“You are courting death, Ling Zhang!”
At this moment, Yuwen Qi’s eyes were blood-red, sheer murderousness glinting in them. All of a sudden, a small eerily blue snake shot out of nowhere like greased lightning and bit Ling Zhang’s wrist!
“Young Master!”
“Younger Brother Zhang!”
Zhang Liu, Wang Dashan and Tao Yi were taken aback. None of them saw how that snake appeared, and neither was any of them able to react promptly to stop it. Besides, this snake was giving off a strong foul odor and of a weird color. Anybody could tell at a glance that it was venomous! Many venomous snakes had virulent venom which could cause instantaneous death!
Ling Zhang himself had also never expected that a snake would shoot out of nowhere to bite him, so he was caught off guard. The pointed sharp fangs of the venomous snake penetrated through the skin of his wrist. Not only was it causing him stabbing pain, his whole arm immediately went numb, which showed how high the level of toxicity of this snake’s venom was! Feeling dizzy, he briefly staggered and nearly lost his footing, his vision blurring…
Wang Dashan tossed aside the books in his arms and quickly stepped forward to support Ling Zhang with Tao Yi. Wang Dashan rapidly gripped the neck of the venomous snake. He did it with so great strength that the snake’s neck was directly broken. With that, the snake let go of Ling Zhang’s wrist but its fangs were still in Ling Zhang’s flesh. Wang Dashan removed it, heavily threw it to the ground and stamped it flat.
Zhang Liu, too worried to keep Yuwen Qi under control, kicked him aside and hurriedly went to check Ling Zhang.
After being kicked aside, Yuwen Qi picked himself up. Seeing the body of the snake, he was both painfully regretful and furious, but when he saw Ling Zhang suffering from the poison, he instantly had a smug look on his face, fully enjoying the feeling of being avenged. Through gritted teeth, he remarked, “Ling Zhang, this is what happens when you mess with me. My precious snake was far more valuable than your life. You should count yourself lucky.”
“Yuwen Qi, hand over the antidote!” Zhang Liu, seeing Ling Zhang’s life was hanging in the balance, gripped Yuwen Qi and demanded that he hand over the antidote.
At this time, Ling Zhang had regained his footing. He fished out the jade pendant around his neck with his other hand that was not numb and put it into his mouth. Immediately, a stream of mild but energetic medicinal power coursed through all veins inside his body and with that his mind instantly cleared, and the numbness in his arm also dissolved. The black poison of the snake was forced back to his wrist, flowed out of the wound and then disappeared thoroughly.
“Young Master… Yo–You recovered?”
“The poison was detoxified?”
Wang Dashan and Tao Yi, who had been supporting Ling Zhang, saw with their own eyes that the snake poison inside Ling Zhang instantly disappeared. The two of them were overjoyed, feeling as if their hearts had gone back to their chests from their mouths.
“I’m okay now. You may let go of me.”
Ling Zhang patted Wang Dashan and Tao Yi, who were supporting him, on the arm, as a sign for them to let go of him, and then, beneath the shocked gaze of everybody, he walked towards Yuwen Qi.
“Thi–This can’t be happening. How did you come to survive that?! The venom of this snake is the most virulent in the world! Without specially prepared antidote, you would surely be dead! Why are you still alive?!”
Yuwen Qi was both astounded and furious. Ling Zhang had already taken the jade pendant out of his mouth and put it back into his collar. Yuwen Qi had not seen it because Zhang Liu blocked more than half of his view. He had no idea whatsoever how Ling Zhang had detoxified his body.
All this had taken place so quick. Before any of the onlookers who had seen this could figure out exactly what was going on, the situation took another drastic turn. All guards of Su family whipped out their sabers and pointed them at Ling Zhang and the other three. Su Yaoyao also ran to the side of Yuwen Qi and nervously stood beside him. “Cousin!” she called.
