Secret Letter

The setting sun shot out blood-red light that fell across Purple Grass Manor. Its former splendor and extravagance had all become the ruin and destruction before them. Outside the manor, Cordia branches and leaves lay scattered, marked by chopping, hacking, smashing, and chiseling. Inside the manor, dahlia stems had been snapped and trampled into dust and mud. And among the flowers and trees, the buildings adorned with gold and silver carvings were stained all over with fresh red, like the brush of the death god writing the marks of the end.

Grey Earth Puapu had come with a thousand elite warriors, filled with killing intent. In less than half a day, he had stormed the Purple Grass Family's manor. Of the two hundred-plus Purple Grass Warriors stationed there, most died in battle, a few were captured, and only a scattered handful fled southeast. Afterward, more than three hundred members of the Purple Grass clan were seized by the warriors and herded into confinement in the great hall deep within the manor. Among them, Guramo's wives, concubines, and children alone numbered a full sixty or seventy.

At this moment, hundreds upon hundreds of Tzintzuntzan Warriors were patrolling the manor again and again, searching for fish that had slipped through the net. Puapu himself personally took a hundred warriors and interrogated the Purple Grass clansmen in the hall.

"Talk! Where did Guramo go?!"

"I—I'm only a servant!"

Grey Earth Puapu's expression was savage. His left hand seized the man's hair, and the long dagger in his right slashed viciously! Warmth sprayed out in an instant, and Guramo's servant died on the spot. Then, with both eyes bloodshot, he grabbed the hair of a middle-aged noble and pressed the bloodstained long dagger against the man's neck.

"Talk! Where did Guramo go?!"

"I—I don't