Chương 1181: Chapter 1179: Fragments of Madness

The ruined garden remained silent under the oppressive weight of the hellscape projected by the Worldkeeper. The sharp blade of the glaive rested just a fraction of an inch away from the throat of the kneeling Sect Master and a single bead of cold sweat rolled down the side of the man's face. The Sect Master was about to curse the nine generations of Guizhong for getting him into this mess but realized that would be cursing his own family.

Zhan Tian held the weapon steady while his dark eyes searched the faces of the Worldheart Clan leaders for any signs of deception or lingering hostility. The armored soldiers surrounding the mountain peak stood like statues of cold iron and waited for a single word from their lord to begin the slaughter. Each one was ready to carry it out regardless of whether Zhan Tian was in the right or wrong, they had unwavering faith in their lord's judgement.

Tielan stepped forward and placed a gentle hand over the armored forearm of her father. She knew the depth of his rage and she understood why he was ready to burn the realm to the ground but she also knew they needed to approach the situation with a clear head. They were not murderers or slaughters for no good reason.

"Father, you should lower your weapon for now," Tielan said with a calm voice that cut through the heavy tension filling the air.

"Guizhong was the one leading this assault and he acted on his own crazed desires or whatever his reason was. The Sect Master and the elders kneeling before you genuinely tried to stop him from what I could see. The elders refused his orders to capture us and the Sect Master seized control of the defensive arrays to sever his power source during the clash. Either they are innocent bystanders in this mess or they are great actors trying to save their own lives."

Zhan Tian narrowed his eyes and shifted his gaze from the Sect Master to the broken pieces of the ancestor scattered across the ground.

"If they are acting then they are putting on a very convincing performance," Tielan continued while holding her shoulder.

"But from my own observations, they knew something was wrong with him long before he made his move today. They were terrified of his erratic behavior and they tried to reason with him. I do not believe the rest of the clan was involved in this ambush." Zhan Tian listened to his daughter and he trusted her intuition. If that really wasn't the case, she would be the first to burn this place to the ground. Tielan had spent her life fighting on the front lines and she knew how to read the intentions of an enemy.

The Worldkeeper let out a slow breath and pulled his glaive away from the throat of the Sect Master. The suffocating hellscape of structured wrath began to recede and the crushing pressure lifted from the sect and allowed the kneeling elders to finally draw a full breath of air. The culprit was dead and his body lay quartered on the ground but Zhan Tian still felt a lingering sense of danger. Tielan stepped away from her father and walked back to the center of the garden where Li Yu lay unconscious.

She retrieved a small jade vial from her spatial ring and popped the wooden cork, tossed a healing pill into her mouth and swallowed it to begin mending the internal injuries caused during the fight. The warm medicinal energy flowed through her body and eased the slight pain in her shoulder while she sat beside her son to monitor his steady breathing. Zhan Tian planted the butt of his glaive against the ground and scanned the area while looking for clues.

He turned his full attention back to the Sect Master and the two ancestors who were still kneeling in the dust.

"My daughter says you tried to stop him and that buys you a chance to speak." Zhan Tian demanded with a deep voice that echoed across the quiet mountain.

"From her recount of the events, you clearly knew something was off with your ancestor. You better explain everything you know about him right now. If there is some other mastermind pulling the strings behind this incident, it is in your best interest to help us find them. Do not leave a single detail out regardless of the secrets it might reveal. This is your only chance." The Sect Master swallowed hard and shared a nervous look with the two ancestors beside him.

They wanted nothing more than to get out of this terrifying situation and they could only curse Guizhong in their hearts for bringing such a calamity upon their home. They were more than willing to reveal everything they knew if it meant sparing the lives of everyone present.

"Lord Tian, we swear on our cultivation that we did not know he was planning an attack," The Sect Master began with a steady voice as he looked up at the towering warrior.

"We only knew that Ancestor Guizhong had changed drastically in recent decades. The man who attacked your family today was not the same wise teacher who guided our clan in the past."

"Start from the beginning," Zhan Tian ordered while keeping his face devoid of any sympathy.

