Chapter 2901 — He Came Back to Life

At that very moment, Uncle Zhu drove up, got out of the car with the snacks, and happened to see Shen Yushu bring her rod down on Zhao Qibing's head, splitting it open and drawing blood. He froze. "This... what is this..."

"Oh, the food's here!" Shen Yushu, black iron refined-steel rod in hand, ran up to Uncle Zhu, snatched the snacks from him, and said to Gu Mengyao, "Yaoyao, let's go eat!"

With that, she ran into the villa.

Gu Mengyao was rather exasperated. She spread her hands at Uncle Zhu. "Get him out of here, quick."

"Is Young Master Bing... dead?" Uncle Zhu asked, aghast.

"Not dead. Unconscious, most likely." Gu Mengyao knew the relationship between Uncle Zhu and Wei Zhao, so she didn't hold anything back from him.

Uncle Zhu nodded, walked over, and felt for Zhao Qibing's breath. Finding that he was still breathing, he let out a sigh of relief, then quickly carried him off, heading straight for the Hidden Zhao family.

Zhao Qibing's skull was split and his leg was split, but he was a cultivator after all. Not long after he got back to the Hidden Zhao family, he came to—though his head throbbed as if it would burst, the leg was a distant second. That blow Shen Yushu had landed on his skull had been vicious; the bone of his head was shattered.

Old Master Zhao had arrived by then too. After hearing Zhao Qibing's account, he was at a loss for words, though he understood the young man's frame of mind. The desire to master the Thousand Legs was admirable enough—it was just that Shen Yushu had played him far too cruelly.

As for Uncle Zhu, he wasn't punished. After all, it wasn't that he'd failed in his duty to protect the boy—Zhao Qibing had asked Shen Yushu himself to hit him, and Uncle Zhu had nothing to do with it. Besides, at the time it happened, he'd been sent out to buy snacks.

"With injuries like these, you'd better take a Small Restoration Pill. I don't want you left with any aftereffects," Old Master Zhao said after a moment's thought.

"But Grandfather, doesn't that mean my legs got split for nothing? They were this close to breaking!" Zhao Qibing was unwilling to let it go. Otherwise he'd have taken the Small Restoration Pill long ago.

"Uncle Zhu, you really should have taken the chance, while Qibing was unconscious, to give his legs a couple more whacks and break them clean through. Now that he's awake, we've got no way," Old Master Zhao said helplessly.

"But the way things were then, how could I bring myself to do it?" Uncle Zhu said with a bitter smile.

"True enough. Your loyalty to Qibing is beyond question—I know that. Never mind. Old Mian, give Qibing a Small Restoration Pill first, and we'll think of something else..." Old Master Zhao had the feeling that everything had been going wrong lately—above all, Wei Zhao was growing stronger and stronger, and for the Hidden Zhao family he would always be a threat!

Yet he had no way to finish Wei Zhao off, and the other hidden families sat tight and made no move. This left him in a bind.

How could he get the other hidden families to join forces and take Wei Zhao down together? Old Master Zhao began to ponder the possibility of an alliance. He was certain that no matter how formidable Wei Zhao was, he couldn't withstand all the hidden families united...

Wei Zhao cultivated until nightfall before he rose and glanced at Tu Bawang, not far away. In Wei Zhao's view, Tu Bawang's injuries were in fact not serious at all—this little bit of damage was nothing.

Wei Zhao walked over, pressed his fingers to the pulse gate at Tu Bawang's wrist, and set the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Subduing Art in motion, swiftly repairing the injuries inside Tu Bawang's body. He steered around Tu Bawang's meridians, though—whatever they had been before, they stayed exactly that way.

Of course, the Wei Zhao of old, using only the first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Subduing Art, could never have managed this. But the second layer he now wielded with perfect ease—these things were no problem at all.

Tu Bawang had been keeping himself alive on Great Restoration Pills, and the body had all the nourishment it needed, but so many parts of him were damaged that he couldn't wake. After Wei Zhao's repair work, Tu Bawang came to.

"You... who are you?" Tu Bawang opened his eyes and stared in alarm at Wei Zhao, who had just released his wrist. He couldn't quite work out where he was. All he remembered was throwing a punch at Zhang Naipao, and then a far greater force coming back at him, slamming into his body and knocking him out cold.

"Wei Zhao!" Wei Zhao said flatly. "There, you're awake. I should be going."

"Ah! Wait... you... saved me?" Tu Bawang might have been arrogant and overbearing, but he was no fool. He knew exactly how badly he'd been hurt—he'd already made his peace with dying, because even the Great Restoration Pill had done no good.

Yet now he had woken up out of nowhere, and when Tu Bawang checked his own condition, he found that aside from his meridians being completely severed, leaving him unable to cultivate, his bodily functions had returned to normal. Clearly someone had saved him.

And now Wei Zhao was at his side, while his follower Tu Zuanxing was nowhere to be seen—so it must have been Wei Zhao who'd done the healing, since no one else had been with him.

"Yes. But you needn't thank me. You're not one of my men, and I'm under no obligation to save you for free. Your follower Tu Zuanxing has already agreed to give me two vials of earth-element essence as payment!" Wei Zhao said. "All right, I should be going."

"Ah... this..." Tu Bawang had only just woken, and his mind was still a little foggy, but even a fool could have guessed that Wei Zhao was a master. He wanted to say a few more words to him, but seeing that Wei Zhao clearly had no interest in entertaining him, he could only shut his mouth.

Zhang Naipao's lesson had cut deep. It had taught Tu Bawang, in no uncertain terms, that there is always a bigger fish and a higher sky. And toward Wei Zhao, the man who had brought him back from the dead, he dared not press or demand anything more. He had to get his bearings first.

Wei Zhao stepped outside, and Tu Zuanxing, who had been waiting anxiously nearby, rushed up at once—the scene was like family members gathered outside an operating room waiting for the doctor. "Senior Lin, how is it? Bawang, is he..."

"He's alive," Wei Zhao said.

"Then... is he out of danger? Can I go in?" Tu Zuanxing asked cautiously, fearful of putting a foot wrong.

"Of course you can. He's right inside—you can go in and talk to him." Wei Zhao was half amused, half exasperated. "This isn't surgery. 'Out of danger'..."

"What? He can talk already? Wonderful!" Tu Zuanxing gazed at Wei Zhao, his adoration entirely undisguised. "Senior Lin, you're truly amazing—in barely a day you brought our young sect master back to life! A master, no question! Far more capable than that Zhang Naipao!"