After talking about this, Mr. Zhao's voice didn't come back for a long time. I sat there in a daze. My mind kept replaying all the things that had happened since I met Zhang Wenfei. I couldn't say a word.
After a long time, I clenched my teeth and spoke first.
"Grandpa, tell me what exactly happened."
Master Zhao's voice was sorrowful as he continued to tell me about the tragedy that had happened in Mount Wen's branch.
The Mount Wen branch worshiped the famous Wen Tianxiang. Many people knew that Wen Tianxiang was a patriotic poet, a famous general who fought against the Jin Dynasty, and a leader of the literary and political circles at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, not many people knew that he was also a master of metaphysics.
Wen Tianxiang's first name was Yun Sun, and his courtesy name was Song Rui.
He called himself Mount Wen or Daoist Fu Xiu.
According to legend, Old Zhao's branch was inherited by Wen Tianxiang, a disciple of the Xuanmen School. They took the name Mount Wen and got the name Mount Wen.
After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, they moved south and eventually settled in Meizhou.
Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the Mount Wen branch had been passed on for more than one thousand years. Dozens of years ago, they were the leaders of the Xuanmen School in Meizhou.
Later on, when China's mainland was ravaged by the flames of war, Wen Shan's lineage inherited the will of their ancestors. Many of them died for the country. This caused their vitality to be greatly damaged and their orthodoxy to wither. They almost lost their inheritance. When the flames of war were extinguished, Wen Shan's lineage was only left with Master Zhao's lineage.
Old Zhao's master was called Zhang Wenyuan, and he was known as Daoist Xuemei in the Xuanmen School. Since he was from Meizhou, he had a withered wintersweet branch. During the war-torn era, not only did he fight against Japanese warlocks, but he also violated the rules of the Xuanmen School by attacking ordinary Japanese soldiers. Wherever he went, snowflakes bloomed like wintersweet. That was how he got his name.
Old Zhao was Daoist Xuemei's eldest disciple.
Besides Old Zhao, Daoist Xuemei Zhang Wenyuan had two sons. The eldest was called Zhang Bingxian, and the youngest was Zhang Bingxian. He was the current President of the Xuanmen School branch in Meizhou.
As fellow disciples of the same sect, one of the reasons Zhang Bingxian had tried to kill Lord Zhao was because of Daoist Xuemei's eldest son, Zhang Bingxian.
As mentioned earlier, after the chaotic era ended, Zhang Wenyuan was the only remaining branch of the Wen Shan lineage. He inherited almost all of the Wen Shan lineage's inheritance, including precious techniques and magic tools.
During the war, Xuemei Daoist, Zhang Wenyuan, had survived. However, her body had been seriously injured, and she could no longer make any progress in her cultivation. Therefore, she had stayed at home, taking care of her three disciples. With the support of the precious cultivation techniques and magical tools of Wenshan's lineage, Zhao Dingwu and the Zhang brothers had grown rapidly. Soon, they had become the dazzling stars of the Southern metaphysics world.
Among them, the one who showed the greatest talent was the ordinary geomancy master, Zhao Dingwu, who was not even a Geomaster.
Back then, there was no existence of the Metaphysics Association. Therefore, there were no records of the opening of acupoints during the baptism of Dragon Qi. However, according to Zhao Dingwu, he had been close to Ye Pianpian, a quasi three meridians talent. Zhang Bingxian's talent was not bad either, a quasi two meridians talent. In fact, because Zhang Bingxian had inherited Wen Shan lineage's magical tool, the Yin Yang Yama Brush, he was even stronger than Zhao Dingwu.
The two of them were known as the 'Twin Heroes of Wen Shan', and were very famous in the metaphysics world.
Zhang Bingxian had been young at the time, and had not been on the same level as the two of them.
As for Zhao Dingwu and Zhang Bingxian, as fellow disciples of the same sect, they had a very good relationship. They had always been inseparable, cultivating together and improving rapidly. By the time they were thirty, they had both entered the Glory of Knowledge realm.
Just as the hope of the Wen Shan lineage's revival was about to appear on the two of them, the two of them had encountered a mysterious force during one of their travels. The other party had over ten Glory of Knowledge realm geomancers, surrounding and killing the two of them.
In an extremely dangerous situation, the two of them fought to the very last moment. At the very last moment, Zhang Bingxian had used his life as the price to activate a forbidden technique of the Wen Shan lineage, killing several Glory of Knowledge earth geomancers. The others had all been heavily injured.
After this, Zhao Dingwu had escaped back to Meizhou with Zhang Bingxian's belongings, saving his life.
However, because his body had been too heavily injured, Zhao Dingwu had been unconscious for a month after escaping. When he woke up, the meridians in his body were blocked, his cultivation foundation completely destroyed.
Daoist Xuemei, Zhang Wenyuan, was already very old. In addition, she had been seriously injured several times during the chaotic years of war, and had a hidden illness. When she heard that her most promising apprentice and son had been killed and her Dao foundation destroyed, her hidden illness flared up, and she passed away.
The Wen Shan lineage that had just seen the hope of revival immediately fell from its limitless glory, and was now in its most critical moment.
Fortunately, the Wen Shan lineage's historical reputation, and their generosity in dying for the country during the chaotic times of war, had a great influence in the southern metaphysical world. Even in such a state, their prestige in the metaphysical world was still very high.
