Chapter 2851 — Familiar Words
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
This was also the second time Wei Zhao had truly looked at someone after facing Yuning—this time, the Ninth Princess.
"I told you, you are a member of my squad, and I will never abandon any member of my squad," Wei Zhao said.
"Ah..." Yang Qiqi suddenly felt those words sounded familiar, though for the moment she could not place them. She simply felt a quiet gratitude toward Wei Zhao in her heart, and secretly resolved that if they managed to leave this place alive, she would do everything in her power to help him gather the things he needed over in Europe.
"Don't be too anxious. There's always a way. Let's eat something first—you must be hungry?" Wei Zhao asked.
"Mm... a little..." Yang Qiqi touched her flat belly. Earlier she had been too worried about not being able to leave to notice, but now that Wei Zhao had mentioned it, she really was hungry.
"Then wait here for me. I'll go catch some fish in the lake over there." With that, Wei Zhao stood up and walked toward the lake where the Heavenly Thunder Pig had guided him before.
Watching Wei Zhao's departing back, Yang Qiqi's heart was a tangle of complicated emotions, and she felt deeply ashamed. A long road tests a horse's strength, and time reveals a person's heart. She had treated Wei Zhao terribly, repaying kindness with ingratitude, yet he bore no grudge and had helped her at every moment of greatest peril. Yang Qiqi was not made of stone—how could she not be moved?
Wei Zhao, of course, had no idea that Yang Qiqi's opinion of him had begun to change. He caught four or five fish in the lake, then quickly returned to where they had been. After cleaning and gutting them with practiced speed, he laid them on a clean spot, summoned his alchemical fire, and began to roast them.
"All right, eat up." Wei Zhao handed most of the roasted fish to Yang Qiqi and took only one for himself.
"You... why are you only eating one?" Yang Qiqi felt awkward eating alone, so she asked.
"I'm an internal-school cultivator. A little meditation and I'll be fine. You're an external-school cultivator—your physical stamina recovers more slowly," Wei Zhao said.
"Then... I won't stand on ceremony..." Yang Qiqi nodded. The essential difference between internal-school and external-school cultivators lay in this: internal-school cultivators could absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and convert it into their own physical strength and true qi for their use, whereas external-school cultivators could only achieve the goal of cultivation and body-tempering by ceaselessly forging their physiques.
It was true that an external-school expert, after mastering martial techniques, could also draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in his vicinity when unleashing those techniques, but when it came to the speed of physical recovery, he was ultimately still a notch below internal-school cultivators.
External-school cultivators depleted their stamina slowly, because their martial techniques drew on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around them rather than consuming their own physical strength and true qi. Each school had its advantages and drawbacks.
However, if an external-school expert did not unleash a martial technique, then Zhang Naipao's Bramble Divine Art would lose its effect. Zhang Naipao's Bramble Divine Art could reflect eighty percent of incoming true qi back as two hundred forty percent. If an external-school expert did not unleash a martial technique and simply struck Zhang Naipao with the raw force of his formidable body, no reflection would occur.
Still, quite apart from the fact that the experts of the Divine Fist Hall had not known this beforehand, even if they had, striking Zhang Naipao with nothing but physical strength would not have inflicted much damage—after all, external-school experts relied on martial techniques to win.