This Villain Ch.107

Chapter 107: That’s what family is for

“You have trespassed into the forbidden area of the back mountain and must endure thirty lashes of the soul-crushing whip.”

As Yu Le regained consciousness, he heard a cold and indifferent voice by his ear.

At the same time, he felt a searing pain on his back. With the slightest movement, his whole body broke out in a cold sweat.

A realization naturally surfaced in his mind: the body he now inhabited was being punished.

At that moment, a slightly more gentle voice spoke, “Yu Rui is still young and entered the back mountain by mistake. It wasn’t intentional, and no serious harm was done. He has already received twenty lashes. Perhaps we could forgo the final ten?”

The cold voice sounded again, even more chilling than before, “The rules are the rules. Step aside.”

Yu Le opened his eyes and saw a figure in front of him waver with hesitation before finally sighing and stepping aside.

In the next instant, the sharp sound of a whip tearing through the air broke the silence, accompanied by a heavy blow landing on Yu Le’s back.

Another wound was added to the overlapping marks on his back, flesh splitting open as blood splattered.

Yu Le couldn’t help but let out a muffled groan. His original body had been kneeling, but now it was half-collapsed on the ground.

However, the person in front of him showed no sign of stopping. Another lash followed.

As the intense pain coursed through his body, Yu Le squinted his eyes, filled with malice in the stark contrast of black and white.

A flash of black boots and the hem of a black robe passed before his eyes, followed by yet another lash.

When the tenth lash finally fell, the man in front of him retracted the whip.

“Take this as a warning. Do not offend again.”

Someone nearby came forward to help Yu Le stand. Finally able to rise, he lifted his head.

His breath trembled as he looked at the man who had carried out the punishment.

The man held a long whip, dressed in a black robe. His features were cold and stern, his presence as immovable as a mountain, as sharp as a sword.

The man’s gaze upon Yu Le was as cold as ice, devoid of any warmth or emotion.

The head disciple of this generation at the Wuyue Immortal Sect, and the senior brother of their generation, was none other than Mo Cunzhi.

Coincidentally, he was also the villain Yu Le had been tasked with monitoring.

“Senior Brother’s lesson is well received. I will not forget… your guidance today,” Yu Le said with a faint smile in his voice.

“Yu Rui, are you alright?” the person supporting him asked with concern.

Yu Le turned his head, “Senior Brother Meng, I’m fine.”

“Better not to talk for now. Take this Snow Ginseng Pill and rest well when you return.”

Meng Qing took a pill from his sleeve and fed it to his junior brother. Then he quickly helped Yu Le out of the cold and imposing Punishment Hall.

As he glanced back, he saw that Senior Brother Mo had already placed the soul-crushing whip back on the altar and vanished. He looked at his pale-faced junior brother, covered in whip marks, and sighed inwardly.

Meng Qing and Yu Rui were both disciples of the same master, making them close senior and junior brothers.

However, Meng Qing was gentle by nature, while the younger Yu Rui was impulsive, arrogant, and often acted in ways Meng Qing disapproved of. As a result, their relationship wasn’t particularly close.

Senior Brother Mo was the head disciple of the Sect Leader, who shared the same master as their own teacher, making them all disciples of the same grandmaster. In theory, this made them fellow sect brothers.

Yet, Senior Brother Mo was known for his rigorous cultivation, keeping his distance from other disciples. His cold and stern personality, combined with his position overseeing the Punishment Hall, made him feared and avoided by many.

Over the years, aside from their junior sister Feishuang, Senior Brother Mo had remained emotionally distant from them.

Today’s incident, in truth, could have been handled lightly.

Occasionally, young disciples, out of curiosity, would sneak around the outskirts of the forbidden back mountain. As long as they didn’t venture deep into the forbidden area, it wasn’t usually a big deal. But Senior Brother Mo never showed leniency.

After enduring thirty lashes from the soul-crushing whip, Yu Rui’s cultivation level meant he would likely need a period of recovery.

Meng Qing brought Yu Le back to the original owner’s residence at the Wutong Courtyard to rest, and he carefully checked and treated the wounds.

“Don’t worry. I’ll come by every day to change your dressings. As for the scars… I’ll do my best to help you get rid of them,” Meng Qing promised.

Yu Le lay face down on the antique-style bed, observing his senior brother with a smile, “Thank you, Senior Brother. It’s alright if the scars remain.”