“Yuwen Qi, you are so vicious! You set a venomous snake on him. What kind of benefits could you possibly gain from Younger Brother Zhang’s death?!” Tao Yi’s heart was hammering. He was still suffering from the shock. The very thought that Ling Zhang would’ve been dead by now had he not had a special jade pendant which could detoxify poison struck terrible fear into his heart. Even his hands and feet were icy cold with fright. As a result, he hated Yuwen Qi very much.
“Benefits? I’d be happy if he dies. You tell me what benefits I could gain. It’s such a pity. I wonder what kind of evil thing you used to detoxify the poison immediately. My snake died for nothing,” said Yuwen Qi with a sepulchral face.
“Yuwen Qi, originally I merely wanted to teach you a lesson and then let you go, but now that you tried to poison me… Guard Zhang, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you to bring him to me once again,” Ling Zhang observed, eyeing Yuwen Qi flintily.
Without saying anything, Zhang Liu hurtled into the circle of protection formed by guards of Su family.
“What are you doing? Do you know my cousin is the second young master of Yuwen family? If you dare to make another move, both Yuwen family and Su family will make you pay for it!” yelled the lady of Su family as she saw Zhang Liu charged over.
Zhang Liu’s kung fu was far better than that of any of the guards of Su family. He had restrained Yuwen Qi once, and he could definitely do it again.
Seeing Yuwen Qi was grabbed, Su Yaoyao screamed, “How dare you! Let go of my cousin!”
Zhang Liu, showing a total disregard for her, brought Yuwen Qi up to Ling Zhang and said, “He’s all yours, Childe Ling.”
After saying this, he looked at Ling Zhang somewhat worriedly. What Yuwen Qi had just done was far beyond the pale. He feared that Ling Zhang wanted to take Yuwen Qi’s life. If that was the case, he really didn’t know whether he should stop him or not. This incident was bound to escalate as well. However, though having such worry, Zhang Liu didn’t dare to say it out before Ling Zhang actually tried to do it.
“Ling Zhang, if you dare to touch a single hair of mine, not only you but also all your family members will pay with your lives!” Yuwen Qi, whose vital acupoints had been hit by Zhang Liu, couldn’t move an inch, consumed with rage. ‘These guards of Su family are all good-for-nothings! They couldn’t even stop one man!’
Ling Zhang’s countenance grew increasingly colder as he heard these words, his face full of anger. “You should count yourself lucky that you are Yuwen Tong’s cousin. Apart from everything else, I still have to take his face into consideration. Otherwise I would never let you get off like this after what you did today. Guard Zhang, bring him with us. We’re going to the residential compound of Yuwen family!”
“Yes!” Zhang Liu, after hearing that Yuwen Qi was merely going to be brought to the residential compound of Yuwen family, felt a sense of relief.
“Cousin!” Su Yaoyao ran up and stopped them. “Let go of my cousin!”
“Step aside!” Ling Zhang instructed coldly.
Su Yaoyao fixed him with a resentful stare. “You are nothing but a shameless man. You think just because you are engaged to the Marshal gives you the right to wilfully do whatever you like? The Marshal hasn’t married you yet, and he’s definitely not going to take someone like you as his wife. Let go of my cousin!”
Ling Zhang gave a sneer and asked rhetorically and explicitly, “Surely you don’t imagine he’d marry you instead of me, do you?”
“Yo–You!” Su Yaoyao flushed scarlet with embarrassment, at a loss for words of contradiction.
“I said ‘step aside’. If you don’t, I won’t go easy on you even though you are a woman. I have Yuwen Tong at my back, so be smart,” observed Ling Zhang.
“Shame on you!” Su Yaoyao blushed furiously.
Ling Zhang rolled his eyes upwards, and then his face darkened as he fixed his icy eyes on Su Yaoyao.
Beneath his gaze, Su Yaoyao was somewhat scared, and surprisingly, when Ling Zhang started walking forward again, she didn’t dare to stop him any more but just eyed Ling Zhang in resentment with her lower lip clamped between her teeth, as if Ling Zhang had just committed a heinous crime.
Ling Zhang, showing a total disregard for her, took Yuwen Qi and headed for the residential compound of Yuwen family.
