“So I want you to promise the master you’ll finish the punishment on your own, to dissuade him from helping you.”
“But don’t worry—I know you’re young and won’t handle the heavy farm work on Dan Peak well. So I’ll take a Transformation Pill to disguise myself as you and complete those punishments.”
Yun Miao’s full attention shifted to the handsome youth by her bed. She was puzzled.
“Normally, wouldn’t Senior Brother advise me to take responsibility? If he were strict, he might even throw me out of Yao Lu and say I can’t eat until the work is done.”
That was how the awful elementary school homeroom teacher had treated her as a child.
Qi Shubai laughed at her words. “You’re still young, and a bit reckless—that’s normal. It’s the duty of our master and senior brothers to teach you to be cautious.”
“And I failed to notice your mischief even though I was right next door—that’s my fault. I think master felt the same, so he wanted to help you bear the punishment.”
After saying this, he saw the young junior sister stare blankly at him without replying.
“Junior Sister?”
“I’ll do it!”
Suddenly sitting up, Yun Miao solemnly declared to Qi Shubai, “I don’t need your help—I’ll complete the punishment myself!”
Seeing Qi Shubai about to say more, she raised Little Black like a sacred sword.
“Don’t try to persuade me—I’ve made up my mind! If anyone stops me from taking the punishment, I’ll have Little Black bite them! Little Black, show your teeth!”
Little Black:
The little black wolf showed a few white teeth expressionlessly, then quickly lowered its lips again, utterly unimpressive as a threat.
Qi Shubai laughed heartily and finally couldn’t resist, ruffling her hair into a messy bird’s nest just like their master did.
“Your Little Black really scared me. Haha. Well then, I won’t argue. When the punishment’s over, I’ll give you a gift as a reward.”
Yun Miao’s eyes lit up. “Great, great!”
***
Qi Shubai stayed in Yao Lu for a long time before leaving at Yun Miao’s urging.
No sooner had he gone than Yun Miao swung her legs off the bed and shakily made her way to the medicine cabinet, cautiously opening the door.
Creak… The old cabinet door opened easily, revealing a pile of porcelain bottles, jade bottles, brocade boxes, and gourds—all glinting with collectible highlights.
Wow, this new map has so many free resources!
The player instinct made Yun Miao reach out her hand. But just then, the images of master and senior brother suddenly appeared in her mind, causing her to pause mid-air.
Everyone knows many games have affection loss mechanics—for example, gifting disliked items to NPCs, rummaging through NPC trash bins, stealing from NPC wallets, or even forcibly removing their pants…
So if she took all the medicine, would master and senior brother’s affection drop?
But all the resources in the game were meant for the player; gathering resources in a new map was part of the open-world gameplay. Wouldn’t it be a waste not to take so many free resources?
Master and senior brother were after all just NPCs, without memories. As long as she restored affection later, they’d love her again, so it didn’t matter even if she lost all their favor…
“Awwooo.”
The bamboo bed’s Little Black barked for the first time, a youthful, short sound, as if trying to warn her of something.
But the player, blinded by the gleaming highlights, ignored it and decisively grabbed one of the jade bottles, then—like a maniac—felt every single bottle and box, reluctantly putting them back, and firmly promising:
“Don’t worry, I’ll soon challenge and defeat Tian Laokou and bring you all home properly. Then master and senior brother won’t be mad, maybe even praise my fast cultivation and strength, and send me gifts, hehe.”
Bang!
A second-floor window was kicked open. Tian Laokou, who had been waiting outside for a long time, burst into the room like a cannonball and kicked fiercely toward Yun Miao.
“My senior brother and Shubai’s nephew won’t praise you for this!”
Before Yun Miao could react, a huge foot about forty inches wide, carrying a gust of wind, came straight at her face but stopped abruptly just a few centimeters from her nose.
Although she wasn’t hit directly, the blast knocked her weak body to the floor.
Tian Laokou put down his foot and snorted coldly.
“Friendly junior uncle face to face, mean old Laokou behind your back, secretly planning to defeat me and empty my medicine cabinet? You really are my good nephew! My senior brother must be blind to think you’re a good disciple.”
Yun Miao looked up seriously. “Don’t insult my master!”
Tian Laokou:
“I’m insulting you!”
“The whole sect is full of troublemaking monkeys, even the most sensible Old Ox is stubborn as hell. Not a single one of them is easy to deal with.”
The short, stout old man grumbled as he walked over and closed the cabinet door.
Then he raised his hand and slapped it, causing the entire cabinet to glow with circles of array patterns before slowly disappearing.
“See that? This medicine cabinet is protected by an array. If you don’t want your lungs shattered and to become a dead man, don’t touch it again.”
After he spoke, he flicked his sleeve and Yun Miao immediately rolled back onto the bamboo bed.
The quilt seemed to come alive, wrapping her and Little Black like a spring roll.
The spring roll puffed up slightly as Little Black struggled to poke its head out and breathe.
