I Accidentally Triggered the Restricted Punishment Protocol - Chapter 11

Inside his room, Lin Wujiu took a sip of tea and lowered his head as he pondered Jiang Yinghui’s earlier words.

That man with other women?

It was absolutely impossible.

He shook his head with a smile and patted Jiang Yinghui on the shoulder. “It is most likely your imagination. Do not be so tense.”

Jiang Yinghui composed himself. He had always deeply respected Senior Brother Lin. Even with his heart full of doubts, he could only suppress them now and nod sheepishly in agreement.

Lin Wujiu smiled. “Since we were able to kill him once back then, we can naturally kill him a second time.”

Jiang Yinghui opened his mouth, wanting to say more, but a knock came from the door.

“Immortal Lin, is it convenient for you right now?”

Lin Wujiu glanced at Jiang Yinghui, who took the hint and excused himself. Only then did Lin Wujiu speak. “Miss Yi? Please, come in.”

As Yi Hanxing entered the room, a scarred cultivator was just on his way out. He had been walking in a hurry, but upon seeing her, he skidded to a halt and looked thoroughly terrified.

Standing inside the room, Lin Wujiu introduced them. “This is Miss Yi Hanxing, a rogue cultivator from Changqing Mansion, and this is my junior brother, Jiang Yinghui.”

So this is Unlucky Victim Number One, the guy Qin Wuzhou later dismembers and turns into a human pig? Yi Hanxing could not help but steal an extra glance at Jiang Yinghui, whose expression became even more uneasy.

He stared intensely at Yi Hanxing for several moments and looked as though he wanted to speak but hesitated. Suddenly, he covered his nose with his hand, shoved past her, and bolted out of the room.

Yi Hanxing was stunned. She pinched her collar and took a sniff. It smelled quite nice. She was still using the incense Qin Wuzhou had given her, which was said to be very precious.

“My apologies. My junior brother suffered an injury in his early years. His sense of smell is impaired, and his temperament has become a bit eccentric,” Lin Wujiu said with a regretful smile.

Yi Hanxing let go of her collar. “It is no trouble. I have long heard that the Yuxu Mountain Sword Sect upholds justice and eradicates evil. Immortal Jiang must have been injured while fighting demons. I have nothing but respect for him.”

Lin Wujiu smiled slightly, neither confirming nor denying her statement. “Did you need something, Miss Yi?”

Yi Hanxing brought out the side dishes and wine she had prepared and set them on the table. “My spiritual pet is unruly and injured you, Immortal Lin. I felt truly terrible about it. I borrowed the innkeeper’s kitchen to make these dishes myself. Please, do not find them beneath you.”

Lin Wujiu was very gracious and took a bite of every dish. Once finished, he remarked, “Miss Yi is truly talented and kindhearted. I am lucky to have tasted this.”

Seeing that he seemed to be in a good mood, Yi Hanxing felt a surge of secret joy. Her plan to cling to a powerful protector was halfway to success. Striking while the iron was hot, she said, “To be honest, Immortal, I have had a dream since I was a child. I want to join Yuxu Mountain.”

In the book The Overbearing Immortal Lord’s Daily Forced Love, the Yuxu Mountain Sword Sect was essentially the top institution of the cultivation world. Every year, countless rogue cultivators sought entry. Yi Hanxing calculated that making such a request would not seem out of place.

Lin Wujiu seemed accustomed to dealing with cultivators who came to his door seeking apprenticeship. “Next month is our sect’s decennial disciple selection assembly. Yuxu Mountain will open its gates to all. If Miss Yi is interested, you may go there and try your luck.”

“That is great. However, I have one small question,” Yi Hanxing said carefully. “If I previously belonged to another sect and wanted to join Yuxu Mountain, would that cause any trouble?”

Lin Wujiu frowned and answered truthfully, “I am afraid that might be an issue.”

As expected, Yi Hanxing’s heart sank. Although the original book was a poorly written novel, it still placed weight on the ethics and rules of the immortal sects. The hierarchy of Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parent, and Teacher was the moral compass of that society. Changing sects without permission was an act that would get one drowned in public scorn.

Wait, if we are all cultivating the Dao, why are we still sticking to these rigid rules? Yi Hanxing screamed internally, but her face remained fixed in a polite smile. “Oh, alright. I was just asking.”

Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps echoed outside, followed by Wu Yingzi’s anxious voice from a distance. “Senior Brother Lin! Something is wrong, something is wrong!”

She burst into the room, only to freeze when she saw Yi Hanxing. “M-Miss Yi!”

Lin Wujiu teased her good-naturedly. “What happened to make you look like you have lost your soul?”

Wu Yingzi did not dare look at Yi Hanxing. Looking guilty and hesitating for a long time, she finally managed to give a rough account of what happened. It turned out she had been obsessed with Yi Hanxing’s cow cat. Knowing that the cat had been left with the innkeeper, she could not resist her urge to pet it. Without informing the owner, she went to play with the cat herself.

“Miss Yi, you have no idea how pitiful Little White was! He was locked in a tiny iron cage, and that owner was only feeding him dead rats. He has already grown so thin.”

Wu Yingzi was truly a dedicated cat lover, caring more for the cow cat than its nominal owner. “I could not bear it, so I secretly opened the cage door to let him out for some air. Who knew he would jump right out of my arms! And then, he just vanished.”

Lin Wujiu’s tone grew stern. “How reckless. That is Miss Yi’s spiritual pet. You took it without permission and then lost it. Do you realize your mistake?”

Wu Yingzi looked ashamed and mumbled an apology to Yi Hanxing. Yi Hanxing waved it off quickly, signaling her not to worry. “That cat is intelligent. He is probably just out for a stroll and will be back soon.”

Wu Yingzi slumped dejectedly. “I will never dare touch him again without permission.”

Given Qin Wuzhou’s nature, escaping an iron cage would have been effortless. Yet, he had waited for Wu Yingzi to arrive so he could use her as his means of escape. Yi Hanxing had every reason to suspect he did it on purpose. This move allowed him to unsettle Wu Yingzi and rid himself of her pestering while using her as a messenger to Yi Hanxing.

He might as well have announced it to the world: I have broken out of prison. You, the traitor who betrayed me, better wash your neck and wait for death.

Thinking of the threat he left her before departing, Yi Hanxing’s lip twitched. After Lin Wujiu finished lecturing Wu Yingzi, he turned to Yi Hanxing. “I will instruct the other disciples to keep an eye out. If we see your pet, we will surely bring him back to you.”

Yi Hanxing thanked him, though she was privately skeptical. With Qin Wuzhou’s skills, if he wanted to hide in the shadows, no one would be able to catch him. Sure enough, by the next day, the cow cat seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Wu Yingzi’s guilt deepened. She worried the cat had been caught in the Ghost Market to be made into soup. She was becoming so anxious that she could not even look at anything furry. Yi Hanxing was equally worried, though for very different reasons. She feared Qin Wuzhou was a man of his word and was currently brewing a massive plan for revenge in the dark.

According to the original plot, his main body should still be locked in a battle of wits with the Glass Sun, leaving him no time to come for a small fry like her. But one of the laws of transmigrating into a book is that the plot will inevitably deviate wildly from the original. Thus, she did not dare guarantee that Qin Wuzhou would not appear in the Ghost Market in his true form.

It was now the second day of the Myriad Treasures Assembly. Lin Wujiu and his group planned to continue investigating the local missing persons cases. Perhaps because she had lost the cat, Wu Yingzi became much warmer toward Yi Hanxing. Specifically, she seemed to trust her more. On the way to the venue, she briefly explained their mission.

The trouble began when the Yuxu Mountain disciples stationed in Wuxiang City suddenly lost contact. The sect sent two more disciples to investigate. Following the spiritual fluctuations left by their predecessors, they tracked them to the entrance of the Wuxiang Ghost Market. But soon after entering, those two disciples also vanished like droplets of water in the ocean.

Yi Hanxing was puzzled. “The Wuxiang Ghost Market has existed for centuries as a lawless zone. While the people there are unique, they have always stayed out of Yuxu Mountain’s business. Why start making waves now?”

Wu Yingzi shook her head. “We find it strange too. Senior Brother Lin once suggested wiping out the Ghost Market, but the sect elders rejected it, saying the Ghost Market never harmed our disciples and we had no cause for war.”

