As Chu Xisheng slew Li Ya and Fei Liqing, the news also reached the Drunken Flower Tower on the southern side of Ancient Market Town.
Shangguan Shenhao was there, gathering Shangguan Longjian's remains.
Shangguan Longjian's corpse had been completely incinerated. All he could do was collect a little dust from near the scene and use the clothes Shangguan Longjian had worn in life to make a cenotaph.
As for Chu Xisheng-Shangguan Shenhao had paid him no attention from beginning to end.
Shangguan Yuan's arrangements had been meticulous and cautious.
There was no way Chu Xisheng, a mere eighth-rank lower, could escape that Heavenly Net.
Yet the unexpected happened all the same.
While Shangguan Shenhao was offering incense to his child, Shangguan Yuan came up behind him, his face pale, and bowed to the ground.
"Clan Head, Fei Liqing and Dong Huaji of White Cloud Stronghold, Heart-Piercing Sword Li Ya of the Life-Reaping Tower, and our clan's Shangguan Zhe are all dead."
His expression indifferent, Shangguan Shenhao inserted three sticks of incense into the bronze censer before turning around.
"Who killed them?"
"Chu Xisheng!"
Shangguan Yuan's facial muscles twitched, disbelief in his eyes.
But this was indeed the news sent from the Taste-Knowing Pavilion, in a Message Talisman personally dispatched by one of the Shangguan Clan's Household Guards.
"Chu Xisheng killed Dong Huaji first, then killed Fei Liqing and the other two in succession in an alley. The whole thing took fewer than a hundred and twenty breaths."
Shangguan Shenhao's brows furrowed. He glanced toward the Taste-Knowing Pavilion, then his entire body soared into the air like a great bird.
He traveled through the air, his arms spread, sweeping across the night sky like a goshawk as he flew straight toward the Taste-Knowing Pavilion.
Chu Xuanjie, who was also there, grew