Chapter 665 — Both Are Possible

"I came along with Xiaoyi to see whether he might have a way..." Guan Xuewen was a scholar and had never cared a fig for face. If Wei Zhao was more capable than he was, then more capable he was, and he would never dream of hiding it. But before he could finish, Shen Yushu cut him off.

"Brother Arrow, you're finally here! Quick, look at Sister Yaoyao — you have to cure her!" Seeing Wei Zhao arrive was like seeing a lifeline thrown to a drowning woman. Shen Yushu seized him and dragged him straight to Gu Mengyao's sickbed.

"All right." Wei Zhao nodded, his expression grave, and took Gu Mengyao's hand to feel her pulse.

Utterly weak, like an old man on the verge of death! Yet from Jiao Yazi's perspective, it was the energy within Gu Mengyao's body that was draining away at a furious rate — and the moment that energy was gone entirely, that would be the moment her life reached its end.

Wei Zhao frowned slightly. This was a very strange condition, and there were many possibilities that could produce it. One was a matter of individual constitution — an inborn terminal illness — but Gu Mengyao plainly was not such a case.

Another was that she had suddenly contracted some vicious disease, cancer for instance; yet judging by how Gu Mengyao had been before this, she was nothing like a cancer patient.

Beyond these, only two rather uncommon possibilities remained. The first was that she had been struck by an expert, injuring her internal organs, which would produce exactly this sign of life rapidly withering. The second was poisoning — certain poisons can swiftly wreck the body's physiological functions and drive a person headlong toward death.

Wei Zhao had not looked at the case file, nor did he have the time to. He simply asked Guan Xuewen, "Grandpa Guan, what do you make of it?"

At Wei Zhao's question, Guan Xuewen hastened to answer: "The specialist team currently has two theories. The first is infection by some unknown bacterium; the second is poisoning."

"Bacteria? Poisoning?" Wei Zhao nodded. "Both are possible."

"Both are possible?" Guan Xuewen was taken aback. He had not expected Wei Zhao to endorse the bacterial theory as well, and he was rather surprised.

"I once made a careful study of gu poisons. In fact, many gu poisons are a kind of bacterium, and those afflicted by gu display this very condition," Wei Zhao said. "But when you boil it down, it is still poisoning — gu poison can be counted as a poison too."

"So that's how it is!" Guan Xuewen had not thought of gu poison at all; only after hearing Wei Zhao explain did he understand. It seemed he himself had been somewhat hidebound — and Zhang Weikang's words might not be without merit after all! Of course, Zhang Weikang had simply hit the mark by sheer accident, which was something even he himself had never imagined.

For now Wei Zhao could only infer; he had no absolute certainty as to whether Gu Mengyao had truly been poisoned. But given the present circumstances, waking Gu Mengyao was in fact no difficult matter — the trouble was that once she was awake, she could not be kept that way.

"Elder Guan, the tests on the stomach contents came back clean?" Wei Zhao asked, though he had guessed as much.

"Clean!" Guan Xuewen said. "At least according to the current lab reports, there is no poison. But some poisons from Chinese herbal medicines, or insect toxins, cannot be detected by chemical means!"

Wei Zhao nodded and said, "I know that. I have done some research on poisons. The *Tangmen Poison Classic* covers virtually every poison under heaven and the methods to counteract them."

It could be said that Wei Zhao was thoroughly versed in poisons, and this too had to do with the old man at home. Wei Zhao had never understood why the old man was so enamored of poisons, gu toxins, and the like — with the result that Wei Zhao had also acquired considerable insight into poisons and their antidotes.

"The *Tangmen Poison Classic*?! You have read the *Tangmen Poison Classic*?" Guan Xuewen's expression changed abruptly, and he stared at Wei Zhao in disbelief! In an ancient text he had once read, when the rarest poisons of the ages were discussed, this very book — the famed *Tangmen Poison Classic*, renowned from antiquity to the present — had been mentioned as well!

The *Tangmen Poison Classic*, as the name suggests, is one of the secret manuals compiled by the sect known as the Tang Clan. The Tang Clan is located in Sichuan and is also called the Tang Family Fort; it is famous throughout the world for its use of poisons! But the tradition has long since been lost, and any trace of it now appears only in martial arts novels and television dramas. Whether the sect ever truly existed remains a matter for scholarly inquiry.

So whether the *Tangmen Poison Classic* mentioned in the ancient texts actually exists, Guan Xuewen did not know either. Medical texts of that sort are not orthodox pharmacological literature but rather anecdotal in nature, recording strange tales and marvels, some true and some false, impossible to judge.

"I have read it." Wei Zhao nodded. At home there was not only the *Tangmen Poison Classic* but also many other books on poisons, such as the *Secret Manual of the Five Venoms*.

Guan Xuewen's heart raced. Could Wei Zhao truly come from some ancient house of medicine? Why else would he have seen so many medical classics long since lost to the world? Of course, Guan Xuewen knew this was no time for such questions. Suppressing his delight, he asked, "Then do you have a way to cure her?"

"If it is poisoning, then I should. Let me try." Wei Zhao did not make any promises. When he had come down the mountain, the old man had told him he had already mastered a third of his skill — enough to hold his own against the world — but Wei Zhao was no megalomaniac. Who could say whether the poison could be neutralized?

As for Gu Mengyao's safety, however, Wei Zhao was not worried. So long as he kept channeling true qi into her body — what Jiao Yazi called energy — he could sustain her life indefinitely. Even if he could not neutralize the poison himself, once he got her to the old man, she could still be saved.

The old man was forever boasting about himself, claiming to be the greatest physician in the world, yet Wei Zhao knew full well that he had the right to say so. As for himself, he was still a grade below...

Wei Zhao silently circulated the inner arts of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, channeling energy swiftly into Gu Mengyao's body. Thankfully, Gu Mengyao's body was not like Feng Xiaoxiao's had been back then — a bottomless pit that had drained Wei Zhao dry and even caused the tragedy of his level dropping.

Gu Mengyao was an ordinary person, so she needed very little energy — no more than a drop in the bucket for Wei Zhao, which came as a relief! If Gu Mengyao had truly drained all the energy from his body in one go, as Feng Xiaoxiao had, then keeping her alive would have been unrealistic; after all, he would need time to recover, wouldn't he?

Once the energy entered Gu Mengyao's body, her physiological functions swiftly began to recover, and vitality filled her whole being. Before long, Gu Mengyao's eyelashes trembled slightly, and Shen Yushu, who had been staring at her without blinking, tense with worry, suddenly noticed the movement and cried out in delighted surprise, "Sister Yaoyao, are you waking up?"