Chapter 342: Flogged in the Northern Domain

Early the next morning, Chu Fan was taken by the old butler to the guardhouse in the rear courtyard.

The estate’s guards were all required to come and watch the punishment.

The thirty-odd guards who had accompanied Chu Fan to the Han City Capital were in utter disbelief when they saw he was to be flogged with the Fire Rope Whip.

Few people knew the details of what had transpired the previous night.

Ghazi asked Chu Fan, “Huo Er, what happened? Why are you receiving such a severe punishment?”

Chu Fan just smiled and waved a hand at him.

He walked to the rack and held out his arms. Two guards administering the punishment shackled his hands with iron chains.

Chu Fan then watched as they walked over to a python-like iron chain. Using a brush, they dipped it into a wooden bucket of incendiary oil and coated the chain with it.

At its thickest, the iron chain was as wide as a grown man’s arm, tapering at both ends.

He roughly estimated that the entire Iron Whip weighed at least four to five hundred pounds.

For an ordinary person, even a single blow would be lethal, let alone one from a whip that was on fire.

Once the Iron Whip was coated in incendiary oil, a guard lit it with a torch. He then wrapped one end of the whip with a piece of hide and hefted it up.

“Guard Huo Er, the Patriarch’s orders. Twenty lashes with the Fire Rope Whip. If you don’t make it through this, please don’t blame me,” the guard said softly, giving Chu Fan a sympathetic look.

Hearing that it was to be twenty lashes, the crowd of guards cried out in shock.

The old butler announced from the side, “Last night, Huo Er lured the Little Princess out of the estate late at night and caused a great deal of trouble. He even brawled in public and beat a man to death. The Patriarch has ordered this punishment as a warning to all. Every one of you, watch closely and commit this to memory. Know what is expected of you as a guard.”

“Twenty lashes with the Fire Rope Whip. If you survive and your wounds heal, you are still a guard of the Lindi Clan. If you don’t, if you die, your corpse will be thrown onto the Grassland to feed the wild dogs. In our Lindi Clan, good work is rewarded, and mistakes are punished. Huo Er, do you have anything left to say?”

Chu Fan shook his head. “Huo Er admits his fault. The one carrying out the sentence need not show mercy.”

The few guards he was friendly with stared at him as if he were a fool. ‘Twenty lashes with the Fire Rope Whip? And no need to hold back? Ten lashes would be enough to kill him!’

The others, too, couldn’t help but feel that Huo Er was being arrogant and conceited.

CRACK!

The flaming Iron Whip lashed across Chu Fan’s body. Having withdrawn all his True Qi defenses, even as a Void Realm master, he felt the searing agony of skin and flesh being torn apart.

It was only then that Chu Fan noticed something different about his body. The lash was painful, but it hadn’t caused any real damage to his flesh. The flames had merely ignited his hide clothing, leaving a single red welt behind.

‘This won’t do,’ Chu Fan thought. ‘At this rate, people might discover my true level of Cultivation.’

He then mentally commanded the Celestial Dragon Armor. The armor could turn invisible and also transform into any form.

Therefore, faking the appearance of gruesome, flesh-rending wounds would not be difficult.

At the same time, Chu Fan forced beads of cold sweat to his brow, creating the appearance of being drenched in agony as he grit his teeth.

CRACK!

Another lash struck his body, but this time, with the protection of the Celestial Dragon Armor, he didn’t even feel the pain.

Of course, his face was a mask of agony, as if he were biting down hard to keep himself from screaming out.

The guards watching the punishment couldn’t feel the pain themselves, but as they watched the flaming Iron Whip land on Chu Fan, their hearts trembled all the same.

They tried to put themselves in his place. If it were them, two lashes would likely have been enough to make them faint. How could he possibly endure the pain without screaming? They all knew they couldn’t do it.

As lash after lash rained down on Chu Fan’s body, everyone stared, dumbfounded. Even their breathing seemed to slow.

