"Don't tell me you don't have any?" Uncle Qing was just as astonished as Wei Zhao by the look of disbelief in his eyes.

"For now, I really don't." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. "The things I obtained are different from what others have. The mental cultivation method and oral formulas I practice share no similarities and no common ground with anyone else's, so for the time being I have no martial arts techniques at all!"

"The only martial arts technique I can still remember is the one I cultivated myself, and even then it's just the first three forms. I never had time to learn anything beyond that, and as for the manuals and secret tomes of martial arts, they were all kept in our sect's scripture pavilion, long since gone..." Uncle Qing smiled bitterly. "If you need it, I can certainly teach you."

"Only three forms? And who knows whether I can even learn them..." Wei Zhao sighed helplessly. Setting aside whether he could master Uncle Qing's martial arts at all, even if he could, three forms really did seem a little too few!

But Wei Zhao had no other choice now. He suspected that a matching set of martial arts techniques ought to exist alongside the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, yet he did not have them in hand at present, and whether any lay behind the second stone gate was something he did not know either. And if there were none, when the third stone gate would open was anyone's guess. So Wei Zhao was in no position to be picky—since Uncle Qing's martial arts were available, he might as well learn them and see!

So long as the technique was not of the extreme yin and extreme soft variety like those of the Ice Palace, Wei Zhao could still force himself to try learning it. The Ice Palace's martial arts were the polar opposite of his own mental cultivation method; if he forced himself to practice them, he feared he would suffer a qi deviation.

"I'll spend the next couple of days recalling them and organizing the techniques for you. You can give them a try," Uncle Qing said. "It's been so long since I last used any martial arts. It rather fills me with emotion..."

"I'm an Earth-rank expert now. If you want, I can raise your strength right away!" It suddenly occurred to Wei Zhao that if he also raised Uncle Qing to the Earth rank, then having Uncle Qing personally teach him martial arts would surely be far easier than studying dull text on his own—simpler and easier to understand, wouldn't it?

"You can raise it again?" Uncle Qing's eyes lit up at once, then filled with the flame of hope! The Earth rank—a cultivation at the Earth rank! Once Uncle Qing recovered his Earth-rank strength, it would be as if he had returned to the state he was in at the peak of his life. And that would bring him one step closer to his dream of revenge!

"It should be possible!" Wei Zhao said. "By the way, during this recent period while I was away, has your strength recovered at all?"

"Recently? Oh, if you hadn't mentioned it, I'd have forgotten all about it!" At this, Uncle Qing's expression turned grave. "I was puzzled before—ever since you helped raise my strength, it's as though I no longer absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth from the natural world at all. When I cultivate on my own, there's not the slightest progress!"

"Not the slightest progress?" Wei Zhao was taken aback, but then a very important thought occurred to him! Since the Qi Gathering Pills contained vast amounts of pure true qi, anyone who used a Qi Gathering Pill would become somewhat resistant to the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. And the energy in his own body was even purer than that of a Qi Gathering Pill. Once someone had used his energy, wouldn't they be even more resistant to the spiritual qi of heaven and earth?

After taking Qi Gathering Pills himself, Wei Zhao had found that they did not affect his absorption of the energy in the jade pendant's space in the slightest. That proved the energy in the jade pendant's space was the purest of all—even Qi Gathering Pills could not compare. So the situation Uncle Qing described could now be explained...

Suddenly, Wei Zhao recalled something Qiu Lingshan had once said. It seemed Qiu Lingshan had experienced a similar situation: after Wei Zhao forcibly raised her strength, her own cultivation produced no further effect!

At that thought, Wei Zhao could not help but smile bitterly. So energy that was too pure was a drawback as well. These people had received his favor, but at the same time it had created a tremendous drawback for them: when upgrading, they had to rely on Wei Zhao to break through for them. Otherwise, their own cultivation would make no progress at all!

Still, he himself had absorbed the pure energy from the jade pendant's space, and the less pure energy in Qi Gathering Pills did not hinder his use of them either. From this he could judge that so long as the difference in purity was not especially large, there was no problem. It was only when the difference was especially large that problems would arise!

In ancient times the spiritual qi of heaven and earth was abundant, so the drawback of Qi Gathering Pills did not exist. Now that the spiritual qi of heaven and earth was growing ever thinner, the drawback was growing ever more obvious.

"The true qi you channeled into me..." Uncle Qing seemed to have thought of this too. Wei Zhao had said earlier that after taking Qi Gathering Pills, he suffered no such drawback. That meant the true qi Wei Zhao obtained must be even purer than the true qi in Qi Gathering Pills. So after Wei Zhao's true qi was channeled into Uncle Qing's body, Uncle Qing became resistant to the spiritual qi of heaven and earth—no matter how he cultivated, there would be no significant progress.

"You've thought of it too!" Wei Zhao nodded. "The true qi I channeled into you should be about the same as a Qi Gathering Pill's—both are extremely pure. That's what caused a drawback similar to that of Qi Gathering Pills. It seems that from now on, only I can upgrade you, or you'll have to take Qi Gathering Pills to upgrade!"

"That's the only way, then!" Uncle Qing smiled bitterly, then said, "But this way, I won't have to expend any effort at all—I can simply sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. With you upgrading ahead of me, I just follow along behind. I can break through and upgrade without lifting a finger. This is really..."

Originally, back in his own sect, with that precious treasure aiding him, Uncle Qing had felt his upgrading was already very fast—as if he had been granted a golden finger, as if he had activated a cheat, making things far easier than for others!

But now, only after meeting Wei Zhao did Uncle Qing realize what a true golden finger and a true cheat really were! Wei Zhao was far more formidable than his former sect's precious treasure. Even with that treasure's aid, one still had to cultivate diligently to achieve anything. But with Wei Zhao, none of that was necessary—one simply sat back and enjoyed the results!

Wei Zhao could be said to be far more important than that precious treasure. If word of this got out, it was likely that Wei Zhao, a living, breathing man, would become the object of every major sect's scramble. Of course, if Wei Zhao possessed formidable strength, he would become an even more sought-after figure than an alchemist, and be respected by others.

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