Chapter 3487 — The Palace Mistress's Boyfriend

"I remember telling you long ago that although eating Qi-Gathering Pills can keep you leveling up—you could eat them all the way to the peak of the late Celestial tier, to full perfection—the perfection you reach by taking pills is not true perfection," Bingtang said. "There is a fundamental difference between the two. You may never break through to the Heavenly Dao in your entire life..."

"That is just something you heard, isn't it? Who ever said taking Qi-Gathering Pills means you can't break through to the Heavenly Dao? Besides, I took Qi-Gathering Pills back when I was at the Earth tier, and I leveled up all the way—but some of my advances came naturally, without any pills at all, and did I not still level up?" Wei Zhao countered. "And anyway, who has ever broken through to the Heavenly Dao? Who even knows how to break through? Since no one knows, what meaning do rumors have? Maybe even after we reach the Cloud-Tier Isle, we won't break through right away—the Cloud-Tier Isle is merely a plane higher than the Ancient plane, that's all. There may be Heavenly Dao experts there, but even if we go, it doesn't mean we'll advance smoothly!"

"That..." Bingtang was left speechless by Wei Zhao's words. Thinking it over, there was no lack of sense in what he said—yes, the Heavenly Dao, no one had ever broken through to it. That taking pills prevents breakthrough was merely the conclusion of normal logic, yet Wei Zhao had broken that logic!

Bingtang did not believe Wei Zhao was lying. After all, he had not been a third-rank alchemist before, so where would he have gotten so many Qi-Gathering Pills? He must have advanced naturally, and that shattered the curse that one could not level up after taking Qi-Gathering Pills.

So... in that moment, she wavered! True, she had already touched the barrier of full perfection, but merely touching it was one thing—breaking through without some stroke of fortune was impossible. Some people remained stuck there for their entire lives.

With Wei Zhao's case as a reference, Bingtang fell silent for much of the journey. After a while she said, "I'll take the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill first. If I succeed in obtaining the inheritance, then my advancement will no longer have any barriers, and I'll be able to break through on my own..."

"That works too." Wei Zhao did not press her. After all, not everyone thought the way he did, and getting Bingtang to change deeply ingrained beliefs was hard. Moreover, Wei Zhao had the jade-pendant space while Bingtang did not; if something really did go wrong and Bingtang could no longer level up, Wei Zhao's guilt would be immense!

"Then... I'll go take it?" Bingtang turned to look at Wei Zhao.

"Mm, here." Wei Zhao drew a box from his bosom and handed it to Bingtang, then said, "It's all here. No need to ration them—if one pill doesn't let you perceive the inheritance, take another, until you do."

"Huh?" Bingtang was slightly taken aback. "One doesn't work so you take another? You think you're drowning in pills? Even if you're a third-rank alchemist, you can't possibly succeed a hundred percent of the time, can you? As far as I know, refining the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill is even harder than the Qi-Gathering Pill!"

"About that, yes." Wei Zhao thought to himself: not a hundred percent—a hundred and twenty-five percent! With the cauldron Han Jingyi had modified, Wei Zhao could refine the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill at a hundred and twenty-five percent efficiency—one set of ingredients yielding one and a quarter pills!

"Huh?" Bingtang was surprised, though she did not doubt him. "You refined two pills? Then I... I should leave one for the successors of the Ice Palace. I shouldn't be so selfish! I am the Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace, so I must do something for it. A future Palace Mistress may need it too!"

"Take a look first, then say that." Wei Zhao pointed at the medicine box.

"Oh?" Bingtang opened the small box in her hand and froze on the spot! Inside the box were five Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pills—and not only that, every one of them was of superior quality!

Upon each pill, moreover, there was a ring of pill halo! As the Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace, Bingtang was widely experienced and naturally understood what this meant. Even for the same kind of pill, those with a pill halo and those without differed in effect by a world of distance.

A pill halo meant the very finest of its kind, its effects far beyond the ordinary run. Such things were rare finds that could not be sought, only stumbled upon; even the most formidable alchemist could not guarantee a halo on every single pill!

Yet Wei Zhao had done it—all five pills, every last one, were of the highest grade!

Bingtang stared at the pills in her hand, dumbstruck. It was a long while before she raised her head and looked at Wei Zhao in astonishment. "Your alchemy is this good? You actually refined five? Do you have that much Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill material?"

"Mm, the Hidden Right Family gave me four sets, and I gathered one myself." Wei Zhao had not told the truth. After all, Bingtang had only been talking about being his itty-bitty-teeny-tiny wife—she had not really meant it—and Wei Zhao still could not open his heart to her.

"Five sets... and you really can achieve a hundred percent success? Your alchemy has already surpassed third rank?" Bingtang's eyes went wide, and a blush flashed across her pretty face. "Don't tell me... you've really reached the first rank of the Mystic tier?"

"I've never tested it, so who knows!" Wei Zhao shrugged. Still, with Han Jingyi's cauldron, refining even higher-grade pills ought to pose no problem.

"Fine. You've met my requirements. About what we discussed before—I agree... and I mean it." Bingtang sighed and spoke lightly, as if it were nothing at all.

"Let's take it one step at a time. I never meant to force you—I only saw how proud you were and was teasing you," Wei Zhao said with a smile. "All right, go take it now. Oh, right—does the Ice Palace still have any Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill material? Since you think we should leave some for the successors, I'll refine it all for you."

"We do, in the Ice Palace treasury. I'll take you there—you can prepare it yourself. There should be enough for three or four sets," Bingtang said.

"Perfect. I've still got some incomplete ones I gathered myself—let's see if I can scrape together a few more sets..." Wei Zhao feared that after refining he would end up with extra pills, so he claimed to have some incomplete ingredients of his own, and thus Bingtang would not grow suspicious. But lest she ask what his remaining ingredients were lacking, Wei Zhao gave her no chance to speak and cut in: "The treasury—you'd let me in? Isn't it only the Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace who may enter?"

"Aren't you the boyfriend of two Palace Mistresses?" Bingtang said calmly. Having accepted the fact, she was no longer coy about it! (Update 1 — recommending Yunhai Shuku's new work, *The Top Cultivation Young Master*) RL