The breeze was gentle, the sky clear and bright.
Inside Zhenjiang City, the military camp was filled with a grim, murderous atmosphere.
Aside from those needed to maintain the defenses, nearly all the officers and soldiers had gathered at the drill ground to witness the Marquis carry out military punishment once again.
The soldiers had lost count of how many such punishments they had seen, but this was the one most satisfying to them.
As a result, every one of them was brimming with energy.
“About to start, huh?”
“Damn, we’ve been holding it in for so long. We can finally enjoy ourselves.”
“This time, if that bastard Ah Wu doesn’t end up crippled, I absolutely won’t accept it.”
“Don’t worry. The brothers carrying out the punishment already talked to us in private. They hate that bitch Wen He and Chen Song’s personal guard, Ah Wu, just as much as we do. If they usually use eighty percent of their strength, this time they’ll definitely use a hundred percent.”
“Good, good!”
…
Amid the crowd’s eager anticipation, Ah Wu made his grand entrance.
Unlike before, when he had habitually used time stops and the so-called Alice Magic spinning routine, this time Ah Wu was being escorted by two soldiers.
Wen He followed beside him. Her gentle, pretty face was streaked with tears, and her eyes were filled with boundless heartache.
“Ah Wu, are you… are you all right?”
“I’m fine!” Pei Wugou displayed the heroic bearing of a true man, grinning like a legendary hero. “It’s only a hundred military lashes. To me, that’s no more than a tickle.”
“Ah Wu, after the Marquis defeats Ren Tianye this time, I’ll marry you immediately. I’ll bear your children and stay with you for the rest of my life.”
Wen He was deeply moved, and with this oath made before the entire army, she nearly sent Pei Wugou soaring with excitement.
He had known it—this move of his had been nothing short of brilliant!
At once, he nodded like a chick pecking at grain, his delight plain for all to see.
The several guards escorting them, however, were thoroughly annoyed.
What the hell?
Were the two of them provoking someone?
If the brothers wielding the clubs let him take a hundred lashes without crippling him, then damn it, they’d be the ones getting crippled!
Just then, a voice rang out.
“The Marquis is here!”
The soldiers were still more frightened of Marquis Jingyi than anything else. In awe of his authority, they all dropped to one knee and turned their eyes toward the main tent.
A large procession approached from that direction.
Led and protected by Deputy General Chen Song, they surrounded the person in the middle: a figure clad in golden armor inlaid with jade, with beast-head pauldrons guarding his shoulders. His black hair was tied high and secured firmly with a gold hair crown, while every strand at his temples had been combed perfectly into place.
It was Marquis Jingyi!
Or rather, the Marquis Jingyi everyone knew!
“My lord, it’s time for you to speak,” Deputy General Chen Song reminded Shadow in a low voice.
This was the crucial moment. He absolutely could not show fear in front of everyone!
“Good, good, good…”
Shadow had clearly fallen into his old stammering habit again, but he could only force himself to continue.
“Wen He acted on Ah Wu’s orders to release an important criminal. Her crime is unforgivable.”
“Since Wen He is a woman, I will spare her corporal punishment. She is to forfeit all her wages, be expelled from the military camp, and never be employed again.”
“As for Ah Wu…”
As he spoke, Shadow nervously glanced at the kneeling Pei Wugou.
Behind the eyeholes of his mask, his gaze met Pei Wugou’s.
Shadow trembled again.
He grew even more nervous and terrified.
He was now being asked to judge the Marquis, and then order the Marquis to be beaten. He was genuinely terrified!
But when he saw the resolve in Pei Wugou’s eyes, Shadow regained some of his own determination. Gritting his teeth, he said, “As for Ah Wu, give him one hundred military lashes. Show him no mercy!”
The moment his words fell, the soldiers all dropped to their knees.
“The Marquis is mighty!”
“The Marquis is wise!”
“Damn it, someone like Ah Wu deserves a brutal beating! Hit him hard!”
“Come on, brothers! Punish him properly. Beat him as hard as you can!”
“Give it everything you’ve got!”
…
With Shadow wearing a mask and standing in for Marquis Jingyi Pei Wugou, the order was issued, and the punishment began at once.
Two soldiers who had been holding back their fury for a long time seized the real Marquis Jingyi Pei Wugou from either side and dragged him to the center of the drill ground. They forced him down, and before Pei Wugou had even had time to prepare himself—
Smack!
The first club came down.
Pei Wugou felt a wave of pain surge through him. Before his body could even react, the soldier on his right brought down another blow.
Both soldiers were among the strongest men in the army. In terms of martial prowess, they were far inferior to Pei Wugou; in terms of strength, they were also far inferior.
But they had spent years mastering the art of wielding a punishment club. One blow from them was enough to tear flesh.
On top of that, they struck with incredible speed. By the time ten blows had landed, Pei Wugou, sprawled on the ground and taking the punishment, had already gone pale.
Something was wrong!
Very wrong!
“Why does this hurt so much?”
“Wait… are clubs really supposed to hurt this badly?”
A tumultuous wave of shock surged through Pei Wugou’s heart.
After all, he had only ever watched others take beatings. He had seen it happen every day, but he had never personally experienced the pain of a club striking his own body. Now that he had, he finally realized that it hurt far, far more than he had imagined.
Still, Pei Wugou’s physical condition was extraordinary. Although ten blows were enough to leave most people bedridden, for him they amounted to no more than pain.
So he remained silent, secretly circulating his inner strength as he braced himself and endured.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack!
…
The twenty blows were soon finished.
Pei Wugou felt terrible. He was certain that after those twenty blows, he had at least suffered some superficial injuries!
Of course, he had expected to be wounded. Only by taking a beating could he calm the soldiers’ fury, accept Wen He’s punishment in her place, and, most importantly…
make Wen He feel grateful toward him and place her trust in him!
But…
How did twenty blows already leave him injured?
Was that normal?
It couldn’t be, right?
Were military lashes really this vicious?
While Pei Wugou’s thoughts ran wild, the pain continued to burn across his back and buttocks. Blow after blow fell until they reached thirty.
By then, Pei Wugou was already having trouble holding on.
But the beating still did not stop!
It continued!
Soon, they reached fifty blows.
At that moment, Pei Wugou was surprised to discover that his head had begun to swim. His back was burning with pain, and he felt an overwhelming urge to stand up, yet his entire body seemed to have lost all strength.
“Something’s wrong. Something is very wrong!”
“That’s only fifty blows. Just fifty! How can I already be… unable to go on?”
He could genuinely feel himself reaching his limit.
“I can take it!”
“I’ve always been able to take it! Why isn’t it working this time?”
Pei Wugou instinctively tried to stand.
Chen Song noticed and hurried over.
They had only reached the halfway point. If Pei Wugou shouted that he was actually the Marquis and tried to wriggle out of the punishment, then it would become much harder for General Wang to get inside.
Chen Song covered the distance in three strides and reached Pei Wugou’s side. He whispered, “My lord—cough, cough—Ah Wu, are you all right?”
“Miss Wen He is watching.”
“Miss Wen He is counting on you to take her punishment and help her get through this crisis. If you can’t endure it, then she’ll be the one who has to be punished.”
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
