Chapter 2760 — Getting Ready for Snow Valley!

"A Lesser Qi-Gathering Pill..." Wei Zhao's mouth twitched twice. That pill was worth a fortune, and even then it could not prolong life for long—a bottomless pit. Still, it was the only option available. Wei Zhao gritted his teeth. From now on, it seemed, he would have to work himself to the bone refining pills for Han Jingyi!

"But don't you worry. I'll look into it some more for you. I can't very well let my granddaughter-in-law die, can I?" Old Man Wei smiled in comfort.

"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao laughed too. He could not say why, but he trusted Old Man Wei a great deal—an inexplicable sort of trust. Sometimes, when troubles came his way, the old man's words had a way of setting his heart at ease. "By the way, what about my jade pendant? Could it ever run out of energy?"

Wei Zhao had suddenly thought of his own jade pendant. He used it every day for cultivation, and that strange ghostly thing that had appeared out of nowhere was lodged inside it, fighting him for the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within. If his pendant were the same as Wang Xinyan's, wouldn't it be drained in no time?

"Oh, yours won't." Old Man Wei shook his head in denial. "Wang Xinyan's is a trial piece, flawed. Yours is the finished product, without flaws. The energy in your pendant is... oh, put simply, all you need to know is that it's inexhaustible!"

"So that's how it is!" Wei Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. "Never mind the pendant for now—that spirit herb, how do we get it?"

"The spirit herb..." Old Man Wei hesitated, and lapsed once more into silence.

"What is it? Old man, is that spirit herb so hard to find as well?" Wei Zhao's brow furrowed again.

"The spirit herb... truly is hard to find!" Old Man Wei did not know how to tell Wei Zhao—or whether he even should.

"Then... there must at least be some way to search for it, no? That spirit herb of yours back then—where did it come from?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Back then..." Old Man Wei trailed off, sinking into thought. That spirit herb of years past had come from Snow Valley—but it was Xiaoyi's master who had gone to Snow Valley in person to demand it! Times had changed, though. After all these years, Xiaoyi's master was gone, and there was no way Old Man Wei could use the methods of those days to seize another spirit herb by force.

He could not leave West Star Mountain Village. And even if he could, without Xiaoyi's master to back him, that same intimidating presence of years past would be impossible.

There were some things the time had not yet come for Wei Zhao to know. Old Man Wei feared that letting him develop a sense of dependence too early would do his growth no good. Just as Mo Kongwu had said, Wei Zhao, growing through trial and hardship, would reap rewards beyond anything expected.

And Wei Zhao's step-by-step growth had indeed borne out what Mo Kongwu had said back then. In fact, Mo Kongwu's words had never once been wrong! Back then, when he spoke of the karmic thread that would bind Wang Xinyan eighteen years later, Old Man Wei had found it rather strange.

But who would have thought that, in the blink of an eye and truly eighteen years later, Wang Xinyan would become Wei Zhao's girlfriend?

At this moment, though, the reason Old Man Wei held back the name of Snow Valley was not that he wished to conceal the events of the past—it was that Tang Zhi was in Snow Valley! Old Man Wei did not know how to tell Wei Zhao. Should he tell him? Or not?

If he told him, then when Wei Zhao went, might he run into Tang Zhi? Might that produce some undesirable consequences and repercussions?

"Old man, what's wrong? You stop halfway through what you're saying?" Wei Zhao asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Nothing. I was just trying to recall the name of that spirit herb. It's been so long, it's only coming back to me now," Old Man Wei said.

"Oh? What's it called?" Wei Zhao did not seem suspicious.

"That spirit herb is called the Orchid-Mustard Jade Bell Grass. It grows in the ancient sect Snow Valley, and is exceedingly precious and rare..." Old Man Wei gritted his teeth and decided to tell Wei Zhao outright. He could not keep hiding it forever, after all. Of course, Old Man Wei did not yet know of the great feat Tang's mother had accomplished in Snow Valley. Had he known, he would not have told Wei Zhao—he would have gone straight to Gu Mengyao instead.

"The ancient sect Snow Valley?" Wei Zhao was briefly taken aback. Wasn't that the sect of Zhang Lifeng's old flame? So it seemed he really did have a connection to the place! The only question was how to go about requesting this spirit herb. "Old man, how did you get your spirit herb back then?"

"Your master went and got it. I don't know the details myself," Old Man Wei said.

"I see..." Wei Zhao nodded, not thinking too much of it. If his master had been able to get one, then surely he could too, no? Besides, Wei Zhao held the Heaven-rank weapon once used by Snow Valley's founding patriarch. However reluctant Snow Valley might be, they could still trade with him.

Only, wouldn't trading a Heaven-rank weapon for a single spirit herb be a bit too much of a loss? Wei Zhao wondered whether he ought to squeeze a few more things out of Snow Valley while he was at it.

"Xiaoyi, that's all I know. As for Snow Valley—if you want to go, you'd best discuss it with Gu Mengyao and the others first," Old Man Wei cautioned.

"Oh, all right." Wei Zhao paid it no mind, assuming the old man simply meant that no one would be left to protect the girls if he went off.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao felt both joy and worry. The joy was that Wang Xinyan's condition could be temporarily eased; the worry was that this was merely a stopgap, treating the symptoms and not the root. The jade pendant was the ultimate solution—but the person who made the pendants was not on this planet... What sort of situation was this?

"Well? Is there a way?" Gu Mengyao asked hurriedly the moment she saw Wei Zhao come out of his room.

"There is a way, but I'll need to make a trip to seek out the medicine." To keep everyone from worrying, Wei Zhao temporarily concealed the matter of the jade pendant. He only said, "The elixir the old man brewed back then was much like mine. The difference lies in that one spirit herb. I plan to go and obtain it within the next few days—that should solve most of Xinyan's problem."

"Oh? Arrow-Brand Brother, are you going back to West Star Mountain Village?" Shen Yushu asked.

"No—I'm going to another ancient sect. The old man doesn't have this spirit herb on hand either!" Wei Zhao shook his head. "I've mentioned this sect to you all before. It's called Snow Valley!"

"What?! Snow Valley!" Shen Yushu and Gu Mengyao cried out in unison, and Wang Xinyan's eyes went wide as well. "You're going to Snow Valley?"

"What is it?" Wei Zhao looked at the three astonished faces, puzzled. "What's with those expressions? Is Snow Valley a den of dragons and tigers, somewhere I can't go?"