Chapter 1503 — A Beautiful Confidante

"A five-hundred-year Snow Spirit Mushroom! If we get it, that is five hundred points at the least, eight hundred at the most!" Yu Bing said with envy and astonishment. "That single natural treasure alone would be enough to see us through this Ice Palace trial!"

"Ha, if that is truly so, then all the natural treasures we found before shall go to you. This one alone will be enough for me," Wei Zhao said to Yu Bing with a smile.

"Really? Then thank you so much!" Yu Bing cried out in delighted surprise. He was truly basking in Wei Zhao's good fortune. After all, finding all these natural treasures was entirely the work of the Heavenly Thunder Pig, and even if Wei Zhao had shared none of them with him, Yu Bing could have said nothing.

But now Wei Zhao was giving him all the natural treasures found earlier in one stroke, which meant he too would suddenly have a great many points. Those earlier finds added together already came to four or five hundred points, and by Yu Bing's reckoning, four or five hundred points should have no trouble placing among the top ten of the trial!

The natural treasures found by the Heavenly Thunder Pig were basically all worth fifty points or more. As for those worth five or ten points, it pretended not to see them even when it saw them, and paid them no heed at all!

That was also the reason they had found so many high-point natural treasures in the course of half a day.

During that time, Wei Zhao and Yu Bing had indeed run into several other small teams, only those people all kept their distance from them and showed no intention of striking to rob them!

Although many had witnessed Wei Zhao being trampled by Zhang Nai Pao, they had also seen with their own eyes how in a single night he had not only recovered his strength but broken through to late Profound Rank. Toward so strange a man as Wei Zhao, none of them would seek trouble for nothing!

They knew themselves well enough to know they were no Zhang Nai Pao, and against such a freak they had no confidence at all!

So the journey had been spared a good deal of trouble. And Wei Zhao was a man of principle: if you did not provoke him, he would naturally not touch you. What others did, he scarcely bothered with.

"Squeak squeak!" Suddenly the Heavenly Thunder Pig stopped beside a towering tree and would go no farther, while disappointment and helplessness spread across its face!

"What is it?" Wei Zhao frowned and asked. "You did not find the Snow Spirit Mushroom?"

"There is a giant python here, and it looks as if it was just killed not long ago..." Yu Bing suddenly said, pointing to a spot not far from the tree!

Wei Zhao looked over at once, and sure enough he saw a dead white python, its body already more than half covered by snow. Since it was white itself, one would overlook it if one did not look closely!

The Heavenly Thunder Pig had by now run to the side of the towering tree and begun digging in the snow with its forepaws. In a short while it scraped away the snow over the roots, and the look of disappointment on its face grew only thicker.

"Squeak squeak..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig pointed with a forepaw at the place it had dug open and squealed at Wei Zhao.

Hearing its cry, Wei Zhao looked over, only to find at the spot its paw indicated the freshly dug-out root of a Snow Spirit Mushroom! In other words, this mushroom had just been dug away by someone!

"Someone dug it up and took it?" Wei Zhao asked. Judging by the scene, it must have been taken only a short while ago.

"It certainly looks that way," Yu Bing said regretfully as he walked over and saw the state of the roots.

"I wonder who dug it up, with such luck?" Wei Zhao gave a bitter smile and said, "Forget it. We already have a heaven-defying cheat with us, so we are hardly short of this one Snow Spirit Mushroom. Let us go on looking for other natural treasures!"

"True enough..." Yu Bing nodded.

"Come on, little fellow, let us go find the next natural treasure..." Wei Zhao said to the Heavenly Thunder Pig.

"Squeak squeak..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig was unwilling to give up, pointing with its forepaw toward a direction not far off, as if to show that the one who had dug up the Snow Spirit Mushroom had gone that way!

Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback, but then he understood. The Heavenly Thunder Pig must still be able to sense the presence of that Snow Spirit Mushroom, and had not lost the trail merely because it had been dug up.

Looking in the direction the Heavenly Thunder Pig pointed, Wei Zhao was again startled, for he saw a dark shape upon the snow not far away. It looked like a person, and there were red stains of blood upon the figure, as if injured!

"There is someone over there?" Wei Zhao said doubtfully.

"Eh? It really does seem to be a person?" Yu Bing had plainly seen the dark shape in the distance as well. "Shall we go take a look?"

"Better not to meddle, no?" Wei Zhao was not one who liked meddling in others' affairs. Whether another trial taker was hurt or not had little to do with him.

"Let us have a look first. It might be someone we know," Yu Bing suggested.

"Fine, then let us take a glance," Wei Zhao nodded.

As they spoke, they walked toward the dark shape, and when they drew near and Wei Zhao saw the face clearly, he hardly knew whether to laugh or cry!

"Is that not your beautiful confidante?" Yu Bing said teasingly.

"Beautiful confidante? A haunting nemesis is more like it!" Wei Zhao could not help giving a wry smile, for the injured person on the snow was none other than Yang Qiqi! At this moment Yang Qiqi was sitting on the snow, puffing with anger and wiping her tears!

It was not pain from her wounds that made her weep, but fury that the spoils she had won with such difficulty had been snatched away by villains, all but ruining her plan to pass the Ice Palace trial smoothly!

Though he spoke so, Wei Zhao could not simply walk away. After all, he had already saved Yang Qiqi twice before, and having seen her now, he had to lend a helping hand! Before, when strength was tested, Yang Qiqi had been declared a rogue cultivator, and that had given Wei Zhao a feeling of fellow sufferers sharing a fate. Since all were rogue cultivators with no great sect behind them, Wei Zhao would naturally help when he could.

"What? Beaten and sitting on the ground bawling?" Wei Zhao walked over, looked at Yang Qiqi, and asked with a smile.

Yang Qiqi had been so wrapped in anger that she had not noticed anyone approaching. In truth, if Wei Zhao had not wished to be noticed, she could not have noticed him at all!

"You... how did you get here? Come to laugh at me?" Seeing the newcomer was actually Wei Zhao, a trace of desolation crossed Yang Qiqi's face, grown pale from loss of blood. Why was it that every time she was down on her luck, she ran into this thing?

"At so tense a moment of the trial, what mood would I have to laugh at anyone? Because you look so cool?" Wei Zhao curled his lip. "Badly hurt? Were you beaten, or bitten by a snake?"