Chapter 1848 — The Ice Palace and Snow Valley: The Ice Palace

Although the Ice Palace had no intelligence network like the Shadow Group, and the friendship they had built with the hidden Tang clan had also collapsed, word of Wei Zhao's qigong deviation—something every hidden clan knew—still reached Bingtang's ears.

"Palace Master, don't you think... the Ice Palace ought to lend a hand?" Xiao Qing had told Bingtang the news the moment she received it.

"Lend a hand? Lend a hand with what?" Bingtang gave a light snort. "Don't breathe a word of this to Xiaoxiao."

"But... what if Wei Zhao runs into danger this time..." Xiao Qing was slightly taken aback.

"Danger? If he can't even get himself out of a trifle like this, then he doesn't deserve Xiaoxiao. Better he dies—saves her from being dragged down by him later!" Bingtang rejected Xiao Qing's suggestion outright.

In truth, there was one more thing she had not said, and was too embarrassed to say: if this fellow Wei Zhao was that weak, how did he expect to marry her as his little-little-little-little wife? Bingtang still nursed a deep grudge over the way Wei Zhao had teased her back then.

She was, after all, a formidable expert at the peak of the late Heaven Rank and the head of an ancient sect—and yet she had been toyed with by a mere early Earth Rank practitioner who had the nerve to declare that she would be his little-little-little-little wife. Bingtang did not forget a slight.

Since you are so capable, then face it on your own.

Xiao Qing shook her head and said no more. After all, the one who now held authority in the Ice Palace was Bingtang; Xiaoxiao had not yet become the Inheritor, nor succeeded to the position of Palace Master.

Snow Valley.

At last the Grand Elder had noticed something amiss!

Tang Yun had done her utmost to keep up the pretense that she had already forgotten Wei Zhao, but how perceptive was the Grand Elder? Tang Yun was merely an Inheritor who had just received the transmission, without a shred of real power to her name. One could only say that, from now on, Tang Yun's path of cultivation would be free of any further stumbling blocks; the limit barriers that others hit in cultivation no longer existed for Tang Yun!

To receive the inheritance was equivalent to at once possessing a constitution at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, able to press on toward that higher step. So long as Tang Yun cultivated step by step in the proper order, she would reach the peak of the late Heaven Rank.

Of course, in the Grand Elder's eyes Tang Yun was still far too green, and it did not take long before the Grand Elder spotted the flaw!

"You never took the Forget-Love herbal draft?" The Grand Elder's heart lurched; staring at Tang Yun, she asked in shock and anger.

"I... I did not!" Now that she had been found out, Tang Yun simply stopped hiding it and shook her head.

The Grand Elder looked at Tang Yun, grief and indignation surging through her, yet she did not know what to say. Wei Zhao was gone; even if another vial of the Forget-Love draft could be brewed, without Wei Zhao's blood in it, it would be of no use to Tang Yun even if she drank it. So for all her fury, the Grand Elder had no remedy left.

"Ah..." Once the grief and anger had passed, the Grand Elder could not help but give a long sigh. "You gave the Forget-Love draft to Wei Zhao to drink?"

"Yes. I wanted him to forget me. I did not want him to see how heartless I have become—that would only make him suffer." Tang Yun nodded and spoke with determination.

"Why did you not say so earlier? If you had wanted it, I would have brewed another dose of the Forget-Love draft for you..." The Grand Elder shook her head somewhat helplessly.

"No, I will not drink it. I want to remember him forever, to remember the days we spent together. That will be the most precious memory of my whole life, and I do not want to forget it!" Tang Yun shook her head. "Those days will never come again, and I will keep them forever in the depths of my heart. No one can take them away!"

Tang Yun spoke with such resolve that even the Grand Elder was moved despite herself. She had long since learned how fierce the character of this seemingly fragile girl could be—to kneel in the snow for fifteen days on end, and to do it with the resolve to die if need be; such strength of heart was beyond anyone else's measure.

So the Grand Elder knew that persuasion was pointless. Once Tang Yun had made up her mind, no urging of hers would avail—and now that the danger of Wei Zhao's qigong deviation was gone, it was the Grand Elder and the others who had to beg Tang Yun. If Tang Yun were to throw up her hands and refuse to cultivate, the Grand Elder would not even have time to weep.

"But you must understand: with love in your heart, the path of cultivating the Art of Heartlessness will be full of thorns and pitfalls—you may even suffer qigong deviation. It is truly incomparably hard!" The Grand Elder sighed. "When I had you take the Heartless herbal draft, it was truly for your own good!"

"I know. But I do appreciate your kind intent, Senior. I think I should be able to master my inner demons..." Tang Yun said. "After all, an Inheritor's cultivation will be smooth all the way, and did not the founding patriarch of our sect also attain the great Way without ever taking the Forget-Love draft?"

"That..." The Grand Elder could only smile bitterly. She waved a hand. "Very well. You have the Ice Heart Jade Bone constitution, the same as the founding patriarch; you cannot be judged by common rules. We shall speak no more of this!"

"Thank you, Senior!" Tang Yun was instantly overjoyed. So long as the Grand Elder did not force her to forget Wei Zhao, all was well.

As for how Tang Yun addressed the Grand Elder, it was by the Grand Elder's own wish that she call her "Senior" rather than "Master." After all, though the Grand Elder taught Tang Yun the Art of Heartlessness, in name she had taken a disciple on behalf of the patriarch, and Tang Yun's future stature would likewise be that of a Grand Elder—standing alongside Xueli and herself as an equal. So she truly dared not claim the title of "Master," and could only use "Senior" for the time being. Once Tang Yun advanced to become an expert at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, they would be of the same generation.

"Your parents have already set out for Snow Valley and have just settled in. When you have a moment free from cultivation, you may go and see them!" the Grand Elder said.

"What? Mother is already here?" Tang Yun was even more delighted to hear it.

"Yes, she is resting in the guest quarters now. I have had a separate courtyard prepared for them; once it is cleaned, they can move in." The Grand Elder said, "The constitutions of your birth mother and your foster mother are rather special as well—they belong to the ordinary ice-cold type. Though they are already married women, if they practice our Snow Valley's unique ice-cold school of mental cultivation, I cannot promise they will attain the great Way, but reaching the Profound Rank within their lifetime is no problem at all, and their lifespans can be greatly extended."

"Thank you, Grand Elder!" Tang Yun was both astonished and overjoyed at the news. After thanking her, she hurried off toward the guest quarters...

Watching her vanishing back, the Grand Elder gave a rather helpless sigh and murmured to herself, "Ice Heart Jade Bone... the Art of Heartlessness is the cultivation of the heart. With such attachment to family and to love, how can one be heartless?"

But Tang Yun was Snow Valley's only hope. Though the Grand Elder was displeased, there was no way to interfere with her—otherwise, if Tang Yun refused to cultivate, there would truly be nothing she could do.

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