In the guardhouse, the only sounds were the crackling of the flames, the wet smack of the whip against flesh, and Chu Fan’s own heavy breathing.

After a dozen or so lashes, the wounds on Chu Fan’s body looked absolutely gruesome. The flesh torn open by the whip was instantly cauterized by the flames. Although there were crimson marks, not a single drop of blood had fallen.

The crimson outlines of his ribs were even visible through his chest.

Sweat poured off Chu Fan’s body like rain, dripping onto the ground.

“What a beast. A dozen lashes, and he hasn’t made a single sound.”

Almost everyone came to the same conclusion: if this Huo Er died, that would be the end of it. But if he survived, they must never, ever cross him in the future.

As the saying goes, the tough are feared, but the truly desperate are feared even more.

And Huo Er had clearly gone beyond simply having a death wish.

Twenty lashes with the Fire Rope Whip, no more, no less, struck Chu Fan’s body. The guard administering the punishment had not held back on a single one.

And Chu Fan, still tied to the rack, looked utterly exhausted and pale, but he hadn’t so much as grunted from beginning to end. He hadn’t even passed out; his eyes remained open the entire time.

“Quickly, get him down! Take him to the rooms in the back and treat his wounds!” Even the old butler was shaken by Huo Er’s fortitude.

Ghazi and Kemoqi were clearly the guards closest to Huo Er, and they rushed forward to help.

As they helped him into a rear chamber, Chu Fan discovered that the Little Princess, Li Haiqin, and a physician were already waiting for him.

Seeing Chu Fan covered in wounds, Li Haiqin’s heart ached so much that tears streamed down her face.

Seeing how much the Little Princess cared for Huo Er, Ghazi and Kemoqi were so surprised they almost tripped on the threshold.

As he lay on a simple bed, the physician carefully cleaned his wounds. Each time the physician’s hands touched his body, Chu Fan made a point of shivering violently, his brow twitching as if in unbearable pain.

Li Haiqin watched from the side, repeatedly urging the physician to be more gentle.

After the wounds were treated and wrapped in gauze, his whole body, except for his head and face, was bandaged like a mummy.

Just as they finished bandaging Chu Fan, a shout rang out from outside the estate.

“Yilode, get the hell out here and hand over that murderer!”

Chu Fan’s wounds were merely an illusion created by the Celestial Dragon Armor; in reality, he was completely unharmed. With his exceptional Spiritual Power, he could naturally hear the shouting outside.

Not long after, Chu Fan heard Patriarch Yilode arguing with Enke, the Patriarch of the Cage Clan.

“Enke, I haven’t even come to you to settle accounts, yet you have the audacity to show up at my door playing the victim!” That was the voice of Patriarch Yilode.

Enke’s beard bristled as he glared. “Not only did that guard of your Li Haiqin’s kill one of my Cage Clan guards, he also injured my two grandsons! A mere slave dares to publicly assault a direct descendant of the Golden Clan! That’s a capital offense! How can you say I have no right to come here and demand justice?”

“The guards of the Lindi Clan are fiercely loyal! It is their creed to die for an insulted master. It was your grandson, Mo Sang, who insulted Li Haiqin first. Then, Moqish brought men to capture her. As her guard, what fault lies in his eagerness to protect his charge?”

“Hmph! I don’t care about the reason. Your Lindi Clan guard killed a man, and for that, he must be punished.”

“I have already punished him. Twenty lashes with the Fire Rope Whip. Is that not enough?”

“Of course it’s not enough! A life for a life—that’s a principle recognized everywhere. He killed a man and injured my grandsons, and you think a few lashes settles the debt? If this is all that happens, who will have any respect for the Cage Clan in the future?”

“In that case, why don’t we go to the Khan King and let him be the judge?”

“Fine! Let’s go! Who’s afraid of who?”

And so the two old patriarchs headed straight for the Palace City to seek the Khan King’s judgment.