Hatred Etched into His Bones

Xivia and Shenghua stood side by side, waving vigorously.

Xiao Yun smiled at them and clasped his hands in salute.

"Take care."

He squeezed his legs against the horse's flanks. The white horse gave a long neigh and galloped down the Imperial Road.

Behind him, the manor gradually receded into the distance.

When he looked back, he seemed to see the Peach Forest of Spring Garden, the Lotus Pond of Summer Garden, the maple leaves of Autumn Garden, and the clubs of Winter Garden, all standing quietly beneath the morning light.

The twenty-four small courtyards were scattered throughout the grounds, and lights still shone in some of them.

That was their home.

And his home as well.

He withdrew his gaze and looked ahead.

The Imperial Road wound into the distance.

Far ahead lay the endless peaks of the Dragon Ascending Mountain Range.

There lay his fief, and his future.

At the edge of Sunset Forest, a solitary figure staggered onward.

Tang San could no longer remember how long he had been walking.

After parting from his father, he had headed north alone. Following the map his father had given him, he had tried to pass along the edge of Star Dou Great Forest and reach a destination he had never heard of. Yet on the third day after leaving his father, news struck him like a bolt from the blue, shattering his entire being.

Tang Hao was dead.

The man who had stood like a mountain in his eyes, the father who would have given everything to protect him, was dead.

He had died at the hands of Spirit Hall.

Tang San did not know how that news had reached him. Perhaps it had come from a passing caravan, perhaps from a Soul Master he had encountered by chance,