Chapter 2818 — The Celestial Chan

"The Five Baleful Dragon... Could it be a five-attribute spirit beast?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Indeed. You should be able to tell from the skills it unleashed," the beauty said with a nod.

"Oh? Then you must be a five-attribute cultivator as well?" Wei Zhao asked, feigning casualness.

The beauty's expression tightened almost imperceptibly, but she nodded nonetheless. "I am a cultivator of four substantive attributes and one illusory attribute. Do you know what substantive and illusory attributes are?"

"A little." Wei Zhao nodded, enlightened—and deeply startled. This beauty was a cultivator of four substantive attributes and one illusory attribute? That was simply too formidable.

"Let us not speak of this. By the way, what is your name? Are you also a trial participant in this Mystic Pill Sect trial?" Unwilling to dwell on matters concerning herself, and seeing the astonishment on Wei Zhao's face, the beauty changed the subject.

"Wei Zhao," he said, making no secret of it—there was no concealing such a thing anyway. "Who else would be here but trial participants?"

"That is true." The beauty nodded, reached for the pack at her side, and drew out a spirit herb, which she handed to Wei Zhao. "This is the spirit herb I promised you earlier—you will need it for this trial."

"Oh? Then I shall not stand on ceremony." Wei Zhao nodded and accepted it without demur. "What is your name? Which sect are you from?"

"I... am called Tian Chan, a lone cultivator." The beauty hesitated, but gave her name all the same—though about her sect, she lied. Her sect was presently at odds with Wei Zhao, and for reasons she could not quite name, Tian Chan did not wish there to be too great a gulf between them—perhaps she feared he would think he had saved an enemy. So Tian Chan reasoned.

"Tian Chan? 'A painted tower by the water stands; from every house, shadows mirror the fair moon's grace'—truly, the name suits the person." Wei Zhao looked at Tian Chan and spoke from the heart.

A faint blush rose to Tian Chan's cheeks—how could she fail to hear that Wei Zhao was praising her beauty? Never in her life had anyone called her a beauty, and now, praised thus by Wei Zhao, she could not help but feel a little shy.

"By the way, why did you come to the Five Baleful Mountains?" Tian Chan asked, changing the subject. She had wondered before why Wei Zhao would come to the summit of these mountains.

"Oh, I went treasure hunting," Wei Zhao said, speaking the truth without concealment; had he invented some excuse, Tian Chan would not have believed it anyway.

"Treasure hunting?" Tian Chan was taken aback.

"Oh, this thing here." Wei Zhao brought out the essence core he had obtained earlier and showed it to Tian Chan.

"An essence core? You actually found one of these?" Tian Chan was stunned. She had not expected Wei Zhao's luck to be so good as to find a spirit beast's essence core.

"You know what this thing is used for?" Wei Zhao had not expected Tian Chan to recognize it at a glance.

At his question, Tian Chan could not help but start, and hesitated a moment before saying, "It can be made into a protective necklace—but it requires an artificer."

"Are you an artificer?" Wei Zhao asked.

"I..." Tian Chan pressed her lips together, then nodded. "I suppose so—though I have never actually forged anything."

"How about you forge one for me?" Wei Zhao said with a laugh, half in jest.

"Ah? One is not enough—you need at least five," Tian Chan said. "And besides, after this trial, I must return to my sect. You and I will likely never cross paths again."

"Heh, which sect are you from? Perhaps we shall meet again someday," Wei Zhao said.

Tian Chan hesitated and fell silent. She did not want to lie to Wei Zhao, yet she did not want to name her sect either. The Mystic Pill Sect and Wei Zhao were, as things stood, steeped in enmity, and Tian Chan did not wish her sect to ruin the rapport between them.

Why exactly she cared so much about this brief connection between them, Tian Chan herself did not know. In times past, she would surely have killed Wei Zhao; but now, such a thought did not arise in her.

"Never mind, let us not speak of it." Tian Chan's silence left Wei Zhao somewhat taken aback, but he did not press her. Even if she would not say, he had mostly guessed her origins; if she truly came from the Five Luminaries Sect, concealing her sect was only natural. "By the way, then why did you come to these Five Baleful Mountains?"

"I came... to do something particular," Tian Chan said.

"And did you succeed?" Wei Zhao asked.

"I do not know yet..." Tian Chan shook her head, and thinking of what had happened before, she seemed somewhat lost.

Wei Zhao knew the two of them were not well acquainted; even though he had saved Tian Chan's life, she might not tell him the truth, might not reveal her purpose here. After all, Wei Zhao suspected that Tian Chan might have come to receive an inheritance.

But if what Leader Bai had said was true, the inheritance of origin power differed from the inheritance of insight: in each inheritance of origin power, only one person could succeed—and since he had succeeded, Tian Chan must have failed.

In that case, Tian Chan's earlier preparations had handed Wei Zhao a windfall. If Tian Chan knew that Wei Zhao had received the inheritance, would she be so enraged as to kill him? At this thought, Wei Zhao resolved not to pursue the topic further—otherwise, once Tian Chan grasped the truth, he would be in danger.

After all, Leader Bai had also said that to receive the inheritance of origin power, one had to make a series of complex preparations. Tian Chan had likely made those preparations earlier, and now had likely failed—only she herself did not yet know it.

As for Wei Zhao, had the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art not suddenly broken through to the second layer of great perfection, he would hardly have believed he had received the inheritance—for on the surface, there was no telling whether one had received it or not.

"How do we get out of here? This cliff is truly too high—how are we to climb up?" Wei Zhao suddenly thought of the most important question: how the two of them were to leave this place.

"Ah?" At Wei Zhao's reminder, Tian Chan looked up and only then realized their predicament. A flicker of worry crossed her eyes; she glanced around, and the worry on her face deepened. After a while, she said, "We... seem unable to get up there!"

"Unable to get up?" Wei Zhao was startled, and his heart turned cold. He had considered this problem before, but he had thought: Tian Chan was an expert of peak late Heaven-rank strength—if he could not climb up, that did not mean Tian Chan could not.