Chapter 2762 — A Real Rip-Off

"I do," Jiao Yazi said with a nod. "The void attribute in your body must be converted into the solid attribute before the second level of your Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art can reach the grand mastery state."

"What?! There's more to it than that? Why didn't you say so earlier?" Wei Zhao was stunned for a moment, then his thoughts turned to his own Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. By all reasoning, at his cultivation speed he should have reached grand mastery by now, and yet he never had. He had assumed it was simply because he had not cultivated long enough—never once had he guessed it was a matter of the attributes inside his body!

"You never asked me. How was I supposed to say it?" Jiao Yazi wore the look of one who says nothing unless asked, which irritated Wei Zhao no end.

Still, when he thought it over—he had cultivated in vain for over a decade without ever entering the jade pendant space, and Jiao Yazi had never offered a word of guidance. Wei Zhao could only feel helpless. Having long since come to understand Jiao Yazi's temperament, he said, "I always thought that as long as I kept cultivating, I would eventually reach grand mastery of the second level."

"Impossible. At the second level's grand mastery, you would be able to refine jade pendants. Your body is filled with nothing but the void attribute—there is no way you could ever become an artifact refiner. How could you refine jade pendants? Are you dreaming?" Jiao Yazi said with scorn.

"..." Wei Zhao felt like cursing someone out. If not for all the help Old Jiao had given him—and his own respect for elders and care for the young—he would have stormed over and given Jiao Yazi a thorough tongue-lashing! Here I am running around like a headless fly, desperate over the attributes in my body, and you're just sitting back watching the show?

Even so, Wei Zhao held his temper and asked, "Then how can I turn the void attribute in my body into the solid attribute?"

"Mm, that you will have to figure out for yourself." Jiao Yazi shook his head. "There is no relevant information in my memory."

"Ugh. If I can't turn the void attribute into the solid attribute, does that mean I can never step into grand mastery of the second level of the mental cultivation art?" Wei Zhao was at a loss for words. "Isn't that just a rip-off?"

"Not at all. How long has it been since you opened the second stone gate? And already you want to advance to grand mastery of the second level and open the third gate? Aren't you a little too impatient?" Jiao Yazi said. "Think about it—how long did it take you to get from the first stone gate to the second? And you still have the five-year deadline to work with. You haven't even finished the third gate, so what's the rush?"

"Uh... I suppose you're right." Wei Zhao thought it over carefully. It really had not been long since he opened the second stone gate—he was indeed being a bit hasty! Still, converting the void attribute in his body into the solid attribute was a truly troublesome affair. He would have to receive the inheritance of origin power one by one, and the only inheritance site he currently knew of was the Ice Palace. Did that mean he would have to make another trip to the Ice Palace to receive an inheritance?

"You needn't tie yourself in knots over this. Sometimes problems resolve themselves when you least expect it," Jiao Yazi consoled him.

"All right, I'll keep cultivating." Wei Zhao nodded. In any case, strength was what mattered most. Tonight he planned to try unleashing the martial technique that came after the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm—the eighth stance. His strength had already advanced to the late Earth rank, so in theory he should be able to unleash the eighth and even the ninth stance of the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm.

Back at the seventh stance, Wei Zhao could already one-shot a skilled practitioner of the early Heaven rank. At the eighth and ninth stances, if his physical strength and true qi could keep up, he should be able to one-shot even those at the peak of the early Heaven rank, or perhaps even the mid Heaven rank!

How much power it would actually carry, though, Wei Zhao could not say without testing it. He did not know which stance marked the limit of his physical strength, but there was no doubt that the higher the stance, the harder it was to unleash—and once unleashed, it would leave him almost completely drained. Though the stances were nominally Earth-rank martial techniques, in truth they were already Heaven-rank.

Feeling that his physical strength was fairly abundant, Wei Zhao began preparing to try unleashing the eighth stance of the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm—the equivalent of the fourteenth stance of an ordinary Heaven-rank martial technique!

Following his previous method, Wei Zhao first prepared to unleash the Frenzied Fire Fist. Only by mastering the eighth and ninth stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist could he combine them into the far more powerful Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm!

Clearly, unleashing the Frenzied Fire Fist posed no difficulty whatsoever for Wei Zhao. He began with the first stance and flowed smoothly onward—seventh stance... eighth stance, then the ninth—all in one continuous breath!

"Phew..." Wei Zhao was quite satisfied with his execution of the Frenzied Fire Fist. Next, he unleashed the eighth and ninth stances individually, both of which he could perform flawlessly without the slightest hitch. It seemed the unmodified Frenzied Fire Fist was still relatively easy to unleash.

After unleashing the eighth and ninth stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist, Wei Zhao made a final attempt at the tenth stance. So he went from the first stance all the way through the eighth and ninth... and the tenth ended in failure.

It seemed the ninth stance was already the limit of his current late Earth-rank strength. The tenth stance, he feared, would have to wait until he reached the peak of the late Earth rank! Wei Zhao was not particularly surprised—after all, he had only been making an attempt, and he had never truly expected to succeed.

Having unleashed the Frenzied Fire Fist, Wei Zhao began on the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, using the mental cultivation mnemonic of the Frenzied Fire Fist and the unleashing method of the Five Elements Eight-Trigram Palm to combine them into the eighth stance of the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm!

Unless absolutely necessary, Wei Zhao would not lightly attempt to unleash the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm all the way from the first stance to the eighth, because unleashing it from the first through the seventh already left him feeling hard-pressed for strength—it drained his physical power unlike anything ordinary. So Wei Zhao could only unleash the eighth stance on its own.

To Wei Zhao's relief, he successfully unleashed the eighth stance of the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, and its power was far greater than the seventh stance before it. Wei Zhao even felt that the eighth stance would have little trouble ambushing a skilled practitioner of the mid Heaven rank!

The only problem was that after releasing a single strike of the eighth stance of the Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palm, Wei Zhao felt his physical strength instantly drained dry—he nearly collapsed to the ground, unable to keep his footing!

"Powerful as this move is, it seems I truly cannot use it lightly!" Wei Zhao smiled bitterly and sat down cross-legged on the ground, swiftly entering the jade pendant space to frantically restore his physical strength and true qi.

After unleashing that one stance, Wei Zhao no longer had the strength to unleash any technique at all.