I Accidentally Triggered the Restricted Punishment Protocol - Chapter 21

Yi Hanxing smiled. “I heard that Immortal Jiang led a group into the Fragrance Pavilion during the Wanbao Assembly, so I figured you would be here. When you saw me just now, you were not surprised, which suggests you recognize me. I do not know many people here, so I took a wild guess, and it turned out I was right.”

Jiang Yinghui frowned and threw a cloth bag in front of her. “Half an incense stick ago, I saw a man acting suspiciously with this in the back courtyard of the Fragrance Pavilion. I followed and intercepted him. Can you guess what is inside?”

Curiosity killed the cat, so Yi Hanxing did not even look. “I have no idea.”

Jiang Yinghui sneered and stated directly, “It is the head of the Lord of Wuxiang.”

Yi Hanxing was stunned. “Is the Lord of Wuxiang not the Night Demon?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she figured it out. Who said there could not be two Lords of Wuxiang? The real Ye Mitian stayed hidden in the shadows while a fake handled the public affairs.

Jiang Yinghui pointed at Ding Wa. “I searched him thoroughly and found he is under a Soul Loss spell. He cannot remember what he did or whom he saw; he only knows he was ordered by someone to dispose of this corpse.”

That blank feeling of lost memory was exactly what Jiang Yinghui had experienced after leaving Yi Hanxing’s door that night. He feared the Night Demon had obtained some new evil artifact to use on both him and Ding Wa.

“So you suspect the person who replaced the Lord of Wuxiang is the Night Demon?” Yi Hanxing thought this logic was a bit too simple and crude.

“Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty escape,” Jiang Yinghui said sharply. “In this world, besides me, Senior Brother Lin, and a few others, who else remembers that man’s habits? This Lord of Wuxiang mimics his dress and behavior perfectly. There must be someone pulling the strings from behind.”

Yi Hanxing remembered something and shook her head. “Then you do not need to obsess over Ding Wa. If you are looking for the Lord of Wuxiang, I can tell you that Senior Brother Lin and I just fought him at the Hongchen Restaurant.”

“Why did you not say so sooner!” Jiang Yinghui barked. “Where is the Hongchen Restaurant?”

Yi Hanxing thought, You did not ask. She kindly pointed him in the right direction. Jiang Yinghui turned to leave but stopped after two steps. He turned back slowly, his face looking twisted through the rising steam. “You have been looking for me for half an incense stick of time, have you not? With that man’s methods, even if I rushed there empty handed now, I likely could not help Senior Brother Lin.”

An unexplainable sense of unease crawled up Yi Hanxing’s spine. She took a subtle step back. “And so?”

Jiang Yinghui said softly, “Why are you not afraid of the Night Demon? You even dare to call out his name.”

“Uh, perhaps because I am brave?” Yi Hanxing suggested.

“Is that so? In this world, there are only two types of people who do not fear the Night Demon’s true name,” Jiang Yinghui held his sword, slowly closing in on her. “The Night Demon himself, and his followers.”

What is this! This ridiculous setting was nowhere to be found in the original book. Yi Hanxing hated authors who dug holes they could not fill, only to suddenly introduce a random new rule that broke the entire power system. The story might not have collapsed yet, but she certainly was about to.

“Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty escape,” Jiang Yinghui repeated, raising his sword to strike.

This madman!

Yi Hanxing turned and ran, not forgetting to drag the unconscious Ding Wa with her. The wind whistled behind her as Jiang Yinghui caught up in a single stride. He aimed his sword at her back and lunged. At the critical moment, Ding Wa suddenly woke up, broke free from her grasp, and threw himself onto the blade.

“Ding Wa!” Yi Hanxing cried out.

“Get lost!” Jiang Yinghui roared.

One voice was filled with shock, the other with rage. Ding Wa was impaled by the Wujiu Sword. He did not die instantly; instead, he gripped Jiang Yinghui’s arm tightly. Blood bubbled from his mouth as he turned his head with difficulty, his voice rasper than before. “Number Sixty Seven, run. Your family is waiting for you.”

Jiang Yinghui could not shake him off. Enraged, he delivered a powerful kick that sent Ding Wa flying like a broken kite. He crashed to the ground, but as Jiang Yinghui moved to chase Yi Hanxing again, Ding Wa used his final breath to lock his arms around the man’s leg.

Sword light fell upon him repeatedly, splashing blood everywhere. In his final moments, Ding Wa remembered the scene in the cage where Number Sixty Seven had brought him medicine. Back then, he had encountered a guest who enjoyed sadistic games and had slit his throat. No one cared if a low level furnace lived or died. Seeing he would not last long, they threw him into the deepest warehouse of the Fragrance Pavilion. His wounds had rotted and filled with maggots as he curled up in a corner to die.

Only she, Number Sixty Seven, remembered him. She brought him medicine, food, clean water, and the courage to live. Later, when the Ghost Market fell into chaos, she escaped. He had nowhere to go and eventually returned to the Linlang Mansion, but he was always happy for her. He and the other furnaces were trapped, but she could reach the places they never could.

Jiang Yinghui eventually cut off Ding Wa’s head. Even then, the two arms remained clamped around his calf like iron bands. He had to hack the arms into several pieces to free himself. By then, the girl in the pink dress was gone.

“Dammit!” he cursed under his breath. He inhaled deeply, picking out the girl’s unique fragrance and that faint sweet scent amidst the smoke and ash. Yi Hanxing was definitely connected to the Night Demon. Recalling the thick aura of the Night Demon he had smelled on her when they first met, Jiang Yinghui’s face darkened. He followed the scent and gave chase.

