Nanjing Youth

  For two months, most of the Jianghu gangs in Zhugui County had already dispersed, and tens of thousands of refugees who fled the county seat had not yet fully returned. The county seat was empty and desolate. The traces left by the great chaos could not be erased for a long time. The chaotic graves outside the city added thousands of corpses. The streets, wine houses, and inns in the county seat still had many marks of Jianghu people fighting and burning.

  On this day, a young man from the remote countryside walked into the county town with a package on his back and came to the Medicine Hall in the northwest of the city. This mansion of several hectares was completely destroyed in that great chaos, all gold, silver, treasures, martial arts secrets, medicines, and anything slightly valuable were looted. Even the bricks, tiles, and beams from the ruins were secretly taken away by the county town residents to rebuild their own houses.

  The disciples of the Medicine King Hall had long since dispersed, either dead or fled.

  Three or four stray dogs and cats, still rummaging through the ruins, sniffing and digging for food. They occasionally raised their heads, their dull and dim eyes glanced at Ye Qin a few times, feeling no threat, and continued to lower their heads and dig, deeply burying the corpses under the rubble.

  Ye Qin's heart was filled with a mix of emotions, and she couldn't help but feel that things were not as they should be.

  He lived in this place for five or six years, from the age of eleven he entered the Medicine Hall to learn medicine and the "Sit and Forget Sutra" from Master Wang. He followed Xie Ze into the mountains to gather herbs with four fellow disciples for three years, after which they parted ways and each went their own way to gather herbs. In a flash, five or six years had passed. But one Medicine Assembly was enough to destroy the centuries-old foundation of the Medicine King Sect and the Medicine Hall, root and all.

  He left the ruins of the Medicine Hall and came to a tavern near the county town's post station, where many guests came and went. He planned to stay in the county for a few days, refine some spiritual elixirs, and then set out for Wan'an City, the capital of Pingzhou Prefecture, to venture out and see the world.

  In the county town, some idle rascals gathered in twos and threes under the awning of a wine shop, ordering a few jars of turbid wine, a plate of stir-fried beans, and a dish of pork liver. With these, they could engage in lofty discussions for half a day, appearing to be all-knowing.

  Ye Qin found an inconspicuous place in the tavern and sat down.

  "In the past two months, Yao Wang Gang has become a target of public criticism. Not only was the medicinal hall in Zhujici County Town smashed, but also the main halls and branch halls in Pingzhou Prefecture and eight major county towns were all destroyed one by one, becoming the first of the top ten gangs in Pingzhou to be eradicated. Tsk tsk, what a big move!"

  "It serves them right! I've always disliked those sons of Adopted Medicine Hall, they're always looking down on others with their noses in the air. As expected, they finally got what was coming to them, it's really satisfying."

  "Hey, do you guys know about the Nan Clan? They're incredibly powerful. I heard that the Nan family once ruled over the ten major gangs of Pingzhou, but nine out of the ten gangs rebelled against them, and in the end, they clashed and blood flowed like a river."

  "What a pity that the three immortals of Nan's family all disappeared in this battle. Otherwise, I would have definitely asked them to be my masters and learn their astonishing immortal skills."

  "Cut it out, with your ugly face, you think you can be favored by the immortal? Forget about it. If I were to go and pay respects to a master, that would be more like it."

  "Is Mr. Nan still alive?"

  It is said that an old immortal died, and after the old immortal exerted his divine power to kill his way out of the city, his corpse was found outside the city the next day. The other two young immortals have not appeared again, and it is unknown whether they are alive or not.

  "I saw with my own eyes that a flying immortal killed the Old Man of the South. The Old Man of the South is still buried in a chaotic grave outside the city of Zhujici County. Recently, many tomb raiders have come here for two months, searching everywhere for the corpse of the Southern family to find the Immortal's Urn. It seems that no one has found it yet. Why don't we also go and try our luck!"

  ......

  Ye Qin laughed at the absurd remarks of these rascals. After finishing his tea, he rested for a while in the wine shop, then threw a few copper coins on the table as tea money and prepared to go to his private mansion in the county town.

  However, he saw a big tree not far from the wine shop, standing under it was a 15 or 16-year-old boy wearing wrinkled white clothes, with a sword on his back, one hand touching his belly, his stomach growling with hunger, looking enviously at the men drinking and eating meat at the wine table, seemingly having not eaten a full meal for a long time.

  Ye Qin was stunned for a moment, and her feet immediately stopped moving.

  With his eyesight and memory, anyone he had met before would never be forgotten. Wasn't this young man Nan Zhong Jie? How could he be here, and why did he look somewhat dispirited?

  Ye Qin was puzzled, and used his spiritual eye technique to scan the white-clothed youth. Indeed, there was a faint white airflow in his body's meridians, roughly equivalent to the first layer of Qi Refining stage's magical power.

