Chapter 3531 — You're Right

"Uh... so what is it you want, then?" Wei Zhao asked with a wry smile.

"You're not going to take responsibility?" Xue Li glared at him viciously.

"This... you want me to take responsibility for this?" Wei Zhao pointed at himself, dumbfounded.

"You've already got so many wives—what's one more, me?" Xue Li flew into a furious rage. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"This... it's not a matter of one more or not..." Xue Li's words genuinely left Wei Zhao speechless. What kind of logic was this? What he meant was that he and she had no emotional foundation whatsoever—accepting her out of the blue, what was that supposed to be?

"Xue Li, calm down a little. This isn't fair to you..." Wei Zhao hurried to explain.

"Not taking responsibility is what's unfair," Xue Li said. "A girl's been treated like this by a man—how could I ever be with anyone else? If you don't take responsibility, I can only grow old alone for the rest of my life. How can you be so heartless?"

"..." Heartless? Wei Zhao truly did not know what to say. Xue Li's logic... hmm? Wait—Wei Zhao suddenly thought of Bing Tang from before. In Bing Tang's eyes, being held by Wei Zhao meant she was his for life. And Xue Li... she too was a girl raised in an ancient sect from childhood. No doubt their thinking had all been shaped by the old days, and they took such things terribly seriously. That was why she spoke this way!

And so Wei Zhao found himself with a headache. Tang Zhi's business was still unresolved, and now here came Xue Li as well!

"All right then. One more... one more it is." Wei Zhao could only nod. "But I still don't know a thing about you. If we're to be together, you should at least tell me about yourself, shouldn't you?"

"You agree? Good, then." Xue Li's tears turned to laughter. "I'll tell you about myself, and you tell me about yourself!"

In Xue Li's view, wasn't this exactly how blind dates between men and women had always worked? The two families matched in standing, then each explained their circumstances, and they were together. Just like that.

"Fine..." Wei Zhao felt thoroughly swindled. If not for wanting to give Tang Zhi a surprise, it would never have come to this! Still, thankfully Xue Li looked to be only just past twenty, and her temperament was like a young girl's too—otherwise, being with a woman older than himself would have been no small pressure!

But from the look of things now, Xue Li was no different from a little girl, whether in mind or anything else.

"Mm... right, how did you get in? How did I not notice at all? I deliberately locked the door from the inside before I went to sleep!" Xue Li looked at Wei Zhao with some puzzlement. "Don't tell me you and Tang Zhi arranged it beforehand, and she gave you the key?"

Xue Li was truly puzzled. By any reasonable account, she had locked the door securely—even if Wei Zhao were a peak Heaven-Rank master, without a key he would have had to break the door down, wouldn't he? Even a Heavenly Dao master—could he shatter a door and leave not a whisper of sound?

If there had been any commotion earlier, Xue Li could never have stayed sound asleep; she would have gotten up to deal with it, and Wei Zhao would never have succeeded! Besides, in Xue Li's estimation, even if Wei Zhao were bold, he would not dare smash down a door in a public inn, would he?

And so Xue Li had gone to sleep utterly off guard, and after her bath she had not even bothered to dress, because deep down she assumed that even if Wei Zhao came, he would surely knock. How could she have known such a thing would happen?

By ordinary reasoning that was indeed so—but Xue Li had overlooked the fact that Wei Zhao also possessed the consummate art of lock-picking and door-slipping! To her, a peak Heaven-Rank master learning to pick locks was utterly impossible and utterly unnecessary.

"No... before I became a cultivator, I was a highway robber. I'm a master thief," Wei Zhao said.

"Pfft... really? You're not kidding?" Xue Li's eyes went wide, her face plainly disbelieving. "How old are you this year? How could you have been a highway robber before—when did you even start cultivating?"

"A year ago I was still a Yellow-Rank master. Believe it?" Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. "We said we'd introduce ourselves to each other—there's no need for me to lie to you about this..."

"You level up really fast!" Xue Li looked at Wei Zhao and sighed. "Hey, I'm almost thirty. You're not going to disdain me, are you?"

"...From the look of you, your mind seems even younger than Tang Zhi's!" Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears. "Look at you now... There's no way you look thirty to me. Don't try to fool me."

"Hehe." Xue Li could not help but laugh at that. "Then just treat me as eighteen."

"Eighteen is still too old. You're sixteen at most..." Wei Zhao knew the matter could not be undone now; Xue Li's thinking was thoroughly old-fashioned, and he could only comfort her for the time being. Still, this business today had been a fine farce!

Had Wei Zhao not concealed his strength, or had he made a bit of noise earlier, Xue Li would certainly have noticed, and it would never have come to this. But he had done it all so Tang Zhi would not find out...

Xue Li told Wei Zhao about herself, though her life had been exceedingly dull and monotonous, almost identical to Bing Tang's: raised in Snow Valley cultivating since childhood, never exposed to much of anything, and because of the cultivation method she practiced, no one had ever come to propose marriage. Xue Li had never even imagined that she might one day be with a man...

"Huh? That's odd. Don't you cultivate the Heartless Art too? How is it you seem so easily moved? I touch you once, and you make me take responsibility?" Wei Zhao asked suddenly.

"I haven't drunk the Forget-Love herb potion, and I've never been fond of anyone before. I made you take responsibility only because that's how it's written in the books," Xue Li said.

"I get the feeling there's something a bit off about the Heartless Art your founding mistress created. If it were truly heartless, then one wouldn't be interested in men at all. But the situation now is that it's only outwardly heartless—inwardly, there's feeling," Wei Zhao said.

"You're not allowed to slander Patriarch Xue," Xue Li said.

"It's not slander. In the end, didn't your Patriarch Xue end up with Patriarch Zhang Lifeng? Did her Heartless Art just stop working?" Now that Wei Zhao and Xue Li were on familiar terms, he could say such things.

"Don't talk nonsense. How could that be? Patriarch Xue went off in pursuit of the Heavenly Dao—how could she possibly be with Zhang Lifeng!" Xue Li refused to believe Wei Zhao's words.

"Once this business is settled, I'll take you to a place," Wei Zhao thought for a moment. Only by taking Xue Li to the ancient tomb would she believe that their Patriarch Xue had truly gone off to live with Zhang Lifeng—and moreover, shared one husband with Patriarch Bing of the Ice Palace.

"Oh..." Xue Li was still somewhat unconvinced. Patriarch Xue had always been Snow Valley's faith; that she did not believe it was only natural. But after thinking it over, she said, "What you say... does seem to make a bit of sense... The Heartless Art only makes a person's exterior seem cold, but it doesn't affect the feelings beneath... Perhaps Patriarch Xue did keep Zhang Lifeng in her heart all those years."RS