Chapter 181 Abduction
"Ah—" Jin Hongze let out a scream. He subconsciously let go of Mu Jianjian and then covered his eyes and backed away.
When did she wake up?
Logically, the poison pill should have taken effect, but why does she appear unchanged?
He didn't even notice!
After breaking free of her restraints, Mu Jianjian quickly looked around and observed the surrounding terrain.
It must be a side gate of Kyoto, the capital of Yingzhou...
In other words, as long as she runs inside, she should run into the people looking for her!
"Chase her! Get her back to me right now!" Jin Hongze roared, covering his eyes.
With a firm resolve, Mu Jianjian ran towards the nearby alleyway of houses. The houses there were numerous and varied, and if someone were to sneak in, even a cultivator would have difficulty determining her location.
Just as Mu Jianjian had expected, after she shrank into the alley, Jin Hongze's men, who were darting left and right, did not immediately catch her.
After all, in the old alleys far from Kyoto, there are many people with no or low cultivation, which makes it easier for Mu Jianjian to hide.
After she slipped into a deserted courtyard, she turned her back to the wooden door, barely daring to breathe, and took out the Qi Condensation Talisman stored in her system space, listening to Jin Hongze's men pass by her.
Fortunately, there's still system space...
Just as Mu Jianjian breathed a sigh of relief after being temporarily out of danger, the person outside the door unexpectedly returned.
"Don't you think the atmosphere in this courtyard is strange?" a man asked.
"Hey, what does it matter to us whether it's strange or not? The important thing is to find that woman and bring her back to report!" another man said.
"We've already surrounded this alleyway with our men. It's only a matter of time before we catch her. I don't know what the young master is thinking... I really think this courtyard is not simple. Let's go in and take a look. What if someone is really hiding here?"
The moment the man finished speaking, he reached out and opened the wooden gate in front of the courtyard. The large courtyard was empty except for a dilapidated wooden cart lying in the corner.
He glanced behind the door again, but the result was the same.
"Let's go." The other man waved impatiently.
"Look, there are array talismans here!" The man pointed to the blue, fluctuating true energy in the courtyard. "Maybe she's hiding in this courtyard, using the array talismans she brought with her to conceal her presence from us!"
"Fool! What does the presence of rune arrays here mean? It means the people living here are no ordinary beings. Could an ordinary cultivator use rune arrays with such a wide range?"
As Mu Jianjian entered the wooden house, she listened to the sounds in the courtyard and gently turned her gaze to the dust-covered inner room.
So there was a talisman array here... It's just a pity that her true energy was sealed, so she couldn't see anything unusual.
[This house looks like it hasn't been used for a long time. The rune array must have been left over from a long time ago, right?] the system said.
“If no one regularly reinforces the talisman array with true energy, it will not be preserved,” Mu Jianjian denied.
This place used to be... a temple for worship?
Slowly walking towards the other end, the Buddha statue wrapped in tattered cloth gradually revealed its original appearance: large ears, thick lips, a kind face, left hand raised holding a lotus flower, and the other hand held upright in front of the lips, as if praying for something.
Below were the fruits and vegetables that others had once given them, but now they had rotted and were only frequented by crawling insects and rats.
Has the incense burner here been moved?
Mu Jianjian listened to the approaching footsteps coming from the courtyard and made a decision in her mind.
If she continued to run away, not to mention whether her physical strength and Qi Condensation Talisman could support her evasion, if she were to be caught by them, she would be met with even stricter surveillance.
Mu Jianjian placed her hand on the incense burner and indeed noticed something was wrong.
This incense burner is stuck to the table and can't be lifted. So, can it be rotated?
"Squeak, squeak—"
Mu Jianjian turned the incense burner clockwise and heard it make a strange sound, realizing something was wrong.
This is outrageous!
The sound is so loud, wouldn't the two people outside hear it too?
Before Mu Jianjian could figure out how to deal with it, her legs went weak and she plummeted downwards.
"thump--"
The feeling of weightlessness finally disappeared, and Mu Jianjian was also dizzy from the fall. Her whole body felt like it was about to fall apart, but she didn't dare to faint. She quickly opened her eyes and looked around.
Just as she had guessed.
Beneath the dilapidated temple, which was equipped with a talisman array, lay a hidden paradise.
Red curtains hung lightly along the road. Mu Jianjian stood up and cautiously lifted the red curtains to peek forward.
Here are a series of forking vermilion paths, narrow and winding, so that you can't see the end at a glance.
Where to go?
Just as Mu Jianjian was hesitating, she heard a creaking sound behind her, and knew that she couldn't wait any longer.
The people behind her were catching up, so she had to keep moving forward.
To avoid getting lost in the "underground maze," she always turned right at every fork in the road.
Until Mu Jianjian turned right for the last time, a huge vermilion gate suddenly appeared in front of her.
She stared blankly at the scene before her—
Inside the giant gate, women dressed in old clothes were squatting. The youngest was only about ten years old, and the oldest was in their early twenties. Without exception, all the dozens of women were staring at her with their eyes wide open.
What's this?
A large-scale human trafficking operation?
"Can you save me?" A woman in her early twenties reached out and gripped the door frame, looking at the astonished Mu Jianjian with hopeful eyes.
"Please, please save us," another girl pleaded, her voice trembling.
Mu Jianjian lowered her eyes and remained silent.
These are all girls without any cultivation; they were clearly captured and brought here.
If she still had true energy in the past, she would definitely have chosen to help. Unfortunately, she was being pursued by enemies, and she was in dire need of help herself.
"Look at her, covered in dried blood, she looks like she came from nowhere. Do you think she can save us like this? Don't waste your energy." A girl with her hair tied up in a bun in a corner behind the vermilion door spoke up.
Her words successfully disappointed the others who had high hopes, and even the woman who had initially been holding onto the doorframe let go.
"Knock knock knock—"
The footsteps coming from the aisle beside her grew closer, pulling Mu Jianjian back to reality. Just as she was about to turn around, she bumped into someone and stumbled back a few steps.
Before them stood a woman dressed in a floral robe, followed by a cold-faced maid.
Mu Jianjian decisively used the momentum to fall to the ground. She glanced at the fear in the eyes of the group of women, then turned and pulled up the hem of the woman's skirt.
"Please, someone is chasing me! Please save me..." Mu Jianjian cried, looking utterly pitiful. "After my father died, my stepmother wanted to marry me off to a lame old stableman. I didn't want to, so I ran away. Now someone is chasing me! Please save me..."
In a corner where no one could see her, Mu Jianjian pinched her inner thigh to make her crying look even more realistic and pitiful.
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