Chapter 565 — None of Them Came to School

Although Wei Zhao would admit that he himself, having just broken through to the Mystic Rank, could reach that same speed, this old man seemed to possess no cultivation whatsoever.

Wei Zhao drove the battered old van as though it were a sports car. In the blink of an eye, that Mo Kongwen had finally disappeared, and Wei Zhao let out a breath of relief.

But the respite did not last. Wei Zhao was waiting at a red light when a head came dangling upside down from his windshield, and with it a hand that began rapping on the glass.

"My god!" Wei Zhao thought to himself that it was lucky his nerves were steady; anyone else would have been scared to death by this old fool. How had the thing gotten onto his roof? Could he have climbed up the very instant he accelerated?

Seeing that there was no avoiding him, Wei Zhao had no choice but to pull over. He got out, and sure enough, there sat that pauper of a monk, Mo Kongwen, perched atop the car in perfect comfort, half a chicken foot still in his hand.

"Old man, what exactly do you want? Do I even know you?" Wei Zhao felt himself truly unlucky to have run into a man like this.

"You don't know me, but my master asked me to come and take a look at you." Mo Kongwen jumped down from the roof. "There is too much vicious qi in your body, so much that it is affecting the very root of your true qi. If it is not cleared away in time, you will meet with bloodshed and disaster."

Wei Zhao frowned. On any ordinary day, hearing an old man talk like this would have sent him turning on his heel and walking off. But having witnessed the old man's terrifying running speed, and now hearing him speak of "true qi," Wei Zhao found him rather peculiar. "You know about true qi?"

"Of course. I also know that you are at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, on the verge of a breakthrough. But there is too much vicious qi upon you, and it will hinder the absorption of true qi. If you force the breakthrough, at best you will be gravely wounded; at worst, you will die." Mo Kongwen spoke with measured ease.

Wei Zhao frowned again. This old man even knew about the Yellow Rank? But when he heard him name his level as the peak of late Yellow Rank, Wei Zhao sneered inwardly. He had thought the man might have some real ability, but it seemed he had picked up some rumor somewhere and come to fool him with it.

Had it been before today, Wei Zhao might well have believed him. But Wei Zhao had just reached the Mystic Rank, so naturally he would not believe the old man's words.

"Oh, is that so?" Wei Zhao asked mildly—yet his hand suddenly lashed out, a palm strike aimed straight at the old man!

Of course, Wei Zhao did not truly mean to do the old man any harm. He only wanted to test his depth, to see whether he really had some skill or was a fraud through and through.

Seeing Wei Zhao strike, Mo Kongwen was unperturbed; he parried casually with one hand, then gave a startled "Hm?" and looked at Wei Zhao in surprise. "You have broken through? You are at the early Mystic Rank?"

Wei Zhao's heart jolted! That the old man could so easily dissolve his move was remarkable enough, but that he could also name his current rank showed all the more plainly that this old man was no simple matter! Wei Zhao had not used his full strength, true, but to casually dispel a move from a Mystic Rank expert was impossible for anyone who did not himself possess Mystic Rank strength.

But just what rank was this old man? Wei Zhao was truly astounded! Back when he was at the Yellow Rank, he had been able to see through Wu Gonggao's Mystic Rank strength despite the gap between them. Yet now that Wei Zhao was himself a Mystic Rank expert, he still could not see through the old man's strength.

"Just who are you?" At this thought, Wei Zhao eyed the old man with a measure of wariness.

"How strange. You have actually broken through, and nothing happened..." Mo Kongwen looked perplexed and shook his head. "My master said you were in danger. My master would not lie to me, would he?"

"Old man, what are you talking about? Who is your master?" Wei Zhao asked.

"You are fine now. Goodbye." Yet Mo Kongwen only waved a hand, turned, and ran. In an instant he dissolved into a blur and vanished from Wei Zhao's sight.

Wei Zhao envied that kind of speed. He wanted to give chase, but he could not catch up.

Though he was rather astonished by Mo Kongwen's identity, Wei Zhao had no way of learning more. Fortunately, the man seemed to bear him no ill will, and had genuinely come to help him.

After all, only yesterday he had still been at late Yellow Rank; the breakthrough had taken a single night. And yet the master Mo Kongwen spoke of knew him so well. It set Wei Zhao to wondering: just what sort of great figure was this master?

But these questions would not be answered for the time being, for Mo Kongwen had already vanished without a trace. There was no use in Wei Zhao's speculating; he could only put these strange matters to the back of his mind, get back in the car, and drive toward the school.

When the first class of the morning ended, Wei Zhao went to Grade Twelve Class Nine to find Tang Yun—but to his surprise, Tang Yun had not come to school today! Wei Zhao called her cell phone; it was still switched off.

He thought of asking Liu Xinwen, but Liu Xinwen had not come to school either.

Now Wei Zhao grew rather puzzled. Had the two of them arranged something together? Why had neither of them come?

But no matter what, since he could find neither of them, he could only return to his own class.

Kang Xiaobo had been itching to tell Wei Zhao about what had happened yesterday, but Wei Zhao had gone out the moment class ended. Now, seeing Wei Zhao return, Kang Xiaobo was just about to speak when the homeroom teacher, Teacher Liu, walked in and stepped up to the podium. "Quiet, everyone. There is something important I need to tell you all."

The class fell silent at once. Class was over now, but no one dared ignore the homeroom teacher.

"I have some unfortunate news. A student in our class, Zhong Yongliang, was abducted outside the school yesterday morning by persons unknown. They removed one of his kidneys and left him at the entrance of the First People's Hospital!" Teacher Liu had just received a call from Zhong Fabai, asking for leave on Zhong Yongliang's behalf.

"Wha—" The whole class erupted at once! The news was simply too shocking. That such a tragedy should befall Zhong Yongliang made his classmates pity him, and at the same time secretly worry: could such a thing fall to them next?

Though Grade Twelve students hardly paid attention to the news anymore, everyone was aware of the recent spate of vicious cases in Songshan City in which vagrants, beggars, and the disabled were seized and had their kidneys cut out—after all, word passed from person to person, and the stories had grown terrifying in the telling.

But everyone had assumed the gang preyed on vagrants and beggars, not ordinary people, so although they found it horrifying, they had never connected it with themselves. And now, with this terrible news about Zhong Yongliang, it was clear that the kidney-harvesting ring had begun to prey on ordinary people as well!

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