As if afraid Ling Xia wasn’t shocked enough, the disciple who led him here stood nearby and compassionlessly added, “Evening Mist Herbs must be watered with the spiritually abundant water from the Radiant Healing Spring at the top of the mountain, and ordinary water will not do. Remember that a single stalk of Evening Mist Herb needs one ladle of water, no more, no less.”
''... ... Senior brother, thanks for the guidance'' Ling Xia sighed, picked up the buckets, and started climbing the mountain according to the directions he was given.
Fuck! This is forcing the horse to run but not letting it eat! Knowing that there's no way to complete this task as instruted, Ling Xia simply trekked forward at a moderate pace while picking whatever fruits he found and eating his fill.
When he finally located that Radiant Healing Spring, Ling Xia was quite pleasantly surprised. The water was bright and clear and full of spiritual energy,sweet on the tongue, and also seemed to possess the ability to relieve fatigue and replenish one's strenght. He drank over half a ladle in one go, then filled up both of the buckets.
Those two buckets were very big, and Ling Xia shouldered them clumsily. Although it wasn't very physically taxing, he couldn't avoid swaying and wobbling, and by the time he walked back, about a fourth of the water had spilled out.
Ling Xia looked at the discontent face of the supervising disciple nearby, hurriedly bent over, and attentively started watering. One of the hobbies of his stay-at-home life was raising plants and flowers, and there were at least ten different potted plants sitting on his balcony at home. One could smell a natural fragrance coming from this Evening Mist Herb, green, lush, and extremely pleasing. Ling Xia gradually became more interested, however, by the time both buckets were empty, he hadn’t even finished watering a single row.
Ling Xia straightened his back and wiped his sweat. The other disciples were also bustling around the medicinal field, some weeding and some planting seeds. In contrast, that overseeing manager Guang XuZi was quite carefree, sitting in a pavilion far away, drinking tea and eating refreshments, looking entirely like a stereotypical, extremely evil chief foreman, and Ling Xia inwardly raised his middle finger at him.
He went back and forth a few times like this, and before long, it was noon. Ling Xia’s clothes were completely drenched and his strength was entirely spent, but that patch of herbs was only watered one tenth of the way.
The lunch bell rang and the other disciples all went to wash their hands as Ling Xia rubbed his empty stomach with a bitter look. A supervising disciple passed by, saw him standing still, and immediately frowned as he bellowed, “Hurry it up! Unless you finish, don’t even think about eating for the rest of the day!”
Ling Xia could only swallow his anger in silence and carry the empty buckets back up the mountain. In any case, those people all left to eat and there was a small river near the spring, so he planned to secretly catch some fish to roast and feed himself.
Next to that river, Ling Xia rolled up his pants and jumped down. This body’s reflexes were pretty good, and very quickly, he caught two foot-long grass carps. It’s just, the task of roasting the fish was usually done by Song XiaoHu, and Ling Xia wasn‘t even familiar with how to start a fire. Only after great difficulty did he get a fire going, but then he kept coughing from choking on the smoke, and in the end, both fish were burnt.
Ling Xia ate one without registering the taste, unable to hold back the occasional groan. He had thought that he generally looked after of those two kids quite well, but in hindsight, the one being taken care of was actually himself… …
Not far away, a rustling sound came from within the underbrush. Ling Xia promptly raised hiss head, and not far away, a completely snow white, fluffy small animal was currently squinting its eyes and looking at him. Ling Xia thought it was a rabbit, but upon closer inspection, he discovered its body more closely resembled that of a atray cat's with the exception of ears that were a bit long. Its long fur was extremely glossy, making people want to reach out touch it at first sight.
Could it be that it was attracted to the smell of roasted fish? Ling Xia pondered. Not having someone to talk to for so long made him quite lonely, so he removed the remaining fish's burnt, outer layer, offered up the well cooked inner meat, and beckoned with his hand as he invited with a smile, ''Come here.''
That animal's large, amber eyes shot him a glance that faintly flashed with disdain, apppearing quite intelligent. Ling Xia stared blankly; unexpectedly, this small animal's expression reminded him of Yu ZhiJue, and he couldn't help but laugh in his heart.
