At the same time, they secretly rejoiced, for Chen Xiaofan making them kowtow might mean there was still a sliver of hope for survival.
Yet they had no idea that Chen Xiaofan would never easily spare them merely because they had knelt and kowtowed.
Chen Xiaofan watched the two men before him with cold eyes. They kept kowtowing until their foreheads were bloodied and they were dizzy with pain, yet his face remained frosty, without the slightest trace of pity or any intention of telling them to stop.
The two could barely hold on any longer. At last, unable to endure it, they asked, "Great Hero, look, we have kowtowed again and again until our heads are split and bleeding. May we stop? If we keep kowtowing like this, we fear we will faint and collapse."
"Yes, Great Hero, we know we were wrong. We beg you to calm your anger and not hold it against us. Please spare us this time. After all, we did not succeed, did we? You have not suffered any losses either, so why must you keep gripping the two of us so tightly?"
A cold smile curled at Chen Xiaofan's lips as he said in a deep voice, "Get this straight. You are the ones begging for mercy, not me. What right do you have to set terms? You may stop kowtowing if you wish, but I never agreed to spare the two of you."
"Great Hero, you are magnanimous, so please do not lower yourself to our level! It is not that we deliberately refuse to kowtow and admit our mistakes; our bodies truly cannot hold out any longer! We know that offending you was utterly wrong, so to show our sincerity and remorse, we are willing to hand over every possession we