The executioner said earnestly, "My name is Yu Hua. This is my first time performing death by a thousand cuts, so I don't have much experience. Please forgive any mistakes. I reckon this is your first time receiving it, too. Try to remember how you scream. We can exchange notes afterward and deepen our understanding."
Aah-
Urgh-
Mmm~~
Scream after scream rang out. Pockmark sounded like a groundhog.
Quite a few people covered their eyes, leaving only a narrow gap between their fingers to watch.
What kind of punishment was this? How brutal! After just a few strokes, his eyebrows, beard, and hair were all gone.
Pockmark's face was deathly pale.
Yu Hua scratched his head. Occupational habit had kicked in.
Death by a thousand cuts was a new punishment. No one had tried it before.
Keeping someone alive through hundreds of cuts required tremendous skill. After a lengthy selection process within the palace, they had finally chosen him.
Actually, he had merely been a little more skilled than the others in the palace, earning himself the name First Blade of Chaoge.
The little knife, one finger wide and two fingers long, looked particularly chilling in his hand.
"My blade is quick. Grit your teeth, and it'll be over before you know it."
Yu Hua offered this reassurance, then sliced off another piece in an instant.
His blade was swift as a gale, his movements like lightning.
Aah-
That simple cry carried three parts agony, seven parts helplessness, and ten parts pitiful misery.
The blade flashed, and a piece of flesh smaller than a fingernail was shaved off Pockmark's body.
Just as Yu Hua had said, the quick blade and tiny wound meant it did not hurt all that much.
Yet beads of sweat the size of beans rolled from