Chapter 63 Taking the Blame for Another, Fearing You Might Die

"Thump, thump, thump—"

Another few hammer blows fell.

For a moment, the little bun did not know whether she should cry or not. How could that piercing, bone-deep pain vanish so suddenly?

"Little Highness, wuwuwu..." Caofu was crying so hard she could not open her eyes.

The little bun raised her gaze to look at her, her eye rims still tinged with a pitiful redness, carrying a grievance. Her forehead and the tip of her nose were beaded with a fair amount of cold sweat, yet the pain that had previously wracked her body was indeed gone.

She desperately wanted to tell them that she was not in pain now, not in pain at all.

However, she had cried too fiercely just now, her little face covered entirely in tears, so when she looked up at them now, they all assumed she had been numbed by the agony and could no longer even cry out.

Especially Caofu, Lu Qing, and the others; they thought she had lost her voice and her spirit from the torment, lacking the strength to weep and shout.

Instantly, their hearts ached for her even more.

"How many strikes does she have left?" Lu Qing dashed forward so abruptly that Maoding, who was in the middle of executing the punishment, hurriedly deflected his original trajectory. The blow smashed off to the side, losing its controlled force and landing viciously upon the little bun's body.

"Ah!" The little bun instantly burst into tears. Wuwuwu, that feeling... why did that sensation come back again?

It hurts so much, it really hurts so much.

She might as well just hurt to death.

"Little Highness?!" Maoding hurriedly put down the Hun-Tian Thunder in his hands and stepped forward to check on her injuries.

It's over, it's completely over. He hadn't held back his strength with that blow; the Little Highness was surely not lightly injured.

To everyone's surprise, midway there, he was suddenly grabbed by the collar of his robe by Lu Qing, who roared, "Tell me first! How many strikes does she have left?!"

"What is the Demon Lord doing?" A group of fierce ghosts behind him instantly swarmed forward, looking with a few traces of vigilance and hostility.

"D-Demon Lord, what is the meaning of this?" Maoding asked, looking at him with a slight tremor.

Surely not? This person wouldn't dare be so brazen as to attack their Ghost Clan right here in the underworld, would he?

"I'm asking you, how many strikes until she's finished?"

"Huh?" Maoding was stunned for a moment. He looked at Lu Qing's progressively sinking expression, then glanced at the little bun, and quickly figured it out. "Y-You... are you asking about the Little Highness?"

"Of course." Lu Qing gritted his teeth.

"The... the Little Highness still has over eighty strikes left."

"Little... Little Uncle?" The little bun managed to squeeze out through her pain, wanting to ask what he was planning to do, but she lacked the strength. The might of this Hun-Tian Thunder was simply too overwhelming.

Ignoring her, Lu Qing instead grabbed Maoding's collar even tighter and forced him, "Eighty-some?"

"E-Eighty-eighty-eighty-three, yes, yes, eighty-three. There are still eighty-three strikes."

"I'll take them for her."

Maoding was taken aback. "What did you say?"

The little bun was also startled, asking weakly, "Little Uncle?"

"I said, the remaining eighty-three, I will endure them in her stead."

***

"Yes, yes, yes!" Caofu over there wiped her eyes and hurried over, shouting, "And me! And me too! I can also take the punishment for the Little Highness!"

"How can this be allowed?" Maoding shook his head in a hurry, refusing firmly, "Our Ghost Clan's underworld has never had such a precedent. How can we treat this as a child's game?"

"If there is no precedent, then someone must forge it! Now that I am here, you will do whatever I say!"

"N-No, you cannot..."

"Why can't I? The King of Hell never said that punishments cannot be served by proxy!"

"B-But—" Maoding was torn to the extreme. But the King of Hell had no knowledge of this at the moment!

How could a mere minor ghost like him make such a decision on his own authority?

No, this was absolutely unacceptable.

"There are no buts!" Lu Qing released his grip, pushed him aside, and strode over to lie down on the long bench beside the little bun.

"Hit me with the rest."

