With a tremendous bang, the result was exactly as Wei Zhao had feared: not only did he fail to advance, the blast tore through his meridians and left most of them badly damaged!

"It really is no good, then!" Wei Zhao sighed. "Am I... really fated to wait until next spring? But time waits for no one — I can't hold out that long!"

"There's nothing I can do about that either!" Jiao Yazi said. "But you could ask Bing Tang — perhaps she'll have some idea. She is a Heaven-rank expert, after all!"

"Old Jiao, honestly now — just what is your true strength?" A question had suddenly occurred to Wei Zhao, one he had been meaning to ask for a very long time.

"Me? I'm not even sure myself..." Jiao Yazi shook his head and answered with regret. "Inside this jade pendant space there is only a phantom of me, not my true body, and my memories have not been fully unlocked. Only when you cultivate the second level of the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art will corresponding memories open to me! So for now I cannot help you much — my memory is fragmentary and incomplete!"

"I understand!" Wei Zhao nodded. "Then tomorrow I'll go ask that girl Bing Tang... This time, I may have to swallow my pride first!"

Wei Zhao did not want to bow his head to Bing Tang, but he had no choice. Of all the people he knew, Bing Tang alone stood at the highest rank. If he could still reach his master, he might have asked him — but since the day his master left, there had been no word at all, and what Old Man Wei knew was limited besides.

After a night's rest, Wei Zhao drove at first light to the residential compound where Tang Yun's family lived. He had no idea how yesterday's talk between Tang Yun's family and Bing Tang and Xiaoming had gone, or whether they had recognized one another. In Wei Zhao's estimation the trouble should not be great, yet he worried all the way there.

But when Tang Yun opened the door and he saw the smile on her face, the knot of tension in Wei Zhao's heart loosened at once. It seemed the business with Tang Yun's family had already been settled!

"Well? All taken care of?" Wei Zhao asked, lowering his voice.

"Yes... all settled, no problems, everyone is satisfied..." Tang Yun nodded.

"That's good, then." Wei Zhao let out a breath of relief.

"Yunyun, is that Wei Zhao? Let him in, quick — he must come pay his respects to his second mother-in-law!" Mother Tang's voice rang out, followed by the sound of footsteps as she came out to greet him.

"Sis, don't talk nonsense — what second mother-in-law? How ugly that sounds. Didn't we agree? Before outsiders, I'm still Yunyun's aunt!" It was Xiaoming, hurrying out after Mother Tang, looking rather embarrassed.

"That's before outsiders, isn't it? We're not before outsiders now — we're before our own family! This is our son-in-law Xiaoyi; how is he an outsider?" Mother Tang said. "Xiaoming, you'd better get used to it. Didn't we settle it all yesterday — that you'll be living here from now on?"

"Heh, then she's a mother-in-law. But Yunyun and I aren't married yet, so I'll call you Aunt Xiaoming; and as for Mom Tang, I'll still call her Aunt Wang or Aunt Tang!" Wei Zhao said.

Tang Yun's mother was named Wang Yujie, and Xiaoming's name was Wang Yuming, so Wei Zhao had no choice but to tell them apart that way.

"Fine, call us that, then." Xiaoming nodded.

"Bing Tang, what are you doing? You wicked child, come meet your brother-in-law!" Mother and daughter after all, Mother Tang had grown familiar with Bing Tang in a single night — and she paid no mind whatsoever to whether Bing Tang was a Heaven-rank expert or the palace master of the Ice Palace. This was her own flesh and blood, so she spoke to her with no ceremony at all!

Of course, though Bing Tang was her own child, Tang Yun still held the greater place in Mother Tang's heart, having been raised by her hand since childhood. But she was fond of Bing Tang as well — to suddenly have two daughters, who would not be glad? Last night the several of them had talked until very late, and every relationship had been confirmed: both Tang Yun and Bing Tang called Wang Yujie mother; at home Tang Yun called Xiaoming "Mom Xiaoming," while outside she called her aunt — they had no wish for the neighbors to learn the truth and turn it into gossip.

And Bing Tang, naturally, called Xiaoming aunt as well. In truth, this family of four amounted to two mothers and two children.

"She's a Heaven-rank girl, after all — naturally she puts on airs. My strength as her brother-in-law is too low; she looks down on me." Wei Zhao said it deliberately, needling her.

Bing Tang shot Wei Zhao a cold glance, furious. This pampered creature irked her — if not for Tang Yun and Feng Xiaoxiao, how could she, a lofty Heaven-rank expert, ever have crossed paths with Wei Zhao? And the wretch was thoroughly annoying, showing her not the slightest reverence, and had even coined a nickname for her: "Heaven-rank girl." What sort of absurd nickname was that? It sounded dreadful!

Who would dare call her — the honored master of the Ice Palace — "Heaven-rank girl"? Bing Tang was about to choke on her own fury. But before she could open her mouth, she found herself on the receiving end of Mother Tang's scolding instead!

"Bing Tang, I'm calling you over here! You poor child, you've had such a hard life — thrown away back then by that damned Hidden Tang family, and now you've come a step too late. Otherwise Xiaoyi would have been your boyfriend, and it wouldn't have been Yunyun's turn at all!" Mother Tang rattled on and on.

At Mother Tang's words, Bing Tang nearly tripped and fell flat on the ground. Wei Zhao? What was so wonderful about this creature? And she had come a step too late? Even had she come a step earlier, there was no chance she would have chosen him, surely?

"Brother-in-law... I'm waiting for the day you surpass the Heaven rank and become a first-grade Mystic-rank alchemist!" Bing Tang said to Wei Zhao through gritted teeth.

"Oh, that'll be soon. I'm only afraid Yunyun won't accept you." Wei Zhao said mildly.

"What do you mean, won't accept? What are you two talking about?" Tang Yun looked puzzled; she had not followed the exchange between Wei Zhao and Bing Tang at all.

"Nothing." Bing Tang said, her face dark.

At noon, Wei Zhao reserved a table at the Pengzhan Business Hotel and invited Tang Yun's whole family there for a meal; Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Xiaoqing naturally hurried over as well! With the Tang family's affairs settled, everyone was free of pressure; they talked and laughed together and were thoroughly happy.

Only Bing Tang remained cold as ever, unsmiling and stern; only when Mother Tang called to her did she force a smile, and savor a little of the warmth of kin.

Over the meal, Mother Tang grew rather wistful. She looked at Tang Yun, then at Bing Tang, and could not help but sigh with feeling: "Ah — to learn all of a sudden that Yunyun is not my own daughter... from now on I truly can't scold her without a care the way I used to..."

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