After such a tribulation, the Wen Shan lineage still managed to pull through with the support of various parties in the metaphysical world. At this time, coincidentally, the Metaphysics Association was preparing to be established. Everyone in the Meizhou region elected Zhao Dingwu, who had his foundation destroyed and was already known as a cultivation cripple, as the first president, to show their respect for the Wen Shan lineage.
However, Zhao Dingwu rejected this proposal. Instead, he pushed forward his Junior Brother Zhang Bingcheng, who had just reached the age of twenty. He pleaded with the entire southern metaphysical world to take care of Zhang Bingcheng, so that they could use him to once again revive the Wen Shan lineage.
Zhao Dingwu's attitude was firm, so the southern metaphysical world had no choice but to accept his proposal. Many metaphysical sects had the intention to nurture Zhang Bingcheng, and the Metaphysics Association had also listed Zhang Bingcheng as a candidate for the future president.
After confirming this matter, Zhao Dingwu calmly stayed in the Meizhou Metaphysics Association as an ordinary member. While he was studying geomancy, he took Zhang Bingxian's two youngest sons as his disciples and taught them carefully every day.
These two disciples were Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei.
I was startled when I heard this.
Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei were blood-related brothers!
Moreover, Zhang Bingcheng was their uncle!
They belonged to the Wen Shan lineage, and they were their own flesh and blood. How did they end up in such a situation where they had to fight each other?
I was puzzled.
Old man Zhao continued to narrate. Back then, he had wanted to hand over all the inheritance of the Wen Shan lineage to Zhang Bingcheng, but it was a pity that Zhang Bingxian's talent was far inferior to his and Zhang Bingxian's. Even though he had a famous teacher to nurture him from a young age, it was only when he was in his twenties that he barely entered the Pressure Point Realm. Moreover, when he received the baptism of the Dragon Qi, he had only opened six meridians in his body, which could barely be considered as a one-meridian talent.
Under such circumstances, Zhang Bingcheng was obviously unable to shoulder the heavy responsibility of reviving the Wen Shan lineage. Thus, Zhao Dingwu changed his mind and handed over the inheritance and magic tools to Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei, placing his hopes on the two of them. On the other hand, he didn't give up on Zhang Bingcheng, and relied on his prestige in the southern metaphysical world to send Zhang Bingcheng to the Glory of Knowledge realm, and successfully become the president of the Meizhou branch.
From then on, Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei both displayed extraordinary talent. Everything seemed to be developing in a good direction, but it was a pity that Zhang Bingcheng was extremely dissatisfied with all of this.
In the beginning, he was only dissatisfied with Zhao Dingwu handing over the inheritance and magic tools of the Wen Shan lineage to Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei. Later on, he even questioned Zhao Dingwu to his face, saying that his brother Zhang Bingxian's death had been a trap set up by Zhao Dingwu. The reason was that Zhao Dingwu's talent had been stronger back then, but Zhang Wenyuan had cared about kinship and hadn't handed over the inheritance of the Wen Shan lineage to him, causing him to feel indignant and have evil thoughts.
In these past few years, Zhang Bingcheng had even expressed this view on many public occasions, completely falling out with Zhao Dingwu, and even publicly withdrawing from the Wen Shan lineage.
Even under such circumstances, Zhao Dingwu had never thought that Zhang Bingcheng would actually act against him and his two nephews. Furthermore, in recent years, Zhang Kanwen's strength had already reached the Glory of Knowledge realm, surpassing Zhang Bingcheng. Under his intimidation, even if Zhang Bingcheng had any evil thoughts, he didn't dare to act rashly.
However, he hadn't thought that Zhang Bingcheng would actually collude with the Lu Family, ultimately disregarding kinship and acting against them.
When Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei had been participating in the Exchange Competition in Shenzhen, the Lu Family had sent out Lu Zifeng and Lu Chengping, two Glory of Knowledge realm martial artists. After meeting up with Zhang Bingcheng, they had directly imprisoned Zhao Dingwu and laid down a trap, notifying Zhang Kanwen and Zhang Wenfei that Zhao Dingwu was critically ill and for them to quickly return.
When they had hurriedly returned to Mei Province, they had fallen head first into the trap that Zhang Bingcheng had meticulously laid down. After a bitter battle, Zhang Wenfei had died in battle, and Zhang Kanwen had fled with heavy injuries. Even the inherited magic tool, the Yin Yang Yama Brush, had not been able to take it with him.
In this sort of situation, Zhao Dingwu had used the secret inheritance technique of the Wen Shan lineage, using the price of his soul not being able to reincarnate for ten thousand years to lay down a seal around the Yin Yang Yama Brush in an attempt to prevent the inherited magic tool from falling into Zhang Bingcheng's hands.
However, as time passed, the seal would dissipate one day. Of the Zhang Kanwen brothers, one was dead and the other was heavily injured. There simply wasn't any hope of rescue. However, he hadn't thought that in this sort of situation, I would appear.
After listening to Grandpa Zhao's long story, my heart became gloomy.
There would always be evil people in the world. Perhaps it was innate, but anything could become a catalyst for them to do evil, like Lu Zhenyang, like Zhang Bingcheng.
Speaking of which, Zhang Bingcheng was far worse than Lu Zhenyang. Because of his own jealousy and greed, he had ignored kindness and familial love. He had killed Zhao Dingwu, who had helped him grow and become successful, and he had killed his own nephew … It was hard to imagine what sort of beast's heart was hidden beneath the human skin he wore.
And from Zhang Bingcheng's perspective, perhaps from the moment his father and brother died, a seed of hatred had been planted in his heart.