Chapter 1354 — Is It All Right to Drop It? Although Wei Zhao Has a Sure-Kill Move, the Energy Bomb—a Great Finishing Technique That Costs a Thousand Enemies and Eight Hundred of His Own, Letting Him Strike Above His Rank—Compressing That Energy Still Takes Time, and He Fears That When the Time Comes, Old Yu Will Not Give Him the Time to Compress It!

If Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian could stall for him even a little while, things would be easy. But the two of them were simply too weak. Yellow Rank... peak late-stage Yellow Rank, yes, but before an Earth Rank expert they were nothing but fodder for a one-sided beating; killing them in a single blow would be no trouble at all.

"True. Even so, it is thanks to you that we are as strong as we are—otherwise we would be even weaker..." Chen Yutian shook his head in self-derision and gave a bitter smile. "If the two of us were Mystic Rank fighters, even entry-stage Mystic Rank, we could lend you a hand and trade a few blows with him..."

"I have a sure-kill move. You most likely heard of it from Old Yu—the true qi bomb. That is to say, I compress the true qi inside my body and, once it is fired out, release it in an instant to produce a powerful blast. But the one condition for using it is that I must have enough time to compress the true qi." Wei Zhao said, "If you can buy me some time, I am confident I can put a heavy wound on Old Yu—perhaps even keep him here for good. But..."

Chen Yutian and Qiu Lingshan had indeed heard Old Yu speak of Wei Zhao's true qi bomb. But it touched on another person's martial technique, a private matter, so even if they were curious they said nothing—just as Chen Yutian would never ask Qiu Lingshan about the Song family's cultivation method. Friend and teammate though they were, it still would not do.

Jianghu has its jianghu rules, and every sect and family has its own; such secrets are known only to those within the sect or the clan.

"How about this—when the time comes, the two of us will stake our lives and buy you a little time?" Chen Yutian asked after a moment's thought.

"If you two were entry-stage Mystic Rank, I would agree. After all, it would be two against one; coordinate well, and a few wounds are nothing—I can heal you afterward." Wei Zhao waved the suggestion away. "But you are too weak, and you could easily be killed in a single blow. I am not going to save Feng Xiaoxiao and drag the two of you in with her! Feng Xiaoxiao is my girlfriend, but you are my good friends, and in my heart you stand in the same place, equally important. I will not let you take that risk!"

Hearing Wei Zhao's words, Chen Yutian was deeply moved. So Wei Zhao did hold him in high regard after all!

Qiu Lingshan, though, felt rather wronged. I count as a girlfriend too, don't I? I refuse to be a good friend! Why does she get to be one and not me?

"Can you just take it out?" Song Xiaoniu pleaded pitifully.

"Huh?" Wei Zhao stared, not knowing what Qiu Lingshan meant.

"The 'good' in 'good friend'—can you take it out?" Qiu Lingshan repeated, explaining with a helpless air.

"Take the 'good' out of 'good friend'?" Wei Zhao repeated, and could not help but laugh. "Heh—"

"Well, will you do it or not!" Seeing that Wei Zhao gave no sign either way, Qiu Lingshan grew anxious.

"Let us leave that for now. I have no mind to think about such things at the moment—let us talk once we are out of here alive!" Wei Zhao waved a hand, which amounted to a polite refusal of Qiu Lingshan's proposal.

Qiu Lingshan was thoroughly frustrated. Had it been any other girl, a failed confession would probably have left her mortified, but Qiu Lingshan was used to it by now; she merely felt a little vexed.

"Forget it, forget it. When the time comes I will fight to the death and snatch that physician's notebook for you!" Qiu Lingshan felt that Wei Zhao still did not treat her as well as he treated Yu Xiaoke, so she spoke out of pique. "Anyway, my talent is too poor and I cannot advance as fast as you, so all I can do is fight for my life."

"Cannot advance as fast as you..." Wei Zhao was briefly startled by her words—and then his eyes lit up! He remembered the last time he had advanced a rank, how he had used compressed true qi to force the breakthrough. If that method was usable for him, might it be usable for Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian?

The two of them were both peak late-stage Yellow Rank, only one step from entry-stage Mystic Rank. One could say that so long as they had enough energy to take in, advancing on the spot would be no difficult matter!

Qiu Lingshan was made uneasy by Wei Zhao's fixed stare. At first she thought he was admiring her looks, and grew bashful; but after a while it began to give her the creeps. "What... what are you staring at me like that for? You are not going to eat me, are you?"

"You are at peak late-stage Yellow Rank now. If you took in a bit more true qi, could you advance to entry-stage Mystic Rank?" Wei Zhao asked.

"That is right. But for one thing, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is thin these days, and true qi is far too scarce; and for another, breaking through a bottleneck is not so easy. Sometimes when you cultivate, you want to absorb more of the spiritual energy and turn it into true qi, but you simply cannot take in that much—only a tiny bit, never enough to break through..." Qiu Lingshan nodded.

Though Qiu Lingshan's description was not quite apt, Wei Zhao understood her: it was much the same as his own case. Every cultivator's breakthrough, one could say, looked alike—and precisely for that reason, the notion of giving it a try took root in Wei Zhao's mind!

He could do it; could others do it as well? But the method was too dangerous, and for the moment Wei Zhao could not make up his mind. So he simply handed the choice to Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian.

"I know a method that can make you absorb, in a single instant, far more true qi than you normally could in the same span of time. There is a certain danger to it, though..." Wei Zhao explained gravely. "It is similar to the true qi bomb: I compress the true qi and let you breathe it in, and it releases inside your bodies. That way you can break through to Mystic Rank in one stroke... The method works on me, but whether it will work on the two of you, I do not know—and if it does not work, what the consequences will be, I do not know either..."

Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian both understood. They exchanged a glance, and in each other's eyes they saw longing!

This was the lure of the Mystic Rank! A Mystic Rank expert was, to an ordinary family, a top-tier fighter. Once a junior of the Song family or the Chen family produced a Mystic Rank expert, the significance would be pivotal—and at the Assembly of Great Families soon to convene, they would have enough voice to speak!

And even the Yu family would have to give the Chen and Song families a few measures of deference!

But where there are gains there is cost. They understood what Wei Zhao meant: succeed, and everyone rejoices; fail, and no one could say what ill consequences might follow.

"I want to try..." After a moment's consideration, Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian spoke almost in unison. Neither was the hesitating sort; once they had weighed the gains and losses in earnest, they could make their decision.

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