Chapter 2335 — Back to School

So the qi sensation he had sought so many times—the feeling of drawing qi into the body through refinement—had actually appeared, just like that, and in very short order it had become early Yellow-rank. It was enough to make him feel he was dreaming! True, in the instant the breakthrough to early Yellow-rank came, a thread of pain shot through him as the obstruction gave way, but it was swiftly drowned in the excitement of the ascension!

Of course, Pi Zhihai was not the only one shocked and thrilled at that moment. Pi Zhishan, Old Master Pi—even Wu Gonggao, who had long known that Wu Chengtian had been raised to expert by Wei Zhao—all wore looks of sheer astonishment!

What this meant for an outer-school expert went without saying. Even for the experts of the Divine Fist Hall, such an opportunity was something to be stumbled upon, never sought! The men exchanged glances and resolved to keep the secret absolutely.

It was not only to protect Wei Zhao; it would also spare them trouble. Even though Old Master Pi's backing was the Divine Fist Hall itself, he would not go babbling. After all, many a genius in the Hall—if only such a one could be made to develop a qi sensation and draw qi into the body—would be cultivated at any cost into an expert accomplished in both inner and outer schools!

Yet Pi Zhihai's strength was still rocketing upward. In no time he broke through to mid Yellow-rank, and hard on its heels, late Yellow-rank!

Such a pace, even by swallowing pills, was unheard of.

Even pills need time to be refined, do they not? But Wei Zhao seemed to have dispensed with the refining time altogether, upgrading Pi Zhihai at rocket speed.

Old Master Pi's gaze upon Pi Zhishan grew kinder and kinder. He was delighted that Pi Zhishan had come to know Wei Zhao and served as his follower—a blessing upon the Pi family indeed!

By three or four in the afternoon, Pi Zhihai had become an expert of peak late Profound-rank strength, with true qi in his body—something Pi Zhihai could scarcely believe! What astonished Wei Zhao, however, was that while he went on upgrading Pi Zhishan, Pi Zhihai, without taking a Small Qi-Gathering Pill, broke through on his own to the early Earth-rank of the inner school!

That put Wei Zhao in mind of Wu Chengtian's case. Wu Chengtian had gone from inner to outer—first raised in the inner school, then the outer. But Pi Zhihai's outer-school strength had already reached the peak of early Earth-rank, and by the principle that one mastery brings mastery of all, it stood to reason that Pi Zhihai could break through on his own to early Earth-rank in the inner school.

It was only that Pi Zhihai's speed was a shade too fast. Wei Zhao had just finished upgrading him when, shortly after, he broke through on his own! That, of course, was because Wei Zhao's upgrading cost him no physical exertion at all, and being full of vigor after the upgrade, he broke through to early Earth-rank in a single surge.

This left Wei Zhao astonished! In Wu Chengtian's case the inner school had been raised first, and he himself had raised the outer. But Pi Zhihai had raised his own inner school!

Here a problem arose: the aftereffect of Wei Zhao's upgrades for others did not appear in Pi Zhihai! After Wei Zhao upgraded someone, because of the purity of the natural world's heaven-and-earth spiritual qi, that person could no longer cultivate and advance on his own, and could only take pills or train where the spiritual qi was more abundant.

But Pi Zhihai had broken through on his own. Did that mean this situation did not apply to experts accomplished in both schools? Or was it that because Pi Zhihai's outer-school strength had already broken through the rank barrier of the level above, his inner-school strength could go on rising?

Of course, once Pi Zhihai's inner-school rank also reached peak early Earth-rank, it would be clear whether there truly was no limit. If by then Pi Zhihai could still cultivate his inner school, that would prove the flaw in Wei Zhao's upgrades did not apply to experts accomplished in both schools. If Pi Zhihai could not continue in the inner school and could only go on with the outer, that would mean the flaw still existed—only that such dual-school experts were special, and the barrier of that flaw was set at the highest point of strength they had attained.

Yet even if the flaw remained, so long as his outer-school strength could keep rising, his inner-school strength would rise along with it! That was still a great advantage over ordinary inner-school experts.

"Can you keep breaking through?" Wei Zhao asked, looking at Pi Zhihai.

"No. Just now it was a burst of stored force, and it broke through naturally. But another breakthrough—no." Pi Zhihai smiled wryly. "Boss, the inner-school strength you fed me was exactly peak late Profound-rank, complete and round—a hair short of the next level. That is why I could break through. But now I have not even consolidated early Earth-rank inner strength. How could I possibly break through again?"

Wei Zhao nodded. This, though, made things much more normal—otherwise Wei Zhao would have taken Pi Zhihai, this martial fanatic, for some freak prodigy! Even so, Pi Zhihai was still far stronger than the rest.

Pi Zhishan's strength had not yet been fully raised. By the time Gu Mengyao and the others were due out of school, Wei Zhao had just brought Pi Zhishan's strength to peak early Profound-rank. But Wei Zhao was in no hurry; he simply stopped and would continue that evening.

Wei Zhao's method of upgrading did not insist on finishing in one breath. So long as one's strength was below Wei Zhao's, one could go on being upgraded at any rank and at any time, with no limit on time or number of sessions. So Wei Zhao simply paused: "I'll go pick up the eldest miss from school first. We'll continue tonight."

"All right." Pi Zhishan nodded readily enough.

Pi Zhihai and Wu Chengtian, though, volunteered: "Boss, shall we come along to fetch them?"

"No need. The car won't fit that many anyway. If there's danger, I can handle it myself. You two rest for now." Wei Zhao had no need of them at all now. If he met an opponent—so long as it was not a Heaven-rank expert—he was confident he could fight or hold his own for a while; and if it was a weakling like the Third Boss, killing him outright would be no surprise.

Since Wei Zhao had said so, they naturally did not press further. Wei Zhao drove off alone in his Grand Cherokee to the parking lot of Donghai Engineering University and waited.

When Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu came out of school, they came to the parking lot with Han Xiaochao—but they did not see that familiar BMW X5M...

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