A massive recommendation push—four chapters dropping today! We’re fiercely vying for the top spot on the main chart! Updates are scheduled for roughly midnight, 8 AM, 6 PM, and 11:30 PM. Brothers and sisters, let's strive to send The Violet Palace surging up both the main recommendation and click charts in one go! －－－－－－－－－ Tie Yuyang swept his gaze over everyone present; all faces were masks of terror, and his heart plummeted. This is bad.

If morale dissolved, this battle would collapse before it truly began. He had to turn the tide. If the Nan Clan Patriarch managed to escape tonight and recover his full power, Tie Yuyang wouldn't live for many more days. He refused to believe that thousands of martial arts masters from the assembled guilds couldn't grind down the Nan Patriarch through sheer attrition.

“Cease this panic! That demonic rogue from the Nan Clan has already exhausted his power; what he’s doing now is merely the death throes. He won't last much longer. The Nan Clan and we are irrevocably at odds. If he doesn't die today, tomorrow will be the funeral day for our Nine Great Guilds. The Nan Clan will stop at nothing to suppress us and annihilate every master we have. Who among you is willing to sit back and wait for death?”

Tie Yuyang roared at the members of the major guilds, desperately trying to rally their spirit.

The leaders and elders of the other eight guilds felt their minds in utter chaos, unsure whether to answer Tie Yuyang’s call and continue the ferocious assault on the Nan Patriarch, or to flee immediately and secure their own safety first.

Below, the thousands of guild members gathered around the Yongfu Tavern were even more bewildered. Without direct orders from their leaders, they hesitated, unwilling to charge upstairs to slay the old man from the Nan Clan.

Tie Yuyang was deeply disappointed by the reaction of the guilds; it seemed his solitary efforts were insufficient to lift their spirits.

He couldn't help but look toward Wei Yuan, the Old Master of the Black Iron Gang. In the martial world of Pingzhou, Wei Yuan was arguably the most senior guild master, himself an expert of the peerless level, commanding immense prestige—the only guild master who could truly stand as Tie Yuyang's equal. If he could secure Wei Yuan’s support, perhaps morale could be salvaged.

Wei Yuan was a small old man, dressed in a simple, plain grey short shirt, inconspicuous among the high-ranking members of his gang. Driven by fear of the Nan Clan, he had remained hidden in the rear from the start, deliberately low-key and restrained. Yet, this did not imply he wished to spare the Nan Clan; on the contrary, precisely because he understood how terrifying the Nan Clan was, his desire to eradicate them had become all the more urgent. He was tired of having such an overwhelmingly powerful family lord it over him.

Wei Yuan harbored this thought and turned his gaze toward Tie Yuyang.

There seemed to be an unspoken understanding between them. They simultaneously looked at each other, recognizing the implicit, resolute determination in the other’s eyes to eliminate the Nan Clan.

Wei Yuan was no easy mark. Seeing the masters of the other guilds paralyzed by fear and reluctant to advance, he devised a plan. His eyes darted, and he spoke a massive reward that was sure to set the hearts of every desperate desperado present ablaze: “Whoever kills the demonic rogue, whoever severs his head, shall be rewarded with ten thousand Gold Leaves! Whoever severs one of his arms shall be rewarded with one thousand Gold Leaves!”

Wei Yuan’s voice was as loud as a bronze gong, imbued with inner cultivation. The explosive shout made the martial artists within a mile of the tavern feel a faint ringing of metal against metal in their ears.

Great rewards breed brave men. Ten thousand Gold Leaves were enough to drive any desperate martial artist into a frenzy. Immediately, cries of astonishment erupted from the crowd. “I’m going! I’m going!” “That reward is mine! Nobody tries to steal it from me!” “Move aside, you in front! Don’t block my path to wealth!”

Morale instantly soared skyward.

Tie Yuyang stared at the explosive scene, dumbfounded, muttering a silent apology to himself: Ginger is truly spicier when it’s old. These martial world folk aren't afraid of death; they’re only afraid of insufficient compensation.

The second wave of suicide squad members, over a hundred lithe and vigorous elites brimming with fighting spirit, formed in an instant and charged toward the tavern, surrounding Nan Tianxiong three layers deep, hacking frantically at the protective Golden Light Shield covering him.

