Chapter Thirty-Two: Exposure

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  Just woke up

  Suddenly, Yang Zhao only felt that in her lower abdomen, there were thousands of small knives burning red-hot, chopping and cutting chaotically at the same time.

  But in fact, there were no thousands of red-hot knives piercing Yang Zhao's abdomen, it was all just an illusion.

  In fact, there was only one knife inserted into his abdomen, and it felt even colder than ice.

  That icy-cold knife was firmly grasped in Mingyue's hand.

  Yang Zhaohad been stunned, he couldn't believe it no matter what.

  But facts are facts and can never be denied.

  Excruciating pain attacked his heart, and he could hardly hold on any longer. Yang Zhao fell backwards, but vaguely saw...

  The bright moon shines on everyone's distorted and unfamiliar face.

  Is this... really... her?

  But whatever the answer is, it no longer matters.

  At this moment, there is only one thing that matters most.

  That's life!

  Time, which had been stagnant, suddenly returned to its normal flow. Yang Zhao raised his right arm, gathering the remaining strength in his body and struck out with a palm. The center of his palm was dimly marked with the ? trigram, but it still retained some of its original power. Ming Yue Da Xia was weak and fragile, how could she withstand it? The iron palm landed on her, and she was instantly blown backward like a kite cut loose from its string. "Ka-chak!" The sound of splintering wood filled the air as the wooden bars of the prison cell were shattered into powder. Ming Yue Da Xia, along with countless fragments of wood, crashed heavily into the stone wall of the prison. The dagger that had been used to kill slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground, its joint clearly dislocated.

  On the face filled with frenzy, not a hint of pain could be found. Mingyue struggled to squeeze out a laugh that sent chills down one's spine from her throat. She raised her left arm, and a faint breaking sound whizzed like a meteor, immediately followed by a dark light bursting forth in a swift shot. Yang Zhao, who was leaning on the wall of the prison cell, had already gone black-eyed and couldn't see what it was. In a daze, he subconsciously raised his hand to block, and the edge of his palm happened to split the incoming hidden weapon. But unexpectedly, the dark light not only didn't get swept away but instead agilely spun around in mid-air, suddenly wrapping itself around Yang Zhao's palm.

  A scorching, piercing pain shot up from his palm to the top of his head like lightning, momentarily dispelling half of that dizzy feeling. Yang Zhaolong's eyes suddenly cleared and he shouted as he sprang up. In the dim light, he saw that what was wrapped around his palm was not some kind of hidden weapon, but a small snake with serrated scales, its black skin glinting with silver light. It had bared its fangs and bitten deeply into his palm, continuously injecting the venom it had stored up into his body.

  Yang Zhao instinctively grabbed the strange snake's tail and pulled it wildly, instantly tearing off a large piece of skin and flesh from his palm. He casually threw the snake to the ground and trampled it into a meat paste. Yang Zhao tore off his sleeve to bandage the wound on his abdomen, first applying pressure to stop the bleeding, then immediately sat down to meditate and cultivate his energy, trying to expel the toxin that was rapidly spreading upwards. The mysterious true energy of the I Ching followed his thoughts and transformed, struggling to build a weak defense line. However, his struggles seemed completely meaningless. The toxic force slowly but steadily climbed up his right arm, causing the skin color to turn into an eerie purple-black, and the muscles to become numb and die. Before long, the right half of his body had lost all sensation, and it was clear that if the toxin passed through the Jianjing acupoint, the toxicity would enter his brain, and there would be no cure!

  The poison in the chicken soup and that of the strange black snake, when combined, cancelled out more than half of the medicinal effect. This does not mean that the person who poisoned was incompetent. On the contrary, the new toxic power produced by the combination of the two poisons is more than ten times stronger than the sum of the two individual poisons. If it were to be used on ordinary martial artists like Qin Wu'an, the head of the Wu'an Escort Agency, even three hundred of them would have been killed by now.

  However, Yang Zhao was not willing to wait for death easily. At the critical moment of life and death, he didn't care about any consequences. Yang Zhao took a deep breath and immediately activated the highest and most profound mystery of the I Ching, the "Easy Heaven Exchange Earth, Big Dipper Shifts Stars" technique, which he had not yet mastered. In an instant, the true energy in his meridians reversed and surged upward, causing the defensive line that blocked the poison from spreading to collapse without a fight. The strange purple-black color rose rapidly like an elevator, spreading throughout his body in the blink of an eye. Yang Zhao's throat made a "gurgling" sound as he fell to the side, his eyes wide open. His head hit the wall with a strange "cracking" sound, like rotten wood hitting stone.

