Chapter 643 - Punishment

Yan Tianhen blinked at him, then shrunk back behind Lin Xuanzhi and said, “Dage, he was the one who threw me to another place and caused Senior Yin and I to get separated back then…”

Lin Xuanzhi swallowed. “You told me when you took me away that you had already sent Ah Hen and the other companions out of the Tomb of Youshan. Supposedly, you also told them that I was safe and sound and would leave after I break the array 100 years later. But why was it that when I was in the Youshan Capital, I saw Ah Hen, who had been chased and hunted down for 100 hundred years in the Tomb of Youshan?”

His voice was light, and he did not deliberately raise it, nor did he deliberately add those sensational words that would exaggerate the atmosphere and emotion. But every word he spoke was full of a kind of undercurrent. When Lian Hua heard this, he was frightened.

After all, every time Chang Sheng interrogated him in such a light tone, it was always when he was going to lose half of his life.

Lin Xuanzhi’s rhetorics must have come from Yan Tianhen.

But Lian Hua couldn’t dispute it. It wasn’t like he could say, “I actually imprisoned Yan Tianhen in the celestial prison for a hundred years and didn’t throw him outside of Youshan Capital to let him be chased and hunted down”, right?

A lie can snowball into something into an avalanche.

A single lie requires tens of thousands of lies to cover up.

Lian Hua could only pretend to be innocent. He first acted a little surprised and said, “Aiya, I didn’t know he was actually Shixiong’s Dao companion. I was short-sighted just now. It has been a long time, so I didn’t recognize him. Please forgive me.” Then he cast his eyebrows in confusion, and said, “At that time, I had clearly sent them all out. Could it be that there was some misunderstanding here?”

Yan Tianhen laughed inwardly, You dare to lie in front of Lin Xuanzhi and not even repent; you are really bad with interrogations.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Lin Xuanzhi first went silent for a moment, as if he was trying to discern the truth from what Lian Hua said. Then, while Lian Hua was still vigorously planning to make a few more excuses for himself, Lin Xuanzhi whispered coldly, “Kneel.”

Lian Hua, “…..”

Although extremely reluctant, Lian Hua still bent his knees and knelt down in front of Lin Xuanzhi.

But even so, Lian Hua still did not give up on defending himself, “Shixiong, you can’t ignore my explanation just because you have him in your heart. I really don’t know why Yan Tianhen didn’t leave the Tomb of Youshan. I can guarantee that it has nothing to do with me. You and I have known each other for so many years. How can Shixiong not trust me at all? Besides, how do you know that he didn’t lie to you?”

Yan Tianhen almost wanted to applaud Lian Hua.

Although Lian Hua’s survival instinct was strong, his understanding of Lin Xuanzhi was really not thorough enough, or it may be that the last time he had been punished may have been too long ago, so that Lian Hua’s mind was lax and he didn’t even know how to lie anymore.

Lian Hua’s age was much older than Chang Sheng, but he entered the sect later and his face was still so young, so it was reasonable for Chang Sheng to call him “Shidi“. But he was stubborn and said that he would never call Chang Sheng “Shixiong” and instead, insisted on calling his name directly. Chang Sheng also didn’t care much. It was nothing more than a title, so he just let it go.

But once Lian Hua did something wrong, he would become a scaredy-cat and call Chang Sheng “Shixiong” nonstop.

Everyone knew that he was lying whenever he said “Shixiong”, but only he himself didn’t know it, and no one bothered to tell him over the years, so the result was ridiculously funny.

Yan Tianhen’s heart was already full of joy. This “Shixiong” was truly pleasant to the ears.

Hearing Lin Xuanzhi’s cold voice, he was obviously angry, “Lian Hua, you not only lied to me that Ah Hen had already left the Tomb of Youshan and instead attacked him behind my back, but you also covered it up when the matter came to light. Instead of repenting and admitting your mistakes, you actually wanted to frame the victim. Is that what the Hidden Spirit Holy Sect taught you and what Dao Zu and I taught you?”

