Chapter 1770 — Cave Encounter, Part Two (Continued)
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
At last, all the energy he had lost returned to his body, and his strength returned to what it had been — with one difference: the energy within him was now purer than before, and this Wei Zhao could plainly feel for himself.
Just as Wei Zhao was exulting over the return of his power, the energy within him began to circulate anew, flowing on out of his palms into the stone gate. This time, though startled, he no longer felt the terror of before. Since he could not stop it, he would simply watch and see what came of it.
Sure enough, once all the energy had flowed into the stone gate this time, the backward flow began again, and the true qi that now poured into his body seemed even purer than the last time.
But Wei Zhao had plainly rejoiced too soon, for this time the situation was not the same as before: the energy entered his body through his left palm, then flowed back out through his right palm into the stone gate...
In that moment Wei Zhao seemed to enter a most profound state. It was as though he and the stone gate had become one, as though the gate were part of his own body, and the true qi simply circled back and forth within them.
So Wei Zhao simply closed his eyes, stopped resisting, and kept the stone gate company, circulating the Xuanyuan Yulong Art, wanting to see just what the gate intended to do.
The energy circled between the stone gate and Wei Zhao's body no one knew how many times — until Wei Zhao wearied of it and could not be bothered to count — when he abruptly noticed that the rate at which the true qi drained from his right palm was gradually slowing, clearly slower than the rate at which his left palm was drawing it in.
Gradually the intake through his left palm slowed as well. This did not surprise Wei Zhao; if the outflow slowed, the intake would naturally slow too. But did this signify good or ill?
And then Wei Zhao could distinctly feel the outflow and intake of energy growing slower and slower, until at last they stopped altogether. In the very instant they stopped, a great "rumble" issued from the stone gate and flung Wei Zhao instinctively to one side.
Amid the stone gate's rumbling, this second gate, just like the one at the cave mouth, slowly rose.
A look caught between laughter and tears crept across the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth.
His strength had returned, the energy seemed purer than before, and the second stone gate had opened as promised.