Chapter 1784 — Something Went Wrong: With Wei Zhao at the center, ever more pure energy in the jade pendant space gathered and converged, waiting to enter his body...

Such a feeling, Wei Zhao realized on reflection, he had indeed known ten years before — only then the process had been slow. Foundation Establishment alone had taken a full two years, precisely because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the outside world was far too thin.

But now, Wei Zhao seemed to sense that completing the second layer of Foundation Establishment would take him a single short day — perhaps not even that long...

Gradually, Wei Zhao could even feel the changes occurring inside him: his muscle tissue seemed to grow denser, his bones harder, and his meridians tougher and thicker still...

It was a deeply pleasurable sensation, and Wei Zhao simply remained quietly immersed in it...

In the blink of an eye the better part of a day had slipped by. The energy and true qi crowding around Wei Zhao were no longer so dense as before, thinning out by degrees, while the speed at which his body drew the true qi in also began to slow.

Yet the earlier comfort too was fading, replaced by a burning that swept over his entire body. At first Wei Zhao hardly gave it a thought, taking it for a necessary step in tempering the body through Foundation Establishment.

But as the burning grew ever fiercer, an unnatural flush crept across Wei Zhao's skin, and he seemed even to smell smoke — his very clothes beginning to scorch!

His body grew hotter and hotter; in the span of a single instant it had turned scorching, and the clothes he wore dissolved into ash with it. From Wei Zhao's forehead wisps of white smoke began to rise, as though steam were evaporating off his skin...

Jiao Yazi, who had been sitting quietly off to one side, changed color all at once. In disbelief he opened his eyes, stole one glance at Wei Zhao, and cried out at once: "Boy Lin, stop — something's wrong!"

What? Something's wrong? Wei Zhao froze, and the speed at which the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art circulated within him lurched. Because this was his first time practicing the second level of the art, the sudden interruption threw everything off balance at once: the direction of flow in his meridians veered from its course. Far from coming to a halt, the true qi he had drawn into his body reversed its current instead — and at that very moment Wei Zhao's body turned utterly scarlet, like a lump of charcoal burned red-hot...

Watching what had become of Wei Zhao, Jiao Yazi groaned with inward regret! When one cultivates, nothing is more taboo than an interruption — least of all for someone like Wei Zhao, attempting the second level of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art for the first time and not yet proficient in it at all. Should he truly be disturbed and fall into qi deviation, the consequences would be unthinkable!

But it was already too late for regret, for in Jiao Yazi's eyes Wei Zhao had already fallen into qi deviation!

Wei Zhao's cultivation had gone awry moments before. In whatever memory Jiao Yazi possessed there had never been such a case — that is to say, after drawing in true qi and completing Foundation Establishment, Wei Zhao should never have been seized by this burning fever. Yet seized by it he was.

That was precisely why Jiao Yazi had hastily called for him to stop — but who could have guessed that this one cry, instead of saving Wei Zhao, would only hurry him deeper into qi deviation...

And Jiao Yazi's words became the last thing Wei Zhao heard in his final moments. The next instant his body lurched sideways and toppled to the ground without another sound — yet the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art inside him kept on circulating, still ceaselessly absorbing the pure energy of the jade pendant, so that his body remained like a lump of red-hot charcoal, its heat refusing to subside...

Jiao Yazi stared at Wei Zhao's condition, and a look of mingled remorse and anguish broke over his face. He regretted having opened his mouth to warn him; had he stayed silent, Wei Zhao could not have fallen into qi deviation so fast. But then again — had he not called out, would Wei Zhao not have fallen into qi deviation just the same?

At this the guilt in Jiao Yazi's heart eased a little — though now his concern was for Wei Zhao's safety, and he had no idea how to lend a hand.

Keep in mind, this was the first time Wei Zhao had ever lost consciousness inside the jade pendant space! No matter how grave his wounds before, so long as he still lived he could enter the space to recover. But qi deviation during cultivation was a different thing altogether: fallen into it, Wei Zhao remained unconscious even here, in the jade pendant space — leaving Jiao Yazi watching in torment with nowhere to turn!

He was nothing more than an illusory projection, possessing no real ability whatsoever. That he could speak and held certain memories had all been set in place by whoever made the jade pendant; as for anything not set in place, he could absolutely never produce it.

So at this moment Jiao Yazi truly had not a single idea what to do; he could only pray that someone beside Wei Zhao would find him soon and think of a way to bring him back to his senses!

Knowing that anxiety would accomplish nothing, Jiao Yazi steadied himself instead and turned the question over in his mind: where exactly had Wei Zhao gone wrong? How could he have fallen into qi deviation so suddenly? By what Jiao Yazi's memories told him, such a bizarre phenomenon was simply impossible for Wei Zhao — and since it had happened, it could surely be no accident. Something, somewhere, had to be amiss...

At the thought, Jiao Yazi's brow knitted tight...

In the blink of an eye another day had passed. Old Master Wei gazed oddly at the tightly shut door of Wei Zhao's room and could not help growing suspicious. "Tang Yun, have any of you seen Wei Zhao? He hasn't come out at all?"

"No... his door has been shut all day." Tang Yun nodded, answering with perfect certainty. Because a shower had come down outside that day, the three of them had not gone out at all; Old Master Wei, by contrast, had left to treat a patient and did not return until dusk.

"Something isn't right..." Old Master Wei's brow creased slightly. He knew Wei Zhao's habits well: in the past, whenever Wei Zhao was cultivating, come what may he would come out at least once a day for something to eat. There had never once been a case of him staying in his room two days straight!

Even on the very day Wei Zhao first gained the first level of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, he had never been so absorbed in cultivation that he failed to leave his room. That was why Old Master Wei found the matter so strange.

"Could it be... that something has gone wrong?" Tang Yun's face changed at once, and Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu too turned toward Old Master Wei, a little tense.

"Back there in Songshan City with you — did Xiao Yi ever go this long without coming out while cultivating?" Old Master Wei pondered a moment, then asked.

"Except when he was injured and recovering... while cultivating he shouldn't have gone this long without leaving his room..." Gu Mengyao hesitated a moment, then shook her head.

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