These words were already extremely heavy. Lian Hua only felt as if he had returned to the fear of being dominated by the Eldest Martial Brother Chang Sheng when he was still in the Hidden Spirit Holy Sect.

Lian Hua shrunk his neck. “How can you be sure that I am lying?”

Lin Xuanzhi sneered twice and did not answer but continued on, “Go to the Repentance Hall and reflect behind closed doors. Copy the 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 one hundred and twenty times. You will finish in ten years. Every time you finish one copy, go outside and kneel for ten days. Do this every day.”

Lian Hua shook; he stood up and looked at Lin Xuanzhi incredulously. “Shixiong, isn’t this punishment too harsh? Even copying a single line from the《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 is enough punishment to last people a while, yet you actually want me to copy it one hundred and twenty times. Do you want my life?! Also, kneel for ten days? Even Lingyu’s heaviest punishment back then was only kneeling for three days. You–”

Lin Xuanzhi looked into his eyes and asked, “This is harsh? When you threw Ah Hen into the Tomb of Youshan, have you ever thought about how pitiful it was to live alone for a hundred years? The fact that he’s still alive is already a miracle — even the heavens pitied him. If you were not my younger martial brother, I would’ve made you repay with your life.”

“But Shixiong–”

“If you don’t accept the punishment this time, then there’s no need to recognize me as your Shixiong in the future.” Lin Xuanzhi lightly forced back all the words Lian Hua wanted to say.

Lian Hua saw Yan Tianhen, who was hiding behind Lin Xuanzhi and making smug faces at him. He wanted to tear down his identity immediately and take Yan Tianhen down with him. At least then, he wouldn’t have to see this kid’s smug smirk again.

However, he did not. Because it was not the time yet.

The wind surged in Lian Hua’s eyes, and his gaze was full of killing intent: he clenched his fists and glared at Yan Tianhen.

Yan Tianhen seemed to be possessed by the spirit of an actor. He tugged on the edge of Lin Xuanzhi’s clothes and said, “Dage, I’m scared, he’s glaring at me.”

Lin Xuanzhi asked, “Do you want to double the punishment?”

Lian Hua gritted his teeth and said to Yan Tianhen, “Fine, I’ll take this punishment. Who’s afraid of whom!? Don’t be too arrogant! Just you wait!”

Yan Tianhen: “Ying ying, he’s threatening me.”

Before Lin Xuanzhi could personally drag Lian Hua away, Lian Hua shouted “Ahhhhh” at the sky, then turned and ran towards the Repentance Hall.

Lin Xuanzhi sighed slightly. “Lian Hua doesn’t have a bad nature, but I don’t know why he treats you like this. I’m going to ask him in a while so that you won’t suffer any more grievances.”

Yan Tianhen shrugged. “Who knows what he’s thinking? I am obviously a very lovable person; people like me at first glance and flowers bloom upon seeing me. If he doesn’t like me, then it must be his fault.”

Lin Xuanzhi nodded and laughed. “Yeah, everyone likes our Ah Hen.”

Yan Tianhen asked, “Dage, you asked him to copy the 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》, what is that? Whenever I made mistakes before, my Daddy would also have me copy books, but it was not difficult.” Although his face showed puzzlement, Yan Tianhen’s heart was clear.

The《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 wasn’t anything good. In the whole Hidden Spirit Holy Sect, he was afraid that except for Lin Xuanzhi, all of Dao Zu’s disciples had suffered from it. This inquiry was just for the sake of acting.

After all, people who don’t know the situation would think that the punishment of copying the 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》120 times was very light.

“《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 is a Taoist book that covers all the rules of Hidden Spirit Sect. There are more than 10,000 characters in it, and this 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 contains Dao Zu’s power, so every time you copy a character, you will experience pain. For anyone, whether it is a person of outstanding status or an ordinary disciple, as long as they are still under Hidden Spirit Holy Sect’s control, they will have no resistance to the punishment of the《Spirit Sect Admonitions》”

Lin Xuanzhi lightly explained, “And it takes at least fifteen days to copy the whole book. I also punished him by kneeling outside for ten days every time he finished copying once. It’s not just letting him kneel. There’s more to it.” Lin Xuanzhi didn’t elaborate too much, but his meaning was very clear. His beloved Ah Hen had been bullied. After so many years of suffering, he would never make Lian Hua’s life easy–

Even if Lian Hua was his only acquaintance still alive in this world.

