Rewind two days earlier. The tenth day after Zhang Yang's death. Within the Zhang Family residence in Falling Stone City.
Zhang Zhenshan, the Patriarch of the Zhang Family, sat in the main hall's head seat. His face was cold and stern, his eyes like daggers as they bored into the five men kneeling before him. The men trembled violently, cold sweat pouring down their faces.
The suffocating silence stretched for over ten minutes. Finally, Zhang Zhenshan let out a sharp "Hmph!" The kneeling figures flinched as one, their fear intensifying.
"You lot... did well." Zhang Zhenshan's voice was deceptively calm, devoid of obvious emotion. Yet everyone present knew death could come with a mere flick of his wrist. "In less than ten short days, you managed to flee so far. Made me search for you for so long..."
He paused, the air growing heavier. When he spoke again, the forced calm couldn't quite mask the raw grief of a father who had lost his son. "Now. Tell me. How did my son die? And who killed him?"
The five men kneeling were precisely the gang members who had been knocked unconscious at the very beginning of Bai Yunfei's attack on Zhang Yang. Fearing the Zhang Family's retribution, they had fled the city. Despite their desperate efforts to vanish, the Zhang family's reach had found them. Among them, kneeling prominently, was the leader of their gang.
The four men behind the leader were paralyzed with terror, unable to speak. The gang leader himself swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he dared to plead. "M-Master... Young Master Zhang Yang's death... it truly had nothing to do with us! The killer, he came specifically for the Young Master! And he was an immensely powerful Soul Warrior! We were knocked out cold right at the start! It wasn't our fault, I swear by all that's holy! Please, Master, spare our wretched lives..."
"I did not ask you for excuses!" Zhang Zhenshan's tone shifted, a flicker of impatience breaking through the icy control.
"Y-yes, yes... We'll tell you everything we know! Everything!" the gang leader babbled hastily. "We only beg... beg for a chance, Master! Spare our dog lives for now! We'll help find the murderer! We'll do anything!"
"You have no right to bargain!" Zhang Zhenshan's voice hardened, the anger simmering just beneath the surface threatening to erupt.
The gang leader flinched violently. Cowed into silence on that point, he stammered out the details. "Y-yes, Master... That day... the killer dropped down from the rooftops suddenly. Us ordinary folk... he knocked us out with broken tiles and stones..."
"What?" Zhang Zhenshan's brow furrowed dangerously. "You mean to tell me... none of you even saw the killer's face? You don't know who he is?"
"N-no! Not exactly!" the gang leader rushed to clarify. "I... I woke up just as he was leaving! I heard some things! He was alone at first... but then a woman appeared! She seemed to be there to rescue a girl we had captured! She and the killer... they didn't seem to know each other... but they left together!"
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to recall the crucial details. "That woman... she said... she said she was the head disciple of the Green Willow Sect! Her name was... Qiu Lüliu! The girl we captured was her junior sister, Chu Yuhe!"
"What? The Green Willow Sect?!" For the first time, Zhang Zhenshan's expression changed. He shot to his feet, genuine shock coloring his voice.
The shock was quickly replaced by suspicion. "You claim she came to rescue someone? That you captured her junior sister? Preposterous! Members of the Green Willow Sect wouldn't be captured by the likes of you! Are you trying to drag the Sect's name into this to deceive me?!"
"No! Never! Master, I wouldn't dare lie! I swear!" the gang leader protested frantically, waving his hands. "The woman said it herself! I heard her clearly!"
Zhang Zhenshan scrutinized the man's face intently. He doesn't seem to be lying... The Green Willow Sect? Qiu Lüliu... their talented disciple, known to be out on a trial journey. The captured girl must be a newly accepted ordinary recruit. And that woman who swept through the city's gangs overnight searching for someone... it fits. It must be her. His mind raced, though his face remained impassive. She might not be allied with my son's killer, but they left together. She must know his identity... possibly even his destination.
He sat back down, his voice returning to its cold monotone. "You still haven't provided any concrete information about the killer himself. Is it that you don't know... or that you won't say?"
