The air was thick with a sickening blend of blood and gunpowder smoke.
Hua Anni slumped in a pool of blood, her skirt soaked through. Her blood-stained fingernails dug deep into the cracks of the blue-brick paving, her knuckles white from the exertion. Yet on her face hung a twisted, hysterical smile—half crying, half mad, filled with utter despair and bitter resentment.
Her dull gaze swept over the scene before her. The subordinates who once obeyed her every command were now, under Chu Xuan’s blade, as helpless and submissive as lambs awaiting slaughter.
Chapter 169