Chapter 889 — Poisoned, of All Things

Ma Zhu watched Wei Zhao dart this way and that, and showed no sign of annoyance; he only sneered. "Hopping about like that — how are you any different from that dog of yours? Go on, then, keep hopping, if you have it in you!"

Meanwhile, General Mighty had made short work of the entire musketeer squad and came trotting over, tail wagging, eager to lend Wei Zhao a hand.

"Go protect Yaoyao and Xiaoshu. You are out of your depth here," Wei Zhao ordered General Mighty. If Wei Zhao himself could do nothing to Ma Zhu, General Mighty stood even less chance.

At his words, General Mighty raced to Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu and gnawed through the ropes binding them with his teeth...

Wei Zhao glanced at Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, and only when he saw the ropes fall away did his heart ease. Seizing a gap in which he dodged Ma Zhu, he shouted to Gu Mengyao, "Yaoyao, you and Xiaoshu get out of here with General Mighty!"

"But... Wei Zhao, what about you..." Gu Mengyao was worried sick about him. How could she possibly leave without him?

"You go first. Once you are clear, I can slip away at any moment!" Yet inwardly Wei Zhao was anxious. He had been dodging Ma Zhu for so long, and still he was no closer to a plan.

"Heh heh, would they dare?" Ma Zhu said with utter confidence. "Let them take a single step out of here, and I will kill them first! You can dodge my attacks — but them? Hahahaha!"

Wei Zhao frowned at Ma Zhu's words and had no choice but to abandon the notion of sending Gu Mengyao away first. It seemed Ma Zhu was no fool: he knew that once Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were gone, Wei Zhao would have no reason to keep tangling with him. Only while they stayed here would Wei Zhao stay as well.

And yet Wei Zhao was helpless. Ma Zhu was right — he could turn aside at any moment and kill Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, for he had no fear of Wei Zhao's ambush. Wei Zhao simply could not touch him.

"We will wait for you, and we will all go home together!" Hearing Ma Zhu's words, Gu Mengyao actually breathed a sigh of relief. She did not want to leave first. Now that leaving was impossible, she felt calmer instead.

"Come on, Arrowhead Bro, beat that big oaf to death!" Shen Yushu chimed in.

"Hmph!" Ma Zhu gave a cold snort, disdaining to bandy words with two little girls. All he had to do now was finish Wei Zhao. "Boy, let us see whether you die this time!"

"Whoosh—" Wei Zhao twisted aside once more and evaded Ma Zhu's blow, but it was a perilously close thing; he had only just missed being struck.

What was going on? Why had his reactions slowed? Had his stamina run dry? Impossible — this was nothing yet! He could run tens of thousands of meters without exhausting himself, so how could a few evasions of Ma Zhu's strikes drain him?

"Crack!" The edge of Ma Zhu's palm grazed Wei Zhao's left shoulder, and a piercing pain shot through the whole of it. In an instant Wei Zhao saw the shoulder swell up; unless he was mistaken, Ma Zhu had cracked his bone.

Wei Zhao stared at Ma Zhu in astonishment. What on earth was happening? Why had his movements grown sluggish? To be struck by Ma Zhu at all — what did it mean?

"Well? Feels good, does it not? Just a pity I did not hit a vital spot. No matter — I have patience enough, and I will play you to death by degrees!" Looking at the shoulder he had swollen, Ma Zhu's lips curled into a sinister smile. "Feels absolutely wonderful, eh?"

Wei Zhao frowned. His every step, he felt, was growing heavier and heavier.

Wei Zhao had always been confident in his qinggong and his stamina, but now his qinggong had badly deteriorated and even his strength was showing signs of failing. He knew this was bad; at this rate, he would surely die...

Wei Zhao swiftly roused the inner arts of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Riding Art and examined the injuries within his body... Wait! Suddenly he discovered something wrong inside him.

Poison! He had been poisoned!

Wei Zhao's face turned abruptly grim as a possibility came to him. "Was the bullet poisoned?"

"Poison?" Ma Zhu was briefly taken aback; plainly he had known nothing of it.

"Hahahahaha!" At Wei Zhao's words, Zhen Yingjun suddenly burst into loud and delighted laughter. "I thought you were immune to poison! It has been so long without a reaction that I assumed the stuff was useless on cultivators like you — so it was merely slow to take effect! I wondered why you had grown so clumsy. It was the poison all along! Wahahahaha!"

"It really is poisoned!" Wei Zhao clenched his teeth, his breath coming short and fast. He had not expected Zhen Yingjun to be so vicious as to coat the earlier bullets with poison!

"Master Ma, the brat's poison has kicked in — finish him quickly!" Zhen Yingjun felt not the slightest qualm about what he had done. In his eyes, killing Wei Zhao was the first and only priority! And at this moment he considered himself uncommonly brilliant!

Had Wei Zhao not been poisoned, leaping and darting about as he was, Ma Zhu truly could have done nothing to him! Ma Zhu might be formidable, but Wei Zhao's qinggong was superb, and for a time even Ma Zhu could not get the better of him! Now, though, Wei Zhao was poisoned, his movements already grown sluggish, and so Wei Zhao's death was, in his reckoning, merely a matter of sooner or later!

Ma Zhu nodded. Though he found the business of poison somewhat beneath him, the brat had been hopping about before him, dodging every strike, and it was genuinely infuriating — so Wei Zhao's being poisoned was, all in all, a good thing!

Was this the day he would meet his end here? Wei Zhao gritted his teeth, glanced at the young miss, then at Shen Yushu.

If he fled now, Wei Zhao was confident that, swift as Ma Zhu was, the man could not catch him. But what of the young miss? Yet if he did not go, once Ma Zhu had killed him, would Ma Zhu let the young miss go?

Surely he would? Otherwise, if Zhen Yingjun had wanted Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu dead, they would already have been two corpses before he arrived. But Zhen Yingjun had not done so, which showed he wanted only to kill Wei Zhao and had no wish to move against Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu!

With him dead, the ripples would be far smaller than if Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were harmed! In Zhen Yingjun's eyes, he was nothing but a hanger-on of Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu; a hanger-on dead was simply a hanger-on dead. But if Gu Pengzhan's daughter were to die, the matter would likely blow up out of all proportion!

At that thought, Wei Zhao's heart settled somewhat.

"Brat, no use thinking about all that!" Ma Zhu looked at Wei Zhao and said mildly, "Never mind that you're already poisoned — even if you weren't, you'd be no match for me!"