Chapter 1799 — Snow Valley, Part One

"This man... is he from Snow Valley?" Hearing his words, Gu Mengyao could more or less confirm his identity, and she breathed a sigh of relief, rolling down the car window...

But the instant the window opened, a biting wind struck them full in the face, and both Gu Mengyao and Tang Yun could not help but shiver, while Xiao Shu seemed utterly at ease—no doubt because she was clutching Wei Zhao, that veritable furnace of warmth.

"No, roll it up. I'll get out and talk to him!" Seeing Gu Mengyao trembling with cold, Tang Yun said.

They had brought autumn clothes along in the car, but none of them had expected Snow Valley to be this cold. Mo Kongwen and Old Man Wei had overlooked the matter too, so that Gu Mengyao had been complaining bitterly ever since they arrived.

"You go... will that be all right?" Gu Mengyao asked, a little worried.

"It's fine. I'm cold too, but I weather it better than the rest of you." With that, Tang Yun opened the door and stepped out, addressing the valley patrol with respect: "Hello. We're on our way to Snow Valley. Might we trouble you to guide us?"

"On your way to Snow Valley?" The patrolman was slightly taken aback. He glanced at Tang Yun but saw nothing remarkable about her. Snow Valley, as an ancient sect, of course had dealings with other sects from time to time, but look as he might, Tang Yun did not resemble a practitioner—let alone a disciple of some other sect.

"We'd like to buy some rare natural treasures!" Seeing the patrolman's puzzlement, Tang Yun stated their purpose bluntly.

"So you've come to buy natural treasures..." The patrolman understood at once. Every ancient sect had its own way of making money: the Ice Palace ran trials, the Mystic Elixir Sect sold pills, and Snow Valley—Snow Valley made its money by selling rare natural treasures.

Owing to Snow Valley's peculiar geography, different spots nearby could produce different climates and temperatures in the same month of the year, and under such conditions a great many spiritual herbs could be cultivated. Even the Mystic Elixir Sect was one of Snow Valley's customers.

So once Tang Yun had stated her business, the patrolman's suspicions vanished. After all, those who found their way here to buy natural treasures were generally recommended by other sects or by families of comparable standing.

"Wait here and do not move. I must return to the sect and report to the elder on duty," the patrolman said.

"Very well, thank you!" Tang Yun said gratefully. She had not expected things to go so smoothly. After all, when Wei Zhao had described the road to the Ice Palace, it had been fraught with difficulty, with trials to be entered besides—yet here at Snow Valley, buying natural treasures seemed to be taken as a matter of course.

Having spoken, the patrolman tossed something casually, slapping a tag onto the car beside Tang Yun, then turned and vanished into the vast white snow... In the blink of an eye, not a trace of him remained.

Tang Yun glanced curiously at the tag on the car, and on it she saw the characters "Valley Patrol 15, Awaiting Report," along with a mark resembling a snow mountain that she could not decipher.

But having seen those words, Tang Yun could more or less guess their meaning: apart from the man just now, there must be other patrolmen, and upon seeing such a tag, they would surely ask no further questions.

With that thought, Tang Yun returned to the car and waited patiently for news...

Before long, a Snow Valley patrolman dressed exactly like the first indeed appeared beside the car. But after seeing the tag on the vehicle, he said not a word and quietly withdrew—evidently this was a rule of long standing.

The earlier patrolman, number 15, hurried back to Snow Valley and sought an audience with the elder on duty, only to be told by other disciples that the Valley Master had at that moment convened all the elders in the council hall, and that the elder on duty had gone as well. If he wished to see the elder on duty, he would have to wait at the door of the council hall.

Patrolman 15 knew the rules and dared not intrude. He came to the door of the council hall and stood respectfully to one side, waiting for the elder on duty. There were other Snow Valley disciples present as well, likewise come to seek audience with other elders, and like him they waited in silence.

At this moment in the council hall sat five people of differing ages—some appeared quite young, others showed the marks of great age. In the seat of honor sat a young woman in her twenties, and beside her an old woman who looked to be seventy or eighty.

Of these two, the younger was Snow Pear, the current Valley Master of Snow Valley, and the old woman beside her was Snow Valley's Grand Elder. The other three—two men and a woman—were Snow Valley's three Heaven-Rank elders.

Snow Pear was twenty-eight this year and had only recently broken through to the Heaven Rank, while of the other elders the strongest had reached but the middle Heaven Rank. Throughout all Snow Valley, apart from the Grand Elder, a formidable expert at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, no one else had attained such a height—and this was what worried Snow Valley most.

As one of the four great ancient sects, Snow Valley had once been glorious, once at its zenith. But with the departure of the previous Valley Master, decline had set in, and the two great water-system schools of inner cultivation, once able to ride abreast with the Ice Palace, had come to suffer a gap between generations.

What especially troubled Snow Valley was that the Ice Palace had actually found an inheritor—said to possess the rare ice-cold constitution. This made Snow Valley feel unprecedented pressure. Snow Valley was indeed one of the four great sects of old, but the Heaven-Rank Assembly judged present strength, and cared nothing for how glorious one had once been.

So finding an inheritor of suitable constitution had become Snow Valley's foremost concern.

Of course, it was not only Snow Valley: all the ancient sects of the five elements were searching for inheritors of their own. For only an inheritor could open Cloud-Rank Island and enable experts at the peak of the late Heaven Rank to cross that barrier...

The Ice Palace and Snow Valley were both water-system sects. Though Snow Valley bore the name of snow, what its disciples cultivated was the mist system; and for a water-system inheritor, the mist, water, and ice inheritors all had to be present together before the conditions for opening could be met.

Snow Pear's constitution could only be called an ordinary yin constitution. Though hardly first-rate, it was already the finest in all Snow Valley—otherwise she could never have broken through to the Heaven Rank at twenty-eight. For a Heaven-Rank practitioner, that age was already extraordinary.

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