"Oh my god!" In the darkness, Ruoxi suddenly cried out in surprise, while covering her mouth with her hand.
It turned out to be a gruesome gallows. Stretched out in a starfish shape, bound to the body of a man in black night clothes, head bowed and hair disheveled, the man appeared to be a seven-foot-tall male.
The sudden sight startled Ruoxi, who stumbled back several steps, shrinking into a ball until her back was pressed against the cell door, leaving her nowhere to retreat. An intense fear welled up within her, and her eyes instinctively darted away from the man. Suddenly, she looked down and caught sight of a trail of bloodstains at her feet.
Seeing this, she suddenly came to her senses and realized that the man in the extremely miserable state before her was probably the one she was looking for. So, she once again suppressed her fear and stepped forward to shine a light on his abdomen to examine him.
Sure enough, the man had a severe stab wound in his abdomen, which was covered in blood and gore.
Only then did she realize that she had been carried through the stone gate by that magical void. Thinking of this, she quickly raised her wrist to look at the jade bracelet on it, which was emitting a twinkling, iridescent light like fireflies on a summer night, and exclaimed joyfully to herself, "This is truly amazing!"
Suddenly snapping out of her daze, she took a deep breath, bent down and picked up the sword in front of the man. She then strode forward and swiftly and decisively cut the ropes binding his limbs.
He quickly bent down, turned the man over so he was lying flat, and brushed aside his disheveled hair to see that his face was already pale and his body was extremely cold.
Ruoxi hurriedly flipped his eyelids, carefully checked his pulse, and examined the wound on his abdomen. Then, while tearing at the strip of cloth on her skirt, she said with great relief, "Fortunately, she only fainted due to excessive blood loss and her internal organs were not damaged. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable. We must bandage her wound first."
Despite the extremely poor lighting, she still skillfully and quickly bandaged the wounds of the man who had fallen into a deep coma. Then, she took out silver needles and began to apply them to his body, searching for acupoints with her hands.
After an unknown amount of time, the man finally twitched his fingers slightly and slowly opened his eyes, which now appeared weak, powerless, and filled with confusion.
As soon as Ruoxi realized he had woken up, she exclaimed excitedly, "You're finally awake! Luckily you're a martial artist; if an ordinary person had encountered this, they would probably be dead by now. Rest a little longer, and once you've regained some strength, I'll definitely take you away from here!"
"Where is this?" The man sat up with difficulty, looking around at the pitch-black surroundings, and asked in confusion.
"This is the secret prison of the Xiaolong Society. You have been imprisoned by Long Ye!" Ruoxi replied, glancing at the still pitch-black surroundings.
Upon hearing this, the man recalled everything that had happened in the West Garden, and endless sorrow welled up in his eyes as he slowly closed them. He then opened his eyes again, puzzled, and asked, "Then...how did you get here? Who are you?"
Ruoxi then brought the bracelet close to her face, and the man recognized her at a glance, exclaiming in surprise, "You are...that girl!"
"Alright, stop talking. Conserve your energy. Let me help you get out of here quickly."
Hearing Ruoxi's words, the man nodded and thanked her tremblingly, saying, "Thank you!"
Ruoxi smiled, then helped him up with difficulty, took his arm and placed it on her thin shoulder, and together they stumbled out the door, beginning to grope around looking for a way back...
Outside the stone gate with the relief mural, Yan'er, having overheard the elder guard's explanation of Ruoxi's relationship with the vampires, the guardians of Western Qin, and the mural before her, was already so shocked that she collapsed to the ground, pressing half her face against the cold stone gate, heartbroken and sobbing uncontrollably, saying in broken sentences:
"You're all lying! She's just my young lady. What vampire descendant? What guardian of Western Qin? Yan'er has never heard of such things. I don't believe it, I'd rather die than believe it!"
"Miss, please come back quickly! Come back and tell Yan'er yourself that these people are all up to no good and are just talking nonsense, right?"
"Miss, Yan'er has traveled through mountains and rivers, enduring countless hardships, and finally found you. How could you abandon Yan'er again! Miss, don't leave Yan'er behind, come back, come back!"
Seeing Yan'er so heartbroken, crying and wiping away tears, Lanxiang, who also couldn't believe what the older guard had said, squatted down beside Yan'er, put her arm around her shoulder and comforted her, "Yan'er, get up quickly, this cave is too cold, you'll get frostbite if you keep going like this. You silly girl, why are you so stubborn like your young lady... Waaah..."
While she was trying to comfort others, she herself choked up with worry and sadness before she could finish her sentence.