Downstairs, even the third and fourth suicide squads were assembled in remarkably short order. Men die for money, and birds starve for food. If they were lucky enough to cleave off the head of that demon and claim ten thousand Gold Leaves, they wouldn't need to worry for ten lifetimes. Even just severing an arm was worth one thousand Gold Leaves—enough to live lavishly for a lifetime.

Spurred on by the immense rewards, the roughnecks completely forgot the danger, excitedly surrounding Nan Tianxiong and hacking and slashing with a chaotic barrage.

Nan Tianxiong, after finishing off the hundred-plus second-rate experts, had not left the Yongfu Tavern. He remained seated on the third floor, meditating to restore his mana. He had estimated that a single Wind Blade spell, killing a hundred masters, would be enough to intimidate the ants surrounding the tavern.

Furthermore, leaving was difficult. The tavern was encased in several miles of dense human presence; the sheer number of people made breaking out exhausting. So, he stayed put, meditating to recover his power while waiting for a chance to use the Wind Blade spell to make the guilds retreat out of fear.

However, he had not anticipated that these martial world figures cared little for their lives and instead attacked him madly, lured by money.

Nan Tianxiong was exceedingly irritated, his whiskers twitching in anger. The ordinary sword and blade attacks from these ants couldn't breach his protective shield, but they created a different problem: maintaining the Golden Light Shield normally required only a trivial drain on his mana, but when the shield was struck by external force, the mana consumption would multiply exponentially. The stronger the external attack, the greater the drain.

Although he faced a swarm of contemptible ants, their suicidal hacking was forcing him to expend more mana maintaining the shield than he could possibly recover. He was only a cultivator at the second layer of the Qi Refining Stage; his internal mana reserves were not vast. He had already expended the majority of his power casting a minor Wind Blade spell earlier. If this harassment continued, these ants might very well drain his mana entirely, exhausting him to death.

Nan Tianxiong raged inwardly and immediately began weaving hand seals, intending to condense mana once more to unleash the Wind Blade technique, wiping out the hundred-plus second and third-rate experts surrounding him, letting these ants taste his might again.

But this time, no matter how hard he strained, he couldn't draw sufficient mana from his core to cast another Wind Blade.

The men of the suicide squad, seeing Nan Tianxiong begin his somatic spell, were momentarily terrified and retreated several steps. However, after waiting for quite a while and seeing no result from Nan Tianxiong, they burst into wild joy and surged forward again.

A few of them even shouted in delight.

“Brothers, chop faster! That demon rogue can’t use his magic anymore—he’s finished!” “Smash him harder!” All sorts of heavy iron bars, clubs, and great broadswords began raining down on the Golden Light Shield in a fierce, renewed onslaught. The wooden floor of the third story could not bear the heavy pressure and collapsed. With a loud boom, Nan Tianxiong and the hundred-plus men crashed down onto the floor of the second story in a heap.

Falling one story high wasn't fatal. Nan Tianxiong stumbled, his hat askew. The roughnecks dusted themselves off, patted their behinds, and resumed their furious hammering against Nan Tianxiong's Golden Light Shield. Every second, several weapons slammed against the shield, causing it to vibrate wildly.

Outside the building, the thousands of guild members saw the situation turning favorable and cheered along.

All eyes were fixed upon the Yongfu Tower.

The appearance of Ye Qin drew little attention. He blended into the crowd, gazing from a distance at the fray in the tavern. Nan Tianxiong, besieged by a hundred martial arts experts, appeared to be unable to conjure any more spells.

This somewhat surprised Ye Qin. Had Nan Tianxiong’s mana truly been depleted? He activated his Spiritual Eye technique and observed Nan Tianxiong from afar, noticing that the man was blazing with golden light, with only a very faint white glow circulating within.

Ye Qin remained immersed in the boisterous crowd, cautiously avoiding exposure. In his estimation, the Nan Clan had existed for over a hundred years; they shouldn't be so weak that their patriarch would be battered to death by a group of second and third-rate experts. He wasn't sure if Nan Tianxiong possessed any hidden trump cards, and he had no intention of rashly charging forward to sacrifice himself.