Zhang Zhenshan was the head of the house of Zhang in Talus City of the Azure Cloud Province and also one of the elders of the Glacial School.
Thee Zhang were a small family that only the denizens of Talus City feared and respected. While the Glacial School was a small school, the entire Azure Cloud Province was their stomping grounds.
From Zhang Zhenshan’s perspective, he wasn’t a man that had frittered away his life. He didn’t seek fame to move the world, rather he wanted to secure enough power for himself. He had worked hard to establish himself and his family, and though his son was a little immature, he was still his darling little child, imperfect as he may be.
Compared to the life span of the average commoner, a soul cultivator had a vastly longer lifespan, so he allowed his son to dilly-dally for the first twenty-something years of his life. Zhang Zhenshan may look very strict at first, but he had very high expectations of his child. He was only waiting for his son to mature enough before he’d accept him as the next generation head of the household.
The tyrannical acts of despotism and bullying of the weak in Talus City went completely ignored by Zhang Zhenshan. To soul cultivators, the lives of the commoners were like ants, and men like him wouldn’t care about them. Perhaps it was due to his perspective of these commoners that his son, Zhang Yang, grew to become such a person.
Many of the atrocities committed by Zhang Yang were usually taken care of by the Zhang, but if they couldn’t cover it up, Zhang Zhenshan would use the Glacial School to smooth over the matter.
An arranged marriage between his son and Liu Cheng’s daughter of the Glacial School was even proposed in hopes that the Zhang would be able to grow even more.
Everything was going according to plan, and everything was moving like Zhang Zhenshan had hoped…
Until one day, a person named Bai Yunfei appeared.
It all happened when he was away, dealing with the bandit group the Glacial School was secretly backing. A mysterious power had somehow eliminated the group, forcing Zhang Zhenshan to temporarily leave the city to deal with the aftermath.
By the time he had returned, news of his son’s death had quickly reached his ears.
His one and only son! Dead!
The one responsible was Bai Yunfei!!
Making use of every single resource available to him, Zhang Zhenshan sought his son’s killer at once. From Talus City to the far away Old Well Town, Zhang Zhenshan hadn’t slept for a wink during those three days and nights!
He ultimately caught up to the one responsible, only to find out it was a middle-stage Soul Warrior whelpling.
Yet, the very same whelpling managed to escape his grasp!
An oddity was realized during that same battle. He noticed the soul armaments Bai Yunfei was using was awfully strange, the Glacial p.r.i.c.ker was noticeably different before.
Connecting two and two, Zhang Zhenshan came to the conclusion that Bai Yunfei wasn’t from the Crafting School, but he had some sort of special technique to strengthen soul armaments.
If the Glacial School could obtain that technique, their power would explode exponentially! So for the sake of capitalizing on this chance, he ordered the entire Glacial School to search for Bai Yunfei.
The trail of clues left behind by Bai Yunfei finally pointed Zhang Zhenshan to Jadewillow City. Unwilling to let others know of the secret he knew, Zhang Zhenshan leaped on a horse and headed to the city straight away. He was patient.
He was patient enough to follow Liu Cheng’s plan of forcing the secret out of Bai Yunfei before completely dismembering him from limb to limb…
But even that plan had lead to nothing but failure! A failure, nothing but a failure, though not something he cared all too much about.
In fact, he was a little glad it failed.
This meant he didn’t have to wait anymore. With several high-ranking members of the Glacial School, he was able to trap Bai Yunfei in Jadewillow City where he was able to issue a duel in seven days.
Again, he waited for those seven days to pa.s.s, all for the sake of experiencing the day of taking revenge on the killer of his son.
But…
The victory that was surely meant to be given to him turned into a defeat!!
The killer of his son was very clearly right in front of him, but he had no way of taking revenge for his son. He had lost!!
Ever since then, his entire world had come cras.h.i.+ng down one piece after another like the domino effect. Bereaved by the death of her son, Zhang Zhenshan’s wife became ill and bedridden. His business, left unattended to due to his reallocation of priorities, wilted like gra.s.s without water. His attempt to gain power to the Glacial School, failed. His authority was usurped by Liu Cheng.
He was now an elder only in name.
The fact that he might never see the killer of his son weighed heavily on his mind. He knew it was implausible and that it’d be best to move on…
But he couldn’t.
The hatred in him refused to budge.
It festered in his mind, fermenting and compressing in on itself more and more each pa.s.sing day. If nothing was done about it, this hatred would’ve consumed him to his death.
It was still possible that if one day—just one day—he met his son’s killer, that hatred in him would break loose.
Only madness would ensue.
When he saw Bai Yunfei, the utter hatred he had felt had finally reached the breaking point.
“Bai Yunfei! Give me back my son’s life!!”
He was like a feral beast now. His hands were radiating a chilling aura as he plunged a bladed fist toward Bai Yunfei’s chest!
Though more powerful than the first strike, Bai Yunfei still didn’t house any thoughts of dodging.
A chilling glare was exuded from his eyes as he lifted his right hand up to grab ahold of the blade!
“Crack!”
Caught in the middle of the Ardent Sun Glove Bai Yunfei was wearing, the icy blade was shattered apart, as if it had been made from flimsy ice. With Bai Yunfei’s death grip on Zhang Zhenshan’s hand, the other man wasn’t able to move even an inch!
“Do you still think I’m the same weakling you tried to kill before!?” Bai Yunfei snorted.
With a toss of his arm, he threw Zhang Zhenshan back ten meters.
Tossed through the air, Zhang Zhenshan managed to flip onto his feet. He stood still for a brief second as he roared.
“You’ll pay for my son’s death… you’ll pay for this!!! Aaaahhhhhh!!!!!”
With even more flourish than before, he flew forward to attack Bai Yunfei again.
“Give me my son back!!” It seemed like these words were the only words Zhang Zhenshan was capable of saying. Each time he ran forward, he was sent flying back.
Still he persisted!
“Pow!”
“Pow!!”
“Pow!!!”
The pain Zhang Zhenshan had endured when he had lost his son was so much that he had lost any sense of rationality now that Bai Yunfei was in front of him. He was sent back once again, yet he attacked again, unable of doing anything else. The only thing that registered in his mind was Bai Yunfei and Bai Yunfei alone.
Like his eyes, his mind had only one thing in it; the dismemberment and death of the one who had killed his son!
With all semblance of rationality stripped away from his mind, Zhang Zhenshan wasn’t at all capable of realizing the difference in strength between him and Bai Yunfei.
He also couldn’t tell that Bai Yunfei’s glare was becoming more dagger-like after blocking and sending him back a dozen times now.
“I didn’t want to deal with you while on school grounds, but you leave me no choice!”
“You keep telling me to bring your son back, but a life is a life; doesn’t the life of anyone else count, or are they just gra.s.s to you!? Was uncle Wu’s life not a life, or his grand daughter? What about my own!?”
At last, an inkling of killing intent could finally be felt from Bai Yunfei’s eyes.
On the verge of Zhang Zhenshan’s next attack, which was aimed at Bai Yunfei’s right shoulder, Bai Yunfei deflected the blow and sent him back. This time, Bai Yunfei’s hand held the Fire-tipped Spear as he swiftly moved in to strike Zhang Zhenshan!
When the spear made contact, a mouthful of blood escaped from Zhang Zhenshan. Having been unable to dodge while in the air, he crashed back onto the ground.
This time, he didn’t get back up.
Still, Bai Yunfei didn’t let up. Already on top of his enemy, Bai Yunfei primed the spear with a bone-chilling glare.
Then his spear plunged down.
A stab straight for the throat!!