Chapter 4181 — The Decisive Moment

"I see. But isn't Huicai Tianwu Mountain supposed to be terribly dangerous? I'm so worried something might have happened to Brother Wei Zhao." Han Jingyi was visibly anxious. Then, blinking her large eyes, she suddenly said, "How about this, Feifei—why don't you write him a letter and ask?"

"Sure, to be honest, I'm a little worried myself. I'll write to Lan'er right now and ask." Ning Xuefei agreed readily, and without another word picked up her brush and began to write. Even after the letter had been sent off, the two women were still chattering away about Wei Zhao.

This time, though, the roles had reversed: it was Ning Xuefei who kept pestering Han Jingyi to tell her all about Wei Zhao's exploits in the mortal world. Han Jingyi had mentioned such things before, but back then Ning Xuefei had no idea who Wei Zhao was, and never imagined their paths would ever cross, so she had paid it no mind. Now, however, things were different.

Wei Zhao's affairs were not only the concern of Han Jingyi, his proper girlfriend—even she, the little princess of the Western Island, found herself inexplicably and deeply invested in them.

On the Northern Island, several days had passed since the one-move instant kill of Su Zhaohe. Faced with so forceful and domineering a return, the whole of the Sandie Pavilion did little more than buzz with talk—for the time being, no one dared come looking for trouble with him again.

True, a tall tree catches the wind. Had Wei Zhao been merely an ordinary top newcomer, plenty of people would likely still have come to provoke him, whether to make a name for themselves or to turn a profit. But he had just slain Su Zhaohe in a single move—by any measure, without question the greatest newcomer in the entire history of the Sandie Pavilion.

With strength like that, even setting aside his newcomer status, he already ranked among the upper echelons of the whole Sandie Pavilion. Ordinary people could not afford to cross him; picking a fight with him was outright courting death. Who would dare provoke him?

As for those stronger than Wei Zhao—well, it was not that none existed. But they were either direct disciples of the top-tier grandmasters or flagship figures like Gongyang Jun, the hall master of the Law Enforcement Hall. Unless some major conflict of interest arose, none of them would stoop to the tedium of troubling Wei Zhao.

After all, Wei Zhao was not merely powerful. Since that last battle, word that Shangguan Tianxia looked favorably upon him had spread throughout the Sandie Pavilion. Anyone thinking of laying a hand on Wei Zhao would first have to weigh Shangguan Tianxia's attitude very carefully indeed.

So these past few days, Wei Zhao had enjoyed a rare stretch of leisure. Apart from the occasional visits from Shangguan Lan'er, who sometimes brought Huang Xiaotao along to chat, his daily routine consisted of either waiting at the Hong Merchant Guild for news of the shengxiang mushroom or cultivating in his cave dwelling to consolidate his realm.

A high-level life-and-death battle is worth months of bitter cultivation—this is common knowledge throughout the cultivation world. And Wei Zhao's earlier clash with Su Zhaohe, even if it could hardly be called fierce and amounted to no more than a trial of his blade, had still been a true fight to the death. Combined with his diligent cultivation of late, he had not only thoroughly consolidated his early Golden Core realm—he was even beginning to show faint signs of breaking through.

One level above the early Golden Core stage was the peak of the early Golden Core stage. Such speed was not merely astonishing—even Wei Zhao himself found it inconceivable. It was, if anything, faster than his breakthrough from the early Foundation Establishment stage to its peak. It completely overturned the common wisdom that the higher the level, the harder the breakthrough.

One could only say that the so-called perfect breakthrough—the so-called strongest Golden Core expert—was no empty boast. At this rate, the day Wei Zhao became truly invincible within the Golden Core stage might not be far off.

At last, amid this rather leisurely and uneventful waiting, Wei Zhao finally received word from Hong Zhong: the shengxiang mushroom was in hand!

Just as its name suggested, the shengxiang mushroom combined every known affinity, and each affinity had its own representative color. At first glance, therefore, the shengxiang mushroom was a riot of color.

More crucially, its colors were not fixed but shifted unpredictably at every moment, their patterns attuned to the surrounding environment, blending naturally into it—a most ingenious form of protective coloration.

Already exceedingly rare, and further concealed by this ever-shifting camouflage, it was nearly impossible to detect without an experienced forager. That the shengxiang mushroom was so seldom seen on the market was thus easy enough to understand.

Carrying the shengxiang mushroom, Wei Zhao headed straight for the Rag King's secret base. When he found the Rag King in the cave, the man was still diligently controlling the heat, his expression utterly focused, not daring to slacken in the slightest.

"Brother Wang, these past two months have been hard on you. Your merits and your hardships—Wei Zhao will remember them all," Wei Zhao said, visibly moved.

"Ha, what are you talking about, Brother Lin? A favor given is a favor owed—this is all just my duty. Besides, this was my own proposal. With an anomaly like this cropping up, if I hadn't kept a close eye on it, wouldn't I have let down all those top-grade materials you entrusted to me?" The Rag King was both surprised and delighted to see Wei Zhao, waving his hand again and again with a laugh.

Plain as those words were, Wei Zhao was still deeply moved. A simple "favor given"—and yet it had meant over two full months, with no certainty it would even work, standing guard here all the while without wavering. Most people would never have been so upright; chances were they would have slipped away the moment Wei Zhao left.

Even setting aside the forging altogether, the Rag King was a man who fully deserved the word "righteous." To have made such a friend—worth it!

"This is the shengxiang mushroom, along with the other materials you listed, Brother Wang. Have a look." Wei Zhao clapped him heavily on the shoulder and, saying no more, at once brought out all the repair materials.

"Excellent!" Overjoyed, the Rag King took them and examined each one carefully, and only after confirming every last item was of superior quality did he give a satisfied nod.

An accident had already happened once; this next attempt at remediation was critical. Should they fail again, it would truly be a total loss—so there was absolutely no room for error.

"Well? Can we start over?" Wei Zhao asked, full of anticipation.

"Mm. No time to lose. There haven't been any major changes these past two months, but some things can't be observed with the naked eye, and dragging it out won't do any good either. Let's begin." The Rag King drew a deep breath and at once increased the heat. The forging pool, which had seemed so placid, began to seethe once more.

Thereupon the Rag King blended the many materials Wei Zhao had brought, added them to the forging pool one after another, and channeled them onto the lump of iron in the very center.

Wei Zhao watched it all without blinking. Even with his composed temperament, he could not help feeling tense at this moment. This forging had consumed so many materials and so much effort—success or failure would be decided in this single attempt.