Wu Jin knelt on the ground.
His fists were clenched, and his body was covered in blood.
He raised his head, looking at the middle-aged man, and squeezed out a smile with all his might.
"This is my little brother, the youngest brother. He's only eleven years old, just eleven!"
"He can't cultivate, he was born weak."
"He poses no threat to you, no threat at all..."
As he exhales heavily, blood pours out of Wu Jin's nostrils. He pounds his fists on the ground, his body bending, and his forehead heavily knocks against the hard ground. thump! thump! thump!
Wu Jin knocks his head, one, two, three...
While knocking his head, Wu Jin desperately says with a bitter smile, "He doesn't have the ability to retaliate against you, he simply doesn't have the ability... he knows how to read, knows a lot of characters... he also knows arithmetic and understands bookkeeping..."
Wu Jin lifts his head, smiling at the middle-aged man. His distorted smile looks gruesome.
The skin on his forehead splits open, and fresh blood flows down his cheek. He licks the bloodstain on the corner of his mouth and dryly laughs, "I am useless... I killed the third brother... and also killed the second brother..."
"If you want to vent your anger, kill me!" Wu Jin's body trembles violently, his young face contorting to the extreme, no longer able to maintain that ugly smile.
He, too, fears death!
He is still young, Wu Tie is only eleven, and he himself is not even twenty!
He's still young, he hasn't yet enjoyed the beauty of life... Especially after Wu Zhan drank too much cheap wine and secretly, dishonestly described the beauty of women to the adult eldest son and the second son. Wu Jin has always been filled with fantasies!
He really doesn't want to die!
He is afraid!
His fingers tremble as he tears apart his tattered linen clothes, revealing his muscular upper body. Wu Jin lifts his head and looks at the middle-aged man, tears flowing down, trembling, and begging with a twisted smile.
"If you want to vent your anger, kill me... You can even dismember me in five ways... But, my youngest brother, he is still young..."
The middle-aged man tilts his head, looking up and down at the blood-covered Wu Jin.
"How old are you?" The middle-aged man gently asks.
"Twenty... almost twenty!" Wu Jin trembles in his body.
Surrounding them in a semicircular formation from thirty meters away, the enemies have completely surrounded the two brothers. The shadow of death looms over Wu Jin, fear gripping his heart. His vision goes black, and he can't catch his breath. Wu Jin is truly scared.
He reaches out with one hand, holding onto the frail, cold body of Wu Tie, who is trembling violently. Wu Jin suppresses the fear in his heart, smiling at the middle-aged man, and tries his best to force a smile.
"In my family, there's only my father and the four of us siblings... Spare my youngest brother, kill me, it won't pose any threat to you..."
Wu Jin coughs up a mouthful of blood.
"The youngest brother knows how to read, understands bookkeeping... even if you sell him as a slave, a slave who can read and count is very valuable!"
Wu Jin looks at the large emblem on the middle-aged man's chest...
Dark mist surges, and a white skeletal palm emerges from the black mist, with several bloodstained gold coins lying in the palm of the skeleton.
"Money... gold coins... my youngest brother is very valuable!"
The middle-aged man lightly taps the ground with his serpent-headed wooden staff. He tilts his head, looks at Wu Jin attentively, then shakes his head with a grim expression.
"It's really enviable brotherly affection... Many years ago..."
He lifts his head and smiles.
"Heh, it was years ago... seems like someone used to protect me like this!"
"Brotherly affection, I'm almost moved by you!"
Shaking his head, the middle-aged man firmly says, "But, we must eliminate the roots while cutting the grass!"
"A half-step Yuan Sensing at almost twenty... and your father, he's actually a genuine Heavy Tower realm cultivator, and comprehended Divine Ability..." The middle-aged man's gaze flickers as he looks at the Wu Jin and Wu Tie, the two brothers.
"In this poverty-stricken place, a half-step Yuan Sensing at almost twenty... at most someone in their low forties in the Heavy Tower realm? Heh, you think I'm stupid?"
