Chapter 2982 — What Do You Think?

All of this was the root of the conflict with Wei Zhao, yet the old master Yu was powerless to resolve it. He knew full well how matters would unfold, yet there was nothing he could do, for he had no way to contend with a force at the level of the Five Luminaries Sect.

Even giving Shen Yushu to Wei Zhao might ease the relationship between the Yu family and Wei Zhao—but Shen Yushu was out of the question too! Not a single one of them would do. That was precisely what gave the old master Yu the most headaches.

"Father, what are you thinking about?" Yu Xiaochen entered his father's room and found the old master Yu sunk in thought, saying nothing. At last Yu Xiaochen could not help but ask.

"Xiaochen, what do you make of Wei Zhao?" the old master Yu asked, lifting his head.

"Wei Zhao?" Yu Xiaochen was briefly startled, not knowing why his father had suddenly asked such a thing, but he answered honestly all the same: "To be frank, I have no particular feelings about Wei Zhao. Since he can't possibly become Xiaoning's boyfriend, then he's fated to be our Yu family's enemy..."

"If he can't be her boyfriend, must he necessarily be an enemy?" Yu Tianxing pressed on.

"This... Father, forgive Xiaochen's dullness, but I don't know what you mean by asking that. Are we in the Yu family going to change our strategy? But hasn't Wei Zhao already been crippled?" Yu Xiaochen asked, rather puzzled.

"You think he's crippled too?" Yu Tianxing gave a faint smile and looked at Yu Xiaochen with a peculiar expression.

Seeing that look on his father's face—a smile that was not quite a smile—Yu Xiaochen's heart gave a sudden thud: "Could it be a sham? Wei Zhao wasn't crippled at all, but is brewing some kind of scheme?"

"Whether he's brewing some scheme, I can't say, but today, at Wei Zhao's villa, someone broke through—and it was a breakthrough of a major power tier," the old master Yu said.

"Father, you mean Wei Zhao... has broken through to the Heaven rank?" Yu Xiaochen asked in astonishment.

"Very likely!" The old master Yu nodded. "At least I think that possibility is rather great."

"Hmm... In that case, the days to come will bring another storm of blood and slaughter. It's a good thing that when the Hidden Zhao family was making ready to deal with Wei Zhao, our Hidden Yu family stayed out of it," Yu Xiaochen said with some lingering fear. He was only at the peak of the late Earth rank, after all—if Wei Zhao had reached the Heaven rank, what could the Yu family possibly use to fight him?

Surely they could not go crying to the Five Luminaries Sect that their family could not even beat a lone rogue cultivator? And although the Five Luminaries Sect had never stated anything explicitly, the Hidden Yu family had more or less known about the time Xiao Yi and Xiao Shiyi came to deal with Wei Zhao, and in the end the matter had simply been let drop. Clearly there was some unspeakable secret agreement behind it all, and this too gave rise to Yu Xiaochen's worries.

"Even if Wei Zhao hasn't advanced, we still wouldn't take part. Wei Zhao is already beyond our ability to deal with, and there's no need for us to dash our eggs against a stone. Besides... the future of the Yu family belongs to Yu Bing and Yu Ning. If Wei Zhao dies, they won't be happy." The old master Yu waved a hand. "By the way, tell me why you've come. What matter is it that you can't decide on your own and must ask me about?"

"Father, it's about Xiaojin." What Yu Xiaochen meant was, of course, Yu Xiaojin—Zhao Guangyin's wife and Yu Tianxing's daughter. Had it been any other matter, Yu Xiaochen would certainly have been able to decide it himself, but where Yu Xiaojin was concerned, he had to seek the old master Yu's instructions. Only now the problem seemed hardly a problem at all: "But if Wei Zhao wasn't crippled at all, and has even advanced to become a Heaven-rank expert, then this matter is basically no matter at all. Whether the Zhao family can even continue to exist is another question entirely."

"What's happened to Xiaojin?" Yu Tianxing asked. Yu Xiaojin was his daughter, after all, and he could not simply ignore her. The old master Yu was not the sort to favor sons over daughters; he treated his children alike, and this was also the reason Yu Ning could become the head of the family in the future.

"Xiaojin has been very depressed lately. Because of that business with Zhao Qibing last time, the Hidden Zhao family fell out with us, and Xiaojin was cast into the cold palace. Right now she's raising that nephew of mine, Qimiao, and life in the Zhao family is very hard for her," Yu Xiaochen said with a sigh. "I don't know what madness has gotten into the old man Zhao. He's determined to prop up Zhao Qibing as the young head of the family. Qimiao's position has been taken, and Xiaojin has lost her former standing. Her life is unbearable, and so she called me to pour out her troubles, hoping we could think of something."

"If he weren't mad, he wouldn't have provoked Wei Zhao. If I were him, I'd have let that Zhao Qilei take over as head of the family long ago—then he could still have won Wei Zhao's support. I say the old man Zhao's brains have been addled by taking Qi Gathering Pills. Stolen goods aren't so easy to stomach!" The old master Yu curled his lip. "You're right—whether the Zhao family survives at all is now up in the air. Tell her to find a chance to come back. If there isn't time to come back before Wei Zhao arrives, tell her this: have her say to Wei Zhao that she is Yu Bing and Xiaoning's aunt, and that Qimiao is Yu Bing and Xiaoning's younger brother. Wei Zhao will leave them a way out."

The old master Yu still understood Wei Zhao quite well, knowing that Wei Zhao was very tolerant toward his underlings and the people close to his women. Though the old master Yu was much puzzled as to why Wei Zhao had not punished the secular Liu family despite the huge blunder they had made, this only made it clearer how tolerant Wei Zhao was toward his underlings.

The same held for Zhao Qilei, who had been able to enter the villa smoothly today. Wei Zhao had not let his anger at the Zhao family spill over onto Zhao Qilei.

"Yes, Father. I understand." Yu Xiaochen nodded and withdrew.

……………………

The Ice Palace.

Bingtang listened to Aunt Qing's report: Zhao Qiwu had given all the trial spirit medicines he had obtained to Zhao Qilei, and the meaning of that was self-evident—it was as good as handing them over to Wei Zhao.

Yet Bingtang did not stop it. Her feelings toward Wei Zhao were very complicated. Though she constantly reminded herself that Wei Zhao was a villain—one who had not only dallied with her own sisters but had driven her junior martial sister to love him to death and back, and both of those women just happened to be Inheritors while she was not.

If they accepted the inheritance, their strength would definitely surpass hers. Both of them were willing to follow Wei Zhao, so what advantage did she have left as his tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny wife? The aloof, high-handed airs she had put on before would probably turn into a joke by then, wouldn't they?

So, in her thinking, Wei Zhao might as well just die—death would end it all, and save her from thinking of him every time and conjuring up the image of him without clothes, of that wicked thing, which left her flustered and irritated.

But deep in her subconscious, it seemed she did not actually want Wei Zhao to die!