Chapter 2341 — She Is Your Daughter
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Correct." Uncle Qing nodded. "Since you have asked, I won't deny it either. I kept silent all this while because I feared you might act rashly or let the word slip. But Xiaoyi, how on earth did you come to know of that place?"
"I went out some time ago. Do you know where I went?" Wei Zhao asked.
"Of course I knew you had gone out—Luo Yue told me when she phoned. But how would I know where you went?" Uncle Qing was somewhat puzzled; Wei Zhao's topic had jumped too abruptly, leaping straight from the previous subject to this one.
"The Ulonghot Mountains!" Wei Zhao nodded and said gravely.
"What? You went to the Ulonghot Mountains? That's near the little town of Ruileida beyond the border—why would you go there?" Uncle Qing was greatly startled by his words. "What did you go to those mountains for?"
"This has to be traced back several months, to when I took Xiaoxiao to the far northern, bitterly cold lands seeking a cure, and entered the trials of the Ice Palace..." Wei Zhao knew this could not be explained in a breath and must be told from the beginning. He had already given Uncle Qing, the eldest young miss, Xiaoshu, and the others a general account of his Ice Palace trials, but he had never spoken of the Heaven-rank madman.
For one thing, at the time Wei Zhao had not thought it very important; for another, he had never intended to claim that map for himself, only to keep it safe on the Heaven-rank madman's behalf. So naturally he had never brought the matter up.
But now things were different. He had to begin with the first encounter with the Heaven-rank madman.
"Oh? How does this tie back to the Ice Palace trials?" Uncle Qing asked, rather puzzled. Just as Wei Zhao had expected, Uncle Qing already knew the rough outline of the Ice Palace trials.
"After the Ice Palace trials ended, a few other things happened. I didn't mention them at the time because they didn't seem important, but they have a great deal to do with this matter, so I'll start from the beginning..." With that, Wei Zhao told Uncle Qing about encountering the Heaven-rank madman in the cave...
At first, when Uncle Qing heard that a Heaven-rank madman had appeared in the cave, he was rather bewildered as to where the man could have come from. But when he heard that the madman, in the grip of his affliction, had called Wei Zhao "Li'er" and babbled something about running away, Uncle Qing's body gave a violent shudder and he cried out involuntarily, "**!"
"After that, he gave me half a map..." Wei Zhao smiled wryly and produced the half map he had long since prepared, handing it to Uncle Qing. It seemed his guess had been right—Uncle Qing was that very Li'er!
"**... Xiaoyi, that Heaven-rank madman you met is my **, it must be..." With trembling hands, Uncle Qing took the map from Wei Zhao. One glance was enough to fill his eyes with tears, and he spoke with still greater certainty: "There's no mistake. This map is the treasure map of the Ulonghot Mountains... In those years, I too had half of it..."
Sun Luoying, however, looked utterly lost, for she no longer remembered that bygone affair. Still, she sensed the strange agitation in Uncle Qing and silently took hold of his arm, as though to comfort him and lend him strength.
"I didn't know the two of you were connected before, and it never occurred to me to think in that direction, so please forgive me for not telling you any of this," Wei Zhao said.
"Xiaoyi, you've done nothing wrong. On the contrary, I must thank you—you stepped in to help and eased the **'s headaches!" Uncle Qing waved a hand and said solemnly. "Besides, since the ** gave you this map, it proves you and he were fated to meet. That is your good fortune..."
"This is how I came by this half map," Wei Zhao said.