This was the first time Yu Bing had laid eyes on Feng Xiaoxiao. Seeing this beautiful, luminous girl lying in the cold ice coffin, he could not help but feel a pang in his heart. No wonder Wei Zhao had traveled thousands of miles to come here, seeking a spirit medicine for her sake, even willing to enter the Ice Palace's trial.

This was a girl in no way inferior to his own little sister. In that moment, Yu Bing realized just how fierce the competition around his sister truly was.

"You really mean to take her with you?" Yu Bing watched in some shock as Wei Zhao carried Feng Xiaoxiao out of the Ice Palace, and asked, aghast.

"Mm... that much is certain." Wei Zhao nodded, took a rope from the trunk, and handed it to Yu Bing. "Here, lend me a hand. I'll get Xiaoxiao up on my back, and you tie her on for me."

"This..." Yu Bing wanted to ask, Have you lost your mind? How dangerous is this? The trial was perilous enough as it was, and Wei Zhao meant to carry a person into it. Would that not be one more dead weight, a shackle upon his own skill?

But seeing the resolve in Wei Zhao's eyes, Yu Bing could only sigh, shake his head, and say, "All right!"

Wei Zhao crouched down and let Feng Xiaoxiao lie against his back, while Yu Bing helped secure her whole body in place.

"There, thanks!" Wei Zhao rose to his feet and gave two little jumps. Finding Yu Bing's knots good and tight, he nodded with a smile.

"Ah! I really don't know what to say. Carrying a person into the trial — this is the first I've ever heard of it." Yu Bing sighed helplessly. "I've no luggage to speak of. I only brought a few spirit medicines on me. Those will be enough."

"Then we won't be going back to the inn!" Wei Zhao said, and suddenly waved toward the window of his room at the inn. "Thunder Pig, come down!"

"Chi chi—" A small white shadow darted swiftly from the window of Wei Zhao's room and flew to his side.

"A Profound Rank spirit beast?" Yu Bing was badly startled. He had been to Wei Zhao's room several times, and had even slept there the night before — how had he never noticed that an ancient spirit beast was in that room?

"Mm. But it has no attack skills. A useless thing," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"Chi chi—" Hearing Wei Zhao's verdict, the Thunder Pig gave a few aggrieved squeaks, yet did not dare show the least displeasure toward him. It had witnessed Wei Zhao's marvels — a single bout had let it complete an upgrade that centuries could not achieve.

Yu Bing nodded. He did not think much of it; to him, this little Thunder Pig was likely much like his sister's ancient spirit beast pet — no attack power to speak of, nothing but a body full of strength.

Ancient spirit beasts were rare, but every hidden clan kept a few, so Wei Zhao's pig was hardly conspicuous.

Though every hidden clan had one or a few ancient spirit beasts, those possessing attack skills were exceedingly few, and so scarcely any of the scions had actually brought an ancient spirit beast to the trial.

To bring an ordinary ancient spirit beast was not only no help at all — one would have to look after the creature besides. Was that not simply adding a burden for nothing?

So Wei Zhao had taken a rough survey: only four or five had gone back to the inn and brought out ancient spirit beasts, and the beasts in their keeping were at most early Profound Rank, on a level with the Thunder Pig. That set his mind at rest — the Thunder Pig would not come to grief.

One had to understand: when a spirit beast struck a man, rank was no matter, but when spirit beast fought spirit beast, rank suppressed rank. So as long as those few beasts did not come stirring up trouble, Wei Zhao need not concern himself with them greatly.

The hour passed quickly, and Xiao Qing appeared once more in the empty square before the inn, while the trial participants finished their preparations and made ready to set out.

The matter of Wei Zhao carrying a person into the trial had already spread. Every cultivator thought Wei Zhao must be sick in the head — carrying a dead woman into the trial? Even a lovesick fool could not be that lovesick.

"Lord Pao, you think this Ling Yi has swallowed too many idiot pills? Hauling a dead woman into the trial?" Zhuang Niaopao looked at Wei Zhao and sneered. "I say he's off to seek death, to go down to the Yellow Springs together with his dead girl."

Zhang Naipao was astonished as well, unable to guess what play Wei Zhao was making. But Zhang Naipao was not as Zhuang Niaopao: his cultivation method was unusual, and he was keenly sensitive to the energies of the outer world. He could sense that the woman on Wei Zhao's back did not seem to be dead — though even if not dead, she clung to life by a thread.

From what Zhang Naipao knew of Wei Zhao, the man ought not to do anything so foolish. Yet foolish he had been — truly beyond comprehension.

Zhang Naipao wanted a look at who was on Wei Zhao's back, but Feng Xiaoxiao's face was pressed against Wei Zhao's shoulder, hidden behind her hair, and he could not make her out. After a few glances without gaining any clue, he had no choice but to give it up.

"Who knows? Perhaps he has come seeking a physician?" Zhang Naipao shook his head, for he truly could conceive of no other reason that would bring Wei Zhao to this trial with a half-dead woman in tow.

Most of the trial participants thought much as Zhang Naipao and Zhuang Niaopao did. Though they could not understand why Wei Zhao would do such a thing, they all reckoned him a madman, unsound of mind.

The rest were the sort who kept aloof from what did not concern them. What Wei Zhao did was nothing to them. Yang Qiqi, for one, found it absurd that Wei Zhao should carry a woman on his back, yet she felt that the affairs of this villain had no bearing on her — why bother about it?

Xiao Qing looked over all the trial participants present. She was chiefly checking the rank of the spirit beasts they had brought, to see whether any exceeded the Ice Palace's trial rules. When she saw that a person was tied to Wei Zhao's back, she too was briefly stunned.

Xiao Qing said nothing more, however. With her strength, she could of course sense Feng Xiaoxiao's condition — a person at her final breath, with only one mouthful of air left. Though she did not know why Wei Zhao had brought her along, what Wei Zhao was doing indeed did not violate the Ice Palace's trial rules.

This person could be counted as Wei Zhao's servant, and in strength she likewise met the requirement. As for being half-dead, the Ice Palace had no rule that a half-dead servant could not join the trial.

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