The Ninth Rank official had been screaming just moments ago, but now he had fainted dead away.
The clerks' faces went deathly pale. Their legs trembled beneath them, and their bodies shook uncontrollably.
The stench of blood spread through the air. Yet the two clerks had not never seen such misery before; back at the yamen, they had seen countless people pinned down and tortured within its walls.
There had been far worse cases.
When punishment was inflicted on prisoners, the opening course was usually the leg clamp. After that came branding irons, and then tortures even more hair-raising.
But what terrified the clerks was that a dignified prefect had ignored the law and directly tortured an imperial official.
Even a Ninth Rank official was an imperial official!
They raised their heads to look at Chai Kejing, whose face still wore a savage grin, and wanted to speak.
Yet clerks who had spent long years in officialdom understood even more clearly: surrendering oneself or informing on others was not entirely meaningless, but in a matter like this, it meant nothing at all.
Killing one man might be forgiven, but could killing ten be forgiven?
Once they exposed this matter themselves, no confession would mean anything.
Even if they were truly spared, they would offend the entire officialdom, as well as powerful nobles they absolutely could not afford to offend. By then, not only would they fail to survive, their whole families might be wiped out.
Under Chai Kejing's cold demand, one clerk dropped to his knees with a thud and knocked his head against the ground. His body trembled faintly. He was clearly terrified beyond measure, yet he still clenched his teeth and refused to utter a single word.
"Good. Another hard-mouthed man who fears no death." Chai Kejing slapped