  It's been two months since the war ended, why is Nan Zhongjie still in Zhu Qi County?

  Ye Qin picked up her package and walked towards Nan Zhongjie, wanting to get to the bottom of things.

  Nan Zhong Jie caught sight of a young stranger walking towards him out of the corner of his eye, initially not paying much attention, but soon realized that the other person was also a cultivator, and his face suddenly changed to a pale complexion.

  As a cultivator, the difference in cultivation caused by spiritual pressure is not something that can be hidden from others. Ye Qin was at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, and compared to Nan Zhongjie who was three layers lower, he possessed an intense spiritual pressure that could intimidate others. When they were farther apart, it might not have been noticeable, but once they got within ten or more zhang of each other, this spiritual pressure became even more pronounced.

  Nan Zhong Jie took a few steps back, immediately turned around and grasped the hilt of his sword behind him, asking in alarm: "Who are you? What do you want to do?"

  Ye Qin didn't want to scare him, so he stopped in his tracks and said calmly: "I'm just a passing cultivator, I don't have any malicious intentions. I just happened to see you here. I find it strange that as a fellow cultivator, how could you end up like this? Didn't your family give you enough money?"

  "Are you really a cultivator who has transcended the mortal realm?"

  "Of course, didn't you see me hurrying with a bundle on my back? I came from elsewhere and plan to stay in this county town for a few days before leaving."

  "So, do you know people from Dingzhou's Feng family?"

  "I don't know."

  Ye Qin shook his head.

  Nan Zhong Jie saw that the stranger in front of him was only one or two years older than himself, with a gentle and polite tone, without any malicious intent, and seemingly unrelated to the Feng family of Dingzhou. He slightly put down his guard and looked at his current disheveled appearance, feeling somewhat ashamed as he lowered his head: "I've brought shame to my family."

  Ye Qin smiled secretly in her heart and asked knowingly, "Oh, lost face? What's going on?"

  Nan Zhong Jie was quite familiar, and Ye Qin was also very kind. He quickly opened up and said: "Two months ago, my father asked me to go after a martial artist named Wei Yuan, but that Wei Yuan was too cunning, and he had several substitutes. I killed one of the fake ones, but let the real one escape, and no matter where I looked, I couldn't find him. Later, when I returned to Yongfu Wine Tower, I found out that my father had already been forced out of the county. The next day, when I found him outside the city, he had already been brutally murdered by the Ten Great Martial Sects. After burying my father, I waited in the county for my older cousin, but he also didn't know where he went, and to this day, there's no sign of him. I didn't have much valuable stuff on me either, and over these two months, it was all pawned off and spent. For the past two days, I've been hunting wild game outside the city, but I'm not very good at roasting meat, and it always ends up burnt. It's been several days since I last had a decent meal."

  Nan Zhong Jie didn't explain, which was good. Once he explained, Ye Qin became even more puzzled. "You don't have money, but you have magical powers! Just casually earn some money, for example, by robbing... uh, this isn't very good either, it's too beneath your status. Even if it's just to rob from the rich and give to the poor temporarily, you can return it to others when you have money later. In any case, it shouldn't be to the point where you're starving, right?"

  Nan Zhong Jie widened his simple eyes: "Originally, I wanted to find some work to do and earn some money for food. But I searched the entire city, those shop owners saw my appearance and were scared away, no one wanted me to work. Also, this big brother, the Nan family's ancestral teachings are strictly forbidden from relying on immortal techniques to burn, kill, plunder and do evil. Unless the patriarch orders it, I cannot take other people's things, let alone rob."

  “......”

  Ye Qin was speechless, unable to utter a word for a moment.

  The Nan family members are indeed each unique. The previous head of the clan, Nan Tianba, was exceptionally talented and ambitious, with some rascal tendencies. The next head of the clan, Nan Tianxiong, had low cultivation but was ruthless and merciless, willing to eliminate the upper echelons of the ten major sects to solidify the Nan family's position. As for Nan Zhonghao, he was too arrogant and recklessly went to challenge the number one swordsman in Pingzhou, Tie Yuanyang, resulting in his defeat and death. This current Nan Zhongjie, however, is somewhat overly timid and strictly adheres to the ancestral teachings, not daring to take anything that belongs to ordinary people.

  The grudge between Ye Qin and the Nan family was mainly caused by Nan Tianba. Nan Tianba's primordial spirit had thoroughly died, and his grudge with the Nan family was also written off. He didn't have any malicious intentions towards this Nan Zhongjie.

  Ye Qin knew that Nan Zhong Hao had long since passed away, and Nan Zhong Jie was not going to wait for his elder brother's return. He spent a few copper coins and asked the wine shop owner at the city gate for a large plate of braised beef, letting Nan Zhong Jie sit down at the base of the big tree to eat.