Chapter 1422 — A Little Sweetener
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Generally speaking, whether one cultivated the internal school or the external, training began in childhood. Once a person was past the proper age, further cultivation was unlikely to yield much progress, for by then the meridians and bones had already taken their final form; no amount of diligence would produce any great result.
Zhao Qibing had of course missed that golden window, and so had never gone back to cultivating. In this he was just like Chen Yuxuan of old — had Chen Yuxuan not met Wei Zhao, he might well have trained his whole life away without ever achieving anything.
Of course, it was not that no means existed to remedy this defect. Wei Zhao's method was effective enough, but it was far too miraculous; an ordinary person could never hope to replicate it. So for the sects and the hidden clans there was another way to reshape a person's meridians and bones — a pill known as the Foundation Establishment Pill.
The Foundation Establishment Pill was not, in truth, a pill of any especially high grade, yet only a handful of people from the ancient sects knew how to refine it. The process was complicated, the success rate pitifully low, and the cost correspondingly outrageous. Unless one was a person of importance to the family, one would never be given such a pill.
That Zhao Qibing was permitted to take one meant that the Zhao family intended to formally bring him into its core ranks and raise him as a core descendant.
"All right. I will speak to your father at once. You make your preparations — I will send someone to fetch you back at any time," Zhao Guangyin said gravely.
"Yes, Father!" Zhao Qibing answered again and again. After all these years he had still never formally entered the Zhao family; this time would mark the true beginning of his march toward his dream.
...
Wei Zhao had not expected the little creature to be so stubborn. General Weiwu had been chattering away with it for quite a while now, and still it seemed reluctant to leave, wanting to go on living inside the tomb.
But the Thunder Pig was plainly no fool, and its deep attachment to Zhang Lifeng was understandable enough.
General Weiwu talked with the Thunder Pig a while longer, and then the Thunder Pig turned and led the general at a run toward a stone chamber at the back.
Seeing this, Wei Zhao rose at once and followed with Yu Xiaoke.
Inside that stone chamber, Wei Zhao found medicinal herbs of every kind piled on the ground like a mountain. Though many had long since dried, he could tell from their appearance that among them were no few rare and precious specimens.
And once the Thunder Pig had trotted in, it casually scooped up several of the herbs with its two front paws, stuffed them into its mouth, and began chewing with great relish.
The sight left Yu Xiaoke staring blankly, but Wei Zhao was prepared for it. He had read Zhang Lifeng's medical notes and knew that this creature raised its own strength by eating all manner of medicinal herbs; that it treated herbs as food was hardly surprising.
"Woof, woof!" General Weiwu said something more to the Thunder Pig, and the Thunder Pig said something back.
After that, General Weiwu raised its head and looked at Wei Zhao. It pointed a paw at the pile of herbs, then at the Thunder Pig, then waved its paw and pointed toward the door...
"You mean there are no herbs like these outside, so it doesn't want to leave this place — is that it?" Wei Zhao had more or less grasped the general's meaning, and asked hesitantly.
"Woof, woof!" General Weiwu nodded hurriedly, confirming that Wei Zhao had it right.
"So that's how it is." Wei Zhao looked at the mountain of herbs. Getting them all out would be a considerable undertaking. He had no legendary storage ring, and there was no machinery in this ancient tomb he could borrow; the difficulty of hauling these herbs out could well be imagined.