Chapter 303: The Deity’s Punishment
This novel is translated and hosted on BCatranslation
Lu Chao Chao clutched her plump self with a heart full of sorrow.
With a pout, she muttered under her breath, “Wealth is but an external thing…”
“One is born with nothing and dies with nothing. Cliché…”
“Gold and silver are just stinking dog dung. I’m not sad. I’m not sad. Not even a little bit… What’s there to be sad about? It’s just money…”
“Just some priceless gold and silver, just an eternal Everlasting Lamp, just a fist-sized Night-Luminescent Pearl. I don’t like them, not even a little…” As she chanted, her small mouth quivered.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at Lu Zheng Yue.
[Heavens! My entire underground palace’s treasure has been looted! I’ve been robbed!!]
[Laughed too loudly, and now karma strikes.]
“Waaaah! Second Brother, hug…” Lu Chao Chao sobbed with a face full of snot and tears, clinging to her brother’s shoulder, soaking his robe.
Lu Zheng Yue: ???
What? She laughed so happily, and now she’s mourning?
His eyes widened in disbelief.
“What’s wrong with Princess Sunshine?” The old imperial physician trembled as he looked at her.
Lu Zheng Yue held his little sister with one arm, rubbing his nose awkwardly.
“Most likely, she couldn’t bear to see the master of the underground palace being robbed,” Lu Zheng Yue muttered, half amused and half exasperated as he heard her thoughts.
Just a moment ago, she laughed so heartily.
Now, she wept as though the sky had collapsed.
Hugging his sister, Lu Zheng Yue ordered, “Seal off the underground palace. No commoners are to enter. As for the burial treasures that were taken, retrieve what can be retrieved.”
“If we can’t get them back, let those who entered the underground palace kneel and pay respects at the entrance.” He patted his sister’s back.
The guards responded at once.
Lu Chao Chao lay against her brother’s shoulder and asked, “Were there no traps or guards in the underground palace?”
[When I was a Sword Sovereign, I was practically a god of poverty. My disciples always valued gold and silver greatly. If they hid such vast treasures in the underground palace, how could there be no defenses?]
[I don’t believe it.]
“No guards,” the guide shook his head.
“However, the Desolate City used to have an evil spirit. One that caused havoc every Ghost Festival.”
“In the past, he guarded this place, and no one dared approach. But over the years, he has appeared less and less, so people started exploring the area.”
Lu Chao Chao froze.
“Evil spirit…”
Could it be that wandering soul, the one that always cried out for lost spirits to return?
She felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Lu Zheng Yue placed her onto the carriage, preparing to return to the city.
The little girl glanced around, then sneaked out the Divine Register from her robes.
No one in the palace dared to search her body.
Thus, she smuggled the Divine Register out of the gates.
Of course, the emperor’s hidden guards had already reported this to him. However, the emperor did not intervene. After all, it was just the Divine Register. Even if she asked for the Imperial Jade Seal, he would grit his teeth and let her play with it for a few days.
Even Xiangliu had to brush its teeth before seeing her. Emperor Xuan Ping wouldn’t dare offend her.
After all, when the civil and military officials overheard her thoughts last time, Emperor Xuan Ping realized he might be holding onto an immensely powerful leg.
“Hey, could that evil spirit be one of my idiot disciples?”
Lu Chao Chao flipped open the Divine Register.
Her heart grew heavier.
The page belonging to Zong Bai glowed dimly, with faint traces of lightning dancing upon it. If she touched it, she would feel an electric shock.
Chong Yue’s section had already darkened entirely, dull and lifeless.
And War God Xing Hui’s name was now shrouded in thick black mist, filling her heart with unease.
“Xing Hui, oh Xing Hui, what are you doing? You are the God of War of the heavens, the brightest beacon of light!” She fretted, placing the Divine Register into her spatial storage.
“Let’s go to the medical clinic first.”
When they arrived at the clinic, they found it in utter chaos.
People were even fighting.
Seeing patients covered in wounds still brawling, Lu Zheng Yue flew into a rage.
“Are you courting death?! With one foot in the coffin, you still want to fight? If you want to fight, get out!” He stood at the gate with a grim face, causing the patients to shrink back.
Some people in the corners were even stuffing stolen copper coins into their pockets.
“It’s mine! I dropped it!” A woman with red blotches on her face shrieked.
“Hmph, you mean you stole it from the underground palace!” A skinny man sneered.
Lu Zheng Yue’s eyes turned red with fury.
“If you want to die, then leave! Don’t waste the clinic’s beds!”
“I’ve told you countless times that this illness worsens with emotional agitation! What use is hoarding all that money? You can’t even buy a coffin now!” His voice was cold.
“And if you must take the treasures, why did you have to desecrate the underground palace?”
“If you have any conscience left, go kneel at its entrance and offer your respects to the dead.”
The woman scoffed, “They’re already dead. What’s the point of bowing? And it’s not just me. Everyone took things.”
As she spoke, she scratched her skin, feeling an unbearable itch.
The moment her fingers dug in, she gasped in pain. Looking down, her hands were covered in blood.
“Ahhhh!” She screamed.
Her vision darkened as she lifted her sleeves.
“Why am I rotting?! I only got red blotches yesterday! Imperial physician, save me!” She wailed in despair.
According to the usual progression, it should take seven days for the flesh to fester.
But for her, it had only been a single day.
As soon as she spoke, the surrounding crowd backed away in terror.
The man who had just snatched her coins hastily threw them away. “Bad luck, bad luck…”
The imperial physicians exchanged grave glances.
“Remove your upper garment. Take off your shoes and socks…” They examined her carefully.
“Yesterday, she had no red blotches?” One physician ordered a record check.
A young apprentice flipped through the log. “Yes, yesterday she only reported severe body aches. The blotches appeared in the afternoon. By normal standards, she shouldn’t have started rotting for another seven days…”
Once the flesh began to fester, death was inevitable within three days.
“Did you drink our decoction?” The physician frowned. Why was the disease accelerating so quickly?
“I drank it! I drank everything! I haven’t even left the clinic! I haven’t done anything!” She wept bitterly. Who could have expected her time to be up so soon?
She had stolen plenty of silver from the underground palace and counted it joyfully last night. Once she recovered, she planned to live a good life.
“I haven’t even lived one good day yet.”
“Imperial physician, save me!” Tears and snot streamed down her face.
“Have you found a cure? Have you?!”
“I can’t wait any longer!” Fear and desperation replaced her earlier arrogance.
Lu Zheng Yue gestured, summoning two guards to restrain her.
“Let her calm down.”
The clinic was overflowing with patients, despair thick in the air.
“Physician, be honest with us. Do we still have hope?”
Cries of despair echoed.
Lu Zheng Yue, unwilling to let his little sister witness such misery, carried her outside.
The elderly imperial physicians, despite their age, refused to rest.
They stood their ground, searching for a cure.
This world was battered and broken, but there were always those who stitched its wounds together.