As Shen Yu crossed the threshold, the crowd pressed in behind him, their breath hitching as they laid eyes on the charnel house within.
The slaughter was a masterpiece of depravity, far more chilling and systematic than the impulsive violence the mob had unleashed outside.
Mangled limbs lay scattered like discarded wood, guts spilled across the polished floor in a steaming heap, and the air was thick with the copper stench of flesh that had been hacked into unrecognizable shreds by a blade driven by pure, unadulterated mania.
The horror reached its absolute zenith when the identity of the butcher was whispered through the room.
"It was Peng Kai," Li Qiu rasped, her voice trembling with the weight of the betrayal. "He butchered his own son and his own brother, Tai, before fleeing through the secret passage the moment the gates buckled. He… he emptied the treasury and left us to the flames."
