Chapter 52: Kneel Down Before Me!

The most intensely affected person was naturally An Ruxue, because Chen Xuan had looked directly at her when he spoke those words.

In an instant, An Ruxue felt a shock wave through her body, as if struck by lightning, and she experienced a sudden fluttering of her heart, much like a startled fawn.

Always as cold as an iceberg and rarely giving Chen Xuan a pleasant expression, she found herself completely at a loss for how to respond to his remarks at this moment.

Deep within her heart, an unfamiliar emotion began to sprout.

"My husband is truly such a responsible man!"

"If it were any other unfaithful wretch, he would have abandoned us long ago. For us sisters to be able to marry him together is simply the fortune of three lifetimes!"

"Little sister Ying'er, if you ask me, assuming we all manage to survive this, you might as well just marry husband too! You are the youngest, you can be his eighth concubine!"

Xu Ruolan, deeply moved to the point of emotional confusion, suddenly pulled on Yang Ying'er beside her, attempting to drag her into the conversation as well.

Yang Ying'er's face flushed crimson instantly, and she shook her head like a rattle-drum, hurriedly blurting out, "No, no, no, I certainly am not marrying!"

"Oh, you little girl, why are you so clueless? What I am doing is keeping the fertile water within our own fields! Such an excellent man as husband cannot be found even with a lantern. Once you miss this village, there'll be no such shop! Besides, didn't husband just avenge you? According to the rules, you ought to offer yourself in marriage to repay him!"

Xu Ruolan's tongue was as sharp as lotus petals, chattering away ceaselessly until Yang Ying'er's face burned with embarrassment and turned beet red.

Standing nearby, Liu Jinyu felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

He realized it was one thing for Chen Xuan to be a complete madman, but the women around him were also entirely unhinged.

What kind of situation are we in right now?

We are surrounded! It is a desperate, nine-deaths-and-one-life predicament!

Yet the lot of you actually have the mood to chat and even discuss adding another concubine to the husband's household.

Could you possibly be any more thick-skinned?

Zhang Tianci had never expected that after he gave the order to slaughter every single one of them, Chen Xuan and his women would not only show no fear, but instead start chattering away idly.

Were they treating his command as mere flatulence?

This was simply outrageous!

"Strike immediately! Kill them all!"

Consumed by violent rage, Zhang Tianci roared at the top of his lungs.

Clang, clang, clang!

In a flash, the soldiers surrounding Chen Xuan and the others immediately drew their swords or leveled their spears. Weapons clashed against armor with sharp clatter as they prepared to make their move.

Whoosh!

Just at that moment, a figure suddenly moved with the speed of lightning.

Before anyone could react, Chen Xuan's figure had already vanished from his spot. When he reappeared, he was already rushing forward like a ghost, closing the distance to Zhang Tianci in the blink of an eye.

The distance between the two of them was now merely a single step apart.

"You—"

Zhang Tianci was stunned for a moment, and by the time he snapped back to reality, his mind went completely blank.

Just a moment ago, he and Chen Xuan had been separated by dozens of paces.

How was it that in the blink of an eye, Chen Xuan was right in front of his face?

A heavy aura of mortal danger surged into his heart, and Zhang Tianci instinctively stepped back, attempting to put some distance between them.

However, the moment his heel shifted, a sudden sensation of suffocation washed over him.

Chen Xuan's large hand had seized him by the throat before he even knew it.

Zhang Tianci instantly felt it difficult to breathe, as if death were descending upon him at that very second.

The hand clamped around his neck needed to exert only the slightest bit of pressure to send him straight to the netherworld!

"Whoever dares to make a single reckless move, I will snap his neck instantly!"

Chen Xuan swept his gaze across the surroundings and spoke in an icy tone. His voice was not loud, yet it rang with absolute clarity in the ears of every single person present!

In an instant, all the soldiers who had been itching for action froze in their tracks. One after another, they turned to look at their immediate superiors: the privates looked to the squad leaders, the squad leaders looked to the centurions, and the centurions looked to the chief commanders.

The prefect's son had been captured. Should we attack, or should we not?

At this moment, a total of three chief commanders had arrived on the scene.

Combined with the corpse of the chief commander lying on the ground, that made four chief commanders in total.

This meant that there were four thousand soldiers gathered right here!

Four thousand men surrounding Chen Xuan and his group of over five hundred could be considered an absolute victory!

Yet now, the situation had undergone a drastic reversal!

"Impudent wretch! Release Young Master Zhang at once!"

A chief commander immediately bellowed in fury.

Zhang Tianci must not come to any harm right under their noses; otherwise, the prefect would certainly hold them accountable.

When that happened, not only would these chief commanders lose their posts, but they might even face severe retribution—perhaps even being cast into the dungeons to be executed!

After all, Zhang Tianci was the prefect's only beloved son, doted upon endlessly in ordinary times.

Chen Xuan cast a sidelong glance at the speaker and asked indifferently, "Who are you?"

That man immediately replied, "I am Wang Fen, a chief commander under the command of Commander Ling Mo of Man City!"

"Wang Fen? Never heard of him." Chen Xuan shook his head.

"Insolent fool! Whether you know me or not is irrelevant. I advise you to release Young Master Zhang immediately, or else you shall surely regret this bitterly!" Wang Fen shouted angrily.

However, Chen Xuan couldn't be bothered to pay him any mind at that moment.

To capture the bandits, one must first capture their leader. Since he had already grabbed Zhang Tianci, did Chen Xuan really need to lower himself to bargain with a mere minor chief commander?

"Order this so-called chief commander Wang Fen to kneel and kowtow immediately. Until I tell him to stop, he is not permitted to stand up."

Chen Xuan said coldly to Zhang Tianci.

"You... in... your... dreams!"

Zhang Tianci gritted his teeth. Because his throat was being clamped by Chen Xuan, he was gasping for air, making his voice hoarse and halting.

"Is that so? I didn't expect you to have quite a backbone."

Chen Xuan chuckled lightly.

The very next moment, he lifted the hand gripping Zhang Tianci's throat upward, hoisting Zhang Tianci entirely off the ground into mid-air.

"Ah—"

A hoarse, intermittent shriek escaped Zhang Tianci's throat as his limbs flailed powerlessly in the empty air. A horrifying shadow of death enveloped the crown of his head.

At that moment, he felt utterly incapable of drawing breath; he truly felt he was about to die.

"If you won't be obedient, I might as well just send you on your way." Chen Xuan spoke indifferently, sounding like a descending reaper of souls.

Nearby, Liu Jinyu was dumbfounded.

Just a moment ago, they had been surrounded by peril, yet in the blink of an eye, Zhang Tianci had been captured?

And in another blink of an eye, Zhang Tianci was about to be killed?

Liu Jinyu's emotions were riding a roller coaster, leaving him completely at a loss for words. Knowing he had no qualification to change Chen Xuan's mind, he could only silently pray in his heart: *Please, Lord Zhang, do not die so easily!*

As long as Zhang Tianci didn't die, the surrounding soldiers would still have misgivings and dare not act rashly.

Once Zhang Tianci died, things would truly descend into utter chaos.

"Husband is amazing! He's simply too handsome!"

Xu Ruolan's eyes practically sparkled with adoration, her face filled with unadulterated worship.

Li Xiuning and the others were left in a daze, utterly failing to anticipate that Chen Xuan would actually capture Zhang Tianci alive.

Although Zhang Tianci was on the verge of being snuffed out, he was not dead yet, and everyone around remained deeply wary.