“What do you plan to do, Childe Ling?” asked Zhang Liu. “Do you want me to have someone inform the Marshal of this?”
Tao Yi on the side also remarked nervously, “If we go to the residential compound of Yuwen family just like this, we might end up losing out, don’t we? I think we should inform the Marshal and go there with him!”
“That’s Yuwen family’s place, so what? Yuwen Qi tried to have our young master poisoned. Our young master has every right to go there and get justice, doesn’t he?” commented Wang Dashan.
After an unsuccessful attempt to free himself, Yuwen Qi observed frostily through gritted teeth, “Get justice? With your power? Don’t be ridiculous. Ling Zhang, I suggest you release me right now, or you will regret it.”
Ling Zhang replied without even a backward glance at him, “Regret? You know what, I do feel somewhat regretful. I regret not having directly broken one of your legs a moment ago.”
Zhang Liu’s eyelids involuntarily twitched. He had an intuition that Ling Zhang was telling the truth.
“Then what kept you from breaking his leg, Young Master?” asked Wang Dashan angrily. “Yuwen Qi tried to poison you!”
Ling Zhang made no reply. He wanted more than just breaking his leg – he wanted Yuwen Qi dead. Yuwen Qi had not only tried to poison him but also threatened him with deaths of all members of Ling family in Tanyang, which was something he found most unforgivable. However, Yuwen Qi was Yuwen Tong’s cousin. If he beat him to death or disabled him, Yuwen Tong would be put in an awkward position. No matter what, he shouldn’t be the one who did that.
‘Let people of Yuwen family account for this action of his!’ he thought.
Of course Zhang Liu had not been the only one that Yuwen Tong had dispatched to go out with Ling Zhang, which was why when Ling Zhang escorted Yuwen Qi to the gateway of the residential compound of Yuwen family, Yuwen Tong also showed up, along with Xie Shi who had been hastily told to come.
“Cousin, help me!” yelled Yuwen Qi at the sight of Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong threw a flinty glance at him. The iciness and bloodthirstiness in his eyes transfixed Yuwen Qi, as if he were frozen by some kind of enchantment. Feeling chills run through him, he stuttered, “Cousin…Yo–You…”
“Xie Shi.”
Xie Shi had walked up. He first felt Ling Zhang’s pulse, and then briefly examined him. Feeling relieved, he said, “It’s nothing serious. The poison in Childe Ling has been detoxified. It’s just that his body will be somewhat weak after detoxification and he needs tonics to help him recover.”
Ling Zhang put down his wrist and looked at Yuwen Tong. “I’m fine.”
Yuwen Tong took his hand and the two of them walked into the front gate of the residential compound of Yuwen family.
Thus Yuwen Qi was escorted into the residential compound.
Both Yuwen Zhi and Zheng shi were caught off guard by their arrival, especially when they saw Yuwen Qi pushed to the ground, who cut a sorry figure.
“Qi’er! What are you doing?! What did you do to my son?!” Taken aback, Zheng shi hastened up to Yuwen Qi, helped him to his feet and hastily examined him from head to toe. “Qi’er, are you all right? What did they do to you?”
Yuwen Qi’s hands, which had been tied at the back all the way to this place, had gone numb some time ago. Having just been released, he was unable to speak due to the itch, numbness and pain in his hands.
“What’s this supposed to mean?” Yuwen Zhi was not as talkative as his wife was, but he also stared at Yuwen Tong with extremely deterrent eyes.
“Uncle, aunt!” At this moment, someone called from outside and with that Su Yaoyao ran into the living room helter-skelter.
“Yaoyao?” Seeing the tears on her cheeks, Zheng shi inquired of her, “What happened to you?”
“Aunt, that Ling Zhang guy is a shameless wretch. He injured my Second Cousin and refused to let him go, saying that he wanted to take Second Cousin here and seek justice,” Su Yaoyao huffed, pointing at Ling Zhang.
“What?” Zheng shi’s face instantly went angry and her penetrating eyes glared at Ling Zhang. “You dared hurt my son?”