The words of the middle-aged man triggered murmurs from the twenty or so enemies around him. His words brought unease to their hearts.
Upon closer inspection, the Wu family, father and sons, shouldn't have appeared in this rundown place.
Suddenly, the middle-aged man raises his snake-headed wooden staff, and the sharp end of the staff pierces Wu Jin's shoulder. The middle-aged man forcefully lifts Wu Jin, who screams in pain, with the snake-headed staff.
"But my youngest brother... he knows nothing... he understands nothing... he can't cultivate... he... poses no harm to you..."
With great effort, Wu Jin smiles weakly.
Blood and sweat flow down his body like small streams, dripping down his legs.
Wu Tie sits on the ground, and the small puddles of water around him have already been dyed red by Wu Jin's blood. Hundreds of small creatures with circular bodies and tentacles, emitting a soft white glow, consume the blood, their white bodies also stained red.
"Brother..."
Wu Tie is helpless.
He has no power at all.
His vision is filled with blood, and thick black mist emanates from the blood. The faces of Wu Zhan, Wu Yin, Wu Tong, and countless swollen, pale faces constantly appear in front of Wu Tie.
From time to time, there are also the faces of bears and tigers, as well as some pale faces that Wu Tie has seen before, constantly flashing before him.
Wu Tie shouts for Wu Jin.
He knows that Wu Jin is begging the enemy for his life.
He knows that Wu Jin is giving up everything for his own life.
Fear, boundless fear fills every pore of Wu Tie.
He wants to try to be angry...
Anger is like a small luminous mushroom under the feet of an ash-colored lizard. Just as it starts to emerge, the ash-colored lizard's heavy body crushes it to pieces.
There is no way to be angry.
There is no power, not even the qualifications to be angry.
Tears flow down Wu Tie's face, his countenance contorted and convulsing like Wu Jin's.
"Brother..." Wu Tie screams loudly.
"Look, he's a coward." Wu Jin smiles at the middle-aged man with great difficulty.
The black staff unexpectedly possesses a strong poison. The staff pierces Wu Jin's shoulder, and the corrosive poison eats away at his flesh, emitting a sizzling sound.
Black pus and blood gush out of the wound, and Wu Jin's smile becomes even more distorted and ugly.
"He... is a coward... a coward who only knows how to cry... What can he do to you?"
Wu Jin vehemently belittles Wu Tie.
"Brotherly affection? I hate it the most." Suddenly, the middle-aged man grins widely. "I hate seeing brothers who love each other. Why can't you kill each other?"
"I hate seeing loving and affectionate siblings."
"Brothers... They're such a bother." The middle-aged man raises his snake-headed staff with one hand and, with his other hand, pulls out a sharp short sword from his waist. He slowly stabs it towards Wu Jin's chest.
With each action, the middle-aged man laughs, looking at Wu Tie. "Kid... look, I'm going to kill your brother."
"Does it hurt?"
"Are you sad?"
"Are you in despair?"
"Then shout it out!"
"Cry?"
"Cry loudly!"
"Scream?"
"Scream louder!"
"Shout?"
"Shout it out!"
"Beg?"
"Beg harder!"
The tip of the short sword slowly approaches Wu Jin's chest, pressing against the skin.
Wu Jin loosens his grip and subconsciously tries to do something. Suddenly, two heavily armored hulks, each bigger than him, pounce on him, one on the left and one on the right, gripping his arms tightly.
"Your brother wants to fight to the death... I won't give him that chance."
The middle-aged man suddenly opens his mouth, laughing as he sings a nursery rhyme.
A rhyme roughly telling the story of a few brothers going to dig for food, suddenly making a great harvest, and returning with full loads.
The short nursery rhyme is quickly finished, and the middle-aged man laughs even more brightly. "Brotherly affection... I really hate it!"
Wu Tie's vision turns black, and his small body is swept up by the shockwave, rolling backward into the turbulent water filled with countless whirlpools.
The middle-aged man suddenly drops the ointment in his hand, shouting at the top of his lungs.
(Chapter complete)