"There is one, but Grandfather has already decided to pass it to his last disciple..." Bai Weituo said. "You know that neither my brother nor I have any gift for it, so Grandfather never even considered leaving it to us."

"Just one? Nothing else? Couldn't something a bit inferior do?" Wei Zhao was instantly rather disappointed. Leader Bai had only one pill cauldron, and it was promised to his last disciple—so it seemed that even if Wei Zhao learned pill refinement, there would be none for him.

"None..." Bai Weituo shook his head. "Grandfather believes in scarcity over abundance. That is the cauldron he used himself, and it is the only one there is..."

"All right, thank you. Now I know!" Having learned the truth, Wei Zhao said no more. Since Leader Bai had only the one cauldron and it was already promised to his last disciple, there was no point in Wei Zhao asking him—it would be wasted breath.

But where on earth could he buy a pill cauldron fit for a pill refiner to use?

The Right family surely had one, but given the relationship between Wei Zhao and the Rights, they might not be willing to sell.

The Ice Palace probably had one too, and could probably procure it, but it wasn't worth troubling that little miss Bingtang over such a trifle. Besides, he had already made a grand boast that he would become a Yellow Rank third-grade pill refiner, and now all this time had passed and he hadn't even gotten his hands on a cauldron—let alone become a pill refiner. He'd be laughed at by little miss Bingtang.

Wei Zhao had bottled up his pride before little miss Bingtang. Sooner or later he would make her sit up and take notice, so he wasn't about to let this little trifle make her look down on him even more.

Now the only ones Wei Zhao could rely upon—the only ones who might be able to get him a pill cauldron—were the Hidden Yu family, the Hidden Zhao family, and the Hidden Han family.

The Hidden Yu family had the best chance of procuring one. After all, they were an old-line hidden clan with deep connections, hardly weaker than the Hidden Right family. If the Hidden Yu family spoke up and asked the Hidden Rights for an ordinary pill cauldron, it should be an easy matter.

But the only person Wei Zhao knew in the Yu family—the only one he could contact—was Yu Bing, and Yu Bing was now cultivating at the Ice Palace. The only way to reach Yu Bing was through the Ice Palace, which still led back to little miss Bingtang. Besides, with Yu Bing at the Ice Palace, it would be no easy thing to get the Yu family to ask for a cauldron on Wei Zhao's behalf.

So Wei Zhao abandoned that idea and fixed his eyes on the other two hidden clans.

As for the Hidden Zhao family, given the friendship between Wei Zhao and Zhao Qitan, asking for a pill cauldron should be no problem. But the crux was that Zhao Qitan held no high position within the Hidden Zhaos. Even if the clan could procure a cauldron, Zhao Qitan might not be able to move them to do it.

Shaking his head, Wei Zhao could only pin his hopes on the Hidden Han family, the newest of the hidden clans. He simply didn't know whether the Hidden Hans had the connections to procure a pill cauldron.

From what the Hidden Hans had said, they were already being eyed greedily and suppressed by the other hidden clans, so the odds that they could help him get a cauldron were probably not great.

"How did it go, Brother Wei Zhao?" Seeing that Wei Zhao's brows were tightly knit after the call, Han Jingyi asked with some concern.

"A cauldron like that can't be used for pill refinement," Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. "Refine pills in it, and it'll blow up for sure."

"Ah, no wonder my refinement blew up—Jingjing thought something else had gone wrong!" Han Jingyi's face lit with sudden understanding. "So that means Jingjing didn't do anything wrong—it was the cauldron."

"That should be it. Don't try refining pills for now. I'll think of something in the next few days and see if I can get a cauldron for you from somewhere else," Wei Zhao said.

"All right, Brother Wei Zhao..." Han Jingyi nodded.

The Hidden Right family.

"Right Panhu, you're saying Wei Zhao got some pill-refinement materials from Leader Bai?" Having heard Right Panhu's account, Right Zhentian frowned, a trace of displeasure in his heart. What did Wei Zhao have that made Leader Bai think so highly of him?

"Yes. I didn't hear everything clearly, but I caught bits and pieces at the door, enough to make out some key points!" Right Panhu said. "Leader Bai wants to take Wei Zhao as a disciple and pass on some pill-refinement knowledge to him. And when Wei Zhao left, he was carrying a volume of materials—it must have been given to him by Leader Bai!"

"If that's the case, then it would be worthwhile for our Right family to find a way to trade for those materials and have a look. The question is whether Wei Zhao is willing to trade," Right Zhentian said. He knew well enough that Right Panhu and Wei Zhao did not get along, and that the whole Right family's relationship with Wei Zhao was none too warm.

Fortunately, Wei Zhao still didn't know that Right Thirteen came from the Hidden Right family, so relations between the two sides were not yet too strained. If they offered enough in exchange, Wei Zhao would probably be tempted...

"Uncle, I think Wei Zhao will definitely trade—the question is what we put on the table!" Right Panhu said. "However capable Wei Zhao is, he's just a lone cultivator, a penniless wretch who goes to the antique street to buy junk cauldrons. A man like that surely hasn't a single valuable thing on him, so if we offer him something that makes his heart flutter, he'll cave for sure!"

"Oh? Buying junk cauldrons on the antique street?" Right Zhentian's eyebrows rose. "Wei Zhao can't be that pitiful, surely? He has some connection with the Ice Palace, after all—and he goes and buys flea-market goods?"

"What connection does he have with the Ice Palace? Palace Mistress Bingtang only gives Wei Zhao some face on account of Feng Xiaoxiao and Tang Yun. I'd wager that right now Wei Zhao absolutely cannot get Bingtang to do anything for him!" Right Panhu said with conviction.

"That is true..." Right Zhentian believed it too. Otherwise, with three Earth Rank experts sent to assassinate Wei Zhao, it was impossible that the Ice Palace had gotten no word of it at all. Yet to this day no one from the Ice Palace had come out to investigate, which was proof enough that Bingtang did not care about Wei Zhao.

"Second Young Master Right, Patriarch, I've actually thought of something we could trade!" Huang Mao ventured cautiously.

"Oh? Huang Mao, tell us—what do we trade?" Right Zhentian looked at Huang Mao and asked.

"A pill cauldron! Since Wei Zhao went to the antique street to buy a cauldron, that means he probably doesn't have a good one—at least not a suitable one. Or else his old cauldron broke, otherwise he wouldn't go buying one!" Huang Mao said. "And the fact that he went to the antique street means Wei Zhao has no other way to get a cauldron. As a lone cultivator, all he can do is try his luck on the antique street. But most likely he didn't find one to his liking and just bought some piece of junk as a stopgap."

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