Chapter 1776 — Suspicion, Part Two

What was more, especially that time when he had just returned and showed Old Wei the jade pendant from the box, Old Wei had worn an expression of utter astonishment! When he had shown Old Wei the small box earlier, Old Wei had not been nearly so surprised; it was as though he had known all along.

But upon seeing the jade pendant, he had been astonished beyond measure. What that expression had contained, Wei Zhao could not fathom at the time, but now, looking back on it, he could guess seven or eight parts of it! The only possibility was that Old Wei had known about the cave all along, and known that there was a small box inside it, and that the box contained the Xuanyuan Yulong Art!

Otherwise, there was no way Old Wei could have prepared body-tempering medicine for him beforehand! But the jade pendant's existence seemed to have exceeded Old Wei's expectations! Most likely, Old Wei had known of the jade pendant, but had been surprised to find that it too was inside the box!

This showed that the jade pendant must be a treasure of great importance. But Old Wei would not speak of it, and Wei Zhao knew it was useless to ask however he might; yet when Old Wei wished to speak, as now, he simply said it outright.

"I know," Old Wei said. "An old friend of mine told me about this matter!"

"You mean the fortune-teller?" Wei Zhao asked in return.

"The very same!" Old Wei nodded.

"Could you be a little more detailed?" Wei Zhao frowned. "I always feel there are a great many things I do not understand — including **'s sudden departure. You must know about that."

"I cannot. When the time comes for you to be told, you will be told." Old Wei's expression was as usual, but his words were decisive as a blade.

"Very well, then let us continue studying the prescription." Knowing Old Wei's temperament, Wei Zhao said no more, and simply handed him the prescription he had copied out. "Most of the common medicinal ingredients can be obtained — your herb garden has plenty of them!"

In the Western Journey Valley, Old Wei had a herb garden of his own, where he cultivated many rare medicinal ingredients. Most of those listed on the prescription were there, but there were a few ingredients Wei Zhao had never even heard of.

"Vein-pattern grass? Anxie fruit? Horse-tail bamboo..." Old Wei murmured these few ingredients, then shook his head. "I have not heard of them either. The two of us will search the pharmacopoeias together — perhaps some ancient tome will have them..."

"Search again?" Wei Zhao could not help but look bitter at this. Finding a single Fire Spirit Fruit for Feng Xiaoxiao had already been a tremendous effort, and they had turned up only a scrap of information; now three ingredients were missing all at once — how long would the search take?

"They should not be too hard to find. I doubt they are heaven-defying treasures like the Fire Spirit Fruit; they are probably merely rather uncommon, or else they may have other names. Let us look!" With that, Old Wei stirred himself and rose to head for the study.

And Wei Zhao had no choice but to follow Old Wei into the study.

Old Wei's book chamber held a great many volumes, but Wei Zhao had scanned copies on his computer. Wei Zhao browsed on the computer while Old Wei searched the shelves; Old Wei was not much accustomed to using a computer, but the two of them did not get in each other's way.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Old Wei had indeed been right about those three ingredients: they were an exceedingly rare kind of medicinal herb. Vein-pattern grass and horse-tail bamboo, as expected, had other common names and were in fact cultivated in Old Wei's herb garden; but as for the Anxie fruit, there was none!

Old Wei had no choice but to inquire with several medicinal suppliers, but that yielded no results either. Wei Zhao had also set Fatso Lai to searching, yet even through the channels of Dr. Guan's pharmaceuticals there was still no word of the Anxie fruit. It seemed this particular ingredient really was somewhat rare.

"Could we do without this one ingredient?" Wei Zhao asked with a frown. But no sooner had he asked than he shook his head. "It should not be possible. The Anxie fruit serves throughout the prescription to suppress fire and calm the spirit — it cannot be omitted..."

With Wei Zhao's attainments in medicine, he could naturally understand the role each ingredient played in the prescription. Even if he could not have written such a prescription himself, he could certainly read it clearly.

"You already know, so why ask?" Old Wei shrugged. "I am powerless here. I found no common name for the Anxie fruit in the records — only some descriptions of its medicinal nature and principles. That proves the thing certainly exists, but where it grows, I do not know."

"True. There are many ingredients that suppress fire and calm the spirit; the Anxie fruit is hardly indispensable. If it were a rather uncommon ingredient, it would long since have been replaced by others... Wait — replaced!" Here Wei Zhao's eyes suddenly lit up. He slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "It can be substituted! Why did I not think of that sooner?"

"Hmm... as for substitution, there are indeed some ingredients whose medicinal nature and principles are close to it!" Old Wei nodded as well. "Let me look up the Anxie fruit's medicinal actions again and find one that is similar..."

"No need to look. I already know one!" Wei Zhao shook his head. It seemed he and Old Wei had both walked into a dead end. Altering prescriptions was his forte — the formula for the Golden Wound Medicine and the formula for the Life-Extending Detoxifying Pill had both been revised by Wei Zhao's own hand, and their efficacy had suffered no problem at all. So he was quite confident about this!

Over the next few days, Old Wei and Wei Zhao began preparing the body-tempering medicine. Tang Yun, Gu Mengyao, and Shen Yushu knew that Wei Zhao was preparing for further **, so naturally they did not disturb him. Besides, they had not yet had their fill of play — every day Ergoudan led them weaving through the mountain forests, and they were enjoying themselves immensely!

Once everything was ready and Wei Zhao had finished preparing both the internal and external body-tempering medicines, he made ready to enter seclusion. With Old Wei standing guard over his seclusion, Wei Zhao would be safest of all! Old Wei possessed attacking power not inferior to Ergoudan's — though Ergoudan was somewhat stronger, Old Wei was more than enough against ordinary foes. Moreover, Old Wei had one obvious advantage over Ergoudan: a physique akin to a master of the Golden Bell Shield, so ordinary people could do nothing to him.

The only thing was that Old Wei, like Ergoudan, could not leave West Star Village because of that spring.

Yet while Wei Zhao was in seclusion, scarcely had the Great Assembly of Clans ended when every hidden clan dispatched personages of weight to convene a grand assembly of the hidden clans, preparing to deliberate upon a momentous matter!