When Sun Jingyan heard Wei Zhao's words, she was furious on the spot. How many people would queue up begging to solve her problems for her — Wu Chengtian, for one — and she had never even given them the time of day. Yet she had come to Wei Zhao herself, and he had the nerve to say she was trouble?

"Fine. I don't care what you say. From now on, whenever I have a problem, I'm coming to you." Sun Jingyan had started to play the rogue.

Wei Zhao said nothing more. If she wanted to come to him, let her. Whether he showed up would depend on his mood.

He had Sun Jingyan drop him off at the snack street behind the school. Only after her car had driven completely out of sight did Wei Zhao turn and head back to campus.

At the designated hospital of the Songshan City Detention Center, accompanied by his lawyer, Zhong Yongliang met Brother Black Panther.

"Brother Black Panther!" The sight of the man wrapped head to toe in bandages stirred him despite himself. Black Panther had actually been beaten into this state?

Black Panther smiled a bleak smile. He had not expected it either — a man at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, and he had been crippled, every meridian in his body severed. Now he was neither man nor ghost, lying on a sickbed in a living death.

Because Black Panther's condition was a problem, he was not being held inside the detention center itself, and so apart from the lawyer there were no police in the ward.

This was a small matter Zhong Fabai could smooth over with ease; arranging a private meeting with Black Panther was no difficulty at all.

"Young Master Zhong, you've come..." Black Panther looked at Zhong Yongliang, a shadow of gloom passing over his face. "I truly underestimated him. I never imagined Wei Zhao was so formidable. He's like me — he's already reached the peak of the late Yellow Rank..."

"What? He's reached the peak of the late Yellow Rank?" Zhong Fabai was stunned, staring at Black Panther in disbelief. "Black Panther, is what you're saying true?"

"Boss, would I need to lie about a thing like this?" Black Panther smiled bitterly. "So, boss, Young Master Zhong — until you have absolute certainty, my advice is to leave Wei Zhao alone. You are no match for him..."

Black Panther's words were not pleasant to hear, but honest advice grates on the ear — this Zhong Fabai understood, and Zhong Yongliang understood it too. They truly were no match for Wei Zhao.

Zhong Fabai took it in stride; Wei Zhao had little to do with him, and whether or not to move against Wei Zhao was not something he held any strong opinion about. But Zhong Yongliang's expression changed. Wei Zhao had become, in his eyes, an opponent who must be eliminated in this life!

Though the humiliation he had suffered that night had come at Zou Ruoming's hands, it was Wei Zhao who had engineered the whole thing! Even now the welts the belt had raised across his body still throbbed with pain, and at the thought of it Zhong Yongliang clenched his fists. "Brother Black Panther, you don't know — the humiliation I suffered that day was not much less than yours!"

"Ha? Young Master Zhong, do you really want to be rid of Wei Zhao?" Brother Black Panther suddenly smiled, looking at Zhong Yongliang with an eerie expression.

"I do! Brother Black Panther, do you have a good idea?" The moment Zhong Yongliang saw that smile, he knew the man must have a way.

"I do. But..." Brother Black Panther glanced at the people in the room and stopped short.

"You step outside first." Zhong Fabai waved a hand at the lawyer. In this room the lawyer was the only outsider; though he had served Zhong Fabai for years, whatever Black Panther was about to say must be a matter of utmost secrecy, and the fewer people who knew it the better.

"Yes, boss." The lawyer naturally said nothing more. He worked for Zhong Fabai and knew perfectly well in his heart what not to listen to and what not to inquire about.

Only after the lawyer had left the ward did a grave expression surface on Black Panther's face. "Young Master Zhong, if you want revenge on Wei Zhao, the only way is to raise your own strength. Push your strength beyond the peak of the late Yellow Rank, and only then can you finish him! Otherwise... the strength of a peak late Yellow Rank fighter is not something a crowd can simply overwhelm. Send a gang of ordinary thugs to swarm him, and they'll be doing nothing but throwing their lives away, one after another!"

"Raise my own strength?" Zhong Yongliang was startled, then said: "Brother Black Panther, you mean I can also raise my strength to the peak of the late Yellow Rank, or even higher?"

"Exactly!" Black Panther nodded. "But to gain something, you must lose something... Once you begin practicing the *** secret manual of my sect, you can never touch a woman again. Otherwise, at best your cultivation scatters, at worst your life is in danger!"

"What? Never touch a woman again?" Zhong Yongliang was dumbstruck. Damn it, the whole reason I want to kill Wei Zhao is that the brat is a stumbling block in my pursuit of Gu Mengyao. If I can't touch women, what the hell is the point of killing Wei Zhao?

"That's right!" Black Panther said: "Back then it was precisely this ascetic life of cultivation that I could not endure, and so I fled my sect — and in the end I never amounted to anything. All I carried away with me was a formula of mental cultivation for temporarily boosting one's strength. It can raise an ordinary person swiftly to the middle-late Yellow Rank. I had a bit of a martial foundation, so I was lifted to the peak of the late Yellow Rank."

"If you are already at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, this secret art can carry you to the early, even the middle, Mystic Rank! But the secret art can only be used under special circumstances, and it holds for only one or two months. Once it lapses you fall back to your former strength, and you lose five years of your lifespan. So apart from a critical moment, it has no real meaning. Young Master Zhong, even if you become my equal at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, you still won't be able to finish Wei Zhao."

"What? But to make me never touch a woman..." Zhong Yongliang felt that if he could not touch women, what was the point of his life? After training in the skills Brother Black Panther spoke of, if killing Wei Zhao merely cost him his cultivation, that would be one thing, but the trouble was that a misstep could put his life at risk. Wasn't that far too dangerous?

"Young Master Zhong, that is as far as I can go. I received a great kindness from the boss back then, and so before I was imprisoned I told you both these things. As for how you choose, that is not for me to interfere with!" Black Panther said: "If you've thought it through, go to Chunxing Mountain and say Black Panther sent you. My former senior brother has risen to sect master now. I'm only a discarded disciple, but he will give me that much face!"

"Chunxing Mountain? What sort of mountain is that?" Zhong Yongliang was startled. His geography had never been much good, but he had never heard of this mountain either, let alone any sect upon it.

"I will draw you a detailed map." Black Panther said: "Of course, if you have someone you trust absolutely, you can send him in your place. When he returns having learned it, he can help you finish Wei Zhao and take your revenge — and avenge me as well! The reason I say all this is that I hope Young Master Zhong will avenge me!"

"Someone I trust?" Zhong Yongliang frowned, his eyes shifting, and suddenly a person came to mind! That's right — he could send him! Zhong Yongliang had suddenly thought of Zhang Naipao!

Wasn't that the perfect candidate?

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