Chapter 2143 — About to Break Through?

So Wei Zhao had no choice but to redouble his efforts and strive to repair his injuries as soon as possible. These people all harbored malice beneath their courteous faces, especially that Master Wo of the Qian Mountain Sect, who wished for nothing more than to see Wei Zhao dead. Wei Zhao had to guard against the old beast being driven to desperation and coming to assassinate him in the dead of night!

If Wo were to join forces with Jin Gangzuan of the Golden Bell Sect to move against him, then he would truly have to be on his guard.

Bones and internal organs—Wei Zhao repaired them all in good order. What remained now were the meridians, and this was also the first time Wei Zhao had used the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art to reshape his body. What astonished him was that the bones and organs restored by the second layer were markedly different from before—they had become far tougher than they once were!

It was just like when he had first tempered his body with the body-tempering medicinal liquid; after that tempering, Wei Zhao had already clearly sensed that his body was different. But after this thorough restoration, he sensed the difference once again! This turn of events left Wei Zhao greatly astonished!

"Elder Jiao, it seems that after this injury, my body has been restored by the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art and has grown tougher?" Wei Zhao asked in secret.

"Mm... I have been observing as well..." Jiao Yazi said. "From what my memory tells me, the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art is indeed more wondrous than the first. It is no wonder that restoring your body with the second layer should prove superior to the first. This time you have turned disaster into blessing! Since you began cultivating the second layer, this is the first time your body has been injured so completely."

Before, whether in his battle against the black-clad men of the Earth Rank or during the endurance trials, he had never suffered such total bodily ruin. So this time it was somewhat like the legendary case of breaking down before building anew—could this be the boon of the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art?

But the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art had never mentioned any such thing before.

"In that case, it truly is disaster turned to blessing!" Wei Zhao nodded. "But why did the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art never mention it before?"

"I do not know. One possibility is that my memory has not fully returned—I know it, but I cannot recall it," Jiao Yazi said bluntly. "Another possibility is that our Martial Uncle Grandmaster himself did not know... After all, this is a heart-method formula from ancient times. No one has ever cultivated it, and Martial Uncle Grandmaster merely drew up certain cultivation plans based on his own conjectures..."

"I see." Wei Zhao nodded.

At last, Wei Zhao restored his meridians as well. Yet the restored meridians were far thicker and sturdier than before. This development both startled and delighted Wei Zhao: thicker meridians meant he could absorb more true qi, and with that, his strength would increase accordingly...

Once his meridians were restored, Wei Zhao began the long road of recovering his strength. He had already expended far too much true qi and physical stamina, so he had to replenish it ferociously.

But just as Wei Zhao was about to finish replenishing his true qi, his expression suddenly changed—for he made the astonishing discovery that he was actually about to break through!

It seemed that his meridians, having been restored and thickened, had absorbed more true qi and thus given rise to the omen of a breakthrough! If Wei Zhao now charged ahead in one sustained effort, he would very likely break through to the middle stage of the Earth Rank!

Yet Wei Zhao hesitated.

A breakthrough was, to be sure, a joyous and congratulatory affair. He had only recently broken through to the peak of the early Earth Rank, and now, before long, he was about to break through to the middle stage. Such speed left Wei Zhao well satisfied!

Part of the credit undoubtedly belonged to Wang Xinyan, who had brought Wei Zhao essentially to the barrier at the peak of the early Earth Rank. But this injury and the restoration of his meridians had played a crucial role as well!

So this omen of breakthrough, if one thought it over carefully, was not really so inexplicable after all.

The key problem was this: if he broke through here, Wei Zhao's hidden cards would all at once be laid bare before everyone! Then everyone would know that Wei Zhao possessed only the strength of the middle Earth Rank, and was by no means some Heaven Rank expert suppressing his power!

In that case, the mysterious aura of intimidation Wei Zhao had built up before those family elders and sect masters would vanish entirely! In their eyes, Wei Zhao would be seen as merely a man with a few hidden cards and some lucky breaks—not true strength at all!

To be honest, if the present Wei Zhao were to clash head-on with an early Heaven Rank expert, he would have absolutely no chance of victory. Even if such an expert attacked Wei Zhao, he might survive one blow, but a second would surely kill him! That was why Wei Zhao now found himself in such a dilemma, unable to advance or retreat!

Should he press on and break through in one sustained effort, or stop and seek another opportunity for breakthrough later?

This question circled back and forth in Wei Zhao's mind, and for a time he could not make up his mind. After all, a breakthrough was a golden opportunity that came but once in a thousand years. For a cultivator—save for those rare few geniuses or inheritors—not everyone could break through the barrier as naturally as water flowing into a channel!

To remain stuck at a barrier and seek a breakthrough, one needed opportunity and insight. This was precisely why the hidden Yu family so desperately wanted the Qi Condensation Pill—Yu Xiaochen had been stuck at the peak of the late Earth Rank for a very long time!

So if Wei Zhao were to stop now, merely filling himself with stamina and true qi without breaking through, then who could say when the next chance to break through the barrier would come?

After all, such opportunities could not be created by human design, nor could one break through simply because one wished to!

When Wei Zhao had once been stuck at the peak of the late Profound Rank, he had known this feeling all too well—he had been forced to take that Qi Condensation Pill to break through by force!

To hell with it—all in! Wei Zhao gritted his teeth. So what if they learned his true depths? He still had one hidden card he had not played. If those Heaven Rank elders joined forces with others to hunt him down, Wei Zhao would not simply sit idle and do nothing.

With that thought, Wei Zhao once again quickened the circulation of the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. While he had been pondering the matter, he had deliberately slowed the circulation of the heart-method formula, but he had never stopped it—for fear that once halted, he would never break through again.

In an instant, a vast surge of pure energy poured from the jade pendant's space into Wei Zhao's body, and the heaven-and-earth spiritual qi around him was drawn in as well, forming a gigantic vortex of true qi above his head!

Although this external heaven-and-earth spiritual qi served only as an auxiliary and was of no use to Wei Zhao himself, it was nonetheless an inevitable phenomenon for every cultivator at the moment of breakthrough! Of course, this only occurred when one forcibly smashed through a barrier by one's own power; when Wei Zhao boosted another's strength, no such vortex of drawn-in spiritual qi appeared.

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-ups.