The Shan Family Massacre and Manor Fire is the destruction of Shan Zheng’s household outside Tai’an, discovered by Xiao Feng and A'Zhu on their way to confront the unknown enemy they call the “prime villain.” The manor’s burning has two consequences: it kills more than thirty members of the Shan family, and it appears to erase letters that could have revealed the enemy’s identity. For Xiao Feng, the scene is not merely another obstacle in the pursuit. It confronts him with a catastrophe inflicted on a family already connected to his own violent past, amid public blame that he does not answer with further violence.

Approach to Tai’an

Xiao Feng and A'Zhu reach Tai’an at twilight after pressing eastward in pursuit of the “prime villain.” Their journey has already required them to change horses and, when A'Zhu grows too exhausted to remain safely in the saddle, to rest for six or eight hours in a carriage before continuing at speed. A'Zhu hopes they will arrive before their enemy, but Xiao Feng suspects the unknown adversary has repeatedly stayed ahead of them. He believes the man matches his martial ability, surpasses him in planning, and can see the pursuit more clearly than he can.

At Tai’an, they ask the way to the Shan family residence and ride out through the eastern gate. After about one li, they see smoke and hear gongs and people calling for help. The fire is at the Shan manor. The discovery reverses their expectation: they have come prepared for a confrontation, only to find that disaster has already overtaken the household.

The family and the fire

The villagers’ first reports establish the scale of the loss. One describes Shan Zheng as a benefactor who had helped poor people and victims of hardship in the region for decades. Another reasons that the family must have been trapped inside, since even children in the household knew martial arts and should otherwise have been able to escape. The reports agree that more than thirty people, male and female, young and old, have died.

Villagers also connect the fire to the deaths of Shan Zheng’s sons in Henan, where they had been killed by Xiao Feng. Some suspect Xiao Feng himself has returned with followers and attacked the manor. Their accusation reaches the crowded scene before the truth is known, and the gathered people curse him. A'Zhu reacts when she hears the abuse: she startles her horse into kicking one of the men, who then leaves in fear. Her impulsive intervention briefly turns the accusation into a direct encounter, but it does not alter the villagers’ belief that Xiao Feng is responsible.

Xiao Feng knows why the Shan family might hate him. After killing the Shan clan’s two tigers, he expected Shan Zheng and his descendants to oppose him when he came to Tai’an. He had anticipated a major fight, though he did not intend to kill anyone else. Instead, he arrives to find Shan Zheng’s household destroyed before they can meet. He feels sorrow and sympathy for the family whose hostility he had expected to face.

The lost letters and the unknown enemy

The fire also threatens evidence. At the Apricot Forest, Shan Zheng had said that he possessed several letters from the hidden “Leading Big Brother” and had compared their handwriting with the letter already known to the group, judging it genuine. Xiao Feng and A'Zhu infer that the manor may have been burned to keep those documents out of Xiao Feng’s hands. In their reconstruction, the enemy has killed Shan Zheng and destroyed the house so that the letters—and the name they might have disclosed—would not be found.

That explanation remains an inference rather than a witnessed account of the attack. The fire’s cause and the arsonist’s identity are not established at the scene. Yet the timing and the loss of the letters sharpen the pursuit’s central mystery: the enemy seems not only to anticipate Xiao Feng’s movements but to remove the evidence that could expose him. The burning manor is therefore both a family catastrophe and an apparent act of concealment.

Xiao Feng’s response

As more people gather to fight the fire, their efforts fail to stop it, and their accusations become harsher. A'Zhu watches Xiao Feng, afraid that the abuse will provoke another massacre. Instead, she sees sadness, regret, and sympathy in his expression. He regards the villagers as foolish, but not as people who deserve to be killed, and he lets their insults pass without attacking them.

The restraint matters because Xiao Feng’s past has made him the ready-made villain in the villagers’ account: they associate him with the earlier deaths of Shan Zheng’s sons and assume he has now destroyed the entire family. He does not defend himself by force. His response holds together grief for the dead, regret over the enmity that preceded the disaster, and recognition that the crowd’s false accusation does not justify violence against them.

Aftermath and narrative significance

Xiao Feng and A'Zhu leave Tai’an and turn south toward Mount Tiantai, where they hope to find Zhiguang. Xiao Feng slows their journey. Because Zhiguang had taken part in the battle that killed Xiao Feng’s parents, Xiao Feng has reason to seek him, but he also knows the monk has spent years gathering remedies in remote regions and saving people from malaria and illnesses associated with miasma. Zhiguang’s work has earned him broad respect, and Xiao Feng does not want to endanger him. He fears that hurrying might mean arriving to find him dead, or his temple burned as well.

The Shan family’s destruction thus changes the pace and moral pressure of the pursuit. The unseen enemy’s apparent advantage has already turned a planned reckoning into a scene of loss, while Xiao Feng’s own association with earlier violence helps make him the crowd’s suspect. The burned manor closes off a possible path to the enemy’s name; Xiao Feng’s decision to proceed cautiously toward Mount Tiantai shows him trying to prevent the next encounter from ending in another preventable death.