Having just arrived in this world and being given such a “grand gift,” he would certainly remember it well.

Meng Qing studied his junior brother’s expression, feeling a bit of a headache coming on. He advised, “Yu Rui, this time you trespassed into the forbidden back mountain first. Senior Brother Mo was only following the rules in punishing you. You mustn’t hold any resentment toward him.”

He was truly worried that his impulsive junior brother might act recklessly and stir up more trouble. If that happened, Senior Brother Mo would show no mercy, and with their master still in seclusion, there would be no one to save him.

“Rest assured, Senior Brother, I won’t,” Yu Le blinked weakly and pitifully.

Of course, he would.

After offering a few more words of concern, Meng Qing felt a bit more at ease seeing that his junior brother, after this ordeal, seemed to have learned a lesson and was now acting more obedient, even willing to listen to advice. With that, he left.

Now alone in the room, Yu Le smirked slightly.

The system cautiously spoke up:

[My apologies, Mr. Yu Le, you’ve been randomly assigned to a special world.]

Yu Le rested his pale, pain-stricken face on his arms and asked, “What do you mean by a ‘special world’?”

[In high-risk cultivation worlds like this, the protagonist may be morally ambiguous, and the villains even more dangerous. For a monitor like you, it’s considered a high-difficulty world. That’s what we call a special world.]

“Oh? Then why was I randomly assigned to such a special world?”

The system was silent for a moment before responding:

[Several members of the Yu family signed up together, so you are linked to one another. Due to significant plot disruptions in previous worlds, the main system detected anomalies, which increases the chances of being assigned to a special world.]

Yu Le’s dangerous and brooding expression instantly softened. He shifted into a more comfortable position and muttered:

“So, it’s my brothers’ fault. Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do. That’s what I get for being the youngest.”

“But, system, which brother are you talking about?”

[My apologies, but our system has strict rules. We can’t disclose information about other worlds.]

Yu Le suddenly smiled. “Oh? Is that so? Well, that’s just wonderful.”

System: ?

“In that case, no matter what bad things I do in this world, my brothers won’t find out.”

The system tried to offer a gentle reminder: [Mr. Yu Le, you haven’t forgotten that we have a contract, right?]

Yu Le: “Of course I remember. My job is to monitor the villain, right?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep a very close ‘watch’ on that future villain.”

Something about his tone seemed ominous, and the system couldn’t help but issue another warning:

[Mr. Yu Le, if your actions are too extreme, it could affect the difficulty your brothers face in other worlds.]

Yu Le replied casually, “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything too reckless.”

After all, as the youngest brother, he had accepted being dragged into this because of his siblings. Naturally, they would have to clean up his mess in return. That’s what family is for.

The system, still somewhat doubtful, had no choice but to continue its duties, adding:

[Since this is a special world, the system’s auxiliary display features are also disabled. You’ll have to rely on yourself, Mr. Yu Le.]

“Display features?”

[Normally, we would have a data panel to show the status of your target, including emotions, health, and danger level.]

“Doesn’t matter,” Yu Le replied indifferently. He had no interest in how Senior Brother Mo felt.

He was the type who never used cheats in games and always preferred playing on hard mode.

As he conversed with the system, Yu Le’s mind was constantly absorbing the memories from the body he now inhabited, along with the “future plot” laid out before him.

The original Yu Rui was a disciple of the large cultivation sect, the Wuyue Immortal Sect. His master was Qin Haoran, the head of Nanyue Peak and the Sect Leader’s younger brother.

Yu Rui was barely eighteen years old, but due to a trace of phoenix bloodline in his body and his ability to charm and flatter his master, he was particularly favored.

However, Yu Rui only acted charming in front of his master and the elders. Toward others, he was quite arrogant.

To put it in simpler terms, he was like a spoiled second-generation heir.

Suddenly, the door outside was knocked on, and a faint scent of orchids drifted in with the wind.

“Junior Brother.”

A woman dressed in light green, with a pale yellow sash fluttering as she walked, stood at the entrance. Her long hair was pinned up with an orchid hairpin, and she resembled a delicate orchid blooming in a secluded valley, just like the fragrance that accompanied her.

Seeing her, Yu Le flashed a bright yet weak smile, “Senior Sister Shuang, you’ve come to see me.”

This was Bai Feishuang, the personal disciple of the Sect Leader, the junior sister of Mo Cunzhi, and the female protagonist.