Yun Miao didn’t resist but asked Tian Laokou suspiciously, “Why was I fine just now?”
Tian Laokou sat at the table, poured himself a cup of tea, and drank it all in one go.
“That’s thanks to your kind-hearted junior uncle. When I saw how you were sneaking glances at the cabinet earlier, I knew you had no good intentions.”
“Since you were just recently taken in by my senior brother and I rescued you, I couldn’t just watch you die.”
“So I temporarily removed the array, planning to catch you in the act if you tried anything, then negotiate a hush payment with senior brother and punish you by making you a laborer on Dan Peak.”
Yun Miao was startled. So the medicine cabinet was a trap?
“You’re so sneaky!”
“What sneaky? I’m just helping you understand the harshness of the cultivation world more deeply.”
Tian Laokou proudly said this, then soon grumbled again in disappointment.
“In the end, you opened the cabinet door, put your hand inside, but just lustfully touched all the bottles without putting a single one in your Storage Pouch.”
“Anyway, nobody was around, so even if you were afraid to take everything, you could’ve secretly hidden a bottle. If that’s too risky, at least open a few bottles and hide some pills.”
“What if I don’t have the habit of counting bottles or pills? What if I don’t notice? Then you profit. I really don’t know what’s going on in your head.”
Yun Miao: …Just from those words and your nickname Laokou, I can tell you definitely have the habit of counting bottles and pills.
Tian Laokou glanced at her sideways. “I told you to call me Junior Uncle. Keep calling me Laokou and I’ll put laxatives in your pills.”
Yun Miao shut up.
Tian Laokou leisurely finished his tea. “By the way, didn’t you refuse to accept the punishment before? How did Shubai’s nephew get you to change your mind with just a few words?”
Yun Miao was stunned, then stared incredulously. “You knew that? You’ve been eavesdropping the whole time?”
Tian Laokou:
“What nonsense are you thinking? I don’t have the time to eavesdrop on you two all day. I just stayed nearby.”
“My divine sense covers the entire Dan Peak, so whenever I let it out during work, I naturally overhear your conversations.”
Yun Miao sneered, “Eavesdropping is the lowest of the low.”
Tian Laokou sneered back, “But lustfully touching someone else’s medicine and not stealing it—that’s even lower.”
Yun Miao emphasized, “I wasn’t lustfully touching.”
Tian Laokou said, “Enough nonsense. You haven’t answered my question yet. You’re a wild monkey, not the type to be reformed by a few words from Shubai.”
Yun Miao pursed her lips. She wouldn’t share her real-life stories with an NPC, so she said lightly, “I just realized punishment is part of the game, so I’m going to experience it properly.”
Tian Laokou: “Game?”
Yun Miao: “Don’t understand? Then call it… life. Now do you get it?”
“Punishment is part of life?”
Tian Laokou paused his tea-drinking and looked at the “spring roll” on the bed with some surprise.
“You don’t sound like a wild monkey right now.”
Yun Miao beamed. “Then what do I sound like?”
Tian Laokou: “Like the Monkey King from the back mountain.”
Yun Miao’s smile froze, then she angrily wriggled on the bed. “Isn’t that still a monkey!”
Little Black couldn’t stand the pressure and jumped out of the quilt, biting and pulling open the covers to rescue Yun Miao inside.
Yun Miao patted Little Black’s head. “Good Little Black, bite him!”
Little Black’s amber eyes flicked toward Tian Laokou, then it leapt out.
Tian Laokou raised his hand easily grabbed the little wolf’s scruff and threw it back onto the bed, where it landed right on Yun Miao’s head.
Yun Miao hugged Little Black and lay back down, grumbling as she pulled the covers over them.
“I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m going to sleep.”
An NPC dared to bully a player like this? When she leveled up, she’d definitely cause a scene in Heaven’s Court!
Tian Laokou muttered, “Sleeping? You look wide awake, and nothing like someone seriously injured by the Purple Mansion. Don’t you feel any pain? You don’t seem able to endure much.”
“Since you decided to finish the punishment on your own, don’t wait until you’re fully recovered to start. Begin tomorrow. I’ll take you to Old Ox, and you’ll work under his supervision.”
“Sitting by the rice fields during recovery is the easiest punishment the Disciplinary Hall could assign. But if you do this, don’t tell your master I tricked you with the medicine cabinet, understand?”
He said all this but saw no response from Yun Miao, thinking she was deliberately ignoring him.
When he turned, he found she had actually fallen asleep.
Her pale little face was buried in the quilt, hair messy, lips colorless. The lively vigor that had been so troublesome was gone, replaced by the frailty and exhaustion of someone gravely injured.
Little Black lay beside her neck. Noticing Tian Laokou’s gaze, it immediately looked up but, seeing no move from him, lowered its head and closed its eyes to rest.
Tian Laokou:
“Protective, aren’t you?”
He watched those calm amber eyes slowly close, then silently swept his enormous divine sense over the room. Confirming that this was just an ordinary Qi Refining first-level wolf, he withdrew his spirit.
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