Trigger Warning: Depictions of (mild) child abuse and implied torture.
The Master and disciples searched the entire area but did not find anything. Feng Yongrui began to feel down. Maybe all his guesses were wrong, and there was nothing here...
In any case, it had been at least three months since Han Gang found Ya'er in that cave, so any traces of blood or valuable clues were probably gone now. With that thought in mind, Feng Yongrui was about to head back when he heard Little Prince barking.
Little Prince had stood up from his sitting position and trotted in a certain direction. After sniffing the ground a few times, he had barked to get their attention. Little Prince was wagging his tail proudly and looked at them with disdain.
"Master, I think he wants us to follow him in that direction," Ma Bo said. He had taken care of Little Prince for a very long time and understood him the most.
Feng Yongrui was a bit hesitant, but the System began urging him.
"Since my Little Cutie Pie says so, you should hurry and follow him! Don't make him wait long!" The System said.
"Alright, let's follow him," Feng Yongrui said. There shouldn't be any harm in following Little Prince, right?
Hearing Feng Yongrui's consent, Little Prince immediately barked and darted through the shrubs, heading towards the deep forest. Generally, the deeper you go inside a forest, the more dangerous it would be. But since Feng Yongrui and his disciples were cultivators, they did not feel afraid.
The forest was filled with exotic plants and vegetation, but no one had time to enjoy the view. The three men followed the dog and ventured deeper and deeper into the woods.
The closer they got to the core of the forest, the darker their surroundings became. The sunlight could only enter the forest through the sparse gaps in tree leaves, and the shadows made grotesque shapes that would surely scare normal people.
The cheerful sounds of birds were gone, and gradually, the surroundings became quiet. Suddenly, Little Prince stopped at a boulder and sat down, not moving an inch. His face was filled with obvious pride.
"Good job, my Little Cutie Pie~~" The System said. Unfortunately, Little Prince could not hear the System's praise.
Seeing that Little Prince had stopped Feng Yongrui and his two disciples also halted and surveyed their surroundings. This was the first time Feng Yongrui went into a forest, and the first time he went so deep inside one. He couldn't help looking at his surroundings in awe, suppressing his urge to gape at everything.
The trees were very tall and wide, something that could rarely be seen on Earth. Moss covered the ground and the bark of some trees. The sparse lighting and the tranquil silence gave everyone a surreal feeling.
The three men walked around, not quite sure what to do.
"Xiao Hei, why did you bring us here?" Ma Bo asked, rubbing the dog's head.
"Woof, woof!" Of course, Ma Bo did not understand what the dog was saying. Ma Bo felt embarrassed -- they had all followed Little Prince here, only for them to find nothing...
Ma Bo opened his mouth. "Master, I'm sorry, I think we should just --"
Before he could finish his sentence, Hou Renshu gave a short cry. Feng Yongrui and Ma Bo rushed to him and looked at him with worry in their eyes.
"Xiao Shu, what happened?" Feng Yongrui was the first to speak. He grabbed Hou Renshu by the shoulders and examined him from head to toe.
"Master, I'm alright," Hou Renshu was embarrassed.
"It's just that I was looking at these stones and accidentally tripped," He continued.
Feng Yongrui looked down at the stones Hou Renshu had mentioned and immediately felt annoyed. This stone made his precious disciple almost get hurt...
"Eh? Master, I think these stones are weird too," Ma Bo said.
Ma Bo pointed to the stones lying on the ground. At first glance, they looked like they were scattered around arbitrarily. However, upon closer inspection, they were actually arranged in a specific pattern...
Feng Yongrui sucked in a breath of cold air, making a hissing sound. He quickly told the System to switch on his "super vision" and checked the stones. Feng Yongrui was dumbfounded with what he saw.
"This is... an array?!" Feng Yongrui cried.
He squinted his eyes and looked closer at the stones and realized what it was. "A teleportation array?" Feng Yongrui cried.
Hou Renshu and Ma Bo looked at their Master in surprise.
