Chapter 4555 — Three Rank-Ups in a Row

Fortunately, he now had no need to face that old monster of the Western Mountain Old Sect. After all, the man had seen with his own eyes Wei Zhao charging into the Five-Venom Marsh, and should have assumed that not even a corpse remained of him. For the time being, that threat could be set aside. Yet Wei Zhao had no intention of simply leaving.

Only three days had passed. Who knew whether the Western Mountain Old Sect had already gone? Given the old monster's earlier state—relentless, hysterical, refusing to rest until one side was dead—even after watching Wei Zhao bury himself in the Five-Venom Marsh, he might well have chosen to linger and watch a while longer. If Wei Zhao went out now, there was still a risk of being caught red-handed.

And besides, this precious land was so rare; its cultivation effects were peerless, the like of which the world seldom saw. Even Wei Zhao's own jade pendants' space fell far short. How could he lightly let slip such a chance that came only by fortune and could not be sought? Of course he had to stay and cultivate a while longer.

There were still five months before the Northern Island Three-Tier Pavilion's mission deadline, anyway. Wei Zhao had no need to hurry back. Whatever one did, strength alone was the foundation of life and safety.

Moreover, by staying here a few months, no matter how cunning the Western Mountain Old Sect was, he would surely believe Wei Zhao long dead. Waiting ten days or half a month was the utmost limit; it was impossible for him to waste months lingering here. Barring the unexpected, he should long since have put the "corpse-less" Wei Zhao out of his mind—killing two birds with one stone.

His mind made up, Wei Zhao at once struck while the iron was hot and resumed cultivation. As before, he stood on a high platform near the Five-Venom Marsh, enduring the tempering of the five-element killing aura's residual waves. Now that his strength had risen a notch, his tolerance for the five-element killing aura had clearly grown much greater. The residual waves no longer tortured him as they had at the start; he was beginning to handle them with ease.

Yet once Wei Zhao could gradually withstand the five-element killing aura's residual waves completely, he found the enhancement was no longer as astonishingly exaggerated as at first—though it was still considerably better than the jade pendant space. Compared with before, however, the difference was plainly several times greater.

This was only natural. Once one gradually adapted to the residual waves of the five-element killing aura, the tempering effect would steadily weaken. By the time Wei Zhao could adapt completely, it would be like ordinary eating and drinking—no effect at all. So if Wei Zhao wanted to advance further, the only way was to increase the intensity: to get a little closer to the five-element killing aura.

Inching closer and closer to the five-element killing aura—this was what Wei Zhao kept repeating thereafter. Every step nearer meant a notch more strength. If one day he could face the five-element killing aura calmly, or even casually wave out a strand of true qi comparable to it, then he must already stand at the peak of all Cloud-Tier Island. Of course, that day was still far, far away.

In cultivation there are no years. Day after day Wei Zhao used the five-element killing aura to temper himself, and once he had gradually adapted to this mad, sealed-door cultivation rhythm, three months passed in the blink of an eye. Gone in a flash.

On ordinary days Wei Zhao cultivated atop the platforms near the five-element killing aura. Every few days, once his strength rose a notch, he would switch to a platform still closer to the aura. And when he neared the threshold of a breakthrough, he would, as before, risk plunging deep into the Five-Venom Marsh to face the five-element killing aura directly, thereby provoking his own limits!

With a clear cry, a nimble shadow came flying swiftly from afar, circling again and again around Wei Zhao's position. It was the spirit bird Huang Xiaotao had left him.

Perhaps because the spiritual qi here was so dense, though Wei Zhao had never once seen the spirit bird cultivate of its own accord these three months—it had done nothing from start to finish but play and frolic—if one compared it with three months ago, one would find that the creature had undergone a transformation reborn anew. In both presence and speed it had risen a great notch, and even its once docile, harmless gaze now held a faint edge of the sharpness unique to high-grade flying spirit beasts. That was an unexpected delight.

Whew! Wei Zhao let out a long breath of stale air, stood up, and stretched lazily. A slight curve at the corner of his mouth, he leaped onto the spirit bird's back and murmured to himself, "Two months left before the mission deadline. Time to head back."

At this very moment, after a full three months of hard cultivation, Wei Zhao at first glance seemed little different from before. If one insisted on naming a difference from when he had just broken through to late Golden Core, it was that his aura had grown a shade deeper and more restrained—and that was all.

Yet that was mere appearance. As for the fruits of these three months of bitter cultivation, even Wei Zhao—a freak long accustomed to rocket-like, leapfrog breakthroughs—could not help but feel his blood surge at the recollection. For no other reason than this: he was now a genuine master of Golden Core Great Perfection!

From the moment he fled into the Five-Venom Marsh until now, at the fullest count only three months had passed. Yet Wei Zhao's cultivation had climbed all the way from the peak of mid Golden Core to Golden Core Great Perfection, the very limit of the Golden Core stage. If word of this got out, it would absolutely overturn everyone's worldview.

From the peak of mid Golden Core to Golden Core Great Perfection—for an ordinary cultivator, let alone three months, even thirty years would be a fool's dream. Many there were who were stuck for three hundred years and in the end advanced not an inch. If they learned of this "miracle" that had happened to Wei Zhao, they would surely weep blood from sheer envy...

It had to be said that this mysterious, vast underground space of the Five-Venom Marsh was truly a land of precious fortune made by heaven for Wei Zhao. In all the world, one could likely find no place better suited to his cultivation—whether the extremely high concentration of spiritual qi or the five-element killing aura found nowhere else. Beyond this Five-Venom Marsh, such things were hard to come by anywhere.

Three rank-ups in three months—even Wei Zhao himself found it hard to imagine. Not to mention that he was already at the Golden Core stage; even at Foundation Establishment, or indeed below the Heavenly Dao, such a near-mad rate of advancement was truly inconceivable, appalling to hear. (To be continued..) R527