  The cold wind outside howled and swept in. The dim oil lamp flickered a few times, and finally went out. The entire prison was completely plunged into darkness, where one couldn't see their own fingers. Except for the increasingly weak gasps of everyone under the bright moonlight, there was no other sound.

  One minute, two minutes, three minutes... everything seemed to have been frozen in time and would remain so forever. But suddenly, the prison door creaked open with a "creak". A slender figure slipped in like a cat. With a flick of his hand, he lit the tinder.

  In the firelight, it was clear that the newcomer was the prison guard who had opened the door for Mingyue earlier. He glanced around the cell and quickly walked to Yang Zhao's side, kicking him in the waist. Immediately, there was a "thud" sound, and Yang Zhao's body, under the influence of the poison, had become completely stiff like a piece of wood.

  The prison guard opened his mouth, and on his originally ordinary face, a smile that was both triumphant and vicious emerged. He muttered to himself: "What kind of dog is this, the high and mighty Tang family? I spit on them! They've been oppressing our Tang family for so long, every single one of them deserves to die. Now they're in this state, it's really convenient for us." His dark eyes with white pupils rolled around, then fixed on the pale and dazed Mingyue who was sitting on the ground. The smooth and creamy skin that entered his line of sight made the prison guard feel like his throat was dry. He found it hard to swallow his saliva, and a strange light burst out from his pupils as he turned around and walked towards this easily obtainable prey, his hands spread wide and his index finger moving rapidly.

  The dim eyes suddenly burst into light, and Yang Zhao, who had been stiff as wood, regained his vitality. He jumped up with a muffled sound, his whole body springing up like a loaded spring, and pounced on the prison guard from behind. In an instant, the wind howled, and the prison guard's face changed color in shock, instinctively bending his arms to defend himself - but it was like hitting iron, and he ended up numbing his own hands. Before he could react again, Yang Zhao wrapped his arms around him, pressing him down with an iron hoop-like grip. Next, Little King opened his mouth, revealing two rows of white teeth, aimed at the enemy's neck artery, and without hesitation, took a forceful bite!

  The heart-wrenching pain pierced through his bones, and the prison guard let out a blood-curdling scream as he struggled with all his might to shake off Yang Zhao. The two of them crashed to the ground, entwined in a heap, rolling around wildly. It was a matter of life and death, and they both summoned every last ounce of strength. But after Yang Zhao bit open the guard's major artery, he began to gulp down the guard's blood in huge mouthfuls. The blood was foul-smelling and rancid, but as soon as it entered his belly, it immediately transformed into a massive, scorching fire that coursed through his meridians, causing his limbs, which had been stiffened by the severe poison, to gradually relax.

  〖Easy to change the sky, the Big Dipper moves and the stars move, the law〗 is the highest and most profound mystery of the heart method in the Yi Jing Xuan Jian. After practicing it, the 108 major acupoints in the body correspond to the 108 star mansions in the sky, and can almost unrestrictedly absorb the vast stellar power for use. Yang Zhao has not yet practiced this heart method and cannot absorb stellar power. However, when the highly toxic substance entered his body and could not be expelled, he was forced to urgently operate the heart method, dispersing and storing the toxic energy in the 108 major acupoints, turning the whole into zero, temporarily suppressing the toxic energy, narrowly avoiding the worst consequences of the toxin entering the brain. However, this is only a temporary solution and cannot last for long. Fortunately, just before the final limit arrived, the "antidote" was automatically delivered to Yang Zhao's face.

  All those who cultivate poison must first be able to resist poison. This is the same principle as a martial artist "not learning to hit, but learning to take a beating". In other words, this prison guard's own flesh and blood was the best antidote. The fresh blood dissolved the medicine, and the severe poison he had taken earlier gradually dissipated, while the guard's struggles became weaker and weaker. Before long, he suddenly convulsed several times, his whole body went limp, and he stopped breathing and his heart stopped beating.

  Just now when fighting, Yang Zhao didn't dare to recklessly mobilize his true energy, and was entirely relying on his own strength to hold on. Although he had luckily won this time, his hands were also numb and his feet were soft. What's more, the wound on his lower abdomen seemed to have split open again, and fresh blood had seeped out from the bandage. He took a few deep breaths with effort, and didn't even bother to check the wound, first shaking and swaying as he got up, then walking straight to Ming Yue's side, stretching out his hand to slap her face hard, calling out: "Hey hey, how are you?"