"Brother, what exactly happened just now? Is Miss Ruoxi in danger? Will she be able to come back? I still need to take her back to the village to explain to everyone. She can't... Sigh!" Wang Er kept nagging in the ear of the older guard, but the older guard just stared blankly at the place where Ruoxi disappeared without saying a word.
Wang Er could only sigh in frustration, then, annoyed and helpless, he stepped aside and squatted down, leaning against Yan'er's back. He lamented, "What on earth happened? Could it be a ghost? How could a perfectly healthy person just disappear like that?"
After a long silence, Lanxiang looked at the distraught Yan'er, then at Wang Er beside her, who seemed to be trembling with anger, and then glanced back at the dull-eyed older guard. She let out a sigh and said, "In my opinion, we should think of a way to find Long Ye's key to open this stone door. If he hadn't already seen through my intentions and ordered his men to hunt me down, I would definitely have found the key. Unfortunately..."
At this moment, the older guard finally spoke to himself in a low voice, "She really is a descendant of vampires. That bracelet must be a sacred heirloom of the vampires. It must have some kind of connection with its owner. In times of danger, it can release its spiritual power, taking its owner to where she wants to go and to do what she wants to do. It must be so, it must be so. She will definitely come back safely, she will definitely come back..."
With this thought in mind, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he excitedly called out to everyone, "The secret passage inside the stone gate is like a giant spider web, with an extremely intricate and complex route. The environment inside is pitch black everywhere, without a single ray of light. Quickly, let's all work together to create some noise on the stone gate, the louder the better, and the sound must be continuous, so that we can guide her."
"But if we make such a commotion, won't it attract the guards outside?" Lanxiang asked doubtfully.
"There's no need to worry about that. This grotto is extremely sturdy and quiet, constructed entirely of dense rock. No sound from inside can escape to the outside. If it weren't for Chief Long secretly building this passage to prevent Long Ye from having any ill intentions, we would never have been able to get in here. I didn't expect Chief Long to be so farsighted!" the older guard sighed.
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately stood up and scrambled to find stones, iron bars, and all sorts of hard objects to smash against the stone door, or even throw them directly at it...
Inside the stone gate, Ruoxi, drenched in sweat, supported the man as they stumbled and struggled to find a way out.
She entered through the void by accident, and somehow found her target. Now, finding a way out is obviously much more difficult.
With extremely poor visibility and the need to care for the man's injuries, Ruoxi felt utterly overwhelmed. The secret passage was like an underwater maze; no matter which way she went, she couldn't find her way out. She kept wandering back and forth between the different marks she had carved.
Ruoxi couldn't help but feel a little irritated, so she reached out and wiped her sweat. The man saw her in the dim light and stopped, saying apologetically, "It's really too much trouble for you, Miss. Why don't we rest for a while and try again?"
"Alright, you're still injured, walking like this isn't a solution!" With that, she helped the man sit down on the ground.
The man smiled at her, then suddenly listened intently as if he had heard a very faint sound. He gestured to Ruoxi and said, "Listen!"
Ruoxi sat down beside him, wiped the sweat from her brow, and then listened intently. Immediately, she stopped what she was doing, her face lighting up with excitement, and exclaimed, "It's them! It must be them!"
Suddenly standing up, after clearly hearing the direction from which the sound was coming, Ruoxi helped the man up and continued on their way, saying, "Let's head towards the direction the sound is coming from; we can't go wrong. They're guiding us from outside!"
And so, the two of them wandered around, taking many twists and turns, until they heard the continuous sound, which seemed to be knocking on the stone door, getting closer and closer.
Just then, the faint glow emanating from the seven-colored gold and jade bracelet on Ruoxi's wrist suddenly went out completely. Ruoxi stamped her foot and exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, what happened? You can't joke around at a critical moment!"
As the two were wondering what was going on, a powerful force suddenly emanated from somewhere, like a tornado, lifting her into the air. It was pitch black all around, and she couldn't tell which way was which. She felt that the speed was so fast that it almost forced her soul out of her body.
When she opened her eyes again and saw the long-lost light, she found herself outside the stone gate, behind a group of familiar figures still desperately pounding on the wide and majestic bas-relief stone door. The man, however, had already fainted again at her feet.
Ruoxi, with tears welling in her eyes, silently watched this heartwarming scene before her, feeling as if she had been reborn. Suddenly, she softly called out, "Yan'er..."
Upon hearing the sound, Yan'er suddenly turned around and rushed into her arms, tightly hugging her waist, crying with joy, "Miss..."
At this point, everyone present finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
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