Chapter 212| Chapter 213| Chapter 214
Chapter 212: Fool
Lu Yunxi was slightly surprised. Except for being cheerful around her own family, the third daughter of the Cui family, Cui Sanniang, had always remained quiet, keeping her head low whenever she was around her or Shen San. Without being able to see the girl’s face clearly, it had naturally been difficult for Lu Yunxi to detect any medical anomalies.
Prompted by Mrs. Cui’s explanation, Lu Yunxi moved closer to the sleeping girl and examined her features carefully.
Cui Sanniang’s eyelids and lips bore a faint, purplish tint—an undeniable sign of internal bruising. Her brow furrowed as she gently took the girl’s pulse, instantly diagnosing the root cause.
A blood clot was blocking the circulation in her brain.
Treating neurological ailments required extreme caution. Most doctors were incredibly conservative when addressing brain conditions, terrified of prescribing potent medicines. Because the deep-seated blood stasis had never been dissolved, the girl had been left to suffer from frequent, crippling headaches.
Lu Yunxi considered her options for a moment, then quietly channeled her master-level healing spell while keeping her fingers on the girl’s pulse.
Within seconds, the system signaled a perfect success. The dark bruise faded completely.
“Don’t worry,” Lu Yunxi whispered, pulling her hand back. “I’ve already cleared away the blood stasis.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the tight, pained knot in the sleeping girl’s brow visibly smoothed out.
The older Cui women instinctively clapped their hands over their mouths to stifle their gasps. Overwhelmed with emotion, tears welled in their eyes as they whispered endless thanks to her. As the initial rush of excitement faded, the lingering exhaustion of the day finally caught up to them, and their eyelids grew heavy.
“Miss Lu, you should try to get some rest,” Mrs. Cui advised softly, noticing the fatigue weighing on everyone. “You can leave the moment the Prefect arrives. Since he resorted to such a sinister scheme to trap us, he will undoubtedly demand a meeting.”
However, before the Prefect could summon them, the dungeon corridor echoed with the heavy stomp of boots. Instead of the magistrate, the guards marched in holding the missing men of the Cui family.
Clang!
The heavy iron door of the cell directly across the corridor was slammed shut.
The jailer sneered down at the bound men. “The Prefect ordered you to be placed in this block so you can enjoy a nice family reunion.”
Leaving them with a cold glare, he turned on his heel and strode away.
The men and women of the Cui family were left staring at one another in utter astonishment. Split into two groups—one on the left, one on the right—they were separated by a narrow stone corridor and two sets of iron bars. The atmosphere between them turned incredibly complex.
Lu Yunxi’s eyes sharpened as she noticed the heavy iron shackles binding the men’s hands. After observing them for a short moment, she leaned back lazily against the damp stone wall.
The family members locked eyes across the divide for a long time before the eldest brother, Cui Da, finally found his voice. “Are you all alright? Did they hurt you?”
“Don’t worry, we’re all uninjured,” Mrs. Cui replied, forcing a reassuring smile.
Both sides quickly verified each other’s safety, letting out a collective sigh of relief once they confirmed no one had been harmed.
Suddenly, Little Cui blinked, scanning the opposite cell. “Wait! Where is Er Niang?!”
“She managed to escape,” one of the aunts murmured, her shoulders slumping as depression settled over the women. “We don’t know where she ran, or if she’s safe out there alone…”
Up until now, the women had deliberately avoided mentioning Cui Shishi, too terrified to vocalize their worst fears.
“Relax, she isn’t in any immediate danger,” Lu Yunxi interjected smoothly. “I gave her a few protective items before she fled.”
Hearing this, a massive wave of relief washed over the entire clan. If there was anyone they trusted implicitly besides their own flesh and blood, it was Miss Lu and Mr. Shen.
With the immediate panic diffused, the noblemen finally took stock of their surroundings, their brows knitting in deep disgust.
