Chương 58: The Debt of Ashes

"This is why I called you here." Zhang Chongwen looked directly at the two of them as he spoke. Zhang Lixian raised an eyebrow, suddenly recalling what his father had hinted at before. So he really is about to tell us something important. Could the Zhang family still be hiding another secret? Zhang Huaijin, too, felt a flicker of confusion. More hidden spirit stones, perhaps?

Zhang Chongwen rose to his feet and said slowly,"Do you know how I obtained the legacies of artifact forging and talisman crafting that I now possess?" Zhang Lixian and Zhang Huaijin exchanged a glance, then shook their heads. Every skill the Zhang family had ever inherited had come directly from Zhang Chongwen himself. None of the family members had ever thought to question where those arts had originated.

"Was it from that great battle back then…?" Zhang Lixian's voice trailed off meaningfully. A flicker of remembrance crossed Zhang Huaijin's eyes. He had always known the broad strokes of his grandfather's past. Zhang Chongwen had once been a rogue cultivator, traveling with a small band of friends, hunting spirit beasts together to scrape together the resources for cultivation.

But after one catastrophic battle, he had been left so gravely wounded that he ultimately decided to abandon the wandering life and establish his own family, to carry on a bloodline instead of just a name.

"That's right," Zhang Chongwen declared, clasping his hands behind his back as a deep sigh escaped him.

"Back then, the sudden emergence of an ancient cultivator's cave dwelling in the Purple Dusk Mountain Range drew countless cultivators into a frantic search. And I had only just broken through to the sixth level of the Qi Refining Realm." His eyes grew distant, lost in memory.

"For rogue cultivators like us, an ancient cultivator's cave (inheritance) was the ultimate stroke of fortune. A chance to rewrite our destinies. Even knowing that every step was laced with deadly traps, we charged in without a second thought."

"Every single person believed they were the chosen one, that destiny had personally called their name and promised them an earth shattering blessing. But reality had other plans. Most of them never walked back out." Zhang Chongwen's voice carried the weight of decades old melancholy. For cultivators at the Qi Refining Realm, that battle had been nothing short of a massacre.

"I got lucky. I managed to seize a few opportunities and actually made it to the final chamber of that cave dwelling." As he spoke, a tremor ran through his voice.

"A Tier 2, Mid Grade defensive array formation stood before us. To Qi Refining cultivators like us, it was an unbreakable fortress, a solid wall that might as well have been forged by the heavens themselves. But greed sharpens the blade of courage. Inside that chamber lay something that drove every survivor completely mad, a Foundation Establishment Pill." Both Zhang Lixian and Zhang Huaijin felt their bodies tense involuntarily. A Foundation Establishment Pill…

Just what level had the master of that cave dwelling reached in life, to possess such a treasure?

"Hundreds of us threw ourselves at that array formation like madmen!" Zhang Chongwen continued, his voice rising slightly.

"But then the formation activated on its own, and unleashed absolute death." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Blades of golden light shot outward in every direction, filling the entire cave. In an instant, the floors ran red with blood." Even now, decades later, a ghost of that old terror still flickered behind Zhang Chongwen's eyes. The scene was forever burned into his memory.

"Do you want to know why the Tian family has been suppressing our Zhang family?" Zhang Chongwen sighed heavily.

"Members of the Tian family were there too?" Zhang Lixian blurted out.

"They were the first to arrive, the first among the three major Foundation Establishment Realm families of Langya County. Back then, Tian Jianwei was still at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm. He hadn't yet broken through to Foundation Establishment. His younger brother, Tian Jianjin, was a genius with a dual spirit root and had already reached the seventh level of Qi Refining." Zhang Chongwen paused for a moment, then pressed on.

"The array formation in that cave dwelling had stored enough power to launch three full force attacks. I was fortunate enough to survive two of them."

"But the fathers of your loyal Uncles… they weren't so lucky. They fell in that battle." Sorrow bled into Zhang Chongwen's voice.

"If only I had known to quit while I was ahead, if only I had turned and fled that cave when I still had the chance, none of this would have happened." Zhang Huaijin could hear the regret in his grandfather's voice, but he knew the truth. Zhang Chongwen would never have left. Not back then. For a rogue cultivator, a chance to change their destiny was worth any risk.

"By the time the third wave of the formation's power erupted, only about a dozen people remained alive inside that cave. Every hiding spot, every piece of cover, had already been obliterated."

"When that final wave struck, Tian Jianjin grabbed your grandmother. He used her body, along with the corpses of your uncles, as a human shield against the formation's fury." Zhang Lixian's eyes blazed with murderous intent.

"So Tian Jianjin was the one who killed mother." Zhang Huaijin's voice, too, turned cold. He had never met his grandmother, but she was still family. That debt would not be forgotten.

"Heh. Tian Jianjin was young and foolish," Zhang Chongwen said with bitter scorn.

"When the formation's power finally faded, everyone scrambled like starving wolves for the Foundation Establishment Pill. Tian Jianjin was the first to grab it!"

"But the ancient cultivator had placed one final trap on the pill itself."

"A blast of searing fire instantly consumed Tian Jianjin's body. He was closest to me, close enough that I could see the terror in his eyes. And he actually started calling out to me for help." Zhang Chongwen laughed, a cold, hollow sound.

"Pathetic." A coughing fit seized him, rattling through his chest.

"Aside from the Foundation Establishment Pill, there were a few other treasures scattered in that chamber. I grabbed one and fled immediately. Tian Jianjin burned to ashes. Nothing remained of him but cinders."

"Tian Jianwei, on the other hand, managed to seize the Foundation Establishment Pill and fight his way out. He used that very pill to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, becoming the Tian family's second cultivator at that level." Zhang Huaijin listened carefully, then asked, "So why would the Tian family want to suppress us? It's not like you killed Tian Jianjin, Grandpa."

"Because we are enemies with the Tian family now. And here's the strange part, for decades after that incident, they did absolutely nothing. They left us alone. But just a few years ago…" Zhang Huaijin's eyes widened as realization struck.

"They saw our Zhang family beginning to rise. They want to choke our growth before we become a real threat."

"Correct." Zhang Chongwen nodded.

"Tian Jianwei has always harbored a grudge over his younger brother's death, even though he knows full well that I wasn't the one who killed him. And to be honest, back in those early days, although the Zhang family was technically one of the Qi Refining Realm families of Langya County, we were small fry, completely beneath notice. Tian Jianwei, as a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, looked down on us. Why would he waste his time striking at ants?"

"But now things have changed. The Zhang family is threatening the Tian family's artifact forging business. And Lixian had a real chance of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Of course Tian Jianwei could no longer afford to sit back and do nothing." Zhang Lixian shook his head, seeing the situation with perfect clarity.

"Father, even if we had no blood grudge with the Tian family, they would still move against us. They are the weakest of the three Foundation Establishment Realm families in Langya County. Our rise, our transformation into a Foundation Establishment Realm family ourselves, poses a greater threat to them than to anyone else."

"They would never stand by and watch helplessly as their share of the profits is carved away and handed to us. Their suppression is only logical. It's exactly what anyone in their position would do."

"That makes sense," Zhang Huaijin agreed. He had already disliked the Tian family. But now, hearing the full history from Zhang Chongwen's own lips, witnessing the old man's barely concealed pain and rage, that dislike hardened into something far more resolute. Tian Jianjin might have died by his own foolishness. But that did not erase what he had done. The debt of vengeance had never been fully paid. And one day, it would be.