Chapter 1475 — Wei Zhao's Surprise: He Had Once Reached Out a Helping Hand to Zhang Naipao When the Man's Family Was at Its Darkest; What Was More, Wei Zhao Was Zhang Naipao's Enemy, and the Very Memory of Being Trampled Under Wei Zhao's Feet Sent a Surge of Humiliation Through Zhang Naipao's Heart

He was a disciple held in the highest regard by the Sect Master and the Grand Elder of the mighty Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect — and yet he had been trodden underfoot by Wei Zhao, a mere nobody from the mortal world. If he did not avenge that wrong, Zhang Naipao felt he would be letting down his entire sect.

So he cultivated with desperate, sleepless toil, day and night. Methods others dared not try, feared to try, he threw himself into without hesitation. Pain others could not bear, he bore.

Poison bees, poison insects, poison snakes, poison herbs — Zhang Naipao stopped at nothing in his cultivation. The demonic path did not cultivate the way orthodox martial practitioners did. Orthodox practitioners absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and turned it to their own use, whereas the demonic path employed every crooked and perverse means to convert venomous qi and baleful qi into personal cultivation.

What was more, Zhang Naipao's Chrysanthemum Codex had already reached the Great Perfection of the first layer, making him the fastest cultivator in the entire sect.

There was, as it happened, a story behind the Chrysanthemum Codex. It was said to have been handed down from Chi You, the great deity of antiquity, but the method was so evil and domineering that the orthodox martial world held it in contempt and joined forces to destroy it.

Years later, a demonic sect suddenly rose through the martial world — the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect. It took the Chrysanthemum Codex as its supreme treasure, and its other arts were much the same in wickedness: cultivating with corpse qi, fresh blood, the dead, and poisons was everywhere to be seen.

A sect like that naturally drew attacks from all the other sects. But because the cultivators of the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect trained so fast and reached such heights of power, in the end it was a standoff. Neither side could do a thing to the other. And so from then on, they kept to themselves — the well water never offending the river water.

Still, most ancient sects maintained a respectful distance from a demonic gate like the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect. But there were always oddities like the Ice Palace.

The Ice Palace was a mighty presence even among the ancient sects. Its Palace Master was every bit as powerful as the Old Ancestor of the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect. And the people of the Ice Palace lived up to their name: they were ice-cold toward everyone and everything. Over the years they had not been especially friendly with the other ancient sects, yet neither did they refuse when disciples from those sects came to take part in the trial.

The Ice Palace had earned the right to be aloof. Even so, the other ancient sects still had no choice but to greet its people with smiling faces.

Before Zhang Naipao set out for the trial, his master had instructed him: toward everyone else he could deliberately put on airs, so as to highlight the transcendent standing of the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect. But toward anyone from the Ice Palace he absolutely must wear a smile, because the Ice Palace was no weaker than the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect.

And yet, though the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect possessed the Chrysanthemum Codex as its supreme treasure, no other disciple practiced it. The reason was that the Codex was too vicious in its demands: unless one took up a blade and castrated oneself, those of unstable will would be trapped by lust and fall into demonic deviation. Several disciples who had attempted it before had all died when their qi ran berserk and their bodies exploded.

Those disciples had once been judged by several elders to be the most gifted in the sect, yet none could cultivate it successfully. Only Zhang Naipao, without a second thought, took up the blade and castrated himself — something that had never happened before.

After all, which of those disciples was not young and hot-blooded? Who wanted to become a eunuch? They all dreamed of making their mark in the world, then going down the mountain to wander and enjoy women. How could any of them commit the sheer folly of self-castration?

So even though the Chrysanthemum Codex was immensely powerful — praised by the sect's Old Ancestor as being on par with the legendary Xuanyuan Dragon-Steering Art — very few ever trained in this formidable technique.

The Chrysanthemum Codex had one special trait: it could convert all evil and venomous things into demonic qi inside the body. It was an all-purpose cultivation art, bound by none of the restrictions that limited the rest of the sect. Other methods forced a cultivator to rely solely on poison herbs, or solely on poison insects, or to plunder yin to replenish yang, or to feed on fresh blood, and so on.

But Zhang Naipao needed none of that. He used whatever was at hand; whatever others could not use, he could. In this way his resources were far more abundant, and naturally his cultivation advanced much faster than everyone else's.

Flanked by the crowd around him, Zhang Naipao got out of the car and casually put on a pair of sunglasses.

"Lord Pao is so handsome! A true master of the younger generation!" said a disciple of a hidden family, buttering him up.

"Of course — Lord Pao comes from an ancient sect. His blessings are as vast as the heavens, and his lifespan rivals the sky!" another hidden-family disciple chimed in.

"Hmph, that little girl actually dared to show Lord Pao no respect. She must be tired of living!" The speaker was a disciple of the Zhuang family named Zhuang Niaopao. Because his name was rather similar to Zhang Naipao's, he had used that as a pretext to claim a connection with Zhang Naipao, and the other hidden-family disciples around him had all gotten to know Zhang Naipao through him.

"Right, Lord Pao. Want us to grab the girl and send her to your room tonight?" said another Zhuang-family disciple, Zhuang Niaoqiang. "She shows Lord Pao no respect at all. If we don't teach her a lesson, she won't know who Lord Pao is!"

"Lord Pao, that girl's quite a looker. Have a little fun with her — think of it as a warm-up before the trial," urged another disciple from a minor sect. His thought was that once Zhang Naipao had grown tired of her, he might get a taste himself. And anyway, with an ancient-sect disciple like Zhang Naipao backing them up, he had nothing to fear.

"No need. I have no interest in her." Zhang Naipao waved his hand and said carelessly. "People like that, all show and no substance, can be taught their lesson during the trial."

Zhang Naipao was speaking the truth. He truly had no interest in Yang Qiqi. What interest could a eunuch have in women? But that was a private matter, and he would not casually reveal it to anyone.

"Oh... I see." The sect disciple who had made the suggestion said, somewhat disappointed.

While the conversation was going on over here, over there Wei Zhao's face wore an expression of sheer disbelief. This was the second acquaintance he had run into since Yang Qiqi, and he had never expected to meet Zhang Naipao in this place.

When had Zhang Naipao become a cultivator — and not only a cultivator, but one from an ancient sect?

Although Wei Zhao had not laid eyes on Zhang Naipao for quite some time, he had never given him much thought. A lackey like that at Zhong Yongliang's side dropping out of school because his grades were too poor to get into university was only to be expected. Zou Ruoming had plenty of such henchmen: failing the college entrance exam, they simply quit school and went out to run with Zou Ruoming's older brother, Zou Ruoguang.

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