Chapter 3472 — Gloom and Frustration

"Uh... doesn't it take a long time for an ordinary person to absorb a Qi Gathering Pill? And then there's consolidating your cultivation and all that—it's a slow process. Who'd have the mood to make a phone call?" Kang Jingming said.

"Oh, I thought you meant that if I ate it and died, I wouldn't be able to call!" Wei Zhao said.

"Haha, Great Sage Lin, you joke! How could a Qi Gathering Pill kill anyone? It's not a Poison Qi Pill!" Kang Jingming gave a forced laugh.

"That's hard to say. What if you were up to no good? Then I'd eat it and drop dead!" Wei Zhao said.

"Uh... how could that be!" Kang Jingming said. "I don't even know how to refine a Poison Qi Pill. Besides, you and I are both Heaven Rank experts—poisoning someone would be pointless!"

"What if it were a special kind of poison?" Wei Zhao countered.

"Uh... Great Sage Lin, what is it you actually want to talk about? I was resting—I've been traveling day and night to deliver you that pill, haven't slept at all. I finally get a moment to rest, figuring I'd wake up and head back to the Five Luminaries Sect, and here you are saying all this to me... what exactly are you getting at?" Kang Jingming was utterly baffled. Why did Wei Zhao's words seem to carry a hidden meaning? Had he discovered something wrong with the Qi Gathering Pill?

That shouldn't be possible—on the surface there should be no visible difference at all! For heaven's sake, don't let him have found out!

"Oh, it's really nothing. It's just that I took the pill, and I think it's quite good. Not only did I level up, I went up two levels in a row. Thanks for the pill! Do you have any more of these? Give me another one and that'll do!" Wei Zhao said.

"Gah!" Kang Jingming's eyes went wide, and he nearly flung the phone from his hand. He took it? And leveled up? Two levels in a row? How was that possible—it defied all reason! Kang Jingming could scarcely believe it: "Ha, Great Sage Lin, you're joking, right? There's no pill in the world that can raise you two levels at once. You definitely haven't taken it yet, have you?"

"I did take it. Why won't you believe me?" Wei Zhao was somewhat speechless himself. Did Kang Jingming genuinely not know, or was he pretending not to know, that there was something wrong with the pill? "I even thought you'd specially refined me a boosted pill. Its effects really are beyond reproach!"

"This... Great Sage Lin, you're saying you actually took it? And went up two levels?" Kang Jingming still found it hard to believe! So he said, "Then wait for me. I'll come over right now and see what's going on!"

"Oh, then come on over." Hearing that Kang Jingming was coming, Wei Zhao grew all the more certain that this was Kang Jingming's doing. He had concocted a pill to take Wei Zhao's life, and when the goal wasn't achieved, it had instead raised Wei Zhao two levels. Anyone in his shoes would be shaken.

Before long, Kang Jingming came rushing anxiously to Wei Zhao's villa. The moment he saw Wei Zhao he asked, "Great Sage Wei Zhao, did you really level up? Let me see?"

"Have you never seen the world? Why so excited over my leveling up?" Wei Zhao curled his lip. "Are you brain-dead? But I suppose I can show you."

With that, Wei Zhao unleashed the full extent of his late Heaven Rank pinnacle strength. There was no faking such power—Kang Jingming's eyes went wide on the spot! This was simply unbelievable. Wei Zhao had taken the Limit Qi Gathering Pill and was completely fine?

Could there have been a problem with his own refining? Or perhaps the Limit Qi Gathering Pill had never had any problem at all?

Watching Kang Jingming stand there dumbly, Wei Zhao coughed twice and said, "I say, Kang Jingming, you've had your look. Is there anything else?"

"N-no... nothing..." Though Kang Jingming refused to believe it, the facts lay right before his eyes and left him no choice. He shook his head and walked out of Wei Zhao's villa in a daze. He had toiled through countless days and nights to successfully refine the Limit Qi Gathering Pill, and in the end he had made a bridal gown for Wei Zhao to wear. It was utterly, thoroughly galling.

Once out of the villa, Kang Jingming had not gone far before he could not contain himself, and he hurriedly pulled out his phone and dialed the line of Ancestor Xuanchen!

"Zhaoming, how are things going? Did you give Wei Zhao the Limit Qi Gathering Pill? Has the boy taken it?" Ancestor Xuanchen was even more anxious than Kang Jingming; he too wanted Wei Zhao dead as soon as possible.

"I gave it to him... and Wei Zhao took it, but he didn't die..." Kang Jingming gave a bitter smile and spoke as though his soul had left him.

"Didn't die? Was the Limit Qi Gathering Pill you refined ineffective? That can't be—Xuanchen and I both inspected it?" Ancestor Xuanchen said, puzzled.

"He didn't die! Not only that, he went up two levels in a row and became a late Heaven Rank pinnacle expert. From his aura, he's not far from Great Perfection..." Kang Jingming sighed.

"What did you say? Kang Jingming, are you sure you saw right? Wei Zhao leveled up? And he's a late Heaven Rank pinnacle expert, approaching Great Perfection? How is that possible?!" Ancestor Xuanchen's breathing grew rapid. "Are you certain he took the Limit Qi Gathering Pill, and that it was because of the Limit Qi Gathering Pill that he leveled up?"

"That... I should think so!" Kang Jingming said.

"Did you see it with your own eyes?" Ancestor Xuanchen pressed.

"Well, no, not that. There's no way he'd let me watch while he took the pill!" Kang Jingming said.

"This Wei Zhao is sly and full of tricks—he's a master at putting on airs and deceiving people!" Ancestor Xuanchen said. "I think it's quite possible that Wei Zhao was already a late Heaven Rank pinnacle expert all along. He deliberately deceived us into thinking he was mid Heaven Rank pinnacle, all so as to lull us into refining pills for him! Because at late Heaven Rank pinnacle, one more Qi Gathering Pill would very likely push him to Great Perfection—and that being so, we absolutely would never have allowed such a thing to happen! And this time, when Wei Zhao took our Limit Qi Gathering Pill, I suspect he may have recognized that something was off about it, so he didn't take it. Then, seeing that we could no longer refine pills for him, he no longer needed to conceal his strength, and so he revealed his true power to deceive you! He wanted us to think it was the Limit Qi Gathering Pill at work, so we'd stew in frustration for a while!"

"That's right!" Hearing Ancestor Xuanchen's analysis, Kang Jingming was instantly enlightened. Thinking back on Wei Zhao's usual temperament and manner, it really was quite likely! Putting on airs—a grassroots rogue cultivator, just as they said of Wei Zhao! At the thought that it wasn't because of his Limit Qi Gathering Pill that Wei Zhao had leveled up, Kang Jingming's mood lifted again. "Forget it, so he saw through it—so be it. It was probably that fellow Bai Lingtou who taught him!"

"Mm, come back then. Let him level up if he wants to—we won't bother with him anymore. So long as he can't join the Cloud Rank Island plan, let him run wild and fend for himself!" At this point Ancestor Xuanchen too had given up opposing Wei Zhao. What was the point of opposing him? Wei Zhao's strength spoke for itself—he already had few rivals left! RP