She had been brought back by the Sect Leader as a child and grew up alongside Mo Cunzhi, forming a close bond. She was a very traditional and kind-hearted person.

In the original plot, she would be deceived by the male protagonist, Changque, the Lord of the Demonic Path, and release him from his seal, only to be forcefully taken by him.

To protect her sect, she pretended to cooperate with Changque, and in the end, he fell in love with her. His feelings for her led him to change his ways, abandoning evil and embracing righteousness.

In contrast to Changque was the villain, Mo Cunzhi.

At the start, he was a disciple of the righteous path, but as the story progressed, his true background was revealed.

The previous Lord of the Demonic Path, Changque’s biological brother, was Mo Cunzhi’s birth father.

Mo Cunzhi’s mother had been a disciple of the Wuyue Immortal Sect, and she was the Sect Leader’s most beloved junior sister. She had been deceived into bearing a demon child and ultimately died as a result.

The Sect Leader had complicated feelings toward Mo Cunzhi. Though he sealed his demonic core and took him in as a disciple, he treated him with cold indifference, disciplining him harshly from a young age.

Mo Cunzhi, eager for his master’s approval, was strict with himself and became a model disciple of the righteous path for decades—only to be revealed as a natural-born demon.

Once his true identity was exposed, the demonic energy that had accumulated in his body for years could no longer be suppressed. He was misunderstood and rejected by the sect he had once protected, driven away, and ultimately killed… leading him to fall into the demonic path.

As Yu Le recalled these plot points, an ingenious idea suddenly came to him.

“How are your injuries? Let me take a look,” Bai Feishuang said, standing by the bed.

“Go ahead, Senior Sister,” Yu Le said generously, lifting the light, cloud-like white silk covering his body, revealing the gruesome wounds beneath.

Bai Feishuang frowned, and pure wood-element energy flowed from her palm into the wounds.

Instantly, Yu Le felt the pain ease significantly, replaced by a numb, itchy sensation.

After expending a considerable amount of her spiritual energy to heal him, Bai Feishuang withdrew her hand and took out a bottle of emerald-green ointment.

“The wounds left by the soul-crushing whip don’t heal easily. This is a healing balm I made using sap from the Divine Wood. Apply it daily.”

Yu Le took the ointment and put on a well-behaved expression. “Thank you, Senior Sister. I feel much better already.”

With his rosy lips, white teeth, and the spirited appearance of a young man, his obedient and humble demeanor—combined with his pale, frail appearance—easily evoked a sense of sympathy.

Though Bai Feishuang was cold on the outside, she was warm-hearted. Despite not being particularly close to her junior brother, she had come to check on him after hearing of his injuries. Sensing his warmth and proximity, her expression softened.

“Junior Brother, don’t enter the forbidden area of the back mountain again. It’s dangerous for someone like you.”

Yu Le nodded obediently, “I was too reckless and playful this time. I won’t dare to do it again.”

What Bai Feishuang didn’t know was that the original Yu Rui had ventured into the forbidden back mountain to catch a spirit pet for her.

No wonder she was the female protagonist—not only was the future villain, Senior Brother Mo, in love with her, but even the arrogant junior brother Yu Rui secretly harbored feelings for her.

However, this senior sister hadn’t realized any of this yet.

She looked at Yu Le’s back without the slightest embarrassment, and even a touch of motherly care could be seen in her demeanor.

“You’ll be inconvenienced for the next few days. I’ll visit you often, and if you need anything, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

If it were the original Yu Rui, proud and concerned about saving face, he would likely have forced himself to refuse help. But Yu Le was different. He didn’t hold back and said, “Really? You’re so kind, Senior Sister. I feel uncomfortable all over, and my mouth tastes bitter. I really want something sweet.”

Seeing her junior brother looking weak and pleading, Bai Feishuang, experiencing this level of closeness with him for the first time, nodded and agreed, “Alright, I’ll prepare some Fuling cakes for you.”

Before leaving, Bai Feishuang hesitated for a moment and said, “Senior Brother may seem harsh, but he wasn’t targeting you specifically. He’s always been strict with others and even harsher on himself.”

“I understand. It was my fault for being immature and making a mistake. I wouldn’t blame Senior Brother,” Yu Le said, his tone full of sincerity while lying through his teeth.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t someone who played fair—he was vindictive and held grudges.

<< _ >>