With Sun Shouzu dead, the Sun Family's last resistance crumbled to dust.
The few women and the steward who remained either knelt and begged for mercy or threw themselves on the ground and made a scene. One woman even tore off her clothes and tried to embrace Pan Long naked.
Pan Long gave every one of them the same answer: one stroke of his blade.
He had no interest in tangling with them. One stroke was all it took.
After cutting down the last of the Sun Residence's diehard loyalists, Pan Long looked at Old Han. "Anyone else?"
Old Han thought for a moment. "There are still a few young ladies and two young masters."
"Where?"
"Well... I don't know either," Old Han said with a pained expression. "Someone may have taken them away when they fled."
Pan Long nodded. He had no intention of hunting them down. After standing there in thought for a while, he said, "I have a task for you."
Old Han was overjoyed. A task meant Pan Long was not going to kill him.
"Just say the word, Hero! I'll get it done even if it costs me my old life!"
"Gather the Sun Residence's money, grain, and valuables. Contact the townspeople. Repay their debts and redress their grievances." For the first time since entering the Sun Residence, Pan Long spoke at length. "Then contact the authorities and have wanted notices issued. Report to me when it's all done."
With that, he leaped onto an artificial hill among the courtyards nearby and found a place to lie down.
Whoever had designed this sprawling estate had made its highest structure neither a pavilion nor a watchtower, but this artificial hill.
The hill stood in the middle of a large pond. Atop it were a study, a