Chapter 4563 — No Retreat After All
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
What was more, Wei Zhao had only just broken through to early Nascent Soul, and had not even consolidated his strength. To clash head-on with the Old Sect of the Western Mountains at such a moment would be absolute folly. After thinking it over, he returned to the space below. The same four words as ever: there was always time.
Wei Zhao stepped back onto the platform. Since his strength had undergone a qualitative leap from before, the aftershocks of the Five-Element Killing Qi no longer had the slightest tempering effect on him; only when he came into direct contact with the Five-Element Killing Qi was the effect still fairly noticeable.
Relying on the forced tempering of the Five-Element Killing Qi, Wei Zhao quickly consolidated his cultivation base completely. Even so, these days did not last long, for Wei Zhao discovered that the tempering effect of the Five-Element Killing Qi grew less and less pronounced, and his rate of advancement was nowhere near as astonishing as it had been at the start.
Wei Zhao carefully observed the swamp above his head. Standing on the platform, he had a chance of encountering the Five-Element Killing Qi, but its density was far less than in the middle layer of the swamp; the odds of running into it were not high, and often he would have to wait the better part of two hours for a single encounter. And the crucial point was that the Five-Element Killing Qi in this lowest layer was far weaker than that of the middle layer—the gap between them could be a hundredfold or more.
If he could cultivate in the middle layer of the swamp, Wei Zhao believed the results would be as astonishing as they had been at the beginning. Unfortunately, that was simply impossible. To stand in the middle layer, he would have to ride the spirit bird up—and then he would be forced to shield the bird with true qi, or it would certainly die.
With his current strength, Wei Zhao could carry the spirit bird up and down at will without trouble. But to split his attention and shield the bird while cultivating was pure nonsense. In a place like the middle layer, even going all out he might not last a single moment himself—let alone with a spirit bird to boot.
After pondering a while, Wei Zhao finally dismissed the notion of cultivating in the middle layer. It was far too dangerous; he would have to wait until his strength had grown considerably greater.
As for where to go from here, Wei Zhao had two options before him. One was to keep cultivating on the platform with the occasional bursts of Five-Element Killing Qi. The effect was not as absurd as before, but it was still far better than cultivating on his own.
Thinking back, though, ever since entering this space below, he had been in a state of extreme, bitter cultivation, his strength soaring all the way from the peak of mid-stage Golden Core to his current early Nascent Soul. Now that his cultivation base was consolidated, it was not that he could not keep grinding away—no doubt he would break through to the next level before long—but such relentless strain lacked any sense of balance, and in the long run it might not be a good thing.
The other option was not to charge out of Five-Poison Swamp and kill those two bastards Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan—Wei Zhao was not about to risk a confrontation with the Old Sect of the Western Mountains just yet! (To be continued...)