The wooden door let out a piercing creak.
Everyone in the courtyard shuddered.
Grandfather held a blunt knife pointed at the ground. Before the blade could cleave through the air, someone caught it.
"Grandfather, it's me."
Li Pingsheng exerted force with his fingers, wrenching the blunt knife from the withered palm before tossing it to the ground.
With a clang, it shattered half a blue brick on the ground.
Grandfather collapsed at once, staggering back two steps and slamming heavily into the water jar.
The wooden shoulder pole in Second Uncle's hands fell to the ground as well. His chest heaved violently as he gulped down air.
Li Pingsheng stepped forward and caught Grandfather's swaying body.
The shriveled arms were slick with cold sweat, and his clothes were soaked through, plastered to his back.
The shadow outside had been a wildcat. After snapping a branch beneath its paws, it ran off.
"Pingsheng?"
Grandfather panted, using the faint moonlight filtering through the clouds to make out the person before him.
Li Pingsheng took the bronze jade-fragment waist token from his robes and handed it to Grandfather.
The bronze token was heavy. A cloud character was engraved upon it, with dried blood staining its edges.
"The Zhao Family is gone."
Li Pingsheng spat out those four words.
Grandfather's mouth was dry. His lips trembled for a long while before he could make a sound.
After climbing up from the ground, Second Uncle kept staring at the waist token in his hand, the symbol of an Inner Courtyard true disciple. His mind buzzed incessantly.
The Zhao Family, overlord of the Outer City, was simply gone?
Lu Qingshan pushed a wheelbarrow into the courtyard.
Second Uncle's gaze fell upon the three crates of crimson jerky.
The thick stench of blood rushed into his nostrils,