Yan Tianhen didn’t ask any further questions. After he expressed his curiosity, his goal was achieved.

As for what the punishment of copying the 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 and kneeling outside the Repentance Hall could bring to people, he, a person who had tasted all the punishments of Hidden Spirit Sect, knew better than anyone else. The《Spirit Sect Admonitions》 was simply the darkest psychological shadow in Yan Tianhen’s heart.

There were a total of twelve thousand three hundred and fifty-seven characters on it, all of which were written with divine script, and all of them contained different degrees of pain.

These strokes were not just copied on that special scroll, but every time you wrote a stroke, the corresponding imprint of this divine script would be carved on your body. Sometimes it was the mark of a whip, sometimes it was a plank, and sometimes, if you were out of luck, it was a sword wound.

It’s just that the writer could feel the densely packed wounds tingling on their back that was unbearable. But in fact, this was just an illusion technique covering the 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》. There was no trace of wounds on the writer’s body, but they would still be able to feel the pain piercing their bones. It was a very poisonous punishment.

However, if it wasn’t for the strict laws that disregarded one’s social network and based everything on merit instead, Hidden Spirit Holy Sect would not have been regarded as the first of the orthodox Dao sects in the Myriad Dao Era, which was already full of innumerable powerhouses and countless glorious sects. The most severe punishment Yan Tianhen ever had was to copy the whole book of《Spirit Sect Admonitions》.

It took him ten days to copy more than 10,000 words. He cried for a while after each character he copied. After that, he never dared to make the same mistake again. As for the punishment of kneeling, it was equally bone-chilling.

Outside the Repentance Hall – there were rocks dedicated to the kneeling punishment.

This stone had a nickname called “The Hardest Stone in the World”, which was named by Yan Tianhen himself.

Kneeling on the top of the world’s hardest stone, you could get heatstroke in two hours, you would definitely catch a cold in four hours, and you would feel both fire and ice in six hours. You would wish that you could directly ascend to heaven. But this wasn’t all. The worst thing about the hardest stone in the world was that once you knelt down, you couldn’t stand up. This stone was a meteorite from the sky. The gravity was different from that of the outside. When you kneel down, it’s like a mountain with a thousand pounds of weight on it. If you didn’t use your spiritual Qi to fight against the weight on your shoulder, it wouldn’t be long before you were lying on top of the hardest stone in the world with the posture of a dog eating shit.

Lin Xuanzhi actually punished Lian Hua to kneel for ten days every time he copied the 《Spirit Sect Admonitions》. Even Yan Tianhen felt a little weak in his legs and felt the punishment was too heavy.

Hidden Spirit Holy Sect’s punishment had a characteristic. It would never harm the life of the disciples, nor would it have any impact on their cultivation, but it could make you regret your mistakes so that you dared not ever violate the rules again.

Yan Tianhen gave Lian Hua a tear of sympathy in his heart.

Lin Xuanzhi was not aware of Yan Tianhen’s rich psychological activities. He held Yan Tianhen’s hand and led him around the palace. Lin Xuanzhi said, “You probably have all kinds of questions in your heart. This is a long story. I will tell you slowly.”

Yan Tianhen nodded and asked, “Dage, where is this place?”

“This is part of the Hidden Spirit Holy Sect tens of thousands of years ago.”

——–

Author’s Note: Ah Hen is a good child. You can rest assured that he has never taken the initiative to harm anyone in his past life or in this life.

———

Rose: Ah Hen really is a good child. *sips tea*

Zaki: Yeah the way he got even with Lian Hua was really good.. good child indeed! *smirks*