Chapter 1775 — Suspicion, Part One — Perhaps This Was Also Why the Xuanyuan Yulong Art Was Invincible Before the Earth Stage, and Why I Was Hailed as the Foremost Man Below the Earth Stage in Those Days!

But once he had entered the Earth Stage, everything changed. Whenever he faced an enemy, he found it exceedingly difficult to cope.

Even against an opponent of the same level, unless he brought out an overbearing trump card like the True Qi Bomb, he had no confidence of securing victory.

Thinking of this, Wei Zhao immediately felt somewhat dejected. If he had to bring the second layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art to full perfection before opening the third stone gate and obtaining a martial art, the day would be long gone before he got there! Yet the situation was already what it was, and there was nothing Wei Zhao could do to change it.

The only thing he could do was study this martial art while hurrying to bring the strength of the second layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art to full perfection, then open the third stone gate.

After sighing, Wei Zhao copied down the body-tempering prescription from the second silk scroll. He then carefully folded all three silk scrolls, tucked them close to his body, and took the prescription to Old Lin so they could study it together.

Most of the ingredients listed in the prescription were common medicinal herbs, but there were also several whose names Wei Zhao had never even heard. Old Lin was widely learned and well traveled; he should know what these herbs were.

Even if the worst came to pass, they could find substitutes. At least that would keep Wei Zhao from being unable to cultivate the second layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art. After seeing that martial art, Wei Zhao was already itching to hurry up and bring the second layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art to full perfection!

...

Wei Zhao did not stay with Tang Yun and the others at night, so they naturally had no idea what he had gone off to do. It was not that he meant to conceal it from them. Tang Yun, Yaoyao, and Xiao Shu were the people closest to him, but there were simply too many mouths involved. No one, not even Ergoudan, knew the secret of the mountain cave. Wei Zhao naturally could not tell anyone else.

If someone else happened to discover the cave ahead of time, it would be too late for Wei Zhao to regret it.

When he left the room and stepped into the courtyard, the dazzling sunlight outside reminded Wei Zhao that Old Lin had not rested at all the previous night and was probably asleep now. Tang Yun and the others, however, were already up. When they saw Wei Zhao return, they looked somewhat surprised.

"Wei Zhao, Grandpa Lin said yesterday that you had gone up the mountain hunting and still hadn't come back by nightfall. Did you only return in the middle of the night?" Tang Yun was not worried that anything might have happened to him. With Wei Zhao's strength, what wild beast on the mountain could possibly threaten him?

"Yes, I came back around midnight." Wei Zhao nodded. "I had planned to catch a few pheasants and make beggar's chicken for you, but I didn't happen to see a single one. Never mind. I'll go buy a few later."

Tang Yun and the others did not think anything of it. Hunting was unlike other things. Sometimes, when you went looking for a particular animal, you might genuinely fail to find it. So there was nothing strange about Wei Zhao searching until midnight and coming back empty-handed.

"Huh? Where's Grandpa Lin? Why haven't I seen him?" Gu Mengyao looked around the courtyard in puzzlement.

Every morning, Old Lin was the first person awake. At this hour, he would certainly be stretched out in the courtyard's reclining chair, basking in the sun and chatting with Tang Yun and the others. Today, however, the chair was empty, while Lin Dongfang's bedroom door was tightly shut. This left Gu Mengyao and the others rather perplexed.

"Ha-ha, I slept in today!" No sooner had Gu Mengyao finished speaking than Lin Dongfang pushed open the door and walked out. He looked hale and hearty, not at all like a man who had gone without sleep for an entire night. Wei Zhao knew, however, that although Old Lin practiced external martial arts without a formal rank, he had also cultivated several auxiliary internal techniques. Though he had not reached the Heaven Stage, his cultivation was still extremely high. After a night without sleep, a little breathing meditation was enough for him to recover completely.

Wei Zhao nodded to him with a faint smile but said nothing. He did want to ask Old Lin about a few things, but no one had eaten yet, so he first set about preparing breakfast.

A farmer's breakfast was simple: only rice porridge and pickled vegetables. Even so, Tang Yun and the others ate with great relish. Wei Zhao had made the pickles himself, and they had long since witnessed his skill in the kitchen. A few plain little dishes were enough to make all the women salivate.

Only after breakfast did Wei Zhao say, "Old man, are you free? I'd like to discuss a few questions about medicine with you."

"Medicine?" Old Lin was slightly taken aback. He had no idea what sort of medical questions Wei Zhao wanted to discuss at a time like this, but he still nodded. "All right. And what about Yun Yun and the others?"

"We'll go wander around the village for a while and find Ergoudan and Yu Yuan-yuan to play with. If you have something to do, Wei Zhao, go take care of it first." Tang Yun, Gu Mengyao, and Shen Yushu had become familiar with the village over the past few days. They knew nearly every household now, and spent their days darting from place to place, taking pictures and enjoying themselves immensely.

"All right." Wei Zhao was not worried about the women's safety. He knew everyone in the village, and there was no chance of any bad people turning up.

After clearing away the dishes, Wei Zhao followed Old Lin to his room. Old Lin was puzzled that Wei Zhao had come to discuss medicine with him. "Didn't you obtain the second layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art? Why aren't you in a hurry to cultivate it? Instead, you're here discussing medicine with me?"

Wei Zhao gave a wry smile. "Old man, I did obtain the mental cultivation method for the second layer. But cultivating the second layer has a prerequisite!"

"A prerequisite? What prerequisite?" Old Lin asked in surprise.

"Body tempering! I have to temper my body with medicinal substances before I can cultivate it." Wei Zhao continued, "The prescription I want to discuss with you is precisely the one used for that body tempering."

"So it's body tempering!" Upon hearing Wei Zhao's words, Old Lin nodded at once, his face brightening with sudden understanding.

"So you already knew about body tempering? Old man, do you know something? The way you said that made it sound as though you understood it quite well." Wei Zhao was good at reading people's expressions. Hearing Old Lin's words, he immediately looked at him suspiciously. It seemed that the old man really did know something.

"Since you've seen through it, I won't hide it from you. When you cultivated the first layer of the Xuanyuan Yulong Art, you underwent body tempering as well. I was the one who prepared the prescription for you. Don't you remember how I soaked your entire body in medicinal liquid every day?" Lin Dongfang did not try to conceal the matter.

"Oh? Are you saying that you knew all of this before I ever went to the mountain cave? You knew that I would cultivate the Xuanyuan Yulong Art?" Wei Zhao had already harbored some suspicions before this...

He had vaguely felt that there was something strange about Old Lin summoning him to the summit of West Star Mountain on that full-moon night ten years ago to test his martial arts.

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