“This place is absolutely filthy!”
“It’s pitch black. Does anyone even know what time it is?”
“Heavens… I was trying to sleep on the floor earlier and heard a horrific snoring sound nearby. It was terrifying! Is it true that these dungeons are haunted by the ghosts of dead prisoners?”
“…”
While the Cui family muttered anxiously amongst themselves, Lu Yunxi and Shen San were busy exchanging messages.
Through some bizarre quirk of the game’s mechanics, despite being locked in separate cells directly across from each other, the two were perfectly capable of summoning their system carrier pigeons. The spectral bird fluttered effortlessly from the left cell to the right cell and back again.
Amusingly, it was as if the dungeon environment applied a severe intelligence-reducing debuff to the NPCs; neither the roaming jailers nor the hyper-vigilant Cui family seemed capable of seeing the glowing white bird flying back and forth.
[Master, how did you get yourself captured? Are the guards here exceptionally high level?]
[Not at all. The Cui family has a pregnant woman with them, and she couldn’t handle a violent confrontation. Why didn’t you fight them off on your end?]
[I had stepped out to forage for some decent food. By the time I returned, the entire house had already been knocked unconscious and dragged away. I don’t possess your high-tier defensive skills to protect a whole squad of fragile NPCs.]
[Master, are you still in a hurry to find the treasure map? When are we breaking out of here? Can it at least wait until I’ve had a proper meal?]
[No rush.]
Lu Yunxi closed the text interface. With her attributes, tracking down a physical treasure location wouldn’t be difficult once they were free; grinding her experience bar was the real challenge. Since she was actively gaining passive experience points just by remaining in this quest-locked cell, she was more than happy to bide her time.
The master and disciple traded a knowing look, halted their messages, and settled in to rest.
Their quiet respite proved short-lived.
Not long after Lu Yunxi closed her eyes, a burly jailer marched down the corridor, his keys rattling loudly. “The Prefect demands your presence. Move!”
He unlocked the iron door, roughly herding all the female members of the Cui family out of the cell.
Seeing the women being marched away, the men panicked, rushing to the front of their enclosure and grasping the bars.
“Sir! We are the heads of the Cui household! Please, take us instead!”
“Yes, take us! What could a group of sheltered women possibly know about state affairs?!”
The jailer slammed his heavy iron ring against their bars, snapping impatiently, “Shut your traps! What are you screaming for?! The Prefect explicitly summoned the women. If you keep making a racket, I’ll use this whip to teach you some manners!” He raised the leather scourge threateningly.
The Cui women suppressed their fury, their expressions icy.
Terrified of provoking the guards into taking out their anger on the women, the noblemen were forced to lower their voices, pleading desperately, “Sir, please… several of them are carrying children. Have mercy and show them some care along the way.”
The jailer grunted, offering no promise as he marched the prisoners toward the grand tribunal.
Inside the main courthouse, the Prefect sat high upon his elevated magistrate’s bench, staring down at the prisoners with blatant contempt. A platoon of dozens of heavily armed guards surrounded his platform, ensuring his absolute security.
Outside the open courtroom doors, a massive crowd of local citizens had gathered, eager for entertainment. They whispered in low tones, pointing fingers at the shackled family.
“Who are they? Why were they dragged before the court?”
“I heard they’re high-ranking criminals exiled from the imperial capital! Our Prefect is far too merciful. If you ask me, criminals of that caliber should have been executed on the spot, yet he allowed them to live!” a rat-faced man snorted disdainfully. “Now border towns like Beizhen are turning into absolute dens of thieves. Honest folks like us don’t even dare walk past the stone forest anymore!”
“Criminals? But they look so… sigh, what a tragedy…” More observant onlookers murmured, though noticing the sharp glints of the guards’ halberds, they quickly shut their mouths and fell silent.
“Order in the court!” the bailiff standing beside the Prefect roared. Once the murmuring crowd silenced themselves, he bowed deeply to the magistrate.
