"He... actually reached the Heaven rank?" Bingtang said with some emotion. That she herself could enter the Heaven rank at such a young age was already very rare. Although the various sects all had stores of miraculous elixirs, breaking through to the Heaven rank was different from other levels. The Qi-Gathering Pill was best avoided if possible; no one would use it unless absolutely necessary, which was also why the Dark Night Palace had waited until this moment to use it.

After all, once the Qi-Gathering Pill was used, one's strength would be frozen at the moment of advancement. From then on, unless one kept taking Qi-Gathering Pills without end, or received an enlightenment inheritance and no longer faced level barriers, one's cultivation path for the rest of this life would be locked in place.

"Indeed, Palace Master. Wei Zhao really is a young man of great promise. If he weren't already Vice Palace Master Feng's boyfriend, you might well consider him yourself," Aunt Qing said with some feeling.

Bingtang's face flushed at once. Thinking of how she had once promised Wei Zhao that she would be his tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny wife, an inexplicable panic rose in her heart. Watching Wei Zhao grow step by step, was she really going to marry him one day?

What Bingtang had said back then was merely words spoken in anger. She had never imagined that such a day would truly come for Wei Zhao. But now Wei Zhao was already an expert of the early Heaven rank, and what the future held was truly hard to say.

"Aunt Qing, since when have you ever spoken a good word for a man? Didn't you tell me before that all men are unreliable?" Bingtang changed the subject, because she truly could not imagine what she would look like as Wei Zhao's tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny wife.

"Back then, that man and I had feelings for each other, but he rejected me. Perhaps he had his own difficulties. In the past I thought he looked down on me, but after he left for so many years and there was no news of him or the old Palace Master, I gradually came to understand that he rejected me for my own good. If he had accepted me back then, how would I have endured all these years of longing?" Aunt Qing sighed. Though she looked young, she was in truth nearly forty years old.

"Oh? Aunt Qing, you've come around?" Bingtang was startled and looked at Aunt Qing in surprise.

"Yes. After what happened with Wei Zhao, and seeing Vice Palace Master Feng and her lover separated, the two of them unable to be together for one reason or another, I finally understood. Perhaps that man had his difficulties too." Aunt Qing said, "I just don't know how he is now, whether he's living well."

"I'm glad you've come around, Aunt Qing!" Bingtang breathed a sigh of relief. Aunt Qing's affairs had in fact also been a weight on Bingtang's mind. "Aunt Qing, since you've come around, have you decided to marry?"

"Of course not. Back then, that man said that if there was truly any possibility, he would come back to find me. At the time I thought his words were merely perfunctory, but thinking about it now, perhaps they truly were not!" Aunt Qing shook her head and said, "So I will wait for him, always!"

Bingtang nodded. She understood Aunt Qing. This matter had weighed on her heart for more than ten years; how could it be set aside just because one willed it? Still, Bingtang had finally found a chance to ask: "Aunt Qing, I didn't dare ask before because of your feelings, but now that you've come around, could you tell me about those years? Rumor has it in the martial world that those two experts who appeared out of nowhere were both Heaven Path rank experts, and that your lover was actually a Heaven Path expert. That really is incredible!"

"Heh, rumors are not necessarily reliable. In fact, I asked him whether he was a cultivator, whether he was a Heaven Path expert. At the time he did not answer directly, but gave a rather ambiguous answer!" Aunt Qing said with a smile.

"What answer?" Bingtang asked.

"He said he did not know what rank of expert he was. If he had to say, he supposed he was a rankless expert, because he was neither an external cultivator nor an internal cultivator, yet he was more formidable than any cultivator in the world!" Aunt Qing seemed to sink into memory, recalling those years and those events.

"More formidable than any cultivator—and the people from that place?" Bingtang hesitated a moment, then asked.

"Probably somewhat more formidable than them as well. Back then, in the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow sect, he killed Patriarch Kuanglong with a single punch!" Aunt Qing said, "That is not something any cultivator could do."

"So those rumors were all true..." Bingtang had more or less heard of these things, but mostly as hearsay, and because of Aunt Qing she had never looked into them deeply. Only now did she know for certain. "Then... what is his name?"

"His name is—Lin Dongfang!" Aunt Qing remembered that name carved into her bones.

"Lin Dongfang? Hm? The same surname as Wei Zhao?" Bingtang was slightly startled, then looked at Aunt Qing with a half-smile. "Aunt Qing, it isn't because Wei Zhao is also surnamed Lin that you favor him so, is it?"

"Perhaps..." Aunt Qing did not deny it, but nodded slightly. "Still, Wei Zhao has merits of his own."

"Aunt Qing, go tell Xiaoxiao this good news. She will surely be very happy when she hears it," Bingtang said after a moment's hesitation.

"Oh?" Aunt Qing was slightly taken aback. This did not seem like Bingtang's character. Because of her own history, Bingtang had since childhood always appeared cold and indifferent toward matters of love between men and women. And now she was actually taking the initiative to ask Aunt Qing to tell Feng Xiaoxiao this news?

"Actually, Aunt Qing, now that you've told me so much, I understand your feelings, and naturally I understand Xiaoxiao's feelings too. I disliked Wei Zhao, perhaps because he was the first rogue cultivator who dared to challenge the dignity of the Ice Palace, and the first man to make me say something as foolish as becoming his tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny wife. So I have always been prejudiced against him. But as you said, Aunt Qing, he truly is formidable!" Bingtang had to admit it herself: Wei Zhao was a formidable person. A rogue cultivator who could rise from the Mystic rank to the Heaven rank in such a short time—that was truly incredible!

"Heh, good then!" Aunt Qing smiled. "Actually, I didn't want to see conflict arise between you and Vice Palace Master Feng over this matter either."

Aunt Qing left, but Bingtang sank back into thought. Unbidden, she recalled the scene of Wei Zhao's first visit to the Ice Palace: Wei Zhao standing in the wind and snow, waiting with unyielding persistence for a chance to see her, going half a month without food or drink, standing there just like that—all for Feng Xiaoxiao's sake.

It was clear that Wei Zhao's feelings for Feng Xiaoxiao were indeed sincere. Before, she had felt Wei Zhao was unworthy of Feng Xiaoxiao, but now Wei Zhao was already an expert of the early Heaven rank. Advancing to the peak of the late Heaven rank—even reaching the great perfection of late Heaven rank peak strength—was not impossible. (To be continued)

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