Chapter 2235 — Continuing Up the Mountain, but at the Sight of the Mother Lion Matching Its Own Rapid Upgrades Before Wei Zhao's Eyes, the Little Fire Lion Was Truly Stunned!

The Great Fire Lion and the Little Fire Lion exchanged a glance, and each saw the excitement and elation in the other's eyes! Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined they would meet such a benefactor. Wei Zhao had helped the Little Fire Lion—and at first the Great Fire Lion had assumed he was just another one of those people, in league with the rest, and so had not dared thank him openly at the time. Yet that very misunderstanding had nearly brought a fatal disaster upon him!

It was only thanks to the Thunder Pig's cry for help that things had turned out otherwise—and the Great Fire Lion had never expected that Wei Zhao's kindness to them would not end there! The Fire Lions knew how to repay a debt, and the Great Fire Lion felt that since Wei Zhao had saved the Little Fire Lion's life, no thanks could ever be too great. That was why it had given him the cultivation manuals for the Fire-Flow Divine Bullet and the Frenzied Fire Fist.

But Wei Zhao, in turn, bestowed upon them a far greater blessing—one that left both the Great Fire Lion and the Little Fire Lion utterly unprepared!

Both knew well how difficult it was for the Mother Lion merely to upgrade to the early Yellow Rank. Yet... Wei Zhao had already turned her into an early Profound Rank spirit beast, and her strength was still surging upward!

In the end, the Mother Lion's strength came to rest at the same level as the Little Fire Lion's: peak late Profound Rank!

Without some extraordinary stroke of fortune, such strength would have been unattainable—not in a thousand years, perhaps not in several thousand or even tens of thousands of years! The Great Fire Lion had had its own fortuitous encounters, but that did not mean the Little Fire Lion and the Mother Lion would have the same. So for Wei Zhao to raise their strength to peak late Profound Rank left the whole family beside themselves with joy.

"That will do!" Wei Zhao said.

"Thank you, benefactor, for making this possible!" the Great Fire Lion said solemnly. The Little Fire Lion and the Mother Lion could not yet speak, but they understood Wei Zhao's words perfectly, and both prostrated themselves on the ground, thanking him from the bottom of their hearts.

Wei Zhao, Sun Jingyan, and the Thunder Pig walked on together toward the Upper Vein. Sure enough, once they entered the Upper Vein, the scenery was completely different from that of the Middle Vein! Gone were the dense forests and thickets; in their place rose jagged, grotesque rocks and all manner of crumbling walls and ruins!

The mountain path, too, was much easier to traverse than before—clear stone steps led all the way to the very summit of the Upper Vein.

Along the roadside one could often see dilapidated stone pavilions and ruined structures so battered they could no longer be identified—all of it a testament to the splendor this place had once known!

This had once been the stronghold of an ancient sect. But the ancient sect had vanished like smoke and scattered clouds, and this place had become a wasteland of ruins.

Of course, Wei Zhao did not relax his guard in the slightest. Though the place seemed peaceful, with no birds or beasts to be seen, he never forgot what the Great Fire Lion had told him—that Heaven Rank human experts frequently roamed this area!

"Are my parents... members of this sect?" Sun Jingyan was stirred by the scene. Gazing at the desolate sights along the road, she could not help but think of her parents...

"That seems likely," Wei Zhao said with a nod. "Otherwise, they would never have left you this map."

"That strange madman of a Heaven Rank expert—did he know my parents...?" Sun Jingyan sighed. "I fear that when this sect was exterminated, my parents too..."

Deep down, Sun Jingyan had always clung to a thread of hope regarding her parents. Though everyone in the family said her mother and father were both dead, until there was definite proof, she would rather believe that they might still be alive...

But now, arriving here and seeing the desolation, even her confidence began to waver.

"Don't lose heart. Who knows—they might still be alive," Wei Zhao said. He already had his own conjectures, but for now it was not the right time to speak them plainly to Sun Jingyan.

"Mm, thank you," Sun Jingyan said with a grateful nod. Truthfully, she felt profoundly thankful to Wei Zhao. He had accompanied her, traveling ten thousand li to come here, and had nearly lost his life at the hands of the Tagan family's Five Guardians. All of it—every last bit—moved her deeply!

This had already gone far beyond ordinary friendship. Nor was it any joking talk of being "half a lover" that could make Wei Zhao genuinely run himself ragged on her behalf.

A faint, tender feeling rose unbidden from the depths of Sun Jingyan's heart... Only, she did not speak of it, because the women around Wei Zhao were simply too many.

Not that Wei Zhao had many girlfriends—rather, too many people liked Wei Zhao, and the competition was truly fierce. And Sun Jingyan had from the very beginning appeared in the guise of a joke. Now that the pretense was turning into reality, she wondered whether it might draw the hostility of Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu?

Those two were the girls closest to Wei Zhao. If Wei Zhao were to take a girlfriend, he would probably want to hear their opinions first.

"What is there to thank me for?" Wei Zhao said, slightly taken aback. "As for news of your parents—no news is good news."

"I didn't mean that..." Sun Jingyan's face flushed slightly, and she looked a little shy.

"Then what did you mean?" Wei Zhao was even more puzzled.

"Thank you for being willing to accompany me here, and thank you for everything you've done for me—for nearly paying with your life..." Sun Jingyan said solemnly and gratefully.

"I promised you I would," Wei Zhao said. "Besides, to me this is a kind of training too—seeking breakthroughs in perilous places is itself a pursuit within the martial arts."

"All right..." Sun Jingyan knew that this was simply the kind of person Wei Zhao was—one who would give everything for a friend, for family, for a loved one.

"If we want to determine the exact location on this map, we have to climb to the summit. Only from the top can we take in the whole mountain at a glance!" Wei Zhao said, looking at the map in his hand.

"Mm..." Sun Jingyan nodded.

Although Sun Jingyan was no ordinary cultivator, she was nonetheless comparable to one, and her stamina was quite good. The two of them hardly rested at all, walking steadily up the mountain. They had set out at the first gray light of dawn; now, by midday, they were already nearing the summit.

Of course, Wei Zhao had deliberately slowed his pace to accommodate Sun Jingyan's speed. Otherwise, climbing alone, he would have been far faster than this.

By the time the two of them stood at the summit, it was already afternoon. Gazing at the majestic encircling walls and the ruined palaces before them, Wei Zhao and Sun Jingyan were overcome with emotion!

A fierce battle must have taken place here in ages past, reducing it to such a state. The once magnificent buildings now lay utterly in ruins...

Wei Zhao sighed, a strange thought stirring in his mind: just what kind of vast and terrifying power could have exterminated an ancient sect?

After all, an ancient sect should have been the mightiest martial force of its age, should it not?

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