Chapter 100 — Stepping In to Save a Life

Wang Xinyan was not afraid of them. The accident was not her fault; even if her father and grandfather got wind of it in the end, it would not matter much—at worst she would get a scolding, and the matter would still be settled. But now Wei Zhao was about to involve himself, and if these people turned their trouble on him, that would be a real problem.

Wang Xinyan had just been about to say something to Wei Zhao when she saw that he had already turned around.

Wei Zhao nodded. However one looked at it, he had already gotten himself tangled up in this mess, and so he had to find some way to get Wang Xinyan out of it. Though the man called Liu Tianyi seemed to have a measure of sense about him, the woman called Huiru had fastened herself onto Wang Xinyan and would not let go.

Wei Zhao turned his head and glanced at the old man on the ground. There were no signs of external injury on his body, and there were no obvious scratches on the front of Wang Xinyan's car either. It was probably just as Wang Xinyan had said: she had not hit the old man; the old man had collapsed on his own.

The old man's right hand was pressed to his chest, and he lay on the ground in a strange posture. But after looking him over for a moment or two, Wei Zhao had roughly made out the cause of the old man's illness. It should have been something like a heart attack that had brought him down—not a car. Wang Xinyan's car had merely happened to be passing by.

Wei Zhao bent down and laid his hand on the old man's wrist.

"What are you doing? Don't you dare touch him—are you trying to kill my father?" Huiru had barely calmed down for a moment before she saw Wei Zhao touching the old man on the ground, and at once she exploded again, charging at Wei Zhao with claws bared.

"Myocardial ischemia? Angina?" Wei Zhao frowned and raised his head.

"Huiru, stop making a scene!" Hearing Wei Zhao's words, Liu Tianyi's eyes lit up at once, and he hauled his wife off to one side, his face full of hope. He was no fool; Wei Zhao had merely felt the pulse and already named his father's illness, and so Liu Tianyi naturally took him for a doctor. "Young brother, are you a doctor?"

Wei Zhao did not answer Liu Tianyi's question directly. "Your father fell to the ground because myocardial ischemia brought on an attack of angina. It was not her car that hit him."

"You're talking nonsense!" Huiru's expression changed, and she pointed at Wei Zhao and cursed him.

"Fine, then call it nonsense. At the rate that ambulance is coming, your old father can just wait to die." Wei Zhao curled his lip and got to his feet. "Anyway, if he dies, there'll be a forensic examination. It has nothing to do with my friend."

Smack! Liu Tianyi slapped Huiru across the face. "Shut your mouth, woman! If you hadn't spent all your time on your makeup before we left the house—if you hadn't forgotten to bring Dad's medicine—would Dad be like this?"

"You... you dare hit me?" Huiru's eyes were full of disbelief. Her husband had been a spineless coward before her for most of their married life, and yet today, of all days, he had slapped her in public.

Liu Tianyi paid his wife no attention at all. He turned and looked earnestly at Wei Zhao. "Young brother, is there a way to save my father? Yes—you must have one. My wife is just like this; please don't hold it against her. I beg you to lend a hand..."

Liu Tianyi was not a reckless man. Wei Zhao was young, but to name the cause of his father's illness in a single phrase surely meant he was no ordinary sort. His father had no emergency medicine now, and whether he could last until the ambulance arrived was another matter entirely. So Liu Tianyi could only treat a dead horse as a live one—and having caught sight of a thread of hope, he was not about to let it go.

Wei Zhao looked at Liu Tianyi and decided that the man was at least sincere, and that slap he had dealt his wife just now had been man enough. Only then did Wei Zhao slowly nod. "I'll give it a try."

If the old man died, it would have nothing to do with Wang Xinyan—but judging by the look of this shrew, there would be no end of trouble to follow. The only way to free Wang Xinyan from this mess completely was to keep the old man from dying.

Wei Zhao crouched down and appeared to casually rub his fingers back and forth over several points on the old man's body, then began kneading and pressing around the heart. This art of acupoint striking and massage had been handed down to him by his own master; it could promote the circulation of blood. But whether it would be of any use to this old man, he had no idea...

Perhaps even his master would never have imagined that the acupoint skills he taught for killing would be used by his disciple to save a life...

If only he had silver needles. The old man at home was a master physician and had passed on to him a peerless skill in acupuncture—but Wei Zhao's trade was killing, not healing, and so he did not carry a case of silver needles on him.

"Boy, no matter how long you keep rubbing, it's useless. This man is half dead already. Before your massage can take effect, he'll have croaked." Suddenly, Jiaoyazi's scornful voice came to Wei Zhao's ear.

"Elder Jiao? You have a way?" Wei Zhao was delighted at once. In truth, he had been uneasy. Old Man Wei's medical skill was exquisite, but much of emergency treatment required silver needles, and it also depended on the symptoms. If the old man had only just fallen ill, Wei Zhao would have been confident of saving him. But by now the attack had been going on for some time, and Wei Zhao could only treat a dead horse as a live one.

"Hmph. You've cultivated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Art for ten years—was it all for nothing?" Jiaoyazi gave a cold snort. "The energy you've drawn into your body—just separate out a tiny bit and inject it into this old man's heart muscle, to restore and strengthen the blood supply. That will improve his present condition."

"Inject energy directly?" Wei Zhao was stunned. This was something he had never considered. He had always assumed that the energy elements he drew into his body were of use only to himself, because he had cultivated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Art—and that such energy elements were of no use to anyone else. "He has never cultivated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Art. Will this energy element even work on him?"

Wei Zhao knew that this energy element was remarkably effective at strengthening the body's tissues and functions, but without the corresponding cultivation formula and oral instructions, would it be of any use?

"He's never trained, so he can't absorb energy elements himself. But what you channel into him, he can receive." Jiao Yazi explained: "Boy, don't tell me you don't even understand a principle as simple as that?"

"This..." Wei Zhao's face flushed red. He truly did not understand these things. Old Man Wei did not know the Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Formula either; Wei Zhao had trained entirely on his own, head down and alone, with not a single person to consult.

"Run the heart formula and oral instructions over this old man's Dadun acupoint, and the energy elements will automatically be released and transmitted into him." Jiao Yazi said: "If you don't want him to die, you'd best start right now."

"Yes." Wei Zhao's heart gave a jolt, and he hurriedly carried out Jiao Yazi's instructions, administering aid to the old man. As for the Dadun acupoint, Wei Zhao had been made to study and identify acupoints under his master's supervision since childhood, and he was familiar with them beyond any doubt.