"When did you first notice the changes and what sparked them?" The Sect Master nodded and gathered his thoughts before weaving a story that spanned the last thirty years of their clan history.

"It started around three decades ago when Guizhong decided to take a solitary journey to the fringes of the Luminous Realm. He told us he was searching for ancient natural treasures to prolong his life or deepen his understanding of inner worlds. He was gone for several years and we did not hear a single word from him during that time."

"When he finally returned, he was different," One of the kneeling ancestors chimed in to support the Sect Master.

"He looked exhausted and his Qi felt heavier than usual. He called a private meeting with the leaders of the clan and claimed he had found a strange treasure hidden in the ruins of a dead realm. He told us this treasure would elevate the Worldheart Clan to the peak of the Myriad Realms and unlock the true secrets of the inner world." General Yue stepped forward and her pristine robes fluttered in the cool mountain breeze.

"What kind of treasure was it? Did it emit a specific aura or carry a strange energy?" The Sect Master shook his head and offered an apologetic look.

"We do not know. We never actually saw the treasure itself. Guizhong kept it hidden at all times and we never even caught sight of it. Whenever we asked to examine the artifact, he would grow highly defensive and claim the item was too fragile for our eyes. He locked himself away in his private meditation pavilion on the highest peak and refused to let anyone enter his sanctum." Elder Feng spoke up from his spot near the edge of the cleansing pool.

He kept his head bowed respectfully as he added his own observations to the recounting.

"His temper began to sour shortly after he locked himself away. The ancestor was once known for his boundless patience and his gentle guidance but he became quick to anger. He would punish disciples severely for minor mistakes and he lashed out at anyone who interrupted his studies. We could hear strange noises coming from his pavilion at night sometimes. It sounded like he was chanting something or arguing with someone who was not there."

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"We thought he was just getting frustrated from not being able to find or do what he wanted. That since his life was naturally nearing its end, he was becoming a bit more desperate." The Sect Master continued while wiping a layer of sweat from his brow.

"Cultivators often lose themselves in their obsessions when they reach the peak of their realms and we assumed he just needed time to make that next step or come to terms with it." Zhan Tian frowned and gripped his glaive a bit tighter as he was trying to determine if he was believing this or not.

"A man does not perform an attack like this simply because he is in a bad mood. Where was he going and who was he meeting?"

"That is the most troubling part," The Sect Master admitted with a heavy sigh.

"He started leaving the clan for months at a time without offering any explanation. He would just vanish in and return looking normal but slightly happier so we thought things were turning for the better. We tried to ask where he was going but he told us it was none of our business and ordered us to stay out of his way."

"Did you not try to track him?" General Draken asked with a booming laugh that held no humor.

"You run this clan and you just let a crazed old man wander the realms unchecked?"

"We tried to track him once," Elder Feng answered while recalling a painful memory.

"We did not order it but a loyal senior disciple that had learned under the ancestor tried to follow him out of concern for his declining health. Guizhong discovered the boy before they even left the Luminous Realm and beat him within an inch of his life. He dragged the broken disciple back to the main courtyard and threatened to cripple the cultivation of anyone who ever tried to follow him again as his mission was a secret. He did not allow anyone else to accompany him on his journeys."

The Sect Master nodded in agreement.

"He was actively hiding his tracks from us but what could we do? He holds the most senior position in our clan and his words are nearly law." Tielan sat quietly beside Li Yu and listened to the conversation while keeping a close eye on the body language of the elders. She watched the way their hands moved when they spoke of the beating and she noted the genuine confusion in their eyes when they talked, it was as if they were trying to figure it all out as well.

She could tell they were telling a story that was true or at least mostly true but they were just as in the dark as everyone else.

"What else did he do?" Zhan Tian pressed forward while analyzing the scattered puzzle pieces they were offering him.

"He began requisitioning varying amounts of resources from our vaults," The second ancestor revealed with a look of regret.

