Chapter 245| Chapter 246| Chapter 247
Chapter 245: I Am Afraid
That evening, Shen San knocked on her door with a profoundly gloomy expression.
“Master, I’m so sorry. The Lu Renjia I introduced to you turns out to be an absolute piece of garbage. I completely misjudged him!” With a deep, heavy sigh, his entire frame slumped, radiating a wave of pathetic, wounded energy.
Lu Yunxi felt a wave of helplessness and gently patted his massive head. “It isn’t your fault. You don’t possess the mechanical capability to read minds, so how could you possibly predict what a person is hiding inside their database?”
After she spent a considerable amount of time soothing his fractured ego, the giant finally composed himself, allowing her to let out a long breath of relief.
Bizarrely, later that exact night, a sudden sharp glint flashed through Shen San’s eyes. Declaring that he needed to enter a state of deep cultivation seclusion, he abruptly logged off the server. Lu Yunxi highly suspected his ‘seclusion’ was merely a cover story to go hunt the man down for a secondary round of physical reconstruction in the real world.
In truth, Shen San hadn’t logged off explicitly to initiate a real-world street brawl. There were various, infinitely more sophisticated avenues to dismantle a person’s standing, and it didn’t necessarily require a physical confrontation.
At that exact moment in the physical world, he was meticulously plating a massive tray of premium, sizzling midnight barbecue before stepping across the corridor to knock on his older brother’s quarters.
“Brother, I personally grilled a fresh batch of midnight snacks. Would you care to sample the results?” he chuckled warmly, flashing a row of pristine white teeth.
The eldest son of the Fu family had just cleared his holographic pod and was casually drying his hair after a shower. Spotting his younger brother at the threshold, his eyes dropped to track the steaming, fragrant meat, his Adam’s apple bobbing in a sharp, involuntary swallow. “You are projecting an immense amount of unprompted sibling devotion tonight, Fu San. Speak plainly—what exactly is the catch?”
“Big Brother truly possesses terrifying cognitive attributes! You are undeniably the most brilliant mind in our entire lineage!” Fu San didn’t bother denying the accusation. Instead, he flashed an enthusiastic thumbs-up and smoothly deposited the heavy tray onto the lounge table.
His eyes darted around the room, momentarily struggling to structure his pitch to his elder sibling.
After a brief pause, he tested the waters with a casual murmur. “The situation is like this… My martial master has recently initiated the server’s romantic screening parameters, but I have been utterly incapable of recruiting a high-tier, reliable bachelor for her table. Therefore, I was calculating…”
The heir of the Fu family immediately caught the mechanical drift. “Ah, I comprehend. You intend for my network to introduce a few refined corporate bachelors to her manifest, correct? Set your mind at ease; leave the screening to me.”
With the administrative details settled, he stepped eagerly toward the lounge table, reaching out to snag a piece of the sizzling barbecue.
Unexpectedly, Fu San violently lunged forward, physically blocking the tray with his massive bulk. “No! You misunderstand! My ultimate objective is for you to personally enter a courtship contract with her…”
The moment the proposal cleared his lips, his brother’s face turned absolutely, deathly pale, causing Fu San’s voice to rapidly drop into a hushed, timid whisper.
“Have you experienced a total systemic breakdown?!” his brother roared, his features twisting in raw disbelief. “Are you honestly attempting to barter away your own flesh and blood simply to fulfill an NPC’s quest parameters?!” Hey, hey, hey! Was their fraternal bond truly this flimsy and disposable?!
Fu San shook his heavy head frantically. “Brother, your phrasing is entirely unmapped! Barter you away? That carries such a harsh, illegal connotation! The baseline reality is that my master is exceptionally young, breathtakingly beautiful, commands master-level medical diagnostics, manufactures divine culinary buffs, and possesses absolute top-tier combat stats! She is the literal blueprint of a flawless woman! If your own attributes weren’t remarkably elite, I never would have dreamed of routing her data to your table!”
The eldest Fu sibling pinned him with a deeply skeptical glare. “If this digital asset is truly as magnificent as you boast, why don’t you simply pursue the romantic questline yourself?”
“Believe me, I turned that exact strategy over in my own mind,” Fu San muttered, spreading his hands in a gesture of casual defeat. “But the stark reality is that Master’s AI database possesses absolutely zero romantic interest in my character model!”
“Brother, I won’t waste any more words. Simply log into the sector and grant her an initial screening interview. What if your parameters glitch, you are instantly struck by her aesthetic values, and you end up worshiping her as a literal goddess?!”
Staring past Fu San’s shoulder at the glistening, cooling meat, the eldest brother finally reached his breaking point. “Fine, fine! I shall indulge your little matching subquest. Out of my way; let me eat.”
Fu San let out a massive, silent breath of relief. His family lineage was legendary for maintaining absolute, unyielding fidelity to their chosen partners; none of their core members had ever been linked to secondary scandals. Furthermore, every single male in the Fu house commanded top-tier facial aesthetics. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about his master sustaining emotional trauma from a low-level playboy.
