Nalan Yanran's world-shaking wisdom

Wutan City, the Mittel Auction House.

Ever since the night she arrived in Wutan City, Nalan Yanran had not seen her grandmaster again.

She had no idea where Yun Congxin had gone or what he was doing, but she still remembered what Yun Congxin had said on their way here: disciples of the Misty Cloud Sect would come to make trouble for the Xiao Clan.

So Nalan Yanran secretly checked on the Xiao Clan every day. If disciples of the Misty Cloud Sect really came to cause trouble, she would teach those good-for-nothing disciples a lesson on Yun Congxin's behalf.

She saw no disciples of the Misty Cloud Sect, but the events that followed soon went beyond her expectations.

The Xiao Clan suddenly closed its doors to visitors and withdrew the personnel overseeing its Marketplaces. Immediately afterward, the Ao Ba Family and Jia Lie Family also recalled their forces outside. For a time, every Marketplace in Wutan City shut down, and large quantities of wound medicine were transported into the three families' compounds. Even the air seemed thick with the smell of gunpowder on the eve of war.

The tension in Wutan City had now reached its limit. The city was like a heap of dry kindling; a single spark would turn it into flames of war that soared into the sky.

Everyone knew something momentous was about to happen. The once-bustling Wutan City was now deathly silent. Unaffiliated cultivators and wounded mercenaries had withdrawn, while most of the city's residents had fled to their old homes in the countryside for refuge.

Only a small number who truly had nowhere to go and still clung to a sliver of hope remained. They all stayed behind closed doors, praying the flames of war would not spread to them.

During this period, even the Mittel Auction House urgently increased its security staff.

Today was the fourth day since the Xiao Clan had closed its doors to visitors. The Jia Lie Family's petty maneuvers were growing more frequent, yet the Xiao Clan had still mounted no effective retaliation.

Not long ago, Nalan Yanran had seen an entire Mercenary Corps enter Wutan City. Clad in armor and carrying sharp weapons, they swaggered straight into territory that had originally belonged to the Xiao Clan.

In the past, this rabble, which did not have even a single Da Dou Shi among them, would not have dared cut in line at the Xiao Family Market. Now they were smashing and wrecking everything there with abandon.

Brandishing weapons in broad daylight, they acted without the slightest restraint. Soon, glaring flames appeared throughout the Xiao Family Market, and billowing black smoke rose into the clouds amid arrogant laughter!

Nalan Yanran would never believe that the Jia Lie Family and Ao Ba Family were not backing these people!

"Things have gone this far, and still no one has come to stop them. The Xiao Clan must have suffered a disaster. Who could have done it? Did the Misty Cloud Sect really make a move? Could it have been those people in black robes? Why didn't I notice even the slightest disturbance?"

Nalan Yanran was baffled. Even a Dou Ling expert could not necessarily deal the Xiao Clan such a devastating blow without her noticing anything, could they?

Could it have been a Dou Wang expert? That made no sense. There were only so many experts in the entire Jia Ma Empire who had reached the Dou Wang level. No matter which faction sent a Dou Wang expert, her grandmaster would surely have noticed!

Right, where was Grandmaster?!

Hadn't he said they were coming to Wutan City to prevent the Misty Cloud Sect's disciples from running amok and taking revenge on the Xiao Clan?

Why was she still dutifully checking on the Xiao Clan every day, while Grandmaster himself had disappeared?

"Could Grandmaster be testing me, making me resolve this disaster facing the Xiao Clan on my own?"

Never in his wildest dreams had Yun Congxin imagined that his absurd behavior—deciding on a whim to bring her to Wutan City, then turning around and forgetting her at the Mittel Auction House—would inspire Nalan Yanran to invent such an excuse for him!

Nalan Yanran trimmed the candlewick before her while pondering her next move, completely unaware that she was gripping the scissors so tightly they had begun to bend.

The Jia Lie Family and Ao Ba Family's current actions were just like the candlewick before her: they wanted it to burn, but dared not let the flames grow too strong.

Because they were unsure of the Xiao Clan's actual condition, they dared not launch a full-scale attack and push all their stakes onto the gambling table.

So they had invited wolves into the house, bringing in these mercenaries who acted without any scruples. Even if the mercenaries smashed, looted, robbed, murdered, and committed every imaginable evil, dragging Wutan City's residents into the disaster, the blame would not fall on the Jia Lie Family.

Who had told those people to side with the Xiao Clan all this time?

Now that the Xiao Clan had shut its doors and refused to emerge, hadn't it simply treated them as discarded pawns?

If discarded pawns were slaughtered, shouldn't they blame themselves for having been blind enough to choose the wrong side?

But if the Xiao Clan really did make a move, the two families would immediately cut ties with this band of vicious mercenaries, and might even hypocritically lead their men over to offer "help."

Then what if a Da Dou Shi appeared at the Xiao Clan now—a Da Dou Shi who had never appeared in Wutan City before, a young Da Dou Shi of twenty? Would the influence such a person represented make the two families more wary, slowing their advance?

Nalan Yanran looked at the candle flame by the window and the fires in the distance. She seemed to hear desperate cries, along with the mercenaries' wild laughter.

Perhaps it was because she was wearing the Ice Silk Silkworm Mask, or perhaps it was the inexplicable agitation in her heart, but Nalan Yanran felt her face itching. She scratched it hard and hastily made her decision.

To drive off these outsiders who were running amok, her own strength would not be enough. She needed to drape herself in a tiger's hide and wave a mighty banner—which faction's name would be safest to use?

The Misty Cloud Sect was certainly out of the question. On the surface, its current relationship with the Xiao Clan could hardly be called friendly, and the same went for the Nalan Family. What about the Mittel Family? That might be plausible in the Imperial Capital, but in a remote place like Wutan City, people probably did not even know of Xiao Yan's friendship with the Mittel Family.

The situation was urgent, and Nalan Yanran had no time to think further. She chose the faction that seemed safest: the Alchemist Guild in the Imperial Capital!

Now she was one of the helpers Xiao Yan had asked the Alchemist Guild in the Imperial Capital to send!

As the champion of the Alchemist Tournament, Xiao Yan had also thwarted the Chu Yun Empire's plot. Naturally, the Imperial Capital's Alchemist Guild owed him a favor.

If he asked the Alchemist Guild to intervene, the help it summoned would surely amount to more than a mere Da Dou Shi. More powerful experts would certainly be following behind!

The logic held together. Perfectly reasonable!

Nalan Yanran had completely failed to consider that this spectacle in Wutan City had been playing out for less than a week, while Xiao Yan's time wandering around the Imperial Capital had been long before that. How could he have known in advance?

Could he foresee the future?

This foolish girl! Once hot blood surged through her veins, she made a show of finding an excuse to persuade herself, then charged toward the fray without a care for anything else.

She really never learned!

But Nalan Yanran could no longer worry about all that. She drew her longsword from her Storage Ring and rushed toward the fires.

Foolish though she was, at this moment, she finally possessed a trace of the bearing Yun Potian had once had.

For ten years, a sword was honed; its frost-bright edge had yet to be tried.

Today, I draw it forth for you—who has a wrong that needs redressing?