Chapter 4573 — Cultivation Knows No Years
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Me? Anywhere else, I'd at most absorb the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth and make it my own—but here there's another way: I can use the Five Elements killing qi above to temper my body. The results are far better that way. However..." Wei Zhao shook his head with a touch of regret.
"However what?" the Five-Bane Dragon asked, puzzled.
"To make use of the Five Elements killing qi, I have to stand up on the high platform to cultivate. But up there I can only reach the lowest, weakest layer of that qi—which doesn't do much for me anymore. If I could move a little closer to the middle layer and touch that stronger killing qi, the results ought to be far better. It's just a pity that if I have the spiritual bird carry me up, I have no way to protect it while I cultivate." Wei Zhao shook his head helplessly.
"That's easy! Your spiritual bird can't withstand the Five Elements killing qi, but I can. So what if I just carry you up there to cultivate?" The Five-Bane Dragon laughed heartily at the suggestion.
"Right!" Wei Zhao's eyes lit up at once. He had forgotten that this creature could fly too, and what was more, the Five Elements killing qi posed no threat to it—it was the killing qi that had to fear it. If the Five-Bane Dragon was willing to help, so much the better. Still, Wei Zhao hesitated. "But won't that delay your own cultivation?"
"Cultivation, my ass! I told you, for me sleeping is cultivating. I've just slept a whole year and more—I've got to wake up and stretch my legs a bit." The Five-Bane Dragon curled its lip.
That said, the Five-Bane Dragon used some divine ability or other, and before Wei Zhao could protest he was sucked onto its broad back. Then it leapt up into the Five-Venom Swamp overhead and hovered a little above the lowest layer, letting Wei Zhao cultivate there.
Just as Wei Zhao had expected, the Five Elements killing qi here was not only stronger but greater in quantity, and it immediately brought him back to the state he had known at the very start of his cultivation. Almost every moment, delighted changes were taking place within his body, and his progress once again advanced a thousand li a day, filling Wei Zhao with excitement.
In cultivation there is no telling the passage of years. In the blink of an eye another three months had gone by—and by now the deadline for returning to North Island to report had been thoroughly exceeded.
North Island, Azure Cloud Pavilion. Wei Zhao's dwelling.
Though neither Wei Zhao nor Huang Xiaotao was there, the courtyard was anything but cold and quiet—it was, if anything, a hubbub of voices. Lu Bianren, Ku Zhongle, Xiao Che, Qiao Hongcai, and Li Zhengming were all seated in a circle, and apart from Shangguan Lan'er, the junior martial sister of special status, the entire Wei Zhao faction had turned out, a full gathering of the clan.
Never mind that Wei Zhao had joined the Tri-Layer Pavilion not long ago and seemed never to have deliberately built up a power base—the people gathered around him had by now become a force not to be taken lightly.
Lu Bianren needed no explaining: he was a figure of long standing in the Azure Cloud Pavilion. Ku Zhongle had long since become one of the three pavilion masters of the Welcome Pavilion, with Xiao Che as his assistant, so that the Azure Cloud Pavilion's newcomers were entirely in their two hands—the moment anyone joined the pavilion, they were naturally branded as belonging to Wei Zhao's faction. And with their outstanding strength and foundations, Li Zhengming and Qiao Hongcai had gradually broken new ground among the Azure Cloud Pavilion's outer disciples and were now firmly established.
Wei Zhao's faction was thriving now, and every so often the group would gather in Wei Zhao's courtyard on a regular basis, looking out for one another and strengthening their ties.