Chapter 1629 — Going Out Together

So Old Master Tang had no need to declare himself at all—Tang Yu spoke up first: "Whoever she may be, and however little good may be said of her, that woman is still my birth mother. Let her quarters be exchanged with those of the Third Concubine. Would Elder Qing permit that? The Third Concubine and I have been close since I was small, and I will wait upon her as I would upon a mother—the Third Concubine can vouch for it..."

Tang Yu's words were plain enough on the surface, but in truth he was telling Xiao Qing that he had swapped the places of his mother and Xiao Ming. Their lodgings had changed, and with them their standing—only he had stopped short of driving anyone out altogether.

"I can vouch for that... I was the one who raised Yu'er and carried him about at play when he was small; he has always loved and respected me..." Xiao Ming hastened to add.

"Very well," Xiao Qing nodded. "Then the matter is settled. When the head of the Tang family arrives, have Xiao Li—Steward Li—get in touch with me."

"That... Elder Qing, my eightieth birthday is not far off, and every member of the Tang family will come to attend, including the collateral branch descended from my cousin. So—would you see whether the Palace Master might come as well, in the character of a Tang?" Old Master Tang asked cautiously. "That way, once we are there, it will not be too late to do the parentage test."

"That is not mine to decide. I will put it to the Palace Master and bring you her answer afterward." Xiao Qing committed herself to nothing; she only noted it down.

"Good, good!" Old Master Tang nodded happily. "Elder Qing, I have put you to great trouble!"

Xiao Qing waved a hand and made no reply, but turned and left Old Master Tang's room. Then she was gone, drifting away like a breath of wind...

Hearing Xiao Qing's account, Bing Tang pondered a moment, then agreed to Old Master Tang's request. For one thing, she wished to see the place where she had been born; for another, she wished to seize the chance to go out and travel a little. It might fairly be said that Bing Tang had spent the past twenty years and more inside the Ice Palace and had never once gone beyond its walls; all tidings of the outside world were passed in to her by the outer sect, and she had never seen any of it for herself.

So Old Master Tang's proposal stirred her. Not out of any deference to him—she simply wanted to see the world with her own eyes.

"Fine, I will go." Bing Tang nodded. "Go and give him your reply. Since it is his eightieth birthday and the clan may attend—well, if he means to use the occasion to vaunt his strength by inviting other families, then I will not show my face."

Bing Tang was clever enough; how could she not see through Old Master Tang's little scheme? The matter of her attending the birthday feast was best kept quiet. If the Ice Palace meant to keep the Hidden Tang family working in its service, a limit had to be held: these people must not be allowed to swell with their own importance, draping themselves in a tiger's pelt to make a banner and doing ugly things under the Ice Palace's name.

"I understand, Palace Master!" Xiao Qing nodded.

"I am going to look in on our young junior sister. I will take her along on this trip—she has only just come here and has been moping, unable to settle in. I am afraid she will fret herself into a sickness." Bing Tang said this, and it was plain that she held Feng Xiaoxiao very much in her thoughts.

"Yes, all right. I will go and speak with the Hidden Tang family now..." Xiao Qing nodded and went back to deliver the reply, while Bing Tang rose into the air and flew toward the peak of the Snow and Ice Spirit Mountain where the spiritual energy ran thickest.

Since entering the Ice Palace, Feng Xiaoxiao had not idled for a single moment. Apart from eating and sleeping, she cultivated here every day; she was very likely the most diligent of all the Ice Palace's disciples. But everyone understood the weight resting on her shoulders—a Successor was a role of great consequence, and one had to exist if Cloud Terrace Island was ever to be opened.

"Senior Sister?" Feng Xiaoxiao finished her practice and lifted her head to find Bing Tang standing not far before her, and could not help but start. "Why have you come?"

With the strength she had now, Feng Xiaoxiao naturally could not have sensed Bing Tang's approach.

"Xiaoxiao, are you settling in well enough at the Ice Palace?" Bing Tang sat down at Feng Xiaoxiao's side, with none of a Palace Master's airs about her.

"Well enough..." Feng Xiaoxiao could not see Wei Zhao, so of course she was not truly happy; but when she thought that this brief parting was for the sake of a long life together afterward, her heart eased again.

"In a few days I am going out. Will you come with me?" Bing Tang asked.

"Going out? Where to? Can I go and see my husband Wei Zhao?" Feng Xiaoxiao came alive at once.

"That..." Bing Tang smiled wryly. A moment ago Feng Xiaoxiao had acted as though it were nothing to her, and at the first mention of going out she was all eagerness. Still, Bing Tang did not want her seeing Wei Zhao. To speak honestly, Bing Tang did not think much of Wei Zhao's strength: he might be hailed as the finest under the Earth tier, but never mind under the Earth tier—were he the finest under the Heaven tier, Bing Tang would still not think much of him.

In time, Feng Xiaoxiao would become the Successor, with hope of crossing into the Heavenly Dao and reaching that plane of legend. By then, Wei Zhao's strength would seem pitifully weak in her eyes. Would she still cling to him so?

Yet from what Bing Tang had observed, it seemed she would. The bond between those two was not measured by strength. Wei Zhao had once been no more than a Profound-tier expert, yet for the sake of a Feng Xiaoxiao with no strength at all he had entered the trials, and had gone from one to the next offending men far stronger than himself—that in itself said enough.

"The two places are far apart, so I cannot promise, but if there is time, you may meet." Bing Tang did not refuse her junior sister's plea. In the Ice Palace she was severe with others, but with this strange, clever little junior sister she could never bring herself to be severe.

Severe or not, her way of speaking to you never changed in the slightest; when Bing Tang was with her, she even found herself unwittingly growing a little peculiar.

"Wonderful!" Feng Xiaoxiao was delighted. "I am a Yellow-tier expert already—when my husband Wei Zhao sees that, he will be so happy!"

Feng Xiaoxiao's cultivation speed was indeed no slow thing; in less than a month she had become a Yellow-tier expert. Only a special constitution paired with a special cultivation method, in the Land of Inheritance, could produce such a result.

"..." Bing Tang was rather at a loss for words.

The next day, Bing Tang, Feng Xiaoxiao, and Xiao Qing set out on their journey, and traveling with them were Old Master Tang, Tang Yu, and Xiao Ming of the Hidden Tang family.

By this time the Hidden Tang family had at last received Old Master Tang's definite word, and learned what the purpose of his journey was.

Before Old Master Tang had confirmed Bing Tang's parentage, he naturally would not have said anything rash; if Tang Yu had truly been mistaken, the affair would have blown up beyond all mending.

Not only would the Hidden Tang family be made a laughingstock—the Ice Palace, too, might well lay the blame at their door.

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