Chapter 1687 — Wei Zhao's Disappointment

"Little Yi, you'd best not reveal this ability of yours so casually in front of people you don't know well. This power of yours is a treasure beyond price in itself!" Uncle Qing said gravely. "An innocent man is guilty by virtue of his jade. Back then, I was the perfect example of that!"

"All right!" Uncle Qing nodded solemnly and sat cross-legged before Wei Zhao. Having been through this before, he was no stranger to Wei Zhao helping him raise his strength.

Wei Zhao gripped Uncle Qing's meridians, entered the jade pendant's space, and set the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art in motion, while Uncle Qing circulated his own internal-energy method. In an instant, vast true qi surged over from Wei Zhao's side, and Uncle Qing's spirits lifted at once.

Neither of them was new to raising strength, so by now they moved with practiced ease. Uncle Qing swiftly circulated his internal-energy method, converting the true qi Wei Zhao channeled into him for his own use...

Early Profound rank peak, mid Profound rank, mid Profound rank peak... Beads of sweat rolled down Uncle Qing's forehead. Though this was a way of reaping what others sowed, the pace was a little too fast, and Uncle Qing found he could hardly digest it all. It was like force-feeding a duck, and it left him in considerable distress.

Yet for all the hardship, Uncle Qing's heart was filled with excitement and joy. He had cultivated for so long and remained stuck at early Profound rank without the slightest progress, and now, the moment Wei Zhao returned, his strength was driven upward without pause, leaping straight over several thresholds that were nigh insurmountable for other cultivators.

For an ordinary cultivator, advancing a single grade was already a terribly difficult thing. Even with the several breakthrough methods Wei Zhao had devised, breaking through remained arduous and exhausting, let alone for anyone else.

The way had been smooth so far. From mid Profound rank peak, he soon reached late Profound rank, then late Profound rank peak... But once he arrived there, Uncle Qing's rise in strength came to an abrupt halt.

This, however, was a phenomenon Wei Zhao had anticipated. Each time, he could only raise the recipient's strength to the late peak of the grade one tier below his own. Without special methods, matters would always stop there.

But Wei Zhao was not worried. He had devised the compressed-true-qi breakthrough method, which had already succeeded in pushing Qiu Lingshan, Chen Yutian, Wu Chengtian, and Uncle Qing straight from late Yellow rank peak to early Profound rank. So when Uncle Qing reached late Profound rank peak, just a hair short of the grand completion of late Profound rank peak, Wei Zhao cut off the flow of energy. His purpose was to let him rest a little, then send over a compressed true-qi packet and drive Uncle Qing through to Earth rank in a single stroke.

"Rest a moment, then I'll use compressed true qi to help you break through to Earth rank. The process should be quite painful, just like when you broke through from late Yellow rank peak to early Profound rank," Wei Zhao said.

"That's no matter. I can endure it!" Uncle Qing nodded. "What is a little pain like this compared to a rise in strength? Even if it were ten thousand times worse, it would still be worth it!"

Uncle Qing was not being modest; he was stating a fact. If others could raise their strength so much in one go, then never mind enduring this little bit of pain, they would gladly lie in a hospital with every bone in their body broken for a year or so.

"Mm, then let's continue!" Wei Zhao nodded and began condensing the compressed true qi. By now he knew the energy required to advance from late Profound rank peak to early Earth rank like the back of his hand. But after all, Wei Zhao was already an early Earth rank expert himself, and he had precisely calculated how much true qi this breakthrough would require. So to ensure Uncle Qing could break through successfully in one attempt, this time he compressed exactly the right amount of energy.

The next moment, Wei Zhao channeled the compressed true qi into Uncle Qing's body. Uncle Qing's face flushed crimson in an instant, a boom rang out from his whole body, and with a miserable cry he collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat from the agony in the blink of an eye.

"Aah—" Uncle Qing groaned in pain, as though he had suffered a grievous injury.

"Uncle Qing, what's happened to you?" Wei Zhao was startled. He had not expected this turn of events, and he hurriedly laid his hand on Uncle Qing's meridians to probe them, only to find that more than half of them had been ruptured by the blast.

No wonder Uncle Qing was in such agony. With more than half his meridians damaged, it would be strange if he were not in pain. But... why had Uncle Qing's meridians been injured instead of breaking through directly to Earth rank?

Suddenly, Wei Zhao thought back to what had happened after he was poisoned. After the poisoning, he too had raised his strength to late Profound rank peak and then tried to break through using compressed true qi, only to fail. The compressed true qi had not helped him break through; instead, it had blasted his meridians to pieces.

And before that, when Wei Zhao had broken through from late Profound rank to late Profound rank peak, he had also used compressed true qi, and that too had ended in failure. At this thought, Wei Zhao finally understood why Uncle Qing had been injured. The compressed true qi no longer had any effect when advancing from late Profound rank peak to Earth rank.

The meridians could not withstand the aftermath of the compressed true qi's instant release, and were blasted apart outright.

Earlier, as Wei Zhao had helped Uncle Qing raise his strength all the way from early Profound rank to late Profound rank peak, there had been no obstacles at all, which had led Wei Zhao to overlook this point. Or rather, Wei Zhao had assumed that although this method was of no help for his own breakthroughs, it was of some help in forcibly raising others' strength.

Yet the result had still ended in failure, which left Wei Zhao rather vexed. The meridians Uncle Qing had lost were a small matter; Wei Zhao immediately set the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art in motion to help Uncle Qing repair the damaged meridians within his body...

What worried Wei Zhao now was that he could not raise another person's strength to Earth rank. His original plan had been to bring the three Earth rank experts Qiu Lingshan, Chen Yutian, and Wu Chengtian to wreak havoc at the great clan assembly, but now it seemed this ideal might not be realized.

Late Profound rank peak was already a top-tier existence at the great clan assembly, but against the hidden clans, it was still a little too weak.