Guo Guangbi slapped his son hard across the face, sending stars dancing before Guo Shaoxiong's eyes and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Clutching his cheek, where five distinct finger marks had already swollen up, he asked in astonishment, "Father, why did you hit me?"
Guo Guangbi trembled with rage. Pointing at Guo Shaoxiong's nose, he cursed, "You damned fool! You'll be the death of me! Do you have any idea what sort of man Hu Xiaotian is? We should count ourselves lucky that he hasn't come looking for trouble with us, yet you actually went and provoked him! Don't you know that's digging on the head of the God of Calamity? If you want to court death, that's your business, but why drag everyone else down with you?"
"You're afraid of him, but I'm not!" Guo Shaoxiong shouted. "All thousand men I led wore black and covered their faces, and most of them were from the Dangyi Tribe. Even if Hu Xiaotian had powers that reached the heavens, he couldn't trace it back to us. I had the horses sold off, too. We didn't leave a single clue."
"You're not afraid?" Guo Guangbi demanded. "Then why cover your faces? If you're not afraid, why didn't you dare keep those warhorses?"
Guo Shaoxiong had no answer.
"You think slaughtering every last one of them settled the matter?" Guo Guangbi raged. "The robbery happened on the Ankang Grassland. There are only a handful of people around here capable of mobilizing that many troops. We might have been lucky enough to escape disaster, but you had to be clever and sell those horses! With so many horses involved, do you think Hu Xiaotian won't find out? Do you think he won't follow that trail straight back to us?"
"Even if