As dawn broke, the clandestine warfare between the martial factions in Zhuqi County had raged through the entire night, leaving hundreds of civilian residences, taverns, and inns burned or smashed. Countless disciples of the Medicine King Sect perished in the chaos, and their primary compound, the Hall of Herb Gathering, was finally breached by the combined forces of the Nine Great Gangs, with only a handful of stragglers escaping in the rout.

The Nine Great Gangs did not emerge unscathed; they suffered immense casualties among their elite fighters during the siege and ultimate confrontation with Nan Tianxiong. They left behind a large contingent of common members to continue hunting down the remaining remnants of the Herb Gathering Hall within the county limits.

The high-ranking leaders of the Nine Great Gangs dared not linger in Zhuqi County. They had already fled back to Wan'an City, the capital of Pingzhou, accompanied by a select group of trusted, elite confidants. Since Nan Tianxiong, the Patriarch of the Nan Clan, had escaped the previous night, and the whereabouts of another young Nan clansman were unknown, they knew they had to be wary of retaliation from the Nan family.

As soon as daylight arrived, tens of thousands of terrified commoners in the county began fleeing in disarray, clutching their bundles, leading their children, hoping to find refuge in the countryside away from the bloodshed. Among them were wealthy merchants and powerful households, traveling in opulent carriages drawn by magnificent horses, closely guarded by dozens of anxious retainers. There were also the destitute and beggars, owning nothing but an iron pot and a tattered mat, making their exit.

Some burly, vicious thugs from the Nine Great Gangs stood guard at the four city gates, holding large sabers, methodically inspecting every citizen leaving the city, hoping to catch any disguised remnants of the Herb Gathering Hall trying to slip out in the confusion. The streams of desperate people rushing to leave dared not voice their anger toward these martial law enforcers.

In Zhuqi County, certain smaller factions and low-level ruffians who held old grudges against the Herb Gathering Hall were busy looting the abandoned mansions of the fallen sect. They were seizing any valuable goods they could find, though most of what they found consisted only of minor trinkets or the remnants of broken furniture.

Mingled within the chaotic throng of fleeing citizens were two unremarkable young men, dressed in coarse, commoner's cloth, driving a simple two-wheeled wooden cart pulled by a small, grey donkey.

The cart was incredibly dilapidated, consisting of little more than the donkey, a plank of wood, and a pair of wooden wheel hubs—nothing like the luxurious carriages of the affluent families.

Driving the cart from the front was a dark-skinned, sturdy young man in a short shirt, clearly accustomed to hard labor, possessing thick, powerful arms. However, he seemed to walk with a slight limp.

Sitting on the cart was another young man in a coarse cloth shirt. His features were ordinary, possessing a somewhat gentle and shy demeanor, and he was impeccably clean despite his simple attire. The cart also carried several woven baskets filled with low-value goods intended for trade in the countryside, including bolts of cloth, tea, oil, salt, ceramic jars, and high-quality preserved meats—items rarely seen in the rural areas.

The dark, sturdy youth driving the cart spotted the nearly one hundred burly gang members blocking the city gate and grew somewhat flustered. He turned back toward the young man in the long shirt sitting behind him on the cart and muttered in a deep voice, "Brother Qin, there are people checking everyone at the gate. What do we do?"

"It's nothing. Just keep moving forward!"

The young man seated in the rear replied calmly. In his hand, he toyed with several vine seeds he had casually plucked from the roadside.

When the small donkey cart reached the gate, a low-level thug—whose gang affiliation was impossible to discern—stared at them with bloodshot eyes and shouted rudely, "Stop! Get off the cart! Who are you?"

The young man in the long shirt on the cart let out a contemptuous snort, quickly recited a few incantations under his breath, "Entangle Spell!" With a flick of his index finger, he shot out one of the vine seeds he was playing with, wrapped in a thread of spiritual power.

The seed, encased in the subtle magic, struck the thug directly in the forehead. The thug’s eyes instantly widened in horror as green vines sprouted instantly from his skin. He let out a piercing scream as the vines rapidly constricted around his limbs and torso, quickly binding him like a cocoon. He twitched violently for a moment before falling silent.

"Whoa! A plant demon, a plant demon!"

"Monsters are loose!"

The scene at the city gate instantly descended into chaos. The martial arts thugs were stunned; they had never encountered a rampaging plant demon appearing in broad daylight in their eight lifetimes. Dropping their weapons, they fled in panic. The exiting citizens surged forward in a collective rush, flowing out of the city gates like a river in flood.

Half an hour later.

"It’s truly strange. Our county has always been peaceful; why would a plant demon suddenly appear? Nearly scared me to death in broad daylight!"

