Chapter 1472 — Xiao Ning's Secret

And on top of that, there was Yu Shan to reckon with, a man whose strength verged on the peak of the mid Profound Rank. If she ended up facing Zhao Qitan, Wei Zhao facing Zhao Qijiu, and Yu Shan struck from the shadows, who could possibly withstand it?

"Heh... but you needn't worry too much. I have a trump card," Wei Zhao said. "Even against an Earth Rank expert, I stand a chance of wounding him badly. So let's hear no more of that. Since fate has brought us face to face again, we remain one team!"

"Truly? You could badly wound an Earth Rank expert?" Yu Bing's eyes went wide. "My god! You're a little too fierce! No wonder Xiao Ning likes you. You're practically a top-tier Saiyan!"

"Never mind that..." Wei Zhao cut him short. Some things, once past, are past, and beginning again is never so simple. In the depths of his heart they were not easily forgotten, had only grown more vivid with time, yet Wei Zhao truly lacked the courage to bring them up again.

And Wei Zhao had already found his own happiness: Tang Yun, Feng Xiaoxiao. To grow old beside them would be a blessing in itself. Other destinies need not be forced. He and the hidden Yu family had seemed to become enemies from the very beginning, and by now the rift could not be bridged, unless Yu Ning's father could set aside his hatred for the worldly Yu family and accept Wei Zhao as he was. But a man as proud and solitary as Wei Zhao, even if he entered the hidden Yu family, would hardly live in harmony there.

What Yu Ning wanted, Wei Zhao could not give her before, and he cannot give it now. The two had grown up in worlds too far apart, and Yu Xiaochen was not a man who listened to reason. All of it had doomed them to no outcome.

So better nothing at all than disappointment.

"You don't like Xiao Ning?" Yu Bing would not let the subject drop; instead he asked it outright.

"What does it matter whether I like her or not?" Wei Zhao countered.

"If you do, I can help," Yu Bing said.

"Help? You're oversimplifying..." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. "Do you think there is any chance left of reconciliation between me and the worldly Yu family?"

"At least you have not offended the hidden Yu family," Yu Bing said earnestly. "If you have the heart for it, I truly would try."

"There are things you do not know, but I can sense them. From what your father said to me, I could read certain problems as well," Wei Zhao said with feeling. "I don't know whether you have noticed, but in your Yu family, the importance placed upon her even surpasses that placed upon you!"

"That..." Yu Bing did not want to admit it, yet he had no choice but to. Wei Zhao's words had struck the vital point. Yes, in the Yu family Yu Ning's standing was greater even than his own, the legitimate son and grandson. The Yu family's old ancestor loved Yu Ning beyond even ordinary doting; when Grandfather looked at Yu Ning, it was as though he beheld the family's future, its coming glory. But when he looked at Yu Bing and Yu Shan, that look never came. There was only severity.

"I don't know what secret she carries on her, but I always feel that she..." Before Wei Zhao could finish, Yu Bing instinctively reached out and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Hush!" Yu Bing startled himself, then remembered this was an inn, not the Yu family, and shook his head with a wry smile. "My apologies. A bit of a reflex."

"What was that about?" Wei Zhao, too, was baffled by the gesture.

"Long ago... I was curious, just like you, and I asked Father about Xiao Ning. But I was sternly told never to ask again, never to speak of it! Anything concerning Yu Ning is taboo in the Yu family. No one dares bring it up." Yu Bing shrugged. "For a moment there I thought we were back in the Yu family, afraid that the very walls had ears."

"So that is how it is..." Wei Zhao sighed. "Then some things are better left unthought."

"But your strength is hardly to be belittled now," Yu Bing said. "You have actually become an expert at the peak of the mid Profound Rank, and you are on the verge of breaking through to the late Profound Rank. I truly never expected it. Our family has cultivation elixirs compounded from heavenly materials and earthly treasures, but you should have had no access to such things..."

"I have my own way of cultivating," Wei Zhao said. "Strength is not the crux. The crux is that I have just offended your family."

"Just now?" Yu Bing was slightly taken aback.

"This is a Qi Gathering Pill. I took it from the hands of an old man of your family named Elder Yu." Wei Zhao drew a small bottle from his robes and set it before Yu Bing.

"Qi Gathering Pill!" Yu Bing's eyes flew wide. With a startled whoosh he sprang to his feet and stared at the little bottle in disbelief. Wei Zhao's move had shaken him badly indeed. Not merely because it was a Qi Gathering Pill, but because it had been snatched from Elder Yu's own grasp!

Yu Bing's expression shifted again and again. He knew well what a Qi Gathering Pill was, and he also knew that the Yu family had recently sent Yu Huoxing to steal a Qi Gathering Pill from an ancient tomb. But never had he imagined that the reason Yu Huoxing came back claiming the tomb was fraught with deadly peril and that no Qi Gathering Pill was to be found was that Wei Zhao had taken it!

Yu Bing's first thought was not of how to seize the pill back. Though his father needed it badly, Yu Bing knew better: such were the rules of the jianghu. The Qi Gathering Pill had never belonged to Yu Huoxing either, but to the master of the tomb. Whoever snatched it owned it. The thing had no true owner, and there was no question of taking it back.

What Yu Bing thought of instead was Wei Zhao's trust in him! Such a hidden matter, and one touching on the Yu family, yet Wei Zhao had spoken of it plainly, and that moved Yu Bing. Otherwise, Wei Zhao could simply have kept silent, and he would never have known.

"Do you think the hatred between us can still be dissolved?" Wei Zhao studied Yu Bing's face and was quietly gladdened. There was no anger in Yu Bing's eyes, no greed. Only shock and helplessness. He had not misjudged the man.

In truth, Wei Zhao had meant to test Yu Bing's character and intentions as well. Even if he had not brought it out now, should the trial truly yield no Fire Spirit Holy Fruit, this Qi Gathering Pill would become the pill with which Wei Zhao would trade the Ice Palace for the Fire Spirit Holy Fruit!

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