Chapter 902 — Finally Awake

"All right..." Gu Mengyao nodded, which was as much as an answer to Gu Pengzhan's suggestion.

Gu Pengzhan shook his head, turned, and went out of the villa.

Time crept by, minute after minute, and in a blink it was past one in the morning, yet none of the three girls felt the least bit sleepy.

"Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, why don't you two go and rest first? I'll wait here for Wei Zhao on my own, you needn't keep me company..." Tang Yun saw Shen Yushu yawning again and again while her eyes stayed wide as saucers, and thought her pitiable — she looked as if she needed a matchstick propped under each eyelid.

"Who says we're keeping you company? We're waiting for Wei Zhao to wake up too — he took that wound on our account, after all..." Gu Mengyao answered Tang Yun's words with a bitter smile.

"Exactly, exactly — we care about Brother Arrowhead even more than you do!" Shen Yushu nodded along.

"Hah... I'm afraid that if all three of us hold out like this, sooner or later one of us will keel over." Tang Yun explained, a little helplessly: "We can go one day without sleep, and two days we might just manage, but by the third day we'll have to sleep, won't we? And if we all slept through it, and Wei Zhao woke up right then and needed our help and found no one there — what then?"

"Put that way, you have a point..." Gu Mengyao nodded after hearing her out. "In that case, why don't we take turns standing watch? One person sleeps while two keep guard — how about that?"

"That's what I was thinking too..." Tang Yun agreed. "Shen Yushu, you look like the sleepiest of us. Why don't you go and rest first?"

"I won't. You go first, I'm not sleepy, not sleepy at all... yawn..." Shen Yushu yawned again. Her constitution had never been strong — which was why, when Zhong Yongliang shut her in that cave, she had not held out as long as Gu Mengyao.

"Xiaoshu, go to bed. Be a good girl!" Gu Mengyao ordered her.

"Oh... all right then." Shen Yushu truly was sleepy. Now that they had agreed on a plan, there was no need for her to force herself to stay awake; resting now was so that she could keep watch for Brother Arrowhead with a clearer head...

Yawning, Shen Yushu went upstairs... The Mighty General seemed to sense the tension in the living room as well; it raised its head to glance at Shen Yushu, then lay back down where it was and did not stir again...

Three days. The three girls lost count of how many shifts they had taken; no one bothered to tally them. Whoever woke, the next one went to sleep — over and over, round and round. How many cups of instant noodles they ate, no one could say. Day broke and dimmed, broke and dimmed again...

At last, some sound came from Wei Zhao's room!

Tang Yun and Shen Yushu were on watch just then. Hearing it, they scrambled to their feet and rushed toward Wei Zhao's room.

Neither dared make any loud noise, though. When they reached the door, anxious as they were, they still opened it gently, and cautiously peered toward the sickbed...

Wei Zhao's lashes quivered. His eyelids were heavy, but at last he struggled them open...

"Whew!" Wei Zhao let out a long breath. He was finally awake. This had been the hardest recovery since he was wounded. In the past, a single night at most was enough to restore him seven or eight parts, sometimes even to improve him a little. This time, merely mending the injuries on his body had taken three days and three nights, and his own strength had not recovered in the slightest.

Running the inner-energy method of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, Wei Zhao discovered with some bitterness that the meridians within his body were still damaged, that not a shred of energy could be summoned inside him — in other words, he was now no different from an ordinary man.

He had long since made his peace with it inside the jade pendant, yet back in the real world Wei Zhao still felt a touch of loss. To fall from a fine fighter to an ordinary man — it took only an instant. And yet Wei Zhao did not regret it.

Under the circumstances then, he'd had no choice. Without the energy bomb, he had no chance of winning.

Ma Zhu was an oddity among experts of the external school; what he trained was the Golden Bell Shield, which made his body proof against blade and spear. And Wei Zhao was two grades below him. An expert of the internal school at the peak of early Mystic Rank could still hold his own against one of the external school at mid Mystic Rank, but against a peak mid-Mystic Rank expert of the external school he would find it hard going — and Ma Zhu was a madman besides.

With no chance of victory at all, Wei Zhao could only stake everything, set himself on death's ground, and fight for life after.

If, as Jiao Yazi had said, he had kept back a third of his energy to repair his meridians, would the energy bomb formed from the remaining two thirds have hurt Ma Zhu as badly? Wei Zhao could not be sure.

A hundred-percent energy bomb had failed to kill Ma Zhu, only blasting off one arm; what would a two-thirds bomb do to him? If the blow failed, Wei Zhao would have squandered two thirds of his energy for nothing — and the third he had left would have been of no use either.

So if it all came again, Wei Zhao would still choose as he had.

Hah. I suppose I make a passable retainer after all, don't I? Though Gu Pengzhan had hired him chiefly to keep the young miss company in her studies and daily life, not as a dedicated guard, Wei Zhao was a stubborn man. In his dealings he looked not at money, but at loyalty.

If he had not grown attached to the young miss and Xiaoshu, would Wei Zhao have staked his life against a man for thirty thousand yuan? Not a chance.

"Wei Zhao, you're awake?" Tang Yun ran over, delighted.

Not to be outdone, Shen Yushu hurried over as well to claim credit: "I knew Brother Arrowhead would be fine! He's the most amazing, of course!"

"Hah..." Wei Zhao had been unconscious on the surface, but afterward he could still perceive what went on outside; he simply had not been able to force himself awake, his body was far too weak. Only when the injuries were fully mended did he come to. "You've had a hard time of it. Thank you — for staying with me three days and three nights!"

"Ah?" Tang Yun and Shen Yushu both froze at his words. How did Wei Zhao know they had stayed with him three days and three nights?

"I may have looked unconscious, but I was awake the whole time!" Wei Zhao said. "Hah — so now, at last, you two can get some proper rest, can't you?"

"We're not tired..." Tang Yun shook her head.

"Right, Brother Arrowhead, you must be hungry. What do you want to eat? I'll go make it for you!" Shen Yushu said.

"Hah, I don't want anything. I'd like to rest a while longer. You two go and rest as well — otherwise the noise you make will disturb me." Looking at the red rims of Tang Yun's and Shen Yushu's eyes, Wei Zhao knew they had not rested properly at all; the only way to force them to rest was to say this.

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