The bitter wind tossed Xue Zhenhai's white beard into disarray, while waves of panic rose inside him. He was certainly no coward; this was merely a reaction to the poison. Under the circumstances, he had not the slightest chance of winning. He nodded, let the Dog-Beating Staff fall to the ground, and said quietly, "My two brothers were perfectly fine just now. They only became like this after drinking the wine you sent."
Yang Mingwei said indignantly, "How do you know they weren't poisoned by those scorpions they ate? If there was something wrong with our wine, why are we all fine after drinking it..." Before he finished, a thud sounded behind him. A warrior had toppled backward. Before anyone could understand what was happening, more than a dozen soldiers collapsed into the snow.
The army physician had only just stepped out of the main hall when his legs went weak and he fell onto his backside in the snow. "My... my stomach hurts so much..." he cried. Groans and screams filled the air. Yang Mingwei exclaimed in shock, "What's happening? What's happening..." Then he too clutched his stomach and crouched down.
More than half the people present showed signs of poisoning to varying degrees. Seeing the scene around him, Yuchi Chong inwardly sensed trouble. He had weathered a hundred battles and faced even more dangerous situations. Quietly circulating his inner breath, he felt nothing unusual and finally relaxed. Looking around again, he saw that seventy or eighty men had already fallen. Only Liang Wensheng and several of his personal guards remained standing in the snow without symptoms.
Liang Wensheng also looked utterly bewildered.
Xue Zhenhai could no longer spare any thought for the fact that he himself had been poisoned. Sitting cross-legged in the snow, he circulated his inner