Chapter 100 Cutting the Wrist
Facing the unbridled Li Mu, Chu Shufeng and those deputy generals of the black-armored army all dropped to their knees without any hesitation. Among them, Chu Shufeng was the one who was under the least pressure, because the new Deputy county magistrate of Taibai County was supposed to kneel down before the county magistrate in the first place.
But when Ning Zhongshan, the new Dianshi janitor, saw the sight, a chill shot through his heart and he simply closed his eyes shut, pretending to be dead.
As for Li Bing, he had been shivering in fear for the whole time, dreading the moment his tragic fate would descend upon him.
If time could go back, he would definitely choose to escape from Taibai County, the place where his biggest nightmare dwelled, the moment he was rescued from the county prison. He would run as far away as he could from this place and never come back, not considering seeking revenge at all.
After Mr. Zheng, the one enjoying the highest status among them, got his legs snapped and was lying on the ground like an underdog, everyone knew their punishment could not be any less severe.
The only people who were reluctant to obey Li Mu were the deputy generals.
But they just witnessed Li Mu’s invincible power, so they knew they were left with no alternatives, weren’t they?
The deputy generals naturally did not reckon they were better at deterring people than Mr. Zheng. Since Li Mu dared humiliate and harm the Heartless Scholar, they believed he could easily break their legs, too.
Well, a wise man knew when to retreat.
In spite of their strong self-esteem, the deputy generals all knelt down.
Standing on the higher end of a flight of stairs, Li Mu overlooked those on their knees and sneered.
“A bunch of wusses. With no decent combat ability, how could you come up with good conspiracies? You idiots!”
He made the most straightforward comment on Zheng Cunjian, Chu Shufeng, and the other schemers.
By now, Zheng Cunjian had stopped wailing. He just lay on the ground without saying anything, his appearance messy and his expression rather defeated.
However, the eyes of the Heartless Scholar were reflecting malevolence like a poisonous snake. He stared at Li Mu unblinkingly, as if he was determined to etch Li Mu’s appearance into his mind.
Li Mu looked totally cool about his intently stare.
Several years ago when he just started working in a slaughter house in the village, he sometimes could not kill the pigs with one neat stab. Almost driven mad by the pain, the looks those injured pigs shot at him were much more formidable than Zheng Cunjian’s.
Li Mu certainly would not be scared by a man whose furious look was even less fierce than that of a pig.
In fact, he was more worried about the injuries of the little attendant.
He quickly turned and came to Qing Feng. Gazing at the doctor who had finished examing Qing Feng’s body, he asked, “How is he doing?”
The doctor cast a meaningful look at Qing Feng and replied with sincere respect, “This little boy is sure a man of your honor. After being injured like that, he managed to show no sign of pain, which is as unbelievable as your honor removing the arrow in your body without painkiller on that day…”
The doctor could not help but express his astonishment. Then, he realized he hadn’t answered Li Mu’s question, so he added, “Your honor, there is not much to worry about. This kid has suffered only cuts and bruises, no lethal injuries. All he needs are some drugs for external use, a good rest, and plenty of nutrition. But, but the thing is…”
The doctor trailed off, hesitating whether he should continue.
“The thing is what?” Li Mu had a vague feeling that the doctor could not be referring to something nice.
“The thing is the boy’s legs bear two strangulation marks that go deep down the bones. His legs have been roped for too long. The lower limbs are now completely necrotized. I, I’m afraid I can’t make sure he can still… eh… Well, another thing is his teeth have been knocked off by a blunt instrument. Given his age, it’s impossible for him to grow new teeth. But he can use artificial teeth.”
The doctor described Qing Feng’s injuries in a quite subtle way.
But Li Mu’s head buzzed upon hearing those words. He understood what the doctor did not say explicitly.
“My little attendant Qing Feng might lose his legs?”
“He will be handicapped?”
“It can’t be. He was still standing straight and still a moment ago. How could that happen?”
At that thought, Li Mu hastily lifted the hem of the little attendant’s robe to take a close look. The view he saw made his blood boiling with rage.
