Chapter 2715 — Strange Circumstances
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng, that peerless alchemist and healer of his generation—the love story between him and our two grandmistresses has been handed down through the ages! The Snow Grandmistress and the Ice Grandmistress were fellow disciples under the same master, and their bond was exceedingly close—yet both fell in love with the same man, and that man was Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng!" Bai Lingtou recounted the events of those years in gentle, measured tones, though what he knew came from the sect's records of anecdotes and miscellany rather than from the sect's orthodox chronicles. "But these two fellow disciples were both proud and lofty of spirit, and neither wished to share her love with another. Or perhaps, because they were fellow disciples, neither could bear to lose face before the other, and neither was willing to yield..."
"Oh? But did they not end up living together afterward?" Wei Zhao asked in surprise.
"That too I learned only today, from what Thunder Pig told me—that afterward they both followed Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng. Before this, I knew only that the woman Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng married was the Ice Grandmistress." Bai Lingtou smiled bitterly. "Only, in the end, the Snow Grandmistress chose to yield. The reason she yielded was that the Ice Grandmistress had a peculiar constitution, was afflicted with cold poison in her body, and could not live past twenty. So when the Snow Grandmistress learned this, she no longer wished to contend with her, and of her own accord gave that man up to the Ice Grandmistress..."
"Afflicted with cold poison? A yin-cold constitution?" Wei Zhao was startled, and at once thought of Feng Xiaoxiao's peculiar constitution. That little miss Bingtang had said before as well that Feng Xiaoxiao's constitution resembled that of the founding mistress of their sect—so it seemed the matter was no falsehood.
"Indeed, the yin-cold constitution!" Bai Lingtou nodded and went on. "And it was for this very reason that the Snow Grandmistress chose to yield. Yet Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng was a man of no small ability. He took the Ice Grandmistress to the Ice-Snow Spirit Mountain—the very place where the Ice Palace now stands—and there found the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit, successfully prolonging the Ice Grandmistress's life. And upon the Ice-Snow Spirit Mountain, the Ice Grandmistress unexpectedly obtained the mountain's legacy as well, discovering the ancient ruins of the Ice Palace, and thereupon founded a sect of her own! But her body, after she took the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit, grew very poor indeed—for she truly ought never to have taken that fruit. The Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit is efficacious only when taken in a state of qi deviation; taken in ordinary times, it brings no benefit at all, and is in fact greatly harmful. So even though the Ice Grandmistress later became a formidable figure at the peak of the late Heaven Tier, her health was never good. And Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng could only keep refining Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pills for her to take, and thus keep her from falling ill."
"So the Ice Grandmistress did not die, and then the Snow Grandmistress went looking for them again?" Wei Zhao asked, unable to suppress his curiosity.
"No. What I have seen in the records is this: the Snow Grandmistress had already declared that she would give him up—and with a pride as lofty as hers, how could she ever bow her head?" Bai Lingtou shook his head. "Moreover, the Snow Grandmistress wished to forget them both. She founded Snow Valley, and she created the Art of Heartlessness!"
"The Art of Heartlessness?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.
"Indeed. As the name implies, the so-called Art of Heartlessness means that one who cultivates it casts aside all feeling, and no longer knows love..." Bai Lingtou said. "The whole person becomes like a mountain of ice, hard for anyone to approach."