Chapter 2338 — Having to Give Up

Wei Zhao saw nothing unusual in Han Jingyi's expression, so he did not bother with pretense either. He simply pressed his hand to the qi-sea acupoint at her lower abdomen and once more set the second level of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art in motion. But this time the result disappointed him just as much: Han Jingyi still could not absorb his true qi.

In other words, Wei Zhao's hypothesis had failed completely.

"What is it, Brother Wei Zhao? Did it not work again?" Seeing his disappointment, Han Jingyi asked at once.

"Mm. Failed again." Wei Zhao nodded. "It looks like this hypothesis won't hold. I'll have to give it up."

"That's all right. You went to such trouble thinking of a way for Jingjing, and Jingjing is already so grateful. If it doesn't work this time, there's always next time. Even Jingjing's pill refining didn't succeed on the first try." Han Jingyi consoled him, showing not the slightest disappointment.

"Heh. So it seems it's impossible for me to use my true qi to assist your pill refining." Wei Zhao shook his head. "The only option is to find a way to raise your strength as quickly as possible. Right now you're an Earth-rank expert, and Earth-rank is likely the limit for a second-grade pill refiner. Even if you could condense third-grade pill fire, you still couldn't refine third-grade pills."

"Brother Wei Zhao, don't wear yourself out over it. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to help Jingjing refine pills, and Jingjing is already so grateful!" Han Jingyi said soothingly.

"Sacrifice myself?" At her words, a sudden flash of insight lit Wei Zhao's mind, as though he had thought of something! Yes—sacrifice himself. That phrase was very familiar to him. He seemed to have heard it somewhere before, and... it seemed very important... That was it!

Wei Zhao abruptly remembered what he was thinking of. While hiding with the Han family, in the Han family's scripture pavilion, he had seen an ancient supplementary support martial skill that had been passed down from antiquity. According to Old Master Han's account back then, that skill could replenish energy and true qi for one's own people nearby—but at the cost of consuming one's own strength and true qi. It was a martial skill of sacrificing oneself to complete another's success!

Even then Wei Zhao had felt the skill might be of some use. Moreover, applied to himself, its side effects would not be so severe, because whether he exhausted his true qi or dropped in rank, he could replenish himself with the energy of the jade pendant's space and recover in the shortest possible time. In this he was utterly unlike anyone else—he possessed an advantage no one else could match!

But at the time Wei Zhao's thoughts had all been fixed on the Hidden-World Great Families Summit. He had copied the skill down, yet had not given it much thought. Later, accompanying Sun Jingyan to the Wulong Haote Mountains, he had even less time to study it.

Now that he thought about it, this skill seemed tailor-made for a pair like himself and Han Jingyi! Once he cultivated it, he could use it to restore the stamina and true qi of his own people. The only question was: in what state could his people receive its effects?

Did they have to be circulating the mental incantation used in cultivation, or could it work in an ordinary state, or even in the midst of battle? Was it active or passive?

At this point Wei Zhao could not bear to delay a single moment. He had to go back and examine that support skill he had copied in hiding with the Han family, to see whether Han Jingyi could use it.

"Jingjing, you really are my little lucky star—one word from you woke the dreamer from his dream and reminded me in an instant!" Wei Zhao was so delighted that he nearly seized Han Jingyi and planted a kiss on her. The hands he had raised dropped awkwardly back to his sides. "I have a martial skill that might solve this problem. I need to go back and study it. These next couple of days, don't refine pills for now—wait until I've studied it, then we'll continue!"

"All right, but Jingjing didn't do anything—it was all Brother Wei Zhao's idea!" Han Jingyi never took credit for herself.

"Heh. Jingjing, you really have helped me enormously," Wei Zhao said with a smile. "Just now I was so excited I could hardly keep from scooping you up and kissing you!"

"Really? Did Jingjing help?" Han Jingyi said nothing on the surface, but a faint trace of disappointment, barely perceptible, flickered through her eyes...

"All right, I'll be heading back first. You should get some rest early too!" Wei Zhao said to Han Jingyi. His thoughts were entirely fixed on examining that martial skill once he returned, so he did not notice the strangeness in her eyes.

"Mm, mm. Then Jingjing is going to sleep for several days. It's been so long since Jingjing slept in! Jingjing will go to bed early today." Han Jingyi felt sleepy the moment she said it, and gave a yawn. Evidently the recent period had worn her down badly; researching and refining second-grade pills every day had drained her energy to its very limit.

"Rest well." Wei Zhao nodded, took leave of Han Jingyi, and quickly returned to his own villa.

Even after leaving Han Jingyi's villa, Wei Zhao remained somewhat baffled. The timing of Han Jingyi's appearance and the help she had given him were too strange. He hoped it truly was nothing bad.

After all, no one is made of wood or stone—who could be without feeling? During this period of contact with Han Jingyi, Wei Zhao had grown a little fond of this terrifyingly clever yet utterly guileless girl.

When Wei Zhao returned to the villa, Wu Chengtian, Wu Gonggao, Pi Zhifeng, Pi Zhitao, and Old Master Pi were all in the living room chatting, while the young miss and Xiaoshu were not there.

"Mr. Lin, you're back!" Seeing Wei Zhao arrive, all of them rose to speak with him. Even Old Master Pi, a Heaven-rank expert, did not stand on ceremony before Wei Zhao. Though he did not adopt the posture of a junior, his bearing was that of the patriarch of a family attached to Wei Zhao.

"There's no need for such courtesy from now on!" Wei Zhao said with a wry smile. "Wu Chengtian, you weren't like this before. Now that there are more people, you've started putting on these empty formalities too?"

"Heh... I just thought things should be more formal when there are more people about, didn't I?" Wu Chengtian scratched his scalp, then turned to Old Master Pi. "Old Pi, the leader is a very amiable man. There's no need for so much ceremony—what he values is whether we truly do things for him, not these formalities."

"Where are Yaoyao and Xiaoshu?" Wei Zhao asked casually.

"The young miss and the others went upstairs," Wu Chengtian said. "With a few grown men like us down here, it wouldn't be convenient for them."

"If you know it's inconvenient, why not go back to your rooms? Hogging the living room..." Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears.

"Hey... it's just that we've only now been able to crawl out of bed, so we came out to get some air," Wu Chengtian said with a grin. "Before, we wanted to come out but couldn't!"