Chapter 955 — No Choice but to Strike First

"All right, I'll go right now," Li Cihua said with a nod.

"Where are you two going?" A voice came out of nowhere, giving Zhao Qibing and Li Cihua a start.

"Wei Zhao?" Zhao Qibing stared at the newcomer, scarcely able to believe his eyes. Who else could the man walking in be but Wei Zhao?

"Were you looking for me? If so, there's no need to come — I'm here." Wei Zhao eyed Zhao Qibing with something like mockery. "Your legs are better? No wonder you're bouncing around so merrily. Seems to me you'd be better off sitting quietly in that wheelchair."

"What do you mean by that, Wei Zhao? You're a crippled ruin, and you still dare come here? Tired of living?" Zhao Qibing was baffled by Wei Zhao's words. Had water got into the man's brain? Back when you had real power, I put up with your swagger, but now you've lost it all, and you're still strutting in front of me?

"Who told you I'm a ruin?" Wei Zhao regarded Zhao Qibing with some surprise. "Did you not sleep well? Can't tell dreaming from waking? Seeing things?"

Zhao Qibing was taken aback. But then he thought: Wei Zhao was finished — I had him tested by men of my own choosing; it can't be false. Steeling himself, he said, "Drop the act, Wei Zhao. The bald thug in the parking lot outside the Starlight Grand Hotel was sent by me. I know every last detail of your situation. You think you can come here and frighten me? Is Gu Pengzhan so utterly out of options that he had to send you to hold me steady?"

"Oh?" Wei Zhao's brow knit slightly. So the man in the parking lot had been sent by Zhao Qibing!

"If I guess right, Gu Pengzhan is probably packing his things and plotting to skip town right about now, isn't he? Sending you here to stall for time?" Seeing Wei Zhao's frown, Zhao Qibing took it as a hit on the man's sore spot, and smugly carried on with his deduction. "But Wei Zhao, are you stupid? How can you be this stupid? Even at a time like this, you're still selling your life for Gu Pengzhan. How much is he paying you? Sending you here to scare me is just sending you to be cannon fodder. Do you really think you can walk out of here once you've come? Don't you know I've wanted you dead for a long time?"

"Oh, Uncle Chu didn't send me. I came on my own," Wei Zhao said, ruthlessly demolishing Zhao Qibing's reasoning.

"Gah?" Zhao Qibing was stunned, then pressed on. "I've got it — you've always been sweet on that little girl Gu Mengyao, haven't you? For her sake you volunteered to sacrifice yourself! Am I right? Ah, since ancient times, retainers are a sentimental lot, willing to die for the young miss. I never thought I'd see a modern version! Wahaha, it's just too touching!"

"Your legs are better, so what happened to your head?" Wei Zhao looked at the self-satisfied Zhao Qibing and shook his head in pity. "Seems to me you'll be needing that wheelchair after all. If your intellect keeps developing along these lines, the late stage is likely to be a vegetative state."

"Damn you, what did you say?" Zhao Qibing slammed his palm on the table and jabbed a finger at the wheelchair a short distance behind him. "Wei Zhao, you come into my house and still dare talk like that? You really do want to die! You want me in a wheelchair? Do you know why I didn't throw my wheelchair away after I was done with it?"

"Because you foresaw it would still be useful?" Wei Zhao said, looking at Zhao Qibing with some astonishment.

"Ha! So you're not stupid after all! You know this wheelchair is prepared for you?" Zhao Qibing burst into loud laughter. "That's right — in a little while I'll have you come in on your feet and leave on your backside!"

"Oh, so it's not me who's stupid but you." Wei Zhao shook his head regretfully. "Wrong answer. I thought you were a prophet like Prophet Shu, and knew you'd be sitting in that wheelchair yourself in a moment!"

"Medicine King! Hold this brat down for me — I'm going to break his legs myself!" Zhao Qibing was furious. In his fantasies, when he met Wei Zhao again, Wei Zhao would be on his knees begging for mercy, sniveling and weeping as he pleaded. Yet Wei Zhao, stripped of all his strength, was still this arrogant!

The gap between Zhao Qibing's ideal and reality was enormous, and he was thoroughly displeased. He could still take his revenge on Wei Zhao now, but it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as that other way!

"Yes!" the Medicine King answered. He had heard the commotion earlier and had been waiting at the side, gathering his strength.

The Medicine King was no great fighter, but seizing Wei Zhao now that his power was entirely gone would be simplicity itself. The Medicine King was the one most convinced that Wei Zhao had lost all his strength — it was he, after all, who had analyzed and deduced that Wei Zhao's power was gone!

So the Medicine King thrust out a hand and grabbed at Wei Zhao with great carelessness.

But in the next instant he discovered, to his horror, that he had not caught Wei Zhao at all!

"Eh? Your power's gone, yet you can still run this fast?" The Medicine King stared at Wei Zhao, who had swiftly dodged to one side, and said in disbelief, "Quite the talent for saving your own hide, aren't you? Can't win, so you run — but what a pity. In a few days Young Master Bing will break both your legs for certain. No matter how good your qinggong is, it won't do you any good then! Right, Young Master Bing? Gahaha!"

He had spent so long with Young Master Bing that he had picked up the young master's laugh, and just now he mimicked it to perfection.

But after he finished speaking, the Medicine King looked toward Young Master Bing — and did not see the expected Young Master Bing laughing heartily in agreement. Instead, Young Master Bing's eyes were bulging, and he was staring at the Medicine King in horror, which left the Medicine King utterly baffled. "Young Master Bing, what's wrong?"

"You... there's something on your body..." Young Master Bing's eyes went wide, as if he had seen a ghost. He pointed at the Medicine King, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"What's on my body..." The Medicine King frowned and looked down at himself. One glance, and he nearly jumped out of his skin: "Gah?"

To his astonishment, the Medicine King discovered that his whole body had, at some unknown point, been covered in densely packed silver needles! It suddenly came back to him: when he had made his move to capture Wei Zhao earlier, he had felt a faint, prickling pain all over his body, but he had paid it no mind at the time!

He was a medical man, after all, and he knew that the human body sometimes produced nervous itching and prickling. It was nothing unusual, so he had thought nothing of it. Only now did he realize that was not what had been happening at all!

"You... what did you do to me?" The Medicine King stared at Wei Zhao in shock, his face a mask of horror.

"Nothing much. Aren't you good at harming people? I heard you were even coming to my house to poison me?" Wei Zhao shrugged and said, with an air of injured innocence: "So I had no choice but to strike first. Though I hear you're supposed to be quite formidable — I imagine you can sort this out yourself, right?"

"What exactly did you do to me? What are these silver needles for?" Cold sweat instantly broke out on the Medicine King's brow. He had seen this silver-needle technique of Wei Zhao's once before, on Li Dilei. But this time, was it the same as before?