Chapter 5145 — Breaking Through in Twos

The instant the pill passed his lips and slid into his belly, a vicious pain tore through him. Xue Jianming could not help but let out a howl of agony, his whole body shuddering as he rolled about on the ground. Such fierce, horrifying torment—he simply could not imagine how Bing Wushuang had managed to endure it without making a single sound. This thing was a real monster!

Xue Jianming felt he was about to die. Beyond the pain, his mind was now flooded with regret, cursing himself for being so stupid, for letting his head overheat and following Bing Wushuang out here to throw his life away!

True, they were both cripples, but his situation was nothing like Bing Wushuang's. Bing Wushuang had no hope left at all—this was the last desperate gamble he could make. But he, Xue Jianming, was different: he had Xue Liping, the deputy sect master, backing him up—his own father—and perhaps one day the old man would get him a grade-five Great Return Pill to bring him back from the brink. Even at the very worst, he would never want for food or clothing. And now he had foolishly run out here to die—if that wasn't a diseased brain, what was?

As the agony grew ever more intense, Xue Jianming was sick with regret. Yet just as he could bear it no longer, his mind at its darkest, ready to give up entirely, the pain inside him suddenly vanished without a trace, as though it had never been there at all. And at once he made a discovery that filled him with overwhelming joy: in those brief moments, his internal injuries had healed completely!

Xue Jianming was dumbstruck. This was nothing short of a miracle!

While Xue Jianming was still reeling in shock, Bing Wushuang, on the other side, had already risen to his feet. Though joy was hard to conceal on his face as well, he was ten thousand times calmer than Xue Jianming.

"This pill is formidable. I believe even a grade-five Great Return Pill could not possibly possess such potent efficacy. What kind of pill is this?" Bing Wushuang asked in his usual tone. He had never personally taken a grade-five Great Return Pill, but he knew a great deal about them. Even if a Great Return Pill could restore his dantian, it could never do so in such a short span of time.

"You know your stuff. This is indeed not a grade-five Great Return Pill, but an improved version produced by our Center—ten times as potent as a grade-five Great Return Pill!" Dr. Glasses said with a smug laugh.

"So powerful?" Xue Jianming had finally come to his senses. Amid his delight, he hurriedly asked, "Now will you tell us just what kind of organization this Center of yours is?"

"No hurry for that. Why don't you take a closer look at the changes inside your bodies?" Dr. Glasses said, with a meaningful note in his voice.

At his reminder, Xue Jianming, as if discovering a new continent, exclaimed in delight, "Eh? My meridians seem to have become wider than before?"

Cultivators rely entirely on the meridians within their bodies to circulate true qi. The wider the meridians, the more freely the true qi flows, and the more qi can be summoned in an instant. By and large, the stronger the cultivator, the wider his meridians. This was an absolutely welcome change—Xue Jianming reckoned that once he recovered, his strength would be at least a notch above his former peak. This was truly a blessing in disguise!

"Not only wider, but more resilient as well," Bing Wushuang said, though his expression was somewhat strange.

"Right, right, they do seem more resilient. That's a good thing—now I can recklessly draw on my true qi without fear of my meridians bursting!" Xue Jianming grew all the more delighted.

Just like wider meridians, more resilient meridians were a blessing one could only wish for. After all, those powerful martial techniques all required summoning vast amounts of true qi in an instant, often pushing to the absolute limit. If the meridians were not resilient enough, a single excess would rupture them, leaving one half-dead at one's own hand. Now that the meridians had grown resilient, there was no longer such a worry.

"You're wrong. This may not be such a good thing," Bing Wushuang said, shaking his head.

"How could that be?" Xue Jianming looked baffled.

"In the short term, it will indeed make us stronger. But in the long term, it's tantamount to strangling our future potential. The more resilient the meridians, the harder it becomes to break through and rebuild—so breakthroughs will only be more difficult from now on," Bing Wushuang said gravely.

"Impressive, impressive. You really are extraordinary—to see through this in such a short time. You're the first to do so," Dr. Glasses said, clapping.

"Ah? Strangling future potential?" Xue Jianming was somewhat taken aback; he had not thought of that at all. Compared with Bing Wushuang, the former number one Foundation Establishment expert of the Taigu Alliance, he fell far, far short.

"Exactly. But you needn't be alarmed. Though breakthroughs will indeed be more troublesome hereafter, for you this is definitely more benefit than harm. The improved grade-five Great Return Pill can repair the dantian and remodel the meridians—that is laying the foundation for you. What comes next is when you witness a miracle." Dr. Glasses smiled mysteriously, then drew two strangely shaped pills from his black robe and held them out before the two men.

Bing Wushuang and Xue Jianming exchanged a glance. Though both harbored some doubt, the improved grade-five Great Return Pill had raised their trust in Dr. Glasses considerably. Each took a pill and immediately popped it into his mouth on the spot.

Half a day later, Bing Wushuang and Xue Jianming were almost entirely different people. The aura around each of them was utterly unlike before—each had grown tens, even a hundred times, more powerful!

"I... I... I'm a Golden Core expert?!" Xue Jianming felt the earth-shaking changes within him in disbelief, as though he were dreaming. He had been stuck at Foundation Establishment grand completion for several years, trying countless times without ever managing to advance. Now, inexplicably, he had suddenly become a Golden Core expert—anyone in his shoes would suspect he was dreaming.

Likewise, Bing Wushuang beside him was immersed in incredulous shock. Unlike Xue Jianming, who had gone from Foundation Establishment grand completion to early Golden Core, he had risen four levels in a row from early Golden Core, becoming a late Golden Core expert in one leap!

Only then did the two finally understand why their meridians had been remodeled to be so wide and resilient—it was so they could withstand the overwhelming potency of the second, unknown pill. Otherwise, far from a surge in power, the two of them would long since have had their meridians burst by that peerless surge of true qi, their very bodies torn to pieces.

What the two did not know was that this was not solely the work of the pills, but chiefly because their natural aptitudes were outstanding to begin with. Had it been some other Taigu Alliance disciple of ordinary talent, even taking the pills would not have let him break through to the Golden Core stage—he would have been unable to withstand the tyrannical efficacy and would long since have become a mangled corpse. (To be continued.)