Chapter 3310 — Setting Out for the Palace of the Night

Still, letting word of Wei Zhao's current strength spread through the mouths of these people was no bad thing. The only trouble was that if three experts at the peak of the late Heaven Rank came at him together, Wei Zhao would still struggle to cope. The best he could hope for was to find an opening and kill one of them in a flash, overawe the rest, and make the survivors think twice and back off—that would be the ideal outcome!

Whether it would work, he had no idea. Wei Zhao prayed silently: Essence Necklace, whatever you do, don't fail me now!

"I understand. I'll go to the Palace of the Night tomorrow!" Wei Zhao nodded. "Yaoyao, rest easy. I told you I'd protect you—for a lifetime!"

"Mm!" Gu Mengyao's cheeks flushed faintly. The old her might have thought, Who wants your protection for a lifetime? But the present Gu Mengyao already understood her own heart, and hearing Wei Zhao say such a thing left her with nothing but joy.

"Get some rest early. I'll head over first thing in the morning," Wei Zhao said.

"All right, I'll be waiting for you!" Somehow, after hearing Wei Zhao's words, Gu Mengyao felt utterly at ease, as though everything that was about to descend upon them tomorrow no longer counted for anything at all.

Light as Wei Zhao's words had been, the moment he hung up he did not dare waste another instant. He turned to Shen Yushu and the others. "Xiaoshu, take Xiaohan and Yiyi off to rest. I need tonight to prepare for tomorrow morning at the Palace of the Night!"

"All right, Arrowhead Bro." Shen Yushu kept a clear head when it came to matters of real consequence. Knowing Wei Zhao had urgent business at hand, she stopped pestering him about the trip abroad—after all, Xu Shilan and Cheng Yiyi could tell the story just as well.

Wei Zhao did not go straight to his room. Instead he made his way to the villa's back courtyard—he had come here to try to unleash the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm. Before this, Wei Zhao had only theorized that he might be able to unleash that eleventh stance; he had never actually attempted it!

Theory was theory, after all, and practice was practice. By rights, back when he was at the peak of the late Earth Rank and then the early Heaven Rank, Wei Zhao ought to have been able to unleash the tenth stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm—yet he had failed to do so, and only succeeded once he reached the peak of the early Heaven Rank.

So Wei Zhao had no choice but to try and practice. If the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm could be unleashed smoothly, then tomorrow at the Palace of the Night he would have far more confidence, and there would be nothing left for him to fear. If not—then he could only leave it to fate!

Arriving at the familiar back courtyard, Wei Zhao found Mighty General, Sky-Thunder Pig, and Little Wind all come running out, crowding affectionately around him. These three spirit beasts were the closest to Wei Zhao of all, and they were naturally delighted to have him back.

"Go play off to the side—I've no time for you tonight." Wei Zhao waved a hand, gesturing for them to amuse themselves. His task tonight was the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm!

The three spirit beasts understood him well enough. Though a little disappointed, they went off to one side and troubled him no further.

Wei Zhao steadied his mind and first reviewed the tenth stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm—the stance he had been forced to unleash overseas when he faced He Tianzu. By now, though, he could unleash it at will, and once it was out, he distinctly felt that much physical true qi still remained within him—enough, at the very least, to unleash it one more time!

This was likely not merely a benefit of his rising strength; the most important factor was the Essence Necklace he wore. The Essence Necklace enhanced not only attack and defense but, correspondingly, stamina as well, so the physical true qi Wei Zhao possessed was somewhat greater than before—entirely reasonable. Yet the discovery thrilled him. The tenth stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm could leave an expert at the peak of the late Heaven Rank gravely wounded; if tomorrow he could unleash it twice in succession and injure two such experts, that alone would overawe everyone present.

Still, if at all possible, the most important thing was to unleash the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm. After Wei Zhao unleashed the tenth stance once more, the stamina left to him was not enough for another tenth stance—but it was sufficient for a single ninth stance, or for making his escape.

Wei Zhao sat cross-legged on the ground and set the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art circulating; his physical true qi recovered at a flying pace. He noticed that his recovery speed was now a notch faster than before—plainly another effect of the Essence Necklace. That Essence Necklace truly was a fine thing!

Soon, once his physical true qi had recovered, Wei Zhao began attempting to unleash the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm. The eleventh stance, however, was plainly not as easy to unleash as the tenth; his first attempt ended in failure. Yet Wei Zhao was not disheartened—the earlier stances had failed on occasion too. This time he could clearly feel that he had come up just a tiny bit short, and that with continued attempts he would succeed.

Driven by that one conviction, Wei Zhao spent the entire night ceaselessly attempting to unleash the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm. At last, as day broke, he succeeded—and by then he had already grown thoroughly proficient at it!

He had also roughly worked out the pattern by which the Essence Necklace boosted attack power: the chance was fifty percent. That is to say, if Wei Zhao unleashed the same move and the boost failed the first time, it would invariably succeed the next.

And if it succeeded this time, then the next time it would invariably fail. In other words, the chance was not random at all but a solid, dependable fifty percent. This discovery delighted Wei Zhao beyond measure. So before setting out, he unleashed the eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm once at home—and the next time, he would have the attack-boosted eleventh stance of the Mad Fire Eight Trigrams Palm!

Having uncovered this pattern, Wei Zhao mounted the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast at daybreak and set off for the Palace of the Night, brimming with confidence!

This was Wei Zhao's first visit to the Palace of the Night, but Gu Mengyao had already given him the address, so he simply rode the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast straight toward it.

Since the sky was still dark in the early hours, no one took any notice of Wei Zhao and his beast.

Gazing at the Palace of the Night's majestic mountain gate, and at the stone phoenix statue shattered across the ground before it, Wei Zhao heaved a silent sigh. Kang Jingming was truly too arrogant. Did he really think himself a stray dog with no home to return to?

(Happy Little New Year to all my readers—only one chapter today.)

(To be continued,