Chapter 64 Punish Me For Real? She Deserves to Bear It

After the punishment concluded, the two returned to the deep dungeon.

The little dumpling deliberately asked someone to bring out numerous celestial elixirs and rare medicines from her treasure pavilion, presenting them all to Lu Qing.

"Little Uncle, these treasures of mine are all top-tier. I guarantee that after you use them for a while, your wounds will heal completely without leaving a single scar."

"You should worry about yourself first." Lu Qing lay flat on the bed, glancing at her pile of treasures with a scoff.

"My injuries aren't heavy." The little dumpling supported her tiny waist, slowly waddled over to the edge of his bed, found a comfortable spot, and sat down right before it.

Lu Qing glanced at the fox-fur blanket draped over him and said to her nonchalantly, "The ground is cold, put something underneath yourself."

"Oh, oh," the little dumpling obediently climbed up, pulled the blanket away from him, spread it out on the cold floor beneath her, and sat upon it.

Indeed, it instantly felt much warmer.

The little dumpling turned her head and flashed a sweet, wide grin at him. "Thank you, Little Uncle."

"Tsk," Lu Qing slightly curved his lips, feeling that the eighty-three lashes he had taken on his back were well worth it.

"Little Uncle, why did you take the punishment for me?" the little dumpling asked him.

"What do you mean, why?" Lu Qing turned his head, buried his face back down, and muttered, "Since when are there so many whys?"

If he wanted to take the blows for her, he simply took them.

Who told her to have such a frail constitution and such a slender, tiny frame?

Had she endured all hundred and fifty strikes, wouldn't she be rolling all over the floor in tears, crying her eyes out in utter misery?

The little dumpling suddenly leaned closer to him and whispered very softly, "But you clearly didn't have to take that many blows for me. It didn't hurt at all."

Aside from the first few dozen strikes at the very beginning which truly hurt so much that she felt like she was dying, the remaining dozens felt as though they were raised high in the air only to fall as softly as feathers, causing her not to feel the slightest bit of pain.

"What did you say?" Lu Qing turned his head back to look at her, failing to comprehend her meaning for a moment.

"I mean, just now, during those final dozens of strikes, it didn't hurt at all."

"Not painful at all?!"

"Mm-hmm, not painful in the slightest," the little dumpling nodded heavily.

She guessed aloud, "Do you think Mao Ting couldn't bear to punish me?"

"Couldn't bear to punish you?!" Lu Qing was so angry he laughed. After a moment, he pointed at himself, trembling with indignation, and said, "Then what about me?"

"He could bear to punish me just because I'm not their little sovereign?!"

"No, that's not it..."

Just as the little dumpling was about to shake her head in denial, she saw him sit up with a great surge of agitation, protesting with righteous fury.

"No wonder they were acting so emotional just now?!"

"It turns out they were only pretending to punish you while actually punishing me?!"

"No, Little Uncle, you've got it wrong." The little dumpling hurriedly went to steady his body.

Lu Qing was so infuriated that the wounds on his back temporarily stopped aching, and he shouted, "How dare they?!"

"No, Little Uncle..."

"Simply lawless! Utterly brazen and audacious!"

"Little Uncle..."

"Abusing their authority! Favouring the powerful! Blind to status! Relying on power to bully others! Despicable sycophants!"

Seeing him rant with such passionate fervor, the little dumpling could not help but ask with helpless resignation, "Little Uncle, do your wounds not hurt anymore?"

Only then did Lu Qing feel the pain flare up again. He hastily sprawled back down and complained with a grievance, "Had I known, I wouldn't have taken so many blows for you. It hurts to death."

Why play the hero so early?

If he had just let the little dumpling suffer those hundred and fifty hammer-strikes and taken his own along the way, he wouldn't be lying here completely immobilized now.

