Aboard the dark-silver Flying Boat.
As he gazed at Donghua Mountain growing larger in the distance, Li Ping looked thoughtful.
Not long ago, he had visited his Fifth Younger Brother, Qi Hanmo, at the Jade Sash River. He had left him Nightfall and the Purple-Gold Flying Fork, two Supreme-Grade Magic Artifacts he no longer needed, and had also bestowed a stack of second-tier upper-grade Thunder Talismans on him.
He had encouraged him to sweep away evil, subdue demons, and defend the Dao.
Before leaving, he had also made a special visit to Qi Hanmo's master, Yan Changqiu, a cultivator in the middle stage of Core Formation.
After conversing with Yan Changqiu and sounding him out, he had finally confirmed that the Academy had not been keeping news of Xiao Yunzhi secret. She simply had not returned to the Western Wasteland.
Moreover, Xiao Yunzhi's death seemed to be an accepted fact at the Academy.
Even a Core Formation cultivator like Yan Changqiu firmly believed it.
Since this concerned Xiao Yunzhi's private affairs, Li Ping had not gone out of his way to tell Yan Changqiu or Qi Hanmo that she was still alive.
The only thing puzzling him was where Yunzhi had gone.
He had originally thought Xiao Yunzhi had returned to the Western Wasteland, which was why she had not gone back to Snowflight City to find him after refining her Life-Bound Treasure. But now that he knew she had never returned to the Western Wasteland, she must have refined it in the Far North.
That raised a question: why had she not returned to Snowflight City after successfully refining her Life-Bound Treasure?
Even if her refinement had failed, or something else had delayed her in another major city, she could easily have borrowed a Starwatch Platform to send him