Free Web NovelChapter 113: Chapter 113: A Deserved Beating
"You..."
The Fifth Princess grimaced in pain, quickly covering her face. It hurt so much that tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I don’t care who you are. You will apologize to the Ninth Princess today!"
Shen Daoxing said coldly, "If you refuse, I’ll beat you right here until you do!"
As he spoke, Shen Daoxing viciously slapped her again, this time on the other side of her face. A large, red handprint was now clearly visible.
"Ah!"
The Fifth Princess cried out, her eyes welling with tears.
But Shen Daoxing showed no pity. "Are you going to apologize or not?"
He raised his hand for another slap.
"Ah... Stop hitting me! I’ll apologize, okay?!"
The Fifth Princess flinched and quickly said, "Ninth Sister, I’m sorry. I was wrong."
SLAP!
The crisp sound of another slap echoed as Shen Daoxing’s hand fell anyway, leaving another deep handprint layered over the first on the Fifth Princess’s pale cheek.
"Not a shred of sincerity!"
Shen Daoxing said coldly.
"You..."
The Fifth Princess cried out, covering her face, her eyes filled with tears.
SLAP!
Shen Daoxing didn’t even bother to speak this time, simply slapping her again.
"Ah!"
The Fifth Princess shrieked and immediately kowtowed to the Ninth Princess, Gu Yawei. "Ninth Sister, I was wrong! I shouldn’t have treated you like that just now! Please forgive me! I was truly wrong!"
"Still no sincerity!"
Shen Daoxing’s face remained frigid with dissatisfaction. He raised a large hand, which began to glow with thick Spiritual Power. He looked as if he wouldn’t stop until the Fifth Princess was dead.
The Ninth Princess couldn’t bear to watch any longer. She rushed forward and grabbed Shen Daoxing’s hand. "Shen, please spare my fifth sister!"
She then extended both hands to help the Fifth Princess up from where she sat slumped on the ground. "Fifth Sister, there’s no grudge between us. Why must we fight to the death? We are both Father Emperor’s daughters. You are my own sister! Can’t we just forgive each other?"
The Fifth Princess looked up at the Ninth Princess in astonishment. ’I really wanted to kill her just now,’ she thought, ’but she’s forgiving me this easily?’
Shen Daoxing observed this exchange and gave a silent nod. He then said coldly, "Since the Ninth Princess has forgiven you, you may go!"
Feeling as if she’d received a royal pardon, the Fifth Princess scrambled to her feet and tried to flee.
"Wait!"
She had only taken a single step when Shen Daoxing’s cold voice rang out again.
The Fifth Princess shuddered.
"Remember this: if you ever dare to move against the Ninth Princess again, I don’t care what your status is, I will not spare you. Don’t think I’m bluffing. I always do what I say."
Shen Daoxing spoke slowly, his eyes fixed on the Fifth Princess with an intense chill.
The Fifth Princess felt as though she was being stared down by some indescribable horror.
"I won’t! I’ll never dare to again!"
She nodded repeatedly, then fled in terror, disappearing into the woods.
Once the Fifth Princess was gone, Gu Yawei glanced at Shen Daoxing gratefully. "Shen, thank you!"
Shen Daoxing gave a faint smile and said lightly, "I promised I would protect you through this trial."
Afterward, the two of them headed toward the Trial Mountain. They crossed a meadow and passed through a forest before a massive valley appeared before them.
Within the valley, a strange red mist churned violently like boiling steam. From time to time, eerie and terrifying laughter echoed from within, as if some dreadful presence lurked there.
This was the only path up the mountain. The Second Prince, the Eldest Prince, and the others had all stopped here, observing the situation in the valley without daring to act rashly.
Seeing the two of them approach, a lavishly dressed young nobleman stepped out from the crowd. He seemed a little surprised to see Shen Daoxing and Gu Yawei, then turned to her and asked tentatively, "Where is my fifth sister?"
The speaker was the sixth son of the Martial Kingdom’s emperor. He and the Fifth Princess, Gu Qian, shared the same mother and were extremely close.
The Ninth Princess glanced at Shen Daoxing.
"Wasn’t the Fifth Princess ahead of everyone? How would we know?" Shen Daoxing replied nonchalantly.
"Impossible. You must know," the Sixth Prince insisted confidently.
"And how do you know that we must know?" Shen Daoxing looked at the Sixth Prince with amusement. "The Fifth Princess was perfectly fine and walking ahead of us. How could she have run into us? Tell me."
"Because! Because..." The Sixth Prince hesitated, then suddenly pointed a vicious finger at the Ninth Princess. "Because that bastard doesn’t deserve the bloodline power of our Royal Family! My fifth sister went back to get rid of her!"
An uproar went through the other princes and princesses at his words, but their faces showed little surprise.
The Sixth Prince suddenly seemed to realize something, pointing a disbelieving finger at Shen Daoxing. "Could it be... did you kill my fifth sister?"
Hearing this, the portly Third Prince standing nearby chuckled. "Sixth Brother, you’re overthinking things. Fifth Sister has a Kunlun Slave with her. Are you not aware of a Kunlun Slave’s power? That’s a Fifth Layer Grotto Heaven cultivation base, and its physical strength is incredibly domineering and indestructible. Among all of us here, I’m afraid only Xia Junze’s Celestial Flame Sword could possibly break its defense, right?"
The Third Prince had barely finished speaking when Shen Daoxing’s indifferent voice cut in, "That’s right. We did encounter the Fifth Princess. She just happened to lose."
The Third Prince’s fleshy face twitched, as if he’d just been slapped.
Shen Daoxing added coolly, "But we didn’t kill her."
The Sixth Prince was incredulous. "If that’s the case, then why hasn’t Fifth Sister arrived here yet?"
The Third Prince stepped forward to console him. "Sixth Brother, don’t be anxious. Fifth Sister has the Kunlun Slave with her. What could possibly happen to her? Perhaps she already snuck ahead of us."
He had just finished speaking when Shen Daoxing’s nonchalant voice rang out again. "Oh, right. That Kunlun Slave you mentioned? I killed it."
The Third Prince’s fleshy face twitched again, the phantom sting even sharper this time.
"I have to find my fifth sister!" The Sixth Prince grew frantic and hastily ran back down the Mountain of Trial.
He hadn’t run far when his horrified cry echoed up from down the slope. "Fifth Sister!"
Hearing him, the crowd rushed down the mountain. There, at the base of the Mountain of Trial, the Fifth Princess’s cold corpse was hanging high in a large tree, covered in wounds and dripping with blood.
"The Fifth Princess is dead!"
Everyone was stunned.
"It was you! You killed my fifth sister!" The Sixth Prince’s face twisted with fury. With a SHING, he drew a longsword and pointed it viciously at Shen Daoxing.
"I didn’t kill her," Shen Daoxing stated it simply, offering no further explanation. ’This is getting serious,’ he thought.
"Sixth Brother, you’ve truly misunderstood! We didn’t kill Fifth Sister!" the Ninth Princess ran over, trying desperately to explain. "She suddenly appeared before us and attacked me without a word... but we didn’t kill her..."
"Heh heh heh, you didn’t kill her?" The Sixth Prince’s expression was ugly. He pointed a finger at the Fifth Princess’s corpse. "Then how did my fifth sister end up hanging from a tree, and right on the path you just took?"