The Prefect nodded, leaning forward casually. “Are you the disgraced members of the Cui clan who dared to steal my gold ingots? Do you comprehend the severity of the crime of robbing an official appointed by the imperial crown?”
Grief and righteous indignation flared in Mrs. Cui’s eyes. She shouted back, “Your Honor, we stole absolutely nothing! We have been falsely accused! We have no idea how those gold ingots materialized in our courtyard!”
The rest of the family instantly chimed in, their faces contorted with genuine grievance. They had no need to act; they were entirely innocent, and the sheer injustice of the frame-up left their eyes burning with rage.
The Prefect frowned, shooting a sharp wink at the bailiff.
“Silence!” the officer bellowed, banging his staff against the floorboards.
Strangely, the Prefect didn’t press the matter of the stolen gold any further. Instead, he picked up the official regional ledger, scanning the names before locking his gaze onto Lu Yunxi.
“You are Cui Shishi, correct?”
“I am not,” Lu Yunxi replied expressionlessly.
The surrounding Cui family members clenched their fists, lowering their heads and forcing themselves to stay quiet. They knew that if they spoke up to defend Miss Lu right now, the corrupt Prefect would immediately twist their words to claim she was an accomplice, making it impossible for her to clear her name.
The Prefect let out a mocking sneer. “Ha! The official manifest states that only Cui Er and Cui Shishi were separated from the main transport group during the march. You suddenly materialize inside the Cui residence, yet you claim you aren’t a member of their clan… Do you take me for a complete fool?!”
The Cui family below remained dead silent, trading utterly bizarre glances. They desperately wanted to say something, but they had no idea how to explain the sheer absurdity of the situation. Lu Yunxi was quite literally, undeniably, not a member of their family!
“Confess your crimes, and I may show you a shred of mercy!” The Prefect slammed his hand against the desk, his tone turning fiercely authoritative. “Tell me exactly how you slipped away from the guards during the march, and identify the accomplices who smuggled you into the border zone!”
He gestured sharply to the scribe beside him. The official quickly bowed, pulling out fresh parchment and a brush, and stepped down to stand directly in front of her.
“Begin speaking,” the scribe ordered. “Detail exactly how your family conspired to facilitate this girl’s escape.”
Lu Yunxi sighed. “I am truly not a member of the Cui family. You… wait, I have my official household registration right here.”
Reaching into her inventory space under the guise of pulling something from her robes, she produced her identification document and handed it to the scribe. “I have absolutely no relation to the Cui surname. My legal name is Lu.”
The scribe examined the document, his brow furrowing in confusion. He stepped back up the dais, presenting the booklet to the magistrate.
The Prefect spared it only a cursory glance before waving his hand dismissively. “What a joke! This is nothing but a forged documentation booklet, likely purchased from some back-alley black market in the slums. And you expect a court of law to believe it?!”
Chapter 213: Reflection
Lu Yunxi’s eye twitched, completely speechless.
The Prefect’s own records were a total fabrication, but her household registration was as real as it got! He was truly lying through his teeth with his eyes wide open.
When the bailiff saw that the Prefect was displeased, his expression turned even uglier. He snatched the booklet and slammed it onto the stone floor.
“Don’t bother trying to buy time! No one is coming to save you,” he snarled threateningly. “If you don’t start talking, don’t blame us for being ruthless!”
Lu Yunxi ignored him entirely, quickly scooping her document back up and tucking it away in case she needed it later.
Her blatant disregard only infuriated the Prefect and his officers further.
The Prefect slammed his fist onto the desk and bellowed, “Stubborn wretch! Since she refuses to speak, torture her! Beat her until she confesses!”
She had barely put away her identification when she looked up to see a large cohort of guards closing in on her.
The nearby Cui family members clenched their fists so tightly that their fingernails nearly sliced into their palms, utterly at a loss for how to help.
