Chapter 3588 — A Heavy Loss
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
What came next was simple enough: he need only leave the two pieces of spirit jade in the jade pendant space and check the results the following morning. As for Wei Zhao himself, he had only to cultivate.
To be sure, once he refined the Heavenly Dao Golden Core he could rapidly break through to the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage, but cultivation was ever like a boat rowed against the current—no matter how many or how fine the elixirs, one still had to ply the oars of daily practice without cease.
Wei Zhao owed much of his present attainment to Wang Xinyan, but far more of it to his own years of unflagging diligence, day in and day out.
He entered the jade pendant space to cultivate while awaiting the experiment's result—and to his great surprise and delight, a conclusion emerged after only a single hour: the spiritual qi within those two pieces of spirit jade had grown remarkably full, as rich as that of his own original jade. In other words, the notion of using the jade pendant space to recharge spirit jade was entirely feasible!
Before the experiment, the spiritual qi in those two pieces had plainly been more than half spent, and now, after a mere hour, it had been replenished to the brim. By this reckoning, even a piece of spent jade with its qi all but exhausted, placed in this jade pendant space, would at most take two hours to become a brand-new, fine piece of jade!
This effect seemed even more pronounced than recharging energy stones in the mortal world. Wei Zhao surmised that this was because spirit jade was inherently better suited than energy stone as a vessel for the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Although a spirit jade could hold far more spiritual qi than an energy stone, its speed of absorbing qi was likewise far greater—so its recharging was, if anything, faster rather than slower.
The jade pendant space was indeed a treasure of unfailing efficacy! With this, solving the problem of insufficient spirit jade would be as easy as turning over his palm.
In the days to come, he could trade his own qi-filled fine jade for more of others' half-spent pieces—say, one fine jade for three spent ones. There would surely be no shortage of takers for so blatantly advantageous a bargain. After all, to the vast majority of people, however many spent jades one clutched in hand, they remained just spent jade; it would never occur to them that in Wei Zhao's hands spent jade could become fine jade.
Thus one exchanged for three, three for nine, nine for twenty-seven... With a treasure like the jade pendant space, Wei Zhao might as well have been sitting atop a cornucopia. So long as he acted with care and avoided the notice of the ill-disposed, amassing however much spirit jade he wished would be well within his grasp!
Still, given Wei Zhao's present identity and circumstances, doing too much of this would carry a degree of risk.
For one thing, those around him were all newcomers, and newcomers had little spirit jade to begin with. Not only were qi-filled fine jades absent—even spent jades were scarce. Spirit jade was, in essence, the same as energy stone in the mortal world: drained utterly, without a trace of qi left within, it would simply shatter and could never again absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. In that case, even if Wei Zhao traded for it, it would be of no use.
For another, no one who had cultivated to the Heaven rank was a true fool. Everyone lived by the creed that every man must look to himself, and heaven would strike down the selfless. Trading one's own fine jade for another's spent one—pure self-harm in the service of others—might pass once or twice; people would merely think him a momentary fool. But do it too often, and they would begin to suspect some hidden trick. Even if they could never imagine a treasure like the jade pendant space, drawing the attention of the higher-ups would still spell no small trouble for Wei Zhao. RS