"A teleportation array?" Ma Bo muttered. "So... Ya'er probably escaped from the kidnappers, went through this teleportation array, and ran all the way to the cave, where her father found her?"
Hou Renshu nodded. "That's possible."
Feng Yongrui also agreed. "Even if this teleportation array has nothing to do with Ya'er, the fact that there's a teleportation array here is already suspicious enough. We should activate the array and see where it leads to."
Feng Yongrui stepped into the center of the array and beckoned for his disciples to follow him. Before using his internal energy to activate the array, Feng Yongrui nagged his disciples like a worried mother-hen.
"Don't forget to stick to my side. Don't do anything unnecessary. Remember to be low-key... oh, and, we have to use a spell so that no one can see us. Have you both gotten your swords with you?"
The two disciples gave a helpless smile at their Master's nagging, but they replied each and every one of his questions.
"As for Little Prince," Feng Yongrui said, "You should just stay here and wait for us. Don't run around and get into trouble, alright?"
Little Prince gave a few barks, looking at them with his usual prideful gaze. His whole face was saying, "Do you think someone as noble as me would get into trouble, huh? You all should rest assured and go."
After making sure everything seemed fine, Feng Yongrui injected his energy into the array. A blinding white light shone around them, and the three of them reflexively closed their eyes.
When they opened them again, they found themselves standing by the banks of a river. The sound of flowing water and chirping birds filled the air. Before they activated the array, Feng Yongrui had already put a spell on the three of them so that they were invisible.
He had also concealed their cultivation levels so that no one would notice them. There was no one around, but the three of them stayed vigilant. Feng Yongrui looked in front and noticed something. He gestured for his disciples to follow him.
The closer they walked to the object, the clearer it became. Feng Yongrui's eyes widened when they finally saw what it was. It wasn't just "an object". It was a building, and a rather grand one, at that.
The building was obviously big, but it was built in a remote area. Feng Yongrui could see that there weren't any towns or villages nearby. He guessed that they were very far from the Immortal Pathway Sect.
Feng Yongrui and his two disciples got closer to the building, and they finally realized that it was a pagoda. It was even bigger up close, and several men stood guard outside the pagoda. All the men were wearing dark blue clothes, like some sort of uniform.
Feng Yongrui squinted and saw that they were all cultivators of the Golden Core Stage. Pursing his lips, Feng Yongrui bypassed the guards and entered the pagoda. Once they passed the threshold, Feng Yongrui was hit with the strong smell of blood.
He instinctively wrinkled his nose and looked around for the source of the blood. He didn't find anyone bleeding. All he could see were guards patrolling the area. There were no furniture and the walls looked cold and bare.
"Let's go upstairs," Feng Yongrui whispered to his disciples. They nodded in agreement.
The pagoda had seven floors, and Feng Yongrui and his disciples climbed the stairs to the second floor. The three of them walked on the glazed tiles, secretly observing the numerous guards that were standing here and there.
"There are so many guards patrolling here... just what is going on?" Feng Yongrui muttered.
After they surveyed the entire second floor, Feng Yongrui realized that this floor was used as the guards' sleeping quarters. There were numerous beds and some guards were sleeping -- those guards had probably worked during the night shift, so they were now sleeping during the day.
Other than the guards' sleeping quarters, there was also a kitchen and lavatory. In the kitchen, several guards wore aprons and were cooking a slimy white porridge in a large pot.
"Master," Ma Bo whispered. "It's strange... Aren't we in a kitchen? But... instead of smelling the porridge or the vegetables, the only thing I can smell is... blood."
Feng Yongrui nodded in agreement. He could hardly smell the porridge -- his nose was assaulted with the smell of blood and blood only. The fishy, metallic scent, mixed with the subtle scent of burnt porridge was really unpleasant.
"I don't think there's anything worth checking here, so let's go upstairs. We should find the source of the blood as soon as possible," Feng Yongrui said.
