Zhang Yuanliao

Zhang Yuanliao is a young Origin Qi Scholar from Westridge's Zhang Clan who meets the blind Su Chen in the Scarlet Mountain Range. After Su saves him from a Vicious Beast, Zhang proposes an alliance, poisons their farewell wine, and attempts to murder him for his Origin Tools. Su reverses the trap and kills him. (Chapters 48–50)

Biography

Meeting in the Scarlet Mountain Range

Zhang encounters Su while the two are hunting and initially debates whether confidence rather than family background determines one's fighting style. He presents himself as a friendly peer, shares cooked tiger meat, and urges Su to join him in the newly accessible Halcyon Gorge, where starsilver promises a rapid fortune. Su declines because he prefers slower, controlled gains, but the two eat and drink together before separating. (Chapters 48–49)

The alliance offer is a pretext. Zhang slips Qi Obstructing Powder into Su's wine and explains that lawless territory enlarges human greed; a blind youth carrying Origin Tools appears to him like a child displaying gold. Su has already recognized Zhang's lack of gratitude and switched their cups. Poisoned by his own powder, Zhang still attempts a concealed final attack, but Su detects it and kills him with the Azure Scales Blade. (Chapter 49)

Posthumous effects

Su's discomfort after taking his first human life gives Zhang's betrayal significance beyond the brief encounter. He removes Zhang's storage ring, uses its three-cubic-meter space during his Halcyon Gorge trading operation, and later gives it to Black Hand when leaving the market. These later chapters concern Zhang's former property rather than any survival or continuing agency. (Chapters 50, 52, and 59)

Appearance and personality

Zhang is a young man, but the corpus does not provide stable details for his face, clothing, hair, height, or build. He carries or steals weapons during the confrontation and wears a storage ring. (Chapters 48–50)

He is sociable on the surface, greedy, treacherous, opportunistic, and convinced that lawlessness justifies predation. His arguments about confidence and cooperation can sound sincere, but he feels no gratitude after Su saves him and interprets disability as vulnerability to exploit. Even after his poison is reversed, he feigns surrender and attempts another surprise attack, showing persistence without loyalty or remorse. (Chapters 48–49)

Abilities and cultivation

Zhang is an Origin Qi Scholar capable of hunting in the Scarlet Mountain Range, rapidly absorbing nutrition from beast meat, and circulating Origin Energy. The corpus does not state his precise realm, bloodline, cultivation layer, or named defensive technique. Qi Obstructing Powder prevents him from using his normal energy effectively in the final fight, so that defeat does not measure his full strength. (Chapters 48–50)

He wields a blade and has bitterly practiced a fast, strangely angled concealed attack. Su's recovered vision and preparation allow him to intercept it. Zhang also understands poison well enough to dose wine with Qi Obstructing Powder, but he fails to notice that Su switches the cups. The powder is an external tool, not an innate ability, and the corpus does not give its duration, antidote, or effect on stronger realms. (Chapter 49)

Relationships

• Su Chen: Zhang's rescuer, temporary companion, intended victim, and killer. Zhang mistakes Su's blindness and equipment for an easy windfall, while Su reads his ingratitude and reverses the poisoning attempt. (Chapters 48–50)

Items

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