Chapter 3694 — Breakthrough, Peak of the Early Foundation Establishment Stage!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
Still, he could understand the Ghost Thing's good intentions. Just as the other had said, though the peak of the early Foundation Establishment Stage was a notch above the early stage proper, on Cloud-Tier Island it was still merely the starting level—hardly worth gloating over. The future remained a long and arduous road.
Still, as a newly minted expert at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment Stage, he might not amount to much elsewhere—but at least within this little Welcome Pavilion, he was now comfortably more than a match for things.
For it meant that in strength Wei Zhao now stood on equal footing with veteran senior stewards like Meng Jueming; even if conflicts arose in the future, he need not fear the other's power. And given Wei Zhao's long-standing property of invincibility against those of his own level, should the chance ever come, even finishing off Meng Jueming would be no difficult matter!
Of course, this did not mean all was well once one broke through to the peak of the early Foundation Establishment Stage; to fully unleash this strength, Wei Zhao not only needed time to consolidate it properly, but also required further training in the Madfire Eight-Trigram Palm.
Compared with before, Wei Zhao could now use the twenty-first stance of the Madfire Eight-Trigram Palm without draining all his true qi; in fact, in his current state, he could fully deliver two consecutive strikes of the twenty-first stance. And more importantly, he could finally take a step further and begin attempting to unleash the twenty-second stance!
The twenty-first stance alone could instantly kill experts of the early Foundation Establishment Stage; with the more powerful twenty-second stance, Wei Zhao was utterly confident he could slay a peer at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment Stage in a single blow!
He cultivated a while longer within the jade pendant's space, and by the time Wei Zhao stepped out of his cave dwelling, the sky had darkened once more. This time, however, he had not come out of his own accord—rather, he had sensed someone triggering the restriction array on his cave.
"You? What is it?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback upon seeing Li Zhengming standing at the door.
Li Zhengming's expression was somewhat conflicted; after hemming and hawing for a while, he seemed at last to make up his mind: "Brother Wei Zhao, I've heard that the spirit jade awarded to the trial's first place are all top-grade fine jade. I wonder if I might trade one with you?"
"You want to trade spirit jade with me?" Only then did Wei Zhao understand Li Zhengming's purpose, and he laughed inwardly—Meng Jueming and his lot truly could not wait; the ten spirit jade had barely reached his hands before they were already rushing Li Zhengming out to test the waters.
"That's right—top-grade spirit jade, apart from aiding daily cultivation, is also somewhat beneficial for foundation building, so I'd like to stockpile a few. Brother Wei Zhao, you're already an expert of the early Foundation Establishment Stage, so you shouldn't have any need for it, right?" Li Zhengming said, eyes fixed intently on Wei Zhao's expression.
His main purpose in coming this time was of course not to trade for spirit jade—that was merely an excuse Meng Jueming had arranged for him to get close to Wei Zhao; otherwise, with Wei Zhao hiding in his cave all day and never coming out, he would have had no opening to probe even if he wanted to.
Wei Zhao's expression shifted slightly, and he feigned hesitation: "That's true enough, but even for an expert of the early Foundation Establishment Stage, top-grade fine jade is still hard to come by..."
Li Zhengming hastily said, "The price is negotiable—I can even do three for one, like last time."