Chapter 1315 — An Unexpected Turn
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"No need — I'll do this one myself..." Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head, refusing Shen Yushu's help for the very first time. This was a gift for Wei Zhao; she didn't want anyone else's hands in it. "Ah? How stingy!" Shen Yushu, rebuffed, was none too pleased.
"Xiao Shu, stop fussing. Xiaoxiao's right — she should do it herself. Only what she knits with her own hands will mean anything! If you want one too, then knit one yourself!" Gu Mengyao said.
"Oh..." Shen Yushu nodded and let the matter drop.
Wei Zhao sat off to one side, his spirits sunk low. For the first time he knew this feeling of helplessness. In the past, whatever had happened, he would always find a way to set it right — but now he could not find a single good way out of this.
Just as Wei Zhao was at his wits' end, Old Master Wei's long-absent call finally came through.
"Old man, you've finally called!" Wei Zhao's whole body thrummed with excitement. Now the old man was his one remaining hope: "That ancient sage of medicine you mentioned last time — is there any word at all?"
"I did track him down, I'm afraid, but it's bad news," Old Master Wei sighed. "Don't take it too hard when I tell you."
"Tracked him down, and it's still bad news? Could it be that the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit simply doesn't exist?" Wei Zhao froze and pressed on in a small panic.
"Whether it exists or not I dare not say — only that I have never seen one," Old Master Wei replied. "This ancient sage of medicine was called Zhang Lifeng. I've confirmed that he is the man. But his medical notes never passed down into the world; they say he took them into his grave with him. And so the trail ends here..."
"What! Zhang Lifeng?" The moment he heard the name, Wei Zhao cried out. "You're saying his medical notes could be inside his tomb?"
"Yes. What's got you so worked up?" Old Master Wei was baffled.
"Worked up? Of course I'm worked up!" Wei Zhao burst into hearty laughter. The name Zhang Lifeng was no stranger to him — he had heard it more than once from both Liu Bojia and Qiu Lingshan. And was the tomb Qiu Lingshan meant to open not the tomb of that very sage of medicine, Zhang Lifeng?
If Old Master Wei's reasoning held — that Zhang Lifeng's medical notes had never circulated — then those notes very likely still lay in his tomb. In ancient times people commonly believed that fully teaching an apprentice meant starving the master; even the most large-hearted of men harbored such misgivings, and it was precisely this that caused oceans of knowledge and learning to vanish without a trace.
So if Zhang Lifeng had ever kept medical notes, it was entirely possible they were resting in his tomb.
"Xiao Yi — you know this Zhang Lifeng too?" Old Master Wei caught a note of something in Wei Zhao's wild elation.
"I do — and more than know him, I know where his tomb lies!" Wei Zhao had never imagined that the matter would veer so suddenly into a new turn; that one completely fortuitous act of stepping in to save a man had created this chance of a lifetime.
"Oh? Truly?" Even Old Master Wei could hardly bring himself to believe it.
"Truly. As it happens, the whole thing is rather a coincidence — it went like this..." Wei Zhao told Old Master Wei the full story of how he had come to rescue Liu Bojia.
"Hmm... I never thought you'd be granted such a stroke of fortune. Perhaps heaven isn't willing to let our Xiaoxiao be one of those beauties whose fate is cruelly short..." Old Master Wei sighed after listening. "Still, prepare yourself mentally. Never mind whether Zhang Lifeng's tomb holds those notes — even if they truly exist, you may still never find such a legendary thing as the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit..."