Chapter 3473 — The Trouble of Registration

"Fine—when the time comes, we just won't bring him along. Bore him to death!" At that thought, Kang Jingming's heart found its balance once more.

"Exactly—bore him to death, bore the monkey to death!" Elder Xuan Chen comforted himself with considerable satisfaction. "If we don't let him come, there's nothing he can do about it. He can't very well pick a fight with every expert of the ancient sects, can he? Today I'll announce the trial rules to the public and cut off Wei Zhao's hopes for good!"

"Wonderful, then I'll head back right now!" Kang Jingming said.

After sending letters to all the ancient sects and great clans, Elder Xuan Chen today made public the announcement concerning independent cultivators' participation in the Heaven Rank trials!

Any independent cultivator, or any sect disciple without the proper qualifications, could take part in the Heaven Rank trials by presenting a fragment of the Cloud Terrace Island map as their token. Of course, these map fragments were scattered to every corner of the Huaxia cultivation world, and actually obtaining one was exceedingly difficult.

Although many fragments of the map had drifted out into the world, those who could actually get their hands on one numbered but a scant few.

Following this, Elder Xuan Chen also announced the registration hotline—his own phone number—inviting those who held fragments to sign up.

The moment the news broke, Wei Zhao naturally learned of it at once; it was Elder Bai who notified him. And Wei Zhao had been meaning to ask about the "Qi Gathering Pill" he had taken earlier.

So after hearing the news, Wei Zhao said, "Master, there's something very strange I need to tell you. It's like this..."

With that, Wei Zhao recounted to Elder Bai the strange circumstances following his consumption of the Qi Gathering Pill. When Elder Bai had heard him out, he gave a startled cry: "What?! You took it? From what you describe, that wasn't a Qi Gathering Pill—it was a pill called the Limit Qi Gathering Pill!"

"Limit Qi Gathering Pill? What's that?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback.

"It's like this: the so-called Limit Qi Gathering Pill possesses the upgrade effects of a Qi Gathering Pill while also drawing out the cultivator's latent potential. As the cultivator absorbs the pill's refined essence, he must simultaneously absorb a vast amount of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy—and the resulting effect is far greater than that of an ordinary Qi Gathering Pill. It allows consecutive breakthroughs and level-ups!" Elder Bai explained. "But if the absorption is insufficient, backlash follows—at best, every meridian in the body is severed; at worst, the body bursts and the cultivator dies!"

"Right, that's exactly how it felt!" Wei Zhao nodded in wholehearted agreement after hearing this.

"That's the Limit Qi Gathering Pill for you. It looks like a fine thing, but it's poison in disguise! Is there anywhere left these days where one can absorb that much heaven-and-earth spiritual energy? So this pill was Xuan Chen and his lot's way of doing you in!" Elder Bai was somewhat indignant as he said this, but then a serious thought struck him: "Wei Zhao, after you took it—nothing happened to you?"

"Heh heh. Don't forget—I've got the energy stones I got from the Pao Li clan!" Wei Zhao said nothing of the jade pendant's space, deflecting the question onto the energy stones instead.

"So that's it!" Elder Bai understood all at once. "No wonder! Still, that was a bit too dangerous. From now on, if you ever come across pills like this, don't go swallowing them on a whim—bring them to me for appraisal first, and we'll talk after that!"

"All right, I've got it!" Wei Zhao nodded. "Then shall I call Elder Xuan Chen right now and say I want to register for the Heaven Rank trials?"

"Go ahead." Elder Bai nodded. Elder Xuan Chen had always shut Wei Zhao out, unwilling to let him take part in the trials—but now, he likely felt as though he had lifted a rock only to drop it on his own foot.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao called Elder Xuan Chen directly.

"Elder Xuan Chen? This is Wei Zhao!" Wei Zhao said once the call connected.

In fact, Elder Xuan Chen had long since saved Wei Zhao's number; he simply had never dialed it. It had always been Kang Jingming who contacted Wei Zhao.

"Wei Zhao? What is it?" Elder Xuan Chen found it rather odd that Wei Zhao would suddenly call him.

"Elder Xuan Chen, I want to register for the Heaven Rank trials," Wei Zhao said.

"Well now... Wei Zhao, you know as well as I do that your current status is that of Senior Brother Xuan Tian's disciple. If you want to register, you must be recommended by him—but the person he's recommending now is Guan Xin, the Wood-element inheritor. So I'm afraid you have no chance!" Elder Xuan Chen said.

"Oh, I'm not talking about that. I mean the other way of registering!" Wei Zhao said.

"The other way of registering?" Elder Xuan Chen was briefly stunned. "What other way? You have a Cloud Terrace Island map fragment?"

These Cloud Terrace Island map fragments had been distributed years ago. Wei Zhao had only climbed from a Yellow Rank cultivator to the Heaven Rank within the past year—a genius to be sure, but he should have had little to do with the map fragments.

"Naturally," Wei Zhao said. "I have three map fragments. I'll register myself first; as for who gets the other two slots, I haven't decided yet. I'll call you once I've made up my mind!"

"What?" Elder Xuan Chen was struck dumb! In his view, it was impossible for Wei Zhao to possess such a thing—yet not only did Wei Zhao have them, he had three of them. That was quite a lot indeed! But Elder Xuan Chen was a shrewd old hand; he adjusted his mood and said, "Well now, Wei Zhao, you're not an independent cultivator—you belong to a sect. If your sect's person in charge doesn't agree, then you can't participate either!"

"You mean I'm of the Five Luminaries Sect, and you're our sect's person in charge?" Wei Zhao shot back with a frown.

"Uh, of course not. By person in charge I mean Senior Brother Xuan Tian, your master!" Though Elder Xuan Chen wanted to harm Wei Zhao, he could not bring himself to say such a thing—it made no sense. If Elder Bai found out, he would surely kick up a fuss; and if Elder Bai pointed out that the Five Luminaries Sect, as the originator of the Cloud Terrace Island plan, had never restricted the number of disciples participating, how was Xuan Chen supposed to answer?

Better to simply cut Wei Zhao out of the picture altogether!

"Oh, then he'll certainly agree!" Wei Zhao nodded after hearing this.

"That's not necessarily so. Best to confirm it first!" Elder Xuan Chen said. "We do everything by the rules here—you must have Elder Bai issue you a letter of recommendation!"

"I understand," Wei Zhao said. "Then just wait."

With that, Wei Zhao hung up, somewhat puzzled. Elder Xuan Chen knew perfectly well that Elder Bai would certainly agree and issue the letter—so what did he mean by saying all that? Was it simply that he was unhappy about Wei Zhao having the fragments and wanted to assert his presence?

Thinking it over, that was the only possibility. Wei Zhao truly could think of no other explanation.

As for Elder Xuan Chen, after hanging up, his expression turned exceedingly grim! He had never imagined that after all his calculations, he would overlook the one thing: that Wei Zhao might possess map fragments!