"Done!" Wei Zhao said, rising to his feet.

"What? Done? It's really healed?" Yang Qiqi stared at her own legs and arms in disbelief.

"Wei Zhao, I truly don't know what to say. To think you could heal even an injury like that, and so quickly!" Yu Bing gazed in astonishment at Yang Qiqi's flawless white arm...

"Eyes off what you shouldn't be looking at. If you want her to come after your life as well, then by all means keep looking!" Wei Zhao warned Yu Bing.

"Ah!" Startled, Yu Bing hastily turned away.

In truth, Yang Qiqi's wounds had been concentrated on her arms and calves only; as for the wound at her shoulder, Wei Zhao had never bothered to remove the herbs he had bound over it, and it made no difference either way. So Yu Bing's catching sight of her arms and calves was nothing of consequence.

"Wait! You could obviously heal my wounds just like that, so why did you have to strip my clothes off last time? Were you doing it on purpose, just to play the rogue?" Yang Qiqi suddenly remembered: the last time Wei Zhao treated her wound, he had taken off her clothes!

And yet he could have healed her without removing a stitch—so before, it must have been deliberate?

Faced with Yang Qiqi's wide, glaring eyes, Wei Zhao was speechless for a moment. He had healed her wound, and now the healing itself had brought trouble down on him?

"I didn't know this method of healing before!" Wei Zhao said coolly. "Besides, this method consumes a great deal of true qi. You are a classic case of ingratitude—I heal you, and instead of thanking me, you turn around and interrogate me?"

"I..." Yang Qiqi was instantly flustered, but she understood what Wei Zhao meant. Though she was an external-school cultivator, she well knew how vital true qi was! So, somewhat grudgingly, she said: "This time... thank you. But the business of your seeing all of me last time—that cannot simply be written off!"

"Suit yourself." Wei Zhao could not be bothered with her anymore; after all, this was hardly the first or second time Yang Qiqi had said such things.

Yu Bing snickered off to one side, thinking the exchange between the two of them rather good fun.

"By the way... who is it you're carrying on your back?" Yang Qiqi had been curious for some time: why had Wei Zhao brought a person on his back to take part in the trial?

"My girlfriend. She's ill, and she needs a certain spirit medicine to cure her." Wei Zhao made no secret of it. "My aim is much the same as yours—to find a spirit medicine to cure someone else's illness."

"Oh..." Yang Qiqi glanced at Feng Xiaoxiao on Wei Zhao's back and nodded.

He's actually rather good to his girlfriend—carrying her along to the trial and not even minding the trouble?

"Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about dealing with Zhang Nai Pao!" Wei Zhao said. "I've thought up several countermeasures. One of them is to use an external-school expert against him. The cultivation method he practices lets him absorb the strength of internal-school cultivators and turn it to his own use. So for an internal-school cultivator, standing against him face to face is all but impossible. But external-school cultivators are another matter: an external-school cultivator has no true qi in his body, so there is nothing for him to absorb. When the time comes, striking at him with external-school martial skill may produce an effect beyond all expectation!"

"You mean you want me to attack Zhang Nai Pao?" Yang Qiqi asked.

"Yes. I'll draw his attention, and you launch a sneak attack on him from behind!" Wei Zhao nodded.

"Good!" Yang Qiqi agreed at once, without another word. She hated Zhang Nai Pao to the very bone, so how could she let slip a chance to deal with him with her own hands?

"Then what do you need me to do?" Yu Bing asked.

"You need only keep the two Zhuang brothers pinned down—don't let them stir up trouble in the middle of it!" Wei Zhao said.

"No problem!" Yu Bing did not dare take on Zhang Nai Pao, but against the brothers Zhuang Niaopao and Zhuang Niaoqiang, there was still a certain confidence to be had!

"Little thing, let's go. Keep leading us to find the Snow Lingzhi!" With all of that arranged, Wei Zhao said to the Heavenly Thunder Pig.

"Squeak, squeak!" The Heavenly Thunder Pig nodded in assent and dashed forward.

In truth, it was quite unwilling in its heart. After all, it had searched so long for that Snow Lingzhi, only for someone else to carry it off—how could it simply give up like that?

Zhang Nai Pao, Zhuang Niaopao, and Zhuang Niaoqiang were in fact moving in fits and starts. Along the way, apart from gathering some natural treasures for themselves, they lay in wait like a man camped by a stump for hares, seeking out other teams and then swooping in to rob them!

And at this very moment, Zhang Nai Pao had just robbed yet another team of its natural treasures, and was dividing the spoils with the two Zhuang brothers.

"Reaping without sowing—feels pretty good, doesn't it?" Wei Zhao had not gone far before he caught sight of Zhang Nai Pao and his two companions, and just in time to see them finish robbing another team. He could not resist a jab.

"Huh? Who do we have here? Isn't this the school's head honcho? What's the matter—got more strength than you can handle, so you want to hand me another share?" Zhang Nai Pao turned and saw Wei Zhao; after a start of surprise, he burst out laughing!

Though he did not know why Wei Zhao had turned up here, in Zhang Nai Pao's eyes Wei Zhao was bound this time to contribute his strength to him once again! Whatever tricks Wei Zhao played, they would be useless—because the Bee-Absorbing Divine Art was almighty!

"Feels good, robbing others, doesn't it? Though the taste of being robbed should be good as well!" Wei Zhao walked straight toward Zhang Nai Pao, his expression placid as he spoke.

"You mean you want a taste of being robbed?" Zhang Nai Pao had understood him well enough, but in his view Wei Zhao was simply talking big, so he deliberately feigned ignorance and shot back: "Then come on—I'll give you a taste of being robbed!"

"Now!" The word was barely out of Wei Zhao's mouth before he moved first, sweeping a palm strike at Zhang Nai Pao!

Zhang Nai Pao cackled, looking at Wei Zhao as though at a fool, and stretched out his hand to meet him: "Some people simply have no memory. Absorbed once, and still they deliver themselves to my door. I truly wonder—can there be anyone in this world quite so stupid?"

The instant Wei Zhao spoke, Yu Bing moved, and Yang Qiqi moved as well!

Yang Qiqi had been skilled in assassination to begin with, and now that her lightness skill had recovered too, in a single instant her whole body shifted to behind Zhang Nai Pao!

"Eh?" Zhang Nai Pao was startled. He had been circulating the inner cultivation method of the Bee-Absorbing Divine Art from the Chrysanthemum Treasure Manual, and yet he had absorbed not a single shred of true qi from Wei Zhao's hand! The next moment, he understood: Wei Zhao had not run the mantra at all, and the palm he had struck out carried no trace of true qi whatsoever!

"Clever, aren't you? Figured out you shouldn't use true qi?" Zhang Nai Pao shot back, momentarily taken aback. But in that very instant of his daze, Yang Qiqi moved: with all the strength in her body, she drove a blow down upon the acupoint at the back of Zhang Nai Pao's neck!

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