Chapter 4003 — One More

Only now did Xu Lingchong remember: a curly bear paired with Immortal Drunk was a combination universally acknowledged as forbidden. Getting a curly bear to drink at all was trouble enough; now, thanks to the Immortal Drunk, it had been driven straight into the ultimate state of liquor-frenzy. If a man insisted on courting death, not even the gods could stop him.

"Young Master Xu, you'd best grit your teeth and bear the pain. Otherwise you'll draw the attention of the big shots downstairs, and that wouldn't be good at all," Wei Zhao suddenly remarked from the side, his words laden with meaning.

Of course, Wei Zhao was only making idle talk. The rooms of these big shots had all been fitted with restrictive wards by high-level cultivators long ago. Everyone here was a master of the heavenly way, able to sense with their divine consciousness what others were doing at the slightest effort. Without such wards, no one would have any secrets at all. Even if Xu Lingchong screamed his head off, no one would hear a thing.

"What the hell are you—" Xu Lingchong had gotten only halfway through his sentence when a crack sounded from below. The enormous shears pressed against his crotch snapped shut in the little curly bear's paws.

For an instant, the whole world went silent.

Staring blankly at the pool of blood beneath him, Xu Lingchong could not, for a long while, work out what had happened. To be precise, he had already worked it out—he simply dared not believe it. The shock was so great that he did not even feel the searing pain radiating from below.

Wei Zhao, watching this scene, was also stunned for a long moment before he finally recovered his wits. At last he murmured, "The cultivation world has gained itself another eunuch."

A short while later, Wei Zhao finally suppressed the effects of the Immortal Drunk once more and regained his mobility. Xu Lingchong, by contrast, simply sat there frozen and shattered, not making a sound or a movement from beginning to end. He even forgot to ask Wei Zhao what he had meant by "another."

Even so, Wei Zhao did not dare underestimate him in the slightest. To be transformed from a man into a eunuch in an instant—and this man, no less, was Xu Lingchong, a young master of the Chongtian Pavilion who could summon wind and call rain and whose future had been boundless. What such a man might do after so cataclysmic a change was utterly impossible to predict.

Xu Lingchong might be in a sorry state, but he was still a master at the great perfection of the Foundation Establishment stage. If he truly lost all reason and went on a rampage, then barring outside intervention, it would be all but impossible for Wei Zhao to walk away from this room unscathed.

Keeping his eyes fixed on Xu Lingchong, Wei Zhao rose warily and, reaching behind the little curly bear—which still seemed eager for more and was preparing to snip Xu Lingchong one more time—caught it up in his arms and dragged it back.

Strange as it was, after liquor-frenzy took hold, the curly bear clan—save for a rare few exceptionally powerful individuals—generally lost their reason and could no longer tell friend from foe. Yet this little curly bear offered no resistance whatsoever when Wei Zhao seized it. Apart from looking rather different than before, it did not struggle in the least; instead, it scrambled up Wei Zhao's arm and perched on his shoulder.

It gave one the impression that after liquor-frenzy, this little creature had grown only a shade more violent and reckless than usual—its mind, astonishingly, still seemed clear. That was truly unexpected. Had it truly gone berserk, mindlessly on a rampage, it would likely not have been Xu Lingchong alone who got snipped; Wei Zhao himself might well have fallen victim too.

Seeing that Xu Lingchong still had not reacted, Wei Zhao, without betraying a thing, carefully gathered up the unconscious Shangguan Lan'er—she who had been force-fed the Immortal Drunk—held his breath, and on tiptoe, step by step, backed out of the room.

By all logic, if Xu Lingchong had retained even half a shred of clarity, he could not possibly have failed to strike at the little curly bear, nor could he have let Wei Zhao carry Shangguan Lan'er away. Yet the reality was that the man had been utterly shattered from first to last, staring blankly at the pool of fresh blood beneath him as though completely blind to the world around him.

Only after he had carried Shangguan Lan'er safely out of the third floor did Wei Zhao finally let out a long breath. Standing at the top of the stairs, he could now be seen by those below; even if Xu Lingchong gave chase, so long as Wei Zhao made the slightest commotion and drew attention, someone would naturally head him off.

This birthday banquet had truly been a heart-stopping affair! Even now, for all Wei Zhao's composure, he could not help but feel a chill down his spine. That had indeed been a bit too reckless!

He had assumed the wine would not affect him much—after all, back in the mortal world, Wei Zhao had been a man who could drain a thousand cups without falling. But the Immortal Drunk had proven to be exactly what its name promised.

Still, Wei Zhao did not regret it. The jade pendant's space could have stored the wine in his cup, but Wei Zhao had not dared risk it. These masters of the heavenly way were nothing like the ordinary cultivators of the mortal world, and Xu Lingchong's strength, moreover, was plain for all to see—far above Wei Zhao's own. The slightest slip could invite far greater trouble! Xu Lingchong, after all, had been watching him like a hawk. Such tricks could only be done when no one was looking. He could not afford to be careless.

Just then a familiar voice sounded beside his ear: "Hm? Little Junior Brother, why are you carrying me?"

Wei Zhao gave a start. In his arms, Shangguan Lan'er was staring at him in astonishment. He hastily let go, setting her down with some embarrassment, and could not help asking in wonder, "You were force-fed Immortal Drunk—and you're perfectly fine?"

In his eyes, even he himself had only barely managed to suppress the Immortal Drunk's effects with great difficulty. With Shangguan Lan'er's strength—peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage—it should have been even harder for her to withstand. Yet now she looked as though the Immortal Drunk had had no effect on her at all.

"Immortal Drunk?" Shangguan Lan'er rubbed her aching nape—the very spot where Xu Lingchong had knocked her out—looking utterly bewildered. "I was force-fed Immortal Drunk? But isn't that Little Bai's favorite thing? When did I drink any of that? Wasn't I just talking to you, Little Junior Brother?"

This young lady really was slow on the uptake! Wei Zhao shook his head, speechless. "You were knocked unconscious just now, and he force-fed you the Immortal Drunk. I thought you'd be muddled senseless like Little Bai..."

"Not at all! When Little Bai drinks Immortal Drunk, sure, it goes a little wild, but the more it drinks, the livelier it gets—it's actually perfectly clear-headed. And not just Little Bai: your senior sister isn't afraid of that stuff either. Grandpa had me soaking in tubs of all kinds of spirit medicine every day since I was small, so I'm immune to a hundred poisons. Ordinary drugs don't work on me at all, and neither does Immortal Drunk." Shangguan Lan'er lifted her chin smugly.

"Immune to a hundred poisons? I see." Wei Zhao finally understood. Immune to a hundred poisons—he too had been raised soaking in such tubs back in the mortal world, except that it had stopped working once he reached Cloud Terrace Island. The poisons on Cloud Terrace Island were ones he had never even heard of. (To be continued.)