Lost direction

Lin Chaoying's breath hitched, her throat bobbed, and she said softly, "I am an ability user from the 12th Street of Jiazhou. Qian Fei, Qin Ming, and Kong Yue brought us in to rescue you."

Cen Ting lowered her eyes and slowly shuffled to the edge of the cage, trying to sit up. Lin Chaoying reached into the cage with both hands to help her straighten up.

She asked, "Qian Fei...did they encounter...Wu Yang?"

Lin Chaoying nodded with red eyes and said, "I met him. He's the one who threw me here. Was your injury caused by Wu Yang?"

With each word Cen Ting spoke, it seemed as if she were using all her strength, "Leave...this place..."

Lin Chaoying didn't know what to say at this moment. Thinking about how the little girl in front of her had survived Wu Yang's clutches these past few days, she felt extremely distressed. The emotion was stuck in her chest, and she couldn't express it or suppress it.

She gently patted Cen Ting's shoulder and said, "I'll get you out of here first."

Cen Ting grabbed her hand anxiously, "If possible, could you please save my two brothers?" She pointed in a direction and said, "He should be less injured than me, and his chances of surviving are... much better than mine."

Lin Chaoying suppressed her trembling voice and comforted her, "Don't worry, I'll take you out first, and I'll go find your brother too."

Cen Ting leaned wearily against the cage. "Thank...thank you..."

Lin Chaoying dragged herself through the cages, which were as tall as a person, searching for something to pry open the chains. She circled all the bright spots, but dared not go far. Finally, she found a broken knife in a corner, wondering who had left it when they fought here.

She returned to Cen Ting's side, "I've found it! I can take you out right away!"

The blade had no handle, so Lin Chaoying tore her pants apart, ripped off a long strip, tied it to one side so she could hold it with both hands, aimed it at the chain, and swung the blade down.

The blade was too short, and the vibrations made her hand go numb. She would also cut her palm because she couldn't control the position when she chopped.

Lin Chaoying squatted down next to Cen Ting and said softly, "How about I help you lie down on the ground? If you lean against the cage, it will shake you when I chop."

Cen Ting nodded, not daring to use too much force, and moved little by little, pushing her to lie further inside.

Lin Chaoying was already exhausted. Her body hadn't rested for a day and a night, and she hadn't eaten much dinner. From the moment they entered the cave, they had been fighting round after round, and it was difficult for them to muster any more strength, let alone mental strength.

But when she saw that Cen Ting's body had almost no intact skin, she couldn't help but feel heartache and distress, which inexplicably gave her some strength.

She kept hacking away, her hands red, swollen, and bleeding, but she dared not stop for a moment. How were the injuries of the men behind her, Mu Yue and Jiang Chuan Gu? Were they still fighting Wu Yang in the same spot?

The more Lin Chaoying thought about it, the more panicked she became. In the end, she had no strength left and knelt on the ground, panting.

She stared at the chain, thinking foolishly to keep chopping—it was too slow and too troublesome. She stood up, twisted the chain in one direction, and then twisted it into a tight knot. She then inserted the hardest part of the knife into the lock handle, and using leverage, pressed down hard. With a "click," the lock fell to the ground.

Lin Chaoying smiled, wiped the sweat from her face, squatted down to rest for a few seconds to catch her breath, and opened the cage door. "Cen Ting!"

Cen Ting lay quietly on the ground.

She held her back, not daring to speak loudly, and called out cautiously, "Cen Ting, shall I carry you out? Let's go find your friends."

Cen Ting was too weak and slid off her back several times. Lin Chaoying could only remove the strip of cloth from the knife and tear off the pants from the other lower leg. The two long strips of cloth were used to tie Cen Ting tightly to her body.

Lin Chaoying, holding onto the cage, stood up, grabbed the hands of the person on her back with her right hand and put them around her neck, while her left hand supported the person's buttocks to prevent them from falling again. The journey had been extremely difficult, and she really didn't know if she was going in the right direction or if there were any dangers ahead. She was moving forward almost entirely by her last bit of willpower.

After passing through these cage-like formations, there was another dark tunnel.

Lin Chaoying touched Cen Ting's hand and said, "Cen Ting, it's too quiet here. Can I talk to you? You don't have to answer, just move your fingers."

Cen Ting held her hand and rested her head on her shoulder.

Lin Chaoying: "Actually, I was very happy before I turned 18! My only worry every day was my grades! My worst subjects back then were geography and math. Once, in a monthly exam, my overall ranking was 11th in the grade. When I looked down, my geography score was also 11th. My geography teacher was so angry that he scolded me in the office! But our geography teacher was so handsome! He looked like he was mixed race. Every time I was in class, I was only looking at his face. How could I concentrate on the lesson!"

Cen Ting patted her hand.

Lin Chaoying licked her lips and leaned against the wall. "You probably didn't understand what I meant. I'm terrible at geography, and my sense of direction is even worse! So you need to be more alert and give me directions! Understand?"

Cen Ting patted her hand.

Lin Chaoying: "I'm actually really worried about Jiang Chuangu, Kong Yue, Qin Ming, and Qian Fei. I'll rescue you later, but I'll still come back. Jiang Chuangu and Qin Ming were the ones who guided us before, and even Qian Fei has a better sense of direction than me..."

