"Indeed, the peak of the late Xuan rank is already a top-tier existence among the great families of the mundane world!" Qiu Lingshan was astonished as well. Since Wei Zhao had said so, it meant that she too could rise to the peak of the late Xuan rank.

"Your ambitions are a little too modest, aren't they? Above the great families there are the hidden families, and above the hidden families there are the ancient sects and ancient clans. What lies above the ancient level is still unknown, but there surely exist ranks mightier than the Heaven rank. Don't you want to pursue a higher martial realm?" Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. This trial at the Ice Palace had broadened his horizons a great deal.

In the past, Wei Zhao had thought about striving to break through to the Heaven rank one day, yet he had never come so close to a Heaven-rank master. When he saw Little Bingtang, saw Xiao Qing, saw Old Master Tang, Wei Zhao realized that the Heaven rank was not so mysterious after all.

There was a time when the Xuan rank was what Wei Zhao aspired to, because back then the strongest existence he had ever laid eyes on was of the Xuan rank. Later, Wei Zhao broke through to the Xuan rank, but Earth-rank masters came into his view, and his goal became the Earth rank instead.

And when Wei Zhao truly became an Earth-rank master, he discovered that the Heaven rank was, in fact, not far away at all. At every stage there is a pursuit proper to that stage, but if you never attain that strength, you will never come into contact with matters of that level.

It was like a frog at the bottom of a well: as long as it never climbs out, it will always believe the sky is only as big as the mouth of the well. But once it gets out, the world becomes something else entirely.

Still, Wei Zhao could understand the reactions of Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian. The level they currently had access to stopped at the hidden families at the very most; matters of the ancient level could only be reached directly by hidden families and certain ordinary sects. For the great families, they were far too remote.

"Above the Heaven rank..." To be honest, Qiu Lingshan had never once imagined that a day would come when she became a Heaven-rank master. Her first dream and goal had been the early Xuan rank; so long as she reached the early Xuan rank, she could win time for the Song family, wait for her younger brother to grow up, and ensure that the Song family held firmly to its place among the great families.

But even the early Xuan rank had been a dream, an unreachable dream. For the people of the great families, cultivation was merely a means to preserve the family's standing; they had never thought of pursuing the Heaven rank, of pursuing eternal life, the way the hidden families did.

Yet ever since she met Wei Zhao, Qiu Lingshan had realized that she really had been a frog at the bottom of a well. Things she had never dared to imagine had, with Wei Zhao's help, come true step by step. And soon she would become the strongest existence among the great families—the peak of the late Xuan rank!

That was not all. Wei Zhao had told her that a day would come when she too became a Heaven-rank master. Qiu Lingshan's heart surged and churned with excitement. She had never expected to be so lucky, to meet such a formidable man. It seemed she still had to work hard; she had started a little later than Tang Yun, Gu Mengyao, and Shen Yushu, but at least she was a step ahead of Feng Xiaoxiao, wasn't she?

Now even Feng Xiaoxiao had become Wei Zhao's little wife, while she did not even have the title of a bedchamber maid. Qiu Lingshan felt that her next goal was to secure a proper status—even the lowliest little serving girl would do—so long as she could follow Wei Zhao for the rest of her life. Then the Heaven rank would truly no longer be a dream!

At this thought, the way Qiu Lingshan looked at Wei Zhao grew heated once more. Since childhood she had worshipped the strong; otherwise she would never have set herself the goal that her future husband must be stronger than she was.

Now that goal seemed to have been realized, and Wei Zhao was not merely strong—he was strong beyond anything Qiu Lingshan had imagined. So while she confirmed that she had fallen for Wei Zhao, she also lowered her standards. The eldest daughter of the Song family began to compromise: it was good enough just to be at Wei Zhao's side, and she no longer insisted on being the only woman there.

"There is an old saying: in the rivers and lakes, a man has no say over his own fate!" Wei Zhao sighed. "Think about it carefully, and it is indeed so. Unless you find some place to hide away, you must ceaselessly pursue a higher martial realm, because your enemies are growing too. If you stand still, what awaits you is destruction!"

"Well said!" Chen Yutian nodded. "But the Heaven rank—in the past I never even dreamed of it. My first goal was simply to surpass Sister Lingshan, and then everything would be fine. But when I look at my former self now, how childish I was! Even though I'm now her equal in rank, I no longer have any such thoughts, because my strength was not cultivated by my own hands—it came from the man Sister Lingshan loves. What right do I have to pursue her? So once I thought it through, everything opened up. I should seek the love that truly belongs to me, not the obsession and fantasy of my youth..."

"Heh..." Wei Zhao did not know how to answer Chen Yutian's words, so he simply smiled.

"By the way, Wei Zhao, from now on I'll call you leader too. I see Wu Chengtian calling you leader so smoothly; me calling you by your name directly seems a bit disrespectful however you look at it!" Chen Yutian had actually wanted to say this for a long time. "Never mind that you were once my instructor—even now, with all the help you've given me, you ought to be my leader!"

"If you call me leader, what about Xiaoshu? Wouldn't that muddle the seniority..." Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. He had known that Chen Yutian would eventually bring this up. Wei Zhao was not averse to it; he had never been one for strict rules or false modesty, which was why he had agreed when Wu Chengtian, Zhao Qitan, and Yu Bing acknowledged him as their leader. But with Chen Yutian, because of Shen Yushu, Wei Zhao still treated him as an elder brother.

"Xiaoshu... wait until she actually marries you." Chen Yutian smiled bitterly. "Right now it's not even settled yet!"

"Ahem! Chen Yutian, what do you mean by that? Why are you trying to give your sister to Wei Zhao again? I never agreed to it—are you deliberately messing with me?" Qiu Lingshan glared at Chen Yutian anxiously.

"Haha, just a joke." Chen Yutian gave a dry laugh.

"All right, call me whatever you like. It's only a form of address. Right now I'll raise you both to the peak of the late Xuan rank, and then, together with Wu Chengtian, we'll go to the Gathering of the Great Families and demand that justice be done! The Yu family—it's time they paid back that blood debt!" Wei Zhao thought of Pangolin, and a cold smile flickered at the corner of his mouth.

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