Chapter 159: Five Horses Tearing the Body, Jade-ification of Meridians

Before the banquet, Zhou You and his party, under the warm invitation of the other side, bathed, changed clothes, and perfumed themselves.

Their original clothes were tattered and torn, so they naturally could not be worn anymore; Commander Chen provided them with a set of new clothes.

Made of fine silk with gold-thread woven edges, after putting them on, everyone looked like a young nobleman.

Zhou You smelled fragrant all over, thinking to himself that the other side was indeed meticulous and would not let any detail slip by.

This act was called bathing, but in reality, it was a search to see if they were concealing anything on their persons.

Zhou You could not help but feel fortunate that he had curbed his greed and did not carry any wealth from the treasure vault on his body, otherwise, he would have been exposed.

In the night wind, the movements from all around were carried over, sounding exceptionally clear in the night.

After the great battle, there were still sporadic soldiers patrolling the mountain paths, searching for the fleeing bandits from the stronghold.

Once the two sides encountered each other, weapons would clash, and immediately, dying screams and wails would ring out.

The mountain bandits had long since lost their will to fight, fleeing with the wealth they had accumulated, yet they still could not escape death.

Heads, captives, and wealth were continuously sent to the mountain stronghold and presented to Commander Chen and several Captains.

However, there was still no news of Kaibeishou Yan Ping.

This Third Stronghold Leader seemed to have evaporated into thin air; not a single bandit knew his whereabouts.

"Clatter!"

What was being poured out was not mountain spring water, but gold and silver jewelry and gold ingots and copper coins stained with blood.

Although the treasure vault was empty, other bandits had more or less hidden gold, silver, and valuables on them; once the people were killed, the wealth was confiscated for the public.

When Zhou You and his party arrived, they saw seven or eight small hills piled up on the ground, gleaming brightly under the reflection of the firelight.

In terms of quality, they were far inferior to the treasure vault, so it was just the quantity that held the advantage.

"Come, sit down, help yourselves to the wine and meat on the table."

Commander Chen greeted them, then turned his head to look at his foster son, Chen Yang.

"Yang'er, Yan Ping is just a stray dog, don't take him to heart."

"Today, we captured the Great Leader of the Moyun Stronghold alive; I am giving you a stroke of good fortune."

He pointed his hand, and below the high platform, amidst the noisy crowd and flickering firelight, the Great Leader of the Moyun Stronghold had already been brought out.

The Great Leader was a notorious villain, rumored to have once been a retainer of a famous family in the prefecture city, who later committed a crime and fled, settling in this place and single-handedly creating the hellish Moyun Stronghold.

He recruited vicious and evil people from all directions, using cruel methods to suppress those who did not submit.

In his prime, even the noble families in the city had to write letters and send gifts to him, indicating that they would not interfere with each other.

Now, this Great Leader was disheveled, covered in filth, with iron chains wrapped around his head, neck, and limbs.

The ends of the iron chains were tied behind five sturdy stallions—5 iron chains, 5 fine horses! "The punishment of being torn apart by five horses?"

A gasp of cold air sounded beside Zhou You.

While the Apprentices were shocked, they also felt it was only right; for such a heinous villain, this was exactly what he deserved.

The three Captains had calm expressions; they all knew that Commander Chen had set up this trap for his foster son, Chen Yang.

"Chenlaogou, I was one move short, thinking that with the Calamity Charm treasure, I could run rampant."

"I didn't expect you to be so calculating, actually hiding the Strong Martial Remains to break my final trump card."

"Soldiers and thieves, it is either I kill you or you kill me; I have nothing to complain about. One day, a stronger and greater thief will destroy your army, and by then, your end may not be better than mine."

Facing death, the Great Leader laughed loudly, showing not a shred of fear.

With a clatter of collisions, the five iron chains were pulled taut on the spot.

The five warhorses exerted their strength, their gluteal muscles as hard as stone, and their slender hooves sank deep into the mud.

The riders controlling the warhorses spurred the horses to exert force, the friction of the chains creating sparks.

The Great Leader let out a muffled groan, his limbs and neck pulled inward; he closed his eyes, a trace of mockery appearing at the corners of his eyes.

Dust flew, and loose soil splashed about.

The five horses exerted their strength in unison, yet they could not tear apart the Great Leader's flesh and blood body.

The Apprentices exclaimed in surprise; the physical body of a Martial Master was actually so formidable that even being torn apart by five horses had no effect.

They had come by carriage and knew the limits of a horse's power; they could pull weights of several hundred to over a thousand catties.

The maximum power of five warhorses, when applied to an ordinary person, would be as easy as tearing paper.