Lu Yunxi, however, remained completely calm and secretly activated her protective shield.
Not long ago, her barrier skill had reached the Grandmaster level. Not only was it entirely invisible to the naked eye, but it could also change shape at will. However, altering the geometry was far too tedious, so she opted to keep its default spherical form.
With a subtle flick of her fingers, she deployed several shields simultaneously, enveloping herself and each member of the Cui family. The barriers perfectly contoured to their bodies, clinging invisibly to their skin.
Almost the exact second the shields snapped into place, two guards hoisted Lu Yunxi up and pinned her face-down across a long wooden bench.
A thick, heavy wooden paddle came whistling down, landing with a dull, heavy thud.
The onlookers in the crowd winced and averted their eyes, unable to bear the sight of the impending carnage.
Crack! Crack!
The entire courtroom fell dead silent, save for the rhythmic, violent striking of the wooden paddle against her back.
Yet, while the common folk kept their heads turned away, the Prefect and his officers stared intently at her face—and quickly realized something was profoundly amiss.
Lu Yunxi didn’t look like someone receiving a brutal beating. Not only did she seem completely oblivious to any pain, but her expression was also entirely relaxed. If someone had handed her a pocketful of melon seeds, she probably would have started casually cracking them right then and there.
“What is wrong with you two?! Put some muscle into it! Have you not eaten today?!” The Prefect’s rage boiled over as he watched. He slammed the desk, screaming furiously at the two executioners below.
The two executioners felt utterly wronged.
This was their daily bread and butter. They had no idea what was wrong with this girl; did she simply lack the capacity to feel pain? They had been swinging with all their might for minutes, and while she looked completely unbothered, their arms were about to fall off from exhaustion.
Observing Lu Yunxi’s pristine condition, the Cui family gradually relaxed, a few silent deductions forming in their minds.
Did Miss Lu use some sort of mystical technique to nullify the pain?
While everyone was buried in their own thoughts, the Prefect finally lost his mind.
He slammed his hands on the desk and stood up, storming down from the dais toward Lu Yunxi. With one sweeping motion, he shoved one of the executioners aside and snatched the heavy paddle from the man’s grip.
The executioner was already sweating profusely and panting from exhaustion, his mind completely dazed by the physical exertion. When he felt someone suddenly yank the tool away, his instincts kicked in, and he subconsciously tightened his grip to hold onto it.
“Let go, you useless piece of trash!” the Prefect barked, tugging fiercely at the wood.
Only then did the dazed guard realize it was his superior. Terrified, he instantly let go. “My Lord! Forgive me! I… I didn’t mean to—”
Before he could finish his apology, the words caught in his throat. He gasped, stumbling back two paces.
“M-My Lord? Are you alright?!”
The executioner wanted to weep. He had tried to yield the paddle to the official, but the Prefect had been pulling with so much force that when the resistance vanished, the momentum carried him backward. The Prefect stumbled over his own robes, holding the heavy stick aloft, and crashed squarely onto his backside.
The onlookers witnessed the entire clumsy display. They frantically tried to stifle their laughter, but their shoulders shook violently, ruining the act.
The Prefect’s face flushed a brilliant, furious crimson. He spun around, roaring at the crowd, “Who dares laugh in my court?!”
Instantly, every head snapped down, the spectators desperately hiding their grins.
Trembling with rage, the Prefect turned his glare back to Lu Yunxi. He gripped the wooden paddle tightly and brought it down hard across her back.
To everyone’s shock, after a mere three strikes, the wooden paddle snapped completely in half due to the sheer, volatile force of his anger.
The residual amusement vanished from the crowd. The onlookers went pale, staring at the shattered wood in horror.
Seeing the sheer terror reflecting in everyone’s eyes, the Prefect’s ego was thoroughly stroked. He threw his head back and let out a dark chuckle.
