Chapter 4101 — Zhang Lifeng's Disciple

"You flatter me, Elder Cai. It's all Wei Zhao's doing. Without his guidance and the Foundation Establishment Pill, I couldn't even have found my way to the threshold of foundation building, let alone succeeded in it," Xueli explained.

"Ha ha, neither of you young friends is meant for a shallow pond, so there's no need to be so modest," Cai Zhongxuan said with a nod and a smile. Since Wei Zhao was a friend of Hong Zhong, it was hardly surprising that he had a Foundation Establishment Pill on hand.

Pausing a moment, Cai Zhongxuan continued, "When I was at the door just now, I heard you two mention the Snow Sword Sect's cultivation art. Are you young friends troubled over this matter?"

"That's right." Wei Zhao and Xueli exchanged a glance. From how he had behaved so far, this Vice Steward Cai seemed a trustworthy man of their own camp, and there was no need to hide it from him.

"In that case, wait here a moment, both of you. I'll be right back." Cai Zhongxuan smiled mysteriously, turned, and went out the door, leaving Wei Zhao and Xueli staring at each other.

A short while later, Cai Zhongxuan returned, carrying a scroll that was archaic yet refined. Smiling, he handed it to Wei Zhao.

"What's this?" Wei Zhao took it and opened it, and his eyelid gave an involuntary twitch. Astonished, he said, "The Snow Sword Heart Art? Elder Cai, how do you come to have this?"

Just moments ago he had been racking his brains over how to get his hands on the Snow Sword Sect's cultivation art, and then Cai Zhongxuan turned around and brought it to him—truly, no sooner had one thought of dozing off than someone arrived with a pillow.

Cai Zhongxuan laughed heartily. "Have you forgotten, Young Hero Lin? My master is the Pill God. The heads and masters of sects like the Snow Sword Sect must speak meekly and humbly when they come to my master for help. And my master commands the Five Elements Merchant Guild—spirit jade is the last thing he lacks. So anyone who wants him to refine pills must trade rare resources for the privilege. Apart from those once-in-a-lifetime heavenly treasures, what's left is each sect's core cultivation art."

Wei Zhao clicked his tongue in secret amazement. Which of the Mid Island sect heads and masters was not a fearsome figure whose stamp of the foot shook the four corners of the world? Yet before his own cheap master they all had to bow and scrape. Clearly, once one's pill-refining skill reached the realm of Pill God, one took all comers, great and small alike.

Still, however one looked at it, these arts were the highest secrets of any sect. That Zhang Lifeng could have talked them out of it was no small feat. Wei Zhao did not believe the Snow Sword Sect lacked other heavenly treasures; the only explanation was that Zhang Lifeng had specifically demanded this one.

Cai Zhongxuan went on, "Not long ago my master happened to come back for a visit. He gave me some of the rare finds he'd gathered in recent years, putting me specifically in charge of such rare resources, in preparation for the Mid Island Grand Auction that's coming up soon."

"The Mid Island Grand Auction?" Wei Zhao was briefly taken aback, and unbidden there rose in his mind the Four Island Auction Exposition he had attended on the Far North Island.

"Have you not heard of it, Young Hero Lin? The so-called Mid Island Grand Auction is a colossal auction open to every merchant guild on Mid Island, held officially by the Mid Island Lord and the Council of Elders. Among the five great islands of the Heaven Tier, it is the highest-caliber auction of them all," Cai Zhongxuan explained patiently. "Every item on offer at this auction is a rare find not seen in a thousand years. This Snow Sword Sect cultivation art my master gave me is precisely in preparation for it."

"I see." Wei Zhao listened with his heart soaring. Any cultivator would be stirred by such a top-tier auction teeming with treasures. For the moment, though, he could only dream of it—after all, he still had to find a way back to the North Island, and by then he had no idea whether he could make it in time.

Pausing, Wei Zhao suddenly pointed at the Snow Sword Heart Art in his hand and asked, puzzled, "Elder Cai, if this Snow Sword Heart Art was prepared for that, and you've given it to me now, how will you put it up for auction?"

Cai Zhongxuan gave Wei Zhao a strange look and laughed. "Looking at it won't spoil it. You make a copy, then give it back to me afterward—what's the difficulty?"

"Ah? That works too?" Wei Zhao and Xueli were both dumbfounded.

"Ha ha, core arts are the untransmitted secrets of every sect. Even if the Snow Sword Sect gave this to my master, they'd certainly never allow it to be copied at will, and even one who won it at auction would be forbidden to make further copies. Such is the code of the jianghu. But rules are dead things, and you, Young Hero Lin, are a friend of Hong Zhong—naturally I must make an exception for you." Cai Zhongxuan recalled with a somewhat rueful air, "That old fellow Hong Zhong and I are friends in life and death. When we were young, each of us saved the other's life. How could a trifling rule like this bind us?"

Wei Zhao nodded. So the two were bound by a friendship that had passed through death itself—no wonder Cai Zhongxuan was so protective of him.

Indeed, just as he said, under normal circumstances no sect's core art was ever permitted to be copied. Not only would the sect come investigating once word got out, but even setting that risk aside, whoever paid a great price to win the art at auction would surely guard it jealously—others might not even be allowed a single glance, let alone make a copy.

Were it not for this code of the jianghu, were it not for everyone's selfish desire to hoard what they had, the cultivation arts of the great sects, passed down for hundreds or thousands of years, would long since have spread across every street. They would never be as rare and precious as they are today.

It was simply impossible for them to be like the common arts of the mortal world on the North Island, found everywhere. The truly profound arts were all exceedingly rare.

"In that case, I won't stand on ceremony with you, Elder Cai," Wei Zhao said at once.

He did not much like being in anyone's debt, but this Snow Sword Heart Art was vital to Xueli. Since Cai Zhongxuan had already delivered it into his hands, there was no reason to push it away—he could only find a way to repay the favor properly in the days to come.

Besides, apart from the connection through Hong Zhong, there was another, even closer bond between him and Cai Zhongxuan—that of fellow disciples of the same school. Even if the time for revealing it had not yet come, there was no need to treat him as an outsider.

He handed the Snow Sword Heart Art to Xueli and had her copy it to one side, while he and Cai Zhongxuan had a table of fine dishes and good wine brought in and sat together chatting.

Though the two differed greatly in age, both were masters of pill refining and both possessed a rare skill in medicine. Any casual remark became a shared topic, and in no time they were conversing with great delight, each lamenting that they had met too late—true friends despite the gap in years.

During the meal, Wei Zhao asked with pointed intent, "The name of Master Zhang Lifeng, the Pill God and Medical Sage, resounds like thunder. I have always greatly admired him. Elder Cai, you are Master Zhang's prized disciple—might you tell me something of Master Zhang, so that I may come to know him a little better?"