Chapter 179: The Blockade
Murong Xiaoya's slight figure stood soundlessly before the open ancestral hall doors.
Murong Zhen was lying on his side at the top of the stone steps before the entrance, a broken sword thrust into his chest. Around him lay the bodies of numerous Murong family members who had long since breathed their last.
Blood seeped slowly from beneath them, running down the stone steps below in a thin red cascade, staining the ground a deep crimson.
On the left side of the inner courtyard, a surviving decorative wall was studded with broken blades like the spines of a porcupine. Five elderly figures in the robes of the four major families had been pinned dead, impaled by snapped weapons.
"Little sister..."
Sensing Murong Xiaoya's arrival, Murong Zhen struggled with great effort to open his eyes, clouded by dried blood. But no matter how he tried, he could not.
The next instant, Murong Xiaoya dropped beside him with tears streaming down her face, her pale hands gripping the broken sword. Her entire body was trembling, and she could not form a single word, only sobbing brokenly, "Second Brother, why... why did it have to come to this..."
Murong Zhen lifted his battered, wound-covered arm inch by inch, feeling his way along his abdominal wounds and the broken sword before finally closing his hand around Murong Xiaoya's.
"Don't be afraid... the Murong family is gone now... but you must live on..."