Chapter 1845 — A Joyous Discovery
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
But from another perspective, Zhang Naipao could convert other forms of true qi into his own. That meant his true qi had naturally lost the ability to heal injuries. Compared with him, Wei Zhao still had the advantage.
This mutated fire-poison true qi filled every corner of the meridians in Wei Zhao's arm. It was not connected in one mass, but scattered throughout. Perhaps the medicines administered from outside had temporarily suppressed it beneath the normal true qi in his body. Without that medicinal suppression, however, it would likely have gained the upper hand.
Wei Zhao carefully used his own true qi to encase the fire-poison true qi, trying to gather it all together. Only by concentrating it and suppressing it as a whole could he awaken, then force it out of his body in one stroke.
Yet what sounded easy was anything but easy in practice.
The moment Wei Zhao's true qi came into contact with the fire-poison true qi, the latter, which had been behaving itself, suddenly grew restless again. An unbearably searing aura surged from it, making Wei Zhao's entire body shudder. The heat of that fire-poison true qi was terrifying; in that brief instant alone, it inspired such dread that one instinctively wanted to retreat and never draw near it again.
Sure enough, deviation into madness was the greatest obstacle on the path of martial cultivation. Throughout the ages, how many prodigies of martial arts had been ruined by it? Some went mad for the rest of their lives; others burst apart and died. Even Wei Zhao, whose willpower was formidable, found himself wanting to give up immediately upon first coming into contact with that fire-poison true qi.
But Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to persist. He rapidly circulated the first layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Formula within his body, using his true qi to drive the fire-poison true qi toward his right hand. He intended to force every trace of it into that hand, then expel it all at once.
The next moment, however, Wei Zhao discovered that his idea was beautiful in theory, but in practice the fire-poison true qi seemed not to obey the Xuanyuan Yulong Formula's commands at all. It even showed faint signs of resisting it, and Wei Zhao was instantly struck by utter terror.
How could this fire-poison true qi be so powerful?
"Aah——!!!!" After half an hour of struggling against it, Wei Zhao finally let out a great shout and gave up in dejection.
He had discovered that no matter how hard he tried, the fire-poison true qi simply refused to obey his commands. It did not move in the slightest. Tell it to go east, and although it would not go west, neither would it go east. It simply stayed where it was. What could he possibly do to it?
It had been only half an hour, yet Wei Zhao was already sweating profusely. He felt that the effort he had spent struggling against the fire-poison true qi during that time had been even harder than breaking through to a new level under ordinary circumstances.
"Old Jiao, I can't go on. That fire-poison true qi simply won't obey me. I can't force it together!" Wei Zhao gave a bitter laugh as he spoke to Jiao Yazi.
"Of course it won't. If it obeyed you, that would be the strange thing!" Jiao Yazi nodded as though it were only to be expected.
"Huh?" Wei Zhao stared wide-eyed at him. "What do you mean? Wasn't this what you told me to do?"
"I did tell you to do it. But when did I ever say you should use the first layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Formula to drive away that fire-poison true qi?" Jiao Yazi countered.
"If not the first layer, then the second?" Wei Zhao shot back indignantly. "I went into deviation precisely because I was cultivating the second layer. Using it again would be suicide!"