Chapter 3, Annihilation of the Family

A severed head is impaled on the tip of a spear, its white hair fluttering wildly.

Perhaps my father has hidden enemies, but the Gu family has already relocated thousands of miles away to the Western Regions. What unresolved grievances could possibly warrant a pursuit to this place?

He halted the horse, facing two paths: one veering north and the other south. Master Yang only instructed to head west, but did not specify how to choose between north and south

Gu Shen jumped onto his horse and continued to gallop eastward. He needed to find out his sister's whereabouts and return home to understand what was really going on.

Gu Shen said resentfully, lifting the ashes and scattering them into the air. The Gu family should not have met such a fate. Although his father, Gu Lun, practiced martial arts, he never involved himself in the conflicts of the martial world. In the court, he was even more cautious, never willing to offend others, adhering to the principle of forbearance, sometimes to the point of weakness.

The manor was ravaged by assassins, and most of the valuables were swept away, but there are always a few that escape capture

The road to revenge is long, and he does not even know who his enemy is at present. The most important thing now is how to handle the remains of his family.

Under the bed of the second brother, he unearthed a small pouch of silver. As he pushed aside the corpse above, he nearly shed tears, but he held them back. What use are tears? When he was a child, this tactic might have brought comfort and assistance, but now it only signifies weakness and shame

The heavens are unjust

Gu Shenwei is not a fool; he is merely somewhat naive. Having never been deceived, his greatest life setback was merely being bullied by his two older brothers. Thus, he is easily inclined to believe and accept the various statements made by his father and master. However, once he begins to ponder carefully, he immediately realizes that the entire situation is unusual from beginning to end

What provided Gu Shen with a slight sense of relief was that the last corpse was not his sister, but rather a young boy, approximately the same age as himself. His body was as battered and bruised as Juxiang's, yet his appearance was unfamiliar; he had never seen him before

The servant and the bookkeeper are both intact, while the killer seems only interested in the master's head.

Gu Shenwei arrived at the entrance of his home, dismounted from his horse, and stood there in a daze, his mind in a state of confusion. He gazed at the dark, desolate ruins, as if trapped in a strange dream from which he could not awaken, no matter how hard he tried.

In his impression, the Gu family had no enemies, neither in the Central Plains nor in the Western Regions

However, the most crucial task now is to find the last remaining relative, his beloved sister Cui Lan, who may still be alive, enduring torment somewhere.

The pomegranate tree in the pot has turned into a piece of blackened wood, and the flower pot has become brittle and hard. With that sound, it cracked into several pieces, collapsing onto the ground.

There is no General Yang in the capital, and there is no General Yang in the entire Shule Kingdom

Gu Shenwei had never cared about the financial situation at home, but at this moment, numerous details of life flashed through his mind, from which he inferred some small secrets

A sense of foreboding surged within the young man's heart

Gu Shenwei could not make sense of it all; he attributed everything to fate and angrily threw the brick from the wall into the air.

This is a massacre without any resistance, with each corpse left in place, already burned beyond recognition. However, based on their positions, Gu Shenwei can still roughly determine who the deceased are.

Gu Shenwei's strength had long been exhausted. After throwing the brick, he involuntarily knelt down on the ground, supporting himself with both hands, panting heavily, lacking even the energy to curse.

Yang Zheng's body lay near the long spear, without a single wound on him. The person who killed him was swift and decisive, taking his head with just one move. Gu Shenwei could not imagine the level of martial arts possessed by this individual

As dusk approached, Gu Shenwei returned to the small village at the foot of the manor. The dozen or so households here were all tenants of the Gu family. At this time of day, one would typically expect to see curling wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys, but today, every household had tightly shut its doors, and not a single wisp of smoke was visible.

Gu and Tu Shu shen fiercely pinched his thigh to drive away the lingering drowsiness. He had been riding for almost an entire night, feeling both tired and exhausted, with his head spinning. It was at this moment that he truly understood how arduous horseback riding could be. In those years when he migrated from the Central Plains to the Western Regions, he had curled up in his family's embrace throughout the journey, hardly feeling the harshness of the Gobi Desert.

Looking up the mountain, the Gu family manor has already turned into a pile of ashes

Half an hour later, he saw a long spear standing upright by the roadside from a distance, swaying slightly, like a flagpole that had lost its banner

The ultimate "Harmony and Strength" will be invincible in the world, and Gu Shenwei is deeply convinced of this. Suddenly, heaven is no longer the culprit behind the Gu family's disasters; on the contrary, it has pointed Gu Shenwei towards a path of revenge.

He needs a "divine will" to support his belief in revenge

Gu Shenwei fell off his horse, knelt on both knees, and could not help but vomit until there was nothing left to expel from his stomach. Only then did he force himself to look at the last corpse, for this corpse was very peculiar

There are three corpses nearby, one of which belongs to the maid Juxiang. Her chest and face are covered in numerous knife wounds, and her clothes are stained red with blood. She had no martial arts skills, yet the assailant seemed to have used several more moves, seemingly only to torment her

What is hidden in the small oilcloth bag is the quick method of "Hehejin"

The shepherds left laughing, leaving Gu Shen alone in place

He cannot allow his loved ones to die incomplete and then suffer such torment.

Until noon, Gu Shenwei had not encountered his sister and the other three. A group of merchants arrived from the east, each looking anxious, as if they had just been robbed. One of them, perhaps out of goodwill, shouted loudly at the young man who was galloping alone on horseback:

As he approached, Gu Shenwei recognized that it was indeed his master, Yang Zheng, the old servant of the Gu family, whose eyes were wide open, seemingly unwilling to accept his own death

Father Gu Lun and Mother Xu lay side by side, both having had their heads severed. Gu Shen had to laboriously clear away the bricks and wooden debris covering them to see the two small skeletons. Gu Lun, a master of martial arts, was regarded as a remarkable hero in his son's eyes, yet he was completely unaware of the external threat.

