Hu Rui'an withdrew his gaze from the retreating figures of the elderly man in the brocade robe and the others, then turned to glance back at the study that was still burning behind him.
Just moments ago, Murong Xiaoya had already left the damaged study and departed again at speed.
Hu Rui'an furrowed his brow slightly. Something about the way Murong Xiaoya had been acting felt unusual to him.
Even so, he did not give it further thought, and simply followed in the direction she had gone.
However, after following for a short stretch, Hu Rui'an came to a stop among a section of rubble.
In the brief moment he had taken his eyes off her, he had somehow lost all trace of Murong Xiaoya. She seemed to have vanished somewhere among the collapsed building debris around him.
Hu Rui'an swept a look around, but still could not find any sign of her.
The Murong estate had been the place where Murong Xiaoya grew up. She would know every corner of it intimately, and if there were secret passages or hidden rooms that were not publicly known, Hu Rui'an would naturally have no way of knowing about them.
With that thought, he leaped to a high point on one of the partially intact roof beams, from where his view could take in the surrounding area at all times.
...
At the same time, a slight figure appeared in a hidden passage concealed beneath the Murong estate.
The surroundings were pitch-black without a trace of light. Murong Xiaoya, her face streaked with tears, felt along the brick walls in silence as she made her way slowly forward.
At last she reached a large concealed chamber. She drew out her fire-striker, lit the wall lamp inside, and the dim, warm light spread through the surrounding darkness.
The chamber was completely bare. The only thing in it was an old man seated on a meditation cushion at the center.
The old man's white hair was disheveled and his entire body was covered in blood. He sat hunched over with his head bowed, completely motionless, as though dead.
It was only as though sensing someone's arrival that he finally stirred, lifting his head slowly to reveal a deeply unsettling aged face with both eye sockets gouged out, dried blood trailing from the corners.
"Second Uncle..."
Murong Xiaoya stared at him with a look of shock.
"What happened to you?"
Hearing her voice, the old man on the cushion seemed to recognize Murong Xiaoya, and his throat produced a sound like dry wood splitting through cloth, saying, "Is that Xiaoya? Cough... cough..."
As he spoke, Murong Fu coughed violently, and dark-tinged blood foam splattered from his mouth onto his robe.
Seeing this, Murong Xiaoya moved quickly to go to him, but he raised a hand to stop her, saying, "Do not concern yourself with me... I have suffered grave injuries and severe poisoning. I will not survive tonight..."
Hearing this, Murong Xiaoya stopped dead in her tracks, looking at the wretched old man before her.
She bit down hard on her lip, and after a long moment finally spoke, saying, "The Murong family is gone."
"I know... cough, cough..."
Murong Fu continued to cough violently, and with great difficulty hauled himself up from the cushion, speaking slowly and haltingly, saying, "I had long expected... that a day like this would come..."
"That is why I agreed to let Zhen and Feng take the Sparrow Flame Pills... though it turned out to be no use after all..."
Hearing this, Murong Xiaoya simply wept in quiet sorrow, standing in place without saying a word.
Murong Fu let out a sigh and slowly shook his head, saying in a broken, intermittent voice, "Xiaoya... after Second Uncle is gone... you will most likely be the only one of the Murong family left..."
"Though... Second Uncle's hope is that you can survive safely... but having watched the Murong family fall before my eyes... there is still something in my heart that is unwilling to accept it..."
As he spoke, Murong Fu slowly turned his head, his black, hollow eye sockets seemingly fixed directly on Murong Xiaoya, saying, "So... Second Uncle still wants to ask you one thing... do you want revenge for your father, mother, and brothers..."
The moment those words fell, Murong Xiaoya's entire frame shuddered.
Even so, she looked quietly at the unsettling old man before her without a moment's hesitation. Her eyes, already red and swollen from weeping, now held a look of absolute resolve, saying, "Second Uncle, I want revenge."
"For it I am willing to sacrifice everything. Even my life, if that is what it takes."
Hearing this, Murong Fu let out another long, heavy sigh, as though hesitating briefly, before asking in a faint, weak voice, "Did Zhen and Feng leave something for you..."
Murong Xiaoya took two objects from inside her clothing. Then she lowered her gaze to look at what was in her hands and said quietly, "Both brothers did leave something for me. I do not know what these are, but they may be what Second Uncle is asking about."
At this, Murong Fu raised a feeble hand, and the objects in Murong Xiaoya's hands were drawn through the air into his grasp.
He then carefully felt over them for a moment before returning them to Murong Xiaoya and giving a nod, saying, "These are the things... it seems that Zhen and the others, like this old man... were also unwilling to let it end this way..."
With that, Murong Fu suddenly flicked his finger, and a pulse of True Qi struck a particular paving brick in the chamber.
The next instant, the sound of mechanisms and linkages turning rumbled through the surroundings, and the chamber where Murong Xiaoya and Murong Fu were standing began to descend slowly.
At the same time, Murong Fu continued to speak, saying, "Xiaoya... you are the last hope of the Murong family... Today Second Uncle will tell you the greatest secret the Murong family has kept..."
"Our Murong family has passed through a thousand years... but our ancestors' rise began from a single burial mound... the Vermilion Bird Mound..."
"And our Murong family... has privately called ourselves 'tomb keepers' throughout that time..."
At this point, Murong Fu seemed to have aggravated his wounds, and broke into another violent fit of coughing before continuing, "The Sparrow Flame Pill... which enhances martial Dao cultivation... yet carries an endless poison within it... also comes from the Vermilion Bird Mound..."
At that moment, the descending chamber finally came to a stop.
The dim yellow light from the wall lamp inside stretched outward to reveal a pitch-black cavern beyond.
Murong Fu said no more, and simply gestured for Murong Xiaoya to follow, then began walking slowly out of the chamber.
Murong Xiaoya drew a deep breath, took the wall lamp from the brick, and followed in Murong Fu's footsteps.
Very shortly, both of them came to a stop before an enormous suspended coffin.
The coffin appeared to be formed from something like cooled magma throughout, mottled red and dark like congealed blood, and its surface was covered in a dense, raised relief of interlocking feather-scale carvings.
Unlike an ordinary coffin, it was wound in iron chains and hung suspended in mid-air, and looking at it carried an indescribable sense of invisible pressure.
"This is the Vermilion Bird Mound."
Murong Fu raised his head. Though both eyes had been gouged out, he seemed to look upon the coffin before him as though he could see it perfectly.
Murong Xiaoya placed the wall lamp on the damp ground and fixed her gaze on the red coffin bound in chains. She gently closed her eyes, then snapped them open, asking, "What must I do to take revenge?"
Hearing this, Murong Fu was silent for a moment before he spoke, saying, "The first step is to open the coffin before you."
With that, the heaven and earth True Qi surrounding Murong Fu as its center suddenly stirred, and at the same time, the iron chains wound around the red coffin began to snap apart one by one.
When every last chain had broken, Murong Fu held the red coffin suspended in the air with his True Qi, keeping it from falling.