Chapter 914 — Revenge for Grudges

Inside the private room sat the Medicine King and Zhao Qibing.

After Li Cihua and Su Jiaonang carried Baldie and the others in, the Medicine King began examining the men's injuries.

"Brother Cihua, that kid is way too strong! Your brothers took a real beating doing this for you!" Baldie wailed, seeking credit for their efforts.

"Don't worry. Not a single penny of the amount I promised you will be missing, and I'll add money for medical expenses!" Li Cihua said. "Now stop your howling. If you want treatment, shut your mouth!"

On hearing that Li Cihua would also give them medical expenses, Baldie immediately shut his mouth.

He and his men were a gang of desperadoes Li Cihua had brought over from another city. Their main purpose was to test Wei Zhao. Of course, Li Cihua had not mentioned Wei Zhao's strength beforehand; he had simply told them to pick a fight and teach Wei Zhao a lesson.

Baldie had naturally agreed readily, never expecting to run into such a hard nut to crack. In the end, he and all his men were left crippled.

Of course, he had no idea that this was still because Wei Zhao had not recovered his strength. Otherwise, they would have died far more horribly.

The Medicine King carefully inspected Baldie and his men's wounds. When he was finished, he waved a hand toward Li Cihua. "Send them to the hospital. I've seen enough."

"Yes, sir!" Li Cihua hastily ordered Su Jiaonang and the others to take Baldie out of the private room. After they had left, Li Cihua asked, "Medicine King, what do you make of it? Did you find anything?"

"They're all blunt-force injuries, with no trace of true qi damaging them," the Medicine King said. "Wei Zhao has always liked to use true qi to hurt people. From this, one can judge that his strength hasn't recovered. Now, tell me in detail how Wei Zhao made his move back then."

"Yes, sir!" Li Cihua immediately recounted the whole course of events for the Medicine King, from Baldie's stirring up trouble to Wei Zhao's attacking them.

The Medicine King nodded after hearing the account, then gave a laugh. "If that's so, and my judgment is not mistaken, then Wei Zhao's power is indeed gone. All he has left is a bit of martial skill a little better than an ordinary man's. A van like that—for the Wei Zhao of the past, a single shove would have moved it. There was no need for him to go looking for the keys to drive."

"Oh? So this time Wei Zhao is really done for?" Zhao Qibing was overjoyed. "It seems that Ma Zhu does have some ability after all—he really did some damage to Wei Zhao! Then do we have a chance?"

"Master Bing, although the Medicine King's judgment says Wei Zhao has lost his power, we still shouldn't be impatient. We should let someone else be the first to make trouble for him, while we watch from the mountain and let the tigers fight!" Li Cihua said. "Let the Xiao family be the vanguard!"

"True enough. Then go spread the word at once—say that Wei Zhao is injured and hasn't recovered his strength, and that Uncle Qing was also badly wounded and is about to die!" Zhao Qibing cackled. "Let all those with a grudge take their revenge, and those with a grievance vent their spite!"

"Yes, Master Bing! I'll go spread the news right away!" Li Cihua nodded, and he too smiled a sinister smile.

...

In a mountain grove of fine water and pleasant scenery, a young matron in plain clothes sat in a pavilion plucking a zither. She was exceedingly beautiful, and to look at her one could not tell her age at all—she might have been just past thirty, or perhaps only in her early twenties.

Were it not for her fingers moving across the strings, from a distance she would have seemed a painting—mountains and streams, birdsong, fragrant blossoms, a lovely woman.

In truth, her age was hard to determine. The reason she could be called a matron rather than a maiden was that her brows no longer held a girl's green timidity, but instead carried a measure of ripeness and composure.

If Wei Zhao had been present, though, he would probably have cried out in shock, for the matron's features were astonishingly like another person's—as if the two had been stamped from the very same mold.

When she finished the piece, the matron raised her head with a hint of melancholy. Gazing at the mountains, she was far from intoxicated by the beauty of nature; instead, she gave a despondent sigh.

"Palace Mistress, Elder Li, who is in charge of the Shadow Group, has urgent business and requests an audience!" A girl in green hurried to the outside of the pavilion where the matron sat and said in a respectful tone.

"Oh? Ask him in at once!" At the words "Elder Li," a trace of joy flitted across the matron's melancholy face.

"Yes, Palace Mistress!" The girl in green hastily withdrew.

After a little while, the girl in green came back leading a man in black. The man was around fifty years old, and his appearance was not at all outstanding—on the contrary, it was utterly ordinary, the sort that would disappear the moment you lost sight of him in a crowd.

"Li pays his respects to the Palace Mistress!" The man approached, and seeing the matron addressed as "Palace Mistress," he raised his clasped hands and made as if to bow in salute.

"Elder Li, no need for such courtesy!" The plain-robed Palace Mistress waved her hand to signal that he need not stand on ceremony, then asked with some urgency, "Elder Li, you were anxious to see me. What important matter is it?"

"It is..." Elder Li glanced at the girl in green beside him, hesitated, and said nothing.

"Xiaoqing, go down and wait for now. Keep watch on the mountain path and don't let anyone come near. Elder Li and I have important matters to discuss!" the plain-robed Palace Mistress instructed the girl in green.

"Yes, Palace Mistress!" The girl in green nodded and quickly withdrew.

"Uncle Li, there's no one else here now. What exactly has happened?" The plain-robed Palace Mistress rose to her feet, seeming quite close to Elder Li.

Elder Li waited until the girl in green had gone far off and vanished from sight, then stepped forward into the pavilion and lowered his voice, still with a respectful expression. "Miss, it's about the young miss..."

"She... What is it? Has she run into some trouble?" At Elder Li's words, the Palace Mistress's face instantly took on a tense look.

"The young miss has been kidnapped..." Elder Li began, but no sooner had he spoken than the Palace Mistress cut him off.

"What? She's been kidnapped? By whom? Is she all right?" The Palace Mistress's heart tightened, and she fired off the questions.

"It was a dissolute young master from Donghai City. He has no capable fighters under his command—only an external-arts expert at the peak of the middle Profound Rank, who practices the Golden Bell and has reached the eighth layer..." Elder Li recounted everything he knew in detail, then added, "However, according to the Shadow Group's observations, Wei Zhao, the close guard who rescued the young miss, seems to have been badly wounded as well. No fluctuation of true qi can be sensed from him, so if he hasn't lost all his power, he has at least suffered a sharp decline. And Li Fu is still neither alive nor dead... Based on the intelligence we now have, that dissolute young master will not let the matter rest, and neither will that Golden Bell practitioner..."

For the fastest updates and a pop-up-free reading experience, please.