Ling Xiao huffed and panted; as he lowered his head by chance, he saw that his palms had a faint sheen of red that was actually blood! He could not help but receive a shock, inwardly scolding himself for dealing out such a heavy hand towards his son.
Both Chu Ting’er and Ling Ran had their eyes filled with unshed tears, and pounced forward at this time, cradling Ling Tian in their bosoms. This darling of theirs was screaming out, and seeing how Ling Tian’s buttocks were intermingled with blood, both women could not help but start tearing. They simultaneously focused their glares at Ling Xiao.
Ling Ran did not even bother with manners, and immediately started berating, "Brother, you are unreasonable! Tian’er is just a little child, is there a need to hit him so hard? What can a child of his age know? The top beam is not straight, the lower beams will be crooked.[1] Even if he did anything wrong, why should you vent your frustrations on him?" When she thought of how she finally got a chance to visit her parents, she hurriedly ran over to play with her long missed nephew. Who would have known that this would result in Ling Tian getting a severe beating!
Hearing such words, Chu Ting’er seemed to have turned red with embarrassment. She immediately carried her child and ran inside the room, ordering the servants to bring ointment as well as clean bandages over.
Ling Xiao turned around in embarrassment. Although his heart was full of regrets, he still did not wish to put himself down to admit his wrongdoings. Furthermore, what Ling Xiao was angry about in actuality was not about the fiasco created by Ling Tian. For such a small kid, even if he clowned around, what about it? What could actually happen? What really blew Ling Xiao’s top was that with so many people seeing his son acting so wretchedly, it was impossible for him to hide it.
Ling Xiao could imagine that this matter would travel through the entire capital and provinces in the next few days, and he would most likely end up as a laughingstock in the entire imperial court. The Ling’s Young Noble who was a silkpants was most assuredly going to resound throughout!
Ling Kong and son, rejoicing in the misfortune, only offered a few conciliatory phrases to Ling Xiao before leaving in a joyful mood. Right now, it was no longer suitable for them to continue staying any longer.
Ling Xiao turned around, carrying a black face, and came face to face with a bunch of giggling Blood Iron Warriors. Because of frequently mixing around with them, they had Long become brothers in arms. Seeing their bedraggled looks, he could not help but lift up a brow and ask, "What are you all doing? Why do you all look so worn out?"
The crowd in question turned silent, no one had forgotten those steely words that Ling Tian had spoken that day: "No one should even think about revealing my matters to others!"
After a while, Ling Xiao’s face was growing all the more black, and his eyes looked akin to a storm brewing. "To think even his subordinates were not bothering to answer his question?"
Seeing that the situation was not going well, Feng Mo scratched his head and said: "Ooh… this… errr…. this…"
Ling Xiao blew up once again. "What this and what that! Quickly spit it out!"
Feng Mo could only recite prayers in his heart as he spoke: "The Young Noble made us go running." Inside himself, he thought: "This should not be considered as revealing his secret, right?"
"Running?" Ling Xiao revealed some suspicion, "Run for what?"
"This…" Feng Mo scratched his scalp in embarrassment. "...the Young Noble said that running was very fun…" After mulling about it for half a day, Feng Mo this sort of upright and honest man finally came out with his first lie, making him red with embarrassment.
"FUN?!" Ling Xiao jumped out of his skin once again, furiously hopping on his feet and snarling, "This daddy here worked so hard to train up the Blood Iron Warriors, to create warriors of the country that would win a hundred battles and more, to create heroes on the battlefield! This bastard actually dare to ask you go to run for fun??! What… what a d**che bag!"
Looking at the group of Blood Iron Warriors, Ling Xiao spoke in shame, "Fellow brothers, I was the one who caused this to you. Because of me, you have to suffer the torture of this little bastard and his antics. Please rest assured, brothers, I will think of a method to return you guys back to the military!"
The crowd looked at each other in dismay, all wisely choosing to remain silent.
While they were touched by Ling Xiao’s sense of brotherhood, the crowd could not help but be worried — if Ling Xiao were to really get his way, they would all be recalled back to camp! In this half a month, the thirty six of them could clearly feel that be it in energy or physique, all of them were experiencing growth once again, and even to a point where it was unbelievable. This was just in half a month! The Young Noble even said, that this feeling was only the beginning, and was just a test. The real method to strength increase was far from this!
With such a golden opportunity and good master in front of them, who would choose to return to that dark and hopeless future of an army camp? Unless, that person’s head had been kicked by a mule! Immediately, everyone’s heads turned towards Feng Mo; if his simple two sentences would make everyone else lose this chance, then they would definitely want to peel off his skin alive!
Being the target of the piercing stares, Feng Mo’s head started to sweat profusely and he forced a smile to say, "General does not need to worry, we little ones are also quite happy to stay here right now."
Ling Xiao let out a Long sigh, the rims of his eyes wet with tears. He patted Feng Mo’s shoulder, lowly saying, "Brothers, I know you all desire to keep me out of trouble. You all need not say more, all of you brothers can wait for my good news." As he finished, Ling Xiao turned and left, his expression solemn and his steps heavy.
