Chapter 3494 — Opening the Stone Door of the Ancient Tomb

Even as Wei Zhao marveled, he did not stop circulating the mental art's verses; he let Wang Xinyan keep absorbing the true qi within his body. Of course, this could only be Wei Zhao—any other cultivator would have been drained of a rank, and likely would never recover.

But Wei Zhao was different; he could recover swiftly.

Wang Xinyan's strength was still soaring without pause. This mental cultivation art truly filled Wei Zhao with envy—if he possessed such an ability, cultivation would surely not have been so arduous.

Wei Zhao had clawed his way up from the Yellow rank, enduring a thousand hardships, yet those around him rose in rank smoothly and effortlessly, his rivals included. But while this made him sigh, it did not rouse much envy.

Though Wei Zhao's advancement was not as swift as theirs, who across the whole mortal world would dare say Wei Zhao was not foremost? Who would dare claim a strength surpassing his? Heaven-rank great perfection was not the same for all.

Before Wei Zhao even reached Heaven-rank great perfection, he could already slay great perfection experts in a single strike. But now, even among great perfection experts, who would dare claim they could slay a peer of the same level in one blow? That was the gap between them.

Swift advancement had its benefits and its drawbacks, but Wei Zhao had walked every step of the way on his own two feet, and only thus had he gained the strength to look down upon the entire mortal cultivation world.

The peak of the late Heaven rank, great perfection!

Wei Zhao had not expected Wang Xinyan to surge all the way to this point. Was this the peculiar nature of sponge-constitution cultivators? By the late stage, the stamina true qi in Wei Zhao's body was utterly depleted, all of it drawn away by Wang Xinyan, just as in Zhang Nai Pao's case. The only difference was that Wei Zhao's meridians were unharmed, so he could recover swiftly.

Yet the depletion of Wei Zhao's true qi did not mean Wang Xinyan had stopped. She continued to draw heaven-and-earth spiritual qi ceaselessly from the jade pendant space, until great perfection strength was reached.

Though Wei Zhao was himself a Heaven-rank great perfection expert, all the stamina true qi in his body was not enough to raise Wang Xinyan to great perfection; the heaven-and-earth spiritual qi of the jade pendant space had to supplement it.

This was much like the principle of a power bank—charging and discharging were not the same, and there was loss of charge along the way. So one could not say that because Wei Zhao gave Wang Xinyan all his true qi, she could directly reach Heaven-rank great perfection.

Unless those outland esoteric sect experts possessed such strength. Yet what the esoteric sect actually was, Wei Zhao did not know clearly either; he had only heard the Yu family's old ancestor speak of it once. He did not understand the specifics, but he guessed it might be an existence akin to an ancient sect, possessing some heterodox mental arts and verses.

Wang Xinyan successfully advanced to the peak of the late Heaven rank, great perfection, and even she found it unbelievable. Once upon a time, this had been a strength one could only look up to—yet in the blink of an eye, she herself had attained it?

"Xinyan, get used to it first. I'm exhausted from being drained by you—I need to recover my stamina true qi!" Wei Zhao had actually dropped a rank and become a rank-zero expert, so naturally he had to recover at once.

Though ordinary people would not dare provoke Wei Zhao now, he still feared that accidents might happen; he had to maintain peak condition at all times.

"Mm." Wang Xinyan's face flushed. Her relationship with Wei Zhao had grown intimate, so when he said he was exhausted from being drained by her, she could not help thinking of other things—she was no innocent little girl who understood nothing.

But Wei Zhao seemed not to have noticed anything, so Wang Xinyan hastily concealed her feelings and went with Han Jingyi to accustom herself to the strength of peak late Heaven-rank great perfection.

Wei Zhao took the Heavenly Thunder Pig and headed for Zhang Lifeng's ancient tomb. In the past he had always brought Yu Xiaoke along, but this time it was only Wei Zhao alone, which weighed somewhat heavily on his mood.

This was already the umpteenth time Wei Zhao had come to the ancient tomb. Aside from a somewhat heavy heart, he knew the way well, and went straight to the stone door at the farthest depths of the ancient tomb.

Beside the stone door, Wei Zhao found the line of annotation from last time.

"The Heavenly Dao Golden Core simplified pill formula: a peak late Heaven-rank expert and a Profound-rank first-grade alchemist may open this door. Zhang Lifeng."

Peak late Heaven-rank strength—he had already reached it. But a Profound-rank first-grade alchemist?

Wei Zhao did not know whether the separator between the two meant "or" or "and." Written as it was, it was somewhat ambiguous.

But on reflection, he was already a cultivator with a five-element, seven-attribute constitution, and all five elemental attributes were true attributes, forming an attribute cycle within his body—he already met the conditions of an alchemist!

It was only that an alchemist's mental art was rather intricate, and Wei Zhao had no time to test and cultivate it. Moreover, with Han Jingyi as his automatic divine-farmer pill cauldron, there was all the less need for him to study an alchemist's mental art.

Still, now that he had Han Jingyi's pill cauldron, he ought to count as a top-grade alchemist, no? Even if his stamina true qi was insufficient to refine a Profound-rank first-grade pill, his grade should still suffice.

Thinking this, Wei Zhao reached out and pushed at the great door.

With that push, the door did not budge in the slightest. Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback, then thought of the stone door inside the Xuanyuan Cave Residence.

A stone door was a dead thing; though Wei Zhao's strength had reached the mark, he could hardly tell the door so in words. So Wei Zhao had to demonstrate his strength and let the stone door assess him.

This ancient tomb's door was likely the same.

Wei Zhao hastily circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art, laying bare the full extent of his peak late Heaven-rank great perfection strength.

Yet the door still gave no response! Did he also need to demonstrate an alchemist's strength? Wei Zhao had no choice but to kindle his pill fire a little—but before he had done much at all, merely a small kindling, the stone door began to emit a "clack-clack" sound. Then the stone door slowly opened. The room was a sealed chamber, and once it opened, at the center of the room stood a stone platform, upon which rested a small box of antique charm. Beyond that, nothing else existed.

It seemed the chamber's primary function was to store this one pill formula.

Wei Zhao stood for a moment at the chamber's entrance first, and finding no warning whatsoever from the jade pendant space, he drew a deep breath before stepping into the chamber! (To be continued.)