Once the thought of revenge arose, Gu Shenwei quickly regained his composure; he could not confront his enemies empty-handed. He needed some resources.

Master Yang said that if there is, there must be. Gu Shenwei said with great certainty that a herdsman has probably never seen any high-ranking officials or nobility

He recalled a scene from a night shortly after they had moved to the Western Regions: his father had stuffed something into a flower pot. At that time, he was extremely tired and could only feel puzzled by his father's actions, without analyzing it seriously. In this moment of despair, a flash of insight struck him, and he guessed what his father had hidden.

He once used a long spear to pierce through three people, but merely after one night, he met a fate of being dismembered. The one who killed him must have done so to demonstrate power, as they displayed his severed head on the spear for passing travelers to see

He was still thinking about formally stepping into the adult world after his sister got married. In the blink of an eye, he found himself alone in a strange world, with an uncertain future and a haze before him

Is home really gone just like that? Is life really over just like that?

Turn back! Turn back!

Haha, your master is truly good at telling jokes. In our Shule Kingdom, we have no marshals, only generals and colonels. Even if there were a marshal, why would we need a person from the Central Plains with the surname Yang

Gu Shenwei had just cursed the heavens, so he preferred to refer to this miracle as "divine will." At only fourteen years old, he had always lived under the protection of his father and brothers, never imagining that one day he would have to bear the burden of revenge. He even vaguely wished that it had been him who had died, as either of his brothers would have been more suitable to avenge their family.

Heaven seems to cruelly mock the Gu family after dealing with them, as if it wishes to further ridicule the young master of the Gu family. The wall bricks only rose a few feet high, falling in a sarcastic arc outside the "door," landing with a thud on the flowerpot at the entrance.

Having lived a carefree life since childhood, the boy, who was cherished from a young age, suddenly finds himself in a situation of complete devastation and loss. His initial feeling is one of fear; his home is gone, and who will protect and guide him in the future?

The other body is that of the young servant Mingxiang, who is still wearing the young master's clothes. Gu Shenwei can only determine the identity of the corpse through the clothing, as Mingxiang's head is missing; it is neither impaled on the gun nor discarded nearby.

Gu Shenwei paid no heed to this kind reminder, his heart tightening even more. The horse beneath him was already frothing at the mouth, yet he continued to urge it on with the whip, demanding it to run even faster

However, the elder sister was still nowhere to be found; in her room lay the bodies of three maidservants. Although they were burned beyond recognition, Gu Shenwei could still discern that none of them was his sister

Subsequently, Gu Shenwei saw the corpses lying horizontally on the ground, and there was more than one.

Gu Shen turned the horse's head and galloped back along the original path, his face tightly strained. He realized that he had been excluded from family matters, which made him feel very uncomfortable. He was eager to know how his father and Yang Zheng would explain all of this when they met again

Just a moment later, the mockery of heaven transformed into a manifestation of miracles. Gu Shenwei raised his head and happened to see the clod of soil that still retained the shape of a flowerpot, and he suddenly remembered something

Fortunately, there are beginning to be pedestrians on the road; unfortunately, the first few groups of people do not speak the Central Plains dialect

Then he ran outside like a madman, forcefully pushing aside the scorched earth with both hands, tossing the flower roots aside. He dug out a very small oilcloth bag from the bottom of the pot, gently squeezed it to confirm that there was a book inside, and finally let out a sigh of relief. He carefully tucked it into his bosom, placing it behind a small pouch of silver, hiding it close to his body.

At this moment, the divine will began to play tricks again: a sharp whistle suddenly pierced the silence of the night, making it particularly startling.

What is referred to as a "room" is, in fact, no longer a room; the roof has collapsed, the walls have fallen, and the ground is strewn with ashes, bricks, charred wood, and metal scraps. Before long, this place will become a desolate grave, with broken walls and ruins overgrown with grass.

The combined Yang energy and Yin energy consist of nine layers each. Even for the longest-practicing Gu Lun, the Yin and Yang energies only reach the fifth layer. However, there exists a rapid cultivation method that can significantly enhance one's power in a short period, though it carries considerable risks. Throughout history, few descendants of the Gu family have practiced it.

Gu Shenwei once encountered such a village, where white bones lay ominously among the grass, becoming a nest for reptiles, trampled indiscriminately by passing birds and beasts

The two older brothers also lay in the same place, having their heads severed in the same manner, dying quietly, with no opportunity to showcase the skills they had painstakingly honed for over a decade

The head of the Gu family was left with no complete remains, reduced to a charred skeleton by the great fire, which would break with the slightest touch. Gu Shenwei carefully carried the remains of his two older brothers into his parents' room, placing them side by side with the other two sets of remains.

Slowly, anger filled the heart of the young man. He sought to reclaim his sister, to take revenge, to eliminate all his enemies, regardless of how many there were or where they came from

Gu Shenwei suddenly hardened his heart, found a brick, knelt on the ground, and smashed the four skeletons into pieces. With each strike, he hit with such force, as if dealing with an enemy. He did not know when it had begun, but he found himself in tears.

Gu Shenwei was very concerned about the task assigned to him by Master Yang Zheng. Unable to bear waiting idly on the road, he simply chose a path heading north. After running for a while, he finally encountered a group of herdsmen, one of whom spoke fluent Central Plains dialect. He informed Gu Shenwei that he had taken the wrong route and, upon hearing that the young man was looking for "Marshal Yang," couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Gu Shenwei stepped on the still warm fragments of tiles and broken wood, inspecting each room as if the roof and walls still existed