This was very bad news to Lei Mingxing, no matter which way she approached him, she would be exposed, to the man sitting at one of the tent's entrances.
Her mind was racing to find a solution and she soon concluded that the only way would be to create a distraction of some sort. And maybe the teenager's cooperation.
She looked around for a bit, before quietly picking up a pebble and flinging it at the teenager. He ignored the first stone, causing her to throw the second one a bit harder in anxiously. This time the teenager finally lost his down-cast appearance and secretly looked around with sharp eyes. She stretched out her face so that he would notice her and made a quick gesture before ducking behind the cages again. The teenager was still gazing at her position with wide eyes and a shocked expression, but he soon recovered his composure.
Lei Mingxing nodded in satisfaction and followed the next step of her plan. She quickly found a lock that wouldn't be discovered at first glance. She quietly crawled over and pressed one of her fingers on it.
She took a silent deep breath and searched for the red light revolving in her body. The moment she got a hold of the feeling, she tried pushing it toward her finger.
The fire Qi obeyed her will, maybe a bit too enthusiastically, rushing out of her fingertip with a small bright spark. She hurriedly withdrew her finger, glancing around to make sure that she hadn't been discovered by the man sitting at the tent's entrance. But he hadn't moved in the slightest, still fiddling with the bag of money in his hand.
Lei Mingxing let out a small relieved breath before returning her gaze to the lock. The lock had quietly melted in the meantime, there were only a few dark red flames remaining that stuck to the melted metal, not fading until there was not a trace of it left.
"..."
This was really draining her limited inner Qi. Sensing the state of her Qi, she determined that she would only be able to melt three more locks, the one from the teenager included.
Worry started to rise in her heart, but she shrugged it off. Lei Mingxing glanced up again, the teenager and her locked eyes. The teenager had understood her intentions, he nodded imperceivably and turned his body to look at another cage.
Lei Mingxing realized what he meant and felt a little bit of joy bubble up inside her. She started making her way toward the cage he had looked at and started melting the lock once again, this time she controlled her strength a little better but the metal was still burned into thin air.
She looked up once more, the teenager understood and chose one more cage.
Their cooperation was perfect, she had almost reached the last cage. She was already stretching out her finger to melt the last lock, when the man stood up suddenly. He tugged the money away, a happy expression on his face.
He leisurely strode in front of the teenager, and the cages that Lei Mingxing was currently hiding behind.
Lei Mingxing held her breath as she nervously flattened her body, so that he wouldn't notice her. The man only needed to look over once and their whole plan was done for.
The teenager also understood the gravity of this situation and tried his best to keep the man's attention on himself, angrily locking eyes with the other.
"Your future masters will arrive any moment now," he looked expectantly at the teenager, "How does it feel? Becoming cattle waiting to be sold."
The teenager glared harder at the man, but the other just laughed, waving his hand as he turned to leave the tent.
"Enjoy your last few minutes in your childhood home of thirteen years, and don't worry, I won't miss you too much."
The man left and closed the entrance behind him, so that it would be extra dark and quiet in this small hell.
Lei Mingxing quietly spat out her held breath and drew some fresh air into her lungs, her heart was still beating violently in her chest. But she quickly continued her work, the last lock had just finished melting when the man's voice sounded yet again.
"Greetings, my lords! Your ware is already waiting in the tent, but can I interest you in some of my other merchandise?"
A chill ran down her spine, as the man began advertising his services.
She had to hurry!
She silently jumped up from behind the cages and sneaked in front of the teenager's cage. She poured her remaining inner Qi into melting the lock and chains that restrained his arms, pulling out the gag in his mouth with her other hand.
Sweat was pouring down her face, but she grit her teeth, draining even the last drop of her energy.
As soon as the teenager was freed from his constraints, he rushed past Lei Mingxing and opened the cages she had unlocked, before starting to fiddle with several locks as well.
The people inside those three cages quickly crawled out, but instead of running away the moment they were free, they dragged their starved bodies to use their little inner Qi and destroy several locks.
