The sounds of fighting in the rear garden had thrown the entire Xiao Residence into chaos.
Several chief stewards were gathering the guards and rushing toward the rear garden from every direction.
Members of the branch families in the front courtyard also worked up the courage to come closer. Footsteps and shouts mingled in the air.
Someone shouted, "Quick, get a doctor"...
Someone else yelled, "Report it to the authorities"...
Another cried at the top of his lungs, "What happened?"
The clamor poured in from the far end of the corridor.
Fang Han heard the distant commotion too and frowned slightly.
He forced down the backlash from his surge in strength. The burning in his Meridians felt like a fire temporarily smothered in his chest, and the pain made the veins at his temples throb.
The Force Qi left after most of his nine streams of Heaven-and-Earth Force had burned away still rampaged through his body like wild horses broken free of their reins. Every breath tugged at the searing pain in his chest.
He gritted his teeth and suppressed his surging Blood Qi. Another trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
"Too bad that madman Xiao Ran blew up the Rockery housing the Xiao Family Patriarch's cave abode."
Fang Han glanced toward the Rockery.
Where the enormous Rockery had once stood, only a deep pit remained, belching black smoke.
Broken stones lay scattered across dozens of yards. The largest stood half as tall as a man, their surfaces scorched red and black by the heat.
The entrance to a collapsed passage was faintly visible at the bottom of the pit, but rubble and earth had sealed it shut.
Even if it had remained open, the explosion would surely have wrecked everything inside beyond recognition.
"Otherwise, a