Chapter 2984 — Something Terrible Has Happened

This also meant that Yu Bing had no way to get word to her directly; she could only send messages through her maids. And in the whole Ice Palace, the only person who could cover the sky with one hand and wield power above her own was Bingtang.

Bingtang's heart tightened slightly. Xiaoxiao actually knew? She wondered who had leaked the news. Still, Bingtang felt somewhat relieved about the choice she had made earlier; otherwise, a rift would surely have opened between her and Xiaoxiao.

"Oh, you mean about Wei Zhao? I've already sent Aunt Qing over, to keep anyone from seizing the moment to rob him." Bingtang put on an air of utter calm and said lightly, "I was afraid it would affect your cultivation, so I didn't have anyone tell you."

"Ah! Aunt Qing's already gone?" Feng Xiaoxiao's heart settled at once. "That's wonderful! Senior Sister Bingtang, so you've been paying close attention to Wei Zhao-husband too—did seeing him naked last time make you fall in love with him as well?"

"..." Three black lines flashed across Bingtang's forehead. "I was only afraid that if he died, there'd be no one left to refine pills for me!"

"If he can refine pills, then doesn't that mean you can be his little-little-little-little wife too? Haha, and then you'll have to call me Sister Xiaoxiao! Outside you're the senior sister, but back home, I'm the elder sister!" Feng Xiaoxiao said.

"None of that is of any use. How is your cultivation coming along? Have you touched the barrier of the Heaven Rank yet?" A faint blush crossed Bingtang's face, though it vanished in an instant, and she changed the subject.

"Not yet..." Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head. "The Heaven Rank isn't so easy to break through. My cultivation speed is already fast enough..."

"You have a yin-cold constitution, you're at the very source of the ice attribute, and you have miraculous pills on top of that—if you weren't cultivating fast, that would truly be a problem!" Bingtang said. "Go back and continue your seclusion. I'll keep an eye on the Wei Zhao matter for you."

"Mm-hm, then I'll leave Wei Zhao-husband to Sister Bingtang!" Feng Xiaoxiao nodded. She knew as well that the ruin of Wei Zhao's meridians and dantian was not something she could help with—not her, and not even Bingtang!

Feng Xiaoxiao had a rough idea of just how much ability and depth the Ice Palace possessed. Injuries to the dantian and meridians were far from ordinary wounds. As long as no one seized the moment to rob Wei Zhao now, Feng Xiaoxiao would be satisfied; as for everything else, Wei Zhao would have to find his own way.

Hearing Feng Xiaoxiao's rather ambiguous words, Bingtang frowned slightly. What did she mean, leave Wei Zhao-husband to me? Somewhat annoyed, she could not resist making a joke of it. "You're giving him to me—so you don't want him anymore?"

"Haha, Wei Zhao-husband can't abandon me—at most we'll just add Sister Bingtang to the family!" Feng Xiaoxiao said. "That way, with Sister Yunyun, Sister Yaoyao, Xiaoshu, and Senior Sister Bingtang added in, the six of us can play together..."

"I'm not playing any six-of-us games. If you want to play, play among yourselves!" Bingtang said helplessly. It seemed joking with Feng Xiaoxiao had been a mistake; give Feng Xiaoxiao even the slightest opening for a topic, and she could drag out all manner of nonsense.

"So Senior Sister Bingtang wants to play by herself, then? That works too, but joy shared is better than joy hoarded..." Feng Xiaoxiao said with some regret. "It's only fun when we play together..."

"I really ought to freeze you back into your ice coffin!" Bingtang turned away with a dark face and refused to pay Feng Xiaoxiao any more attention.

"Senior Sister Bingtang's embarrassed. Ah, I suppose I can't speak the truth from now on—telling the truth easily offends people..." Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head and walked out of Bingtang's room.

And Bingtang, hearing Feng Xiaoxiao's final remark, stumbled and nearly sat down on the floor. Embarrassed? Where on earth was she embarrassed? She was plainly furious!!!

……………………

Wei Zhao felt only that the true qi inside him was growing greater and greater. Though he did not need to guide it himself, the swollen, aching sensation in his meridians and dantian still made him miserable—yet it remained within what he could bear!

After all, the first time he had taken a Qi-Gathering Pill, he had still had to compress the true qi and detonate it inside his body to release it; the pain then had been far greater than now. This was merely the lesser sorcerer meeting the greater.

At last, Wei Zhao sensed that the true qi formed inside his body from the Qi-Gathering Pill had reached a peak, with a feeling of water brimming to the point of overflow. Wei Zhao knew he was about to break through!

Sure enough, before long, Wei Zhao felt a great boom inside his body, and the heaven-and-earth spiritual qi around him spun swiftly, forming a giant vortex that poured into his body at flying speed!

A breakthrough. Wei Zhao could clearly feel the change in his senses that came with entering the Heaven Rank; his hearing, his vision, his perception, and the very quality of his body all seemed markedly enhanced!

Instinctively, Wei Zhao began to circulate the mental formulas and oral mantras of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. The second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art flowed smoothly through his body, without the slightest trace of poisoning, and at this moment Wei Zhao finally let out a breath of relief—the poison was at last cured!

Back then, he had been of the Earth Rank, and yet he had been able to kill Heaven Rank experts in an instant? Now, having entered the early Heaven Rank, Wei Zhao could already sense the obvious difference between himself and Earth Rank experts. He wondered whether those Heaven Rank experts he had slain in a single blow had simply been too weak, or what; at the very least, Wei Zhao felt certain that he himself could never be slain in an instant by the Earth Rank self he had once been!

Perhaps even among Heaven Rank experts there were distinctions of strength! And the higher the rank, the more obvious such differences became. At the Yellow and Mystic Ranks, even if there were differences, they were not great—like the difference between one centimeter and nine millimeters, not much at all; from afar, one might not even be able to tell.

But between ten centimeters and nine centimeters, the difference was great indeed—the gap could be seen at a glance. It should be the same among Heaven Rank experts. Of course, this was all merely Wei Zhao's own conjecture!

"Hoo—a breakthrough? This feeling really is wonderful." Wei Zhao had just meant to rise from the bed and stretch, but the next moment he sensed something was wrong. He felt his acupoints were still ceaselessly absorbing the heaven-and-earth spiritual qi from the air—they had not stopped at all!

What was going on? Wei Zhao's face gradually flushed red, and his body, unable to take in the spiritual qi around him, turned purple-blue at the skin—a truly frightening sight! At this moment Wei Zhao felt like a man suffocating in an environment starved of air; his body struggled desperately to absorb the heaven-and-earth spiritual qi! RS