This was no ordinary hidden weapon.
It was a high-explosive stun grenade manufactured by the interstellar military industry.
To suit the aesthetic tastes of people in ancient times, Su Yaoyao had even coated its exterior in bronze-colored metal and engraved it with several peony blossoms.
The Chief strode forward with his head held high.
When he saw the bronze lump fly out of the carriage, he let out a contemptuous snort.
“That lousy iron ball thinks it can ambush me?”
The Chief could not even be bothered to dodge. He extended his callused hand, intending to catch it head-on.
“Today, I’m going to stand right here and see what tricks you can come up with!”
At the very moment the metal ball was about to land in the Chief’s hand, Su Yaoyao covered her little ears with both hands inside the carriage.
She drew a deep breath, then shouted at the top of her lungs toward the outside:
“Dad! Close your eyes! Open your mouth wide!”
Su Zhen had no idea what the bronze lump was.
But because he had blind faith in his precious daughter, he did not hesitate for even a moment.
He squeezed his eyes shut and opened his mouth wide, completely unconcerned with his dignity.
“BOOM!”
A thunderous explosion, like the lightning of the heavens striking directly beside one’s ears, erupted within the narrow Hell King Gorge!
The sound was ten times more terrifying than a thousand war drums being beaten at once.
Accompanying the deafening blast was an intensely dazzling white flash bright enough to blind a person instantly!
In that moment, the darkness of night was illuminated.
It was as if the sun had suddenly crashed down into the very center of Hell King Gorge.
The Chief took the brunt of it.
He had not even had time to close his eyes.
The horrifying white light seared straight through his retinas.
All that remained before him was a deathly, empty whiteness.
A terrifying sound wave exceeding 170 decibels tore into his eardrums with devastating force.
“Bzzzz.”
It was as if ten thousand giant bells were ringing inside the Chief’s skull at once. A violent wave of dizziness shot straight to the crown of his head.
He did not even have time to let out a scream.
His enormous body stiffened.
The three thousand bandits behind him, who had been bristling with killing intent only moments before, fared even worse.
The massive sound wave reverberated between the cliffs on both sides, multiplying in strength.
All three thousand men were afflicted by a group-wide paralysis effect.
Their eardrums felt as though they had been ripped apart. They lost their hearing completely, able to hear nothing but a maddening, piercing ringing.
Their eyes were scorched by the white flash. They could neither open them nor see anything.
Clang! Clatter!
Three thousand gleaming sabers and spears dropped to the ground in unison.
The fearsome bandits who had been so arrogant one second earlier became, the next, like a field of dominoes knocked down in succession.
They toppled across the road in wave after wave.
Clutching their eyes and ears, they writhed in agony on the dusty ground.
Not one of them could remain standing.
Let alone raise a weapon to strike anyone.
After the violent explosion, the air filled with the smell of gunpowder.
Su Zhen slowly opened his eyes and closed his aching jaw.
As he looked at the three thousand bandits rolling helplessly across the ground, a gleam of excitement flashed through Tyrant Dad’s eyes.
“Good heavens! My daughter’s magical weapon is even more useful than an entire army!”
At that moment, the Chief, his mind filled with greasy intestines, was clutching his ears and spinning dizzily in place.
The Iron Body technique he was so proud of was utterly worthless before the sound wave and blinding flash.
Su Zhen gave a cold laugh and blurred into motion.
His terrifying speed erupted, transforming him into a streak of afterimage as he appeared in front of the Chief.
Facing this fat bastard who had dared to covet his daughter, Su Zhen could not even be bothered to draw his sword.
He would only dirty his Longquan sword!
Su Zhen casually reached out and snapped off a willow branch about as thick as his thumb from a crooked tree nearby.
He poured his violent internal energy into the ordinary branch.
The willow branch, originally soft and pliable, straightened until it was as hard as iron. A faint layer of azure energy flowed across its surface.
“So you have an Iron Body technique, do you?”
“So you’re impervious to blades and spears, are you?”
Su Zhen ground his teeth and gave a cold snort. The branch in his hand transformed into a sky full of afterimages and came crashing down with a shrill whistle.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
The crisp sounds of the beating rang out as densely as rain striking banana leaves.
Every blow landed on the Chief’s fattest, loosest flesh.
What Iron Body technique?
Before Su Zhen’s internal energy, it was all a joke!
The branch struck his flesh, breaking through the skin and penetrating straight into his soul.
“AAAAH!”
The Chief recovered a sliver of feeling from his dizziness and unleashed a shriek as miserable as a slaughtered pig.
His cry echoed through the heavens and reverberated throughout the gorge.
Su Zhen’s hands moved at astonishing speed.
To the naked eye, there was only a blurred mass of azure whip shadows.
He circled the Chief, lashing him furiously from every angle without leaving a single blind spot.
Under the stormlike barrage, the Chief’s enormous, obese body was lifted clean off the ground!
He spun through the air like a gigantic human top, rotating at high speed.
Smack-smack-smack-smack!
The frequency of the blows grew faster and faster.
The Chief spun faster and faster as well.
His clothes were beaten into strips of shredded fabric that fluttered through the air as he rotated.
The fat covering his entire body quivered violently in waves under the force of centrifugal motion.
The Chief could not even shout for mercy.
All that came from his mouth were meaningless whimpers.
Tyrant Dad poured all his fury at the bandits, along with his obsession over the sixty thousand taels in toll money, into that single willow branch.
As he lashed out, he muttered:
“You wanted to make her your bandit chief’s wife? You think you’re impervious to blades and spears?”
“Today, I’ll show you what true human cruelty looks like!”
The bandits nearby had only just begun to recover. They forced open their swollen, reddened eyes—and immediately witnessed a scene that looked like divine punishment.
The Chief they worshipped like a god, the man hailed as invincible throughout the Great Yan Empire, was being whipped through the air by an old man in a sable coat, spun into a rapidly rotating lump of flesh with nothing more than a willow branch!
Every bandit was scared witless. They did not even have the strength to run.
This one-sided beating continued for a full quarter of an hour.
When Su Zhen finally stopped and casually tossed aside the branch, which had been stripped nearly bare, the Chief’s enormous body slammed heavily into the ground with a thud, sending a cloud of dust into the air.
By then, it was impossible to make out the Chief’s original appearance.
His face was swollen and bruised, and his entire body was covered in crisscrossing red welts.
His obese body had swollen to three times its former size, making him look like an enormous steamed bun that had been left to ferment far too long.
He lay sprawled on the ground like a puddle of mud, trembling uncontrollably. He no longer even had the courage to lift his head and look at Su Zhen.
Just then, a series of light footsteps approached.
Su Yaoyao came walking over on her short little legs, smiling brightly.
She crouched in front of the Chief and rummaged around inside her oversized sleeve.
Then she pulled out a thick stack of documents, bound together with fine Xuan paper.
“Come on. Do you know how to read?”
Su Yaoyao tapped the stack against her palm, producing a crisp sound.
“This is the Great Yan Gorge Highway Toll Station Employee Handbook.”
