Nan Song

Nan Song is a warm but formidable elder of Dark Mountain Tribe. He teases the young Su Ming like family, then becomes one of the principal defenders of the tribe's flight from Black Mountain. His healing and Verdant Berserk Chains keep Su and others alive at the cost of his own remaining life. Shan Hen's betrayal prevents his last effort to heal the group, and Nan Song's death becomes one of the grievances Su avenges.

Biography

From storehouse guardian to last defense

Nan Song first guards the tribe's herbal storehouse, encouraging Su through his hesitation with jokes about having once competed with Mo Sang in courtship. During the migration he abandons that easygoing role and throws himself into the rear guard. He heals Su when the boy would otherwise die, restrains pursuers with earth and mud, and uses Verdant Berserk Chains even as each activation leaves him paler and more withered. His priority is the tribe's survival: he protects Shan Hen without knowing of the betrayal and plans to return the life he has taken from Lei Chen through one last healing. (Chapters 20–99)

Shan Hen's poisoned blade prevents blood-vein detonation and ruins that final plan. Nan Song acknowledges that he was already near death, but the wound denies him the chance to spend what remains as he chooses. He dies after the rear guard succeeds in buying time. The tribe buries him with its fallen, while Su later names him as one reason for personally killing Shan Hen. (Chapters 99–110)

A borrowed face among the Immortals

Much later, Su encounters an Immortal formation populated by figures wearing the faces of Dark Mountain's dead, including Nan Song. Some look at him with complicated emotions, but these manifestations belong to the enemy's manipulation of his memories and should not be treated as Nan Song's resurrection or changed allegiance. Their appearance deepens the cruelty of the trap precisely because the real Nan Song died protecting Su and the tribe. (Chapters 650–694)

Appearance and personality

Nan Song is an old man whose hair remains imposing even after death. He is gentle, teasing, and reassuring toward the tribe's young people, but decisive under attack. His willingness to heal others while nearing death, shield the man who secretly betrayed him, and continue fighting after his body withers defines a loyalty stronger than self-preservation. (Chapters 20, 89–110)

Abilities and cultivation

Nan Song is a veteran Berserker with powerful blood Qi and battlefield perception. He senses approaching cultivators, uses a giant bloody palm to drive pursuers back, and raises mud vortices and hands from the earth to bind several enemies. The earth restraint can be broken by stronger opponents and requires him to stop and channel while allies buy time. (Chapters 89–99)

His Verdant Berserk Chains externalize a green human-shaped light from a crack in his brow. It can enter an ally and rapidly restore clarity and wounds, or confront an enemy manifestation. The art consumes Nan Song's vitality; Bi Tu knows a more complete form and shatters it, leaving Nan Song withered. Poison that coagulates blood also prevents his intended final self-detonation and healing exchange. (Chapters 95–99)

Relationships

• Su Ming: A beloved junior whom Nan Song encourages, heals, and protects; Su later avenges him.
• Mo Sang: Old friend and joking rival from their youth.
• Shan Hen: Fellow defender whom Nan Song saves before Shan Hen betrays and mortally wounds him.
• Dark Mountain Tribe: The community for which he spends his life and whose escape his rear guard makes possible.

Items

• Herbal storehouse: Nan Song guards the communal medicines in peacetime; it is a responsibility, not his personal property.
• Poisoned curved blade: The weapon used against him, designed to coagulate a powerful Berserker's blood and prevent self-detonation.