Chapter 1964 — The Matching Blueprint

"This map..." Wei Zhao blurted out, instinctively startled.

"What is it? Is something wrong with the map?" Sun Jingyan asked, puzzled.

"This map — didn't you notice? It's half a map, not a whole one." Wei Zhao pointed to the map's edge as he spoke to Sun Jingyan.

"Eh? So it is — the map is only half." Following the direction of Wei Zhao's finger, Sun Jingyan indeed saw that one side of the map's edge was unfinished, as though it had been cut away with perfect neatness...

But what truly shocked Wei Zhao was not that the map was only half. It was that, in Wei Zhao's own possession, lay the other half!

Back when he had taken part in the trial, he and Zhao Qitan had encountered a raving, wild-eyed old madman in a mountain cave. It was from him that Wei Zhao had received his map.

The same material, the same drafting strokes, the same pigment and coloring — Wei Zhao could state with absolute certainty that the half in his possession and this one had originally been a single map, later divided down the middle...

"Eh, Wei Zhao, why does your face look so strange?" Sun Jingyan asked, eyeing him with some perplexity.

"It's not my face that's strange, it's just that..." Wei Zhao could not help a bitter smile. He hesitated inwardly. After all, that map of his was not truly his own — one could say the old madman had left it in his keeping. But now it was certain that the madman must have had some connection to Sun Jingyan's parents. Could it be that Sun Jingyan's parents were the madman's disciples?

Otherwise, why would Sun Jingyan have that half of the map? And the madman had said as much back then: the other half was in his disciple's hands.

So, since the thing was connected to Sun Jingyan to begin with, Wei Zhao stopped concealing it and said, "Because I hold the other half of the map!"

"Ah!" Sun Jingyan stared at Wei Zhao in astonishment. She had never imagined that his shock came from his possessing the other half. The answer left her at a loss — Wei Zhao had a map? Where had his come from? Did he know her parents?

"I'll explain it to you slowly. The map isn't on me anyway — it's at my villa in Donghai City," Wei Zhao said. "I'll find it for you once I get back."

"All right..." Sun Jingyan found it all a little too incredible. Half a map had just been found in the jade pendant, and the other half turned up in Wei Zhao's hands. Wasn't that a little too much of a coincidence?

Still, when she thought about it, she was lucky enough. Had the map fallen into anyone else's hands, they would likely never have returned it so easily. And Wei Zhao seemed to have not the slightest intention of keeping it for himself.

"There, all collected." Liu Weishan handed a ziplock bag to Wei Zhao with a chuckle. "I'll keep an eye out for other fragments of pure yellow jade for you. As for this map business, I'll stay out of it..."

"Many thanks, Elder Liu!" Wei Zhao hastily took the bag, his voice full of both surprise and delight.

"Well then, it's getting late. You two had best be off — I imagine you have more important matters to attend to!" Liu Weishan said. "I won't keep you. Once I've found the jade fragments, I'll get in touch!"

"Very well, Elder Liu. We'll take our leave!" Wei Zhao nodded, and he and Sun Jingyan left the elder's residence. It was plain that Sun Jingyan had a great many things she wanted to say to him, so Wei Zhao did not linger.

Once they had gone downstairs, left the residential compound, and gotten into the car, Sun Jingyan asked, almost unable to contain herself, "Wei Zhao, tell me — how do you have this half of the map? Do you know my parents?"

"How could I know them?" Wei Zhao spread his hands helplessly. "If I did, why wouldn't I have told you? This map of mine isn't really mine, either — someone else left it in my keeping."

"Someone else?" Sun Jingyan said. "Who?"

"A strange old fellow, like a madman." With that, Wei Zhao recounted to Sun Jingyan the whole scene of encountering the madman in the cave on his way back from the Ice Palace trial, and then said, "At the time, the madman took me for his disciple and gave me this map. Then he asked me for the other half and wanted to take me treasure hunting... You know I didn't want to keep the thing for myself. I meant to find a chance to return it to him, but in the middle of the night he ran off..."

"So that means the madman's disciple might be my father?" Sun Jingyan immediately connected the dots regarding the map's origin.

"Possibly. But even if not, there's a strong connection," Wei Zhao said. "In any case, now that you have half the map too, I may as well give this one to you."

"You... you don't want to know what treasure this map leads to?" Sun Jingyan looked at Wei Zhao in surprise, unable to understand why he would hand the thing over so lightly.

"Ha, whatever treasure there is belongs to your father and that madman. And this jade pendant is with you, so now it's yours," Wei Zhao said with a smile. "If it were anyone else, I might well snatch it. But you're my sweetheart — of course I won't fight you for it."

"All right, thank you!" Sun Jingyan said sincerely. "Actually, it's not that I must have some treasure. I only want to find some traces and clues about my parents from back then. I truly dislike the Sun family as it is now — they're too obsessed with profit, and in everything they consider only the family's interests."

"Since that madman was a Heaven-rank expert, anything he called a treasure can't be bad. Once you find it, it may do you good," Wei Zhao said. "Only, I'm not quite sure what place this map shows. It should be a map of the area around some mountain range, but which one, there's no marking on it. If you want to search, you'd best compare the features on this map with maps of other mountain ranges."

"Mm!" It was plain that Sun Jingyan could hardly wait to go looking for the place on the map.

But Wei Zhao understood her feelings. Were it himself, suddenly learning news of his parents, he too would be impatient to hunt for clues.

They drove all the way back to Donghai City. Wei Zhao parked the car at the villa's gate and asked, "Jingyi, will you come in and sit for a while?"

"I'd better not..." Sun Jingyan hesitated. "It's already past one in the morning — too late. Just give me the map. I'll find a hotel to stay at, and tomorrow I'll rent a place here in Donghai City and study this map."

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