Chapter 761 — Strength Ascendant Once More

"I can save it, but it will be a bit of trouble..." Wei Zhao gave a bitter smile. His energy had been drained badly these past few days.

"Wei Zhao, please, can you save it?" Gu Mengyao saw the look on his face and knew in her heart that this was likely no simple matter. In truth, she knew as well that even with Wei Zhaos superb medical skill, the mighty general was nearly dead through and through. How could it be saved?

And Wei Zhao had already expended no small amount of strength yesterday saving her. Now to ask him to save the mighty general again -- she could not quite bear it.

"Ha, I said it would be a bit of trouble. I never said I would not save it." Wei Zhao looked at the young lady gazing at him so expectantly; she was rather adorable like this, and his heart stirred faintly. The young lady was, after all, a girl of flesh and blood and feeling -- only she wrapped herself too tightly day to day, seldom letting her true heart show.

"Mm..." Gu Mengyao nodded.

"Goodness, why are you two so mushy? Yao Yao, sooner or later you will be Brother Shield's first wife anyway, so of course Brother Shield has to save your dog!" Shen Yushu said.

Gu Mengyao pressed her lips together and said nothing, only looking at Wei Zhao with gratitude.

Wei Zhao carried the mighty general back into his room, then glanced at Uncle Qing and said, "Uncle Qing, I must trouble you to stand guard at my door and let no one disturb me."

Although Yu Kun had been crippled of his martial arts by Wei Zhao, Wei Zhao was not certain his move had truly worked. What if someone else could repair Yu Kun's meridians as he himself could? So Wei Zhao feared Yu Kun might return with men to kill him, and asked Uncle Qing to guard the door for him.

Thus Uncle Qing, a fine hand at the peak of the late Yellow Stage, ought to be able to hold his own; so long as Wei Zhao heard the commotion, he could respond accordingly.

"That is only proper. What trouble is there in it?" Uncle Qing asked hurriedly. "You are helping Miss Gu save her dog -- I should be thanking you!"

"Ha, it is only proper for me as well?" Wei Zhao smiled and turned back into the room.

The mighty general was not quite dead, merely unconscious. Though many of its organs had been damaged, Wei Zhao was confident he could revive it -- it was only a question of how.

What Wei Zhao wondered was whether his own energy could save a dog. His energy worked on people, but whether it would work on a dog he did not know. If it did, saving the mighty general would become somewhat easier; if not, Wei Zhao would have to fall back on conventional acupuncture and herbal treatment.

"Old Jiao, does my energy work on dogs?" Fearing that pouring energy straight into the mighty general might kill it outright -- which would be no fun at all -- Wei Zhao asked first.

"I do not know. That I cannot say -- I have never tested it." Jiao Yazi's voice sounded at Wei Zhao's ear. "Still, your energy is all-purpose. In theory it ought to work, no? Why not try?"

"Try? I cannot try it to death, can I?" Wei Zhao was far from reassured by this answer.

"Death is impossible -- at worst it will have no effect, or you will overdo it," Jiao Yazi said.

"Fine, I will try." At this point Wei Zhao could only treat a dead horse as a live one. Even if he did kill it, the young lady would not blame him, for he would have done all he could.

Wei Zhao placed his hand on the mighty general and silently circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art in his heart. In an instant he felt a powerful suction from within the mighty generals body, drawing the energy out of Wei Zhaos own.

Wei Zhao's heart stirred. It seemed to be working?

Yet fierce as the suction was, Wei Zhao did not dare control it or withdraw. He did not know how much energy saving a dog required, so he simply let the mighty general draw from him. If it took too much, he would at worst sleep and replenish it afterward.

Time passed, second by second. He did not know how long it had been, but the mighty general's pace of absorption had not slowed. Its injuries were evidently grave, and Wei Zhao dared not stop. Though he was already feeling somewhat dizzy and blinded -- a warning that his inner energy was overdrawn -- Wei Zhao thought: to keep the young lady from grieving, I will endure it.

Thinking of the young lady as she usually was, she had in fact treated him rather well. Apart from some hostility at the very beginning, once she had accepted him she had cared for him a good deal. And had he not touched her chest before?

He wondered when he might touch it again. Wei Zhao savored the memory... and as he thought, he could not help drifting off to sleep.

Wei Zhao had expended far too much energy, and so he lapsed straight into the sleep of energy replenishment.

In the space of the jade pendant, Wei Zhao saw Jiao Yazi. "Elder Jiao, I'm in here again?"

"I don't know. I don't know either." Jiao Yazi shook his head. "I'm not certain whether your energy can save the dog, though a fair amount of it has certainly been absorbed by him... But the urgent matter now is for you to replenish your own energy at once. Passing out at a time like this -- what if an enemy came?"

Wei Zhao was startled, and dared not ask more. He hurriedly set the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art circulating again, frantically drawing in the energy from the jade pendant's space...

The energy elements within the jade pendant's space seemed inexhaustible. Wei Zhao had absorbed them so many times, yet they had never shown the slightest thinning; they remained as rich as ever. He felt as though every pore in his body had opened wide, each one drinking in the energy elements...

How much time had passed, he could not say, when suddenly he felt the energy within his body reach a fullness he had never known before!

The peak of the early Mysterious Stage? Wei Zhao was mildly startled, and returned from the jade pendant's space to reality. To his astonishment, he found that he had gone from the early Mysterious Stage all the way to its peak -- which meant he was now but a single step from the mid Mysterious Stage!

What was going on?

After his energy had been depleted and then replenished, Wei Zhao could clearly feel his strength had risen, just as it had after he healed Feng Xiaoxiao that last time.

Could this be the legendary truth that nothing is built until it is broken? He had lost a portion of his energy, and then replenished it, and in doing so broken through to a level beyond his former strength?

Wei Zhao did not know whether his guess was right, but the fact was wondrous enough! He had never expected to turn disaster into blessing and raise his strength so greatly in one stroke.

"Woof woof!"

All at once General Weiwu's barking sounded beside him, and Wei Zhao started, then abruptly remembered the matter of General Weiwu! He had slipped into his energy-replenishing state in a daze earlier and had paid no heed to how General Weiwu was faring. Upon waking, he had been so astonished by the rise in his own strength that he had overlooked the beast's presence entirely!

From the look of it now, General Weiwu had woken before him. Wei Zhao turned toward the sound and saw General Weiwu crouched before his bed like a guardian spirit; seeing him awake, the creature was wagging its head and tail in high excitement. H