Yet, despite his internal rationalization, he still felt compelled to issue a stern, repetitive warning. “Brother… regardless of whether your tracking filters register chemistry with my master, she remains an exceptionally honorable lady who has granted me immense structural aid across my levels. I demand that you treat her with absolute, unyielding respect.”
The eldest son, currently shoving a massive piece of meat into his mouth, nearly choked on the fat. Cough! “I understand the mechanics. Do not let your processing units overheat. Regardless of the outcome, I will explicitly detail my evaluation to your master without leaving her dialogue tree hanging in a loop.”
Lu Yunxi was entirely oblivious to the fact that her giant apprentice was actively attempting to arrange a corporate marriage blind date for her behind her back; she was currently drowning in a wave of violent, suffocating vertigo.
It was incredibly anomalous.
Could the localized climate changes on the Forest Continent have triggered a sudden, severe drop in her resistance stats, causing her to contract a systemic fever? Or had her inventory recently processed an unverified food buff, inducing a critical toxicity debuff? Why on earth was her vision matrix spinning so violently?
Watching the entire physical geometry of her room warp and rotate, Lu Yunxi fought with everything she had to force her eyelids to remain open. But her stamina bar crashed to absolute zero within seconds, and she completely lost consciousness.
The internal timer ticked away into the dark.
“Master! Master, please answer me?!”
An anxious, frantic audio track kept looping through her consciousness, inducing a dull, throbbing ache across her skull.
Who on earth is that? she thought groggily. Why is someone aggressively triggering a shouting script so early in the morning?
She forced her eyelids open, only to be instantly blinded by a torrent of raw, unshielded sunlight pouring into her vision. It took several prolonged seconds for her processing subroutines to stabilize her awareness.
“Shen San… why are you executing a reading script at this hour?” she murmured, her voice sounding incredibly faint and drained of vitality.
If the system permitted it, she desperately required a quiet, unpopulated instance to restore her attributes in peace. Thank you.
“Master! You have finally cleared the coma state!” Shen San suddenly threw his massive frame forward, collapsing beside the mattress like a tragic protagonist in a historical drama who had finally reunited with a long-lost relative. He grasped her hand tightly, his eyes visibly swimming with tears.
Lu Yunxi: …
Her disciple’s current physical acting perfectly replicated the melodramatic tropes of a low-budget soap opera—specifically the scene where the terminally ill heroine fades away while the male lead weeps hysterically at her bedside… Ugh! What absolute garbage was her brain generating?! A terminal illness? She was a high-tier cultivator, for heaven’s sake!
Wrenching her hand free from his grip, she slowly pushed her torso upright.
The crisp morning light flooded through the wooden lattice, casting sharp geometric shadows across the linen sheets. Only then did her tracking senses register that they were no longer residing inside their prepaid room at the city inn; the room architecture was structured exactly like a public medical apothecary.
Her gaze swept across the massive wall of wooden medicine drawers. Blinking to clear her vision, she turned her head back to inspect Shen San, whose face remained a complete, tear-soaked disaster. “Whatever is the matter with your code? Why are you weeping like a toddler?” If she lacked context, she honestly would have assumed his character model had experienced an age-regression glitch down to a three-year-old!
“Master… do your current vitals indicate any underlying physical trauma?” He sniffled loudly, his large hands reaching out to delicately support her shoulders as if he were handling a fragile piece of glass artwork from the premium boutique planet.
Lu Yunxi’s internal subroutines instantly flashed a red warning flag.
Aside from their early levels when he erroneously classified her as a low-tier civilian asset, Shen San had grown incredibly casual and irreverent around her. For his programming to suddenly pivot back into this hyper-vigilant, reverent behavior meant something had gone drastically wrong with her status sheet.
“I am perfectly stable. My interface is merely logging a trace of residual vertigo,” she stated, her expression remaining entirely stoic while she silently routed an internal analytical sweep to check her own pulse point.
Holy mother of god!
Her status bar was completely caked in a terrifying cascade of hundreds of independent lethal toxins—and every single one of them was hardcoded to remain completely colorless, odorless, and undetectable by standard perception filters!
Stunned into absolute silence by the medical data, she completely missed the shifting expression on his face.
“Master?! Do you require a secondary rest cycle?” he asked cautiously, keeping his head lowered as he desperately blinked back another wave of tears. “If your hunger metrics are low, I shall immediately procure a bowl of sustenance for your household.”
“Very well. I shall trouble you to fetch a light meal. Thank you for your assistance,” she replied, forcing her lips into a weak, compliant smile.
Shen San meticulously adjusted her pillows, ensuring she was lying completely flat before stepping out to borrow the apothecary’s private kitchen.
Left alone on the mattress, Lu Yunxi stared blankly at the exposed wooden rafters overhead, her processing units entirely gridlocked as she tried to calculate how her grandmaster vessel could have absorbed such an astronomical volume of hidden toxins without her high-tier sensory tracking triggers firing once.
Even if a poison was mechanically coded to lack color or scent, an intelligence with her level of chemical mastery should have intercepted the elemental discrepancy the exact second it touched her palate. How on earth had she been thoroughly hollowed out like this…
She simply couldn’t map the logic.
