One more update."
"Since you've put it that way, Brother Zhou, we won't press the matter."
The Yuan Household Head cupped his hands. "However, please do not shelter the Xu Household on account of your marriage ties."
"Rest assured, Brother Yuan. The Zhou Household's word carries the weight of nine bronze cauldrons."
"Then sorry for the intrusion. We'll take our leave."
The heads of the Yuan, Huang, and Lu Households, along with the other aristocratic clans, all departed.
Some of these clans might genuinely have harbored suspicions, but others had set their sights on the Xu Household.
Especially the Yuan Household.
This insect plague had given them an opening against the Xu Household, and had also secured the Zhou Household's agreement not to intervene.
As long as he could enlist enough clans, he refused to believe they couldn't swallow up a newly risen Qi Refining Clan like the Xu Household.
The pills and magical artifacts flowing out of the Xu Clan Trading Company truly made the Yuan Household's eyes burn with envy.
Alone, the Yuan Household might not have dared casually tug this tiger cub's whiskers. After all, every clan had witnessed Xu Mingwei's strength firsthand.
Stopping or even killing him would probably require at least three cultivators at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, all equipped with high-grade defensive magical artifacts.
The Yuan Household.
The Council Hall.
An elder at the late stage of Qi Refining asked, "Household Head, are we truly going to move against the Xu Household? Judging by the Xu Clan Trading Company, their reserves run quite deep."
The Yuan Household Head said, "They do, but the Xu Household has barely more than ten cultivators. Even with the three rogue cultivators they recently recruited, they certainly have fewer than twenty.
"Most of them are at the