Chapter 716 — Pleading with the Medicine King

What was more, Li Cihua had been meaning to introduce his cousin to Young Master Bing all along — only by serving under Young Master Bing could the man have any future worth speaking of.

When he learned that Young Master Bing was willing to help, Li Dilei breathed a sigh of relief. He had heard that Young Master Bing kept a whole host of capable men about him, so surely there was no problem too stubborn to be solved.

In a private room behind the Lifuli Cloud Bar, the Medicine King examined the marks on Li Dilei's body and knitted his brows tight.

"Medicine King, how is it? My cousin's problem..." Seeing the Medicine King say nothing, Li Cihua knew at once that the matter was grave.

The Medicine King came from an old family of physicians. He was skilled not only in poisons and drugs but in the healing arts as well — and above all in the arts of doing men harm. So when he first heard that someone had tampered with Li Dilei and driven several silver needles into him, and that once the needles were pulled the man's left hand had gone dead, he had thought little of it.

He had assumed it was done with some rare poison or some technique of striking acupoints. When it came to ruining a man, his own house were the ancestors of the craft — what problem could there be that they could not solve? This was merely a petty trick.

But when the Medicine King saw Li Dilei with his own eyes, he realized he had taken it too lightly. There was no poison on the silver needles in Li Dilei's flesh — he had already tested the needle he pulled out on a white mouse.

And to say it was done by needling the acupoints did not quite fit either. Li Dilei's hand was plainly not merely immobilized as after an acupoint strike; it had already begun to necrose, the whole hand gone a blackish purple, as though the tissue of the entire hand had been destroyed.

"It doesn't look good. Our man is no amateur. Who did this? Do you know anything of his background?" The Medicine King would not boast. This method of doing harm was one he had never seen before — it far outstripped the tricks of his own faction, and was frankly beyond belief.

"Wei Zhao." Li Cihua's teeth ground with hatred at the very name.

"What?! Wei Zhao?" The name was not unfamiliar to the Medicine King. Uncle Zhu had been beaten half to death by Wei Zhao and was still abed, and Zhao Qibing's legs had been broken by Wei Zhao as well — he could only sit in a wheelchair now while he mended.

"Wei Zhao again?" Zhao Qibing, who stood to one side, felt his chest tighten at the name. "Wasn't he injured? How can he still be doing men harm?"

"Hard to say..." The Medicine King shook his head. "Judging by this work with the silver needles, it may well be that Wei Zhao himself is a master of the medical arts..."

"Then you mean Wei Zhao has recovered his strength on his own?" Zhao Qibing's eyes went wide, and Uncle Zhu, lying on the sickbed nearby, nearly coughed up blood at the words.

Uncle Zhu was aggrieved indeed. He had nearly kicked the bucket and gone to meet King Yama, and Wei Zhao was perfectly fine — hale and hearty enough to go on harming people? Was there no justice left in the world?

"Whether he has recovered his strength, I can't say for certain. But even if he hasn't returned to his peak, I fear it no longer hampers his movements." The Medicine King's expression was grave as he scrutinized the silver needles in Li Dilei's body.

The most pitiable of all, of course, was Li Dilei. If even the Medicine King was at a loss, then he could only sit and wait for death, could he not? His left hand had already gone blackish purple — clearly necrotic. That hand would have to go.

But Li Dilei had no heart now to fret over whether the hand was lost; it would be quite enough if his life could be saved.

"Young Master Bing! Medicine King! Save me!" Li Dilei's face was instantly awash with tears and snot; he was frightened out of his wits.

"Eh?" The Medicine King paused, and his expression turned graver still. "Beneath the silver needles — there's a fluctuation of true qi?"

Li Dilei was only an ordinary man. He had never cultivated any internal or external art, so no true qi could exist within his body — and even if there were a trace, it would not be perceptible. Yet the Medicine King sensed a distinct fluctuation of true qi beneath the silver needles! What was the meaning of this?

"What does that mean? Medicine King, is my cousin saved?" Li Cihua started and asked at once.

Li Dilei, too, stared at the Medicine King with pleading eyes. He did not want to die.

"I can't say for certain yet, but I must study the matter first," the Medicine King said. "I will pull out one more silver needle, though it may produce the same result as this left hand — or I may work out a way to break the technique."

"Ah?" Li Dilei was dumbstruck. Pull out another one — but from where? Looking at the silver needles all over his body, he truly could not decide which one to pull.

"Think it over for yourself. This is the only way," the Medicine King said.

"Then why not just pull the silver needles from his left arm? His left hand's already ruined anyway — one more ruined left arm won't make much difference," Li Cihua said after a moment's thought.

"Fine!" Li Dilei gritted his teeth. What choice did he have? He couldn't stay awake forever — come nightfall he'd have to sleep, and if he happened to knock the needles loose in his sleep, he might as well lie down and wait to die.

The Medicine King nodded, gestured for Li Dilei to extend his left arm, then swiftly plucked the silver needles from it. The instant they were out, he struck again with the speed of lightning, clamping his hand over the spots on Li Dilei's left arm where the needles had been.

"Ah... my left arm's gone numb too!" Though Li Dilei had foreseen this outcome, he had still harbored a faint hope until now. With his left arm dead to all feeling as well, he was beyond tears.

"Medicine King, how is it?" Li Cihua asked hurriedly the moment he saw the Medicine King open his eyes.

"The left arm's ruined." The Medicine King drew a deep breath. "But I think I've roughly figured out what technique the other side used!"

"Oh? What technique?" Li Cihua asked.

"Wei Zhao attached his true qi to the tips of the silver needles and drove it into Li Dilei's body, then used the needles to seal the true qi in, so it couldn't spread." The Medicine King continued, "The moment a needle is pulled out, the true qi expands rapidly! And Li Dilei is an ordinary man — his body's tissues simply can't withstand such a powerful invasion of true qi. The vast surge of true qi instantly bursts through his meridians and muscle tissue, causing necrosis of the nerves and tissue..."

He had felt it with his own hand earlier: before the needles were removed, there had been true qi fluctuations on them, but confined to a single point. Once a needle was pulled, however, the true qi at that point spread rapidly outward in all directions.

"What?" Li Cihua and Li Dilei were struck dumb. They could follow the Medicine King's explanation well enough, but it sounded so incredible — that was even possible? What did he think this was, a wuxia novel? "So is there any way to save him?"