Chapter 3484 — The Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill Is Complete!

"Mm, then Aunt Qing will be waiting for you!" Aunt Qing nodded.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao told Wang Xinyan and Han Jingyi what he had in mind—after refining the pills, he planned to head for the Ice Palace.

Wang Xinyan and Han Jingyi naturally supported him wholeheartedly. Wei Zhao meant what he said, and he was ready to start refining right now. He had four sets of ingredients for the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill, all of them given to him by You Panhu back then, who had handed him twelve sets of Tier-Three pill ingredients in total: four for the Great Return Pill, four for the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill, and four for the Qi-Gathering Pill.

The Qi-Gathering Pill ingredients had already been mixed together and used up by Wei Zhao earlier. All that remained were the Great Return Pill and the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill, and Wei Zhao intended to refine them all in one go. The Great Return Pill was highly useful as well—not so much to Wei Zhao himself, but to Han Jingyi and Wang Xinyan it was a lifesaver.

With the experience of refining the Qi-Gathering Pill behind him, Wei Zhao handled it like an old hand this time.

Following the prompts on the screen, Wei Zhao placed four sets of Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill ingredients into the cauldron and pressed the confirm button.

"Beep, beep..." The tablet gave two crisp, drawn-out tones, then displayed: "Pill-refining script generated. Auto-analysis based on the weight inside the medicinal cauldron: four sets of ingredients loaded this session. Estimated refining time: two hours and fifty-two minutes. Please store up physical strength and true qi in advance. Estimated pill yield: five."

A refining time of under three hours was not long. But the projected yield shown on the cauldron left Wei Zhao slightly disappointed. Only five? Previously, five sets of Qi-Gathering Pill ingredients had produced seven Qi-Gathering Pills!

Of course, every kind of pill was different, and so the results differed as well. This was still better than others could manage, so Wei Zhao's disappointment lasted only an instant before he began refining.

Wei Zhao cleared his mind of stray thoughts, sat cross-legged, and circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. Following the prompts, he swiftly channeled the physical strength and true qi within his body into the Shennong Medicinal Cauldron. The cauldron gave a crisp, faint hum in response, and the tablet beside it displayed the words "Refining beginning, preheating..." alongside a countdown timer.

As expected, with one final crisp hum, the refining was declared complete. The cauldron lid opened, and a rich medicinal fragrance charged by a biting cold rushed at his face. Hot as it was, it made him shiver uncontrollably.

This had to be the peculiar effect of the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill—a truly cold-to-the-bone pill. Unless one had a specific constitution, ordinary people truly had no fortune to enjoy it.

Once the cold had dispersed, Wei Zhao looked into the cauldron and saw five Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pills, their quality identical to the earlier Qi-Gathering Pills—all of the finest grade. Five was already plenty, of course. After all, Bingtang had only asked for one.

Once the refinement succeeded, Wei Zhao did not pause; he went right on to prepare the Great Return Pill.

Again he loaded four sets of Great Return Pill ingredients, but what Wei Zhao had not expected was that the screen now read an estimated yield of six. The same four sets—five for the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill, but six for the Great Return Pill! Truly rather remarkable.

Then again, when these pill formulas were first devised, they might not have been all that accurate; they were all derived from one experiment after another by pill refiners. Some formulas yielded a little more per set, some a little less. If you refined only a single pill, there was no difference—but refine several at once, and the difference became obvious.

The process was no different from before. After nearly three hours of refinement, the Great Return Pill emerged from the cauldron. This was Wei Zhao's third formal pill-refining session, and he had not expected it to be so effortless and smooth—though he owed much of that to Han Jingyi's automated Shennong Medicinal Cauldron.

"What kind of high-class thing is this? How is it so advanced?" Only after Wei Zhao finished refining did Wang Xinyan give in to her curiosity and ask.

"This is the automated Shennong Medicinal Cauldron that Han Jingyi invented. It makes intelligent pill refinement very easy," Wei Zhao explained. "Actually, all these days, Jingjing and I have been studying pill refinement whenever we weren't upgrading our cultivation."

"So that's how it was..." Wang Xinyan blushed, a little embarrassed by her earlier impure thoughts. Wei Zhao had come to do serious business—how could it be anything like what she had imagined, sneaking off to carry on with Han Jingyi? Thinking that way had been truly unkind of her!

She must not make wild guesses in the future!

"All right, now that the pills are done, I need to set off for the Ice Palace." Wei Zhao did not want to waste any time. Since the Five Luminaries Sect had already issued a notice for everyone to sign up, that meant the Heaven-Tier trial was close at hand—any day now, they might summon everyone to assemble.

"Mm, be careful, Brother Wei Zhao!" Han Jingyi said.

"Wei Zhao, you could stay a few more days. It's been so long since you've seen Feng Xiaoxiao..." Wang Xinyan said. Although she was not close to Feng Xiaoxiao—could barely even say she knew her, having only heard about her from Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu—she knew of the bond between Wei Zhao and Feng Xiaoxiao.

"Mm, it's fine. Once the Heaven-Tier trial begins, we'll all see each other again," Wei Zhao said, unconcerned. If he stayed a few more days and the Heaven-Tier trial began just like that, Wang Xinyan would not yet have qualified—and that would be no fun at all.

This time, Wei Zhao chose to ride the Wind-Thunder Violet Lightning Beast to the Ice Palace. In a single night, he arrived at the Ice-Snow Spirit Town.

Since Wei Zhao had visited this place not long ago, the scenery did not stir quite the same emotion in him as before.

Only—back then, Wei Zhao had still been a mid Heaven-Tier expert; now he had successfully broken through to the realm of Heaven-Tier Great Perfection. The difference between before and after was enough to make anyone sigh with feeling.

He had You Panhu to thank, and Kang Jingming... and Patriarch Xuanchen...

At the Ice Spirit Inn, Wei Zhao walked into the main hall and greeted Steward Li, who was sorting letters, with a smile: "Steward Li, we meet again!"

"Ah... Young Hero Wei Zhao, you've come!" Steward Li was briefly taken aback—he had not expected Wei Zhao to visit the Ice Palace again in such a short time.

"Mm, it seems Steward Li isn't surprised this time," Wei Zhao said with a laugh.

"Haha, that's because our Ice Palace has scarcely any guests the year round. Young Hero Lin's first visit caught me off guard, but a second visit—well, one gets used to it! Might I ask what business brings you to our Ice Palace this time?" Steward Li asked with a smile.