"Yang'er, watch closely."

"If you were in his place, could you withstand the torture of being torn apart by five horses?"

Chen Yang shook his head in silence, "I cannot." He had just entered the Martial Master realm and had only begun to use Qi and blood to regulate his body; he had not yet begun to strengthen it.

The Great Leader was resisting the pull of five warhorses with his bare body, clearly having already tempered and strengthened his body to an 'inhuman' level.

"Hahaha, Chenlaogou, even if I am chained, you still cannot kill me."

The Great Leader's wild laughter stopped abruptly, as a rider had whipped him across the face.

His eyes flashed with a fierce light, and he opened his mouth to spit out a glob of thick phlegm, which pierced the air at high speed and struck the rider right in the eye socket.

The rider's right eye exploded, his entire head burst into raging flames, and he fell from the horse's back, twitching a few times before dying.

A Martial Master's lung capacity was terrifyingly strong; the initial speed of the phlegm he spat was comparable to a bullet leaving a chamber, and due to friction, it heated up, becoming like a red-hot branding iron by the time it drilled into the head.

Commander Chen was filled with rage and plucked a hair to flick out.

Dozens of meters away...

A cold light flashed, and the Great Leader's cheek was pierced through; air leaked from his mouth, and he could no longer spit phlegm.

Commander Chen ordered Chen Yang, "Go and use the precious saber to cut his wrists and ankles; you must sever his hand tendons and foot tendons."

Chen Yang walked onto the field without a word and drew a pool of clear spring water from his waist.

"A good blade!"

Zhou You saw that precious saber, its light rippling under the lamplight as if it had a life of its own.

Nine Ox Saber, a divine weapon of Qi and blood!

The Great Leader's expression turned grave; he knew his end had come.

Chen Yang drew the saber and sliced open his skin; the friction sounded like cutting through a steel plate, dragging out sparks that sizzled and flared.

Zhou You felt his scalp tingle; even if his Hard Qigong were cultivated to the maximum level, it would be no more than this.

At the torn wound, the blood surged out slightly before actively retracting.

The Great Leader was an Intermediate Martial Master, and his control over his body had reached a level of meticulous detail, allowing him to prevent a single drop of blood from flowing out of a wound, or even to force a wound to close into a slit through muscle compression.

However, the Great Leader was being pulled by five iron chains, and the wound gaped open like an infant's mouth.

The toughness of his hand tendons and foot ligaments was comparable to steel cables drawn from hundred-refined refined steel, and it took the precious saber sawing with force to finally sever them.

"Watch his meridians carefully!"

Numerous gazes gathered at the Great Leader's wound.

The meridians buried within the flesh and blood emitted a warm, moist luster like Ruyu under the illumination of the firelight.

"Meridian jade-ification; this is the hallmark of an Intermediate Martial Master."

Commander Chen pointed out to his foster son, word by word, "He had long since strengthened the meridians throughout his body to a jade-like quality, spreading like a net across his limbs and bones; even being torn apart by five horses could not pull them apart."

"If not for the precious saber cutting them, he could still close the wounds himself."

"Yang'er, do you have an idea in your heart now?"

Chen Yang inserted one hand into the Great Leader's wound, touching the severed ends of the jade-ified meridians, and only stopped after a long while.

"Foster father, this child has realized it."

Commander Chen nodded in satisfaction and said to the Great Leader, "Thank you for using your body as a lesson to instruct Yang'er; please, be on your way."

The next moment, the five horsemen received the order, and iron spurs were driven into the horses' rumps; the warhorses, feeling the pain, fell into a frenzy.

At this very moment, the Great Leader's hand tendons and foot ligaments were severed, and his four limbs were all wounds.

"Son of a bitch!"

He closed his eyes, and the next moment, four or five bloody mists exploded from his body.

"Refreshing!"

A Captain drank a large gulp of strong liquor and slammed his bronze wine goblet heavily onto the table.

Commander Chen raised his hand with a smile, "The entertainment is over; everyone, eat meat and drink wine. Let us not return until we are drunk today."

On the open ground below the stage, the warhorses each dragged a large patch of bloodstains, not yet understanding what they had done, and were diligently rooting at the soil on the ground, searching for fresh, tender wild grass to eat.

Zhou You looked at Jiang Hua and saw the same look of horror in the other's eyes.

A Martial Master just died like this?

Judging by the other party's cold and iron-blooded methods, the risk of swallowing the treasure vault of the Moyun Stronghold was very high; one must be careful and cautious when laundering the accounts, lest one bring fire upon oneself and enjoy the set meal of being torn apart by five horses.

(End of this chapter)