Chapter 215 Only Strength Matters
After Mu Jianjian had been dozing off for a while, she saw the boy appear in front of her again.
“Young lady, a grotto has been prepared for you,” Lu Shaocheng said.
"Mm." Mu Jianjian nodded and followed the boy to a newly dug hole in a rocky cliff.
The soil and rocks inside the cave were flattened, with very little fine dust remaining. The cave was empty, barely tall enough for one person to walk upright, and only large enough for one person to fit inside.
She went inside and curled up to rest, looking exhausted.
"Aren't you going to ask me about this place, young lady?" Lu Shaocheng stood at the entrance, hesitant to go in but also afraid to leave. "Aren't you afraid we'll grab you while you're unconscious?"
"You don't need to do that. As for whether or not to ask about things here," Mu Jianjian said calmly, "you'll tell me, won't you?"
After seeing that she was not simple, he spoke up for her and treated her with respect. It was not because she was kind, but because strength was paramount in the Sand Cave. She was not in a hurry for this kind of thing; it was others who were.
“That’s true.” Lu Shaocheng gave a low, bitter laugh and began to tell the girl about the recent situation in the sand cave.
The Sand Cave was originally used by Duyunfang to deal with evil demonic cultivators. However, Duyunfang later tightened its control over cultivators, so the people imprisoned in the Sand Cave became increasingly mixed. Anyone who clashed with them was thrown in to fend for themselves.
For example, Lu Shaocheng himself had previously tried to save a woman who was being harassed by a cultivator from Duyunfang, but offended that person and was thrown into this place.
"Someone just sent a message saying they want to hand over people to the East District. What does that mean?" Mu Jianjian asked softly.
"I wonder if you've noticed, young lady, that the proportion of cultivators in the entire Duyunfang area is not as high as in other parts of the continent?" Lu Shaocheng looked at the girl in the cave, his eyes lowered.
He inexplicably recalled the fleeting look of confusion and sadness that his opponent had shown during the fight. Even though these emotions were instantly replaced by resilience, he still managed to catch them.
"Yes." Mu Jianjian nodded, but what puzzled her was that even in the case of Duyunfang, there were still many secret techniques for using true qi.
For example, the Dream of the Red Chamber has secret passages all over the mainland used to abduct young girls. Each secret passage is equipped with a special barrier. For example, Baili Yicheng's mansion has arrays, not to mention the Duyunfang.
“That’s because they don’t see the people in the sand cave as human beings,” Lu Shaocheng said with a deep look of sarcasm, but beneath the sarcasm was a deep sadness. “A few days ago, I didn’t know that the workshop owner had obtained a forbidden technique that allowed him to use living people to absorb the true energy of the pills. And those people in the East District, as the lackeys of Duyun Workshop, naturally obeyed them without question.”
“But—” Mu Jianjian hesitated, about to speak, but was interrupted.
Using living people to extract internal energy?
Mu Jianjian felt an overwhelming sense of disgust, even nausea. Her fingers grew increasingly cold, and she was grateful that these were the people who had picked her up when she was thrown down from the "sky crevice".
If those people in the East District had found her, she would probably have already become one of the living beings they were refining.
“If you’re wondering why we didn’t escape, or rather, why we didn’t resist, we have considered it, but it’s all too difficult,” Lu Shaocheng said, looking down at his once fair fingers, now thin and sallow. “Most of the people here are old, weak, sick, or disabled. They can’t even get enough to eat here, so how can they resist?”
“I didn’t mean to ask that,” Mu Jianjian said weakly, meeting Lu Shaocheng’s stunned gaze. “The gap between cultivators is already huge and difficult to cross, let alone an ordinary person facing a cultivator. I just wonder how you all came up with the idea of achieving a balance between the two.”
The Sand Caves are a place where the strong prey on the weak. They have lived here for a long time with these people. If they want to change their situation, they have to make a decision and make a choice. For example, tonight they must send someone to the East District. But who is willing to lose their life for nothing?
"This is the situation we least wanted to face. The Eastern District didn't dare to ask us for people before, but recently the number of monsters outside the Sand Cave has gradually decreased. We can't catch any monsters and we're starving, so the Eastern District dared to come and ask for our help..." Lu Shaocheng explained the situation.
"Are there monsters here?" Mu Jianjian raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Yes, but they've become increasingly rare lately, and we can't even see a shadow of the more powerful monsters, let alone fight them."
"I see. But aren't you afraid that I'm a spy that Baili Yicheng threw into the 'Sky Rift' to deal with you?" Mu Jianjian could tell that the other party wasn't lying, so she was a little suspicious of his candor.
Lu Shaocheng slowly shook his head, "No, my intuition tells me that you are not that kind of person. Besides, the people in Duyunfang don't take us seriously at all. Let alone using this method to deal with us, they would even consider a glance to us a luxury."
"Okay, thank you." Mu Jianjian's eyes gradually lowered, and she leaned against the wall, clearly indicating that she was not going to continue the conversation.
Lu Shaocheng hesitated for a moment but still asked, "Aren't you going to ask me how to get out of the sand cave?"
He felt that everyone who entered the sand cave would be eager to know this.
"Aren't we unable to get out?" Mu Jianjian tilted her head.
“That’s true, but I heard that people from the East District can go out…” Lu Shaocheng looked at the girl’s tired appearance and was speechless for a moment. After offering a few words of comfort, he suddenly realized something. “Miss, I am Lu Shaocheng. You can call me Xiao Cheng like they do. What’s your name?”
Mu Jianjian paused for a moment, then said, "Mu Yuanyuan."
A smile appeared on Lu Shaocheng's face. He said a few more polite words, then turned and left.
They were then blocked at the corner of the grotto.
"Xiao Cheng, why are you digging a hole for that woman?" The big man looked agitated, sweat beading on his forehead, dripping down onto the dark yellow soil below.
“Boss, we can’t hand her over to the people in the East District now, and we can’t use her as food either, so why can’t we treat her well?” Lu Shaocheng sighed deeply, looking helpless. He pulled the man aside from the cave entrance where Mu Jianjian was, before he began to speak.
"What good things could come from Baili Yicheng's mansion?" The big man's voice was filled with pain and struggle.
Seeing that the other party had started reminiscing again, Lu Shaocheng quickly comforted him, "Boss, so much time has passed, it's time to go and take a look."
The burly man was silent for a moment before saying, "Shall we still proceed as planned tonight?"
Lu Shaocheng nodded. "There's no way out. If we don't make a move now, the people in the East District will probably take us even less seriously. The only way to make them take us seriously is through strength."
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