Chapter 213 Perpetrator or Victim?
As Mu Jianjian listened to what the others were saying, she reached out and touched the edge of the knotted sack. Just as she was about to try to untie it from the inside, the knot on the outside was torn off, and a ray of light finally shone through.
The air was hazy, as if every breath carried sand and dust, and Mu Jianjian couldn't help but choke and start coughing.
At the same time, a large face loomed large in front of her.
“It’s a woman!” The woman in front of her was thin and flinched when she met Mu Jianjian’s eyes. She turned to look at the two people behind her. “She looks like she’s badly injured, but she’s still alive.”
"So what if you're alive? You're still Baili Yicheng's dog," the man's voice was fierce, filled with disgust and contempt. "Take him back and eat him."
Before Mu Jianjian could speak, the bag was tied up again, and she was easily lifted up by one hand. The group slowly began to walk into the sand cave.
Mu Jianjian, inside the sack, began to recall the original book's description of the sand caves of Duyunfang.
There seem to be very few memories of this place. It is a place that everyone in Duyunfang hates. Generally, only people who have committed serious crimes are thrown into this barrier. Inside, the wind and sand are always blowing and there is no sunlight. People who have suffered can not cross the "sky crack" to get out, so they can only spend their lives in the grayness.
After the male 400 Li Mochen became the owner of Duyunfang, he took action to release the people inside without charge and remove the barrier. From then on, Duyunfang was free of sand caves.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Mu Jianjian felt the sack being put down and the opening being untied. Only then did she see her surroundings.
As the name suggests, a sand cave is a grotto located in a place eroded by sand and dust.
The high cliff is riddled with caves, and traces of human habitation can be faintly seen in the caves of all sizes. Looking into the distance, the men and women inside all appear emaciated and pale, as if they have not eaten their fill for a long time.
She landed in the lowest, central cave, where three people stood before her. The one who untied the knot in the bag was the thin woman she had first seen.
Of the three, only the burly man standing at the back was a Qi Condensation cultivator; the other two had no cultivation.
"Hello." Mu Jianjian blinked her eyes, and only when she felt the pain in the wounds on her cheeks did she realize that she had been disfigured. Her voice was a little weak.
"It's good to have you around. We'll throw you into that pot, and everyone here will get a piece of meat because of you." The big man said nonchalantly, his eyes already fixed on the iron pot hanging in the center of the cliff bottom, waiting for the water inside to boil.
The woman and boy standing to the side seemed reluctant, but they did not speak up to stop it.
Mu Jianjian looked up at the people peeking out from the various grottoes along the cliff, but as soon as their eyes met, they all shrank back.
It is said that the people in the sand cave are heartless and ruthless thugs, but indeed, rumors cannot be entirely believed.
"Boss!" A voice suddenly interrupted Mu Jianjian's words, and a young man dressed in tattered clothes ran over.
"Boss! People from the East District are demanding that we hand over the person. They said if we don't, they'll just grab anyone or take Sister Ji Ning away!"
As soon as these words were spoken, voices could be heard from the various caves in the cliff, and the faint sound of a woman's low sobbing echoed among the rocks.
Mu Jianjian could clearly feel the frail woman beside her trembling.
"What's all the noise about! What are you crying about again!" The big man suddenly turned his head towards the cave, then pointed to Mu Jianjian, who was in the sack looking perfectly normal. "We'll hand her over."
"You can't hand me over." Mu Jianjian said crisply, and even though her voice was hoarse, it couldn't hide her light and aloof temperament.
The boy beside him, who had initially intended to speak up to stop them, saw someone speak up and his gaze swept over the insignia of Baili Yicheng's residence on the sack, his eyes probing.
"Why?" The burly man felt slighted by her indifferent expression throughout, and a sting ran through him. "What right do you, a prisoner of war, have to speak?"
“First of all, you can’t beat me,” Mu Jianjian looked up and met the burly man’s gaze, her expression showing no sign of flinching. “Second, judging from your appearance, you haven’t eaten for days. You might not be worried because you’re a cultivator, but the others won’t last much longer. And finally—”
"If you hand me over, wouldn't that be tacitly admitting to the other side that you're stealing newcomers from outside the 'Sky Rift'?"
After Mu Jianjian finished explaining the three points, she looked down at her swollen fingers and felt a little helpless.
The boy listened to the other person's calm and clear expression. Even in the face of the danger of being cooked and eaten, he could still be so composed. This was either fearlessness of life and death or absolute confidence in his own strength.
They probably managed to capture a very important person from the "sky crack" this time.
A sense of excitement welled up in the young man's heart, and he was about to speak when the burly man spoke first.
"You think I can't beat you?" The big man thought the girl had lost her mind when she was thrown in and was just daydreaming. "You're so badly injured, your fingers are twisted like this, and you think I can't beat you?"
"You can try." Mu Jianjian squatted on the ground indifferently, hugging her body into a ball.
"Boss, the people from the East District are waiting up ahead." The young man who had come to deliver the message earlier sounded anxious.
"They're just a few slaves delivering messages. What's wrong with telling them to wait? The East District has become increasingly arrogant lately, even those slaves don't respect us anymore." The burly man gritted his teeth.
Upon seeing this, the boy turned around and said, "Give them some grass from our village and let them go back first. We will personally go to the East District tonight to hand the person over to them."
One was irritable, the other calm; they seemed like two extremes.
Mu Jianjian was somewhat surprised. The boy's voice seemed to soothe the messenger's anxiety with ease. After the messenger nodded and left, the big man pointed at her.
"Come on, let's fight."
"Please don't take offense, young lady. He's just like that—irritable and easily angered—but he's a good person." The young man glared at the big man before walking over to Mu Jianjian and explaining.
"Xiao Cheng, why are you glaring at me?" The big man asked, puzzled. He was even more confused when he saw the boy talking to the girl in the sack. "Why are you talking to this food?"
"Would a good person eat human flesh?" Mu Jianjian tilted her head, resting her fingers on her right cheek. "Besides, you don't know me, how do you know if I'm a good person or not?"
"Young lady, you don't know this, but Baili Yicheng is a dissolute playboy. The people in the sand cave despise him the most. Therefore, when they see his mark next to the sack, they will feel particularly disgusted with the people inside."
The boy was short and had a sallow complexion, a stark contrast to his deep, pleasant voice.
"But how do you know whether the person thrown from Baili Yicheng's mansion was the perpetrator or the victim?" Mu Jianjian met the boy's gaze and finally saw his eyes shrink back. She pouted, her face seemed to be clouded with worry, and her expression was melancholy.
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