Chapter 956 — Who Told You?

"Nothing much. Aren't you the divine physician Zhao Yaowang?" A mocking sneer cut across Wei Zhao's lips. "The internet is making quite a fuss about you, so I'm sure you can take care of it!"

"This... it's just like Li Dilei's true qi silver needles from last time?" the Medicine King asked, somewhat aghast.

"Oh, more or less. But I've improved on it a little, so it isn't quite the same as last time." Wei Zhao said. "Didn't you notice? This time the needles are planted along your meridians."

"That..." The Medicine King's expression turned even more aghast. "What happens then?"

"Nothing at all. I compressed my true qi and sealed it inside your meridians with the silver needles. So long as you don't pull them out, nothing happens." Wei Zhao smiled. "Of course, you're welcome to pull them out."

"And what happens if I do?" the Medicine King asked, face dark. "Isn't your strength gone? How can you still have true qi?"

"Why are you as stupid as that fool Zhao Qibing? No wonder you run with his lot, all of you sitting there taking your own guesses for gospel!" Wei Zhao curled his lip. "May I ask, who told you my strength was gone?"

"That..." The Medicine King thought, who ever told me? Isn't that just what I concluded on my own?

"If you pull the needles out, my true qi goes 'bang' inside your body." Wei Zhao said with great theatricality. "Then your meridians get blown to shreds and your strength falls off a cliff. Once you've pulled out every needle, all your meridians are scrapped. So congratulations, from now on you can go cultivate external techniques!"

This was another vicious trick Wei Zhao had devised after his own meridians were damaged, and now he was using it directly on the Medicine King. Still, against a man like him, a bit of viciousness was unavoidable.

"Impossible!" The Medicine King's face suddenly turned savage. "You're lying. Your strength is gone. You're just waving a few silver needles around to put on a show. You have no true qi at all, I can't sense the slightest fluctuation of true qi inside you."

"Heh. My strength is higher than yours, so naturally you can't." Wei Zhao thought: you're not me. A proper expert of the inner school can only read an opponent's strength while that opponent's true qi is circulating, or, if his own strength is far higher, can see through the other at a glance. Otherwise, unless you have a cheat like Wei Zhao's that lets him see across levels, there's no way at all.

"Bullshit! Your strength is gone!" The Medicine King was the one most certain that Wei Zhao had lost his power, so at this moment he did not believe for an instant that Wei Zhao still had any.

"Then don't believe it. You can try pulling out one needle." Wei Zhao said indifferently.

"Then I'll pull it out! You think I don't dare?" As he spoke, the Medicine King reached for the needle in his chest. But his hand had scarcely touched it when he paused, and instead moved down to his left thigh, to pull the needle there.

Wei Zhao laughed inwardly and said nothing. The Medicine King might shout that he wasn't afraid, but in the end he still hadn't dared pull the needle from his chest. After all, the principal meridians ran near the chest; if they were blown apart, his strength would likely plummet straight from the Mystic rank to the Yellow rank!

The left thigh, though, hardly mattered. Very little true qi was stored there, and once those meridians burst, the worst that could happen was that his left leg could no longer channel true qi, which was of no consequence to an expert like the Medicine King, never much good in a fight.

The Medicine King yanked the needle from his thigh, and his eyes went wide. With a thunderous bang, he felt as if his left thigh were about to be blown off; the meridians inside it were annihilated in an instant by Wei Zhao's vast true qi.

With a wretched scream, the Medicine King staggered and nearly went down on the ground.

His face shifted from agony to terror. Staring at Wei Zhao, he broke out in sweat, beads the size of beans rolling down his cheeks.

"Impossible... this can't be. How have you not lost your strength?" The Medicine King groaned inwardly. What was wrong with this Wei Zhao? Playing the pig to eat the tiger? His strength clearly wasn't gone, so why hadn't he revealed it back in the parking lot? Why let him go on believing Wei Zhao had no power left?

By now Zhao Qibing and Li Cihua were dumbstruck as well. What? Wei Zhao hadn't lost his strength? Which meant, in other words, Wei Zhao was still as badass as ever?

Damn it! Zhao Qibing recalled all those asking-for-a-beating remarks he had made to Wei Zhao earlier, and could have slapped himself across the face. What a foul mouth he had, truly a foul mouth! With Wei Zhao's temper, he was finished!

"I'm still rather puzzled. Who told you my strength was gone? Who did you hear it from? Or was it a fantasy of your own?" Wei Zhao asked, looking at the Medicine King with mockery.

The Medicine King's face darkened. He thought: wasn't it just my own fantasy? He could not help saying bitterly, "You clearly still had your strength. Back in the parking lot, why didn't you use your true qi?"

"Use true qi against a few petty thieves?" Wei Zhao shook his head. "Besides, the true qi is mine. I use it when I please and hold it when I please. What business is it of yours?"

"..." The Medicine King was left rather speechless. Wei Zhao was right; the true qi was his, and whether he used it or not was his own affair. What right had he to pry? Still, he asked, "Then what about before, when I went to the Gu Group to make trouble for Gu Pengzhan... for Chairman Chu, why didn't you stop me?"

"Oh, all right. I was pretending my strength was gone, to see who meant me harm, and then go stomp them back down." Wei Zhao shrugged, "admitting" it.

"**!" The Medicine King could not help cursing. So he'd been played? He was one of those who meant Wei Zhao harm? And so Wei Zhao had stomped him back down? Truly he had asked for it, and who else was there to blame? A wave of sorrow welled up in the Medicine King's heart...

"Then what about these silver needles of mine?" the Medicine King asked with a bitter smile.

"Aren't you terribly skilled yourself? You can try refining my true qi, or wait for your meridians to shatter and then repair them." Wei Zhao said. "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you, I happen to know how to repair meridians. If all of yours shatter, you're welcome to come to me."

"You... you can repair meridians?" The Medicine King stared at Wei Zhao in astonishment.

"Of course. It's simple enough. My meridians have been wrecked several times already, and look at me now, not a thing wrong." Wei Zhao looked at the Medicine King with sympathy. "If you can't repair them, that only means your medical skill is too poor! Seems the rumors can't be trusted after all."