If Wei Zhao had lent a hand, an injury like hers would have been the work of a moment. Even by simply taking a top-grade fourth-rank Great Restoration Pill, she ought to have recovered long ago after all these days. What a pity, then, that although she had the ingredients for a top-grade fourth-rank Great Restoration Pill, she had merely brewed them in the least efficient manner. Even with the medicinal bath on top of it, she would be lucky to get a tenth of the effect.

What was more, this was the mortal world. Deep in the mountains and old forests some exceedingly thin trace of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy might linger, but in a city where people lived in crowds it amounted to nothing at all. That meant every shred of spiritual energy she spent could hardly be replenished in any short time, and so of course the little cold girl recovered all the more slowly.

This was not something that merely had the little cold girl anxious; even Wei Zhao, a mere onlooker, fretted on her behalf and could not help shaking his head. If only he had spoken plainly a moment ago—how much better that would have been. To forge a bond as quickly as possible, he would certainly have helped heal her, so why go to such lengths? The little cold girl's temperament, keeping everyone at a thousand miles' distance, truly did harm both herself and others.

Wei Zhao was still hesitating over whether to find a chance to break the ice and heal her when he saw the little cold girl grit her teeth and, with great care, take something out of her bundle. A closer look showed it to be a piece of spirit jade!

Only, the luster of this spirit jade had already grown very dim, and the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy stored within it was bound to be scant. In terms of quality, had it been on Cloud Terrace Island, it would certainly have been tossed out as waste jade. Only someone like Wei Zhao, with a jade-pendant pocket dimension, would have kept such a thing for recycling.

Yet a piece of waste jade in Wei Zhao's eyes had now become an absolute treasure to the little cold girl, and the way she looked so pained as she brought it out was truly a sight to make Wei Zhao laugh.

Cradling the spirit jade in her hands, the little cold girl gritted her teeth and absorbed a tenth of the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy from it. At last, with a ready supply to replenish her, her whole condition improved markedly, and even her complexion turned a few shades rosier. Yet she was still far from healed; this bit of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy could at best relieve the immediate crisis.

She was like a traveler crossing a desert, wounded besides, parched and exhausted, and the spiritual energy she had absorbed amounted to no more than a single sip of water, giving her just enough strength to fight her injuries a little longer. If no further replenishment came, the end was inevitable—strength failing, wounds worsening, and the outcome only too easy to imagine.

The mortal world was a paradise for ordinary people, but to a cultivator who depended utterly on heaven-and-earth spiritual energy, this place was, if not hell, then at least a desert—a harsh environment without precedent.

In normal times one could still get by, but once wounded as the little cold girl was, even if the injury itself was not so severe, it would often worsen without cease for lack of spiritual energy until it reached the point of no cure. Such was the cruel mortal world.

Though the little cold girl, by insisting on taking her medicine and soaking in her medicinal bath, had not yet sunk to the point of no cure, an injury that never healed was still a trouble in the end. And without sufficient spiritual energy to replenish her, even if her condition worsened no further, there was absolutely no chance of recovery in the short term.

She was well aware of this herself, but she had only this one piece of spirit jade in her possession, and its spiritual energy was plainly about to run dry. What was she to do?

Even this little bit of spiritual energy she had to husband carefully. Using up a tenth of it in one go this time was already an exception; she dared not use a single fraction more, and could only hurry to put it away with the utmost care.

Wei Zhao watched this scene, lost in thought. From what the little cold girl had said, one thing was already confirmed: she was indeed not of the mortal world. And the fact that she still had a piece of spirit jade in hand showed that the place she came from must have far richer spiritual energy than the mortal world, for a place like this could never naturally produce spirit jade.

Moreover, Wei Zhao could also be certain of another thing: the little cold girl surely did not come from Cloud Terrace Island. She was, after all, a capable hand at the early Foundation Establishment stage. Had she come from Cloud Terrace Island, even the new disciples of North Island would not have spared a glance for such a spiritless piece of waste jade, much less treasured it as she did.

Besides, by Cloud Terrace Island's standards, the ingredients for the top-grade fourth-rank Great Restoration Pills she had bought were alone worth far more than a piece of spirit jade—let alone such a piece of waste jade as this.

So Wei Zhao could roughly infer the situation of the place the little cold girl came from: its spiritual energy was far denser than the mortal world's, yet far inferior to Cloud Terrace Island's. It could produce spirit jade, but only in very small quantities, certainly not as commonly as on Cloud Terrace Island. Only thus could the little cold girl's situation be explained, and only thus could it also explain why so many capable hands of the Heaven Dao stage had suddenly appeared.

Just where they came from, however, Wei Zhao could not know.

In any case, Wei Zhao was now ready to open the window and speak plainly as soon as possible. It was true he had patience, but a full ten days had already passed; he could not drag this out so pointlessly any longer.

Besides, he had played the attentive suitor for so long that even if the little cold girl said nothing openly, some sense of recognition had already taken root in her heart, imperceptibly. Otherwise, she would not have come out tonight to drive off those two thugs. The time was ripe, one might say; Wei Zhao reckoned that even if he revealed his identity now, he would not be treated as an enemy.

Sure enough, the tall woman opened the door briskly and, by force of habit, was about to refuse him out of hand—only to discover, just as the words reached her lips, that Wei Zhao had come empty-handed today, and she could not help asking in surprise, "You're not bringing me anything this time?"

"Heh. So it seems you do still want me to bring you things," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Who wants anything? I was just curious, that's all. Then why did you knock on my door?" The tall woman looked at him, somewhat at a loss.

"Actually, you guessed right. I've still come to give you something." As Wei Zhao spoke, a small piece of jade suddenly appeared in his hand, and he held it out before the little cold girl. "I have a fine piece of jade, and as they say, fine jade suits a beauty. So I wish to give it to you."

"I don't want it!" the tall woman refused instinctively—but then the corner of her eye caught the jade in Wei Zhao's hand, and her gaze sank into it at once, unable to shift another fraction. She murmured in utter shock, "This... how can this be..."

In Wei Zhao's presence she dared not say the words "spirit jade" aloud, but she was utterly certain that this was plainly spirit jade—and spirit jade of the very finest quality!