"He had supreme authority so we could not deny his requests. Over the last thirty years, he emptied nearly a third of our annual income each year. He took all kinds of things such as metals, natural treasures, spirit stones, a vast quality of beast blood and other seemingly random things. We thought he was using the materials to experiment on his own inner world but the volume of resources he took was staggering." General Draken stepped closer and rubbed his thick chin while pondering the list of materials.

"An interesting list of materials…" The Sect Master looked at him and nodded before continuing.

"We really do not know what he was doing with it all. We asked him what the materials were for and he simply told us he was preparing for a new technique. We never saw anything being built on our territory and we never saw any outside forces visiting his pavilion. He isolated himself completely and worked in secret all on his own." Zhan Tian stood in silence while digesting the long and detailed story the elders had provided.

The narrative they wove painted a picture of a man possibly corrupted by an unknown artifact and was obsessed by a secret project he wouldn't share with anyone. The story explained his erratic behavior in recent years, his paranoia and his sudden spikes of aggression. The story was all believable to a degree. Using his own instincts and observations while they were telling it, Zhan Tian could more or less tell they were not lying. However, the story ultimately told the Worldkeeper nothing of actual value.

The tale was full of mysterious points that led to dead ends. Guizhong found a strange treasure but no one ever laid eyes on it and they did not know what it did. He traveled to secret locations but no one knew where he went or who he was meeting. Guizhong gathered massive amounts of resources from the clan but no one knew what he was constructing or where he was hiding the finished products. It was a story that made sense but truly revealed nothing actionable for Zhan Tian to strike at.

There was no named mastermind to hunt down and there was no specific enemy faction to target to get to the root of the matter.

"Is this truly everything you know?" Zhan Tian asked with a low and dangerous tone while leaning forward to cast a shadow over the kneeling men.

"You have no other details regarding his contacts or the true nature of this treasure?"

"We swear on our Daos and our very lives that this is all we know, Lord Tian." The Sect Master pleaded for everyone's lives within the clan.

"We were kept in the dark just as much as anyone else. We never imagined he was so far gone that he would attack your family like that. We are victims of his madness as well." Zhan Tian studied their faces for a long moment and found no deception in their eyes once more. They were also victims who had let their ancestor run wild out of fear but they were not the masterminds behind this incident. While they could have possibly tried to stop him, saying that was easier than actually doing it.

He was their most senior person within the clan and had the power to match. The clan could have been the one he attacked instead of his daughter and grandson.

"Your story leaves much to be desired," Zhan Tian finally said while standing up straight and resting the glaive on his shoulder.

"It is a convenient tale that shifts all the blame onto a dead man while leaving us with no real answers. I will not destroy your clan today because my daughter believes you tried to stop him but I will not simply take your word for it either." The Sect Master let out a shaky breath of relief and bowed his head again.

"Thank you Lord Tian. We will cooperate with anything you need."

"You will stay exactly where you are," Zhan Tian commanded while turning to look at his generals.

"My troops will remain on this mountain and your entire clan will remain under strict lockdown for the time being. We will search everywhere that Guizhong has been to, we will audit your vaults and we will tear apart anything we need to, to see if we can verify your story. We will find out what he was doing and who he was working with." The generals nodded in unison and prepared to relay the orders to the soldiers as well. Zhan Tian looked back at Tielan and his unconscious grandson resting on the ground.

He knew the physical threat was over for now but the mystery surrounding the dark ocean within his grandson and the crazed ancestor was only just beginning to unfold. They needed to find the missing pieces of this puzzle before the unseen forces pulling the strings decided to make another move. Zhan Tian knew that his actions today would not sit well with those within this clan. Every clan has their pride and being occupied like this will cause resentment against him and the Zhan Clan.

This resentment will breed hatred, anger and those things will turn into future troubles. Even if the clan as a whole was willing to be occupied as it was now, those feelings will occur regardless of what anyone says or does. That was the simple truth of the matter and Zhan Tian understood such things well. He didn't care though as the immediate threat was to his family now. This crazed old man had attacked his daughter in the middle of this clan and the price they were paying was such right now.

It would also seem that in this particular case, there was more going on and he would get to the bottom of it before leaving.