Chapter 4026 — The Fusion of Two Bombs

Wei Zhao swept a glance over the room, taking stock. Only nine of the materials remained; the tenth had already been set aside, placed beside the alchemy furnace together with the other pill-refining ingredients. Zheng Tianjie had likely readied it for refining the Beauty Pill.

Fortunately, the remaining nine weapon-casting materials already covered six of the ones Wei Zhao needed. Without the slightest hesitation, he gathered them up and stowed them into the jade pendant's space. They had been tucked away in an inconspicuous corner, after all; even if Zheng Tianjie returned, he would not notice their absence for some time.

As for the other pill-refining materials present, Wei Zhao had no designs on them whatsoever. For one thing, taking too much would easily rouse Zheng Tianjie's suspicions; and if the materials were not his to begin with, Zheng Tianjie's death would only invite further suspicion from others. Wei Zhao had no wish to complicate matters.

Time was short. Zheng Tianjie might return at any moment, so Wei Zhao at once set about preparing the new ultimate technique he had been developing.

A mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator hoping to challenge a Golden Core expert across the gulf of realms was a sheer impossibility by any conventional means. No matter how formidable Wei Zhao's hidden cards, no matter how exquisite his techniques and martial arts, it would all come to nothing. He would be annihilated in a single exchange, without question.

The only way was the same method he had used against Nan Tianyong, the peak late-stage Foundation Establishment expert: store up power in advance, prepare a top-grade true qi bomb, and hurl it straight into his opponent's face while he was off guard.

Yet it was that very same move which had clearly begun to fail against Xu Lingchong, who stood at the great perfection of Foundation Establishment. Part of that was due to insufficient time to accumulate power, but at the very least it proved one thing: with Wei Zhao's present strength, trying to repeat the trick against a Golden Core expert far above Xu Lingchong was plainly unrealistic.

And so Wei Zhao had lately turned his efforts to developing a new ultimate technique. The ultimate techniques of the secular world, after all, had been stretched to their limit on Cloud Terrace Island; he could not rely on them forever.

The first idea that came to him was fusion: to merge another's ultimate technique with his own. That was how the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm had come into being in the first place.

What Wei Zhao envisioned was this: if he could fuse another person's ultimate technique with his own true qi bomb, would the destructive power not increase by an enormous margin?

He thought it over from every angle, and among the more powerful candidates, somehow his mind settled on Kang Jingming's pill-fire bomb.

There was also a line in Zhang Lifeng's notes that read: "True qi and pill fire, two utterly disparate forms of energy—when forcibly fused by an external force, the power they unleash is like nothing I have witnessed in all my life. It leaves one gasping in awe."

That single sentence opened Wei Zhao's eyes after long and agonized pondering. He was not only skilled with the true qi bomb; the pill fire bomb of an alchemist was likewise no challenge for him.

Thus this new martial technique came into being—though it existed only in theory. He had not yet put it to the test.

While Zheng Tianjie was still away, Wei Zhao found a secluded spot behind a shelf, sat down cross-legged, and divided his attention in two: one hand condensing a true qi bomb, the other condensing a pill fire bomb, straining every fiber of his being to refine both to their absolute limits at the same time.

After the time it took an incense stick to burn, even with the jade pendant's space rapidly replenishing the true qi within his body, Wei Zhao was drenched in sweat and utterly spent. Once refined to their extremes, either the true qi bomb or the pill fire bomb was lethal on its own; to now drive both at once with a divided mind—the intensity of it could well be imagined.

Just then, Wei Zhao's ear twitched slightly. Footsteps sounded outside the door, drawing near from afar. Zheng Tianjie had returned.

"Damn his grandmother! All that trouble, and the bastard turns out to be nothing but some grassroots newcomer from North Island—and he dares come here and challenge me? What the hell is wrong with this world! Hmph, fine. Trash like that can be killed however I please. Tomorrow I'll make sure he has no grave to call his own!" Zheng Tianjie came swearing into the pill-refining room.

Wei Zhao's heart leapt into his throat. Against a Golden Core expert like this, with such an overwhelming gap in strength between them, he would have exactly one chance to strike. If he missed, death was certain.

Moreover, he had learned a hard lesson the last time he faced Xu Lingchong: the stronger the opponent, the smaller the opening they leave you. He had to catch the man at his most relaxed and launch a sudden, fatal blow. Otherwise, no matter how fierce or savage this newly devised technique might be, if it were dodged, it would all be for nothing.

So Wei Zhao had to watch carefully for the best possible opportunity.

Stepping through the door, Zheng Tianjie casually swept his gaze around the room and found nothing out of the ordinary. It was not that he feared an assassin—it was simply the cautious habit an alchemist cultivated from childhood.

Once satisfied that all was well, Zheng Tianjie shut the door behind him and walked over to the alchemy furnace, preparing to begin refining the fourth-grade Beauty Pill.

Even now, Wei Zhao held his breath and remained utterly still. He knew this was not yet the man's most relaxed moment, not yet the best opportunity. He still had to wait patiently.

At last, after resting and settling himself, Zheng Tianjie rose, picked up the prepared materials, and placed them into the cauldron. Just as he began to condense his pill fire—sudden change struck!

Without the slightest warning, a pair of palms burst forth from behind him, each hand loosely cradling an energy of terrifying power. With a thunderous roar, the two hands slammed together against Zheng Tianjie's chest. The true qi bomb and the pill fire bomb, both teetering on the brink of detonation, were in that instant forcibly crushed into one another by an external force—less than a fist's breadth from Zheng Tianjie's face!

Never in his life had Zheng Tianjie imagined that someone would dare hide inside the pill-refining room and ambush him from behind! By the time he reacted, the true qi bomb and the pill fire bomb had already collided head-on before his face and exploded with a deafening blast!

BOOM! Not only the Gathering Hall—the entire Far North Island shuddered as if the earth and mountains were quaking. Birds and beasts of every kind scattered in panicked flight, a horrifying spectacle of apocalypse come at last.

In that moment, everyone on Far North Island, high and low, was struck pale with shock. Panic seized every heart; people stared at one another, utterly at a loss.

A bedraggled figure burst suddenly from the shattered ruins of the pill-refining room and, while everyone else had yet to arrive, fled with every ounce of strength he could muster. It was Wei Zhao.

The forced fusion of a true qi bomb and a pill fire bomb—a top-tier killing technique of world-shattering, heaven-annihilating power—had unleashed such force in that single instant that even Wei Zhao himself, fleeing with all his might the moment he released it, had been half blown to death. That he could now scramble out in such a sorry state at all was thanks to gritting his teeth and enduring, and of course to his mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation. R1152