The floors, walls, and ceiling of the Fragrance Pavilion were all burning fiercely. Yi Hanxing ran through the flaming corridors, hearing the heavy wooden beams overhead groaning under the fire. To support such a massive building, the rafters were made of giant nanmu trees that required several people to encircle. Now, those thick beams hung precariously above her, cracking in a way that made her skin crawl. She felt as if she were in a literal hell, and even her lower abdomen burned with a stinging heat.

The moisture on her face evaporated instantly in the heat. Jiang Yinghui was at least a Nascent Soul cultivator; she had no chance in a direct confrontation. Ding Wa had traded his life for her chance to survive, and she would not waste it.

A sudden gust of wind came from behind. She managed to dodge a lethal blow, but her skirt was torn open. Yi Hanxing nearly tripped over the ruined fabric, cursing the damaged clothing trope of this genre. Because of that stumble, Jiang Yinghui appeared at the other end of the corridor, his silhouette distorted by the heat waves. He reached her in a few swift movements, looking either excited or trembling with fear at what was to come.

“The Night Demon did not come for us after his resurrection. Instead, he spent his time in bed with you. You two must be very close. If I kill you here, he will surely be devastated.”

Yi Hanxing screamed internally at his twisted logic. “I do not even know who this Night Demon is!”

“Is that true? We will see after I kill you!” Jiang Yinghui raised his sword to pierce her heart, but Yi Hanxing did not dodge. Instead, she suddenly ripped her skirt further.

A flash of white skin entered Jiang Yinghui’s vision, and he froze. After all the running and tearing, the girl’s dress was in tatters. The soot and sparks against the pink fabric only emphasized the slenderness of her bare calf. He had seen women before, but for some reason, Jiang Yinghui could not pull his eyes away from that stretch of skin. This was the moment Yi Hanxing was waiting for.

“Eaglet Taking Flight!” she screamed, tossing her long sword upward. The blade pierced the ceiling. The sound startled Jiang Yinghui, who snapped out of it with an angry blush on his face. “What an ugly move!” he cursed. He regained his focus, forcing himself not to look at her skin, but then he heard an ominous creaking from above.

He looked up, but it was too late. The sword Yi Hanxing threw had cut the last piece of intact wood holding the burning beam. The massive timber crashed down directly onto him. Jiang Yinghui did not have time to make a sound before he was pinned beneath the giant wood. Yi Hanxing had already calculated the distance and rolled away just as it fell, narrowly escaping the impact.

She coughed violently from the flying ash. She thought that this furnace constitution was actually useful sometimes. Although she was unhappy about showing her leg, she would not have been able to throw the sword so successfully without that distraction. To stay alive, she could not afford to be picky.

She scrambled to her feet and looked at the half man tall nanmu beam with lingering fear. From that height, such a heavy object should have killed anyone. Yi Hanxing had a habit of finishing off her enemies, so she looked around for another weapon, but then she heard a rhythmic thudding.

She looked up in horror. Under the burning beam, someone was slowly lifting the massive weight with sheer strength. Jiang Yinghui was still alive. His half body was on fire, making him look like a Shura from hell. He lifted the nanmu beam high and pushed it aside, where it crashed to the floor. The heavy sound echoed in Yi Hanxing’s heart. She realized her mistake; she had judged him by mortal standards, forgetting that in a cultivation world, common sense did not apply. The physical resilience of a Nascent Soul cultivator was terrifying.

What could she do? Her only weapon was stuck in the ceiling. How could a mere Qi Refining stage girl fight Jiang Yinghui bare handed?

Jiang Yinghui tore off his burning outer robe, revealing a partially charred body. He walked toward her, shaking off black soot with every step. With a sudden flash, he lunged and pinned her to the ground. Blood flowed from his forehead, making the scar on his nose look even more gruesome. His eyes were glazed as he stared at her. Yi Hanxing used the last of her strength to struggle. “Immortal Jiang! You are killing an innocent! Is this the way of your righteous sects?”

Jiang Yinghui let out a raspy laugh. “How many innocent people in this world have been slaughtered? You are unarmed and cannot protect yourself, while I am stronger. If you die by my hand, you have no one to blame but your own bad luck.”

“If you kill me, you will regret it!”

Jiang Yinghui’s hand paused as he was about to strike. He let out a bizarre, tearful laugh. “I already regret it. I have regretted it a thousand times, but what use is that? Senior Brother Ye has returned, and he will not let me go!”

The cold light of the sword flashed, ready to descend. It was over.

At that moment, the sound of steady footsteps approached. Boots crushed the charred debris as a figure in snow white appeared behind Jiang Yinghui. Yi Hanxing’s eyes widened, reflecting the grinning face of the newcomer.

“Qin Wuzhou!”

As Jiang Yinghui tried to turn his head, the newcomer moved with lightning speed. With several loud cracks, he tore off the man’s limbs.

“Ah!” Jiang Yinghui let out a horrifying scream. Qin Wuzhou casually tossed the now limbless man aside and laughed loudly. “What you should regret most is being born into this world.”

Finally, he snapped Jiang Yinghui’s neck. The man died before he could even call for help. His bloody corpse hit the ground, splashing blood across the face of his killer, turning it a haunting crimson.

Qin Wuzhou whistled nonchalantly. His golden eyes rolled within his blood stained sockets before locking onto Yi Hanxing. The moment their eyes met, the mark on her lower abdomen burned with a fierce, searing heat.