Chapter 266: [Rotten Bones and Resurrected Flesh] Delayed Punishment
Master Gao stood directly before her, his face dark and heavy.
Bai Cha drew in a sharp breath of cold air as excruciating pain rippled across her entire body.
As expected, sustaining injuries on the inside manifested on the outside all the same—Zheng Zelin’s injured state earlier was proof enough.
Her complexion deathly pale, she broke into a fit of coughing.
Even as she coughed, she lowered her head to steal a glance at her palm.
The Tai Sui had returned as well, morphing into a black glove.
Master Gao took half a step backward, looking at her with an expression of utter disdain.
Bai Cha clearly saw his favorability toward her drop from -50 straight to -150.
The players nearby had long since awakened.
They were all scrutinizing Bai Cha, and seeing her condition deteriorate to such a miserable degree, they mentally weighed the danger of the umbrellas inside that room.
Bai Cha still held Liu Ruyi’s umbrella in her hand; with her return, the umbrella had transformed into a folding umbrella that couldn’t be popped open.
Yet at the very least, the entire canopy had loosened out, no longer tightly bound shut.
Master Gao’s gaze landed on the umbrella, his grip tightening around the black umbrella in his own hand.
“Who gave you permission to enter that room?”
It took a long while for Bai Cha to catch her breath.
She lowered her eyes to look at the umbrella in her hand first.
Only then did she speak with a face full of apology: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Didn’t mean to?” Master Gao sneered.
“Coming here to be my apprentice, yet refusing to listen to my words! Entering that room without my permission, and even bringing the items inside out—you have quite the nerve!”
Even as he spoke, his favorability score overhead dropped by another 100, standing at -250 now.
Bai Cha fell silent; refraining from offering excuses, she merely apologized once more.
“This matter is my fault, but please continue to let me stay here. I promise a thing like this will never happen again.”
The several players nearby displayed varying expressions.
By rights, Bai Cha had been framed in this matter, and she could have explained herself, yet she refrained.
For reasons unknown, Shen Xiao-luo felt a creeping sense of unease.
“You still want to stay here? Keep dreaming! Let me tell you: scram right now!”
Bai Cha pursed her lips, tears brimming in her eye rims as she pleaded once more.
“Please give me one more chance!”
Saying this, she lowered her head.
A single tear dropped instantly—large as a bean—landing squarely atop the umbrella in her hand.
“Sigh… Master Gao, don’t make things difficult for her. She was pushed inside by someone.”
A woman’s voice echoed from the umbrella frame, and Liu Ruyi’s figure materialized inside the room.
An icy, despairing aura gripped the throats of everyone present in an instant.
She cast a chilly glance at Shen Xiao-luo.
“She was pushed in by this young girl, who even took me down.”
Master Gao’s gaze locked onto Shen Xiao-luo instantly.
Shen Xiao-luo’s face turned deathly pale.
“I didn’t!”
Shen Xiao-luo explained in a panic.
“I really didn’t! I didn’t touch her at all!”
Standing behind Liu Ruyi, Bai Cha observed the expressions of those few players.
A slender thread abruptly slithered out from the box, silently coiling around Bai Cha’s finger.
“It’s puppet technique.”
It was Wen Zhao’s voice, though likely audible to Bai Cha alone.
Her eyes flickering subtly, Bai Cha opened the box.
The puppet had vanished, replaced instead by a miniature version of Wen Zhao.
He glared at her.
“What are you doing? I kindly warned you—what did you open the box for?!”
Didn’t you see a formidable specter nearby? What if she eats me? How can this person be so abominable!
Liu Ruyi had already turned her gaze over, as had Master Gao.
Wen Zhao went rigid for a brief moment, then offered a greeting to Master Gao.
“Hello, Master.”
Master Gao walked over, scrutinizing Wen Zhao meticulously before casting a glance at Bai Cha.
“Hmph!”
He let out a cold snort, uttering nothing further, yet his favorability score adjusted from -250 back to -150.
Meanwhile, Bai Cha finally received her first quest completion prompt.
[System Notice: You have successfully restored the marionette: Wen Zhao. Starting today, he is his own master.]
[System Notice: As a reward, Wen Zhao has gifted you a prop: Puppet Thread (Imitation). This puppet thread cannot control others—because Wen Zhao believes no human ought to be controlled—but it can be used as a prop for heart-to-heart connections. After use, you can connect minds with anyone bound by the puppet thread.]
Deeply moved, Bai Cha patted Wen Zhao’s head, prompting him to slap her finger away in annoyance.
“Forget it this time,” Master Gao spoke up.
“I don’t care what petty tricks you pull among yourselves, but if I catch you disobeying my rules again, none of you need to stay here anymore.”
“Now, bring out the items you have restored.”
Knitting her brows, Liu Ruyi remained silent, turning back into the umbrella.
Shen Xiao-luo let out a breath of relief.
It was just… she truly hadn’t touched Bai Cha.
She admitted she had intended to make a move at first, but ultimately refrained.
Yet generally speaking, specters disdained lying—at least, judging by the aura Liu Ruyi displayed upon appearing, she wasn’t the type who enjoyed sowing discord or watching players engage in overt and covert struggles.
Furthermore, Bai Cha had stolen a glance at her earlier, and she possessed a prop back then that seemingly allowed her to inquire who had locked her inside.
Shen Xiao-luo pondered in her heart who on earth was pulling the strings.
The most likely candidate was naturally Chen Mi—this man had given her a strange vibe right from the start.
Yet was it the other party disguising themselves as her, or… something else?
Master Gao was currently inspecting the items held by every individual.
He had already looked at Wen Zhao, and he naturally understood Liu Ruyi’s condition as well.
He primarily inspected the objects in the hands of the remaining few players.
The states of these items varied from one another.
However, none of the players had chosen to kill the specters housed within.
After all, one could roughly figure out that the true vintage items were actually these specters themselves.
They certainly couldn’t be killed directly.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called restoration—it would be called destruction.
After taking a full loop, Master Gao let out a cold snort.
“None of them are any good. Keep restoring! Weren’t you all very curious about that room? Go pick an umbrella each.”
As Master Gao spoke, the door to that room opened softly, as if blown ajar by the wind.
“One umbrella per person. Go on. Regardless of who among you manages to restore an umbrella, I have a special reward, and you can directly become my disciple.”
[Ding—Received a quest commission from Master Gao: Restore an umbrella. Completing the quest will grant a special prop reward. Note: if you fail to restore it, the consequences will be grim~]
Bai Cha looked at the umbrella in her hand in silence.
Did she need to go through another one?
Watching the players stand up hesitantly, yet with no one willing to be the first to step inside, Master Gao seemed to abruptly recall something.
“Oh, right. I forgot to mention earlier—the few of you clumsily turned my place into a mess.”
He pointed abruptly at the five players excluding Bai Cha.
“Since your hands and feet are so useless, cripple one limb each.”
The moment the words fell, the complexions of several players shifted drastically.
Simultaneously, the room plunged into absolute pitch darkness.
Instantly on alert, Bai Cha deployed a protective barrier to shield herself.
Immediately after, the umbrella in her hand vibrated subtly.
