Chapter 604 — Did I Misjudge Him?

"Yes, what of it?" Zhang Yuzhou was a mere minnow, not yet important enough to be privy to such hidden matters. He knew that Wei Zhao had crippled Young Master Bing's legs, but as for Wei Zhao's true strength and Uncle Zhu's, he remained wholly in the dark.

"Are you certain you did not mistake the man? Wei Zhao was the one driving?" Li Cihua asked, incredulous.

"No mistake at all. When they came out, I even snapped a photo with my phone! I can send it to you by picture message in a moment?" Zhang Yuzhou said with certainty, at a loss as to why Li Cihua should doubt him so.

"Wei Zhao is the same as any healthy man? Nothing at all amiss?" Li Cihua pressed, unwilling to let it go.

"That's right. He was driving, wasn't he? What could be abnormal about that?" Zhang Yuzhou replied.

"Then send me the photos!" Li Cihua's brows knitted tight. This was truly strange. By Uncle Zhu's and the Medicine King's account, should Wei Zhao not be lying abed now, at death's door? How could he be out and about with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu? Driving, no less?

"All right. Then should I keep tailing them?" Zhang Yuzhou asked.

"No need to follow. Withdraw." Li Cihua only wanted to confirm Wei Zhao's condition; what Wei Zhao was up to held no interest for him whatsoever.

"Oh, fine. Then I'll pull back," Zhang Yuzhou answered.

After he sent Wei Zhao's photos to Li Cihua, he told the driver to stop following the car ahead.

And so, just as Wei Zhao was wondering why Li Cihua had sent someone to tail him again, and was about to shake off the tail behind him, he suddenly saw the car behind swing into a turn and vanish!

Wei Zhao shook his head. Since they had stopped following, he could not be bothered with them; in any case, Li Cihua could stir up no great storm.

Meanwhile, after Li Cihua hung up, he received the picture message Zhang Yuzhou had sent. Sure enough, the photos showed Wei Zhao, no worse for wear, leaving the villa alongside Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, and then the three of them getting into the car together.

The last few shots were somewhat blurred, clearly taken as Zhang Yuzhou kept tailing Wei Zhao after getting into his own car. Only the picture of the rear of Gu Mengyao's Audi A5 was clear enough to make out the direction they were heading.

Li Cihua did not dare tarry. He hurried into the rear residence of the Geili Fuyun Bar. Zhao Qibing was fiddling with his phone, while the Medicine King and Uncle Zhu were conferring in low voices about something.

"Young Master Bing, Uncle Zhu, Master Medicine — I have grave news!" Li Cihua said in haste.

"Grave news? What grave news?" Seeing Li Cihua return, Young Master Bing set his phone aside. He had been reading a web novel called *The Art of Wooing Women*, dreaming of becoming its protagonist and overawing all the world.

"Wei Zhao appears to be uninjured. According to my subordinate's surveillance report, he is at this very moment out with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, and he is the one driving. He is no different from any ordinary man!" Li Cihua said.

"Impossible!" It was not Zhao Qibing who spoke, but Uncle Zhu first: "He and I traded palms. I know full well the state of us both. How could he be entirely unharmed?"

"Uncle Zhu, I thought the same, but these are photos my subordinate just sent me by picture message. Have a look..." Li Cihua smiled bitterly and handed over his phone.

Uncle Zhu took the phone and began flipping through the images, the Medicine King leaning in beside him to look as well.

"This—" Staring at the screen, Uncle Zhu's eyes went wide, as though he had seen a ghost. "These were taken just now? How can this be? With wounds so severe, quite apart from whether he could stand and walk — without some miracle elixir and Brother Medicine's devoted care, whether I myself could even muster the strength to speak is doubtful... How could Wei Zhao be out and about?"

The Medicine King wore a look of equal disbelief, finding the photos on the phone far too fantastic: "Surely not? Could it be that Wei Zhao was never injured at all? That he is no Mystic-rank adept, but something higher?"

"Absolutely impossible!" Uncle Zhu shook his head. "When we traded palms, I could plainly sense his strength. He is early Mystic-rank, without a doubt! And if he were something mightier, he would have had no need to heed my warning that I would fight to the death — he could simply have struck at Young Master Bing directly! The fact that he chose to fall back shows he was not wholly certain of beating me head-on. Besides, only when two are evenly matched would I be wounded and yet not killed. If his strength had been too great, I could not be standing here speaking now — I would long since have breathed my last!"

"But the fact remains that Wei Zhao truly did go out. Let us not debate what is possible or impossible — it is already possible!" Li Cihua said with some helplessness. "Uncle Zhu, Master Medicine — if Wei Zhao were gravely wounded, he could absolutely not rise from his bed?"

"That is not something one can state as absolute..." the Medicine King shook his head. "There is only one possibility: he dispersed his internal energy, and so returned to normal."

"Dispersed his internal energy?" Li Cihua was taken aback, not quite grasping what the Medicine King meant.

"Yes, dispersed his internal energy," the Medicine King nodded and explained. "When a skilled practitioner has taken a grave wound that would otherwise be fatal, there are two ways to preserve his life. The first is to restore him with wondrous elixirs compounded from vast quantities of rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures — though of course this also requires a skilled hand versed in the healing arts to assist with true qi, for the true qi of heaven and earth alone is not enough to heal the injury. The second, if one lacks the conditions for the first, is to disperse the internal energy in one's body, and only thus preserve one's life."

"Ah? You mean to say that once his life is saved, his former strength is gone for good?" Li Cihua asked in astonishment.

"You could put it that way," the Medicine King nodded.

"Could Wei Zhao have dispersed his internal energy?" Li Cihua murmured to himself. "The first method demands too much — rare elixirs from heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and a skilled hand versed in the healing arts besides. Wei Zhao likely could not have obtained any of that. To save his life, dispersing his internal energy is quite possible."

"In the first method, those two conditions need not both be present at once," the Medicine King said with a wave of his hand. "When both are present, recovery comes a little faster; lacking one, recovery is still possible, only a little slower."

"Wei Zhao likely has neither of those conditions," Li Cihua said. "So he chose to disperse his internal energy — that too is possible."

"Unlikely..." The Medicine King frowned. "Brother Zhu, if it were you, would you choose to disperse your internal energy?"