Outside Gaoye City.
Countless Ji Province refugees in tattered clothes wielded wooden clubs and broken blades, layer upon layer surrounding the city walls as they took turns charging the gates.
Howls and screams rose and fell one after another.
On a concealed barren hillside in the rear, tents stood in dense rows, steeped in a sinister, murderous aura.
This was the temporary main camp of the Incense God Cult and the remaining forces of the Gao, Ye, and Huang Three Great Families.
Inside a strange black tent trimmed in red.
Four figures sat within, each harboring their own schemes, yet united by the same goal.
The man seated at the head wore a black robe embroidered with blood-red incense patterns. His features were delicate and feminine, his eyes long and narrow, and an eerie aura capable of bewitching hearts lingered around him.
He was Xu Fu, Cult Leader of the Incense God Cult.
His cultivation had reached Bone Forging Early Stage. His methods were sinister and bizarre, and he excelled most at beguiling people and controlling refugees amid chaos.
Three people sat beneath him, each one a remaining leader of Gaoye City's old aristocratic families.
Gao Qiu, head of the Gao Family; Ye Chen, head of the Ye Family; and Huang Laoxie, head of the Huang Family.
The three families had once dominated one side of Gaoye City, controlling its shops, grain supplies, and connections, basking in limitless splendor.
But ever since the Panshi Fist Academy had risen to power, taken charge of the city's defenses, suppressed the private troops of the great families, and abolished the Lineages' separatist forces—
The three families had gradually declined, their foundations greatly damaged, leaving them no choice but to endure in silence and lie low.
Then chaos engulfed the land. Refugees from Ji