Right at that moment, the heavy outer doors of the clinic flew open, and a human player stumbled blindly into the parlor, clutching a severely mangled forearm. A thick trail of digital blood splattered across the floorboards from the gashes scoring his limbs.
“Doctor! Trigger a healing salve! My health bar is draining!” the player gasped, his voice tight as he struggled to suppress the pain parameters.
The resident NPC apothecary flinched at the gore, frantically gesturing toward the inner partitions. “Quickly, relocate to the recovery beds inside! I shall immediately compound a restoration paste!”
The player let out a ragged breath, dragging his crippled legs across the floorboards as he shuffled past the privacy screens.
The apothecary layout contained exactly two recovery cots, with the secondary bed situated deep within the inner alcove. To reach it, the wounded player was forced to walk directly past Lu Yunxi’s position.
As the stranger approached her cot, Lu Yunxi offered a small, polite smile, preparing to deliver a standard greeting line.
Gasp!
The exact second the player’s eyes locked onto her face, he drew a sharp, terrified breath, all the color draining from his skin as his features twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated horror. He violently wrenched his head away, not daring to let his optical sensors graze her form a second time, his entire body locking up in rigid, terrified stiffness as he scrambled past her toward the inner cot.
Lu Yunxi: ? ?
What in the absolute hell was that reaction? What was the meaning of that grotesque look on his face?!
Pushing her torso up, she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress, fully intending to interrogate the stranger to see if her character model had triggered some hostile faction alignment.
Suddenly, a group of local townspeople stepped past the main partition. The exact millisecond their eyes registered her silhouette sitting on the cot, a chorus of sharp, piercing shrieks erupted from their throats.
“Heavens! There’s a spectral demon loose in the ward!”
“Run! The plague ghost is awake!”
Letting out a collective scream of primal terror, the civilians violently turned on their heels, trampling one another as they stampeded out of the clinic doors as if a pack of high-level hellhounds were snapping at their heels.
A heavy, dark dread settled squarely into Lu Yunxi’s gut.
Reaching into her consciousness, she accessed her spatial inventory, pulling out a polished bronze mirror and angling the reflection directly toward her own face.
The second the image rendered on the glass, her hand began to tremble violently.
Her reflection revealed a visage that was swollen beyond recognition, resembling a grotesquely bloated piece of steamed bread caked in oozing, yellow pus channels. Deep, necrotic fissures cracked across her skin, weeping dark digital blood continuously down her throat.
Holy mother of god! Her current character model was so physically repulsive and terrifying that it scared her, let alone a group of baseline townspeople!
Right as she was reeling from the cosmetic horror, Shen San quietly stepped back into the alcove, carefully balancing a steaming ceramic bowl. “Master, the broth is prepared. Your physical foundation remains severely compromised; you must stick to light gruel for the time being and avoid processing any heavy or greasy food attributes.”
Depositing the bowl onto the low table, he carefully supported her spine to help her sit up, gently scooping a spoonful of the porridge and blowing across the surface to cool the item before offering it to her lips. The resident apothecary had explicitly warned him that the localized necrosis was wreaking havoc on her nervous system, making any autonomous motor movement incredibly agonizing. It was structurally safer for his character model to manually execute the feeding script.
Terrified that she might feel humiliated by her current debuffed state, the giant desperately scrambled to initiate light, casual small talk while delivering the food. “Master… I actually managed to secure an exceptionally elite, high-tier bachelor from an aristocratic lineage for your courtship quest. I had fully intended to schedule a formal screening audience the exact second your calendar cleared… but then your system unexpectedly crashed into this severe illness!”
He offered a gentle, reassuring smile, his eyes turning remarkably soft. “The moment your status bar clears this toxic debuff, let’s proceed with the audience, alright? I can personally guarantee his attributes are absolutely flawless.”
Lu Yunxi: …?
Chapter 246: It’s All My Blame
“I hadn’t expected my disciple’s memory to be so sharp!” The moment Lu Yunxi saw his grief-stricken face, she didn’t have the heart to analyze his convoluted romantic intentions.
She waved a hand dismissively, her tone turning cold and serious. “The matchmaking business is entirely irrelevant right now. Tell me—how exactly did I contract this illness?”
Her diagnostic interface had verified that her character model was saturated with hundreds of distinct, lethal toxins. Do not insult her intelligence by claiming it was a mere environmental accident. It was blindingly obvious that someone had orchestrated a systematic assassination attempt! The glaring contradiction was that she couldn’t recall accumulating any enemies on this server who harbored such a profound, psychotic hatred for her…
“Master, I commissioned an elite apothecary to run a full diagnostic sweep of the area,” Shen San began, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously as he forced himself to deliver the grim truth. “The doctor inspected your quarters at the inn. Master, your entire suite was completely saturated with poison.”
Every single surface—the tables, the wooden chairs, the stone benches, the bed frame, the linen mattress, and even the structural floorboards and ceiling panels—had been meticulously coated with an incredibly thick, concentrated layer of lethal toxins. The dosage applied to the room was astronomically high, designed to guarantee absolute death upon contact!
