Chapter 2070 — How to Ask

To achieve one hundred percent success, one would have to reach the level of a Mystic-rank first-grade alchemist. Otherwise, even a Yellow-rank fourth-grade alchemist could only boast a somewhat higher success rate—one hundred percent was out of the question.

So now Wei Zhao faced two problems. One was to raise his own strength to Heaven-rank, and then raise Han Jingyi's strength to Earth-rank. Only then would it be possible for Han Jingyi to freely control third-grade pill fire.

But upgrading himself to Heaven-rank was clearly rather difficult—at least that was how it looked at present.

Still, if he had the Qi-Gathering Pill to help him, Wei Zhao felt he should be able to advance to Heaven-rank very quickly, and by then, raising Han Jingyi's strength would be easy enough.

Yet the Qi-Gathering Pill was itself a Yellow-rank third-grade pill. If his own strength could not reach Heaven-rank, then Han Jingyi could not be raised to Earth-rank; and if Han Jingyi could not be raised to Earth-rank, she could not refine the Qi-Gathering Pill.

It was a dead cycle: if one link succeeded, the rest would naturally follow; if one failed, the rest were not to be hoped for.

Thinking over these matters, Wei Zhao's head ached. It was clearly something that seemed within reach, yet it was also impossibly far away.

Now that the Qi-Gathering Pill's materials were in Wei Zhao's hands, precious as they were, they were useless scraps if he could not use them. And if he waited until he himself broke through to Heaven-rank and then raised Han Jingyi to the peak of the late Earth-rank so that she could refine third-grade pills, then even if the Qi-Gathering Pill were refined, it would no longer be of much use to a Heaven-rank expert like Wei Zhao.

It could still speed his progress somewhat, but at the present stage, speed was exactly what he could not afford. With the two-year pact pressing on his heart, Wei Zhao naturally had no time to waste.

Two years—now little more than one remained—and Wei Zhao did not dare claim absolute certainty of advancing to Heaven-rank. So how to make use of the Qi-Gathering Pill's materials had become a vexing problem for Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao needed the Qi-Gathering Pill to break through to Heaven-rank with greater certainty, but refining the Qi-Gathering Pill required Heaven-rank strength as its foundation. Without Heaven-rank strength behind him, even a fourth-grade alchemist would find it hard to refine a third-grade pill.

Even a fourth-grade alchemist with Heaven-rank strength could not guarantee one hundred percent success in refining a third-grade pill. To refine a third-grade pill with absolute certainty, with not the slightest chance of failure, only someone like Zhang Liju, a Mystic-rank first-grade alchemist, could manage it.

Otherwise, even a Yellow-rank seventh-grade alchemist still faced the possibility of failure when refining pills of the Yellow rank—unless he crossed a full grade.

Of course, nothing in this world was absolute. Perhaps Han Jingyi was a genius—but even if she were, her own strength still had to be Heaven-rank first.

As things stood, Wei Zhao was thoroughly stifled: he had the medicinal materials but could not refine them; and once he could refine them, their effect would no longer be as great as it was now, nor the need so urgent.

How to push his own strength up another level was what Wei Zhao urgently wanted to accomplish.

Breaking through from the early Earth-rank to the mid Earth-rank would already count as fast for any other cultivator. Without any miraculous elixirs or fortuitous inheritances, Wei Zhao's pace was already extremely swift—yet Wei Zhao himself knew well that the reason he had advanced so quickly from the early Earth-rank to the peak of the early Earth-rank was partly that he had cultivated the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, and partly that he cultivated ceaselessly day and night. But the most important factor came down to two things.

Wei Zhao did not understand why the aura about Wang Xinyan had such an enormous effect on him, but it did not matter that he did not understand—so long as there was a result, that was enough. And so Wei Zhao missed those several nights.

Only, after returning, Wei Zhao could hardly go pressing close to Wang Xinyan again, let alone embrace her. Especially now that it was late autumn and the weather had turned cold, Wang Xinyan wore more clothes, so the fragrance within her body could not seep out. Although Wei Zhao sat at the same desk with Wang Xinyan every day, he gained no benefit from that fragrance.

But surely Wei Zhao could not ask Wang Xinyan to strip off all her clothes and come to class in loungewear? Not only would that be cold, but if others saw her, they would think something was wrong with her.

Still, such opportunities could not be sought, only encountered. Fighting low-tier experts naturally offered no limits, while fighting high-tier experts could not go too high—that would be a one-sided beating, and how could he possibly break through?

After much thinking, Wei Zhao still felt the first method was more reliable. But how was he to broach the matter with Wang Xinyan?

Watching Wang Xinyan sit quietly beside him reading a book, Wei Zhao did not quite know how to begin. The more he thought, the more he found himself losing focus.

Though Wang Xinyan was reading, with Wei Zhao staring at her like that, she could hardly fail to notice. At first she had assumed Wei Zhao was merely glancing over and paid it no mind, but afterward his gaze never shifted away, and she grew rather uncomfortable and embarrassed.

"Lin… Wei Zhao, is there something you wanted?" Wang Xinyan was too embarrassed to say outright, What are you staring at? So she chose a different way of asking.

"Ah…" Wei Zhao came back to himself, suddenly rather embarrassed. "I was thinking about some things just now, so I drifted off… But there is indeed something I wanted to ask you…"

"W-what is it…" Although Wang Xinyan had heard Wei Zhao's explanation that he had drifted off, she was still somewhat flustered. Being stared at by a boy for so long, how could she simply calm herself at will? Especially when it was a boy she rather liked…

"The fragrance on you…" Wei Zhao felt that asking such a thing was a bit like prying into a girl's privacy, but it concerned a major matter of his cultivation, so he had no choice but to ask.

"Ah…" Wang Xinyan's face flushed at once. During the military training before, Wei Zhao had never brought this up, and now he had suddenly raised it today, which made her feel rather caught off guard. "You… you noticed the smell?"

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