Scared to Tears

It was obvious that kick had not been light.

Yan Baoru lay on the ground, coughing blood, her body trembling, her eyes nearly splitting apart. The searing pain was secondary; what hurt more was her heart. Who was she? She was second on the Pill Ranking, a renowned expert famed throughout the land—yet now she had been brutally tormented by someone she had regarded as an ant. She truly wished she could flay Niu Youdao alive.

But circumstances were stronger than people. No matter how unwilling she was, there was nothing she could do.

She did not want to fall. She did not want to lie humiliated at Niu Youdao's feet. Struggling, she tried to rise.

With two swishes, sword qi swept past. Grass fragments flew through the air, and the waist-high weeds around her were neatly severed, exposing her struggling form.

Turning her head, she saw Niu Youdao approaching through the grass with his sword in hand, neither hurried nor slow, his expression blank.

Though it was difficult, she still tried to get up.

Niu Youdao stopped before her, lifted his foot again, and planted it on her back. With ease, he crushed her flat against the ground, making it impossible for her to rise.

Looking down coldly at her bedraggled state, Niu Youdao saw bloodstains all over her body. Her exquisite makeup had run, her neat and dignified hair was disheveled, and grass clippings clung all over her. Once that cold, bewitching beauty had lost its dignity, it had lost its radiance as well.

Watching her struggle beneath his foot, Niu Youdao asked, "Speak. Why did you try to harm me?"

Being pinned beneath the foot of such a person was more shame and fury than Yan Baoru could bear. She rasped, "If you have the guts, kill