Old Enemy Appears

After everyone rushed into the rear courtyard, they found it already in utter disarray.

Dried corpses covered the ground. Whether they were highly skilled guards or servants and their families, all had already breathed their last. Their necks had been torn open, and their skin had taken on a ghastly pallor.

Among them were several children—the grandsons of Wang Maode.

The heavy stench of blood and filth, mixed with the sickly sweetness unique to corpses, had almost solidified, smearing itself viciously across the mouths and noses of everyone who charged into the courtyard.

Candlelight flickered, illuminating the broad bloody stains on the walls in alternating flashes of light and shadow.

In the main hall of the rear courtyard, a female Daoist sat with her head lowered in a grand chair.

The dim light made her look deeply mysterious.

Wang Maode, who arrived moments later, stared fixedly at two small corpses nearby.

They were his two grandsons. Now they looked like discarded rag dolls, shriveled and blue, frozen in crouched postures as they cried for help, their hollow eye sockets staring straight at the heavens.

A howl unlike any human voice exploded through the courtyard.

"Ah—!"

"Everyone, get her! Chop her to pieces! Chop her apart—!"

Wang Maode's eyes bulged with fury. Howling like a mad bull, he shoved desperately at the servants beside him, who had already been scared out of their wits, their legs trembling like sieves.

Driven forward by their master's rage, several servants temporarily overcame their panic. Their throats croaking, they raised their blades, spears, and cudgels and charged ahead recklessly.

But their steps were staggering and weak. They dawdled and dragged their feet, clearly already terrified stiff.

"Wait!"

Without even turning his head, Li Yan stopped everyone.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked toward the