All those behind him were stunned silly! As they looked on the disappearing back of Ling Xiao, all of them walked towards Feng Mo with gritted teeth. Everyone started to clench their fists, the ‘Kaka’ sounds sounding unceasingly.
Seeing that the situation had taken a turn for the worse, Feng Mo hurriedly retreated while drying laughing, "Brothers, let’s sit down and talk it out, hahaha, I was also forced to a corner…"
"Beat him up!" No one knew who first shouted, but immediately, a deluge of black clothed people covered Feng Mo in an instant. Feng Mo turned to run, but it was already too late. The sound of anguished wailing sounded, even worse than what Ling Tian had given out previously.
Inside the room, Ling Tian who was regulating his inner Qi while listening to the conversation of the crowd, let out an expression of satisfaction. He now knew that this group of Blood Iron Warriors was really beginning to lean towards his side.
A tiny shadow dashed out from Ling Tian’s residence, this was precisely Ling Jian. The moment Ling Jian returned to the residence and heard that Ling Tian had gotten punished, he had panicked and rushed in without even cleaning his face.
Seeing Ling Jian coming out, all of the Blood Iron Warriors gathered around him to listen to the latest news, leaving behind a Feng Mo on the brink of death….
"Hey hey, Ling Jian ah, how is the Young Noble right now?"
"Ya ya, Jianjian, what did the Young Noble say?"
"Ya ya, it has already been half a month, has the Young Noble said that we passed yet?"
"..."
Ling Jian looked towards all of them with a trace of pity in his eyes which was gone in a flash. He wore a strange look on his face, half laughing and crying. For a long while, he looked at them without talking which caused them to panic and have the sudden urge to rush forward to grab that slender neck to force every word out of him.
"Cough… Cough…" Ling Jian cleared his throat as though he was about to talk. The audience suddenly held their breaths as they pricked up their ears.
However, no one expected that after he finished coughing, he shook his shoulder and frowned, saying: "My shoulder is sore!"
"Hey hey, is it sore? Let me massage it for you!" A Blood Iron Warrior which seemed to have flames spitting out of his eyes rushed forward.
"Cough cough… thigh hurts."
"I’ll massage for you!"
"Cough cough cough… whole arm feels sore too, actually both arms feel sore."
"I’ll massage for you!"
"I’ll massage for you!"
Finally, Ling Jian rolled his neck once in satisfaction before saying: "The Young Noble took the chance, while the Madam and the Consort Ling Ran was not around, to give me a few instructions for you guys!"
All of them tensed up, eyes focused without blinking onto Ling Jian’s mouth, as though they were afraid to even miss one word.
Ling Jian further coughed once, before saying: "Young Noble’s original words were…" Then he smiled at them and actually stopped talking.
The group’s anger shot up towards the sky, all starting to rub their fists as if they wanted to teach him a lesson.
Seeing that the situation was taking a turn for the worse, Ling Jian contracted his neck and mimicked Ling Tian’s voice to say, "Mmm, actually you all should have passed. But seeing as how you guys watched this young noble get beaten up today, with none of you even attempting to intervene, and even gloating in my misfortune! Thus this young noble has decided that you are not yet ready to pass!" Ling Jian winked and smiled.
The group let out a long sigh, seeming as though they drained out all the air in them.
Ling Jian suddenly continued: "Relax, I’ve not finished."
Suddenly, everyone was on full alert once more.
"However, I’ve thought about it, and decided to give all of you one more chance!"
"Wahahaha…. Long live the Young Noble!" Came a series of joyous chorus.
Ling Jian coldly eyed the group of idiots as he thought, "Did you think that the Young Noble is so nice? How can you expect to reap any benefits without first suffering? That would be ridiculous!" Then unhurriedly spoke, "Thus, for tomorrow’s test, only those who passed may stay."
"Hahaha, tomorrow is the last test, easy, this is gonna be easy!" The group was ecstatic.
Ling Jian coldly announced, "Tomorrow’s test consists of each person carrying an azurite stone, to walk two rounds from the entrance of the Ling mansion to the Ling Family Courtyard. The journey is around 160 miles and you have to finish the 2 rounds before lunch to pass!" The azurite stones in this era weighed at least 10 catties each, and were thick and broad.
"AAHH?!" A cry of despair sounded. At the same time, the thirty six of them seemed to have collapsed totally. The bitterness on their faces seemed as though it could be squeezed to form juice….
One of them saw the look of smugness on Ling Jian’s face, and could not help but counter him, saying: "We can’t maintain this sort of thing, don’t tell me you Little Jian can? Hehehe, hurry and go plead for leniency from our young noble!"
Everyone thought the same way, and started to clamor.
Ling Jian however sniggered, saying: "Sorry to tell you but I’ve already tried to plead leniency, and the Young Noble was kind enough to exempt me for tomorrow’s exam! Hahaha…"
The crowd felt like they had just suffered a crushing defeat!
[1] If a leader sets a bad example, subordinates are likely to follow suit.