"Hahahaha! So this is the peerless whip technique of the Marquis of Zhenbei's Residence? Why is it so limp and weak? Striking the back of my saber, it doesn't even measure up to those broads in the unlicensed brothels scratching an itch for me!"
Scarface had seized the overwhelming advantage in a single exchange, and his arrogance knew no bounds. He stuck out his scarlet tongue and licked his thick lips, his lone eye fixed intently on Xiao Ling'er's bleeding, snow-white hand as he leered:
"Third Miss, take a word of advice from me. A woman playing with blades and spears will only hurt her hands! Why not throw away that lousy whip, get down off your horse like a good girl, and let me lick those cuts on your hand nice and clean? I might not have any other talents, but I'm second to none at pampering women. I guarantee I'll service that tender little body of yours, with its skin like congealed cream, until you're dying of pleasure and crying out for your dear big brother!"
"You... you shameless, filthy dog! I'll cut your corpse into ten thousand pieces today!"
When had Xiao Ling'er ever heard such unbearable filth? Rage turned her pretty face liver-purple, and her chest heaved violently. Her breathing was so rapid that the neckline of her already tight, fiery-red riding outfit stretched into a startling curve, revealing a broad expanse of creamy-white skin that outshone frost and snow. The outlaws around her stared until their eyes turned red, all of them swallowing hard.
Forcing herself to endure the aching numbness in her right arm, she clenched her pearly teeth, about to recklessly rouse all the blood and Qi in her body for another desperate lash-
Thud!
Without warning, a figure in blue-green leaped off the chestnut horse beside her and slammed down before the cloth shop's steps like a falling meteor, planting himself firmly right in front of Treading Snow's head!
"What mangy dog crawled out of its hole? You think you're worthy of looking at our Third Miss with that rotten eye?!"
Chen Xuan pressed one hand to his waist and stood with his chest thrust straight out. His furious shout exploded across the intersection like thunder from a clear sky, leaving the ears of several nearby thugs ringing!
He did not spare the lackeys so much as a glance. His gaze stabbed like a blade straight at Scarface on the steps, every word ringing with conviction:
"Our Third Miss is an immortal descended from the nine heavens, pure as ice and flawless as jade, her person worth a thousand pieces of gold! A toad like you that crawled out of a filthy gutter would profane an immortal just by looking at her for half a moment longer! Why haven't you gouged out that lone eye and crushed it underfoot yet?!"
That roar not only stunned the Black Tiger Gang thugs on the steps, but also left Xiao Ling'er, who had been preparing to fight for her life on horseback, utterly dumbfounded!
She looked down at the blue-green-clad back blocking her horse. It was not particularly burly, yet now stood as straight as a javelin. Hearing "an immortal descended from the nine heavens" ringing down the entire street, her little face, pale with anger a moment before, suddenly burned with two scalding red clouds.
Although she had already experienced this horse-feeding servant's silver-tongued flattery that morning in the Listening to Rain Pavilion, at this life-and-death moment, surrounded by wolves and facing a brute clearly in the Middle Stage of Ming Jin, this youth who had only entered the ranks yesterday had leaped from his horse without the slightest hesitation to shield her from a blade with his own flesh and blood, and even praised her to the heavens before everyone in the marketplace!
A scorching warmth unlike anything she had ever felt suddenly crashed into Xiao Ling'er's heart, making even the fingers gripping her whip tremble slightly. She hurriedly lowered her voice and snapped:
"Chen Xuan! Have you gone mad?! Who told you to jump down and play the hero? Get behind my horse this instant!"
"Say no more, Third Miss! When the master is disgraced, the retainer must die. As long as I have a breath left today, these vermin won't move half an inch closer to you!"
Chen Xuan answered loudly without looking back, while his mind raced:
Tsk, I timed that show of protecting my mistress perfectly! I blocked these bastards from ogling my future woman and sent Little Chili Pepper's gratitude straight off the charts! No rush. First, I'll deal with this Scarface whose looks are a blight on the city, then ask the Eldest Miss for workplace injury compensation afterward!
On the steps, Scarface Liu Heng finally recovered from his stupor.
He had lorded it over the western city's marketplace for three or four years. Wherever he went, didn't shopkeepers greet him with ingratiating smiles and guards take a detour? Yet today, a lowly household slave in blue-green cotton clothes had actually pointed at his nose and called him a "toad from a filthy gutter"!
"Where the fuck did a wretched slave bound by a lifetime contract crawl out from, daring to bark in front of me?!"
The flesh across Scarface's face twitched with fury. He pointed his saber forward and bellowed savagely:
"Give me your name! My head-severing saber doesn't kill nameless ghosts!"
"Listen well! Your granddaddy is Third Miss's personal bodyguard in her chambers, Chen Xuan!"
Chen Xuan stood with his hands behind his back and his chin slightly raised. He sized Scarface up with the contemptuous gaze of someone looking at garbage and sneered:
"What, after hearing you boast loud enough to shake the heavens, I thought you were someone important! Turns out you're just a one-eyed idiot who looks like an unshaven wild boar demon on a butcher's chopping block? With a face like yours, forget touching the hem of our miss's clothes-even if we chopped you up and tossed you into the feeding trough behind the marquis's residence, the animals in our stable would find your meat too sour to stomach! Pah! With your paltry, low-down abilities, you aren't even fit to lead her horse or carry her shoes!"
"Pfft-!"
Several shop assistants hiding back in the cloth shop's doorway could not hold it in and burst out laughing on the spot. Xiao Ling'er's almond-shaped eyes brightened on horseback, and his venomous insults without a single filthy word actually eased much of the tension gripping her heart.
"Aaaargh! You little bastard, you're fucking courting death!!"
Scarface's composure shattered completely under the insults! More than anything, he hated people mentioning his blind eye. Now that a slave had called him "sour meat in a pig trough" in front of a dozen of his men, his fury instantly burned his reason to ashes!
Boom!
The bluestone steps beneath his feet suddenly erupted in two clouds of white dust, and his burly, two-hundred-plus-pound body launched down through the air like a crazed brown bear! He poured the blood and Qi of the Middle Stage of Ming Jin into both hands without holding anything back. His thick-backed refined-steel saber, weighing dozens of pounds, traced an icy, dazzling crescent through the air, bringing a terrifying, vicious wind that tore through the air as he aimed a Mount Hua-splitting cleave straight at Chen Xuan's forehead!
"Die-!!"
Before the saber arrived, the bloody killing aura and fierce wind rushing at Chen Xuan's face had already sent the loose hair over his forehead flying wildly!
"Haha! Brother Scar is going all out! Once that saber comes down, this pretty boy will be split in half, bones and all!"
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