Chapter 889 — Poisoned, of All Things!

Ma Zhu watched Wei Zhao dodge this way and that, and did not grow angry; he only sneered. "Skipping and hopping about — how are you any different from that dog? If you've got the skill, then keep hopping forever!"

Over on the other side, General Mighty had already finished off every last member of the musketeer squad, and came bounding over, tail wagging, eager to lend Wei Zhao a hand.

"Go protect Yao-yao and Xiao Shu. You can't handle things here," Wei Zhao ordered General Mighty. If Wei Zhao himself could do nothing to Ma Zhu, General Mighty had even less of a chance.

At Wei Zhao's words, General Mighty hurried to Gu Mengyao's and Shen Yushu's side and gnawed through the ropes binding them with his teeth...

Wei Zhao glanced at Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, and only when he saw that the ropes on them had been cut did his heart ease. Seizing a gap as he dodged past Ma Zhu, he shouted to Gu Mengyao, "Yao-yao, you and Xiao Shu leave here with General Mighty first!"

"But... Wei Zhao, you..." Gu Mengyao was worried about him — how could she possibly leave him behind and go?

"You go first. Once you're gone, I can slip away at any time!" Yet inwardly Wei Zhao was anxious; after circling around Ma Zhu for so long, he still had not found a single opening.

"Heh heh, would they dare?" Ma Zhu said with assurance. "The moment they take one step out of here, I'll kill them first! You can dodge my attacks — but they can't. Hahahaha!"

Wei Zhao frowned at Ma Zhu's words, and could only abandon the notion of sending Gu Mengyao away first. It seemed Ma Zhu was no fool; he knew that once Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were gone, Wei Zhao would have no reason to keep tangling with him. Only while the two girls stayed would Wei Zhao stay as well.

But Wei Zhao was helpless. Ma Zhu had spoken the truth — he could break off at any moment and go kill Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, for he had no fear of Wei Zhao's sneak attacks, and Wei Zhao simply could not touch him.

"We'll wait for you — and go home together!" Hearing Ma Zhu, Gu Mengyao actually felt relieved; she had not wanted to leave first. Now that leaving was impossible, she was calmer instead.

"Go, Brother Shield — beat that big dumb oaf to death!" Shen Yushu chimed in.

"Hmph!" Ma Zhu gave a cold snort, disdaining to bandy words with two little girls. What he had to do now was finish Wei Zhao off. "Brat, let's see whether you die this time!"

"Whoosh—" Wei Zhao twisted aside from another of Ma Zhu's blows, but it was a hair-raising escape; he had come within a whisker of being struck!

What was going on? Why had his reactions slowed? Had his stamina run dry? Impossible — how far had they even gone? He could run tens of thousands of meters without exhausting himself; how could dodging a few of Ma Zhu's attacks have drained him?

"Crack!" The edge of Ma Zhu's palm grazed Wei Zhao's left shoulder, and a piercing pain shot through the whole of it. In an instant Wei Zhao saw the shoulder swell up. If he judged rightly, Ma Zhu had cracked the bone.

Wei Zhao stared at Ma Zhu, startled. What on earth was happening? Why had his movements grown so sluggish? That he had actually been hit by Ma Zhu — what was the reason for it?

"How is it? Feels good, doesn't it? Only a pity I didn't hit a vital spot. But never mind — I have all the patience in the world. I'll play you to death, slowly!" Looking at the swollen shoulder he had given Wei Zhao, Ma Zhu's lips curved into a sinister smile. "Feels just great, doesn't it?"

Wei Zhao frowned, feeling his steps grow heavier and heavier.

Wei Zhao had always been confident in his lightness skill and his stamina, but now his lightness skill had worsened greatly, and even his stamina was showing signs of giving out. Wei Zhao thought: This is bad. If this goes on, I am as good as dead...

Wei Zhao swiftly circulated the inner-energy method of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art and examined his injuries... Wait! Suddenly, he discovered something amiss within his own body.

Poison! He had been poisoned!

Wei Zhao's face turned ashen, and a possibility struck him. "The bullets earlier — were they poisoned?"

"Poison?" Ma Zhu was briefly taken aback; plainly he had not been in on it.

"Hahahahaha!" Zhen Yingjun, however, burst into delighted laughter at Wei Zhao's words. "I thought you were immune to poison! So long without any effect — I'd begun to think such poison was useless against cultivators like you. So it was only delayed in taking hold! No wonder you got clumsy — the poison's finally kicked in! Bwahahaha!"

"So there was poison after all!" Wei Zhao gritted his teeth, his breathing a little ragged. He had never imagined Zhen Yingjun would be so vicious as to coat the earlier bullets with poison.

"Master Ma, the poison's taken hold of the boy — finish him quickly!" Zhen Yingjun felt not the slightest qualm about what he had done; to his mind, killing Wei Zhao was the first and only objective. Indeed, at this moment he considered himself magnificently clever.

If Wei Zhao had not been poisoned, then for all his skipping and hopping, Ma Zhu truly could have done nothing to him. Formidable as Ma Zhu was, Wei Zhao's lightness skill was superb, and for a time Ma Zhu had been unable to touch him. But now that Wei Zhao was poisoned and his movements had slowed, his death seemed to Zhen Yingjun merely a matter of time.

Ma Zhu nodded. Though he rather disdained the business of poison, the boy had been hopping back and forth before him and dodging every strike, which was genuinely infuriating — so Wei Zhao's being poisoned was, on the whole, a good thing.

Was he to meet his end here today? Wei Zhao clenched his teeth, glanced at the young lady, and then at Shen Yushu.

If he ran now, Wei Zhao was confident that for all Ma Zhu's speed, he could not be caught. But what of the young lady? And yet if he did not leave, once Ma Zhu killed him, would Ma Zhu let the young lady go?

Probably. Otherwise, if Zhen Yingjun had wanted Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu dead, then they would already have been two corpses before Wei Zhao ever arrived. But Zhen Yingjun had not done that, which showed he wanted only Wei Zhao dead and had no wish to deal with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu.

His own death would stir far less trouble than the deaths of Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. In Zhen Yingjun's eyes he was merely a follower of the two girls; a follower dead was simply a follower dead. But if Gu Pengzhan's daughter died, the affair would surely blow up beyond measure.

At that thought, Wei Zhao's heart settled.

"Brat, there's no use thinking about all that!" Ma Zhu looked at Wei Zhao and said mildly, "Never mind that you're already poisoned — even if you weren't, you'd still be no match for me..."

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