"I... I'm sorry, Little Uncle..." The little dumpling lowered her head apologetically, her long eyelashes casting a row of delicate, swaying shadows under the floral-stone lamp's glow, reflecting her deeply saddened and guilty expression.

"I... I didn't know they would fake the punishment later, nor do I know if my royal father was aware of this."

"If Royal Father didn't know, I'm afraid they will face his wrath as well."

"I never expected that taking a trip out of the netherworld would bring such massive trouble to Little Uncle, Little White Radish, and Royal Father."

"I was already punished by being sent here just for leaving the prison, and now, unrepentant as I am, I've left again and implicated you all..."

"I'm sorry."

The little dumpling bowed her head deeply, offering her apology. Tearful moisture gathered at the corners of her eyes and quietly slipped down her cheeks.

Perhaps it was precisely because she was so fond of play and devoid of sense that the heavens punished her by stagnating her cultivation, rendering her magical arts mediocre, and damaging her primordial heart source.

Even though everyone contributed their strength toward her heart source, and even though her heart source had now recovered, she still could not swiftly practice magical arts and attain advancements like everyone else.

To this day, she had merely crawled up to the nineteenth-thousand layer; in all this time, she had only broken through a mere ten-thousand layers of cultivation.

And her physical form had perpetually remained trapped in the childlike stage of a hundred-thousand years of age, refusing to grow.

"What are you doing?!" Lu Qing pulled a stern face, grabbed her, and pulled her to sit right beside him.

"No one is blaming you at all. Why are you shouldering all the blame yourself?"

"Besides, that White Radish and I, we left the prison of our own accord! We volunteered to follow you out!"

"I left the prison because I wanted to play and seek freedom; as for why he left, I think you understand as well. How can you still blame yourself?"

"You didn't stop us and even joined in our joy. We should be thanking you instead, so how could we ever blame you?"

"Really?" The little dumpling looked at him in disbelief, teardrops still hanging at the corners of her eyes.

"Of course it's true." Lu Qing half-propped his head up, leaning against the smoky-blue soft pillow, his brows and eyes carrying visible joy as he said, "If not for you, I wouldn't have been able to openly step out of this Ghost Clan's netherworld this time."

She smiled—a smile laced with tears. "That's good then. Little Uncle, in the future you will be able to eat the carrots from the outside world."

Lu Qing: "..."

He choked on her words, momentarily at a loss for how to respond. After a long while, he slowly straightened his torso, supported his waist, and looked down at her from above. "Not just me, but you too."

"Me too?" The little dumpling pointed at herself, somewhat bewildered.

"Yes, of course," he nodded, smiling as he patted her little head. "In the future, I intend to walk out of this netherworld together with you, and return together as well."

After all, he also possessed half Ghost Clan blood and heart source, so he was fully capable of returning on his own.

These were the exact words spoken by Lord Yama.

Meanwhile, at this very moment, Lord Yama...

"My Lord?" Heishang turned to glance at him, wishing to inquire about his intentions.

Yama waved his hand, and the projection of Lu Qing and the little dumpling conversing in the deep dungeon instantly vanished from before their eyes.

"Once Yuan'er's injuries heal, remove her from the deep dungeon."

"Does Your Lordship intend to?"

"Have Weng Ze take the magical artifact to the Heartless Palace. From this day forward, strictly supervise her cultivation path. Unless there is an urgent emergency, she is not allowed to step foot outside the Heartless Palace."

"My Lord?!" Heishang was greatly astonished. How was this any different from solitary confinement? It was even less free than the dungeon.

"If she cannot break through her own limitations, how can she possibly establish a foothold in this world in the future?"

"But didn't Your Lordship say you could afford to wait? Moreover, the little sovereign is still so young."

Yama turned and strode away, his ethereal and heavy voice echoing through the grand hall:

"She is not young anymore. She is eighteen-thousand years old; it is time she learned to control everything."

"But the restrictions upon the little sovereign's body..."

"That is a trial she must bear."

[End of Chapter]