Chapter 3292 — The Essence Condensation Necklace

Xiao Jiu was stunned as well. Although she and Wei Zhao had been apart for so many years, they had kept in constant phone contact. She had always assumed she knew Wei Zhao's situation well, but now it seemed she did not understand him at all!

There were so many wondrous things about Wei Zhao that she knew nothing about. When had he come to possess such marvelous abilities?

Of course, the most thunderstruck of all was Yang Qiqi herself. As she circulated the mental cultivation formula, she felt her strength swelling as if force-fed into her—from a close-combat expert with no internal cultivation foundation whatsoever, she shot straight up to the early Yellow Rank, and was still rising without pause!

Early Yellow Rank—peak early Yellow Rank... all the way to early Earth Rank. Yang Qiqi felt as though she were dreaming. In the span of a single moment, she had gone from nothing to possessing such an immense surge in power. It utterly overturned everything Yang Qiqi understood about cultivators!

In her old understanding, which cultivation expert had not climbed step by step, one footprint at a time? Never had anyone gone from having no internal cultivation at all to becoming an early Earth Rank expert in the space of a single afternoon.

This was surely unprecedented, was it not? And everyone present except Xu Shilan sensed the change in Yang Qiqi's strength—because she was circulating the mental cultivation formula, her power lay bare for all to see.

Though Xiao Jiu had no strength of her own, she had brushed against cultivation matters as a child, so she could still identify a cultivator's aura. Cheng Yiyi was likewise shaken—how was it that in the blink of an eye, Yang Qiqi's strength had become equal to her own?

Cheng Yiyi felt an urge to cry. After all, the strength she possessed had come at such a cost! Since childhood she had endured Feng Tianhu's strict, brutal training, doing nothing but cultivating every single day, and only thus had she achieved what she had today. Yet look at Yang Qiqi—so long as she was on good terms with Wei Zhao, she had become an early Earth Rank expert in an instant.

"Am I dreaming?" What Yang Qiqi said was in fact what the others wanted to ask as well.

"Heh, you can go to the Overseas Cultivators' Association now and announce this news. As for the reason—you can come up with that yourself. I'm not terribly familiar with how things work at this level of cultivation overseas," Wei Zhao said to Yang Qiqi.

"Mm, I know. When the time comes, I'll say my family had always made me keep it hidden, but now that I've reached Earth Rank and hit a bottleneck, I wanted to come looking for some cultivation resources." Yang Qiqi found an explanation quickly enough.

After all, her clan was different from other lone cultivators; having this rule or that was only reasonable, and she trusted the Overseas Cultivators' Association would not make much of it.

"Good. Then set out as soon as you can. Once you're back, I'll continue raising your strength," Wei Zhao said to Yang Qiqi.

"Mm, I'll set out first thing tomorrow morning," Yang Qiqi said with a nod.

Wei Zhao was about to rise, but as he looked up he caught sight of Cheng Yiyi beside Yang Qiqi, her face full of envy, and could not help but smile wryly. It seemed this girl wanted him to help raise her strength too—and probably was too embarrassed to ask. So he said with a laugh, "Yiyi, let me raise your strength to peak late Earth Rank as well!"

As for Cheng Yiyi, Wei Zhao had gone from initial wariness to trust. He could feel that Cheng Yiyi liked him—otherwise she could never have betrayed Feng Tianhu, not when Feng Tianhu still held her younger brother as a trump card.

Now that Wei Zhao had revealed his true strength, Cheng Yiyi could no longer pin all her hopes on him—and yet she supported him just as she always had, which moved Wei Zhao deeply.

At the very least, Cheng Yiyi was sincere. She was not merely trying to curry favor so that he would help rescue her brother!

When Cheng Yiyi heard Wei Zhao's words, she froze on the spot. In truth, back at the orphanage, she had wanted Wei Zhao to help raise her strength, but had been too embarrassed to speak up. Their relationship had not been good then, and her attempt to seduce Wei Zhao had failed, so Cheng Yiyi had given up.

She knew, after all, that her relationship with Wei Zhao was not as good as it appeared on the surface—perhaps Wei Zhao was still guarding against her. But what she had never expected was that Wei Zhao would bring the matter up himself.

Cheng Yiyi of course did not know that it was her loyalty to Wei Zhao that had earned his goodwill; she simply assumed Wei Zhao's kindness had overflowed.

"R-really?" Cheng Yiyi was at a loss, staring at Wei Zhao, unable to believe it was true.

"Of course it's true. You count as one of us now—helping you raise your strength is only natural." Wei Zhao waved a hand, then said, "All right, let's begin."

"Ah... oh, oh!" Seeing how straightforward Wei Zhao was, Cheng Yiyi stopped being bashful and held out her hand to him...

And so, under the gaze of the crowd—now thoroughly numb to such sights—Wei Zhao raised Cheng Yiyi's strength to peak late Earth Rank as well...

That evening, paying no mind to Yang Qiqi and Cheng Yiyi's excitement, Wei Zhao took his leave of the others and entered seclusion to study the refining of the essence vitality necklace. Taking the book on the condensation method for the essence vitality necklace from the jade pendant space, Wei Zhao carefully read through it once more. He had read it once before, back when he had first condensed the forging flame, but the mental cultivation formulas for a Yellow Rank artifact refiner in the later sections were truly so difficult to practice that Wei Zhao had temporarily set it aside.

But now Wei Zhao could already condense and refine the jade pendant space with ease, and refining the essence vitality necklace required only a Yellow Rank artifact refiner. So in Wei Zhao's view, if he could refine the jade pendant space, he should be able to refine the essence vitality necklace as well.

Wei Zhao read on about the refining method: "Basic requirement for condensation—an artifact refiner!"

An artifact refiner? Wei Zhao smiled. Back when he had first obtained this condensation method, the requirement had given him a headache—but now he could give it a try! Truly, the ways of the world were hard to predict; many things, as time went on, came to be resolved of their own accord.

Continuing on, he read: "Base material required for refining—one piece of top-grade jade pendant!"

One piece of top-grade jade pendant? Wei Zhao currently had a top-grade jade pendant on his person—only, he did not know whether this particular pendant could be used. Of course, it was not that the pendant could not be refined, but rather that Wei Zhao meant: could he use this very pendant? After all, he feared that if he ruined it, the loss would far outweigh the gain.