Chapter 3729 — Eyes of Awe
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
An expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage, struck head-on by a killing palm at thirteen-tenths the power of the early Foundation Establishment peak, yet carrying on as if nothing had happened—was that even possible?
"Given how this thing postures and preens at every turn, it's not impossible he'll posture himself all the way to death—likely he'll just keel over dead where he sits!" Xu Lingchong was equally unwilling to believe such a perfect plan could end like this, and like Meng Jueming, he clung to one last shred of hope.
Zhao Hongbo stood frozen for a long moment before he finally came to his senses. He walked over to Wei Zhao and examined him, then nodded helplessly, his tone tinged with an astonishment he could not quite conceal: "That will do. There are indeed no visible injuries."
Even as an elder, he could not call black white in such a matter. If he lied through his teeth before the crowd, Wei Zhao could expose him with the greatest of ease—and then his reputation in his twilight years would truly be ruined.
How was this possible?
Hearing Zhao Hongbo's words, the last shreds of hope in Xu Lingchong and Meng Jueming were utterly shattered. They were so sick at heart they nearly spat out a mouthful of blood, and the two of them now looked as ashen as if their own fathers had died.
And at that moment, only one sound remained in the hall—the collective, uniform gasp of drawn breath!
Zhao Hongbo's words meant that Wei Zhao had not only earned the thirty points of combat credit that the early Foundation Establishment peak level represented, but also, by recovering within a single hour, gained recovery points equal to ten-tenths of his combat credit—that is, thirty recovery points.
Add the two together, and Wei Zhao's total for the second stage was sixty points!
And since the early Foundation Establishment peak was the highest difficulty in the second, endurance stage, that meant the sixty points Wei Zhao had just earned were the theoretical maximum for this stage!
Add the forty-five perfect points from the first stage of resisting pressure, and with only two stages of the trial completed, Wei Zhao already held two god-tier perfect scores, for a total of a godlike one hundred and five points!
By contrast, Meng Zhou—who had been so full of ambition earlier, so arrogant, so determined to trample Wei Zhao underfoot—was still sitting off to the side healing his wounds, his face the color of gold leaf, terrified that the slightest lapse would let the fourth-grade Great Return Pill's efficacy drain away and leave him with lasting aftereffects.
By the look of him, he would be lucky to recover within a single day. That meant that although his combat credit was thirty points, same as Wei Zhao's, his recovery points could at best be six-tenths of that—eighteen points—for a second-stage total of forty-eight points.
Add the twenty-four points from the first stage of resisting pressure, and across the two stages Meng Zhou had only seventy-two points total—a full thirty-three points behind Wei Zhao!
Not only had they failed to seize the chance to kill Wei Zhao, they had not even managed the most basic aim of closing the gap; instead, the gap had only widened further.
Under the gaze of the entire hall, every eye fixed on him in unparalleled shock, Wei Zhao strolled unhurriedly back to the Bitter Senior Brother's side. And this time, when all the newcomers looked at him, there was nothing in their eyes but awe—no trace of the mockery from before could be found.