Chapter 4966 — The Sea-Nurturing Pill
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Fine then, I'll call you Brother Lin. But since we're doing that, you can drop the 'President Zhuang' business too—we're equals now, so just call me Brother Zhuang. I'll take the liberty of presuming on our friendship, how about it?" Zhuang Yifan seized the opening at once.
"You were already my elder brother to begin with," Wei Zhao said with a hearty laugh.
Both of them were eager to draw closer, and within a few exchanges they were already addressing each other as brothers. Though Zhuang Yifan's true age was immeasurably greater than Wei Zhao's, he had always maintained the appearance of a young man—and truth be told, standing side by side, the two really did look rather like brothers.
Now that the ice was broken, Zhuang Yifan finally stopped hedging and spoke outright: "Brother Lin, there's something I've wanted to ask since last night, but I feared it might be too abrupt. Now that we're friends, I'll speak my mind bluntly—how confident are you, if I may ask, of breaking through to a second-grade Profound Rank alchemist?"
"That's hard to say. I feel about seventy or eighty percent sure, but before it's actually done, no one can say for certain. Wouldn't you agree, Brother Zhuang?" Wei Zhao said with a faint smile.
"That's true enough." Zhuang Yifan nodded again and again. Hearing such confidence from Wei Zhao, he was secretly overjoyed—seventy or eighty percent, was that not a very strong chance indeed?
Had anyone else made such a boast, Zhuang Yifan would certainly have scoffed. But Wei Zhao was different. The Earth-Sealing Pill had already proven his alchemical skill, and what was more, he was the closed-door disciple of Zhang Lifeng, the Pill God. Advancing to a second-grade Profound Rank was merely a matter of course—nothing to be astonished at.
"From the way you put it, Brother Zhuang, could it be that you need a second-grade Profound Rank pill?" Wei Zhao asked in turn.
"Exactly. To be frank with you, after taking your Earth-Sealing Pill, I've recovered to the very peak of my condition. I'm now just one step away from the peak of the late Earth-Splitting stage—and beyond that lies the great perfection of Earth-Splitting." Zhuang Yifan admitted candidly.
"That's good news. Once you reach the great perfection of Earth-Splitting, Brother Zhuang, you'll be able to set your sights on breaking through to the Sea-Splitting stage." As Wei Zhao said this, he could not help feeling a stir of eagerness.
Reaching the Sea-Splitting stage would mean being not far off from the Five-Poison Flood Dragon and the giant electric eel he had encountered. It was a pity that Wei Zhao himself was still only at the early Profound Ascension stage—to say nothing of Sea-Splitting, even the Mountain-Opening stage was still a long road away.
"Quite so, quite so. But to break through to Sea-Splitting, relying on one's own strength alone is very difficult—one also needs the aid of pills," Zhuang Yifan said with a slight frown.
"What kind of pill? As far as I know, once one reaches the Nascent Soul stage, pills can no longer be used to force a breakthrough into a major realm, can they?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.
"Mm, the pill I mean is called the Sea-Nurturing Pill. It isn't for battering at a barrier—it's actually just a supplementary pill, much like the Thunder Mystic Pill." Seeing that Wei Zhao did not quite follow, Zhuang Yifan explained further: "When you break through to Profound Ascension, you need the Thunder Mystic Pill to withstand the thunder tribulation, but it isn't strictly necessary—if your strength is great enough, you can tough it out on your own. The Sea-Nurturing Pill works on the same principle. It isn't essential, but it can make the breakthrough go more smoothly. That's all."