But Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had by now become the people closest to Wei Zhao, apart from Tang Yun and Feng Xiaoxiao, so it was only natural that Wei Zhao no longer kept these matters from them.

"Ah! Her brother was actually your former comrade-in-arms... and he might even have died. That girl is so pitiful too!" Gu Mengyao felt that Ying Ziyu was even more pitiable than Chen Xi, with not a single relative left. "Say, why don't we arrange for them to attend the First High School? Then I'll have a word with Uncle Qing and ask the teachers to look after them a bit..."

The young lady had at least this much say in things. Wei Zhao could just as easily have done it, but it was good to let her do some good deeds too.

Because she knew Wei Zhao's strength was fading, Shen Yushu no longer brought up going anywhere else. She sat quietly in the car, and they went straight back to the Gu family villa.

"Leader, you're back so early? How did it go? Did you have fun?" Wu Chengtian had been keeping watch at home. These days he served as underling, bodyguard, and butler all in one, and, following Wei Zhao around, he was quietly becoming a second Uncle Qing.

"I'm going into seclusion! You're in charge of the house's safety!" Wei Zhao waved a hand, not answering Wu Chengtian, and said quickly, "Don't disturb me during this time!"

"Ah... yes!" Though Wu Chengtian had no idea what was going on, seeing how serious Wei Zhao was, he asked no further questions. He nodded solemnly and said, "Leader, don't worry. I'll take care of the house for you."

Wei Zhao trusted Wu Chengtian completely. After giving these instructions, he went straight into his room and shut the door.

"Ladies, what's happened to Leader Wei Zhao? Is he about to break through?" Wu Chengtian asked only after Wei Zhao had gone into the room.

"Wei Zhao has run into some trouble. It seems he was poisoned, and his strength has all disappeared. He needs to recover..." Gu Mengyao did not conceal it from Wu Chengtian, but she only half understood the situation herself, so she simply told him what Wei Zhao had said on the way back.

"What? The Leader's strength is gone again?" But Wu Chengtian did not take it too seriously. "Then it should be fine. Even I was crippled, and the Leader still managed to restore me. He must have a way to handle this himself!"

"Let's hope so!" Gu Mengyao nodded, praying for Wei Zhao in her heart, hoping that nothing bad would happen to him.

By the time Wei Zhao returned to his room, all the strength in his body had vanished without a trace, leaving him no different from an ordinary person! He would never have imagined that snake venom could be so domineering—it could actually disperse a cultivator's true qi!

Although Wei Zhao had heard before that such poisons existed, they belonged to the realm of deviant arts, and he had never studied them in any detail. Now that he had run into one himself, he really had no idea how to solve it! Fortunately, he had the jade pendant as a golden finger, and that was what kept him bold and unafraid.

Otherwise, once the strength was lost, it would simply be lost. Any other cultivator, even if only crippled, would find recovery exceedingly difficult.

Wei Zhao did not think much about it. He sat down cross-legged and entered the jade pendant space, ready to cultivate from the very beginning. Losing all his strength was not something that had happened only once or twice, so he was not nervous. With practiced ease, he activated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Steering Art. Very soon, the energy in the jade pendant space was stirred up, turned into true qi, and surged into Wei Zhao's body...

As the energy became true qi and gradually accumulated within him, Wei Zhao finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed this golden finger of his really was remarkable. As long as his meridians were intact, even with his strength completely gone, he could slowly recover!

This situation was just like the one after his previous fight with Zhang Naipao. Wei Zhao was not anxious; he simply cultivated step by step...

Early Yellow Rank, peak of the early Yellow Rank, middle Yellow Rank—in just a few hours, Wei Zhao had charged all the way to the peak of the late Yellow Rank! A cultivation speed like his was surely unprecedented. What inheritances, what Chrysanthemum Manuals—none of them could possibly match Wei Zhao's speed!

But when Wei Zhao was breaking through to the Profound Rank, something bizarre happened!

From the peak of the late Yellow Rank to the early Profound Rank, Wei Zhao made the leap without any difficulty. Yet no sooner had he reached the early Profound Rank than that bizarre scene appeared again. The true qi he had just accumulated inside him began to drain swiftly, as if a flood had burst through a levee, and in a matter of moments his strength plummeted back to the peak of the late Yellow Rank!

Next came the late Yellow Rank, then the peak of the middle Yellow Rank... Down it went, and Wei Zhao was soon on the verge of becoming an early Yellow Rank cultivator!

Alarmed, Wei Zhao hurriedly activated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Steering Art, trying to absorb the energy in the jade pendant space to make up for the loss of true qi. But the speed at which the true qi was draining far exceeded the speed at which he could cultivate. The energy he replenished simply could not keep up with what was being lost!

And so tragedy struck once again. In the blink of an eye, Wei Zhao had become an ordinary person again!

This strange situation left him completely stupefied. What was going on? How could the strength he had just cultivated, the power he had possessed only a moment ago, vanish all over again?

Sitting inside the jade pendant space, Wei Zhao's expression shifted from overcast to clear. He had never encountered anything this uncanny before. Today was the first time!

It had all been fine just before. Why did his strength start disappearing the moment he cultivated to the Profound Rank?

Wei Zhao clenched his teeth and pondered for a while. He simply refused to believe in such evil. Once more he activated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Steering Art, determined to start from being an ordinary person and cultivate anew!

And so his strength began to rise again. This time, however, the newly cultivated power did not rapidly vanish; true qi could accumulate bit by bit, and before long Wei Zhao had become a solid early Yellow Rank practitioner!

This was something of a relief to Wei Zhao, and he threw himself into continued cultivation. Thus, from the peak of the early Yellow Rank to the middle Yellow Rank... he advanced all the way to the peak of the late Yellow Rank! When he reached that point, though, he grew somewhat nervous.

Last time, the trouble had started precisely when he was at the peak of the late Yellow Rank. Could something go wrong again this time?

But it seemed the more one dreaded a thing, the more surely it came to pass. The instant Wei Zhao broke through to the early Profound Rank, the tragedy of vanishing strength descended upon him once more! The power within his body began, for no reason at all, to drain rapidly again!

This time, Wei Zhao did not even try to activate the Xuanyuan Dragon-Steering Art to resist it, because the speed of the drain was simply too fast—far faster than his cultivation could ever hope to match. Resistance would have been futile resistance, utterly useless!