Chapter 2077 — The Family's Circumstances

The younger generation of the other hidden clans are all Mystic-rank, some even Earth-rank, experts. Our Yellow-rank prodigies truly cannot compare.

"There is no helping it!" Han Xiaopo smiled bitterly. "In our family no renowned master has ever offered guidance. Almost everyone has climbed in strength by taking pills and consuming rare treasures—not by real cultivation of their own! It has been this way for my father's generation, and all the more so for mine! We do cultivate, but since we only grope our own way, we are forever taking the long road..."

Wei Zhao looked at Han Xiaopo beside him and felt an odd sense of shared misfortune. The Hidden Han Family had fine pills and rare treasures, yet without a renowned master to guide them, they had come to this—and he himself had neither pills nor rare treasures, and no renowned master either. This was the gap.

But for his good cultivation method and his determination to work hard, closing that small gap with the scions of the hidden clans and ancient sects would have taken him forever; otherwise he would have been left tens of thousands of miles behind.

"Since you have pills, why do your father's generation and yours not simply take pills and rise straight to Earth-rank, like your grandfather?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Grandfather is the head of the family, and he discovered the ancient ruins himself, so naturally he has priority in taking pills," Han Xiaopo explained. "The family's pills go to Grandfather first. Only beyond Earth-rank, these pills are of little use anymore, save for the Qi-Gathering Pill—and even that exists only as raw materials, impossible to refine."

"And the others? Did your grandfather eat them all?" Wei Zhao nodded and asked.

"The others naturally had their share. In the ancient ruins we discovered, the number of Spirit-Gathering Pills was actually quite large, but however large, it cannot withstand such consumption!" Han Xiaopo said. "Depending on innate aptitude, an ordinary person needs about ten Spirit-Gathering Pills to reach the peak of Yellow-rank late stage. And if one wants to break through from peak Yellow-rank late stage to Mystic-rank, one must take twenty Spirit-Gathering Pills or a single Spirit-Gathering Elixir!"

"So there was not enough to go around?" Hearing Han Xiaopo's words, Wei Zhao understood a little better. The Spirit-Gathering Pill is a Yellow-rank first-grade pill, and any Yellow-rank first-grade alchemist can refine it; but the Spirit-Gathering Elixir is a Yellow-rank second-grade pill, which only a Yellow-rank second-grade alchemist can produce—and with a success rate far lower than the Spirit-Gathering Pill, and from even rarer materials!

Thus the combined value of twenty Spirit-Gathering Pills did not equal that of a single Spirit-Gathering Elixir. Many hidden clans with a first-grade alchemist would gladly trade twenty or even more Spirit-Gathering Pills for one Spirit-Gathering Elixir, yet could find no one willing to trade!

"Exactly. Even a large supply cannot withstand such eating! My current strength is the result of taking three Spirit-Gathering Pills, which counts as rather good aptitude. With poorer aptitude, three pills can lift an ordinary person only to the early Yellow-rank!" Han Xiaopo said. "The family has so many people, and my father's generation spent vast quantities of Spirit-Gathering Pills to rise to Mystic-rank experts, so little was left for our third generation. Even if all of it was brought out, it might still suffice to lift us juniors into Mystic-rank—but that would be far too wasteful. Of the distant descendants we need not speak; but for those near, we cannot help but consider the sons and grandsons to come!"

"Can one also enter Earth-rank from Mystic-rank by swallowing pills?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Yes. An expert at the peak of Mystic-rank late stage need only take twenty Spirit-Gathering Elixirs, or one Minor Qi-Gathering Elixir, to enter Earth-rank and become an Earth-rank expert!" Han Xiaopo said. "Grandfather became an Earth-rank expert back then precisely by taking a Minor Qi-Gathering Elixir. Only in these years, his strength has scarcely advanced."

"Does your family still have any of these Minor Qi-Gathering Elixirs?" Hearing Han Xiaopo's explanation, Wei Zhao felt like weeping without tears. Simply eating pills could make one an Earth-rank expert? The scions of the ancient sects and hidden clans held far too great an advantage!

Of course, Minor Qi-Gathering Elixirs were by now a rarity. Unless one belonged to the Mystic Elixir Gate, where one could have them for the asking, or was a power on good terms with the Mystic Elixir Gate and could obtain a few, even the other hidden clans—even ancient sects and ancient clans—had to pay a steep price to get one. That alone showed how precious the Minor Qi-Gathering Elixir was!

"There are two left..." Han Xiaopo hesitated only briefly before speaking the truth without wavering. "Does Boss want them? I can plead with Grandfather on your behalf..."

"I do not want them." Hearing Han Xiaopo's words, Wei Zhao smiled faintly. "They are for you."

In that moment Wei Zhao fully approved of Han Xiaopo as a person. This young man had treated him decently enough and harbored no divided heart; had he been evasive, Wei Zhao would have had to reconsider his attitude toward Han Xiaopo!

But since Han Xiaopo could lay bare his family's secrets without reservation, that showed his loyalty plainly. Otherwise, if he had not truly meant to be Wei Zhao's junior brother, the leaking of such things would have been enough to bring the Hidden Han Family one step sooner to destruction at others' hands.

"Me?" Han Xiaopo was slightly startled. "With my current strength, even if I took a Minor Qi-Gathering Elixir, at most I would leap straight to peak Yellow-rank late stage—that would be an utter waste!"

"Heh, you will know when the time comes." Wei Zhao did not explain for now, but inwardly he sighed. Had he known Han Xiaopo earlier, why would he ever have taken the Qi-Gathering Pill? What a squandering of heaven's bounty—a single Minor Qi-Gathering Elixir would have sufficed, and after rising to Earth-rank, taking the Qi-Gathering Pill then would have raised his strength all the more!

But now the order was reversed: first the Qi-Gathering Pill, then the Minor Qi-Gathering Elixir, and it was of no use at all.

Then again, if Wei Zhao had not been an Earth-rank expert and had remained at Mystic-rank, the Hidden Han Family would never have sought him out—and in his earlier clashes with enemies, he would already have perished. So Wei Zhao merely sighed; he did not regret it overmuch.

Since Wei Zhao did not wish to elaborate, Han Xiaopo naturally did not press. He knew that Wei Zhao would speak when the time was right.

The car slowly entered the most core part of the Hidden Han Family—the Han Family Council Hall! Beside it stood the residence of the Han patriarch, Han Tianba!

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