Then Let's Rob Them!

"Are you going to talk? Are you?!"

The riding crop in Training Bro's hand sliced through the air with a shrill crack.

Its length was studded with tiny, sharp stone chips. The instrument was meant to tame savage Soul Beasts,

but when it struck flesh, it made no dull thud. It made a teeth-grating sound of skin tearing.

Xu Sanshi, nailed to the wooden post, was barely recognizable as a person.

Not a patch of skin on his body remained intact. Blood had stained his clothes red, then sweat had soaked them through. He looked as though he had been hauled out of a pool of blood.

A whole moldy rag was stuffed in his mouth, bulging his cheeks and leaving him able to make only muffled, mournful sounds.

"Hrrgh—!"

Xu Sanshi jerked his head up, veins standing out on his neck. With what seemed to be the last of his strength, he forced the sodden rag out of his mouth and sent it tumbling to the ground.

"You keep asking whether I'll talk!

Then take the rag out of my mouth! How am I supposed to talk with that stuffed in there? How?!"

Xu Sanshi roared hoarsely, spraying spittle flecked with blood.

Banner Bro, who was about to continue the punishment, and Training Bro, who was wiping down a dagger nearby, froze. Their eyes met. For an instant, the air went still.

(666)

"Still talking back?"

Training Bro reacted at once, whipping Xu Sanshi hard across his chest just as it had stopped bleeding. Stone chips bit into his flesh.

"I'm asking you: will you talk? Where exactly is your treasury?!"

Xu Sanshi convulsed with pain, but a trace of the Xuanming Sect heir's stubbornness still glinted in his eyes.

He stared at the crop poised to fall again