Chapter 475: Striking While Healing

Inside the prison cell.

"Are you wrong?"

"Wrong, wrong… I was wrong…"

"Where did I go wrong?"

"The… the mistake is that I shouldn't have stopped you, shouldn't… shouldn't have had the greedy thought to extort you…"

"Not right."

Yu Lin slowly shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of disappointment: "It seems you still haven't realized where your true mistake lies."

"Your ideological awareness needs improvement; I ought to give you a proper reward."

Before his words had finished, his arm rose slightly.

Smack—!

The sharp, piercing whipcrack rang out again, landing precisely beside the fresh wound on the Soldier Captain.

The force was controlled to perfection—enough to bring heart‑rending agony, yet not enough to kill outright or cause irreversible injury.

"Ah—! I… I…"

The Soldier Captain let out a shrill scream, his body convulsing violently.

"Smack!"

"Ah! Stop hitting! Stop hitting! I know… I know I was wrong! I shouldn't have abused my authority! I shouldn't have detained travelers for no reason! I shouldn't…"

He shouted incoherently, trying to utter any reason that might get the whipping to stop.

But Yu Lin seemed unsatisfied, his wrist twitching repeatedly.

"Smack! Smack! Smack!"

The dense whip lashes struck the Soldier Captain like venomous snakes, his screams continuous and echoing in the cramped cell, sending chills down the spine.

At the prison cell door, several soldiers who had escorted the Soldier Captain to 'invite' Yu Lin back were now huddled together, faces ashen, bodies trembling slightly.

They watched their usual imposing superior being flogged like a dead dog, their eyes filled with reluctance and pity, but more so with the relief of having survived.

Fortunately, when they had just moved to bind the person, they were merely following orders, showing no extra zeal, nor uttering any disrespect…

However, this relief did not last long.

"Hey, you few, come over."

Yu Lin's voice was not loud, yet it exploded like thunder in the ears of the few soldiers.

Their hearts gave a sudden 'thud', they stiffly turned their heads, only to see Yu Lin already having stopped the whipping, turning to face them with a faint smile.

That smile, in the dim torchlight, looked especially… creepy.

Gurgle.

Several people swallowed hard, their Adam's apples bobbing, their legs feeling a little weak.

But under the gaze of those calm eyes, they dared not hesitate or flee; they could only grit their teeth, shoving each other forward, trembling as they approached Yu Lin.

"You… you want us to do what?"

"We… what can we, what can we do to serve you?"

"Yes, yes, yes, do you have any orders? We'll certainly obey!"

"Nothing serious." Yu Lin said lightly, as if assigning a trivial matter.

He casually flipped his hand, producing from somewhere a whip somewhat darker in hue and of strange texture, and tossed it into the bosom of the soldier nearest him.

The soldier fumbled to catch it; the whip felt warm and moist to the touch, almost alive, faintly emitting a strange energy fluctuation.

"This whip," Yu Lin pointed to the whip in his grasp, then to the dying Soldier Captain on the wall:

"It has an interesting effect—when it strikes a person, it quickly heals the wound, but the pain… well, it becomes clearer."

The several soldiers stared, not yet fully grasping the meaning of his words.

Yu Lin continued: "I need to go out for a bit to handle some business. Your task is simple."

He pointed at the Soldier Captain: "Before I return, use this whip to keep lashing him—don't stop."

"Once the wound heals, switch back to an ordinary one."

He paused, his gaze slowly sweeping over the several terror‑stricken faces, his smile deepening to reveal stark white teeth.

"If, when I come back, I see you've stopped or slacked off…"

His glance, intentional or not, flicked to the iron chains and hooks on the wall used for hanging people.

"…then the person hanging there will be replaced by you."

"Do you understand?"

The last few words turned his voice suddenly cold, like a frigid winter wind piercing the marrow.

"Understood! Understood, understood!" The several soldiers were terrified out of their wits, nodding frantically.

They had no doubt that this mysterious, terrifying Eastern person could do anything he said!

"Good." Yu Lin nodded in satisfaction, no longer looking at them, and turned away.

Then, under the gaze of the several soldiers, Yu Lin's figure, like a reflection in water disturbed by a pebble, flickered slightly, then seemed to merge into the air and vanished instantly without a trace!

No light, no sound—he simply disappeared into thin air!

The cell fell dead silent for a moment, leaving only the Soldier Captain's weak moan and the crackle of the burning torch.

The several soldiers stared at each other, each seeing horror and despair in the other's eyes.

This is certainly not a mortal's method!

A mysterious being from the East, of the Han Empire?!!

They would no longer harbor any wishful thinking.

One of them, trembling, gripped the whip tightly and looked up at the officer hanging on the wall.

The soldier captain also caught his breath at this moment, seeing Yu Lin disappear, a glimmer of hope ignited in his eyes, and he hoarsely shouted at his subordinates: "You idiots! What are you standing there for! Quick! Quick, let me down! Undo the chains!"

"Let's go find the High Priest! Go find the guard captain of Xi Lv Wang! That person is a wizard! A heretic! Can't trust his words! Quick!"

However, facing the commander's shouts and orders, several soldiers just stood there unmoving.

They looked at each other, their eyes filled with struggling fear and consideration.

Go find the priest? Find the guard captain? Not to mention whether we can make it in time; even if we found them, could we deal with that monster that just vanished into thin air?

What if they came back the moment we left? What if... they knew everything?

Compared to the illusory notion of "seeking reinforcements," the whip before them that supposedly "heals" but brings excruciating pain, and that Easterner's icy warning, seemed all too real and terrifying.

In the end, fear of the unknown power overwhelmed loyalty to the commander.

"Sorry, commander!"

"I'm deaf! I can't hear what you're saying!"

A soldier gritted his teeth, his face showing a fierce expression, stepped forward, and said to the soldier captain:

"Commander... sorry! You... just bear with it!"

Another soldier said: "Commander?"

"Where's any commander here?"

"I didn't see any."

Immediately, another voice chimed in: "Exactly, exactly, there's no commander here!"

"Can you recognize them? Anyway, I can't."

"Hurry up and get to work!"

"You... you bunch of bastards! Cowards! Wait till I get down..." The soldier captain was both shocked and angry, cursing loudly, trying to intimidate them with his usual authority.

However, what answered him was the whistling of the whip.

Crack—!

A whip lashed solidly onto his back.

"Ah—!" The expected intense pain came, but what terrified him more was that where the whip landed, the flesh that Yu Lin had torn open actually began to writhe and heal at a visible speed.

The pain didn't lessen at all; indeed, as the nerve endings rapidly healed and became more sensitive, it grew sharper and clearer.

This scene completely shattered the soldier captain's last hope, and also firmly resolved several soldiers to carry out the order.

With such methods defying common sense appearing, that Easterner's threat was definitely not just empty talk!

"Quick! Continue! Don't stop! He said not to stop!"

The soldier holding the whip dared not slack off in the slightest; the speed of his whip swings even increased a bit due to fear.

Several others quickly gathered, some responsible for holding the iron chains to prevent the commander from struggling too violently, others staring fixedly at the door and walls, terrified that the terrifying figure might suddenly appear.

For a moment, the cell was filled with the sound of whipping and the soldier captain's anguished cries.

And Yu Lin.

He had already arrived at Xi Lv Wang's royal palace.

However, he did not reveal himself, but stood in the shadows, watching Mi Ti Ya and the three others walk in.