Right at this moment, footsteps suddenly sounded from behind. Startled, Ling Xia turned around and saw that some distance below, Yuan Hui and another disciple called Yuan Ming were currently walking towards him, and he frantically stood up in a rush. A flash of white light appeared before his eyes, the fish in his hand vanished, and that strange, small animal then speedily jumped into the bushes and disappeared.
Ling Xia paused a beat, then poured water to douse out the fire in haste. Nevertheless, it was already too late, and Yuan Ming’s sharp eyes had spotted the remnant ashes on the ground. Without a moment’s delay, he yelled from afar, “How insolent! Daring to even steal and secretly eat food!”
By the time Ling Xia followed those two and descended the mountain, Guang XuZi had already sat in front of the main hall’s front doors for quite some time, wearing a grim expression with crossed legs. The few dozen Immortal Welcoming Pavilion disciples were also all standing inside the courtyard, as if they already knew about Ling Xia’s “secretly stealing food” incident. Perhaps Yuan Hui had used a communication talisman to inform them of the matter while on the way here.
Seeing the three of them return, Guang XuZi heavily slammed his tea cup on the table and sneered, “Wonderful, just wonderful! My Immortal Welcoming Pavilion has never had such a daring and presumptuous disciple before! Do you know what this Immortal Welcoming Pavilion’s thirteenth sect rule is?”
Ling Xia was forced to kneel on the ground, his heart awfully sullen, and hearing this, he raised his head, looked directly at Guang XuZi, and answered, “This disciple only arrived yesterday and does not yet know the sect rules, nor did any of the senior brothers offer their guidance, and thus can only trouble Martial uncle to please enlighten me.”
Guang XuZi gave a sharp laugh as he huffed, “Ohh, so you feel wronged, though I suppose that I, as your martial uncle, is partially to blame here. Yuan Xin, why don’t you recite the thirteenth sect rule for your Junior brother Ling, so as to let him engrave it into his heart.”
A young man around twenty years old stepped forward, and as expected, he had a loud and clear voice. Precisely enunciating each and every word, he quoted, “Those disrespecting the elders are to be conferred thirty strokes.”
Ling Xia gave a start, his face immediately paling. Originally, he thought this would be resolved by being forced to copy the sect rules. The protagonist had been punished here before, and each time, it was some from of excessive manual labor while once, it was to transcribe the sect rules. Because Song XiaoHu was illiterate, his inexperienced and blind copying didn’t turn out well, so Ling Xia remembered this section of the novel very clearly.
Fuck, why was it that when it came to his turn, the punishment changed to getting one’s butt walloped! This accursed fate of mob characters!
Ling Xia was full of misery, and in the present circumstances, toughing it out would just lead to more suffering. After all, what fell under the umbrella of ‘disrespecting the elders’ varied greatly depending on interpretation… He swiftly lowered his head and implored in a meeker tone, “This disciple is unintelligent, and will never dare to again! I will definitely keep Martial uncle’s teachings in mind and ask for guidance from the senior brothers more often, never to forget the sect rules, never to make another mistake!”
Guang XuZi let out a pleased chuckle. In any case, this weak young boy will probably be dead, if not crippled, after receiving thirty strokes, and all in all, this was only his second day, so he would be hard pressed to explain that to his superiors when the time came. But, he had privately accepted 2000 energy coins from Xu Yan, so he couldn’t simply drop this matter either… …
Putting on an act, he coughed once, then declared in a benevolent tone, “Considering your immaturity and on account of this being your first offense, I will reduce your punishment by half. Yuan Ming, Yuan Hui, what are you still dawdling around for?”
A wooden bench had already been pulled out and placed behind Ling Xia. Glancing at the two thick, wooden clubs leaning next to it, he took in a deep breath, and then slowly lied down on his stomach on top of the bench. Fuck! Sooner or later, he will have his revenge!
Yuan Hui stuffed a small, round wooden stick inside Ling Xia’s mouth and whispered, “Junior brother Ling, pardon me.” He knew that Guang XuZi was bribed and was deliberately making things difficult for Ling Xia, but this didn’t concern himself, and it was also inconvenient to be loose tongued. On top of that, the bribe-giver was this sect’s famous sword cultivating elder Mo YuanZi’s disciple, someone he couldn’t afford to offend even more than Guang XuZi. He could only lament that this youngster was too unlucky, provoking such a malicious and troublesome guy as soon as he arrived…
Ling Xia had watched a lot of dramas and movies, and knew that this stick was to prevent one from biting one’s tongue when lost in the throes of excruciating pain. He smiled at Yuan Hui as his heart wildly pounded up and down, and wordlessly bit down. Fuck! Why wasn’t he a MC?!
