"Fine." Wei Zhao agreed without the slightest hesitation, took up brush and paper, and wrote a letter right there on the table. There was nothing remarkable in it, nor any mention of the Spirit Consciousness Grass; it simply asked Bing Wushuang to come to the Yeling Sect for a visit. When he had finished, he set it by the door so that Qiu Mingchong could come in and take it away.

Once the iron door had shut again, Duanmu Yu could not help asking in puzzlement, "You actually wrote it?"

"They wanted me to write, so I wrote. It's no great matter, after all." Wei Zhao seemed entirely unconcerned.

"But aren't you dragging Bing Wushuang into the pit along with us for nothing?" Duanmu Yu was somewhat worried. During the trials of the Primordial Era, she had already come to understand that a certain tacit understanding existed between Bing Wushuang and Wei Zhao. She did not know why such an understanding had formed, but from it she could conclude that Bing Wushuang was most likely one of their own. Was Wei Zhao not selling out his own people by doing this?

"If it's a pit, then we all jump in together—it'll be livelier that way." Wei Zhao laughed softly.

"..." Duanmu Yu of course knew he was joking, but at a moment like this she could not bring herself to laugh. After a brief silence she said, "I don't know what you're planning in your heart, but I don't want you to compromise with them on my account. You are a grand-uncle master of the Cangwu Gate of North Island; the higher-ups of our Yeling Sect are no fools. So long as you refuse to yield, they shouldn't dare do anything to you. Sooner or later they will have to let you go back."

"And what about you?" Wei Zhao countered.

"Me? At worst I stay locked up here in confinement forever—I'll just treat it as a secluded retreat." There was no feigned lightness in Duanmu Yu's expression. That really was how she saw it. From where she stood, she certainly did not want an outright falling-out with her sect, but given her temperament she would not easily submit either. So let it stay deadlocked, then.

"A woman with a spirit as free as yours is truly rare." Wei Zhao tossed out the praise casually, then said, "Come, let's continue what we were doing."

"Wh—what thing?" Duanmu Yu looked utterly baffled.

"Didn't I say? We're idle anyway, so we might as well help you break through to the Golden Core stage. Or don't you want to become a Golden Core expert and go out there to give them a good fright?" Wei Zhao's tone was entirely matter-of-fact.

"Is that even possible?" Duanmu Yu's eyes lit up. If there was a chance, of course she wanted to break through to the Golden Core stage. In fact, if she had already been a Golden Core expert, none of this would ever have happened.

The Spirit Consciousness Grass could only be consumed by Golden Core experts. Yet she was still merely at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment—and that was the most important reason the higher-ups had given for demanding she hand over the Spirit Consciousness Grass. But if she became a Golden Core expert, then that argument would naturally collapse.

Still, with only her own ability, such a thing could only be a fantasy. If it came to truly attempting a breakthrough to the Golden Core stage, she was in fact not yet ready. Strictly speaking, it had not been long at all since she advanced to Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment—less than two years—and the crucial factor was that she lacked the conditions. Without Golden Core Pills in hand, how could one simply attempt a breakthrough to the Golden Core stage?

"What's so impossible about it?" As he spoke, Wei Zhao produced a handful of pills. One glance was enough to leave Duanmu Yu dumbstruck—they were all Golden Core Pills, each one wreathed in swirling elixir halos. Every single one of them was top-grade!

His chief purpose in coming to the Yeling Sect this time had been to give her some Golden Core Pills. After all, this was a bond forged in life and death; with Wei Zhao's temperament, he would never treat a true and reliable friend shabbily.

"All of these are for me?" Staring at the handful of Golden Core Pills the other had pressed into her hand, Duanmu Yu was struck speechless. She knew Wei Zhao was generous, but generosity to this degree was simply staggering. These were top-grade Golden Core Pills!

"That's right. You don't need to eat them all at once—for now, two should be enough." Wei Zhao said.

"Two?" Duanmu Yu was startled again. She well knew that the more advanced a pill, the less one could take too many of them. Especially with top-grade Golden Core Pills like these: at her current cultivation level, consuming even one would require all her strength to digest its immense medicinal power. To take two at once—that could truly kill a person!

"Don't worry. If you were on your own, of course you couldn't take two, but with me here there's no problem—I can guide the medicinal power for you," Wei Zhao explained. He knew Duanmu Yu had not yet fully touched the barrier between the Foundation Establishment stage and the Golden Core stage, and was not yet at the point where she could truly attempt a breakthrough. Taking only one top-grade Golden Core Pill might not be reliable, but with two, there would be no problem.

"Th—this really can work?" Duanmu Yu was still somewhat incredulous. She had never even heard of taking two top-grade Golden Core Pills in a row, much less having someone guide the medicinal power during a breakthrough. Such a thing ran completely contrary to everything she had always known.

"Mm." Wei Zhao nodded, offering no further explanation.

"All right, then let's begin." Duanmu Yu agreed very quickly. After that experience in the trials of the Primordial Era—an experience that could only be called miraculous—her trust in Wei Zhao, even if not as blind as that of Qiu Lingshan and the others, was not far from it. After all, this was an existence at the Mystic Ascension stage, personally acknowledged by the Nine Infants.

Compared with that, what truly made her hesitate was in fact the top-grade Golden Core Pills themselves. The value of so many top-grade Golden Core Pills needed no elaboration; they were far more precious even than the Spirit Consciousness Grass. As a woman of the jianghu who kept clear accounts of kindness and grievance, she would ordinarily never rashly accept another's favor, especially a favor as outrageous as this—just as before, she had left a great heap of Spirit Consciousness Grass roots untouched and in the end taken only half a stalk of the grass, because only that much was what she had agreed upon with Wei Zhao beforehand.

Yet unexpectedly, she did not hesitate over this for long, nor did she even make a token show of declining. She simply accepted Wei Zhao's gift outright.

Wei Zhao did not know exactly what she had come to understand, but he did not find it strange, for Duanmu Yu was by nature a woman of great freedom of spirit.

Duanmu Yu adjusted her breathing slightly, striving to bring her state to its peak. The process did not take long, for she had been doing exactly this all this time. Then, without the slightest hesitation, she stuffed the two top-grade Golden Core Pills into her mouth.

She knew this action was dangerous—one misstep and she might even lose her life—but since Wei Zhao had said so, she believed him. (To be continued.)