Tossing the broken handle aside, he turned to the bailiff. “Go. Bring the finger-squeezers out.”
Hearing this, the faces of the Cui family drained of all color.
Lu Yunxi, however, was just confused.
Squeezers? What on earth is that?
A moment later, the bailiff hurried back, carrying a bizarre contraption made of wooden rods and hemp cords.
Several guards pinned her down, fitting the strange device over her hands before pulling the ropes with immense, coordinated force.
Lu Yunxi blinked. …Is that it?
“…Do you need a towel to wipe your sweat?” she asked gently.
The guard pulling the ropes was clearly exerting every ounce of strength he possessed. His face was contorted into a hideous, strained grimace, and thick beads of sweat poured down his brow.
This job looks incredibly taxing, she thought to herself.
The guard stared at her tranquil expression, his eyes wide with utter disbelief.
“Are you some kind of monster? Do you not feel pain?!” The Prefect looked at her as if he were losing his mind, pacing frantically back and forth in front of her.
He watched her for another agonizing beat, then aggressively rolled up his sleeves, shoving past the guards holding the ropes. “Get out of the way! Let me do it! I don’t believe for a second that her fingers won’t snap if I pull these cords myself!”
Lu Yunxi watched him grab the ropes and strain against the wooden rods, finally realizing what the device was actually meant to do.
Oh, they’re trying to crush my fingers.
She was utterly speechless.
If she had known this was the absolute peak of their torture capabilities, she wouldn’t have even bothered wasting her mana on a protective shield. Even if they clamped down directly onto her bare skin, the physical attributes of these level 10 rookies wouldn’t have caused her a shred of discomfort.
Bored by the lack of stimulation, she tuned out her surroundings and let her mind wander. Suddenly, a tickle flared in her nose.
“Ah… achoo!“
She rubbed her nose, a few physiological tears squeezing out from the force of the sneeze.
When she opened her eyes and looked up, the entire courtroom was staring at her in absolute, petrified silence.
She blinked, entirely bewildered. “W-what’s wrong? Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
The crowd slowly shifted their gazes from her to the stone floor, their expressions deeply horrified.
Lu Yunxi followed their line of sight and noticed the Prefect sprawled flat on his back a few feet away, his face entirely covered in blood, seemingly dead to the world.
She gasped in horror. “Oh my goodness! Is he having a medical seizure?”
“Medical seizure?” someone in the crowd whispered loudly. “You just casually raised your hand, and he went flying!”
Hearing this, Lu Yunxi’s eye twitched violently.
She had completely forgotten!
She was currently level 94. A gentle, involuntary twitch of her arm to scratch her nose was equivalent to an elephant accidentally nudging a level 10 human. Even if the elephant didn’t mean to use any force, the raw disparity in mass would still send the human sailing.
Normally, when the young Cui girls clung to her, she simply minimized her movements so she wouldn’t hurt them. But the Prefect had been so desperately determined to crush her fingers that when she instinctively raised her hand to catch her sneeze, he had dug his heels in, trying to force her arm down.
Naturally, his level 10 stats were no match for her level 94 passive strength. As a result, the momentum snapped his grip, launching him backward until his head cracked violently against the stone floor.
The bailiff who had been catering to the Prefect turned white as a sheet.
Pointing a trembling finger at Lu Yunxi, he stuttered, “You… you dared to assault a high official of the imperial court?! You’re dead! You’re completely finished!”
Slam!
The heavy iron cell door was kicked shut, the jailer’s face twisted in profound fury. “How dare you strike the Lord Prefect! You can sit in this darkness and reflect on your crimes!”
With a vicious sweep of his sleeves, he turned and marched away angrily.
Shen San watched the display from the opposite cell, looking completely bewildered. “What happened, Master? Didn’t you say we’d be able to walk right out of here after meeting the Prefect?”
Lu Yunxi crossed her arms and shook her head with a heavy sigh. “Don’t blame me. It’s the Prefect’s fault for being so incredibly stubborn!”
