Chapter 2715 — Strange Circumstances

Such attributes, however, could not be tested at all upon this round bead—only the major attribute could be measured. And so it was possible that the cultivation method might not prove an exact match. Still, with this bead in hand, one could at least always know the general direction of one's training.

Among the five elemental attributes, only the water attribute was comparatively intricate and tangled; the others were rather more straightforward.

Wei Zhao took the round bead, and then he and Bai Lingtou and Yu Xiaoke made their way out of the ancient tomb together. The exit went smoothly enough, without encountering any danger or obstruction.

The three of them had entered the tomb at first light of dawn; by the time they emerged, the sky was already speckled with stars.

This expedition, all three could be said to have returned fully laden. Yu Xiaoke had gained a great pile of gold and silver jewelry; Wei Zhao had gained the answer to his own constitution, taking three Heaven-Tier weapons and a round bead for testing constitutions; and Bai Lingtou had learned a most exhilarating piece of news—Grandmaster Zhang Liju might not be dead after all!

After seeing Yu Xiaoke back to the orphanage, Wei Zhao and Bai Lingtou returned to Donghai City. Reluctant as Yu Xiaoke was to part, with Bai Lingtou present she dared not keep the thieving rogue any longer. She only clasped the rogue's hand lingeringly for a moment, then let him go.

Watching the car's silhouette dwindle away, Yu Xiaoke sighed with melancholy. Was this what love was? If only the rogue were Wei Zhao—then there would not be so many vexing troubles. But he was not, and she had no idea how to deal with a Wei Zhao who grew more presumptuous by the day...

Still, when she thought of the gold and silver jewelry in her pack, Yu Xiaoke cheered up again. These things were all ancient relics—if not priceless, then at least exceedingly valuable. This trip had certainly not been for nothing.

On the way back, Bai Lingtou was still immersed in the exhilarating news that Zhang Liju might yet live. "Xiaoyi, tell me—ought we to go searching for some trace of Grandmaster Zhang Liju?"

"If he could be found, I fear the Five Luminaries Sect of old would have found him long ago. Zhang Liju is a master of the heavenly way; he is certainly not someone we could find with ease." Wei Zhao was calm enough, not cherishing any vain hope of finding Zhang Liju.

If Zhang Liju wished to appear, he would naturally appear; if he did not, no amount of searching would do any good.

Thunder Pig had been in the ancient tomb for a thousand years and had never once seen Zhang Liju—which showed that Zhang Liju had no intention of coming back at all. Otherwise, even if he did not return to the tomb, he would long since have gone back to the Five Luminaries Sect to look in on things.

"That is true enough." Bai Lingtou nodded. "I was being overeager."

"By the way, Teacher Bai, tell me the story of Zhang Liju and that Ice Fairy and Snow Fairy, would you? You are of the Five Luminaries Sect, so you should know that story well, no?" Wei Zhao asked. He was thoroughly curious about Zhang Liju's romantic history—and of course, Feng Xiaoxiao had something to do with that curiosity.

Wei Zhao counted as Zhang Liju's heir in spirit and teaching, while Feng Xiaoxiao was the future mistress of the Ice Palace. One way or another, Wei Zhao felt he and Zhang Liju were rather alike—except that he had no wife from Snow Valley.

"Grandmaster Zhang Liju, that peerless alchemist and healer of his generation—the love story between him and our two grandmistresses has been handed down through the ages! The Snow Grandmistress and the Ice Grandmistress were fellow disciples under the same master, and their bond was exceedingly close—yet both fell in love with the same man, and that man was Grandmaster Zhang Liju!" Bai Lingtou recounted the events of those years in gentle, measured tones, though what he knew came from the sect's records of anecdotes and miscellany rather than from the sect's orthodox chronicles. "But these two fellow disciples were both proud and lofty of spirit, and neither wished to share her love with another. Or perhaps, because they were fellow disciples, neither could bear to lose face before the other, and neither was willing to yield..."

"Oh? But did they not end up living together afterward?" Wei Zhao asked in surprise.

"That too I learned only today, from what Thunder Pig told me—that afterward they both followed Grandmaster Zhang Liju. Before this, I knew only that the woman Grandmaster Zhang Liju married was the Ice Grandmistress." Bai Lingtou smiled bitterly. "Only, in the end, the Snow Grandmistress chose to yield. The reason she yielded was that the Ice Grandmistress had a peculiar constitution, was afflicted with cold poison in her body, and could not live past twenty. So when the Snow Grandmistress learned this, she no longer wished to contend with her, and of her own accord gave that man up to the Ice Grandmistress..."

"Afflicted with cold poison? A yin-cold constitution?" Wei Zhao was startled, and at once thought of Feng Xiaoxiao's peculiar constitution. That little miss Bingtang had said before as well that Feng Xiaoxiao's constitution resembled that of the founding mistress of their sect—so it seemed the matter was no falsehood.

"Indeed, the yin-cold constitution!" Bai Lingtou nodded and went on. "And it was for this very reason that the Snow Grandmistress chose to yield. Yet Grandmaster Zhang Liju was a man of no small ability. He took the Ice Grandmistress to the Ice-Snow Spirit Mountain—the very place where the Ice Palace now stands—and there found the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit, successfully prolonging the Ice Grandmistress's life. And upon the Ice-Snow Spirit Mountain, the Ice Grandmistress unexpectedly obtained the mountain's legacy as well, discovering the ancient ruins of the Ice Palace, and thereupon founded a sect of her own! But her body, after she took the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit, grew very poor indeed—for she truly ought never to have taken that fruit. The Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit is efficacious only when taken in a state of qi deviation; taken in ordinary times, it brings no benefit at all, and is in fact greatly harmful. So even though the Ice Grandmistress later became a formidable figure at the peak of the late Heaven Tier, her health was never good. And Grandmaster Zhang Liju could only keep refining Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pills for her to take, and thus keep her from falling ill."

"So the Ice Grandmistress did not die, and then the Snow Grandmistress went looking for them again?" Wei Zhao asked, unable to suppress his curiosity.

"No. What I have seen in the records is this: the Snow Grandmistress had already declared that she would give him up—and with a pride as lofty as hers, how could she ever bow her head?" Bai Lingtou shook his head. "Moreover, the Snow Grandmistress wished to forget them both. She founded Snow Valley, and she created the Art of Heartlessness!"

"The Art of Heartlessness?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.

"Indeed. As the name implies, the so-called Art of Heartlessness means that one who cultivates it casts aside all feeling, and no longer knows love..." Bai Lingtou said. "The whole person becomes like a mountain of ice, hard for anyone to approach."

"But that does not fit. If she had become a mountain of ice, then what was the situation we saw today?" Wei Zhao was rather perplexed—Thunder Pig could not lie. "Did the ice mountain change her mind? And then they were together again? Did her Art of Heartlessness later fail? And if so, how could she still break through and ascend to the heavenly way?"

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