On the third day after the Iron Blood Sect was destroyed, Tang Ya moved back into the Tang Sect's old residence in the western district of Heaven Dou City.
All traces of the Iron Blood Sect within the estate had been cleared away, but the damage and alterations left behind by six years of occupation were everywhere.
Several blade marks marred the walls of the main hall. The martial arts grounds in the back courtyard were overgrown with weeds. The bookshelves in the study stood completely empty; the classics and artifacts treasured by generations of the Tang Sect had long since been sold off or destroyed by the Iron Blood Sect.
Tang Ya stood in the empty study, looking at the devastation around her in silence for a long time. Then she rolled up her sleeves and began to clean.
She did not ask for help or hire any servants. She scrubbed the floors, repaired the window lattices, cleared the weeds, and repainted the walls all by herself.
From dawn to dusk, from the main hall to the back courtyard, she flitted busily through every corner of the estate like a tireless swallow.
Huo Chen came to see her twice and tried to help, but she smilingly pushed him out. "This is my home. I want to clean it up myself."
A week later, the Tang Sect's old residence had been completely renewed.
The damaged doors and windows had been repaired, the weeds removed, the walls freshly painted, and new bookshelves placed in the once-empty study.
The heavy wooden table in the main hall, which the Iron Blood Sect had once used for meetings, had been moved away. In its place stood a simple, elegant desk, topped with a celadon vase holding a sprig of wintersweet picked from the back