Wu Tianmo's eyes narrowed while looking towards Wu Tianfeng who was staring off into the distance. Tianfeng winced as he recalled repressed memories.
"As the champion of the clan's competition, you were sent out alone with nothing but a sword. As is the way of the Wu clan."
He gripped the handle of the training sword,
"Those of us who were defeated by you, were sent out into the martial world in groups. As the top student your trial was different than ours."
He used the tip of the training sword and drew an outline of the previous Wu Estate in the ground.
"The rest of our groups each consisted of five cadets, who were led by a team leader. My team arrived back at the manor later than the rest."
His voice steadied as he took a deep breath remembering carnage, his eyes even becoming bloodshot,
"We saw smoke rising from the direction of our estate and quickened our pace. Yet we had no idea what we would come upon once reaching our territory. We first encountered our slain mortal clansmen."
"One of the village leaders, who was nailed to a large tree spoke of what had happened with his dying breath... The other clans paid mortal bandits to attack our mortal clansmen with overwhelming force, not even the women or children survived."
He looked away, not allowing Wu Tianmo to see him shed a tear,
"We were too late. We came back just in time to see the carnage."
He drew a trail from a drawn village in the ground to the clan estate,
"We rushed to the clan's estate to find that was where the smoke was rising from. The other families attacked from every side.... The estate was ablaze, and the screams of our clansmen echoed throughout the valley."
Wu Tianmo looked down, a tear falling from his cheek as Wu Tianfeng continued,
"Even if we arrived sooner it wouldn't have made a difference. The mortal villages and estates were all pillaged. What could five 1st Stage Body Reforging cultivators do?"
"We had to tread over the bodies of our cultivators and servants as they littered the ground. There were so many slain that a layer of congealed blood started to form atop the white jade floor."
He spat on the ground next to him,
"At the estate, the Patriarchs of the Song, Ji, and Lin revealed an unfathomable cultivation level. While our Patriarch, Wu Daoxuan, was of similar cultivation."
He grit his teeth,
"He was no match for their joint attack."
Wu Tianfeng carved the letters for the Ji, Song and Lin in the ground above the manor.
"Our Patriarch was a major realm above them before, no one expected them all to come upon an opportunity to break through together. You see, the Patriarchs were not actually at the peak of the Core Forming realm, but the True Spirit realm."
Wu Tianmo's face darkened,
"So what happened when you arrived?"
Wu Tianfeng chuckled nervously,
"What else could we do senior brother? We charged in there to try and save some of our clansmen. Even though it meant our death we had to try."
Wu Tianmo sighed,
"Our generation was supposed to be the one who raised the Wu Clan to heaven, who would have thought it would be the one to tread along the path of the underworld."
Wu Tianfeng nodded,
"We made our way further in and found many of the Body Reforging Cultivators from their clans pillaging our estate. Our spirit gardens, our treasury, even our ancestral pagoda was not spared. Someone had leaked that the swords of the past Patriarchs were buried alongside them."
Wu Tianmo's face flushed red with anger,
"How could that be the case! That is a closely held secret. Only the elders and the Patriarchs should know about this. What of your father and junior sis---"
Wu Tianfeng raised a hand stopping him mid-sentence,
"It was one of the elders, we weren't defeated... but betrayed."
Wu Tianmo's aura flared and his killing intent surged, bleeding from his pores even reaching the mortal sleeping nearby causing him to wake in panic,
"Who would dare!"
Wu Tianfeng sighed,
"It was the traitorous grand elder"
He paused for a moment,
"Wu Daolin, junior brother to our previous Patriarch. His son, Wu Zhenshan, and his distant grandson Wu Tianyu stood on the side of outsiders as our clansmen were slaughtered."
"That bastard Tianyu stood there and watched... WATCHED as his fellow cadets and clansmen were..."
Wu Tianmo spat,
"Bastards, that old ghost never truly forgave the Patriarch after losing to him. If the other elders perished, that means..."
Wu Tianfeng,
"My father... and sister were among the slain."
Wu Tianmo looked down,
"bastards..."
Wu Tianfeng continued,
"The Patriarch noticed us as we returned and sent me a hidden transmission. Telling us to run, to preserve the Wu Bloodline and find you.... We begrudgingly obeyed, yet were pursued by the traitorous spawn of Wu Daolin and encircled. All of us fought valiantly even killing a 9th Stage Body Reforging cultivator with our combined efforts. We were all injured, escape was futile."
Wu Tianfeng caressed the long scar along his chest,
"Wu Tianyu stabbed me through the back and out my chest, only by some miracle did I survive long enough to throw myself into the Azure River. It wasn't long until Manager Qiu's men found me. I.. I do not wish to discuss my time as a slave. I will get my revenge on the Black Tower in my own time."
Wu Tianmo took a moment and let it sink in,
"We will get our revenge junior brother. For now, our job is to rebuild our clan in the shadows. This Blackwood Forest is home to many opportunities. Even I have cultivated to the Meridian Opening realm in under a year. Only by becoming stronger can we have a chance at revenge"
Wu Tianfeng nearly spat out his meal replacement pill,
"Under a year?!"
Wu Tianmo nodded,
"Yes junior brother, and I have even gained a beast companion of equal ferocity."
Wu Tianfeng looked at the slender snake wrapped around Wu Tianmo's forearm,
"You have had a lot of success, senior brother.. Yet we're still too weak to take revenge. I fear it will be hundreds of years before we have that opportunity. The clan's sacred manuals were taken by those three families so we will have to start from scratch. From what I heard, they even left Tieling County to go to the capital city of the Eternal River Empire."
Wu Tianmo took a moment to ponder,
Should I teach junior brother the Crimson Lunar Blood Scripture?