"He was incredibly cautious, Master! He never revealed himself!" the gang leader whimpered. "I've hidden nothing! If you find that Green Willow Sect woman, you'll surely learn who he is! Please, Master, spare my worthless life!"
Just then, a weak, trembling voice came from behind the gang leader. One of the other four men spoke up, his voice barely a whisper. "M-Master... I... I know something else... about the killer..."
"Speak! Now!" Zhang Zhenshan's gaze snapped to him, sharp and commanding.
"He... he said some things... before he killed the Young Master..." The man closed his eyes, struggling to recall the traumatic scene. Haltingly, he recounted the exchange between Bai Yunfei and Zhang Yang just before the fatal blow.
Zhang Zhenshan listened in stony silence. However, a guard standing near the wall grew increasingly agitated as the story unfolded. By the end, his face was a mask of utter disbelief. This guard was one of the two men who had originally captured Bai Yunfei and dragged him to the Beast Fighting Arena.
When the trembling man finished his account, the guard hesitated. He clenched his fists, then stepped forward, bowing low before Zhang Zhenshan. "Master... I believe... I know who that man is..."
In a hushed voice, he recounted everything he knew about Bai Yunfei: the initial encounter on the street where Bai Yunfei had 'offended' Liu Meng; Zhang Yang's order to capture him; the events at the Beast Fighting Arena; the involvement of Wu Bo; and the tragedy concerning Xiao Yu'er. He left nothing out.
"What? That one!" Zhang Zhenshan exclaimed, his face etched with shock. "It was him? But... how is it possible? I saw him briefly on the street that day. He was just a weak, ordinary nobody! Did that second young master of the Zheng family help him? No... Zheng Tian wouldn't go so far for a stranger. Unless... he encountered some extraordinary fortune?"
He shook his head sharply, dismissing the questions for now. "Enough speculation. Knowing his identity is sufficient!" His icy gaze returned to the man who had just provided Bai Yunfei's words. "So. You lay there. You watched my son be murdered. And you did nothing. You played dead."
The man, who had begun to feel a flicker of hope that his information had saved him, froze. Terror, pure and absolute, washed over him anew. He shook his head violently, hands flailing in panic. "N-No! Master! It wasn't like that! I—"
"Hmph! Useless trash!" Zhang Zhenshan cut him off, his face twisting with venomous hatred, as if this man before him was the murderer himself. "Go and apologize to my son!"
There was a blur of movement. Zhang Zhenshan was suddenly in front of the man. His right hand shot out, seizing the man's throat, and lifted him effortlessly into the air.
An intense, palpable cold radiated from Zhang Zhenshan – not just an aura, but actual frigid air. The temperature in the hall plummeted. Everyone present shivered uncontrollably.
A visible white mist of cold coalesced around Zhang Zhenshan's right hand. The man he held aloft thrashed desperately, his face, initially red from choking, began to turn a deathly pale. Thin layers of frost started forming on his skin. His struggles weakened, his arms falling limp. Finally, he hung motionless.
Zhang Zhenshan released his grip. The body hit the floor with a heavy thud, rigid as an ice sculpture – the unmistakable corpse of someone frozen alive.
Idiot... The gang leader thought, staring at the frozen body. Outwardly, his face mirrored the terror of the others. But deep down, beneath the fear, flickered a faint, undeniable sense of... relief.
Zhang Zhenshan's glacial eyes swept over the remaining four kneeling figures. "As for you... your worthless lives are spared. For now. If you prove useful in finding that man, you may yet live. Fail... and you will join my son in death!"
He lifted his head, his voice cracking like a whip as he addressed his subordinates lining the hall. "Have that man's portrait drawn immediately! Find out everything about him! Then mobilize everyone! Every resource! Every contact! Scour every city! Every town! Every village!" His roar echoed through the hall, filled with a father's grief and a patriarch's terrifying wrath. "Turn the entire Qingyun Province upside down if you must! But FIND HIM!!"