Chapter 1983 — Quite Similar

"Oh." Shen Yushu nodded reluctantly.

"By the way, has Uncle Qing already left?" Gu Mengyao had not seen Uncle Qing when she came into the villa, only Grandma Sun busy in the kitchen with the food, so she asked.

"He's gone. Left this afternoon, to report the results of the survey here to Uncle Chu. If it's feasible, we'll set up a branch of the company here," Wei Zhao said.

Gu Mengyao nodded and said nothing more. Then her gaze fell on the medicine cauldron in Wei Zhao's hand, and she asked, "What's that? I thought I saw Han Jingyi holding something similar just now?"

"A medicine cauldron. I want to study pill refining, and Han Jingyi seems interested in the thing as well," Wei Zhao said.

Hearing it had to do with pill refining, Gu Mengyao asked no further questions.

Soon Grandma Sun set out a meal that was a delight to both eye and palate, and only then did Gu Mengyao, Wei Zhao, and the others learn why a scrap-picker like Grandma Sun should have such superb culinary skill: she had once been Uncle Qing's wife, the eldest daughter of the Sun family, a lady of good breeding from a distinguished house!

And when she married into Uncle Qing's sect, it was naturally a marriage into a wealthy and powerful clan; she must have received professional training in all these essential household skills.

After dinner, Wei Zhao went back to his room to cultivate, and Grandma Sun, having cleared the dishes, also retired. Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu sat on the sofa in the living room watching television.

"Why does Brother Arrow have to cultivate every single day? He never plays with us." Shen Yushu sat on the sofa hugging her knees and suddenly felt rather bored. The cartoons that used to make her laugh out loud no longer seemed so funny. Was this what it felt like to grow up?

In the blink of an eye, she was already a university student; the scenes of high school were still vivid before her eyes.

"Isn't he always like that?" Gu Mengyao shook her head. "Back in Songshan City, didn't he go off to cultivate every day after dinner too? Only in those days we were busier; after dinner we'd go study and read, and rarely had the chance to watch TV."

"That's true. It's just that we have too much free time now." Shen Yushu said listlessly, "Sister Yaoyao, we haven't really been out anywhere in Donghai City yet. Why don't we go out and look around?"

"Today? It's too late. How about the weekend, after the freshman welcome party?" Gu Mengyao was a little tired and not eager to go out again; besides, Wei Zhao had clearly gone off to cultivate, so she did not want to disturb him.

"All right then..." Shen Yushu could only nod in disappointment.

After returning to his room, Wei Zhao read the Sun family's cultivation method aloud to Jiao Yazi, then began studying the medicine cauldron he had just bought.

A cauldron like this was already sufficient for a Yellow-rank first-grade pill refiner, because the pills such a refiner could produce were limited and did not require a very fine cauldron. But the key problem now was that Wei Zhao was not even a Yellow-rank first-grade pill refiner. He could condense pill fire, but he could not alter its temperature or intensity; the slightest adjustment and the pill fire would go out. Wei Zhao practiced several more times with the same result, so he could only set the cauldron aside in disappointment.

This genius in others' eyes was in truth no genius at all. The only things he could rely on were the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art and the jade pendant's space, that wondrous treasure. And without the martial techniques that complemented the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, Wei Zhao was really just a cultivator of very ordinary aptitude: eighteen years old and still only a Yellow-rank expert. Compared with those hidden clans and ancient sects, he was simply a fool.

So Wei Zhao did not force himself. He set the cauldron aside, but in his heart he worried about Feng Xiaoxiao. The two-year pact seemed a long time, but in fact nearly half a year had already passed, and there was a year and a half or more left. If he still could not learn pill refining, then Feng Xiaoxiao would truly have to become the inheritor.

Entering the jade pendant's space, Wei Zhao prepared to continue cultivating. There was a saying that diligence makes up for dullness. Since Wei Zhao already lagged so far behind that little sugarplum, he could only rely on daily diligence and the uniquely favorable environment of the jade pendant's space to struggle to catch up.

"Old Jiao, how about it? Did you see anything in that cultivation method?" Wei Zhao asked casually.

"I did..." Jiao Yazi's answer took Wei Zhao greatly by surprise. He had assumed Jiao Yazi could not possibly see anything in such a short time, yet he truly had?

"What?" Wei Zhao was stunned.

"This is nothing but an incomplete, simplified, and somewhat improved first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art!" Jiao Yazi said.

"What?" Hearing Jiao Yazi's words, Wei Zhao's eyes went wide. "What? The Sun family's cultivation method is the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art?"

"Perhaps they share a common origin, or perhaps it is coincidence. This method should achieve the same effect as the first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art by a different route, but many parts are incomplete or simplified, though some parts have been improved." Jiao Yazi nodded and said, "The first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art can transmit true qi to others, repair meridians, and heal injuries, and the Sun family's method contains all of these. But the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art can only be cultivated by men, whereas this improved version is suitable for both men and women..."

"What? An improved version of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art? How could the Sun family have such a thing? Isn't the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art unique?" Wei Zhao was utterly astonished by Jiao Yazi's words.

"Who says it's unique? In ancient times, the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art was the cultivation method practiced by all the tribespeople of the Yellow Emperor. Only later did it evolve into a sect, and as the years passed, that sect declined and was finally lost, just like the sect founded by Chi You that possessed the Chrysanthemum Treasure Manual..." Jiao Yazi said. "And the Sun family's ancestor may have been a cultivator of that sect, only exceptionally gifted. He obtained nothing but the incomplete first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, and through his own improvements it became the Sun family's cultivation method of today..."

"In other words, my Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art isn't actually unique?" Wei Zhao said, suddenly enlightened.

"Naturally not. But by now it should have been lost, otherwise the Sun family's method would not be incomplete and limited to an improved version of the first layer," Old Jiao said.

"So that's how it is..." Old Jiao's words greatly astonished Wei Zhao. The Sun family had actually had such a stroke of fortune, and that ancestor of theirs must have been a remarkable man, able to improve an incomplete first-layer method into the Sun family's present cultivation method. He could only be described as a genius.

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