The apothecary had been forced to equip a full set of sealed hazard gear just to cross the threshold. Upon concluding his inspection, he had openly marveled at her survival, stating that it was an absolute miracle her master had managed to reside in that toxic chamber for so long without instantly succumbing to organ failure!
“Who orchestrated the hit?” Lu Yunxi asked, her brow furrowing tightly.
“I haven’t managed to isolate the culprit yet, but the apothecary verified that the toxins were freshly applied within the last few days.”
Her frown deepened into a dark scowl.
Several days later, despite the apothecary’s frantic protests, Lu Yunxi absolutely insisted on discharging herself from the clinic. Realizing he lacked the authority to detain her, the doctor had no choice but to authorize her release.
Naturally, Shen San shadowed her every movement, effectively transforming into her personal pack mule. He supported her weight, managed her inventory, cooked her meals, boiled her water… In short, he assumed total responsibility for her survival.
For the first time since the server launched, Lu Yunxi felt a profound wave of gratitude for having a dedicated disciple by her side.
Because the necrotic tissue damage made autonomous movement agonizingly painful, Shen San had purchased a customized wooden wheelchair. He carefully lifted her into the seat and began pushing her slowly down the thoroughfare toward their inn.
“Good heavens! If your face is that grotesque, you should stay locked indoors instead of terrorizing the public! Do you have any idea that such an abomination could literally frighten someone to death?!”
“Oh, by the gods! How utterly pathetic. To be cursed with such a wretched appearance… isn’t her existence a pure misery?”
“Bah! Absolutely repulsive! I honestly cannot fathom how she possesses the sheer audacity to show her face in the streets. If I had been cursed with that rotting visage, I would have smashed my skull against a brick wall and ended it all!”
The chorus of loud, theatrical pity and venomous disgust from the passing crowd felt like physical needles piercing Shen San’s eyes.
He drew a long, ragged breath, desperately attempting to suppress his temper. But the exact second a passing merchant loudly hocked a wad of spit in their direction, his absolute fury shattered his restraint. Drawing his massive, grandmaster-tier greatsword from his inventory, he swung the blade in a vicious, horizontal arc across the street.
Lu Yunxi gasped.
Because her motor functions were completely locked by the pain debuff, she lacked the physical velocity to intercept his strike. In a fraction of a second, the sheer kinetic force of Shen San’s slash cleaved the solid stone street clean in half, carving a massive, bottomless chasm directly through the thoroughfare.
Fortunately, Lu Yunxi had managed to trigger her grandmaster protective shields just in time, casting the barrier over the screaming civilians. While the raw shockwave inflicted severe blunt-force trauma, the shield effectively blocked the lethal edge of the blade, sparing their lives.
“Master!” Shen San roared, absolutely furious. He couldn’t believe his master had actively burned her own mana to shield these pathetic degenerates! They had been loudly, maliciously cursing her existence!
A flicker of helpless exasperation flashed through Lu Yunxi’s eyes. But she was currently paralyzed by the toxins; even if she commanded Shen San to grab her chair and sprint, escaping the sector was mechanically impossible, because…
“Absolute treason! Assaulting civilians in the capital streets! Destruction of imperial infrastructure! Apprehend the suspect immediately!” Dozens of heavily armored imperial enforcers swarmed the thoroughfare, their spears leveled menacingly as they stared down into the bottomless canyon carved into the stone, their faces grim.
No matter how astronomically high Shen San’s combat stats were, a single player couldn’t successfully repel a massive battalion of max-level imperial guards without triggering a server-wide bounty hunt.
Consequently, he surrendered without resistance. Shen San, Lu Yunxi, and the battered civilians were all formally escorted back to the municipal magistrate’s office.
Inside the grand hall of the magistrate’s office, the apprehended civilians sat in a rigid row, their torsos tightly secured to heavy wooden chairs with leather straps. Only Lu Yunxi, who remained confined to her wheelchair, was spared the restraints.
“My Lord, I swear to the heavens, we are entirely innocent! I have no idea if that giant suffers from a localized brain defect, but he drew a massive blade completely unprovoked and violently chopped the entire street in half! This catastrophe has absolutely nothing to do with us!” The merchant who had previously mocked Lu Yunxi as a repulsive monster and spat at her feet was now wailing hysterically, sobbing like a terrified toddler.
The other injured civilians instantly echoed his testimony, nodding frantically as if Lu Yunxi and her disciple were demonic villains of the highest order.
Shen San stared straight ahead, his expression completely detached. “It wasn’t a standard knife. It was a greatsword.”
The wailing civilians instantly choked on their sobs, their faces twisting into bizarre, distorted grimaces of pure disbelief at his pedantic correction.
Lu Yunxi lowered her head, a sharp, amused glint flashing through her eyes.
One of the administrative officers stood near the magistrate’s desk, furiously transcribing the merchant’s testimony into a ledger, while several armed guards stood along the perimeter, leveling their halberds at the suspects with fierce, uncompromising glares.
