Chapter 3935 — Taking the Foundation Establishment Golden Pill Again

Wei Zhao had waited far too long for this day. Counting from the moment he obtained those two Thundering-Heart Exquisite Grass seeds, a full three months and more had now passed.

Entering the jade-pendant space, he adjusted his condition, counted out the two Thundering-Heart Exquisite Grass plants along with the other pill-refining materials he had prepared in advance, and once again lit the furnace. By now he had this process down to a fine art.

Several hours later, Wei Zhao held the freshly produced Foundation Establishment Golden Pills in his hand. Their quality was, as ever, of the very highest grade—and there were three of them in all!

Originally, the two Thundering-Heart Exquisite Grass seeds that had come into Wei Zhao's possession were the products of mass cultivation and had been inherently deficient. Even with the finest auxiliary materials, refining two Foundation Establishment Golden Pills would already have been the absolute limit; producing a third should have been utterly impossible.

The reason he had now produced a full three came down, in the end, to the heaven-defying efficacy of the jade-pendant space. Its incomparably favorable environment had thoroughly made good the vital essence damaged by that inherent deficiency—and thus this unexpected delight.

Gazing at the three top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Pills in his hand, Wei Zhao clenched his fist in secret. More than three months of toil had indeed not been in vain!

There was no time to lose. Without the slightest hesitation, Wei Zhao adjusted his condition and began taking the Foundation Establishment Golden Pills.

According to his last experience, a single top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Pill was enough to reach the barrier; then, by directly taking the top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill he had refined earlier, success in breaking through was all but assured.

Three top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Pills were more than sufficient—in fact, two would be left over for later use. But to Wei Zhao's surprise, this time he took two top-grade pills in succession and still could not even touch the barrier.

Wei Zhao could not help beginning to suspect that the Foundation Establishment Golden Pill had simply stopped working for him—until he took the third, and finally, as he had hoped, touched that hard barrier, nearly materialized, that stood between the peak of early Foundation Establishment and the middle stage!

As for this result, Wei Zhao was left speechless, and could only accept it in silence. No wonder, when he had chatted idly with his long-suffering senior brother and with Lu Bianren and the others, they had all said that the peak of early Foundation Establishment was a threshold every cultivator must face.

Many dazzlingly talented cultivators had once risen splendidly, halos of genius blazing above their heads, and had even seemed to surge toward Foundation Establishment without the least effort. Yet a great many of them were stuck fast at the peak of early Foundation Establishment, making no progress for decades, their genius ground down into mediocrity until they were lost among the common crowd.

No wonder Meng Jueming, that eldest senior brother, had gone so long without breaking through this barrier before he ever met Xu Lingchong!

This was no isolated case or two—it was a stage every cultivator was bound to pass through. To be stuck at the peak of early Foundation Establishment for decades or even a century was the most ordinary thing in the cultivation world. In truth, without vast cultivation resources or some extraordinary stroke of fortune, many people remained peak early-Foundation-Establishment hands right up to the end of their days.

There were sayings in the marketplace that within the Foundation Establishment realm, every peak was a threshold one could not pass; each one crossed was like a carp leaping the Dragon Gate, and after the transformation, one's strength was sure to grow by leaps and bounds.

To go from the peak of early Foundation Establishment to the middle stage, the vast majority of people needed decades—nay, a hundred years—before they might cross that threshold. Small wonder, then, that Wei Zhao had to expend a full three top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Pills before he could barely touch the barrier—and that was with the fruits of the months of diligent cultivation he had already put in.

Still, precious as top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Pills were, they could make up for years of bitter cultivation by those who took no pills at all. That alone made them more than worth their price.

After all, feeding in three top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Pills one after another—even with Wei Zhao's mental fortitude, the process had left him as keyed up as a man gambling recklessly at the card table. Fortunately, the final result was a happy one all around, and no one was disappointed.

Having taken the top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill, Wei Zhao's next task was to press home the advantage in one sustained effort and charge into the middle stage of Foundation Establishment!

Even as Wei Zhao devoted himself to seclusion and breakthrough, his rivals were hardly idle—and the one making the biggest moves was none other than Meng Zhou, for Meng Jueming had finally decided to let him take the long-prepared Midnight Heart-Shattering Pill.

Because the Blackback Staff-Ape had been killed in a single blow, Meng Zhou's present state—suffering backlash to his divine sense—was unsuited to taking so overbearing a pill as the Midnight Heart-Shattering Pill. Meng Jueming knew this perfectly well, but there was no help for it: he had run out of time.

The final stage of the assessment was set for ten days hence. By the rules announced beforehand, this was the truly decisive stage that would settle everything; for every newcomer taking part, success or failure hung on this one throw.

With Meng Zhou's current early-Foundation-Establishment strength, he plainly could not contend with Wei Zhao. Even adding Murong Zhen, a peak early-Foundation-Establishment cultivator, they would have no way whatsoever to deal with Wei Zhao.

As had been said before, through Lu Bianren's covert maneuvering, several of the Qingyun Pavilion's senior figures had already begun to take note of Wei Zhao's brilliance. Meng Jueming might be riding high, but he had already felt no small pressure.

If he did not find a way to suppress Wei Zhao quickly, then not only would he have difficulty answering to Xu Lingchong's side—but any future attempt by Meng Jueming to hold Wei Zhao down would be as hard as climbing to heaven.

Was a lofty Third Pavilion Master to be unable to suppress a single newcomer? That was not even the worst of it. What he feared most was that when he took the seat of Third Pavilion Master, Wei Zhao would become the steward senior brother! No matter whether Wei Zhao or that long-suffering fellow became eldest senior brother, it would leave him, the Third Pavilion Master, with nothing—both of his subordinates ignoring him would make him even more wretched than Lu Bianren had been!

So in Meng Jueming's eyes, the final stage of this newcomer assessment was the last chance. Under the pressure, he could only stake everything on Meng Zhou.

In truth, had he not been driven to his last resort, Meng Jueming would not have planned it this way. After all, for Meng Zhou, who knew nothing of it, this was simply too cruel—and besides, after all that had happened, he had seen through Meng Zhou thoroughly: good for nothing but ruining things, not the sort to be entrusted with any great matter.

By comparison, the other two under his command, Murong Zhen and Li Zhengming, were far more reliable than Meng Zhou.