In Qingning City, in the southern part of the Dongze Wilderness.
At this moment, everyone was living in fear.
At the beginning of spring this year, a strong gale blew in Qingning for a whole day. That gale damaged many houses in the city.
Even the Nan family was affected.
Since Nan Feng was one of the outstanding disciples of the Wang family, the Nan family received more care from the Wangs. As a wealthy merchant family in Qingning, the Nans should have opened their granaries to relieve the victims at this time.
But they shut their doors tightly and ignored the victims.
On normal days when they were wealthy, the Nan family had often collected protection fees from the city's residents. Now that a disaster had struck, they turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.
According to Nan Tianyuan, he had suffered heavy losses himself, and the food in the granary was to be reserved for feeding the clan's monster beasts. There was no extra grain to share with others.
As if misfortune never came singly, at this time, the bandit den in the Qingning Mountains was uprooted by a tornado. Having lost their shelter, the bandits set their sights on the residents of Qingning City.
They looted houses, seized fertile fields, and bullied innocent women. They had done plenty of such things.
But no one dared to intervene.
There were three reasons.
First, the leader of the bandits was named Huang Sandong. He was also a spiritual herbalist, probably around the fifth level. He became a bandit simply because he worshipped killing and solving problems by force. He wasn't forced by anyone. In other words, he was a born villain.
Second, it was said that Huang Sandong was on good terms with a third - rank alchemist. In the Dongze Wilderness, only a very small number of people had the aptitude to be alchemists. So, ordinary people didn't dare to provoke him even more.
Third, Huang Sandong was sworn brothers with Nan Tianyuan. So, when Huang Sandong did evil deeds, Nan Tianyuan turned a blind eye, pretending not to see.
As a result, the people of Qingning had no chance to resist.
Recently, Huang Sandong had taken a fancy to a young girl.
The girl had just graduated from the Misty Rain Tower. She was the granddaughter of the Ling family. When the old master Ling was alive, he had treated this granddaughter very well.
The girl's parents had died early, and she had always lived with her grandfather. Her uncles and aunts in the family were extremely mean - spirited people.
When the old master Ling wasn't around, they had often been harsh on the girl.
Later, when the old master Ling felt that his health was failing, he took his last breath to send his granddaughter to the Misty Rain Tower for trials. And on the day the girl entered the school, the old master Ling passed away.
The girl from the Ling family was named Ling Sese.
Three years had passed, and she had returned.
The first thing she did after coming back was to go to the ancestral hall to pay homage to the old master Ling. But her uncles and aunts were not easy - going people. They demanded that Ling Sese earn 2,000 spirit stones before they would allow her to enter the ancestral hall to pay respects to the old master Ling.
So, when Ling Sese reached the fourth level, she started taking on tasks day and night, almost pushing her physical limits to the extreme.
Her uncles and aunts didn't like Ling Sese because she was the child of her father and a woman from a brothel. Her mother had died during childbirth, and her father couldn't bear it and jumped into the river, dying for love.
Since then, only a lonely young girl was left lying on the riverbank.
The child was innocent.
The old master Ling, while mourning the death of his son, took Ling Sese home.
Since childhood, many things about Ling Sese had been taught by the old master Ling himself. If it hadn't been for his failing health later, he wouldn't have given his last savings to the Misty Rain Tower to secure Ling Sese's enrollment.
After Ling Sese entered the school and the old master Ling died, her uncles and aunts became even more excessive. They even deprived Ling Sese of the Ling surname, believing that she didn't deserve it.
When she graduated this time and had saved enough spirit stones to give to her uncles and aunts in exchange for a chance to pay homage to her grandfather, she encountered the bandits coming down the mountain.
The bandits immediately occupied many valuable things in the Ling family.
At that time, Ling Sese's uncles and aunts were scared out of their wits and hid behind Ling Sese. However, although Sese was a spiritual herbalist, she was only at the third level. And even reaching the third level had cost her all her efforts.
But a third - level spiritual herbalist was like a child's play in front of Huang Sandong and not worthy of mention.
As an adult, Ling Sese was extremely delicate and charming. When Huang Sandong saw her, he thought she was like a lotus emerging from the water, and he couldn't take his eyes off her or shift his attention to other things.
He led his men out of the Ling family and left a harsh message.
If Ling Sese was willing to be his wife, he would spare the Ling family. He would not only return all the looted items but also protect the Ling family from being bullied by anyone in the future.
Ling Sese was only a 15 - year - old girl at that time.
But now her appearance was already the most beautiful in Qingning.
Only Huang Sandong could put forward such a shameless condition.
The people in several cities near Qingning had all heard of Huang Sandong. This man was in his thirties. There was no way he had any true feelings. When he was a mountain - king before, he had 36 concubines.
No one would believe that he had true feelings for Ling Sese. It was more likely that he was just infatuated with her beauty.
But Ling Sese's uncles and aunts didn't think so. At this moment, they invited Ling Sese to the main hall to discuss this matter with her.
"Sese, sit down."
The aunt, who usually had a scowling face, was now smiling at the girl.
If it weren't for the fact that she had once swept Ling Sese out of the house with a broom and fiercely told her never to come back, Ling Sese would almost have thought that the aunt's smile was sincere.
"I don't deserve such treatment."
Sese stood up. She had no nostalgia for this family at all. She just couldn't let go of her grandfather and wanted to pay homage to him.
The Ling family aunt gave her uncle a look.
Her uncle immediately forced a smile and said, "Sese, look, the situation is so urgent now. We are all from the Ling family. You can't just watch and do nothing while the large family fortune built by your grandfather is taken away by others, right?"
Sese took a few steps back to keep a distance from the heartless uncle and aunt.
"Uncle, you've already deprived me of the Ling surname. I have nothing to do with you anymore."
"Sese, blood is thicker than water. You can't be so heartless."
Heartless? Who was really heartless?
These two relatives who shared the same blood with her didn't think about rescuing her from the fire pit but only cared about their own interests and wanted to push her into it.
"Uncle, I'm only fifteen."
Fifteen was just the beginning of a girl's youth. Were they so cruel as to let her become the wife of a bandit like Huang Sandong?
"Fifteen isn't young. Your mother was only sixteen when she gave birth to you."
"That's why my mother died of exhaustion. Do you want me to end up like my mother?"