Chapter 1770 — Cave Encounter, Part Two (Continued)

It seemed Wei Zhao did not need to circulate the technique at all; it ran itself, and the energy within his body flowed slowly through his palm into the stone gate.

He had never seen anything like it. Only once before, when he was healing Feng Xiaoxiao, had the Xuanyuan Yulong Art stirred into motion on its own, and yet that had been a different matter altogether; after all, one had poured energy into a living person, the other into a stone gate.

And yet, when he had opened the first stone gate, a single turn of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art had been enough to make it open. This time the art had run on its own for so long, and still the gate had not stirred in the least; instead, the energy inside him poured out like water, flooding into the stone gate.

Watching his energy drain away faster and faster with no way to stop it, Wei Zhao finally grew anxious, and wanted to ask Jiao Yazi what on earth was going on.

"Elder Jiao, what is happening? Why is all the true qi in my body pouring into the stone gate of its own accord?" Wei Zhao asked in urgent alarm.

But Elder Jiao's voice did not come. In its place was dead silence.

"Elder Jiao?" Wei Zhao tried calling his name once more, and was answered by the same stillness.

Startled, Wei Zhao tried to enter the jade pendant space; the drain of energy was far too great, and once inside, he could replenish his losses at any moment. To his horror, he found that he had lost all connection with the jade pendant space.

He had never encountered such a thing, and it filled him with dread. At that moment the jade pendant space seemed to have shut itself off entirely; never again could he enter it as he ordinarily did.

Yet the energy in his body was still slipping away at an unbelievable rate. In the blink of an eye only fifty percent remained, then forty, then thirty... Soon only ten percent of the energy in his body was left, and still the stone gate before him had not shifted a hair.

Could it be that he had not truly begun to master the divine art? Or did those words on the stone tablet mean something other than complete perfection in the first layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art?

As he pondered, the last thread of energy in his body too poured into the stone gate, and still there was no sign that it would open.

Wei Zhao was overcome with despair. Ten years — ten years of waiting, and this was the absurd result? The stone gate had not opened, not a trace of true qi remained in his body, and the jade pendant space had mysteriously failed him. Was this not a cruel joke?

Could the cave itself be a swindle? First let him cultivate, then take back the true qi in his body? Or was there some other purpose?

At any other time, losing the true qi in his body would not have troubled Wei Zhao in the least; with the jade pendant space, that golden finger of his, restoring it would have taken a single night. But now his jade pendant had failed him, and he felt like weeping without tears.

Just as Wei Zhao thought to let go and carefully check whether the jade pendant space still worked, he discovered that his hand was stuck to the stone gate as though glued there with powerful adhesive — he could not move it a fraction. Instinctively he braced his left palm against the gate to pull his right hand away, but the tragedy was that his left palm stuck fast as well, and he could not pull it free either.

Yet just as Wei Zhao was raging in grief and indignation, he suddenly felt a mighty surge of true qi flow backward out of the stone gate, through his palms, and back into his body.

And this energy seemed purer than the all-purpose energy he had once commanded, as though it had been filtered clean.

Of course, none of this was under Wei Zhao's control. The backward flow of energy was as involuntary as its loss had been; he could only endure it passively, while the Xuanyuan Yulong Art within him ran at the full force of complete perfection in the first layer.

At last, all the energy he had lost returned to his body, and his strength returned to what it had been — with one difference: the energy within him was now purer than before, and this Wei Zhao could plainly feel for himself.

Just as Wei Zhao was exulting over the return of his power, the energy within him began to circulate anew, flowing on out of his palms into the stone gate. This time, though startled, he no longer felt the terror of before. Since he could not stop it, he would simply watch and see what came of it.

Sure enough, once all the energy had flowed into the stone gate this time, the backward flow began again, and the true qi that now poured into his body seemed even purer than the last time.

But Wei Zhao had plainly rejoiced too soon, for this time the situation was not the same as before: the energy entered his body through his left palm, then flowed back out through his right palm into the stone gate...

In that moment Wei Zhao seemed to enter a most profound state. It was as though he and the stone gate had become one, as though the gate were part of his own body, and the true qi simply circled back and forth within them.

So Wei Zhao simply closed his eyes, stopped resisting, and kept the stone gate company, circulating the Xuanyuan Yulong Art, wanting to see just what the gate intended to do.

The energy circled between the stone gate and Wei Zhao's body no one knew how many times — until Wei Zhao wearied of it and could not be bothered to count — when he abruptly noticed that the rate at which the true qi drained from his right palm was gradually slowing, clearly slower than the rate at which his left palm was drawing it in.

Gradually the intake through his left palm slowed as well. This did not surprise Wei Zhao; if the outflow slowed, the intake would naturally slow too. But did this signify good or ill?

And then Wei Zhao could distinctly feel the outflow and intake of energy growing slower and slower, until at last they stopped altogether. In the very instant they stopped, a great "rumble" issued from the stone gate and flung Wei Zhao instinctively to one side.

Amid the stone gate's rumbling, this second gate, just like the one at the cave mouth, slowly rose.

A look caught between laughter and tears crept across the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth.

His strength had returned, the energy seemed purer than before, and the second stone gate had opened as promised.

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