After listening to the few sentences Xue Fan said, Mo Jiuye could determine that this person was definitely a crafty villain, completely different from his somewhat proper appearance.
Facing this kind of person, Mo Jiuye was too lazy to beat around the bush with him.
"Why did you pretend to be Boss Tang?"
Upon hearing this question, Xue Fan was stunned for a moment, but he quickly concealed it.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand at all."
Mo Jiuye stepped forward, stepping on the hand Xue Fan had placed near the ground, then ruthlessly ground it a few more times.
"Don't understand? Haha..." As he spoke, he ground down forcefully a few more times.
Forget about whether this person had come to the northwest with aims related to the Mo family, just based on his impersonating Tang Mingrui to hire killers and murder, he deserved death.
Xue Fan had been drugged so his body still felt weak and powerless. Being stepped on and ground by Mo Jiuye, he also lacked the strength to struggle, but from his twisted expression one could see how much pain his hand was in.
This guy had quite some endurance. Even though he was in pain, he showed no intention to beg for mercy.
"You are abusing your power with unlawful punishment, I will report this to officials."
Mo Jiuye judged that this guy was definitely the stubborn type who wouldn't cry until he saw the coffin.
He didn't have so much time to waste here. Raising a dagger he ruthlessly stabbed it into Xue Fan's thigh repeatedly several times before stopping.
Blood had already soaked through Xue Fan's pants.
Mo Jiuye showed not an ounce of softness, instead stepping forward to tear open one of his pant legs, revealing the still bleeding wound underneath.
At this moment Xue Fan also saw clearly, the person in front of him was not only vicious and ruthless, but extremely cruel.
Just as he was contemplating how to deal with this, Mo Jiuye had already taken out a small paper package and poured out the white powder inside onto his wound.
Before Xue Fan's eyes his wound started decaying at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon exposing white bone underneath...
Excruciating pain spread throughout Xue Fan's whole body, but that wasn't even the most important thing.
The decay of his flesh had completely shattered Xue Fan's mind, at this moment he had been scared witless, staring at Mo Jiuye in horror.
"You...just what are you trying to do?"
Mo Jiuye coldly snorted, his hand already grasping that small paper package containing the medicinal powder.
"Naturally I want you to obediently answer my questions."
Xue Fan stared at the pus-oozing bloody hole on his leg now thicker than a finger, already nearing his limit of collapse.
Even so, he still didn't want to say anything out.
He strenuously took a breath, making a show of trying to smash his head towards the nearest wall.
Seeing this, the three Mo brothers almost simultaneously moved to control him.
Mo Chuhang lacked patience more, angered most by seeing such stubborn and tough people.
After throwing the guy back to the ground he stepped forward and fiercely kicked him several times: "You do bad things then want to get off easy with death? That would be letting you off too lightly!"
As he spoke his dagger was already out, neatly severing the tendons in his hands and feet.
Just as Xue Fan was about to cry out loudly in pain, Sixth Brother reacted quickly to find something to plug up his mouth.
Mo Jiuye stared at him.
"If you don't want to suffer torment, then obediently answer my questions and I will consider giving you a quick death."
Xue Fan closed his eyes, still not indicating he would offer up anything.
He was carefully contemplating his current situation, considering if there was still any hope he could escape alive, as well as just who exactly these people in front of him were.
As he thought this over, he seemed to realize something.
To speak of in the northwest, he had not heard there were any masters at all.
The several people who had fought with him just now all had higher martial arts than him.
With such exceptional martial skill, not to mention just in the northwest, even considering the whole of Da Shun it would be a rarely seen existence.
Suddenly, Xue Fan seemed to think of something.
Mo Jiuye could tell there was intent for him to speak, so he stepped forward and ripped away the rag stuffing his mouth.
"Which one of you is Mo Jiuye?" Xue Fan stared at the few people in front of him in horror.
According to reason, Mo Jiuye was the former Duke Who Protects The Country, an exceedingly prestigious figure of note in the capital city. As a son of the Xue household it was improbable he wouldn't recognize him.
But Xue Fan was rather special. Due to his exceptional martial arts and status as the Xue house's chosen successor, ever since he was very little he had been sent out wandering to train.
All these years he had been away running taverns in outside lands, very rarely appearing in the capital city. And so he had merely heard of this youngest Duke Who Protects The Country Mo Jiuye, but had never seen the man himself before.
Now having encountered people with martial skill far exceeding his own by countless bounds in the northwest, and the people before him were not bad looking, around the age he had heard of Mo Jiuye, he couldn't help but suspect the man to be Mo Jiuye.
The reason he didn't have this suspicion from the start was because in his awareness, in the present Mo family there was only Mo Jiuye as a male descendant. The possibility many top masters could appear by his side was practically zero.
But after thinking it over, he couldn't come up with any possibilities for high level masters to exist in the northwest other than Mo Jiuye. Therefore, his asking was also just probing.
Right now Mo Jiuye didn't want to conceal anything, because in his eyes this Xue Fan was already a dead man.
"That's right, I am Mo Jiuye."
As Mo Jiuye spoke, his gaze closely watched Xue Fan's change in expression.
Sure enough, when Xue Fan heard he was Mo Jiuye his eyes narrowed ever so slightly for a moment, but his movement was very quick, basically undetectable if one didn't pay close attention.
It had to be said, Xue Fan's composure was still quite good. He quickly collected himself again.
"Since you are Mo Jiuye, you should even less make things difficult for me. Which of the nobles in the capital doesn't know the powerful backer behind Jingxian Building is? Offending Jingxian Building is equal to offending the current Empress. My Xue family has always been without enmity or grudge against the Mo family. Why must you treat me like this? Aren't you afraid this will bring disaster upon the Mo family?"
Disaster? Haha...what disasters had the Mo family not endured enough of already?
While mockingly laughing coldly to himself in his heart, Mo Jiuye once again poured medicinal powder onto another one of Xue Fan's wounds.
Seeing his actions, Xue Fan had no way to dodge, only able stare helplessly as his other wound also transformed into a pus-oozing bloody hole.
He was frantic!
"Mo Jiuye, why must you oppose against the Xue family?"
"Stop beating around the bush with me. Just like Eighth Brother already said very clearly earlier, if you don't want to suffer torment then obediently answer my questions. If you continue being dishonest, I have even more methods to torment you wishing you were dead."
Mo Jiuye wasn't exaggerating threats at all with these words. The medicinal powders his wife had brought him that tormented people were exceptionally cruel.
Actually, Xue Fan was already terrified to an extreme degree in his heart. If it wasn't for him still thinking of the Xue family and not wanting to drag them out, he wished he could just say everything he knew for a quick relief from this ordeal.
"I've said it already. I truly don't know anything about this Boss Tang you speak of. I've only been in the northwest a few days and haven't contacted any outsiders."
Mo Jiuye hadn't expected this guy's backbone to be so stubbornly tough.
But he already knew Xue Fan was extremely fearful of the decaying wounds over his own body. His current stubborn denial was purely him barely managing to hold himself together.
Thus, he once again poured medicinal powder onto another one of Xue Fan's wounds.
