The Great Shaman did not speak for a long while; upon hearing this, he thought for some time, before shaking his head slowly. “If you had hammered in seven nails at the same time, although your mind might be disoriented, I might still have been able to come up with a solution to remove them. If you recuperated with great care afterwards, you will be able to recover some. But once the nails in your body are removed, the core strength you possess will undoubtedly flood your nearly-desiccated meridians and destroy them. By then, not even a god can save you…”

Ye Baiyi had already said these words once; Zhou Zishu flapped a hand, indicating that he was unwilling to hear them a second time. Just now, when the Great Shaman had spoken, he still had a few slivers of hope, even if he did not make them known. Otherwise, he would not have presented his wrist.

He, too, did not know when it had begun--maybe it was because of these few noisy people by his side, or maybe it was because he had been dragged into those troublesome affairs, that he had begun to be sentimentally attached to this mortal dust.

Upon hearing the Great Shaman say this now, a few smidgens of gloom rose in his heart. With effort, he chuckled and said, “You should have told me this earlier. If I had known that the Great Shaman has such divine knowledge that he even knows how to remove the Three-Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures, I would definitely have told Tian Chuang to switch to a more foolproof method, so that not even one person could escape our net.”

The Great Shaman looked at him. Still thinking deeply about a solution, he did not answer. So Zhou Zishu nodded to Lord Seventh and said, “We’ll take our leave first, and come visit another day.”

They had just walked to the door, when they heard the Great Shaman suddenly utter, “Hold on, or…”

Before Zhou Zishu could react, Wen Kexing had already taken hold of him. His hand was like metal clamped around Zhou Zishu’s wrist, pinning him steadfast in place. Turning his head, he said in a polite and proper tone that was rare of him, “What did the Great Shaman think of?”

The Great Shaman hesitated for a moment, then said, “Manor Lord Zhou, if...if you incapacitate yourself by ridding yourself of your martial ability, I may have a fifth of confidence that I can save your…”

Yet, when Zhou Zishu had heard the words “ridding yourself of your martial ability”, a smile surfaced on his pale face. It was difficult to tell what emotion was behind it. He lifted a hand to cut him off, and gently replied, “What else do I have left, if I rid this body of mine of martial ability? Will I still be myself? If I am no longer myself, why should I still keep living?”