Chapter 3486 — So You Got Hooked on Qi-Gathering Pills?

With that, Wei Zhao walked out to the entrance of the inn to wait for Bingtang Xiaoniuer to arrive.

Shopkeeper Li nodded and went back to busying himself with his own affairs.

Wei Zhao had not waited long at the entrance before he saw Bingtang speeding toward him. From the look of her, she seemed nothing like a woman suffering her monthly visit—her movements were as brisk and nimble as could be!

Bingtang had spotted that half-smile on Wei Zhao's face from far off, and it irked her at once. She shot him a glare, came to a stop before him, thrust out a hand, and demanded fiercely, "Where are my pills?"

"You think you can just take the pills with nothing but words?" Wei Zhao regarded her with a faint smile.

"Then what more do you want? I've been looking after your girlfriend Feng Xiaoxiao for you all this time! If not for me, she'd be dead!" Bingtang had rehearsed her lines on the way over, planning to use the matter of Feng Xiaoxiao to persuade Wei Zhao.

"She's your elder sister. It was only proper," Wei Zhao said.

"Elder sister? She's my junior sister..." Bingtang caught herself mid-sentence, suddenly realizing that Wei Zhao was teasing her—implying that she too was one of his itty-bitty-teeny-tiny wives. And if Feng Xiaoxiao was a lesser wife, then that made Feng Xiaoxiao her elder sister...

Bingtang glared at Wei Zhao. "What I promised you, I'll do! Besides, there's no point in me being alone anyway—sooner or later I'll need a companion, and Feng Xiaoxiao and I get along quite well. When the time comes, I'll let you have the best of it. But you know how it is with Inheritors—I must keep my virgin body. So..."

"Who came up with this requirement about keeping the virgin body?" Wei Zhao had always found the demand a little strange. In the past, his strength had been too meager to raise such a question—he hadn't dared to question it. But with the strength Wei Zhao now possessed, he could afford to speak without reservation.

"The Five Luminaries Sect, naturally!" Bingtang said. "It was Ancestor Xuanchen who demanded it."

"Him, was it? And if you don't keep it, what can he do?" Wei Zhao spoke those words with boundless boldness. There had been a time when Ancestor Xuanchen was someone Wei Zhao looked up to from afar, but now, even standing before him, Wei Zhao would remain calm and unruffled—Ancestor Xuanchen might not even be his match!

"Don't keep it..." Bingtang was slightly taken aback. In the past, she had always, always obeyed the Five Luminaries Sect. Even as forceful as she was, on matters that everyone took as given, she had never once questioned them!

It wasn't that she didn't want to question—it was that she simply took it for granted. The Five Luminaries Sect was the mightiest power there was; even as the Palace Master of the Ice Palace, one could not contend with them. Whatever they said, went.

But now, Wei Zhao was saying: don't keep it—what can he do? Yes—don't keep it. What could Ancestor Xuanchen do, after all?

Before, no one had dared to question it. Now, such a person had appeared!

Looking at Wei Zhao before her, Bingtang suddenly felt a little dazed. That somewhat gaunt figure seemed, all at once, to grow tall and straight! There had been a time, back in the Ice Palace, when he carried Feng Xiaoxiao on his back—and Bingtang would be honest: she had never once taken him seriously.

Even the later joking talk of being his itty-bitty-teeny-tiny wife—that was no more than a jest. But now, Bingtang suddenly realized that Wei Zhao had become the only existence across the entire ancient stratum capable of contending with Ancestor Xuanchen!

Sometimes, one's impression of a person can change in a single instant. Such was the case with Bingtang now. She suddenly found that Wei Zhao was not so detestable after all—rather, he was thoroughly magnificent. This was the bearing a cultivator ought to have!

"That's what everyone has always said, and I've heard that only by keeping the virgin body can one open Cloud-Tier Island—there's no other way," Bingtang said. "As for the specifics, I've told you before—I don't know either... The Five Luminaries Sect wouldn't tell me. But if you insist on having something with me before then, then you'd best not have anything with Feng Xiaoxiao. After all, this is a great matter for the ancient stratum, and I don't want you to ruin it out of selfish desire—even though you do have the strength to contend with Ancestor Xuanchen."

"Hm?" Wei Zhao was slightly stunned. What did Bingtang mean by that?

In truth, Bingtang herself was rather surprised when the words left her mouth, for she realized she no longer loathed Wei Zhao. On the contrary, she was even glad to have found in him a place to belong.

Thinking it over carefully, Bingtang had known very few male cultivators—they were all sect masters or young masters of this or that sect, and every one of them was deep and scheming. She didn't care for any of them. But Wei Zhao—along the way, she had found him not so detestable after all.

Look at the matter from another angle, and she found she was no longer especially averse to fulfilling that agreement! Though as for being in love with Wei Zhao—Bingtang did not think she was there yet. She merely didn't reject him. That was all!

Still, Bingtang's thinking had always been deeply conservative. In ancient times, weren't betrothals merely agreements too? How much did a man and a woman really know or understand of each other? At the very least, she was fairly satisfied with Wei Zhao's current strength.

"Nothing—I only meant, if you want to, then fine; if you don't, forget it," Bingtang said. "Anyway, with Xiaoxiao as an Inheritor, the Ice Palace will gain another fixed quota for its sect master. The sect master or grand elder may regularly attend the Heaven-Rank Assembly, so whether I'm an Inheritor or not no longer matters..."

"Oh? You mean the sect master or grand elder of any sect that has an Inheritor can regularly attend the Heaven-Rank Assembly?" Wei Zhao thought of something and asked.

"Yes, but there's a precondition: one must be a peak late Heaven-rank expert, full Great Perfection..." Bingtang said. "I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough..."

"Oh? There's a restriction like that too!" Wei Zhao nodded after hearing this. "Do you want me to refine a Qi-Gathering Pill for you, so you can advance after taking it?"

In truth, what Wei Zhao had been thinking of earlier was this: if every sect with an Inheritor had a fixed advancement quota, then did Chief Bai have one too? As the sect master of another Five Luminaries Sect, Chief Bai's strength was surely insufficient—he couldn't attend. But if he passed the position of sect master to Wei Zhao, then it would work. So there was still a loophole to be exploited here—even without a fragment-map entry ticket, he could find a way to attend.

But he feared that by then Ancestor Xuanchen would add a restriction requiring one to have served as sect master for over a year, and that would put a stop to it. This thing was aimed at him, and Wei Zhao would have no way around it.

Of course, Wei Zhao could force the issue, but his goal was also to reach Cloud-Tier Island. If things truly fell apart, having someone throw a wrench into his plans would not be ideal.

"So you got hooked on Qi-Gathering Pills?" Bingtang was slightly taken aback. She looked at Wei Zhao and asked, "I heard you've been scouring everywhere for the materials to refine Qi-Gathering Pills lately—so that was what it was for?"

(Second update of the day. Recommending Yunhai Shuku's new work—Top-Tier Cultivation Tyrant Young Master. It's nearly 600,000 characters now, ready to read!) RL