Chapter 2946 — Wei Zhao Is Poisoned

"True enough—it is time we talked business!" Old Master Zhao narrowed his eyes and smiled, though the smile was exceedingly strange.

"What are you laughing at?" Wei Zhao frowned.

"Wei Zhao, how do you feel right now?" Old Master Zhao asked abruptly instead.

At that question, Wei Zhao's heart gave a sudden start! Old Master Zhao had always addressed him as Senior Lin before, and this sudden switch to calling him Wei Zhao struck him as somewhat off. Moreover, the old man was asking how he felt—could there be something wrong in this?

"What do you mean?" Wei Zhao asked, watching Old Master Zhao coldly. "Don't tell me you're scheming something crooked again?"

"Heh heh, Wei Zhao, the debt you owe our Zhao family is due," Old Master Zhao said, rising to his feet and regarding Wei Zhao with a half-smile. "Wei Zhao, do you not yet feel that something is amiss? You have been poisoned!"

"Poisoned?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. Then he asked, "You put poison in the food?"

Yet though he asked, Wei Zhao did not believe it! After all, Wei Zhao had grown up among medicine jars, and he was exceedingly sensitive to poisons. If there had been poison in the food, he would certainly have noticed—he would not be sitting here oblivious as he was now!

Besides, Wei Zhao's jade pendant had a warning function. If the food truly held poison that could take his life, it would surely have warned him; yet to this moment he had received not the slightest warning signal—and that was another reason Wei Zhao did not believe it.

"Indeed. You may try it—circulate your mental cultivation formula and see what happens," Old Master Zhao said mildly, looking at Wei Zhao.

"Circulate my formula?" At those words Wei Zhao instinctively began to circulate the Xuanyuan Dragon-Riding Art, but the very next moment he discovered to his astonishment that he could not stir the true qi within his body at all—the Xuanyuan Dragon-Riding Art simply would not circulate!

What was going on? Wei Zhao was greatly alarmed. It was as if the true qi in his body had been suppressed by something; not only could he not circulate his formula, he found that he could not even condense the most basic true qi bomb!

"Well? No good, is it? Turned into a limp shrimp, haven't you? Hahahahaha!" One look at Wei Zhao's expression told Old Master Zhao that the man had fallen for it! And truly, the poison the Hidden You family had provided was remarkably effective!

"How did you do it?" Wei Zhao asked, his face dark.

"This poison is an ancient and marvelous toxin. Yet though it is called a poison, in truth it is not one—for it will not kill you, nor will it affect your ordinary life. It merely suppresses your strength, turning you into an ordinary person who cannot use his power!" Old Master Zhao explained.

"What!? An ancient marvelous toxin?" Wei Zhao's gaze swept over the dishes on the table. He had tasted every one of them, yet he could not judge which dish was the culprit!

Impossible! Even if it was not a poison, so long as it could harm his body, why had the jade pendant not warned him?

"Indeed—an ancient marvelous toxin! You needn't look. The truth is, I administered the poison in separate parts. Each herb by itself is not poisonous, but mixed together they become a poison!" Old Master Zhao said calmly. "This method of poisoning should not be unfamiliar to you, Wei Zhao, should it?"

"Medicine King Zhao?" Wei Zhao remembered at once—a case of mass student poisoning he had encountered back at Songshan No. 1 High School. Zhong Yongliang had used the Seven-Herb Death-Despair Powder that Medicine King Zhao had given him, putting it one by one into each dish, poisoning them by mixture!

"Haha, so you're not stupid! You were able to cure that poison last time, but this time you cannot—because this poison has no antidote!" Old Master Zhao laughed heartily. "Wei Zhao, what do you think? Never dreamed of it, did you? Haha, just now I had Qibing serve you a portion of every dish, precisely so that you would be poisoned without knowing it!"

"I never thought... that Medicine King Zhao had such skill. I overlooked it..." This time Wei Zhao did not think much of it. After all, Medicine King Zhao had used the same method to poison before, so Wei Zhao naturally assumed this poison too had come from him.

And at last Wei Zhao understood why there had been no warning! Because each herb in this poison was harmless; he had taken them separately, and each dish eaten alone posed no danger!

The jade pendant could warn of danger, but with dishes like these—poisonous only when combined—it could not be so intelligent as to analyze them together! Besides, perhaps it was also because this poison was not truly a poison but a prescription, one that posed no lethal danger to Wei Zhao himself, and so the jade pendant had overlooked it.

Be that as it may, Wei Zhao had fallen for it. Only, he found it strange. "Old man Zhao, when Zhao Qibing served me, you ate too. I only ate after watching you eat. Since this poison has no antidote, why are you unaffected after eating it?"

"Hahaha, idiot!" Old Master Zhao laughed on. "This poison works only on cultivators below the Heaven Rank. At Heaven Rank and above it is useless—it dissolves on its own! Unfortunately, though I am only at the early Heaven Rank, I am a genuine Heaven Rank expert! And you, though you can kill mid Heaven Rank experts in an instant, are in essence still a late Earth Rank expert. So this poison does not affect me, but it affects you! What do you think? Fooled, weren't you? You ate because you saw me eat?"

Wei Zhao's mouth twitched twice. He had not expected Old Master Zhao to be so venomous, to have laid such a scheme. He could not help but smile bitterly. "It seems you never intended to acknowledge me as your leader at all. All along, you have still regarded me as an enemy!"

Though he spoke the question aloud, in truth Wei Zhao was stalling for time, searching for a countermeasure. But to his frustration, no matter how he searched, he could find no effective solution. This poison, as Old Master Zhao had said, could not be broken!

He was a late Earth Rank expert, his strength stuck at that level—what was he to do?

Even if a way could be found, at the very least there was no good way now.

"Indeed, Wei Zhao. You overestimate yourself. I, Zhao, am at any rate a Heaven Rank expert—did you think I would bow to you?" Old Master Zhao gave a cold snort. "Today we settle new accounts and old together! Zhao Qibing, seize him for me!"

"Yes, Grandfather!" Zhao Qibing was finally able to hold his head high. With a chuckle, he grabbed Wei Zhao by the scruff of the neck and hauled him up!