“And what of you? What is your exact version of the events?” the presiding official finally demanded, turning his gaze toward Shen San. However, the giant remained completely mute, his jaw locked tight in silent rebellion—perhaps still furious that she had shielded the crowd.
Lu Yunxi let out a soft, internal sigh. Closing her eyes, she allowed a steady stream of digital tears to spill down her ruined cheeks.
The faint, heartbreaking sound of soft sobbing suddenly drifted across the silent hall.
For a long moment, the entire room fell completely still, the only sound the quiet, suppressed weeping of the crippled girl in the wheelchair.
Shen San snapped out of his silent protest instantly. Completely abandoning his anger, he shot up straight in his chair, his face twisting into an expression of raw, frantic panic as he whipped his head toward her. “Master?! What’s wrong? Has the pain debuff spiked?! Are your wounds burning?!”
But she acted as if she couldn’t hear his frantic questions. Raising her trembling, bandaged hands, she covered her grotesque face, her voice cracking with pure devastation. “My Lord! The guilt is entirely mine! The civilians speak the absolute truth—my visage is hideously repulsive, and I had no right to subject the public to my presence! It is my fault entirely… I was suffering from severe vertigo and selfishly insisted my disciple push my chair into the city to secure medical treatment…”
As she delivered the monologue, she suddenly broke into a violent, wracking fit of weeping.
“It’s all my fault… If I didn’t possess such an offensive, nauseating appearance, the crowd never would have been forced to curse me… my disciple never would have lost his temper defending my honor… and he never would have accidentally damaged the imperial pavement…” She choked back a loud sob, her shoulders shaking violently. “Please, My Lord, I beg you not to punish the civilians. It was entirely reasonable for them to verbally abuse a monster like me…”
Slowly, she lifted her head, staring blankly toward the magistrate’s desk.
The exact second the imperial officers caught a clear view of her unshielded face, every man in the room drew a sharp, collective gasp.
What kind of absolute nightmare was that face?! Her skin was completely pulverized, caked in deep, weeping lacerations and dark blood. It was blindingly obvious that she was currently enduring an unimaginable, agonizing level of chronic pain!
The officers’ expressions instantly darkened into thunderous scowls, and they turned to level freezing, lethal glares at the row of complaining civilians.
To lack basic human compassion for a young woman suffering from such catastrophic, agonizing injuries was a clear indicator of a cold, rotten heart. That alone wasn’t entirely surprising in the capital, but to actively hurl malicious, venomous abuse at a crippled patient in the streets?! That crossed the line into absolute depravity!
“She… she’s fabricating the narrative!” the spitting merchant shrieked, instantly panicking as he registered the freezing hostility radiating from the guards. “We were nearly slaughtered in the street! I merely offered a few mild, unpleasant critiques regarding her aesthetics, and she ordered her attack dog to execute us?!”
“I am so incredibly sorry,” Lu Yunxi interrupted, sniffing loudly as she projected an aura of absolute, tragic sincerity. “But I know my disciple’s character coding intimately. Regardless of his temper, he would never intentionally strike to kill a civilian. Please, I beg you, do not allow these men to slander his honor!”
“Slander?!” the merchant exploded, his face turning purple with rage.
During the confrontation, he had explicitly watched the lethal arc of the blade swinging directly toward his neck! He had no idea if the local wind physics had deflected the strike or if a system glitch had blocked the damage, but he hadn’t sustained a lethal hit! The fact that he was currently breathing was purely a matter of blind luck!
The imperial officers exchanged hushed, rapid whispers before dispatching a guard to summon the local coroner to formally evaluate the civilians’ injuries.
Lu Yunxi’s long eyelashes fluttered slightly, but no one in the room noticed the subtle, intricate motion of her fingertips brushing against her sleeve.
When the imperial physician arrived, he ordered the guards to escort the complaining civilians into a rear examination room one by one, conducting a thorough medical sweep of their character models.
“What is your formal diagnosis, Doctor? Have they sustained critical structural trauma?” the presiding officer asked, his brow furrowed in bureaucratic concern.
The legal sentencing for Lu Yunxi and her disciple hinged entirely on the severity of the damage inflicted. The higher the injury tier, the harsher the penal code applied. Fortunately, the strike had resulted in zero fatalities; had a civilian been deleted, Shen San would have faced a mandatory server prison sentence of three to five years.
“Set your mind at ease, My Lord. If you had summoned me a fraction of an hour later, the system’s passive regeneration would have already mended their wounds completely. They have suffered nothing more than superficial bruises… that is the absolute extent of the damage! The youth of this generation are simply far too delicate and prone to hysterics.” The elderly doctor stroked his long white beard in deep annoyance, pulling a small wooden tin of basic medicinal ointment from his kit. “That will be ten taels of silver for the consultation. Ensure the funds are routed to my apothecary.”
The officers stood in stunned silence for a moment before one of the guards smoothly slipped a string of cheap copper coins into the doctor’s palm and shoved the premium ointment back into his medical kit. “The empire thanks you for your swift assistance, Doctor.”
What an absolute joke! This medical consultation was being billed to the municipal treasury! If zero lives were in danger, why on earth would the imperial government waste ten taels of solid silver treating a pack of malicious degenerates?! The average guard’s monthly salary didn’t even amount to ten taels!
