Chapter 4196 — How to Work Together

"Mm-hm." Huang Xiaotao nodded again and again. When Xu Lingchong had made to lunge forward and yank off the covers, it had frightened her badly. Thank goodness Wei Zhao had been quick to react; otherwise her innocent body would have been exposed.

Wei Zhao set about preparing the pill refinement at once, but just as he settled into position, his gaze caught on something at the edge of his vision. He suddenly noticed that something seemed to have appeared in the corner of the room—right where Xu Lingchong had crashed into the wall a moment ago. It looked like it must have been dropped there by Xu Lingchong.

Judging by its appearance—black as an ordinary lump of stubborn stone, yet concealing something wondrous within—it looked vaguely familiar at first glance. Wei Zhao stared blankly for a moment, then his eyes suddenly lit up. He hurried over, picked it up, and examined it closely, whereupon he was overcome with delight.

"It really is a Star Ink Stone! Haha, Xu Lingchong has handed us a grand gift!" Once Wei Zhao had confirmed it, he could not contain his joy.

Although this Star Ink Stone had already been used up by more than half, with little of its star power and sea power left, according to Wei Zhao's previous experience it was still more than enough for one person to achieve a perfect breakthrough.

Now Huang Xiaotao could also achieve a perfect breakthrough and condense a Ten Thousand Beauties Golden Core. Wei Zhao had just been worrying over this very problem—after all, Huang Xiaotao counted as one of his own, and an ordinary breakthrough would have been a bit of a shame. Who would have thought that fool Xu Lingchong would deliver himself right to their door!

Ai, he really did not know what to say. What a great, good man—thinking of others' needs and rushing to their aid!

From Xu Lingchong to Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou, this lot had always done good deeds without leaving a trace. Every time they delivered something, it came at just the right moment, and each time the stakes grew larger. If not for his normal sexual orientation, Wei Zhao would have had to suspect these people were truly in love with him!

"Star Ink Stone? What's that?" Huang Xiaotao blinked from inside the covers.

"It's a treasure you couldn't buy with any amount of spirit jade. You'll find out soon enough!" Wei Zhao smiled, then began focusing on the pill refinement.

With his previous experience, this second refinement of a Golden Core Pill proceeded without incident, smooth sailing all the way. One Ten Thousand Crossing Golden Core Fruit, combined with the auxiliary materials Wei Zhao had left over from before, ultimately produced a top-grade Golden Core Pill. There were no extra surprises, but it was already enough.

Wei Zhao immediately had Huang Xiaotao take this freshly produced top-grade Golden Core Pill, while at the same time extracting and condensing the star power and sea power from the Star Ink Stone on the side, to safeguard her perfect breakthrough.

A perfect Golden Core breakthrough was, in the eyes of others, a shocking and world-defying feat, and helping another achieve a perfect breakthrough was even rarer. But for Wei Zhao, who had both his own firsthand breakthrough experience and had previously assisted Tianchan and Xueli, this was familiar territory.

Time flew by. Inside the cave dwelling, Huang Xiaotao wore an expression of utter disbelief, feeling the earth-shaking transformation within her body. Even though Wei Zhao had explained it all clearly to her, at this very moment she still felt it unreal, as though she were dreaming.

"I... I'm really an early-stage Golden Core expert now?" Huang Xiaotao spun around gracefully, both excited and frightened.

Before this, the Golden Core stage had only ever appeared in her dreams. Never mind Golden Core—even reaching Foundation Establishment great perfection within ten years would have been quite good. To truly condense a Golden Core by her own strength, leaving aside whether she even had that much potential, would have been a matter of at least several decades.

Although she held a Ten Thousand Crossing Golden Core Fruit in her hand, to find someone to refine it into a Golden Core Pill was incredibly difficult—such a holy fruit of that caliber! And even if she found a pill refiner of sufficient rank, success was not guaranteed.

After all, for the vast majority of pill refiners, the higher the grade of the pill, the lower the success rate. This was common knowledge no one could evade. If Huang Xiaotao really had gone out holding this Ten Thousand Crossing Golden Core Fruit to seek help, not only would she have spent a huge sum of spirit jade, the final result would most likely have been losing the chicken and the eggs alike—her entire investment down the drain.

But with Wei Zhao, not only could he refine pills, he had actually succeeded on the first try. Even with Huang Xiaotao's limited experience of the world, she at least knew that the Golden Core Pill was a fifth-grade pill—and moreover a top-tier one among fifth-grade pills. An ordinary pill refiner could not possibly produce it!

For a moment, Huang Xiaotao's eyes sparkled with strange brilliance as she looked at Wei Zhao. From their first meeting at Huicai Tianwu Mountain onward, she suddenly realized that her whole life had become wonderful.

Every time she saw Wei Zhao, there was an unexpected surprise. A Golden Core expert—what a distant rank that was! Yet now it had been achieved with such ease, and all of it was Wei Zhao's doing.

Possessing both strength and character, able to refine pills, and able to help others achieve perfect breakthroughs—all these things piled together made Wei Zhao seem simply like a mysterious, extraordinary man.

Such a man was enough to move any girl's heart, especially since he was so good to her, Huang Xiaotao. First there was the debt of saving her life, and afterward he had helped restore her appearance and raise her strength. If Huang Xiaotao still did not feel her heart stir, that would truly be strange.

Moved by her feelings, Huang Xiaotao suddenly rose on tiptoe and gave Wei Zhao a light, dragonfly-skimming-water kiss on the cheek. Then with a soft murmur she darted into Wei Zhao's embrace, her face blushing red to the roots of her ears.

"Then... how about you take me today..." Huang Xiaotao, blushing, mustered her courage and whispered softly by Wei Zhao's ear.

One had to remember that Huang Xiaotao was completely naked at this moment. Such a peerless beauty rubbing and nuzzling in his arms like that—and saying such heart-racing words besides—anyone might have lost their self-control.

Even with Wei Zhao's astonishing composure, at this moment his heart could not help but stray, and he could barely resist the urge to take Huang Xiaotao right then and there. But on second thought, time was short now—the inner-sect tournament was drawing close!

"The business between men and women is certainly alluring, but it's also easy to lose yourself in it. The inner-sect tournament is almost here. Right now I'd better help you consolidate your strength as quickly as possible, and then we can study together how we should coordinate." Leaning on his last shred of willpower, Wei Zhao said this while struggling to swallow.

"Ah?... Mm-hm!" Huang Xiaotao was stunned for a moment, then nodded again and again with a bashful expression, secretly blushing with shame. She really had been too impatient. At this critical juncture, if they exhausted themselves over such a thing and it affected the inner-sect tournament right before them, it would be too late for regret.

"Then put your clothes on first. While you're at it, tell me in detail about the martial techniques and abilities you're best at." Wei Zhao was somewhat reluctant to part, but he still forced himself to withdraw his gaze from Huang Xiaotao's body.