brother to take such a risk either.

"Why don't you go to..."

"Shut up!"

Xiao Ding glared at him and put on the airs of an Eldest Brother. For something like this, he would even have to leave without telling Father, let alone his bedridden mother. Just then, a voice drifted over in response.

"Who are you telling to shut up?"

"Uh..." Xiao Ding's eyelid suddenly twitched, his right eye—

Xiao Li in front of him tugged at his lips, signaling that he hadn't said a word.

Slowly raising his head, he saw a figure as imposing as a city wall standing behind him. The man asked expressionlessly, "Son, can you explain to me what you mean by 'mercenary'?"

"...Father!"

The three of them slowly rose to their feet. One was there to watch the show, while the other two were cowed.

Xiao Zhan's gaze swept left and right before finally landing on Xiao Yan. His eyes grew even darker. "Also, why did you bring the Third Elder along when you climbed onto the roof?"

The two brothers exchanged a glance.

We were screwed.

(If you don't like this much everyday-life content, you can start reading from Chapter Twelve—the original work left the transmigrators a little cheat for them.)

The original work said that he became a mercenary for Xiao Yan... Er, it's just... hard to explain.

It didn't make much sense logically. If he really wanted to build Xiao Yan a refuge, the most sensible thing would have been to focus on improving his strength, not think about establishing a new business. (Though one could say that being a mercenary would provide more resources to assist his cultivation. But with the Xiao Clan's wealth, wouldn't cultivation be even better?)

There weren't that many lucky encounters in the wilderness, and not everyone was Xiao Yan. High risk, low returns, a huge expenditure of energy, and, to a certain extent, a waste of time that delayed cultivation.