Chapter 4807 — Breakthrough! Late Nascent Soul Stage!

For the first seven days, Leng Rufeng had beaten Wei Zhao down in one-sided fashion, but when the eighth day came, facing Wei Zhao at the peak of the mid Nascent Soul stage, he could no longer sustain that absolute, dominating superiority. The two of them fought back and forth, blow for blow, and several times Wei Zhao nearly got the better of him, leaving him drenched in cold sweat.

When the stick of incense burned out, the two were still deadlocked. Yet unlike before—when for seven days Wei Zhao had been flattened to the ground, barely clawing back his miserable life—this time he stood calmly to the last. Bloodied he might be, but judging by the course of the fight, it could just about be called a draw.

A monster! This brat was nothing short of a monster!

Watching Wei Zhao's retreating figure, Leng Rufeng felt stormy waves crashing in his heart. Wei Zhao's progress over these days was by no means as simple as rising a single level. The others below were merely spectators; only he, the man who faced him, understood it most deeply—day after day, that miraculous, reborn-from-the-ashes advancement had grown so pronounced that it was plain even to the naked eye!

Known as the Cold-Faced Blade God, Leng Rufeng was himself a monster through and through. Yet in his eyes, set beside a creature like Wei Zhao, he fell short by a hundred thousand li. After all, if it were his own self at the peak of the mid Nascent Soul stage facing the Leng Rufeng of today, he would not last a single move—let alone trade blows back and forth.

The more he dwelled on it, the stronger that ominous foreboding grew in Leng Rufeng's heart. At this rate, could he really be about to capsize in a ditch?

For a man as proud as the Cold-Faced Blade God, harboring such misgivings was unthinkable—and yet, after so many days, anyone in his position would surely be consumed with anxiety. Following this uncanny trajectory, capsizing in a ditch was not merely possible; it was highly likely!

And yet, on that day Wei Zhao was still beaten to within an inch of his life—worse than the day before, worse even than the very first day. This was the closest he had ever come to death. After enduring a full stick of incense with the utmost difficulty, Wei Zhao could not even crawl to his feet; only by leaning on Ning Xuefei could he barely keep himself upright.

The reason was not that he had grown careless or underestimated his foe, but that Leng Rufeng had suddenly returned to full strength—and his resolve to kill Wei Zhao was far more ruthless than in the seven days before!

Needless to say, the man must have seen how the wind was blowing and swallowed a pill—one of those top-grade elixirs capable of restoring all his true qi overnight. To nip the hidden threat in the bud, Leng Rufeng had paid a bloody price indeed.

Unfortunately for him, he still failed. Injuries of that severity would have killed any other man ten times over, yet Wei Zhao gritted his teeth and held on. This brat truly was an unkillable cockroach, and he lived up to the name.

"Qianxue, don't worry. I will get you both the Beauty Pill and the Thunder Mystery Pill," Leng Rufeng vowed to Yang Qianshuang, who had been disappointed time and again. No matter how Wei Zhao improved, the gap in strength between them remained fixed; so long as he was not worn down too badly, he would always hold the absolute initiative.

Only, Leng Rufeng had not expected that this bout would stretch on another seven days. Wei Zhao's strength was still growing by leaps and bounds, while he himself was once again drained beyond measure—and this time he had no more seventh-grade qi-restoring pills in hand. Unlike Ren Zhongyuan, who had a seventh-grade alchemist for a father to fall back on, even Leng Rufeng could not afford such sky-high consumables.

Never mind the mental exhaustion—the mere fact that only a scant thirty percent of his true qi remained had already driven Leng Rufeng into a dead end. Thirty percent would have been more than enough against the Wei Zhao of ten days ago, but now, that little was nowhere near enough!

Yet for Yang Qianshuang's sake, however strained he was, Leng Rufeng had to try. To try was to have a chance; not to try was to have nothing at all.

But when he watched Wei Zhao step onto the platform for the fifteenth time, and above all when he sensed the faintly unstable aura around Wei Zhao, he was struck dumb on the spot, mouth agape, unable to utter a single word for the longest time, able only to stare blankly at Wei Zhao.

Nor was he alone. The spectators below with even a shred of discernment were all shocked witless. Some among them came to watch day after day, and were long since familiar with Wei Zhao, the consort of West Island—and precisely because of that, they were all the more stunned, gaping in speechless astonishment.

"You broke through again?" Leng Rufeng finally managed to force the words out, biting his tongue. How long had it been since the last breakthrough? Only about seven days, it seemed—so how had the brat's aura suddenly surged another notch? The hell—he was already at the late Nascent Soul stage?!

"Thanks to you," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile. Though the fresh breakthrough left him unable to fully control his aura, his heart was still brimming with delight. This Leng Rufeng was simply his lucky star.

Half a month of fighting him, and he had risen a solid two levels—from the mid Nascent Soul stage straight up to the late Nascent Soul stage. It was not as outrageous as vaulting two levels in one breath, but in everyone's eyes, what difference was there between the two?

Hearing that airy reply, Leng Rufeng—who rarely cursed—could not hold back a bellyful of profanity. It was not that he hated Wei Zhao to the bone; it was purely that without it, he truly did not know how else to vent this feeling.

"Let's begin," Leng Rufeng said, forcing down his shock. This time he dared not let Wei Zhao strike first. The words had barely left his mouth when he unleashed Ice and Snow World, closing in and bringing his blade down straight at Wei Zhao's head.

Wei Zhao gave not an inch, and with a low, deep dragon's roar, met him head-on with a blast of Five Elements Killing Qi at its fullest power. This time he intended to use no tactics at all; he simply wanted a good, hard clash with his opponent, to weigh just how much he was really worth.

After half a month of combat tempering, and above all after advancing a full two levels in cultivation, Wei Zhao's Five Elements Killing Qi now faintly showed a tendency to take the form of a dragon.

Though for the moment it was no more than a hazy omen, it was unquestionably an encouraging change. One day, when it truly took dragon form, that would be the true, complete version of the Five Elements Killing Qi!

It was a pity that the power of lightning, likewise inherited from the Transcendent Rift Sea era, had shown no improvement all this time. Not that there had been none at all—but compared with the Five Elements Killing Qi, its progress was utterly negligible. Apart from that slight numbing effect, against an opponent like Leng Rufeng it was practically useless.

Boom! The platform exploded with a thunderous blast. The Five Elements Killing Qi was once again cleaved in two at the waist—but unlike before, this time Leng Rufeng's blade force collapsed in the same instant. Wei Zhao and Leng Rufeng both grunted and each took a step back; the two had fought to a dead-even standstill!