Chapter 109 — Another Round and You'll Blow Yourself Up

Naturally, Wei Zhao had not taken those brats from before seriously. True, his current identity was no more than that of a high school student, but seeing the likes of them only reminded him of Zhong Yongliang and Zou Ruoming back at school — hopelessly childish, every one of them.

"Hey, once we're back, I'll have Uncle Qing sort out your driver's license and buy you a car. From now on, when we go out, you do the driving, all right?" Gu Mengyao glanced at Wei Zhao in the rearview mirror as she spoke.

"..." Wei Zhao had his eyes closed in thought at that moment and had not been listening closely to Gu Mengyao; he assumed she was chatting with Shen Yushu.

Getting no response, Gu Mengyao grew a little annoyed. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"Hm? Me?" Only then did Wei Zhao snap back to attention. "You called for me, young miss?"

"Of course it's you. Who else would I be calling — Xiaoshu?" Gu Mengyao was driving and had no attention to spare for glaring at Wei Zhao.

"Oh. If you called me 'Uncle,' I'd be happy to answer that too." Wei Zhao looked at Gu Mengyao with a wicked grin.

"Hm?" Gu Mengyao froze, then grasped his meaning at once. In her irritation she stomped hard on the brake.

"Ah—" Shen Yushu was caught off guard and nearly slammed into the windshield. "Yao-yao, what are you doing?"

"Uh... sorry..." Gu Mengyao looked at Wei Zhao, who was completely unruffled, and ground her teeth in even greater fury. She had meant to jolt him with a sudden stop, but Wei Zhao came through unscathed while Shen Yushu nearly got hurt.

"Wei Zhao!" Gu Mengyao was furious now, turning her head to glare at him. "Did you hear a word I said to you earlier?"

"Said what?" Wei Zhao genuinely had not caught what Gu Mengyao said; at the time he had assumed she was speaking to Shen Yushu and had not bothered to listen carefully.

"Nothing..." Gu Mengyao had no patience left for idle talk with Wei Zhao. She thought to herself: you were hired by my daddy, so if I tell you to drive, you drive. I don't need to discuss it with you.

"Oh." Wei Zhao paid it no mind either, figuring Gu Mengyao was simply throwing one of her young-miss tantrums.

Back at the villa, Gu Mengyao stormed upstairs with Shen Yushu in tow. She thought Wei Zhao utterly detestable — a hired hand her daddy had brought in, and yet he still carried on so flippantly...

Wei Zhao, of course, did not take it seriously. She was a young miss; a bit of temper was only natural. If she were too gentle with him, that would be the real problem.

That day, after washing up, Wei Zhao could not wait to sink into dreamland. He had to find Old Jiao and question him thoroughly about this energy business — that energy could save lives was something Wei Zhao had only just learned.

He had originally assumed the energy within his body worked only for himself; he had never imagined it could help others as well.

"You've come?" Old Jiao looked as he had the day before, standing quietly in the virtual space of the jade pendant.

"Old Jiao!" Wei Zhao was rather excited at the sight of him. "Old Jiao, what exactly is the story with the energy in my body? How is it that it can help other people too?"

"All things in this world actually require energy to survive; only the means of taking it in differ. Humans and animals, for instance, eat and draw energy from food, while plants take water and nutrients from the soil as their energy... Your difference lies in this: you can draw energy directly from the natural world..." Jiao Yazi explained. "Though the energy you take in is more complex than what the body converts, its nature is much the same. This energy works on you, and naturally it works on others as well — only you can convert it and others cannot. They can merely use you as a conduit to absorb energy you have already converted..."

"So that means the energy in my body can be passed to others at any time?" Wei Zhao grew excited at this. If that were true, then others would not need to cultivate at all — they could simply absorb the energy from his body and achieve the same result.

"That is naturally impossible." Old Jiao's words dashed cold water over Wei Zhao's head. "At least, after studying the first layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, I have found it impossible. Whether the later layers might allow it, I do not know — I have never seen the specific cultivation formulas, so I cannot say."

"Then what happened today...?" Hearing Old Jiao's words, Wei Zhao was instantly deflated.

"Today's matter — as I said, the reason that old man could absorb the energy you released into him was that, in his condition at the time, his body's own energy was no longer sufficient to sustain normal cardiac function. Only under such special circumstances could the energy in your body be used by him," Old Jiao said. "Under normal conditions, an ordinary person's own bodily energy is already enough to keep all their organs working, so they have no need of your energy. My explanation may not be entirely clear — this formula and method were left by our grand-uncle master, and I myself have only a half-understanding of it."

Jiaolao's explanation had been somewhat convoluted, but Wei Zhao understood what he meant: in ordinary circumstances, a normal person's body was impervious to his energy; it took effect only in emergencies.

"So you're saying energy only works on ordinary people after some part of their body has gone wrong?" Wei Zhao asked.

"You could put it that way. But even then, the effect only keeps things running. Restoring those damaged organs is out of the question," Jiao Yazi said. "That's what I meant today: keeping him alive is no problem, but healing him is impossible..."

"Healing, now that I might have other means for. With Chinese medicine — acupuncture and herbal decoctions — the body can be nursed back gradually." This time Wei Zhao was not especially disappointed; the ability to provide emergency aid alone was remarkable enough. Keep the man alive for now; other methods could be worked out later.

Still, he and that old man from today were total strangers. There was no need to volunteer follow-up treatment himself — such enthusiasm would only make people suspect he had ulterior motives.

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Wei Zhao calmed himself and prepared to resume his cultivation. But he had barely entered the state when Jiaolao interrupted him.

"Hey, kid Lin, what do you think you're doing?" Jiaolao demanded with a frown.

"Cultivating." Wei Zhao looked at Jiaolao, puzzled. What he was doing — couldn't the old man tell?

"You don't have the incantation for the second layer. What exactly do you think you're cultivating? Don't you know that too much energy in the body with no proper incantation to guide it can make you explode and die?" Jiaolao glared at Wei Zhao with a look that said "are you an idiot?"

"Uh..." Wei Zhao's heart jolted. He had not expected such a rule to exist... Thank goodness he had established contact with Jiaolao so early. Otherwise, if by some twist of fate he had broken through the first layer while cultivating outside and then kept going, he might well have blown himself to bits.

"But... today, treating that old man — didn't that waste some energy?" Wei Zhao asked, a little awkward. "Shouldn't I replenish it?"

"Sleep it off and it replenishes itself. No need to cultivate," Jiao Yazi said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. This kid really knew nothing at all — an absolute greenhorn.