Chapter 4329 — A Breakthrough to the Mid Golden Core Stage!

Once word of this got out and the matter blew up, it was bound to spawn complications—the very spectacle Wei Zhao least wished to see at present.

So for now, better to keep his head down and stay out of sight for a while. If those people could not find him, the trouble would simply dissolve on its own. In any case, they were hardly likely to go making trouble for Huang Xiaotao; with Wang Xinyan keeping watch at her side, should they dare pester the girl, the East Sea Divine Nun would likely crush them on the spot, and Ling Yuanqing and the others would raise not a word of objection.

Yet even hidden away in the inn, Wei Zhao could not simply idle his days away. He was desperately eager to strengthen himself, and the best way to do that, as far as he was concerned, was golden core after golden core.

Apart from supreme treasures like the Star Ink Milk and the Infant Ginseng, he still had the two Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruits he had taken from the gray-robed man.

Those fruits were of little use to a Wang Xinyan already at the early Nascent Soul stage, but for a Huang Xiaotao still at the early Golden Core stage like himself, they were top-grade stuff that could swiftly raise one's strength. Wei Zhao had meant to keep both fruits for Huang Xiaotao, only for Wang Xinyan to stop him.

"Golden Core Pills are hard to come by for ordinary folk, but to our master, a founder of a sect, they are all but within reach. She has long since prepared them for me; little sister Xiaotao need not fret over such things at all. Giving them to her is pointless—you would do better to keep them for yourself." Those were Wang Xinyan's very words. Had she not been carrying nothing in the way of proper heavenly treasures herself, she would likely have handed everything over to Wei Zhao in turn; after all, as the East Sea Divine Nun's beloved disciple, she had a mighty tree to shade her from the sun.

With the two Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruits, barring accidents, Wei Zhao was confident he could refine two Golden Core Pills. With luck, perhaps even more—though before that he would have to gather the other auxiliary spirit herbs, for the fruits were, after all, only the principal ingredient.

Since arriving on Cloud Terrace Island, through more than a year of deliberate cultivation, the spirit herbs stored within Wei Zhao's jade pendant space had grown to a respectable scale, covering not only many common herbs but even some rarely seen on the market. Now that he meant to refine Golden Core Pills, his own stores alone could meet seven or eight parts in ten of what was needed.

As for the remaining herbs, Wei Zhao was confident the spirit-herb shops and merchant guilds of Zhenduan City could supply them; it would merely take a trip out.

For safety's sake, before going out Wei Zhao deliberately donned the Thousand-Silk Mask and took on the guise of a martial brute once more—a face utterly unknown in Zhenduan City, one that could rouse no one's suspicion.

Sure enough, in such a guise Wei Zhao was far too common, too ordinary to draw notice—especially in a Zhenduan City currently crowded with experts. A plain martial brute who looked to have nothing of the prodigy about him could not catch the eye of those around him at all; they could not even be bothered to glance twice, let alone pay him any attention or suspicion.

Having successfully gathered the remaining herbs, Wei Zhao tended to his condition and at once set about refining the Golden Core Pills. With his previous experience, refining them again now came as easily as a familiar road, and with the Divine Farmer's Cauldron's automated alchemy, accidents could be avoided to the greatest extent.

This time was no exception; the entire refining process was under Wei Zhao's control from first to last. In the end, top-grade Golden Core Pills emerged from the cauldron—though to his slight regret, there were only two.

True, when he had refined Foundation Establishment Pills in the past, pleasant surprises had often come his way. Yet on reflection, both the two Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruits taken from the gray-robed man and the auxiliary materials he had afterward bought on the fly were only of middling quality.

Under such circumstances, successfully producing two top-grade pills was already quite remarkable; to hope for more was simply impossible—there was no such cheap good fortune under heaven.

Gazing at the two freshly emerged top-grade Golden Core Pills in his hand, Wei Zhao felt his blood stir. To speak plainly, spurred on by Wang Xinyan and by so many formidable experts of the Morning Star Academy, his hunger for power was now fiercer than at any time before.

What was more, Huang Xiaotao's departure meant the strongest of his techniques, the Mad Flame Eight-Trigram Combined Palm, could no longer be used—as if he had suddenly cut off one of his own arms. For all that Wei Zhao still held various formidable trump cards, he could not help feeling somewhat out of sorts, and even a little unnerved.

After all, in terms of rank he was only at the early Golden Core stage. The waters of Zhenduan and Weihu were places where dragons and snakes mingled, thick with Nascent Soul experts at every turn; his meager strength hardly counted for anything there. Should he truly run into trouble, he might not even be able to protect himself.

Now that the top-grade Golden Core Pills were ready, there was no room left for hesitation.

Holding his breath and focusing his mind, Wei Zhao swallowed one top-grade Golden Core Pill, and of a sudden felt the meridians within his body blaze as if his true qi had been set alight, searing him with unbearable agony.

Where there is pain, there is blockage—a saying that holds just as true on the path of cultivation. Once the meridians within the body are wracked with pain, it means they are undergoing a transformation, reborn anew: perhaps growing stronger, perhaps veering into madness. Between the two lies only a matter of degree.

Wei Zhao had taken a Golden Core Pill once before, but that had been to break through to the Golden Core stage, and in concert with the Star Ink Stone for a flawless breakthrough. That earth-shaking transformation was not to be spoken of in the same breath as this simple upgrade.

The worst of the pain then had come from the Star Ink Stone; now it was the pure searing of his meridians. Yet in true experience, what he felt now was not much easier to bear than it had been then.

Still, Wei Zhao could only grit his teeth and endure in silence, not daring to let his resolve slacken in the least; for at this moment his true qi was surging wildly through his meridians, and the slightest loss of control could easily bring grave consequences, beyond all remedy—it was not even impossible that it might tip over into a deviation of madness.

So he burned for a full two hours, until even Wei Zhao's endurance began to falter, and at last the searing agony in his meridians slowly abated. When everything had returned to normal, Wei Zhao suddenly found that his meridians were far sturdier than before, and that his true qi was fuller and more abundant than ever!

"This realm is..." Feeling the newfound power surging within him, Wei Zhao froze, then cried out in disbelief, "the mid Golden Core stage!"

He had taken only a single Golden Core Pill—even a top-grade one—and had never thought it could leap him across a stage. In his original reckoning, reaching the peak of the early Golden Core stage would already have been a triumph, merits complete and virtue fulfilled! (To be continued) R466