The doctor wisely kept his mouth shut. Pocketing the copper coins, he shook his head in silent, cynical amusement and departed the hall.
Upon hearing the diagnosis, the injured civilians immediately erupted in outrage.
“Why are you refusing to purchase the premium medical salves for our wounds?! We sustained severe blunt-force trauma!”
“Are you imperial dogs colluding with the suspects to intentionally torture us?!”
“I refuse to accept this! If you do not authorize immediate, high-tier medical treatment, I shall personally file a formal grievance against your precinct with my clan elders!”
The civilians glared at the officers, their eyes burning with arrogant, aristocratic threats.
The guards exchanged helpless, frustrated looks. Finally, the chief clerical officer waved his hand with sheer impatience, barking, “Someone go to the kitchens and fetch a bucket of wood ash to pack their scratches!”
“Wood ash?! Do you have any idea who I am?!” one of the younger men shrieked, struggling violently against his leather restraints. “My father is a senior administrator at the Imperial Academy! My daily allowance for basic dietary and lifestyle expenses exceeds hundreds of taels of silver! And you intend to treat my wounds with literal fireplace ash?!”
“Just wait until my restraints are unsealed! All of you, mark my words! Do not even dream of maintaining your imperial commissions after today!”
The arrogant threats were highly effective; the officers visibly hesitated, the political pressure making them second-guess their authority.
Sensing their wavering resolve, Lu Yunxi suddenly let out a violent, terrified tremble. “My Lords, please! Do not sacrifice your careers on my behalf! I beg you, simply yield and grant them their demands! If your imperial commissions are revoked, how will your families survive the winter?! Is there no higher legal authority where you can file a counter-suit against their coercion?!”
The exact millisecond the word ‘counter-suit’ cleared her lips, the officers’ eyes lit up with brilliant realization.
Exactly! Why should we cower?! If the situation escalates, we possess the legal authority to sue them for obstructing justice and threatening imperial personnel! The current sovereign was renowned for his strict, impartial adherence to the law. If the royal tribunal learned that arrogant nobles were actively threatening municipal guards to extort treasury funds, the guards wouldn’t be the ones facing the executioner’s block—the aristocratic brats would be thoroughly annihilated!
Their confidence fully restored, the officers broke into cold, predatory smiles. “Remain absolutely still in your restraints! If you violate imperial law, you shall face the full, unyielding punishment of the courts!”
Chapter 247: Did It Succeed?
The imperial officers retrieved a bucket of fireplace ash from the kitchens, callously scrubbing the grit into the civilians’ scratches before tossing the entire group into the municipal holding cells.
Lu Yunxi lowered her head, listening to the muffled, furious cursing echoing from the jail block as she quietly concealed the amused smile touching her lips.
Perhaps the average player misunderstood the mechanics of this server, but as a local entity deeply synchronized with the lore, she had the imperial legal code memorized by heart.
The laws were explicit: publicly slandering, insulting, or inflicting severe emotional distress upon a civilian was a recognized imperial offense. In many provincial jurisdictions, the penal sentencing for malicious public abuse was actually far more severe than the punishment for basic vandalism.
Although she didn’t fully comprehend why the game developers had coded such an unorthodox legal system, the current outcome was exponentially better than she had initially calculated. Because Shen San hadn’t inflicted any fatal damage, the imperial magistrate would likely detain him for a few days to teach him a lesson before processing his release.
As for victims like Lu Yunxi, the legal code dictated she was free to leave the precinct immediately.
Because her motor functions remained severely impaired by the toxins, the municipal officers arranged a specialized carriage to escort her back to the inn.
Shen San remained locked inside the imperial holding cells for several days before finally clearing his sentence.
The morning of his release, he paused before the magistrate’s desk.
“My Lord, during the altercation, I accidentally inflicted severe structural damage to the imperial thoroughfare. What is the exact sum of silver required to cover the municipal repairs?”
“You don’t owe the treasury a single copper,” the administrative officer replied casually, not even looking up from his ledger. “Your master already paid the comprehensive municipal fine on your behalf. Furthermore, she personally contracted a massive crew of high-tier artisans to reconstruct the road. The new pavement is significantly superior to the original.”
Shen San froze in absolute stupefaction.
When that wretched crowd had been aggressively mocking and insulting his master, his blood had boiled with pure, unadulterated fury. Yet when he drew his sword to exact vengeance, his master had actively burned her mana to shield them!
He had been entirely justified in defending her honor!
Recalling the tragic, devastating tears she had shed inside the courtroom, his chest tightened with a profound, suffocating ache.
And now… his master had silently paid his imperial fines and bailed him out.
He genuinely could not comprehend his master’s thought process.
What exactly had Lu Yunxi been thinking? Had she lost her mind trying to protect a pack of malicious idiots?! Absolutely not! She had simply been terrified that Shen San’s impulsive temper would saddle him with a mandatory murder sentence!
