Ying Wuyu looked thoughtfully at the "unyielding" Yan Xiangma and said, "What if I granted you the rank of duke or prince? Would you truly submit to me?"
Yan Xiangma stared blankly. Even the motion of chewing the chicken leg in his mouth came to a halt. He raised his head and looked at Peacock King Ying Boyan in disbelief. "I was just saying that casually. You're really going to agree?"
"What? Are you thinking of going back on your word? A gentleman's word is his bond. Once spoken, words are like water spilled on the ground. Naturally, they can't be taken back."
"That's not quite right." Yan Xiangma grinned. "A gentleman's word is his bond—but it depends on what kind of horse it is. Take a Fire Cloud Horse or a qilin horse, for example. Before you'd even finished saying a word, it would probably have already galloped ahead, right? And spilled water is even easier to collect. I happen to know thirty-seven divine techniques for gathering up spilled water. For the Peacock King, that would be child's play, wouldn't it?"
The Peacock King's expression turned ugly. He stared at Yan Xiangma and said, "You're unwilling to submit?"
"It's not that I'm unwilling. It's just that you haven't even beaten me, and I've already surrendered on my own. Wouldn't that make me look spineless? If word got out, would I, Yan Xiangma, the number-one wastrel of Jiangnan City, still have the face to show myself in public? There's also a girl I like. If she found out I'd done something like this, she'd probably avoid me like the plague." Yan Xiangma took a sip of wine and spoke with a solemn expression.
"Oh? Are you blaming me for not torturing you?"
"I should have been tortured in the first