Hou Renshu and Ma Bo nodded in agreement. The three of them exited the kitchen, strolled past the guards' bedrooms, and climbed the stairs to go to the third floor.
In the third floor, the smell of blood became more condensed and even more obvious. Hou Renshu and Ma Bo could not stand it and covered their noses. The smell was sickening, making them nauseous and queasy.
Feng Yongrui wanted to play it cool and pretend he was unaffected, but he couldn't help shuddering when the strong scent of blood assaulted his nose. Unlike the second floor, where the entire place was filled with guards and brightly lit, the third floor was cold and dark and damp.
Feng Yongrui squinted his eyes and saw a tragic sight. There were cages everywhere, each cage about the size of a large container. Each cage was filled with 4 to 5 children, huddled together so that they could fit inside.
The children were really young, around 5 to 10 years old. Their faces were smudged with dirt and their eyes were filled with terror. Feng Yongrui felt an inexplicable surge of emotions.
He still remembered the scene in the robbers' stronghold, where children were held captives... This scene, though, was more gruesome. Hou Renshu and Ma Bo were visibly upset, and Ma Bo was even holding back his tears.
There were guards patrolling the third floor as well, walking in pairs with grim faces. When a child began crying, a guard would beat the door of the cage, threatening the child and telling him/her to be quiet.
Upon closer inspection, Feng Yongrui could see bruises and scars on the children. He clenched his fists in anger. Those brutes! How could they do something like this to innocent children?!
Even the System, who had been quiet all this time, began to grow angry. "Host, this is simply inhumane. Do they think the lives of these children mean nothing?! Host, you should hurry up and save these kids. The System will wholeheartedly support you!"
Feng Yongrui gave a hum in reply. He was looking at the arrangement of the cages. It seemed like the cages were divided into two groups. There were some cages on the left and some on the right.
"It seems like... the children on the left side have more injuries and scars... Wait, those children all have spirit roots!" Feng Yongrui realized.
The children on the left had spirit roots of all grades and sizes, though most of them had multiples spirit roots of the low grade. Were the kidnappers targeting children with spirit roots?
Feng Yongrui activated his "super vision" and looked at all the children in the room... He noticed that all of them had something wriggling inside their heads. It was just like Ya'er!
"The Gu worm!" Feng Yongrui cried.
He pursed his lips and took a deep breath to calm his nerves, however, he grew more agitated because the heavy smell of iron assaulted his nose. It was the smell of blood that was so thick and domineering, the smell that made people want to puke.
"Master," Hou Renshu whispered, "We have to rescue these children..."
"Of course we will, but first, let's go upstairs and check the source of the blood. We should also check the other floors in case we can find the master mind," Feng Yongrui said.
"Okay, Master."
Feng Yongrui was actually a person who preferred making a thousand preparations before actually doing something. If the situation was different, Feng Yongrui would prefer to scout the entire pagoda first, determine how many guards there were, what the leader was like, and so on.
But of course, seeing the children being kept like this, Feng Yongrui knew that he shouldn't delay rescuing them. Before he did anything, though, he really wanted to check the other floors and find out the source of this bloody smell.
The three of them climbed the stairs, each one of them holding their breath. For some reason, they all felt like they were about to be confronted with something so dangerous, so scary, that they would have nightmares for the rest of their lives.
The three of them felt their blood running cold, as if ice had been injected into their veins. Their stomachs churned with unease, and a small voice was crying in their heads, "Run away! Run away or you'll regret it forever!"
They couldn't run away. They had gone this far.
Everyone was tense, but Ma Bo was especially so. He felt a strange sense of dread in his heart. A different sense of dread from what the other two were feeling. It was as if... his secret might be exposed if he entered the fourth floor...
***
System: Those people are inhumane! Host, I'll give you a 50% discount on the items in the System Mall, so that you can buy anything you need to rescue the children!
Feng Yongrui: ...This is the first time I feel like you're a good System.
***
What do you think is happening to those children?
Comment below~
P.S. Since today is Christmas, there will be a double update~~