Chapter 2339 — Mixed Feelings

"Right away—we'll be waiting for you!" Pi Zhishan answered hurriedly the moment he heard Wei Zhao say he would upgrade him.

Back in his room, the first thing Wei Zhao did was dig out the supplementary support martial skill he had copied down in hiding with the Han family, and he began to study it closely.

The skill was called "Spring Rain from Heaven." Though it too was divided into twenty moves, there was no difference in strength among the moves at each level—only that the first move could instantly restore the stamina and true qi of one person on one's own side, the second could restore two, the third three, and so on, up to restoring the stamina and true qi of twenty people at once.

Of course, though the number of recipients rose, the total amount of stamina and true qi restored remained fixed—it was merely divided evenly among one person, two people, three people, or even more.

And how much stamina and true qi was restored depended entirely on the will of the one using the skill and on how long it was used. In other words, if Wei Zhao wished, he could keep using it until his own stamina and true qi were utterly spent.

To other practitioners this might sound like a first-rate nightmare, but for Wei Zhao it posed no problem at all. After all, he was different from others: once his stamina and true qi were exhausted, he could recover them very quickly.

This martial skill really is quite good—I just wonder under what conditions it can be used?

Wei Zhao read on, and the requirements that followed immediately delighted him. There were essentially no conditions for using it, because for the user this support skill was an active technique, while for the recipient it was a passive one.

After all, even if the recipient were an enemy, being subjected to the skill would do them no harm—they could only benefit. So no one would be foolish enough to use it on an enemy, while one's own people, whatever state they were in—fighting, resting, or doing nothing at all—could all receive Wei Zhao's transfer of stamina and true qi.

"This is the one!" After reading it through, Wei Zhao was overjoyed. This martial skill seemed tailor-made for him and Han Jingyi. She was over there refining pills, running out of strength with no stamina or true qi left to draw on, while he could sit here and supply her continuously. Without her having to divert any attention, her stamina would recover without her even noticing, letting her complete the pill-refining process smoothly.

Having settled all this, Wei Zhao was no longer in such a hurry. As long as he could practice this skill to mastery, step by step, it would help Han Jingyi refine her pills. For now, what he had to do was first raise the strength of Pi Zhishan, Old Master Pi, and Wu Gonggao.

Stepping out of his room, Wei Zhao saw Granny Sun tidying up the living room. She smiled slightly when she saw him. "Mr. Lin, I called Li Fu just now. He says he'll come over tomorrow morning."

"Good." Wei Zhao nodded, then headed for Wu Chengtian's room.

The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, Pi Zhishan and Old Master Pi both reached the peak of the late Mystic rank as they had wished. Yet although they too were great practitioners at the peak of the late Mystic rank, they lacked Pi Zhihai's insight and could not break through the great barrier to the Earth rank in one go.

Perhaps only a martial fanatic like Pi Zhihai, deaf to the world outside his window and wholly devoted to the martial path, could break through in such a short time. Everyone else was tangled up in worldly affairs—even Old Master Pi, already a skilled hand at the early Heaven rank, had not managed to break his inner-family strength through to the Earth rank all at once.

Still, for Old Master Pi, breaking through to the Earth rank, or even higher, was only a matter of time. With Pi Zhihai's example before him, he was in no hurry to take the Minor Qi Gathering Pill—though there was, in truth, also a matter of face involved. He was a Heaven-rank expert; if he could not break through to the inner-family Earth rank on his own, he would truly lose face.

Pi Zhishan had no such problem. He had never been a martial fanatic to begin with, and being of the younger generation, once his own breakthrough proved temporarily hopeless, he took the Minor Qi Gathering Pill. With Wei Zhao's assistance, he broke through in one stroke to early Earth-rank inner-family strength, becoming a genuine dual-cultivating expert of the early Earth rank in both inner and outer arts.

This delighted Pi Zhishan—upgrading was simply easy and pleasant! He had never intended to make much of a mark on the martial path, since his main thoughts had always been on how to develop the Pi family well; the martial arts were merely a supplement. In the future, with Pi Zhihai holding the fort for the Pi family, that would be enough.

But now it seemed that upgrading and breaking through were an unexpected joy—and what pleased him most was having latched onto Wei Zhao, this great sturdy pillar. Though Wei Zhao looked to be only an early Earth-rank expert, what Wei Zhao possessed was far beyond the abilities of an early Earth-rank expert. People outside Wei Zhao's circle truly had no idea of these things!

"Thank you for your kindness, Chief!" Pi Zhishan said, cupping his hands. "From now on, Zhihai and I are your capable underlings, Chief—through mountains of knives and seas of fire, we will not shrink back!"

"Mm. Old Master Wu, this time it's your turn." Wei Zhao said. "We're a bit slower than expected—I got held up midway by some personal business—but you'll be upgraded soon enough."

"No rush, no rush!" Wu Gonggao said, trembling with reverence and awe. "Everything depends on Mr. Lin's schedule."

"Then let's start now. Uncle Qing is coming soon, so we'll get your business settled first." Wei Zhao nodded.

Among them, Wu Gonggao had the lowest strength, with no outer-family strength to serve as a foundation. Upgrading his inner family was therefore rather difficult. His outer-family strength still lingered at the mid Mystic rank, and once his inner-family strength surpassed the mid Mystic rank, the upgrading process became somewhat painful.

Fortunately, Wu Gonggao was highly tolerant. Practitioners of this body-tempering outer-family school might not boast many other abilities, but endurance was something few could match. Wu Chengtian had suffered greatly back then, yet he had endured it all the way through.

Soon, Wu Gonggao's inner-family rank also reached the great practitioner level of peak late Mystic rank—except that he too had to rely on the Minor Qi Gathering Pill to break through. Otherwise, breaking through to the Earth rank would have been basically impossible for him.

Though he had long known from Wu Chengtian that Wei Zhao could upgrade people's strength, after experiencing it himself, Wu Gonggao was still deeply shocked, gazing with exceptionally mixed feelings at Wei Zhao, who showed not the slightest hint of taking credit for his deeds...

By the time all this was done, it was past nine in the morning. Today, though, was Saturday, so there was no need to worry about school.

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