"I can save him, but it will be a bit of trouble..." Wei Zhao smiled wryly. His energy had been drained badly these past few days!

"Wei Zhao, please, I beg you — can you save him?" Seeing the look on Wei Zhao's face, Gu Mengyao knew in her heart that the matter was likely not so simple. In truth, she knew that even if Wei Zhao's medical skill was superb, General Weiwu was nearly dead through and through — how could he be saved?

And Wei Zhao had already spent no small amount of strength the day before, saving her. Now to ask him to save General Weiwu as well — she could not quite bear it.

"Ha, I said it would be a bit of trouble, not that I wouldn't save him." Wei Zhao looked at the young mistress gazing at him so eagerly — rather adorable, really — and something stirred faintly in his heart. The young mistress was, after all, a girl of flesh and blood, with feelings of her own; she merely wrapped herself up too tightly day to day, never readily revealing what lay in her heart.

"Mm..." Gu Mengyao nodded.

"Oh, you two are so mushy! Sister Yaoyao, sooner or later you'll be Brother Shield's first wife anyway, so of course Brother Shield has to save your dog for you," said Shen Yushu.

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

Wei Zhao carried General Weiwu back to his room, then glanced at Uncle Qing and said, "Uncle Qing, I'll have to trouble you to stand guard at my door. Don't let anyone disturb me."

Though Yu Kun's martial arts had been crippled by Wei Zhao, Wei Zhao was not certain his move would hold. What if someone could repair Yu Kun's meridians as he himself could? So, fearing Yu Kun might bring men back to kill him, Wei Zhao had Uncle Qing guard the door.

That way Uncle Qing, a master at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, ought to be able to hold them off for a while; and so long as Wei Zhao heard the commotion, he could respond accordingly.

"Of course. What trouble is there in that?" Uncle Qing said hurriedly. "You're saving Miss Gu's dog — I should be thanking you!"

"Ha, it's only what I ought to do." Wei Zhao smiled and turned back into the room.

General Weiwu was not truly dead, only unconscious. Though many of his internal organs had been damaged, Wei Zhao was confident he could save him — the only question was by what means.

Wei Zhao wondered whether his own energy could save the dog. His energy worked on humans, but whether it would work on a dog he did not know. If it did, saving General Weiwu would be somewhat easier; if not, he would have to fall back on the conventional treatment of acupuncture and herbal medicine.

"Old Jiao, will my energy work on a dog?" Fearing that pouring energy straight into General Weiwu might kill him outright — which would be no fun at all — Wei Zhao asked first.

"I don't know. That I couldn't tell you — I've 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 give it a try?"

"A try? You don't mean try until he's dead?" Wei Zhao was far from reassured by this answer.

"Dead he won't be. At worst it does nothing, or you overdo it," said Jiao Yazi.

"All right, I'll try." At this point Wei Zhao could only treat a dead horse as a live one. Even if he did kill the dog, the young mistress would not blame him — he would have done all he could.

Wei Zhao laid his hand on General Weiwu and silently circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art in his heart. In an instant he felt a powerful suction come from within General Weiwu's body, drawing the energy out of him.

Wei Zhao's heart stirred. It seemed it was working?

Yet though the suction was fierce, Wei Zhao dared not control it or withdraw. He did not know how much energy saving the dog would take, so he simply let General Weiwu draw it in. If too much was taken, he could always sleep it off and replenish himself.

Time passed, second by second. He did not know how long it had been; General Weiwu's absorption had still not stopped. It seemed his injuries were grave, and Wei Zhao dared not halt. Though he had begun to feel dizzy and blurred — a warning that his body's energy was overdrawn — Wei Zhao thought: to keep the young mistress from grieving, he would endure it.

When he thought about it, the young mistress had always treated him rather well. Apart from some hostility at the very beginning, once she had accepted him she had been quite concerned for him. And besides — he had once touched her breast.

He wondered when he might touch it again. Wei Zhao savored the memory... and as he mused, he drifted off to sleep.

Wei Zhao had expended far too much energy, and so fell directly into the sleep state of energy replenishment.

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

"I don't know. I don't know either," Jiao Yazi shook his head. "I'm not certain your energy can save a dog, but the dog did absorb a good deal of it... For now, though, the pressing matter is that you replenish your own energy. Fainting at a time like this — what if an enemy came?"

Wei Zhao was startled. He dared not ask more, and hurriedly circulated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art once more, madly absorbing the energy within the jade pendant's space...

The energy elements in the jade pendant's space seemed inexhaustible. Wei Zhao had absorbed them so many times, yet they showed no sign of thinning, as rich as ever. Wei Zhao felt every pore in his body open, all of them drinking in the energy elements...

He did not know how much more time had passed when Wei Zhao suddenly felt the energy within his body fill him as never before.

The peak of the early Mystic Rank? Wei Zhao was slightly startled, and returned from the jade pendant's space to reality. To his astonishment, he found that he had gone from the early Mystic Rank to the peak of the early Mystic Rank — that is, he was now only a single step from the mid Mystic Rank!

What was going on?

After his energy had been lost and then replenished, Wei Zhao clearly felt his strength had risen — just as it had after he healed Feng Xiaoxiao last time.

Could it be the legendary "no breaking, no building"? He had lost a portion of his energy, then replenished it, and thereby broken through his former strength?

Wei Zhao did not know whether his guess was right, but the fact was simply that wondrous. He had never expected to profit from misfortune and raise his strength so greatly.

"Woof, woof!"

Suddenly General Weiwu's bark sounded at his side. Wei Zhao started, then abruptly remembered General Weiwu. He had drifted hazily into the energy-replenishing state earlier and paid no heed to how the dog was faring; waking now, he had been astonished by his own rise in strength and had forgotten the dog entirely.

By the look of it, General Weiwu had woken before him. Wei Zhao turned toward the sound and saw General Weiwu crouched before his bed like a guardian deity; seeing him wake, the dog was wagging its tail and shaking its head at him in delight.

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