Three to five years in an imperial prison was merely the baseline penalty; many severe infractions carried decades-long sentences. Worse yet, the game’s core mechanics dictated that a player was forced to serve their full prison sentence in-game, and the developers hadn’t coded a fast-forward button to skip the timeline! Furthermore, time spent logged off the server did not count toward the sentence; a player literally had to remain logged in and rot inside a digital cell for three consecutive years!
Even if a player grew desperate and attempted to roll a new avatar, it was mechanically impossible. The Ancient Times server utilized strict biometric identity binding; each human citizen was restricted to a single, permanent account.
When Shen San returned to the inn and demanded an explanation, Lu Yunxi was mildly surprised by his confusion but patiently broke down the mechanical severity of the imperial penal code.
After clarifying the stakes, the two settled back into a comfortable routine.
The subsequent days passed in a state of absolute, tranquil routine for Lu Yunxi and Shen San.
Their daily schedule became incredibly structured. They would wake at nine in the morning to share breakfast, after which Shen San would lift Lu Yunxi into her wheelchair and push her through the sunlit courtyards for fresh air. They would return to their suite for lunch, head back outside to bask in the afternoon sun, share dinner, clean the quarters, and retire for the evening. The days blurred together in a peaceful, repetitive rhythm.
But today, the skies had opened up, unleashing a torrential, freezing downpour.
“Master, I fear we won’t be able to secure your outdoor time today,” Shen San murmured, rubbing his temples as a dull headache set in.
The local apothecary had privately warned him that the staggering volume of toxins saturating his master’s vessel, combined with the freezing, aggressive nature of the antidotes she was consuming, had severely crippled her internal yang energy. If she failed to consistently absorb natural sunlight, the freezing yin energy would rapidly accumulate inside her marrow. On rainy, overcast days, the damp chill would seep into her joints, causing excruciating, agonizing pain in her legs and knees.
Lu Yunxi was entirely oblivious to the grim prognosis the doctor had secretly relayed to her apprentice. She simply offered a casual nod, her eyes focused intently on the polished Go board resting between them. “It’s perfectly fine.”
Her internal foundation was steadily recovering. In truth, the antidotes weren’t inflicting massive systemic damage; the vast majority of the lingering toxins were highly localized, concentrating entirely within the tissues of her face.
Seeing his master’s serene, unbothered expression, Shen San slowly regained his composure.
“Master, would you care to play a round with me?” he asked eagerly. He had recently studied the fundamental mechanics of the game and found the tactical depth quite fascinating.
“Alright,” she replied, raising an eyebrow in mild surprise that her giant apprentice possessed the patience for classical strategy. Seeing the absolute, radiating confidence plastered across his face, her competitive interest was instantly piqued.
“Wait! Master, I accidentally fumbled that piece! I meant to place it one grid over!”
“No, Master, your optical tracking is glitching! I explicitly placed my stone on that exact intersection!”
“Master, please, I beg of you, grant me a two-move retraction! No, five moves! I won’t ask to alter the board state again, just grant me a five-move rollback!”
It took exactly ten minutes for Shen San’s demeanor to devolve from unshakeable, arrogant confidence, to frantic head-scratching, and finally to outright, shameless cheating.
Those brief, chaotic minutes were more than enough for Lu Yunxi to deduce a stark reality: her giant apprentice was a remarkably, catastrophically terrible chess player!
She shook her head in helpless amusement, but ultimately humored his tantrums, deliberately throwing several tactical advantages to artificially extend the match.
Yet, regardless of how aggressively she handicapped herself, he remained entirely incapable of securing a victory.
The heavy rain pattered rhythmically against the wooden roof tiles, the only other sound in the suite being the sharp, satisfying clack of polished stones hitting the board.
While the master and disciple enjoyed a peaceful, cozy afternoon, they remained completely oblivious to the dark conspiracy unfolding in a distant, undisclosed coordinate.
Inside a pitch-black chamber, thick, heavy velvet curtains were drawn tightly across the windows, sealing the room from the outside world. A single, flickering candle provided the only source of illumination.
Two silhouettes sat directly across from one another at a wooden table. The dancing shadows masked their physical features entirely.
“Status report. Was the operation successful?”
“Set your mind at ease. That woman surnamed Lu absorbed the maximum dosage. Her facial aesthetics have been entirely pulverized. I guarantee her current character model is so physically repulsive that no citizen would dare look her in the eye.”
“Excellent. I shall dispatch a courier to route your silver payment to the designated dead drop tomorrow night at exactly 21:00. Send your own operative to secure the funds.”
“Understood, honored client. If you require any further wet-work or structural sabotage across the server, simply route a message to my network. I promise to deliver absolute, premium service!”
Following the sharp sound of retreating footsteps, the heavy door swung open, casting a brief, blinding sliver of daylight into the room before slamming shut an instant later.
The chamber plunged back into suffocating darkness.
The solitary figure remaining at the table slowly lifted their head, staring blankly into the flickering candle flame. A highly erratic, twisted glint flashed through their eyes.
