Better to Go Home

Zhang Sanxian walked beneath the platform and slightly raised his head to "look" up at it.

The fat country squire and the others felt stabbing pain all over the instant his hollow "gaze" swept over them.

It was phantom pain born of ultimate terror.

They felt as though a true dragon coiled deep within the mountains had fixed them in its deadly stare.

The fear in each of their hearts instantly reached its peak.

"Spare—spare us! Hero, spare our lives!"

The fat country squire was the first to break down. With a thud, he dropped to his knees at the edge of the platform, tears and snot streaming down his face as he sobbed and frantically kowtowed to Zhang Sanxian.

"Y-yes, this lowly one had lard over his heart! I spouted nonsense and falsely accused you, Hero! Please, spare this dog's life! Money! Grain! Houses! Women! Everything I own—I'll give it all to you! All of it! I only beg—beg you to spare my life!"

The other squires seemed to awaken from a dream as well. Crying out, they fell to their knees in a heap, kowtowing like pounding garlic as they begged over one another.

"Hero, show mercy! Mercy!"

"This lowly one is willing to offer up everything! Spare my life!"

"I'm begging you! Treat me like a fart and let me go—leave me a way to live!"

"It was Qian Mancang! It was all him! He came up with the idea! He forced us!"

"We were wrong! We'll never dare again!"

These country squires, who normally strutted about so arrogantly, now smashed their foreheads against the wooden platform with loud thuds.

Their faces were smeared with tears and snot, their appearances utterly disgraceful. Where was even a trace of the "loyalty" and "dignity" they had displayed moments ago?