An immortal sect disciple and the dragon grandson Ke the Thirteenth had come to blows, with a great commotion, and swept away a thousand li.

Among the water-kin and the cultivators the accounts ran every way.

Some said they had felt the Cloud-Soaring Sect's aura; some said they had seen that ancient-sword Dao Palace with its bared edge, and that it was certainly the Heaven-Sword Sect's doing.

It had ended with the turtle-kin all missing, and the Lord of Xuanyue City's daughter likewise vanished away.

Between the Nanhong Seven and the South Dragon Palace there had not been a clash as direct as this for a very long while, and for a time every living thing in Nanhong was somewhat uneasy.

The former hold the land; the latter is master of the waters.

To look at it, their standing is equal.

But under the overawing weight of the other three Dragon Palaces, the Nanhong Seven have always been the more careful of the two; and the four Dragon Palaces, however they may disagree among themselves on ordinary days, have never once changed in facing outward as one.

However one puts it.

Whichever side makes a move, for an ordinary power it is a calamity like a disaster out of heaven.

"……"

Yin Qizhang returned to the City Lord's residence.

Faced with the eyes of a great many old hands of the household, he did no more than send a good many people out to search.

To look at, there seemed to be nothing wrong with that reaction.

But among those close to him who knew him well, the faces turned somewhat odd.

Miss Yin was missing.

A father looking for his daughter is a thing that stands to reason anywhere on earth — and yet the City Lord made no move at all.

It was not as though he would be giving offense to the Nanhong Seven or the Dragon Palace; on that day, after all, everyone had seen the City Lord stay quietly inside the city, and it was certainly not his doing.

Merely to send disciples out to…