Blood Puppet

Song Hengjiang quietly watched as "Zhuang Chenggan" carved the formation patterns. The intricate lines resembled little flowers, blooming all around Song Wanxi.

Song Wanxi's eyes were gently closed. Two streaks of scarlet marked her brows—the blood from "Zhuang Chenggan's" heart.

He had always known how deeply his younger sister loved Zhuang Chenggan.

After falling into demonic corruption, Wanxi had gone two hundred and eighteen years without closing her eyes. Had she sensed Zhuang Chenggan, and so finally been able to sleep?

He wasn't used to seeing Zhuang Chenggan as a handsome young man.

He was more accustomed to the ugly-looking, bold and hearty Zhuang Chenggan.

Yes. In his memory, Zhuang Chenggan had the boldness of a hero who "befriended the bravest men of the five capitals," and the cold-bloodedness of a general who looked death in the eye without a care.

Zhuang Chenggan was neither as imposing as the history books of the Zhuang Kingdom claimed, nor as despicable as the people of Yong State made him out to be.

He was a complex, fully realized man.

But to Song Hengjiang, his sworn elder brother—

No matter how coldly Zhuang Chenggan treated others, and no matter how the world judged him, he had always shown the Qing River Aquatic Clan—and Song Hengjiang himself—every courtesy.

Just as he had said when facing off against Zhuang Gaoxian, while Zhuang Chenggan was alive, he never came to the Qing River Water Mansion with a single soldier. He always observed the rites of a younger brother toward an elder, and never carried himself with arrogance. He had been the same as a general and as a ruler.

Song Wanxi's death had filled him with deep resentment toward Zhuang Chenggan. But the grief and madness Zhuang Chenggan displayed back then had been no act. He