Seriously, if he had just let go of her hand when she went to sneeze, wouldn’t everyone have walked away unscathed?
The imprisoned men of the Cui family listened to the exchange, their faces a canvas of utter confusion. It was only when Mrs. Cui quietly detailed the events of the courtroom that the pieces fell into place.
Shen San was the first to burst into a roaring laugh.
The other members of the Cui family chuckled at first, but their amusement quickly dissolved into sheer panic.
“What are we going to do now? Miss Lu, even if the court officially verifies that you aren’t a member of the Cui clan, I’m afraid the Prefect will never let you leave this prison alive. You’ve utterly humiliated him in front of the entire city.”
While the Cui family wrung their hands in deep anxiety, Lu Yunxi and her disciple remained perfectly composed.
“Don’t worry, he doesn’t have the strength to scratch me anyway,” she replied casually, scooping up a handful of loose straw and beginning to weave it together. “Besides, given the way he hit the floor, those facial injuries aren’t going to heal overnight. Even if he wants to cook up a scheme to make my life miserable, he won’t have the physical energy to do so anytime soon.”
Chapter 214: Refusing the Toast and Drinking the Penalty Wine
Seeing how perfectly nonchalant she was, the Cui family members adopted her mindset and gradually felt their anxieties slip away.
While the cell block settled into a quiet calm, absolute fury was erupting back at the Prefect’s estate. The newly awakened Prefect glared into the room, his eyes brimming with unadulterated hatred and malice. With a violent sweep of his arm, he sent every porcelain cup, bowl, and platter on his bedside table crashing to the stone floor.
The sharp, echoing shatters filled the chamber. The maids who had been quietly tending to their chores jumped in terror and instantly dropped to their knees.
“My Lord, please, calm your anger!” his head official pleaded, mentally groaning.
Knowing the Prefect’s volatile temper, the official wished he could vanish into thin air. But as the man’s absolute number-one confidant, he couldn’t just abandon his post like the others. If he lost his standing now, he would be relentlessly bullied by his rivals in the future and suffer a miserable fate.
“Calm my anger?! How can you possibly ask me to calm my anger?!”
The Prefect’s eyes were bloodshot and wild, giving him the terrifying visage of a vengeful specter. The servants kneeling on the floor couldn’t help but tremble.
He threw back his silk quilt, shoved his feet into his shoes, and stormed toward the door. “Move! I am going to the dungeons to settle the score with that bitch myself!”
His trusted official scrambled to follow.
However, while the staff inside the private quarters tried to avert their eyes from the horrific trauma on his face, the guards out in the corridors openly recoiled in sheer terror, looking as though they had encountered a literal demon.
“A ghost!” one sentry shrieked in fright.
Closing his eyes in a panic, the guard bolted backward, cracking his head violently against a stone pillar. Despite the massive lump instantly forming on his forehead, he didn’t even pause; he scrambled back to his feet and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.
The Prefect let out a dark, infuriated laugh. “What is the meaning of this?! Do I truly look like a corpse?!”
The confidant silently stole a glance at his master’s face, wisely keeping his mouth shut. To be fair to the guards, even he—a man thoroughly desensitized to the gruesome horrors of the interrogation chambers—hardly dared to look directly at the man.
The Prefect’s primary injury was concentrated on his forehead, with only a superficial scratch tearing across his cheek. When he had first been carried back to the estate, the resident physician had rushed in to inspect the damage. A maid had stepped forward with a basin of water to cleanse the wound, but the doctor had frantically jarred her hand away, warning that water would only aggravate the tear and that they needed to staunch the heavy bleeding immediately.
Worse still, the physician had completely run out of premium hemostatic powders, and compounding a fresh batch would take several hours. By the time it was ready, the Prefect likely would have bled to death.