Cen Ting whispered weakly in her ear, "Actually... Qian Fei's... geography was also terrible... she was at the bottom of the class back then..."

Hearing this, Lin Chaoying stopped and said with difficulty, "Really? Cen Ting, you have to hang in there. Qian Fei and the others will be here soon. Qian Fei told me that when you were in Yuzhou, you were the one who protected her. Your mental strength is amazing. Let's heal our injuries, and I'll make you beef noodles. The beef I braise myself is very fragrant!"

Cen Ting patted her hand.

Lin Chaoying continued walking forward, "Cen Ting, I saved you today, so you have to repay me by coming to the Kekexili B&B in Jiaozhou. Only then will this matter be over! Do you hear me!"

Cen Ting patted her hand.

Lin Chaoying was so tired that she started talking nonsense. "My life suddenly went wrong when I was 18. My ideals were suppressed and my life was controlled. I thought that rebellion was my nature, right? I never expected that I would kill my brother. When I finally started a new life, a car accident took me off track again. I drifted like a lost ghost for nine years. If it weren't for Jiang Chuan Valley, how would I have lived these past few years? I finally got back to a normal life and wanted to investigate my brother's affairs, but suddenly I was dragged into the Ghost Gate incident."

She sounded somewhat distraught, "But at first, all I wanted to do was go to Changjing to study. How did things turn out like this?"

Cen Ting took her hand.

Lin Chaoying: "Cen Ting, wait for me to come out. Let's have a good chat. Let's invite Qian Fei and Kong Yue, and the three of us can sit in the courtyard in Kekexili. It's especially cool there! Zhou Pei and Linlin are very capable; they've tidied the courtyard up beautifully! There's also a cherry blossom tree, but because of its location, the blooming season is irregular, unlike the beautiful one outside the window in Jiangchuan Valley..."

"Pfft—" She felt a wet patch on her shoulder, along with her ear and right cheek, the scalding liquid almost burning through Lin Chaoying's heart.

She struggled to squat down, frantically untied the cloth strip binding her chest, and carefully lowered the person on her back. "Cen Ting! What's wrong with you!"

Lin Chaoying weakly slapped her face, her hands covered in blood. She couldn't take it anymore; the last thread of her strength snapped, and she broke down crying out, "Cen Ting! I finally managed to get you out of here! Open your eyes and look at me! Qian Fei is coming soon!"

Cen Ting grabbed her hand and reached into the innermost layer of her clothes. Lin Chaoying found a pen about the length of a finger.

Cen Ting's voice was barely audible, "The recording... the pen... give it to Qin Ming... it can help Twelfth Street."

"No!" Lin Chaoying gripped her hand tightly. "You give it to him yourself! You give it to him yourself!"

Cen Ting clenched her other hand in mid-air, and when she opened it again, a sharp dagger fell to the ground. She said, "This is my last... mental strength... I... can't hold on... I'm out of here... The only thing I can do for you..."

Lin Chaoying couldn't even see her expression in the darkness.

Cen Ting snuggled into her arms, "I miss my mom, can I have a hug..."

Lin Chaoying hugged her blankly.

Suddenly, Cen Ting found her strength, hugged her arm, and held her hand. "I smell Mom's scent, the smell of clothes drying in the sun..." Then, her voice trembling with tears, she cried, "Mom... I'm in so much pain..."

Then, she slowly released her hand, as if it were weightless nestled in her arms, quiet like a piece of white paper that could be blown away by the wind at any moment.

Lin Chaoying didn't remember how she carried Cen Ting on her back again, how long she walked in the dark, or when she put the dagger away from her waist and the recording pen away.

All she remembered was the need to get out and survive.

Lin Chaoying realized that she was the most cowardly person, the one most afraid of death.

She walked aimlessly through the cave, leaning against the wall, searching without direction. No one answered her when she spoke; the only thing she could feel was Cen Ting's body temperature steadily decreasing.

The warm turned cold.

Until another glimmer of light appeared, she thought, even meeting Wu Yang wouldn't be as terrifying as this.

Who could have imagined that Lin Chaoying would encounter two new rows of prison cells...

Just how twisted are Wu Liang and Wu Yang? How many people from Twelve Streets are they planning to arrest? What is the deep-seated hatred between Twelve Streets and Ghost Gate?

She thought that Wu Family Manor was built specifically to lure the superhumans of Twelve Streets. If that was the case, then was Wang Ge's mention of Huang Sheng in Yanmen Village before his death also part of the Ghost Gate's design?

Was every step of the Ghost Gate design meticulously planned? Was it all to torment the superhumans of Twelfth Street?

She had just passed three cells when she saw the fifth cell. Under the twisted iron door lay a fat man. Lin Zhao cautiously stepped past him, just about to take a closer look.

The man suddenly grabbed her foot, "Wu Yang! Is that you! Is it you! Don't touch my sister! If you have a problem, come at me! I'll spar with you!"

Because she was carrying someone, Lin Chaoying couldn't squat down, so she could only kneel in front of him and wave her hand in front of him a few times.

The man's bloodshot eyes were unfocused, and he kept tilting his ears to search for any sound.

Qin Ming showed Lin Chaoying photos of the team. This man must be Feng Yang, who possesses superhuman strength...

But he was already blind.