Chapter 5035 — Cold Cold

"What is it? Is the jade no good? You really don't want it?" Watching her stunned expression, Wei Zhao secretly gloated.

If he had not seen how much she treasured a piece of waste jade the night before, this idea would never have occurred to him. After all, life on Cloud Terrace Island had drilled a fixed pattern into his thinking; he instinctively regarded spirit jade as worthless—mere currency, far beneath the various pills. But now it seemed that to the little cold girl and her kind, a single piece of top-grade spirit jade was worth even more than pills!

"..." For a moment the tall woman did not know how to react. Of course she wanted it. She treasured even a piece of waste jade—how much more a top-grade spirit jade brimming to the utmost with heaven-and-earth spiritual energy!

Yet she was too embarrassed to simply accept it. Truthfully, if it had been an ordinary fine thing, she would have taken it without a second thought, and at worst repaid Wei Zhao later with something of the same grade. But this was a top-grade spirit jade—where under heaven was she supposed to find a treasure of the same grade?

And yet to refuse it outright—that she truly could not bring herself to say. At ordinary times it would have been one thing, but her injuries were still unhealed, and this was precisely when she desperately needed spirit jade to replenish her spiritual energy, while the energy in her own piece of waste jade was plainly running dry. Wei Zhao's top-grade spirit jade was nothing less than charcoal in the snow!

While she was still hesitating, Wei Zhao without another word stuffed the top-grade spirit jade into her hands, then turned and went back to his own room. This time the two of them had traded places—now it was the little cold girl's turn to stare blankly at his door.

After standing stunned for a good while, the tall woman looked down at the top-grade spirit jade in her hands and shook her head with a helpless smile. "Now I owe him a debt of gratitude as vast as heaven. What am I to do, what am I to do..."

Troubling as it was, she truly did need this top-grade spirit jade, so she could only turn and return to her own room. Sensing the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within the jade, abundant to the utmost, she grew all the more puzzled. Where on earth had he gotten this piece of spirit jade?

With this top-grade spirit jade to replenish her energy, she at once felt fully confident again. For a cultivator, abundant spiritual energy meant abundant physical strength; even if the injuries were somewhat severe and the medicine slow to act, she would ultimately pull through. The opposite—her situation before—was what was truly dangerous.

So to her, Wei Zhao's top-grade spirit jade was not merely charcoal in the snow; it was in effect a second life. This debt of gratitude was simply as vast as heaven.

Early the next morning, Wei Zhao knocked on her door once more. Her complexion was noticeably better than the day before.

"Jade nourishes a person—the old saying is not one bit false." Wei Zhao looked at her and smiled a smile with hidden meaning.

His words made the tall woman's heart skip. Could he know this was spirit jade, know that she was healing herself by absorbing the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within it? But the thought was dismissed the very next instant. The words surely meant only their literal sense; he was nothing but an ordinary man without a shred of strength—how could he know such things?

"I just bought these breakfasts from downstairs. Won't you have some too?" As he spoke, Wei Zhao handed over a portion of steaming hot breakfast.

"This..." For a moment the tall woman did not know what to do. Following her usual pattern, she would certainly have refused, but she had just accepted his top-grade spirit jade the day before. How could she bring herself to refuse him now? She could hardly say that she took priceless treasures but would not take a worthless breakfast—what sort of person would that make her?

"Eat while it's hot, or it won't taste good once it goes cold," Wei Zhao urged.

The tall woman hesitated for a long while, but in the end she took the breakfast from Wei Zhao's hands, and said in a somewhat complicated tone, "Then... thank you."

"You're welcome, it's only proper." Wei Zhao chuckled. Then he suddenly asked, "By the way, we've known each other so long, and I still don't know your name?"

The old Wei Zhao would never have asked such a question—it was plainly asking for a snub. But now he asked as though it were only natural. After all, she had accepted the top-grade spirit jade and accepted the breakfast; surely she could not begrudge him even a name.

The tall woman was troubled for a moment, but in the end she did as he wished and said softly, "Leng Leng."

"Leng Leng?" Wei Zhao felt at once that the name fitted the person, and asked again, "Then what is your surname?"

"Surname Leng, given name Leng—Leng Leng." With that she shut the door and hid back in her room. For some reason, when she told Wei Zhao her name she had inexplicably felt her cheeks grow hot. She had never been like that before—how strange.

Outside, Wei Zhao chuckled to himself. Though he had been shut out again, this was plainly a different matter from before—she had not only accepted the breakfast, she had even told him her name. The ways of the cultivation world really did work wonders!

Xu Lingchong's methods for dealing with those fools were simple and crude, and on the surface seemed to require no skill at all, yet they were still so widely used—clearly there was good reason for it.

For women of the cultivation world, what mattered most was indeed strength.

Wei Zhao went back well satisfied. Reaching this point today counted as completing the task perfectly; to go one step further would have to wait for the next opportunity. Haste makes waste—there was no rushing such things to completion in one go.

Meanwhile, Leng Leng ate the breakfast he had brought, her mood strangely stirred, her mind racing with one wild thought after another.

In the ancient minor jianghu, with her looks she had naturally had no lack of suitors, but those people at most generously offered cultivation resources. Someone bringing her breakfast was a first—trivial as the gesture seemed, to keep it up day after day for so long was rare indeed.

Imperceptibly, Wei Zhao had been placed by her on the same level as her suitors from the ancient world, to be compared with them—something unimaginable before. After all, one was an ordinary man and the others were cultivators; what was there to compare?

And what was rare was that Wei Zhao's image in her mind was quite positive. This was not merely because he had given her the top-grade spirit jade, but mainly because of the subtle guidance of these many days. Even a woman of Leng Leng's temperament would not, without cause, take a man who poured out his heart and diligently waited on her to be a bad person—such was human nature.

But the moment Leng Leng thought of those suitors in the ancient minor jianghu, her expression could not help darkening again. They had seemed generous in their pursuit, as though they would pluck the stars from the sky for her, but in the end cultivation was king. Their attentions had one fundamental precondition—that they not conflict with their own interests. Otherwise, far from paying court, they would turn and kill you on the spot! (To be continued.)

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