The cooperation of the four people was perfect as if they had planned this for a very long time. The noise they created was minimal, the men outside didn't notice it at all.
Soon a crowd of malnourished and weak people had emerged from their cages, and they stood together, after glancing around for a moment, the teenager and the other three cultivators nodded at each other before rushing out of the tent in various directions, taking the other men and women with them.
At this moment, the man and his customers outside also realized that something was wrong, unfortunately, it was just a bit too late.
Lei Mingxing had watched this process with a stunned expression on her face, the whole 'Saving-Benefactor' mission had escalated to a scope she couldn't have imagined. Just then the teenager appeared in front of her and grabbed her hand, escaping through the opposite tent entrance with her.
He dragged her through several back alleys while she stumbled behind him because of his fast speed, her mind and body on the brink of absolute exhaustion.
Fortunately, they soon reached the bustling market space and the teenager slowed down. He took her to mix into the lively crowd.
Lei Mingxing was panting, her lungs barely able to take in enough air to support her body, her entire being drenched in sweat.
This usually wouldn't have been a problem though, she would recover gradually, especially now that they weren't running around anymore.
But she couldn't calm her heart no matter how hard she tried, no, it began beating faster and faster. She looked around her, there were people everywhere, brushing her shoulders, arms, and legs. Their faces became blurry and she began to feel dizzy as panic welled up inside her. The urge to vomit almost overwhelmed her.
She tried wrestling free her arm from the teenager's tight grip, so she could escape to somewhere with fewer people.
It took a few seconds for the teenager to notice her strange behavior and glance back at her.
Her struggle grew with the urge to vomit. The teenager realized that something was wrong and let go of Lei Mingxing.
There was no time for her to rejoice, as soon as he didn't hold onto her any longer she desperately broke through the mass of people to the entrance of an alley.
Unable to hold it in any longer, she leaned forward and directly vomited on the ground.
Her bun had loosened during their escape and she didn't have the mind to worry about her hair getting dirty, so she didn't stop it from falling forward. But before it could drop into the bile on the ground, two hands caught the hair and held it back.
She threw up until there wasn't anything left for her to spit out, dry retching a few more times.
At some point her shaky legs also gave away from under her, unable to bear her weight any longer. Once again a hand reached out and supported her, letting her slide down onto the ground.
Even without the vomiting, it still took Lei Mingxing a few more minutes for her to calm her shaky breath and trembling body.
Exhausted, she looked up at the teenager's worried eyes.
She wanted to stand up and tell him that she was fine, but she couldn't force out even a single word from her dry throat, too tired to do anything.
Lei Mingxing thought back to the bed in the dead mercenary's house and a strong longing washed over her body.
She resolutely forced her unsteady legs to stand up but almost fell to the ground again if it wasn't for the teenager catching her.
"What are you doing?"
The teenager asked, but it took her several tries to answer him.
"-back to rest."
The teenager's voice mirrored his confusion as he continued.
"Where?"
This was hard for her to answer, where exactly was the mercenary's house? And how would she get there?
She had no idea, but she still told him the only notable waypoint she remembered.
"The shoestore near the tent."
A conflicted expression appeared on the teenager's face as he heard her words.
He knew about that shoestore, Huo Dong had taken him there several times to buy new shoes because they were all very quality and very cheap, but it was really a little too close to the latter's base for his liking.
The teenager glanced at the girl struggling to even walk and sighed heavily.
Even though he anxiously wanted to get as far away from Huo Dong and his disgusting customers, he still walked in front of the girl and squatted down motioning her to climb on his back.
Lei Mingxing was too exhausted to care about the close body contact between her and the teenager, after a short moment of hesitation she got on.
The teenager clearly knew his way around these parts, he walked through countless alleys before finally reaching the shoestore. Lei Mingxing looked up and led him through the now familiar streets despite her tired mind.
After roughly half an hour of walking around they arrived at the mercenary's home.
The teenager let her down with a bit of doubt on his face, but Lei Mingxing didn't care, she took out the key that she had put into the money bag and unlocked the door. She stumbled inside, directly zeroing in on the bed.
The moment she lay down, she fell asleep.