Chapter 1903 — Who Is the Bigger Snob

"Exactly. You two always have the wildest ideas..." Gu Mengyao nodded.

There is a saying: speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives. Sometimes life really is that coincidental...

Snow Valley.

Tang Yun's parents had been here for some time now. Tang Jucheng, for his part, was perfectly content. The Ice Palace's scenery was lovely, and what could be more enviable than living the life of a hermit in the mountains with one's wife and daughter? No backbreaking work, no worries about food or warmth—Snow Valley arranged everything. Only this life of having meals brought to his mouth and clothes handed to his back still felt somewhat strange to him.

Xiao Ming was a quiet sort as well. Each day, apart from practicing Snow Valley's breathing exercises with Tang's mother, she simply lived in peace. She had long since grown used to the cold, bitter neglect of her days in the Tang household, and compared with that, being free to walk about here as she pleased and to see her sister, her brother-in-law, and her daughter—this was a life close to paradise.

But Tang's mother's arrival was nothing short of a disaster for Snow Valley.

The Grand Elder had always believed that after practicing the Heartless Art, she had become a thoroughly snobbish person. Yet only after meeting Tang's mother did she learn what snobbery truly was, what greed truly was. Compared with her, she herself was a small sorcerer meeting a great one.

"Reporting to Elder Zhang on duty: our Snow Valley disciples have discovered a thousand-year snow lotus..." one of the valley's disciples said, cupping his hands in salute.

"Ah, a thousand-year snow lotus! Yun-yun, isn't that terribly precious? Let's save it for Wei Zhao—Xiao Yi is a cultivator too, and he has so few treasures like this. Whenever we come by something good, we must set it aside for him!" Tang's mother was even more on the ball than the Heavenly Thunder Pig: whenever Snow Valley turned up something fine, she was always the first to drag Tang Yun over.

Several black lines sprouted across the Grand Elder's forehead. How many days had it been? Tang's mother had already laid claim to more than half the good things Snow Valley had found. Was anyone supposed to go on living like this? They were hardly acquainted yet. Once she knew the place well, would she loot Snow Valley's treasure vault clean?

"Mother... you've already saved up quite a lot of good things for Wei Zhao..." Tang Yun said, rather helplessly.

"One can never have too many good things. I'm taking this snow lotus!" Tang's mother declared smugly to Elder Zhang.

"Very well... Madam Tang..." Elder Zhang, too, was in a cold sweat.

But if even the Grand Elder was helpless against Tang's mother, what virtue or ability did Elder Zhang possess to stop her?

Madam Tang's pet phrase was: You won't give it to me? Fine, then I'll take my daughter and leave, go back and find Wei Zhao, get married, have children—pass on your inheritance, my foot! Go on, kill us if you dare.

So the Grand Elder had no move to make against her at all. In all her years, the Grand Elder had never met anyone so snobbish and so utterly shameless. This was turning hostile at the drop of a hat; the slightest displeasure, and she threatened to walk out. The Grand Elder could only let her have her way...

After all, Snow Valley had nothing left to hold over Tang Yun now. Wei Zhao's qi deviation had been cured; if Tang Yun truly set her mind on leaving, Snow Valley was powerless to stop her. They had finally found an heir—surely they could not really kill her?

And Tang's mother was Tang Yun's mother; she could not be offended either. Offend her, and Tang Yun would stop cultivating properly, and in the end the one to lose out would still be Snow Valley.

Besides, Tang's mother was not Tang Yun's birth mother but her adoptive mother; her true daughter was Bingtang. If she really did kill her, wouldn't that little minx Bingtang blow her top and come turn Snow Valley upside down?

Bingtang, after all, was an existence no weaker than the Grand Elder, and the art she cultivated was plainly a notch above the Grand Elder's. Even the Grand Elder had no certainty of victory against her.

Oh, how the Grand Elder hated it. Before Tang's mother came, it was she who held Tang Yun hostage; for the sake of curing Wei Zhao, Tang Yun had no choice but to swallow her pride and go along. But the moment Tang's mother arrived, the tables turned completely—Tang's mother had become the old Grand Elder of former days, throwing her weight around and turning on a dime.

Fortunately, Snow Valley was a great house with deep coffers and could spare such trifles. And Tang's mother was not truly insatiable—at the very least she left Snow Valley half. That restored the Grand Elder's sense of balance a little.

Yet for all her greed and snobbery, Tang's mother was beyond reproach toward her own, especially Wei Zhao, whom she thought the world of. Once she had accepted this son-in-law, then even though Tang Yun's status was lofty now, she showed not the slightest inclination to have Tang Yun aim for a higher branch.

Compared with that, she was rather better than the Grand Elder's kind of heartless snobbery.

"Mother... that's about enough..." Tang Yun was helpless about her mother as well; her two mothers had utterly different temperaments...

"What do you mean, about enough? Not nearly enough! One of these days I'll pay the Ice Palace a visit and get a few more things out of Bingtang. Isn't she going to be Wei Zhao's littlest-littlest-littlest-littlest wife? If she doesn't show a bit of sincerity, then don't expect this mother-in-law of hers to take her side..." Tang's mother said.

"Pfft—cough, cough—" The Grand Elder nearly choked to death on Tang's mother's words. So it was not her own house alone that was out of luck—the Ice Palace was going to suffer along with it! And yet this actually pleased the Grand Elder immensely: at the thought of Bingtang meeting her doom as well, she felt that Snow Valley's small losses amounted to nothing at all.

"Heh heh..." Tang Yun, hearing this, sighed inwardly. She had not told her mother the whole truth of Wei Zhao's situation; her mother still did not know that Wei Zhao had forgotten her. But Tang Yun did not want her mother to worry, and so she had kept it hidden.

Still, hearing that her mother meant to go to the Ice Palace left her uneasy. Feng Xiaoxiao probably did not know about Wei Zhao's affairs yet. If her mother really did go to the Ice Palace and Feng Xiaoxiao then got in touch with Wei Zhao, would not all her painstaking effort have been for nothing?

Tang Yun knew her mother was most likely just talking, that the odds of her actually going to the Ice Palace were next to zero, but she dared not take the risk...

As her practice of the Heartless Art deepened, the cold air about Tang Yun grew ever denser, and her whole person took on an aloof and unfeeling air; one glance, and people felt she was unapproachable, lofty beyond their reach...

Only those who cultivated an art of the same element were less affected, and Wei Zhao practiced an art of the pure yang attribute, so there was surely no possibility of his being with her. Tang Yun now finally understood why the Heartless Art was called the Heartless Art...

Only someone utterly disheartened, someone who wished to forget love, could have created such an art, such a mnemonic...

When Tang Yun first began to practice, she had not felt anything amiss, but as her power grew, every time she thought of Wei Zhao during practice, of the sweetness they had once shared, she felt as though her heart were being cut by blades of ice, as if it were bleeding—a pain beyond bearing.

Tang Yun knew that this was perhaps the price she paid for not having taken the potion brewed from the herb of forgetfulness!!!!