Gazing at the exquisite body suddenly revealed before his eyes, Wei Zhao's first reaction was to gape in astonishment; then he could not help but smile wryly and mutter, "I really botched this one..."

Hearing that somewhat embarrassed voice from behind her, Duanmu Yu's body tensed despite herself. She was a woman, after all, and were this not a moment when she could not afford to be distracted, she would have long since wished to crawl into a crack in the ground.

No matter how much of a tomboy she was, no matter that she and Wei Zhao were sworn friends in life and death, the fact remained that a young woman's untouched body had suddenly been seen in its entirety by another, and his hands were still resting on her back besides. This situation was truly...

Her face flushed so red it seemed about to drip blood, yet in the end Duanmu Yu forcibly steadied her mind. Shame was shame, but having come this far there was no room for regret; she could only throw caution to the wind and press on with the assault on the Golden Core. Otherwise, the incomparably vast medicinal power within her would submerge her in an instant, and then it would not be a question of her innocent body but of her very life.

At this point it was instead Wei Zhao who felt somewhat embarrassed. He truly had not done it on purpose. He knew that the medicinal power of two top-grade Golden Cores would be formidable and had prepared himself accordingly to guide it; under normal circumstances, such an awkward accident would not have occurred. The problem was that he had just discovered how astonishingly fast the meridians in Duanmu Yu's body absorbed the medicinal power—almost ten times faster than an ordinary person's!

It was like pouring water into a bucket: the same total amount of water was meant to go in, but the plan had been to ladle it in with a small dipper, only for a huge bucket to suddenly be hoisted up and emptied in all at once. There was simply no time to react.

"The legendary Leaf Meridian, is it..." Wei Zhao murmured thoughtfully. The so-called Leaf Meridian was in truth only a legend. Everyone's meridians were the same; even among the rare and strange cases, the differences were trifling. As for this so-called Leaf Meridian, judged purely by the structure of the meridians, it was no different from an ordinary person's—otherwise he would have discovered it the last time he treated Duanmu Yu's injuries.

The structure was the same, yet under certain special circumstances the abilities it displayed were utterly different. Just as now: ordinary meridians always needed time to absorb such immense medicinal power, whereas with the Leaf Meridian it was a matter of an instant.

In the blink of an eye, all the medicinal power had been forced into every meridian throughout Duanmu Yu's body. That was why the bewitching yet embarrassing scene had just occurred—the tremendous medicinal power had burst forth all at once from every meridian and every pore, and her clothes had naturally been blown apart...

Wei Zhao had been wholly unprepared for this, but fortunately he was now a true Primordial Ascension stage soul. Even if the strength of a soul body was nothing impressive, his methods were more than sufficient to guide the medicinal power in her body—at worst he had been caught off guard; once he recovered his wits he could easily take the situation in hand.

Time slipped by, bit by bit. With Wei Zhao's assistance, Duanmu Yu's absorption of the medicinal power proceeded very smoothly, and it was only three days later that the medicinal power was fully digested.

Duanmu Yu suddenly opened her eyes, and a wholly new aura slowly unfurled from her body. A heartfelt smile spread across her face. The effects of the two top-grade Golden Cores had indeed not been wasted—three days had been enough to help her successfully assault the Golden Core. The key point was that it was not merely the early Golden Core stage, but the peak of the early Golden Core stage!

This surprise was somewhat unexpected, yet also within reason. After all, whether in natural talent or in foundation, she was by no means mediocre; to call her a genius was no exaggeration at all. Having swallowed two top-grade Golden Cores at once, advancing two levels in one go was hardly anything to be astonished at.

"Congratulations," Wei Zhao's voice sounded from behind her.

Duanmu Yu was about to respond when she glanced down and suddenly remembered that she was still completely naked. Her face flushed at once, but before she could do anything, Wei Zhao had already handed a half-stalk of Spirit-Sense Grass over from behind her. "Strike while the iron is hot. Eat it."

"Mm..." Duanmu Yu took it instinctively, hesitating for a moment—and forgetting entirely the awkwardness of being unclothed.

"You're not thinking of handing it over, are you?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled at her reaction.

"It's not that, but..." Duanmu Yu was not an indecisive person, but this matter was truly of grave importance to her. The entire upper echelon of the sect was now pressing her to hand over this half-stalk of Spirit-Sense Grass. Though she had adopted an attitude of refusal to cooperate, if she simply ate the Spirit-Sense Grass like this, there would be no room left for maneuver. Once relations broke down, it would be all but equivalent to betraying the sect, and given her feelings for the Yeling Sect, she of course did not wish to reach such an irreversible point.

"You're a Golden Core expert now. Eating the Spirit-Sense Grass is only right and proper; no one can say a word against you. Besides, I'm here. Whatever happens, I can hold the situation for you—it won't get out of hand." Wei Zhao's tone was utterly assured, carrying an air of looking down from on high—not directed at Duanmu Yu, but at the Yeling Sect as a whole. Ever since he had recovered to the Primordial Ascension stage soul and could settle old Yuanying monsters with a single Soul-Snatching Hand, this feeling had arisen naturally. After all, within the entire Little Jianghu of the Primordial Era, he was inherently a being who stood above the rules.

"Then... all right." In the end Duanmu Yu nodded. Meekly submitting to adversity had never been her style—otherwise she would not have kicked up such a fuss to this day. Since the Spirit-Sense Grass was hers, what harm was there in eating it?

As she spoke, Duanmu Yu took the Spirit-Sense Grass and stuffed it straight into her mouth. Then her whole body tensed once more; the awkwardness of being unclothed vanished from her mind, leaving only four words: immense bitterness, immense pain.

An indescribable agony surged in like a tide, swallowing her whole in an instant. At such a moment nothing else mattered—strength and skill were both irrelevant. The only thing that could sustain her and keep her holding on was willpower.

Because of that willpower, she stood firm as a reef amid the towering waves of pain, utterly immovable. Time seemed to stretch endlessly long.

"This was a bit reckless..." A trace of regret suddenly surfaced in Duanmu Yu's consciousness. After holding on for a long, long moment, she found that she was actually beginning to falter!

Of course she could not hold on. Half a stalk of Spirit-Sense Grass had gone into her mouth all at once; the effect was no longer a tempering of the spirit sense but a veritable death by a thousand cuts. Others who obtained Spirit-Sense Grass would take only a tiny sip every ten days to half a month, methodically tempering and honing themselves—and even then, every session tore at heart and lungs, and a single slip could leave lasting aftereffects. As for her, she had swallowed the whole thing outright, turning a proper forging into a lingering execution by slicing. Who could endure that? (To be continued.)