With no other alternative, they resorted to an old folk remedy: the doctor ordered a servant to gather handfuls of coarse wood ash and smear it directly into the gaping wound on his forehead.
By the time the physician finally finished preparing the proper green medicinal ointment, the Prefect’s fingers were already twitching, signaling that he was about to wake up. Terrified of facing his wrath if he caught them lagging, the panicked servants didn’t even bother wiping away the encrusted wood ash. They simply slathered the thick, dark-green paste right over the grime.
As a result, his forehead was now a horrific, mottled mess of black and green, caked with a dusty crust. He looked exactly like a man who had dove headfirst into a coal pile and then accidentally bounced into a manure pit. It was no wonder the household staff looked ready to faint at the sight of him.
Snapping out of his memories as yet another passing attendant let out a muffled gasp, the confidant kept his head bowed low and murmured, “My Lord, disregard them. They are merely ignorant fools who lack the constitution for greatness.”
The Prefect snorted coldly. Seeing that even his closest ally refused to look him in the eye, his mood soured completely. Along the walk from his chambers, he had lost count of how many servants had shrieked and fled from his presence.
The humiliation settled over his heart like a suffocating dark cloud. Groaning in sheer annoyance, he abruptly spun on his heel and marched back to his private quarters, pacing back and forth across the rug.
Suddenly, a wicked spark lit up his eyes.
“Get over here and listen closely,” the Prefect hissed, beckoning his confidant over and whispering a tight sequence of orders into his ear. “That brat thought she could humiliate me in my own court? We’re going to do exactly this…”
As the confidant listened to the scheme, a dark, understanding smile slowly spread across his face.
Down in the cells, Lu Yunxi was resting comfortably against the wall, casually reviewing her system forum, when the heavy iron door suddenly groaned open.
Without warning, the guards shoved a row of more than a dozen rowdy women into the enclosure, instantly crowding the narrow space.
Originally, with only the Cui family and Lu Yunxi occupying the cell, there had been more than enough room for everyone to stretch out comfortably. But with this sudden influx of newcomers, finding enough floor space to sleep at night was going to be a struggle.
The female members of the Cui family instinctively shifted back a few paces, crowding around Lu Yunxi to secure the left side of the cell against the stone wall, leaving the right side to the new arrivals.
The incoming prisoners bore strangely intense expressions. They stared at the Cui women for a long time before finally picking their own spots on the straw to sit down.
The cell block fell into a tense, heavy silence. Given the sudden presence of so many aggressive strangers, Shen San and the Cui noblemen across the corridor found it impossible to converse freely, so they chose to close their eyes and rest instead.
Time ticked by.
When the last rays of sunlight faded from the high window, a jailer finally marched down the corridor to distribute the rations. In these dungeons, prisoners were allocated only two meals a day—one in the morning and one in the evening. Aside from the newcomers who had likely eaten before their arrest, everyone rushed to claim their share to avoid starving.
The staple food in Wuzhou wasn’t rice, but a dense, coarse flatbread. Although the bread looked rough and unappetizing, the pure, unpolluted ingredients gave it a pleasant, natural aroma of roasted wheat, offering a unique and hearty flavor.
Lu Yunxi and Shen San ate their portions with gusto. The refined women of the Cui family, however, were entirely unaccustomed to such dry, abrasive biscuits; they knit their brows after the very first bite, taking a long time to painfully force the dry crusts down their throats. Meanwhile, the group of newly arrived prisoners devoured their rations instantly, tearing into the food as if they hadn’t seen a meal in a century.
Before long, Lu Yunxi, her disciple, and the new inmates had completely polished off their food, leaving only the Cui women slowly gnawing on their dry biscuits.
Having lived a life of absolute luxury for decades, their psychological preparation for the hardships of exile meant nothing when faced with the harsh physical reality. After only a few bites, the throats of the delicate aunts were raw and aching.
