Chapter 3413 — Three Roommates

"Ugh... that's brutal!" Wei Zhao's face fell into a look of utter misery as he heard this.

"Who told you to come blundering in without knowing what you were getting into? You brought it on yourself. Accept your fate," the Doctor said calmly, and drove a syringe into Wei Zhao's arm.

As the plunger was slowly pushed down, Wei Zhao could not help crying out. In truth, none of that reagent ever entered his body—it had been diverted into the jade pendant's space while it was still inside the needle.

"This injection... will there be any adverse reaction?" Wei Zhao had, after all, gradually transferred the whole dose into the jade pendant's space, but he was still uneasy. If the injection were supposed to produce some effect and he showed none of it, would that not rouse these people's suspicions?

"A high-grade reagent like this won't cause any reaction. Apart from being a bit more capable than an ordinary Earth-rank expert, all you need is one dose of the antidote each month.

"That's a relief..." Wei Zhao lowered his head as though he had resigned himself to his fate. "Ah, I really shouldn't have come..."

"There's no end of people who regret things too late!" The Doctor pulled out the syringe, then said to the burly man, "All right, take him down. He starts work tomorrow!"

"Yes, Doctor!" With that, the man unlocked Wei Zhao's shackles and leg irons and led him out.

Wei Zhao stayed rather silent the whole way and offered no resistance, and the burly man did not exchange a word with him either.

When they reached the door of a dormitory, the burly man shoved Wei Zhao straight inside.

The room was a four-man quarters. Three men sat on the beds within, and once the burly man had pushed Wei Zhao in, he left.

Wei Zhao looked around. Of the four beds, three had men sitting on them. Only the bed nearest the door was empty, so Wei Zhao walked over to it.

"Hey, kid, pretty cocky, aren't you? What rank of expert are you? Report—now!" said a close-cropped man on the bed facing Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao glanced at him. Merely a mid-stage Earth-rank expert—in Wei Zhao's eyes, that sort of caliber was nothing at all.

"Damn it, I'm talking to you. Didn't you hear? Kid, let me tell you—if you don't want to spend every day after work getting beaten around in my practice bouts, then get over here and pay your respects to our leader. This here's Meng Gaohai, the leader of our lot." Seeing that Wei Zhao ignored him, the close-cropped man grew angry, rose to his feet, and started toward Wei Zhao, pointing as he walked at a long-haired man lounging by the window.

Wei Zhao swept a cold glance over them. The man called Meng Gaohai was an early-stage Heaven-rank expert—truly not to be underestimated! What Wei Zhao had not expected was that there would be an early-stage Heaven-rank expert here as well.

He had no idea how the man had been captured and brought in, but that was none of Wei Zhao's concern. The purpose of Wei Zhao's coming here was to find the Pangolin. As for the rest of these idle sorts, he could not be bothered with them.

So Wei Zhao took one look and then lay down on his bed.

"What the hell. Kid, are you asking to die?" Seeing that Wei Zhao still paid him no mind, the close-cropped man flew into a rage and unleashed his mid-stage Earth-rank power outright.

"Mm, actually I'd rather you didn't go looking for death, but since you insist, I can only oblige you. I'm already plenty unhappy about being captured. Provoke me again and don't blame me for not being polite," Wei Zhao said indifferently, glancing at the close-cropped man.

"Ha!" The close-cropped man laughed as though he had heard a fine joke and lunged to grab Wei Zhao. But before he could touch him, Wei Zhao casually struck out with the first form of the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm.

The first form of the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm—Wei Zhao had not used it in a long while, but against a low-grade expert like this, that one move was quite enough.

"Boom—" With a howl of agony, the close-cropped man was sent flying backward and crashed to the ground, unable to move a single inch.

Fights among cultivators like this were something the people at the poison-refining base could not even be bothered to meddle in. One more or one less made no difference, and besides, these people were all wild and unruly—high-handed policies were very hard to enforce on them.

"Impossible! An early-stage Earth-rank expert? How could he have injured Fanzi?" The long-haired man, Meng Gaohai, finally began to take Wei Zhao seriously. He rose to his feet and unleashed his full early-stage Heaven-rank power. "But kid, no matter how formidable you are, no matter how well you punch above your rank, against me you're still just going to get a beating."

"Early-stage Heaven-rank? Sorry to disappoint you. I've slapped around quite a few Heaven-rank experts in my time. You're the weakest of the lot," Wei Zhao said mildly.

Since he had already made his move, Wei Zhao suddenly changed his mind. Before, he had intended to play the lone hero, quietly investigating the Pangolin affair on his own, but now that seemed impossible—these people had no intention of letting him be.

Well, if they would not let him be, then he would simply beat them into submission! It happened to suit him: tomorrow Wei Zhao meant to go asking around for information and had planned to find some people to pump for news. Of course, to get the information he needed, he would have to offer something in return.

Now things were even better. He would not have to give these people anything at all—he could simply subdue them with overwhelming strength and make them work for him! This Meng Gaohai was an early-stage Heaven-rank expert and the leader here, so he was probably a man whose word was law in this place. With him stepping forward, a great deal of trouble would be saved.

Of course, Wei Zhao did not need his wholehearted loyalty—forced submission would do. He had no intention of taking them on as underlings anyway.

In the world of cultivation, the strong are honored; it is the same wherever you go. So all Wei Zhao had to do was subdue Meng Gaohai, and everything would be smooth sailing.

"Haha!" Meng Gaohai laughed heartily. "A mere early-stage Earth-rank, and such a big mouth. Have you ever even seen a Heaven-rank expert? If you were really that capable, would you have been caught and brought here?"

"Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm, sixth form!" Wei Zhao waved a hand casually and struck Meng Gaohai. He did not want to bandy words with the man—talk was useless; only strength was real. With Wei Zhao's speed, killing him would have been easy as could be, but Wei Zhao simply did not want him dead.

"Pff—" Meng Gaohai was in the middle of his laugh when he suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward. Fortunately, Wei Zhao had held back, so he was not killed on the spot.

Meng Gaohai crashed to the ground and spat several more mouthfuls of blood before he gasped out in horror, "You... you're no early-stage Earth-rank... you... you've been hiding your strength..."

"You're right about that. Never mind you—even a peak late-stage Heaven-rank expert standing before me would be a cinch for me to kill, easy and enjoyable," Wei Zhao said mildly. (To be continued..) RT