Cheng Daniu mumbled to himself, sitting in the front of the donkey cart, gleefully cracking the whip and driving along the small country path. He was heading back to his mountain village for the first time, and spending so lavishly on so many goods had his dark, ruddy face split in a wide, beaming smile.

Ten li from the county, the common folk had scattered in various directions, the population thinned, and the mountain paths grew steadily more rugged.

Cheng Daniu bounced on the cart, urging the stubborn little grey donkey along, occasionally looking back toward Ye Qin seated on the wooden plank and shouting, "Brother Qin, hold tight! The road is steep, don't fall off!"

"Daniu, just focus on driving. I’ve practiced martial arts for a few years; this cart won't shake me off."

Ye Qin lay comfortably on the plank, flipping through a book, a serene smile on his face. He felt uneasy about letting Daniu return alone; with the current chaos among the gangs, it wouldn't be good if some ill-intentioned martial artists took advantage of the situation to rob him. Moreover, after being away for so long, he too wanted to return home. Perhaps this would be his last visit.

On the journey back, Ye Qin browsed through several books he had acquired from Nan Tianxiong.

One was the Wind Spirit Scripture, another was the Compendium of Five Elements Basic Sorceries, and the third was the Nan Clan Genealogy. He had obtained these from Nan Tianxiong, and he intended to use them to confront Nan Tianba within the Floating Island and eliminate this most threatening hidden danger.

Ye Qin pondered for a moment and decided to read the Nan Clan Genealogy first.

The Nan Clan Genealogy meticulously recorded the ancestral origins of the family, along with the names, biographies, and detailed information of every cultivator within the clan for the past century. It also documented every major event that transpired within the family.

Naturally, only the cultivating members of the Nan Clan enjoyed such detailed scrutiny.

The hundreds of mortal, non-cultivating members of the Nan Clan were listed in the genealogy with only a very brief entry of their names and bloodline inheritance, lacking any further detailed introduction—a stark contrast to the treatment afforded to the cultivator members.

The final major event recorded in the Nan Clan Genealogy was the "Nan Clan Expedition to Dingzhou and the Campaign against the Feng Clan."

The book provided a complete account of this incident.

Ye Qin had heard some details about it from Nan Tianba, so he was somewhat familiar with the context, but not with this level of detail.

Twenty years prior, the Nan Clan had five cultivators in total. The clan dispatched four of them on an expedition to Dingzhou in the Wu Kingdom, only to have three of them killed by the Feng Clan. Nan Tianba, Nan Tianba's wife, and Nan Tianba's uncle perished; only the weakest, Nan Tianxiong, managed to flee back. For the next two decades, Nan Tianxiong, along with Nan Zhonghao (Nan Tianba's son, who was only six or seven and did not participate in the battle), and Nan Zhongjie (Nan Tianxiong's son, born after the war), lived in constant hiding, fearing pursuit and assassination attempts from the Feng Clan.

After reading this passage, Ye Qin breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out the Nan family consisted of only five or six people in total. Apart from Nan Zhongjie, who was only fifteen and at the first level of Qi Refining, whose whereabouts were unknown, almost everyone else was dead. He no longer needed to worry about several powerful Nan Clan cultivators emerging to seek vengeance.

Within the Nan Clan Genealogy, Ye Qin located the biography of Nan Tianba.

This instantly piqued his intense interest.

"Nan Tianba: The sixteenth Patriarch of the Nan Clan. Biography (omitted). Nan Tianba, single Earth Spiritual Root, the most outstanding cultivation prodigy since the founding of the Nan Clan, reaching the fifth level of Qi Refining by the age of forty. Nan Tianba mastered two types of sorcery: Earth and Fire. Earth sorceries include Earth Evasion Technique, Quicksand Art, Stone Armor Technique, Stone Shield Technique, Stone Dragon Technique, Stone Golem, Earth Spike Technique, and more than ten other basic and introductory Earth elemental spells. For the Fire element, he mastered only the Fireball Technique, a single basic Fire spell."

Ye Qin was inwardly astonished. How could a cultivator with a single Earth Spiritual Root cast a basic Fire spell? He was puzzled. Furthermore, he had never witnessed Nan Tianba use any Earth spells; he had only seen Nan Tianba launch Fireballs several times. Regardless, if the biography was accurate, then Nan Tianba’s greatest advantage and weakness lay here: he had only mastered basic and introductory Earth spells, along with a single Fireball Technique.

Today’s four chapters are complete, averaging 25,000 characters per chapter, totaling 100,000 characters. Updates will continue tomorrow morning! .