Riiip!
Searing pain struck, and bright red beads of blood immediately seeped out, staining the torn gray cloth strips at his shoulder crimson in the blink of an eye.
Wounds gouged by fingernails were naturally different from flesh split by a whip, but beneath those ragged cloth strips and bloody grime, even Zhao De standing three feet away and looking closely would never be able to tell the real from the fake!
Better to be a little ruthless with myself than get dragged off to the mass grave. As long as nobody strips me naked in public today, I'll have bluffed my way clean through this ordeal!
Chen Xuan sucked in a sharp breath. Feeling the warm blood flowing down his shoulder, he finally looked every bit the worthless slave who had just taken five vicious lashes.
He hung his head and rasped two words in a low, hoarse voice: "That's enough."
Liu San had been about to swing the sixth lash. At those words, he abruptly froze and dug at his ear in disbelief. "What the hell? You little bastard, what did you just say to me?!"
"Huff... huff... I said that's enough. Five lashes were enough to teach me the rules."
Chen Xuan clutched his bloodstained shoulder, his voice trembling like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind. He sounded exactly like someone begging after being beaten to his limit. "You were absolutely right to discipline me, Brother Liu San. This time, I've carved the rules into the cracks of my bones. I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled from now on. Steward Zhao said the horses' feeding mustn't be delayed. I'll clean up the fodder on the ground right now. I won't get you dragged into a scolding, Brother Liu San..."
As he spoke, he forced his trembling legs to hold him up and bent to pick up the hay in the muddy water at his feet.
The whip in Liu San's hand stopped in midair, his face alternating between livid and pale.
Wrong! This was too damned wrong!
Usually, after just two lashes, that good-for-nothing Chen Xuan would already be kneeling in the mud, clinging to his thigh and crying for his mother and father, begging for mercy with snot and tears smeared all over his face! Today, the brat had taken five full, heavy lashes without even kneeling once, and now he dared use Steward Zhao's words to shut him up, telling him it was "enough"?!
"I decide when it's enough! A lowly slave bound by a lifetime contract like you dares bargain with me?!"
Feeling that his authority before the stable's servants had been challenged, Liu San flew into a rage. He took a great stride forward and reached out with his left hand to grab the back of Chen Xuan's collar, intending to shove the brat's head into a puddle of horse piss!
Chen Xuan's ears twitched slightly. Hearing the vicious rush of air behind his head, a bone-chilling flash of killing intent passed through the depths of his eyes:
I gave you face, and you threw it away. You just have to push me to my death, huh? Fine. I was going to leave you two good legs to hop around on for a few more days, but since you've delivered your kneecap right to my doorstep-don't blame me for arranging your early retirement!
At the critical instant just before Liu San's fingertips touched Chen Xuan's collar-
"Whoa! I slipped!"
Still bent over picking up hay, Chen Xuan seemed to step on a slippery clump of mud and dry hay stalks with his left foot. His sole suddenly slid backward, and he instantly lost his balance, crying out as he pitched straight toward Liu San in front of him!
To everyone else, he was simply an unlucky slave who had just taken five lashes and gone weak all over, slipping in the mud and falling flat on his face.
But only Chen Xuan knew-
At the very instant his right shoulder struck the junction between Liu San's right shin and knee, he abruptly drew out less than a tenth of the Boulder Art Qi force in his dantian and concentrated every bit of it on the tip of his right shoulder like a tightly wound steel drill!
Less than a tenth of my strength, no more! Even a fraction more, and Liu San's leg will explode into bloody pulp on the spot. There'll be no salvaging the situation then!
Thud!!
An extremely muffled sound of muscle striking bone rang out.
Immediately afterward came a barely perceptible, crisp crack of splitting bone that only Chen Xuan and Liu San himself could hear!
"Aaaaargh!!"
Liu San had not been prepared in the slightest. He felt as though a red-hot, hundred-jin iron siege hammer had smashed straight into his right knee, the agonizing pain instantly blasting through the crown of his skull! His entire right leg folded inward at an unnatural angle on the spot, and like a sack stuffed with shit, he hurtled over Chen Xuan's back and plunged forward headfirst, feet in the air!
Splat! Crack!
Liu San's broad, greasy face landed squarely and solidly on the raised edge of a bluestone slab at the stable entrance!
His two yellowed front teeth struck the hard bluestone and snapped off at the roots on the spot!
"Pfft-!"
A thick mouthful of fresh blood mixed with two blood-streaked fragments of broken teeth gushed from Liu San's mouth like a fountain, spattering red and white matter across the ground three feet away!
"Aah!! My leg! My teeth! It hurts like hell! Mother-!"
Like a fat maggot tossed into boiling oil, Liu San clutched his hugely swollen right knee with both hands and rolled about madly on the ground covered in horse dung and muddy water, howling. Tears and snot mingled with the blood pouring from his mouth and smeared his entire face. He was a wretched sight.
Silence!
The entire stable yard fell deathly silent in an instant!
The few menial slaves standing at the foot of the wall, along with the lookout Xiao Liuzi squatting farther away and gnawing on a steamed bun, all froze in terror. Their brushes and half-eaten bun dropped to the ground with a patter, their eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
"Mother of mercy... wh-what just happened?!"
"Brother Liu San's front teeth got knocked clean out! There's so much blood! Looks like Chen Xuan slipped while picking up hay and tripped Brother Liu San, right?!"
"No, no! I saw it clear as day. Brother Liu San charged forward too hard, and Chen Xuan stepped in some mud and pitched forward. They happened to collide! That was pure rotten luck, walking straight into the line of fire!"
Listening to the startled cries erupting all around him, Chen Xuan sat in the muddy water with an expression more utterly terrified than anyone else's!
"Brother Liu San! Brother Liu San, are you all right?! Good heavens, why is there so much blood?!"
His face white as paper with fright, Chen Xuan scrambled through the mud on his hands and knees, tumbling and crawling toward him. He reached out with trembling hands to support Liu San's arm and shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice thick with tears:
"I'm sorry! Brother Liu San, I'm sorry! I really didn't mean to! You'd just whipped me, and my calves were weak. I slipped on the wet hay. How could I have known I'd hit your leg?! I deserve to die! Can I pick up your teeth and press them back in for you?!"
As he cried out and helped him up, Chen Xuan took advantage of their brief contact to press his fingers swiftly against Liu San's swollen right kneecap.
Beneath his touch, there was a hairline fracture across the surface of the kneecap.
The bone had not broken completely in two, but it had indeed cracked!
Chen Xuan's heart lurched. He inwardly counted himself lucky, yet felt a measure of lingering fear. Hiss... I still underestimated the explosive power of early-stage Bright Force when boosted by Qi and blood! I clearly used less than a tenth of my strength just now, yet I still cracked this bastard's kneecap! If an ordinary person slipped and collided with him, the worst would be bruised soft tissue. A fracture like this... if those skilled physicians versed in medicine in the inner courtyard carefully examine the bone by touch, they might notice something!