Thinking about it, the three missing disciples now gave Yuxu Mountain a perfectly legitimate reason to purge the market. Since Yi Hanxing was still an outsider, Wu Yingzi did not explain their specific plan in detail.

To keep her head safely on her shoulders, Yi Hanxing stayed glued to the original protagonist’s side. The Yuxu Mountain cultivators were upright and kind. The only one who looked at her with displeasure was Jiang Yinghui, the scarred cultivator she had seen in Lin Wujiu’s room.

On the way to the assembly, Jiang Yinghui saw Yi Hanxing in the group again. His face darkened immediately, and he turned back to find Lin Wujiu.

“Senior Brother, are you really going to keep someone of unknown origin by your side?” Jiang Yinghui asked, looking panicked. “The woman I mentioned before, the one who smelled of that man’s aura, it is this Yi Hanxing!”

Lin Wujiu smiled before speaking. “You suspect she is a spy?”

Jiang Yinghui nodded. “Even if she was not sent by him, she definitely has ties to the Ghost Market. How could it be such a coincidence? We enter the city, get attacked at night, and then she appears? And now she is clinging to you, Senior Brother. No matter how I look at it, she has ill intentions!”

Lin Wujiu replied, “Regarding a blade, is it safer to keep it under your eyes at all times or let it stay hidden where you cannot see it?”

Jiang Yinghui had a moment of realization. “So, you have suspected her all along, Senior Brother.”

Lin Wujiu only smiled and said nothing more.

Unaware that she had become the bait to lure out the enemy, Yi Hanxing continued to dutifully follow the Yuxu Mountain sword cultivators through another day of the assembly. The day passed peacefully. There was no sign of Qin Wuzhou, and even the usual Ghost Market crowd seemed better behaved.

She wore a mask today and avoided doing anything attention grabbing. Consequently, her Cauldron Physique did not trigger. Although she did not understand the mechanics, it seemed her physique was not the type that constantly drove people into a mindless frenzy.

Worried that Qin Wuzhou might strike from the darkness at any moment, Yi Hanxing made up an excuse about being afraid of the dark and moved into Wu Yingzi’s room for the night. The lamps were blown out. There was no moon in the Ghost Market, only the faint blue glow from the cavern ceiling, making the room feel as if it were submerged in cold water.

Yi Hanxing held out until her eyelids were heavy before finally drifting off. In that half awake state, she suddenly heard a piercingly sharp cat cry. She bolted upright, grabbed a candle holder, and rushed to the window.

Looking out into the dim blue night, the buildings appeared like jagged mountains of shadows. On a nearby eave, a black cat was staring right at her. Its eyes were like aged bronze, the pupils narrowed into thin slits. After watching her for a moment, it vanished.

An ill omen. Yi Hanxing immediately cast several defensive barrier spells. Holding the candle holder, she walked toward the bed to wake Wu Yingzi. Before she had taken two steps, the candle flame flickered and died.

She froze in place, not daring to move for a long time. Suddenly, a gust of hot air blew against the back of her neck, as if someone were standing directly behind her, breathing slowly.

Without a second thought, Yi Hanxing treated the candle holder like a sword and stabbed backward, but she hit nothing but air. She did not dare linger. Relying on memory, she rushed toward the bed. Wu Yingzi was completely huddled under the covers.

“Immortal Wu, wake up!” This person was sleeping like the dead, not making a sound despite the commotion. Yi Hanxing had no choice but to push her. The moment her hand made contact, she realized something was wrong. The body under the covers was large and powerfully built. It was not Wu Yingzi’s shape.

Before she could retreat, a pale hand shot out from under the covers and gripped her wrist tightly. In an instant, her world flipped. Yi Hanxing was pinned down by a weight as heavy as a mountain. Her scream was muffled by a hand over her mouth. The person above her was indeed Qin Wuzhou. Those cat like golden eyes were terrifyingly bright, and a cruel smile played on his lips. “I told you before.”

Yi Hanxing struggled frantically. With a flash of spiritual light, her wrists were crossed and bound to the headboard.

“I told you,” Qin Wuzhou said. His smile was radiant. Feeling a bit warm, he casually pulled open his collar. “If you betray me, there will be a punishment.”