It turned out that under his robe, Qing Feng’s legs already turned black. Obviously, most of the flesh was necrotized. Black blood was trickling down his limbs, and the dead flesh seemed a little detached from the bones as if it could fall off at any given moment. The reason why he could stand so straight and stable could be attributed to the iron bars fixated on his legs, which supported his weight but also pinned him on the spot.
“Such injury…”
“Such serious injury could probably only be cured by amputation, even if it were treated with the advanced modern medical technology on Earth.” Li Mu thought helplessly.
“Young Master, I… I’m fine… Don’t… do anything rash… I…” The little attendant muttered, his face paler. Gradually, he found it hard to concentrate. His eyes became a little unfocused, and his body started wobbling.
He had been forcing himself to stay awake in case his abnormal behavior would get Li Mu in trouble or cause Li Mu to act recklessly. Now that the truth was exposed and Li Mu had seen the worst, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and allowed himself to relax a little. Although he would not die, his momentary relaxation made him lose his consciousness.
Looking at the injured and exhausted Qing Feng, Li Mu felt guilt piled up in his heart.
“Is there any way to save his legs?” He turned to the doctor and inquired.
The doctor looked undecided on that question. After racking his brains for quite a while, he answered, “The massive bleeding and the flesh necrosis have hurt the core of his legs. It’s practically impossible to save his legs, unless we can get the magic herb I’ve heard about in legends that has enormous vigor of life. But that magic herb is very rare and precious. You won’t find any at the pharmacies in the county. Only the royal family and the Holy Clan might…”
Li Mu needed no further instructs to understand that a kind of herb that wonderful must be a scarce treasure in this world, and only the most powerful could have some, such as the royal ones and super large factions.
But in this way, there was no hope to obtain that herb.
Li Mu rubbed his head as numerous ideas flashed across his mind.
“Rob the royal house or a powerful faction?”
“No, there is no time for that, and I can’t make sure the robbery can go well.”
“What about offering a high bid to purchase some?”
“No, that deal might not be closed in years.”
He contemplated a variety of solutions and found none viable.
“Magic herb with powerful vigor of life… magic herb with powerful vigor of life…”
“Hold on, powerful vigor of life?”
Suddenly, something clicked. Li Mu had an idea.
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He looked at the doctor hopefully and said, “What we need now is something with powerful vigor of life that can replenish Qing Feng’s, but that ‘something’ doesn’t have to be a sort of herb, does it?”
“Um…” The doctor pondered over his words and then confirmed, “Yes, you’re right. Theoretically, anything with powerful vigor of life can do. But in most cases, only precious treasures like that magic herb have such powerful…”
“That’s it!” Shouted Li Mu in excitement. After hearing the doctor’s validation, he wasted no time to draw out the sword attached to the waist of a black-armored soldier who had been kneeling before him and pressed the blade on his own wrist. With a flick of his hand, the blade cut his skin.
Clink!
The sound of two pieces of metal clashing rang.
And the tip of the sword was blown off by the collision.
“What?”
Li Mu yelled in surprise.
Those black-armored soldiers did not realize what Li Mu wanted to do and were startled by his act.
The others were also befuddled to see the county magistrate direct a sword to himself.
“What’s going on?”
“Why did the county magistrate suddenly try to harm himself?” They wondered.
“Fu*k, is it that hard?”
Not discouraged at all, Li Mu raised up the sword and hacked several times on his arm without a stop. Each time he hacked, a weird clinking noise of metal clashing sounded. At last, the blade cracked into pieces as if it were made of mud, while Li Mu’s arm was still intact, the remaining handle held in his hand.
That discovery made Li Mu want to pull his hair out.
For all those years, Li Mu only had a rough assessment of his strength. Every time when he made a breakthrough, he made no accurate calculation of the growth of his power, either. That was because the cultivation system on this Martial Art Star was quite different from the system of the two Cultivation Methods the old faker taught him. As such, after he mastered the Cracking the Sky, the third movement of the Zhenwu Boxing, he had no idea how strong his body had become, and nor did he carry out any experiment to find out the answer.
Thus, it came as a total surprise to Li Mu that his body was already so tough even a sharp blade could not harm it.
