"Where does this tunnel lead?" Lanqin wondered to herself. She couldn't fathom how these Taoist priests had managed to carve out such a massive underground structure in this mountain. From the outside, it was all just mountains. How could they have carved out such a long and vast space? It was truly a miracle.
Lanqin carried the tinderbox and walked further in. Suddenly, as if she had bumped into a rope, she suddenly fell forward.
Ouch! Lanqin fell to the ground, dropping the tinderbox in her hand.
who!
An old voice rang out in the darkness, seemingly coming from a very far place. It was deep and aged, and its sudden appearance in the darkness was quite eerie!
Lanqin lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to make a sound. The voice just now sounded like it belonged to an old man; it certainly wasn't Fourth Master, nor Su Peisheng or the others.
She realized she had just bumped into something, something hard. Lanqin frantically tried to recall who had uttered the word "who."
"Bringing food? You didn't even turn on a light!" the man continued, his aged voice carrying a hint of disdain.
Lanqin was still in shock and dared not utter a sound. Only after hearing his voice and confirming that it was an old man did she say softly, "I didn't come to deliver food."
In her panic, Lanqin didn't even lower her voice before the other person immediately realized she was a girl and shouted sternly, "You're a girl!?"
Lanqin ignored his questioning and began to touch her tinderbox on the ground.
"Hmph, those things, they even brought women in! They've ruined the reputation of my Quanzhen Sect for a thousand years!" the old man cursed angrily.
Hearing this, Lanqin was certain that the old man was not one of the Taoist priests outside, which put her at ease. She quickly asked, "Grandpa, what are you doing here?"
As she was speaking, she reached for the tinderbox on the ground and lit it with a whoosh.
When Lanqin finally saw what she had just bumped into, she was so shocked by the sight before her that she almost screamed. She saw a huge iron chain hanging from the ground, its end fixed to a protruding rock. Lanqin had just bumped into the end of this chain. And on the other side, there was another chain, its end also fixed to a rock.
As Lanqin held up her torch and peered into the depths of the iron chains, she gasped, staring in disbelief at the dark figure before her.
There stood an old man with completely white hair, which hung loosely down his back. He was dressed in white, and his hands were suspended in an inverted V-shape by iron chains. Even more terrifying was that two thinner iron chains were also threaded through his shoulders and locked to a stone pillar behind him.
"You're not a Taoist priest, where did you come from?" the old man asked, staring at Lanqin's appearance.
Lanqin was still too shocked to speak by the old man's extremely disheveled appearance. Her heart was pounding with all sorts of speculations about the old man.
“Answer me!” the old man repeated.
"I...I'm not. Sir, who are you? Why are you locked up here?" Lan Qin asked. She never imagined that she would actually be like the protagonists in those martial arts novels, breaking into a secret room and encountering an old master who would impart divine skills to her?
"Come here quickly!" the old man suddenly said.
"What?" Lanqin asked, puzzled.
"They've come to deliver the food. If you don't want to be discovered, quickly hide behind the stone where I live," the old man whispered.
Lanqin was startled. Although she hadn't heard anything, her legs had already begun to move towards the old man. Then she extinguished the tinder and hid behind a rock behind the old man. The spot was just big enough for Lanqin to hide.
After a while, Lanqin heard footsteps, followed by increasingly intense light.
After the people outside approached, they held up the torches, looked at the old man, and said, "Dinner's ready!"
"I don't want to eat, my stomach is upset today. What did you give me to eat yesterday? It made my stomach upset all day, you little beast!" the old man cursed as soon as he opened his mouth.
The Taoist priest who delivered the food was furious at being scolded as soon as he arrived. He took the food out of the basket, threw it at the old man's feet, and said angrily, "Old man, do you think you're the sect leader? If you don't want to eat, then don't eat!"
After saying that, he picked up the basket and left.
The sound of the person's footsteps gradually faded away and then disappeared.
"Come out, light the tinder, and then feed me!" the old man whispered.
Lanqin flicked the tinderbox again and came out from where she had been hiding. She saw the steamed buns that had fallen to the ground and a plate of vegetables that were covered in dust.
"Grandpa, did you deliberately anger him to leave?" Lanqin walked over to the food and squatted down to ask.
"Hmm. You're quite clever, girl. If you don't scare him away, he'll come up and feed you, and then he'll easily notice you," the old man said.
Lanqin picked up the steamed buns from the ground, then gathered some vegetables that hadn't been soiled and put them into her bowl.
She carried the bowl to the old man and then saw what he looked like.
The old man was probably around seventy years old. He had very fair skin, perhaps from being confined here for many years without seeing the sun. His eyebrows were very long, indicating his advanced age, and his face was covered with deep wrinkles, suggesting he was over seventy.
"Girl, you've got some nerve. How did you get in?" the old man asked when he saw Lanqin staring at him.
"I've come to rescue my husband. They've been captured by the Taoist priests and I don't know where they're being held," Lanqin said angrily, then recounted how she had hidden herself in the old lady's chamber pot.
A hint of admiration appeared in the old man's eyes as he said, "Then how were you able to get in? They have a password."
Lanqin looked slightly bewildered and said, "Perhaps I am destined to be connected with you, senior. This is what you call a lucky accident. Senior, who exactly are you?"
The old man's eyes flashed with a look that Lanqin couldn't decipher, and then he said, "Feed me first."
Lanqin immediately tore the steamed bun apart piece by piece and fed it to the old man. She noticed the iron chain threaded through his shoulder and sighed, "Who treated you like this? It must hurt so much!"
When the old man saw her asking how he had ended up in such a state, he laughed and said, "It's all my fault. I was blind and foolish, and I deserve this calamity."
Lanqin then asked, "I just heard that Taoist priest say that you thought you were the sect leader? So you were the sect leader before?"
The old man's gaze shifted to one of longing and arrogance, as if recalling something: "I am Zhou Quangang!"
Lanqin looked at the old man in surprise and said, "You are the current leader of the Quanzhen Sect?! How come you are here and being treated like this?"
The old man gave a bitter smile and said, "You see, I was injured and imprisoned here."
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