Chapter 4297 — How to Use Star-Ink Milk

"What's that?" the great fire lion asked, puzzled.

"Actually, our coming here this time—we'd originally only taken a mission from the Three-Stacks Pavilion, to chase down a demonic cultivator in the Weihu Sea. But some complications arose along the way, and we drifted by turns into the nearby Zhen Duan Sea. Then we happened to hear that the miasma in the Lu Feng Forest had dispersed these days, so we followed the others in to seek treasure. We ran into Chang Daoping's party—the very lot you just sent packing—and they said there was a chance to obtain Star-Ink Milk, so we came here." In a few words, Wei Zhao laid out the whole sequence of events.

"Heh heh, we were each in our own corner of the world, yet fate insisted on throwing us back together—this is what they call destiny, sure enough," the great fire lion said happily.

"That it is. Oh, and benefactor, you two should take all of this Star-Ink Milk with you—though it may not be easy to carry. I'll have to think of some way to pack it up for you..." the great spider said, puzzling over it off to the side.

All told, there were several hundred bottles of Star-Ink Milk here, and they could not be tipped over, nor simply stuffed into some leather pouch. He had no idea that Wei Zhao possessed a heaven-defying trump card like the jade pendant space; for an ordinary person to carry it all away would be a considerable ordeal.

"Take it all?" Wei Zhao was startled, and could not help asking: "Isn't your chief task in guarding this place to gather Star-Ink Milk? Spirit beast stewards come by at regular intervals to collect it. If I carry it all off, won't the two of you be called to account?"

Wei Zhao truly did need Star-Ink Milk, and truly did want it. But if taking it meant that the great fire lion and the great spider would have to take the blame for him, that would be unreasonable. He would never do such a thing as to dig a pit for his own people.

"Of course not. We're the only two stationed here at the ruins. As for whether human cultivators have come in during this stretch, and just how many—if I don't say, and he doesn't say, then nobody else has any way of knowing," the great spider explained with a smile.

"Exactly. When the steward comes, we'll just say nobody's been by lately, and that'll be that. Surely he can't go asking one and all? Who has that kind of idle time!" the great fire lion chimed in with a laugh.

"But if I take so much all at once, wouldn't that suggest no one has come here for a long while?" Wei Zhao was still somewhat uneasy: "And even if he can't very well go questioning people, the moment he sees there's nothing here at all—if he really meant to look into it, couldn't he just glance at the altar to see how much Star-Ink Milk remains, and then know everything?"

"Not a chance. Benefactor, look at the rate the Star-Ink Milk drips—at its fastest, a bottle fills in two or three days. As long as a small half-pool is stored up, we spirit beasts wouldn't dare climb up for a close inspection—who isn't afraid of being struck by lightning? If you just stand outside the altar and look, a little more or a little less is very hard to tell," the great fire lion explained.

"Right. And after you've taken it, benefactor, it isn't as though we'll have no Star-Ink Milk at all. Give it a while, and once human cultivators from the other seas arrive, there'll be more again, won't there?" the great spider added in explanation.

"Other seas?" Wei Zhao was taken aback at once, and asked in surprise: "Human cultivators come from other seas too?"

"Naturally. The Lu Feng Forest is enormous, and the Zhen Duan Sea is hardly the only sea adjacent to it. Other seas lie in several directions, each with its own teleportation array. So long as we put out a map of the routes, human cultivators will come of their own accord," the great fire lion said with a chuckle.

"So rest easy, benefactor. Besides, we're on rather good terms with the spirit beast steward in charge of this matter—he won't make trouble for us over such a trifle," the great spider said, winking meaningfully.

"Well... all right, then. I won't stand on ceremony with the two of you." Wei Zhao understood well enough now: the cultivation resources the two of them skimmed off were probably partly tribute to that steward. Otherwise, if the steward's only duty was to come collect Star-Ink Milk, what benefit would move him to work so hard spreading the word on the outside? It was all mutual benefit.

Since it would not land the great fire lion and the great spider in trouble, then this Star-Ink Milk was not to be passed up for nothing—only a fool would turn it away at the door.

That said, Wei Zhao, right there before everyone's eyes, gave a casual wave of his hand and drew every spirit jade bottle of Star-Ink Milk into the jade pendant space. To all who watched, several hundred bottles of Star-Ink Milk simply vanished into thin air before their very eyes.

The great fire lion and the great spider were silent for a long while, and the look in their eyes as they regarded Wei Zhao held plainly a few parts more awe. A technique so uncanny—even the two of them, beings at the late Nascent Soul stage, could not have managed it so flawlessly. Their benefactor was indeed unfathomable!

Yet for all their inward shock, the great fire lion and the great spider were sensible enough not to press further. Even among their own, such a technique touched upon a trump card; when Wei Zhao wished to tell them, he naturally would, and while he did not, there was no need to force it.

Gazing at the vast quantity of Star-Ink Milk in the jade pendant space, Wei Zhao was overjoyed. So long as it was not drunk like water, then never mind Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao—even counting every fair companion and loyal underling around Wei Zhao, there ought to be more than enough to spare.

This journey to the Lu Feng Forest—from the infant ginseng to the Ten-Thousand-Pass Golden Core Fruit, and now to the Star-Ink Milk—had yielded a bounty that truly surpassed all imagining. It showed plainly that accepting the mission to hunt down Wu Baoliang had been a wise move indeed. Even if he failed to catch Wu Baoliang this time, the sheer scale of these gains alone was enough to make others green with envy.

"Oh, benefactor, do you happen to know how Star-Ink Milk should be used?" the great spider asked suddenly.

"That... I really haven't looked into it carefully. Isn't it simply taken straight, as is?" Wei Zhao said, startled.

In truth, because his cultivation level had been too low, he had never even heard of Star-Ink Milk before this. He had only run into Chang Daoping's party along the way and heard that it could be used to attain the rank of the strongest Nascent Soul cultivator, and so on the spur of the moment he had followed along. As for just how Star-Ink Milk ought to be used, he knew nothing whatsoever—a complete outsider.

Of course, perfect breakthrough was perfect breakthrough. Though Wei Zhao had never touched Star-Ink Milk, he had at least used Star-Ink Stone, and he reckoned in his heart that the two could not be far apart. Basically, one simply took it together with the attempt to break through to Nascent Soul—and besides, wasn't there still that ghost thing of his?

"Taking it straight by mouth isn't impossible, but at best that method counts as a half-perfect breakthrough. Compared with a true perfect breakthrough, there's still no small gap," the great spider said, shaking his head.

"Oh? Then is there some other way—or must it be taken together with other rare heavenly treasures, or with pills?" Wei Zhao said thoughtfully. (To be continued...)