“Now, what shall I do?”
Li Mu turned a little awkward.
The others, however, were all stupefied.
Even the Heartless Scholar Zheng Cunjian was gawking at Li Mu, his eyes widened to two round saucers.
“This Li Mu is actually a monster, right?” The scholar asked himself in disbelief.
Although he did not know what game Li Mu was playing now, he was thrown into utter shock when he saw the blade shattered into pieces instead of leaving not even a small cut on Li Mu’s skin. “Gosh… That was a black-armored soldier’s sword! A fine weapon made by the top craftsmen in Chang’an! Such a sword can cut clean through iron as though it were mud. But how come it failed to harm a man’s flesh?” Mused the scholar in alarm.
“Could it be that this Li Mu is actually a monster?”
Chu Shufeng, Ning Zhongshan— the Dianshi janitor who was faking his death— as well as the black-armored soldiers all gasped. The tiny bud of rebellion just planted in their mind was instantly rooted out.
After all, what were their odds of fighting against an invulnerable monster?
But Li Mu did not think that far.
A little disappointed, he ditched the sword, or say what was left of that sword, on the sideway. Then, he mused for a minute before straightening his index finger and middle finger to launch the Heart Heavenly Shoot. With the help of the Xiantian Skill, the Heart Heavenly Shoot method turned the tips of his fingers glint like metal.
It was not long since Li Mu acquired the Heart Heavenly Shoot method. But owing to the discussion with Guo Yuqing, his attainments in this method was already quite amazing. Adding that his body was freaking strong and incredibly compatible with all kinds of martial arts, he easily mastered the Heart Heavenly Shoot method in merely a few days.
He softly brushed his wrist with the metal-like fingers.
His skin was cut open in silence.
Scarlet blood began to stream down.
Li Mu walked to the doctor and leaned forward to let his blood fall into a bowl that was supposed to hold drugs. Shortly, the bowl was half-full.
The smell of blood, which was somehow an agreeable aroma, permeated the place.
“Your honor, this is…” The doctor exclaimed in awe.
He spotted something weird in the blood. A thin layer of scarlet mist was flowing and swirling over it like dancing flames, which made it not look like normal human blood. Since the doctor stood very close to the bowl, he could feel the unusual heat emitted from the liquid.
“My blood contains strong vigor of life. Give it a shot. Perhaps it can save Qing Feng’s legs.” Li Mu advised as he gave a grimace with pain.
“Cutting the wrist open does hurt!”
Due to the Xiantian Skill Li Mu had been practicing and the absorption of the flood dragon blood, Li Mu’s vigor of life was so strong that even Guo Yuqing admired it. The sworn brother once told Li Mu that he knew Li Mu’s blood surely had mighty vigor of life because he looked spirited and energetic. Now, when things had gone so far, Li Mu decided to make a last attempt by using his blood as the medicine. As to whether the blood type was right, it did not matter now. Anyway, it was not the same thing as the blood transfusion.
When Li Mu finished his remark, the doctor suddenly realized why he did all this.
“I will certainly try everything I can.”
The doctor announced, astounded but also touched.
He could not think of another official in the empire who would be kind enough to donate his blood to a little attendant. Moreover, judging by Li Mu’s behavior, he figured there was no doubt that Li Mu would immediately give the magic herb to the little attendant to save his life if he really got a hold of such treasure.
By that moment, Qing Feng had spent the last ounce of his strength and passed out.
“Bring him to the back room.” Li Mu finally sighed with relief. But soon, he thought of another issue and waved, “The healing process is better to go through in a quiet and comfortable environment. Take Feng Yuanxing, Ma Junwu, and Zhen Meng to the back room as well. Let them rest. There will be no more trouble to bother them.”
But before his words faded, another trouble arrived at the scene.
“Really? I’m afraid you’re very much mistaken.”
A deep voice unexpectedly rang in the county office.
At that moment, Zheng Cunjian, who had been very quiet throughout the whole thing, was suddenly thrilled expression. His eyes lit up, and uncontainable joy surfaced on his face.
Finally, the man he had been waiting for came to his rescue!
…