"This..." The group of fierce ghosts looked up at Maoding, their faces etched with difficulty.

Truth be told, they were also helpless against the circumstances.

If not for the special situation, how would they ever dare strike the Little Highness?

They were already tormented half to death by the Little Highness on a daily basis; if she held a grudge after being beaten this time, would they ever have a good day left to live in the future?

"Strike!" Lu Qing turned his head back, fixing the group with a fierce glare. "Otherwise, this Demon Lord will burn your lair to the ground later!"

What?!

Burn their lair?!

Outrageous! Their lair was a dwelling place they had acquired through hard-fought effort; how could they let it be destroyed so easily by someone?

Maoding gritted his teeth, pointed at the Hun-Tian Thunder at Lu Qing's feet, and commanded, "Hit him! His one hundred and fifty strikes, plus the Little Highness's eighty-three strikes, a total of two hundred and thirty-three strikes. Not a single one is to be spared, and no leniency is to be shown for any of them."

"Understood, the ghost servants obey."

The group stepped forward. Several pinned down his hands and feet, several bound him securely to the long bench, and several took turns stepping up to administer the punishment upon him with the Hun-Tian Thunder.

Within moments...

Inside the dungeon, one sound of execution after another began to ring out. Falling upon the ears, it was exceptionally shocking and soul-chilling.

"Thump, thump, thump—"

"Thump, thump, thump—"

The towering hammer rose high and fell heavily, landing squarely in the middle of his back.

"Ah!" A muffled cry of pain escaped him, his eyes instantly turning bloodshot.

"Little Uncle?!" Terrified, the little bun turned her head to look at him.

She saw him enduring the excruciating pain while still managing to flash a weak, fragile smile toward her. "How... is it? Is your Little... Uncle showing... loyalty?"

"Yes, you are." The little bun's eye rims turned red. Crying, she raised her delicate, tender hands to wipe her eyes with the backs of her palms, saying, "Little Uncle is the most loyal person in the world."

***

"Then is Little Uncle... good?"

"Good, very good."

"Thump, thump, thump—" Dozens of hammer blows had already fallen upon his back, continuous and unceasing.

It was truly a form of torture.

"Ah..." Lu Qing let out a low roar, the pain causing the veins on his forehead to bulge violently as his hands dug desperately into the wooden bench, leaving deep bloody gouges.

"Little Uncle!!" Panicked out of her wits, the little bun tried to flip off the bench.

However, the pain in her body, coupled with the obstruction from Caofu and the others, left her powerless to do anything but lie back down, forced to watch helplessly as he endured the punishment right beside her.

"Wuwuwu, Little Uncle..." The little bun cried with choked, pitiful sobs, wiping away her tears while listening heart-brokenly to the sounds of his punishment.

"Y-You, don't worry, in the future... in the future, I will never talk back to you again. I... I will listen to you, I'll listen to everything you say."

"Wuwuwu, Little Uncle, hold on. I... I'll send a message to them, I... I'll have them send some medicinal flowers and elixirs over, wuwuwuwuwu..."

Helpless, Lu Qing raised his head. "I-I'm not dead yet."

"Wuwuwu, Little Uncle, don't die, please don't die."

Lu Qing: "..."

"In the future, from now on, I'll listen to all your words. I... I can even give you all my carrots to eat."

Lu Qing: "..."

"Y-You even said you were going to take me to eat more delicious food, y-you... you cannot break your promise."

Lu Qing: "..."

"Wuwuwu, Little Uncle..." She cried even more mournfully, far more heartbroken than when she herself was being punished.

Gritting his teeth, Lu Qing had to endure the brutal torture of the Hun-Tian Thunder while simultaneously listening to her tearful wails. It felt as though his ears and his body were about to explode from both ends.

"Stop crying!"

"Ancestor!"

"I'm not dead!!"

"Wuwuwu..." The little bun opened her pure purple eyes, smacking her little lips as she felt her mouth had gone dry from crying.

"I-I was just afraid you would die."

Lu Qing: "..."