The gates of the Mu Family Old Manor stood wide open in every direction. Broken locks and shattered doors littered the ground.
Outsiders streamed in and out of the granaries, storerooms, and other places, carrying away the wealth the lineage had accumulated over generations. Female family members were driven into the open courtyard, called out one by one, numbered, and registered.
By the wells and ponds, people held bamboo poles, fishing out the corpses of those who had drowned themselves.
Corpses were constantly dragged away from the walls, railings, and stone steps, while the bloodstains on the white stone were scrubbed clean...
The Lian and Zhou Families' men were thoroughly clearing every courtyard and building. Not a single dead corner was overlooked. Secret chambers and mechanisms were uncovered one by one, smashed apart, burned, and laid bare beneath the sun.
In certain shadowed corners, the family's male descendants stood in groups, lined up for execution. Corpses piled into mountains, and blood filled even the drainage channels.
All of it fell into Mu Lingshe's eyes, reflected in his sorrowful pupils.
"My cultivation fell short, and I left the sect to return home. Just as my honored master foretold, when the sacred deer received the venerable god's hand upon its crown and fortune descended upon it, it fled in fright instead, turning back into the forest."
"The world laughs at the sacred deer for being muddleheaded and unenlightened. How could they know that the sacred deer loved the joy of running free through the woods, yet had no taste for great opportunities!"
He raised a hand to his crown. Fragrant flowers circled his body as an aura of vast nobility rose around him.
The hundred-zhang Golden Arrow beneath his feet hummed and trembled. The countless rays of light multiplied a hundredfold, every