Chapter 2303 — The Refining Method

After carefully wiping Wei Zhao's cheeks clean, Sun Jingyan wiped his hands as well, then set down the towel and sat a short distance from him, quietly waiting, watching him all the while, waiting for him to finish healing.

The Thunder Pig lay sprawled to one side and was soon snoring loudly. It knew Wei Zhao's injuries this time were not serious and that its services would not be needed; it was tired too, and so naturally it had gone to sleep first.

At this moment the Tagan clan's attention was fixed entirely on Lazi. As for Wei Zhao—"Zhang Naipao"—they had not gone looking for him, nor dared to. Who knew whether Wei Zhao had joined forces with that mad old Heaven-Rank fellow?

They had already beaten the Grand Protector to death, and Tagan Gan was not confident he could deal with Wei Zhao either, so he could only let the matter drop. Though even had he not wished to let it drop, it would have been impossible to leave Ruileida Town for the border town.

So Wei Zhao was perfectly safe here, and passed the night without incident.

"Mm, I'm fine now. Thank you for your trouble tonight—for keeping me company all this while." Though Wei Zhao had been healing, he had seen everything going on around him perfectly clearly. After Sun Jingyan wiped his face and hands, she had sat there watching him the entire time, and it moved him.

"You knew?" Sun Jingyan's face flushed at once. She had not expected Wei Zhao to notice what she was doing. She had only wanted to watch him quietly; she had not even thought about how far things between them could go. But now that Wei Zhao had said it aloud, she felt rather embarrassed.

"Get some sleep. These past days you probably haven't slept well—if not for the fact that you count as a cultivator, you'd have dark circles under your eyes by now." Wei Zhao did not pursue the subject. He had guessed something of Sun Jingyan's feelings, but in such matters he believed in letting things take their course, without forcing anything.

"Mm... then I'll sleep..." Sun Jingyan felt a little awkward, and now that Wei Zhao had brought it up again, she truly did feel drowsy. She nodded and flopped down on the bed opposite: "I'm going to sleep. Call me when it's time to eat. Oh, right—the Thousand-Silk Mask and the Heaven-and-Earth Net are both in my bag. Take them back."

After returning to the border town and parting ways with Abiao and the others, Sun Jingyan had resumed her true appearance.

"Sleep." Wei Zhao relaxed. There was a great deal he needed to sort through—the spoils from this trip to the Wulonghaote Mountains, for one, and Tagan Long's strange martial technique for another. There were many things he would have to ask Old Jiao about.

Sun Jingyan really was exhausted. She lay down on the bed and within moments had drifted into dreamland, while Wei Zhao began sorting through the gains from this journey into the Wulonghaote Mountains.

A baffling white energy stone, two spirit-beast essence cores, the two remaining Heaven-and-Earth Nets, a secret manual on the refining method for an essence necklace, and a Thousand-Silk Mask.

Unfortunately, all three Fire-Flow Divine Bullets had been used up, and one Heaven-and-Earth Net had been wasted as well. Still, what remained made for a fairly rich haul.

Picking up the secret manual on the refining method for the essence necklace, Wei Zhao could hardly wait to leaf through it. This manual was something he had stolen from the Tagan clan at the risk of his life, and it was also one of the things that interested him most.

The Tagan clan—this ordinary little family—was steeped in mystery. Not only did it possess a young talent as remarkable as Tagan Long, it also had experts like the Grand Protector, Old Six, and Old Twelve. And what astonished Wei Zhao most was that they actually knew the use of spirit-beast essence cores!

This was something even Old Jiao and Uncle Qing—even the Thunder Pig and the Wind-Thunder Violet-Lightning Beast—did not know the use of. Yet they knew, and they even had the refining method for an essence necklace. Wei Zhao found it almost unbelievable. Just how deep were the Tagan clan's foundations?

No wonder the power behind them had been able to wipe out an ancient sect like Uncle Qing's. Even if Uncle Qing's sect had been a second- or third-rate ancient power, to be able to annihilate it at will was not something an ordinary force could accomplish.

Shaking his head, Wei Zhao set these thoughts aside for the moment and took out the book on the method for condensing an essence necklace, leafing through it carefully. This, he felt, was the greatest prize of the journey. If an essence necklace could be refined, it would be a treasure of the very first order.

"Method for Condensing an Essence Necklace"—eight large characters leaped into Wei Zhao's eyes. This was a thread-bound secret manual in photocopy form; the original had been handwritten, but the Tagan clan's copy was a reproduction. With technology so advanced nowadays, there was no need for anyone to copy texts by hand; these clans and sects had also adopted this more convenient method of reproducing their manuals.

"Basic requirement for condensation—a weaponsmith!"

A weaponsmith? Wei Zhao frowned. This thing required a weaponsmith to condense it? Before he could even read on, the basic requirement on the first page gave him a headache. A weaponsmith had to possess a constitution with the metal, wood, and fire attributes!

Wei Zhao thought of his own situation—he could not even become an alchemist, let alone a weaponsmith, who required one more attribute, metal, than an alchemist did! What a headache!

He had thought he had gotten his hands on something good, only to discover it was utterly unattainable. Yet this also proved something indirectly: the Tagan clan was truly extraordinary. They even had a weaponsmith—a profession that had vanished from the world. This already exceeded the level of ancient existence.

But none of that mattered now. However formidable the Tagan clan might be, they operated only within Ruileida Town; their influence had not extended beyond it. At least, Wei Zhao had so far found no connection between the ancient sects here and them.

Although Wei Zhao believed he was no weaponsmith, he kept reading anyway. Curiosity, after all, made him unwilling to give up just like that.

"Base material required for refinement—one piece of superior-grade jade pendant!"

One piece of superior-grade jade pendant? Wei Zhao frowned, but after reading the explanation below, he understood what it meant. So the spirit-beast essence cores could not exist in standalone form; they had to be inlaid in a piece of superior-grade jade pendant to function. The jade pendant was like a great base material, carrying these essence cores.

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