“T-This… What is this? This is just unreasonable!” The Tribe-heads cried out in their minds.
For only threatening his life even after respectfully telling him to leave, their whole tribe would be executed? What kind of judgement was that?
The bodyguard was only doing his duty of keeping outsiders away from the ritual grounds and that is judged as a crime?
How is that fair at all?
It isn’t like he attacked without warning. He explained fully well that the outsiders weren’t allowed but it was this young lord who refused to leave, how was the bodyguard at fault?
Ridiculous… this is just ridiculous!
The tribe heads cried out at this injustice in their minds, not having the audacity to say it out loud.
If they begged sincerely enough, they believed that would surely calm Ashen down and make him reconsider.
It couldn’t be that their whole tribe would be wiped out just because of this nonsense… right?
However, if they showed their discontent openly and criticized Ashen for the unreasonable judgement he was passing, who knows how would that affect the situation?
Even Feng Xue thought that Ashen was going overboard, however, she didn’t want to argue with him.
On the other hand, Yan Li and both of the siblings besides Ashen, were dumbfounded by this whole occurrence.
Just what kind of existence was Ashen?
They all had this question in their minds.
“Young Lord, Please spare our tribes! We didn’t know your identity and committed this heinous crime. I beg you to spare us ignorant fools and just punish the real perpetrator who had the audacity to attack you!”
The Tribe heads begged in front of Ashen without any intention of calling the act of telling him to leave, a small mistake.
They even decided to make the bodyguard their scapegoat to direct Ashen’s anger solely on him.
Ashen didn’t mind their actions at all since that was how the weak survived… by sacrificing the minority for the majority.
He also didn’t have any grudge against them so he decided to play along: “Hmm… It is good that you know about your crimes and are willing to apologize to correct them. Since I am magnanimous and have a close relation with your tribe’s children, Yan Li, and these two beside me, I’ll spare your tribes and will only punish that uncouth bodyguard of yours!”
Ashen turned his gaze to the bodyguard who was sweating bullets.
Meanwhile, the tribe-heads were joyous to hear that news. Now their tribes won’t be wiped out. They decided to support Ashen by sucking up to him: “You are right, young lord! Punish that unruly man!”
One of the tribe-heads pointed at the bodyguard and ordered: “You lowly scum, Not apologizing even now! Do you want your whole family to die with you?”
Hearing his words, the bodyguard came out of his disbelief state and crawled towards Ashen’s feet before bowing and apologizing with tears flowing like a river from his eyes: “Young Lord, I was blind to not see your majesty and grandeur. I committed such an unforgivable act of attacking you. I also threatened you with this dirty mouth of mine. Tell me how can I make immense!”
While shivering in fear and crying like a child, he beat his head on the ground before widening his eyes in realization: “Young Lord, I’ll cut this impudent tongue of mine so that this mouth can never threaten another!”
He held his tongue before covering his index finger in blood qi and using it like a knife to cut his tongue.
However, before he could do so, Ashen’s voice entered his ears, asking: “Do you think if you do that, that would make me spare your life? If so, then you are highly mistaken!”
Hearing those words sent shivers down his spine. He was planning on sacrificing his tongue to save his life, however, Ashen saw through that, telling him that it would be in vain.
“Haah…” Letting out a sigh of boredom, Ashen said: “I am getting tired of this, let’s do this. Go and stand in the middle of the carnival without any clothes for the next five days. That would be enough of a punishment!”
“What? So you are sparing him, young lord?” The old man asked in surprise.
Ashen nodded: “I’m not sparing him, I’m just taking his pride as punishment. This incident will always be a mark of shame for him and since everyone would have seen him naked, he’ll get laughed off every day! That would be more fun than killing him unnecessarily!”
So this all was just for amusement?
Did he never intend to kill him in the first place?
This King realm expert is even more dangerous than that lady,
Atleast you can understand her feelings and intentions from her face, however, this young lord acts unpredictably, and it’s impossible to understand him.
The old man thought before asking: “Then Young Lord, I’ll take my leave!”
Ashen nodded before shifting his gaze at the bodyguard who hadn’t left: “What? Why aren’t you leaving? Want me to kill you instead?”
The bodyguard, with a frightened expression, shook his head before running to the carnival all while removing his clothes.
“Um… Young Lord, can we start the trial?” One of the tribe-heads asked, afraid of offending Ashen.
Ashen looked at him before shaking his head in denial: “No!”
Taking a pause, he continued: “First explain the rules to me!”
The eldest tribe-head nodded and came forward to speak: “Young Lord, This trial is held every year in all tribes of the Xue Mo Tribe. In it, All the individuals who have reached the age of eighteen participate to compete.”
Pointing at the Altar stones, he continued: “You see those altar stones, they absorb the blood essence of everyone who dies in the ring and after the trial is over, the winner comes in front of the main altar to absorb all the blood essence absorbed by the altar stones”
“Then the winner awakens his spirit with the enhanced blood essence that allows him to awaken a high-level spirit!”
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(A/N – Thanks for reading. ^..^)