  The bright moonlight still left everyone in a daze, with no reaction whatsoever. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of her chest, Yang Zhao would have thought she had also become a corpse. Seeing this scene before him, Yang Zhao, who had flipped through countless comic books before crossing over, couldn't help but think that something was amiss. This must be either hypnosis or some sort of dark magic. But as for how to break the spell, it was like trying to grasp at smoke - there was no way to get a handle on it.

  After all the commotion, the government office was still eerily quiet, not a single sound. It's as if everyone had either died or been chased away. Yang Zhao felt his right eyebrow twitching nonstop, and subconsciously sensed that tonight's matter wasn't over yet. He was still in a precarious situation, and he couldn't afford to waste any more time. Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself and turned to leave.

  Saving people also depends on qualifications. In the current state, Yang Zhao absolutely does not think he has the ability to bring a big burden and still escape alive. Even if emotionally unacceptable, the rational voice at the bottom of his heart tells him that this is the only choice, and there is no other choice.

  As soon as he stepped out of the prison gate, Yang Zhao let out a long sigh. Not because the wind blowing in his face was particularly refreshing, but because he could finally prove with facts that his choice, although cruel, was absolutely correct.

  In fact, the evening wind was not only not refreshing, but also more pungent and unbearable, making people want to vomit. This was because in front of the prison cells, there were countless snakes and insects crawling on the ground at this moment. The torches inserted under the eaves were burning brightly, enough to let people see these reptiles clearly. The strange shape of the snake was exactly the same as the one that Mingyue had swung out from her sleeve earlier. Not only did it have saw-like teeth on its back, but its skin was also pitch-black with a hint of silver light. From a distance, it looked like a lake reflecting sparkling ripples. Although it seemed beautiful at first glance, the hidden danger and terror within were enough to make people shiver with fear!

  It's not time for the hibernation to end, and creatures like snakes, insects, rats, and ants should still be underground. Now they are acting against their nature and gathering in large numbers, it's clear that someone is manipulating them. However, Yang Zhao knew that the mastermind behind this would not be the three figures standing amidst the snakes, with venomous snakes wrapped all over their bodies.

  The reason is simple, those three people are actually the leaders of the Wu An Escort Bureau: Qin Wu'an, Hu Jing Shui, and Tuoba Wen Zheng.

  They didn't dare to move, they didn't dare to speak, and they even didn't dare to blink their eyes. Under the siege of thousands of snakes, that kind of deathly aura could absolutely drive people crazy. Qin Wu'an hadn't fallen down in a faint yet, not because his nerves were particularly strong, but because he knew that as soon as he fell, these strange snakes would immediately pounce on him without mercy, sucking out all the blood and flesh from his body.

  Yang Zhao took a deep breath, concentrated his mind and entered a state of clarity like an ancient well without ripples. He shouted loudly: "Yang Mou is right here! No matter who you are, if you want Yang Yu's life, come out and take it! Why bother with so many boring tricks?"

  "Rotten life? Hehe, what a noble rotten life it is." A sinister laughter echoed from the darkness. Immediately after, a man and a woman emerged from behind the wall corner with an air of ease. Wherever they went, snakes swarmed and naturally made way for them. The woman was wrapped in a thick black cloak, making her figure and appearance indistinguishable. The man wore a snow-white robe, with his arms crossed over his chest. Red flames illuminated his face, reflecting a deathly pale complexion that was no different from a corpse's. He glanced sideways at Yang Zhao, carefully sizing him up for several moments, before sticking out his tongue to lick his lips like a venomous snake, revealing an expression of greedy excitement.

  The millions of poisonous snakes couldn't make the young master of the Great Sui feel afraid, but this strange person's eerie behavior really made Yang Zhaos hair stand on end. He took a step back and said in a low voice: "Friends words are hard to understand. No matter what, if you want to deal with me, just take action. Why bother involving other unrelated people?"

  That pale-faced man burst into loud laughter and said leisurely, "If it were to deal with ordinary people, I, Tang Mengshu, wouldn't have to make such a big fuss. But the eldest son of Yang Guang, the Crown Prince of the Great Sui Dynasty, the heir apparent, and the King of Henan, Yang Zhao, is not someone who can be compared to ordinary people, haha, hahaha..."