“I offer my deepest apologies. It is entirely your own fault that your existence was actively obstructing my path…”
“Moving on to our next premium lot! The item currently gracing the podium is a high-grade, fifty-year-old Beauty-Enhancing Herb! I am absolutely certain the esteemed guests in this hall are intimately familiar with the properties of this flora. Simply boiling the leaves and consuming the broth can drastically refine your physical complexion and purge the vast majority of cosmetic blemishes! If you enlist a master-level apothecary to refine this stalk into a complex medicinal matrix, the cosmetic enhancements will be nothing short of miraculous!”
On the grand auction stage, a stunning woman in a flowing crimson dress delivered the pitch with a radiant, professional smile.
The massive crowd seated in the general auditorium craned their necks, their eyes locked onto the velvet-lined display box. Resting inside was a pristine herb radiating a faint, ethereal silver luminescence.
Seated within a high-tier private VIP suite on the second floor, Lu Yunxi swept her gaze over the botanical specimen below. “That is indeed a remarkably premium strain.”
“The starting bid is set at fifty taels of solid silver, with a minimum increment of one tael per call. The auction officially commences now!” The auctioneer’s voice practically vibrated with theatrical emotion, instantly igniting the crowd’s competitive frenzy as the bids began pouring in.
“Fifty-one taels!”
“Hmph! What absolute poverty are you projecting with a fifty-tael bid?! Sixty taels!”
“One hundred taels! Honored guests, I harbor a profound, personal desire for this specific medicinal asset. I humbly request that the gallery grant me face and allow me to secure it!”
Lu Yunxi stared down at the man who had just stood up in the general seating area, offering a sweeping, polite bow to the surrounding bidders. She frowned in mild confusion.
“Shen San, does your database recognize that individual? Why did the entire bidding war freeze the exact second he issued a vocal request?” Judging purely by the aesthetic design of his armor, the man was almost certainly a human player!
Shen San was casually flipping through the premium auction catalog provided by the venue. Hearing her question, he kept his head lowered. “That player… I believe he serves as the primary guild leader for a major localized faction. He commands a considerable degree of political influence within this sector!” He had seen the man’s avatar plastered across various server forums, but he had never physically crossed paths with him in-game.
Down on the stage, the crimson-clad auctioneer’s voice echoed through the silence. “One hundred taels going once… One hundred taels going twice…”
“Two hundred taels!” A harsh, booming voice suddenly erupted from one of the second-floor VIP boxes, brutally cutting the auctioneer off.
The guild leader who had just bowed to the crowd froze, his expression instantly darkening as he shot a furious glare toward the second floor. Unfortunately, the VIP suites were heavily shielded by one-way privacy screens, preventing him from locking onto the bidder’s identity. “Honored friend on the upper deck, I humbly ask that you grant my guild a measure of respect…”
“Who in the absolute hell do you think you are?! Why on earth should I grant you a shred of respect?! You genuinely believed you could secure a premium Beauty-Enhancing Herb for a pathetic hundred taels?! What absolute delusion are you operating under?!” The arrogant bidder inside the VIP box sneered, ruthlessly mocking the guild leader without a shred of basic courtesy.
The guild leader choked on his rage, his face turning an icy, dangerous shade of purple.
For a long, agonizing moment, the entire grand auction house fell completely, suffocatingly silent. The atmosphere was incredibly tense and bizarre.
The auctioneer quickly recovered her professional composure, seamlessly hijacking the momentum to break the silence. “Do I hear any further counter-offers? The current bid stands at two hundred taels…”
Only then did Shen San finally process the item description. “Wait, it’s a Beauty-Enhancing Herb?! Master, this specific botanical asset possesses the exact pharmacological properties required to purge your debuff!”
Without a single second of hesitation, he threw his voice over the balcony rail. “Five hundred taels!”
Lu Yunxi was violently startled by the shout. She lunged forward, desperately attempting to clamp her hand over his mouth, but her reflexes were a fraction of a second too slow.
Down on the stage, the auctioneer registered the massive price spike, a brilliant, euphoric smile instantly blooming across her face.
“One thousand taels!” The arrogant voice from the opposing VIP suite barked another counter-offer, instantly plunging the entire auction house back into a chaotic, roaring frenzy.
Lu Yunxi violently yanked Shen San back from the railing, physically preventing him from issuing another bid. She stared at him in utter, exhausted speechlessness.
“Have you completely lost your mind?! You were actually prepared to burn five hundred taels of solid silver on a basic cosmetic weed?!” What an absolute, unhinged spendthrift! The herb was structurally flawless, but it was merely categorized as a Blue-tier botanical asset; it wasn’t worth a fraction of that price!
“If your objective is to refine your skin texture, simply wait until we return to the inn. I can manually synthesize a premium medicinal broth for you that tastes infinitely better than a boiled weed!”
Shen San’s face twisted into an expression of profound, tragic helplessness. “Master, I wasn’t bidding on the asset for myself! I was attempting to secure it for you! Silver is entirely disposable; I can easily farm more currency later!”
While her physical foundation had successfully recovered and she had regained full motor function, the residual necrosis remained heavily caked across her face. Her cosmetic model had not recovered a single millimeter; she still looked exactly as horrifying as the day they discharged her from the clinic.