When the first stroke fell, Ling Xia’s entire back jerked upwards. Tears involuntarily gushed out, and a wordless, blood-curdling scream clogged in his throat as his body started to tremble uncontrollably!
Fuck, this hurts like hell! When he was naughty as a kid, he had been spanked by his old man, but compared to this, that was akin to being gently caressed fml!
Before he could finish reeling from the initial pain, the second, and then the third stroke heavily fell one after another!
Ling Xia subconsciously arched his back, wanting to evade, but someone firmly secured him in place as those wooden clubs continued to fall again and again, striking his butt, his legs, and very soon, the clothes on his back were stained red with blood.
By the time the fifteenth stroke fell, Ling Xia’s face was white as a sheet and his entire body was soaking wet, looking as if he was just fished up from underwater, eyes blurry and unfocused while in so much agony that he could only silently gasp for air. Despite this, he still had to struggle and get up, prostrate with difficulty towards Guang XuZi, and pay his respects. “Many thanks for Martial uncle’s guidance!”
Just watch, I‘ll “thank” all eighteen generations of your family!
Guang XuZi nodded in satisfaction, waving his hand as he ordered, “Yes, as long as you remember. Properly recuperate in the firewood shed these next few days, and once your wounds have healed, you can chop firewood for the time being.”
Luckily, two people held him up by his arms and sent him back. These two were also new disciples that had entered with Ling Xia, and seeing his wrecked state, inevitably felt sympathetic due to their similar statuses, and even poured him a bowl of warm water.
Ling Xia only felt lightheaded, his whole body in unbearable torment. Sprawled on his bed, he licked his dry, cracked lips, drank the water in one gulp, and expressed his thanks towards those two in a hoarse voice.
By the time only Ling Xia remained in the firewood shed, he couldn’t resist gnawing his lips and letting out a few painful wheezes of breath.
He didn’t need to inspect the extent of his injuries, since his dark blue clothes had been dyed closer to a puce red. He was also afraid of the bloodstained cloth drying and clinging to his wounds, making it harder to deal with later, and in any case, Immortal Welcoming Pavilion only had guys. He wasn’t afraid of losing face, so he stripped off his ruined clothes and threw them aside at once, exposing his brutally beaten and grisly backside.
Fortunately, a bit of the medicine Feng Luo had bestowed from before was still left, and enduring the agony, he laboriously applied it on himself, and somehow, between the dizziness and pain, he fell asleep.
Except, he couldn’t escape even in his sleep as nightmares plagued him by turns. His whole body burned as if he was set ablaze, and every pant seemed to scald his throat.
During this period, Guang XuZi was also afraid of Ling Xia dying for real, so he dispatched people to deliver some medicine. Ling Xia drank everything without saying a word, muddle-headedly flopping back down as soon as he finished. These medicine were far inferior to what Feng Luo gave, their effectiveness merely so-so.
Not knowing how many days had passed in a blur of haziness and vertigo, Ling Xia opened his blurry eyes and habitually reached for the bowl of water next to his head. After groping around a few times, someone quickly placed the bowl into his hands.
He thought it was one of the people from Immortal Welcoming Pavilion, gave his thanks in a scratchy voice, and gulped it all down at once. Only after it entered his mouth did he detect its peculiarity, as this water was rather pleasingly sweet, immediately relieving his parched throat, and his feverish forehead also felt a lot more comfortable.
Astonished, Ling Xia followed the sight of black robes and looked up as a familiar and childish face suddenly entered his eyes. Dumbstruck, he couldn't help but as, ''Ah'Jue? Why are you here?''
Yu ZhiJue was half squatting on the ground and heavily biting his lips. Right now, the small face that rarely ever smiled was exceptionally dark and ominous, and a pair of sharp, slighting narrowed almond eyes were currently lingering over Ling Xia's exposed waist and behind, taking in and cataloging the wounds on his body.
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