Lu Yunxi sighed internally, preparing to stand up and tap on the iron bars to ask the jailer for a basin of water. But before she could move, the previously silent inmates next to them suddenly raised their heads.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Like a pack of starved wolves spotting a fat sheep, a predatory green light flared in the newcomers’ eyes. Saliva practically dripping from their mouths, they lunged desperately across the cell.
“Ah! Don’t shove me!”
“What are you doing?! This is my dinner, back off!”
The Cui women frantically tried to shield their food as the inmates descended upon them in a violent, chaotic scramble.
Across the corridor, the Cui noblemen jumped to their feet in horror, slamming their shackled hands against their own iron bars.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Keep your filthy hands off my mother and aunts!”
“Cowards! Bullying vulnerable women… you’re a bunch of absolute degenerates!”
“If a single hair on their heads is harmed, I swear I will make every last one of you pay!”
Yet, no matter how furiously the noblemen roared and shook their bars, the mob of thieves didn’t care in the slightest. There were two sets of reinforced iron doors and an entire stone corridor separating them; did these soft noblemen honestly have the power to shatter the imperial bars and stop them?
As the terrified Cui women were forced back into a tight corner, Lu Yunxi materialized in front of them like a ghost.
Her fingers shot out, clamping around the wrists of the inmate leading the charge with a vice-like grip. The woman thrashed, trying to wrench her arms free, but she couldn’t budge an inch. Her face twisted with mounting irritation.
“What do you think you’re doing, little girl?! You honestly think you can take on sixteen of us all by yourself?” the ringleader sneered, pinning her with a mocking, loaded stare.
Sixteen people? Lu Yunxi mused. Normally, when criminals were tossed into a strange, hostile dungeon, they felt profoundly uneasy and took hours to adjust to their surroundings—they certainly wouldn’t have the presence of mind to keep an exact head count. The fact that this woman explicitly specified sixteen meant this entire group had been organized as a unit from the very beginning.
Lu Yunxi’s brows knit together as she realized the sheer depth of the Prefect’s petty malice.
“Get out of the way!” the ringleader demanded, a jagged, sharp smile cutting across her face. “These fragile rich folks are too weak to survive in here anyway; they’re just going to get tormented to death. They might as well hand their biscuits over to me right now so I can ensure their protection!”
Lu Yunxi wasn’t about to buy into such transparent garbage. However, since she wasn’t a member of the Cui clan, she chose not to make executive decisions on their behalf. She turned her head slightly to look at Mrs. Cui and the aunts.
Mrs. Cui and the older women frantically shook their heads.
Protection? These thugs were speaking sweet words while violently clawing and kicking at them to steal their meager rations. It was glaringly obvious they harbored nothing but malicious intent. If they surrendered their dinner today out of fear, they would be forced to give it up tomorrow, the day after… until they eventually starved to death in the dark.
“You see?” Lu Yunxi said, turning back lazily and forming an unmovable wall between the inmates and the family. “They don’t have any use for your protection.”
“If you refuse the toast, you’ll be forced to drink the penalty wine!” the ringleader hissed, her veneer of civility shattering completely. “Who gives a damn whether you want my protection or not? Hand over the dinner!”
She let out a cold, mocking laugh. “And don’t think this is just about tonight. From tomorrow onward, the day after that… every single meal you receive belongs to us!”
The faces of the Cui women drained of all color. They never expected the thug to reveal her tyrannical ambitions so flagrantly. Weren’t these criminals worried that the inmates would unite against them?
Looking at the rows of mindless, feral nods from the fifteen thugs backing their leader, Mrs. Cui felt a massive headache coming on.
Lu Yunxi merely chuckled. She casually cracked her knuckles, pinning the ringleader with a thoroughly amused, dangerous stare.
The thug’s eyes narrowed to slits, her fists clenching tight.
The brawl erupted in an instant.
As the first blows flew through the air, the cornered Cui women couldn’t help but let out terrified, piercing screams.
