Chapter 222 The Secret Passage
After regaining her senses, Fang Lanrong naturally didn't believe it. "At your age, there aren't many people on the mainland who can reach the Core Formation stage. You might be able to fool a kid like Xiao Cheng, but you can't fool me."
Mu Jianjian had no intention of explaining and walked towards the inner courtyard.
Fang Lanrong followed, leaving Lu Shaocheng behind.
His intuition told him that what the girl was saying was probably true.
——
The three of them walked into the courtyard one after the other, only to bump into the white-haired old man that Mu Jianjian had seen on the eaves earlier.
At this moment, he was embracing a scantily clad woman, completely absorbed in his pleasure, his steps unsteady as if he were holding a wine glass and talking to the moonlight.
Fang Lanrong was terrified that the master would discover her presence. Before she could find a tree to hide behind, she found the girl had already appeared behind them and knocked both of them unconscious with both hands at the same time.
With two loud thuds, they instantly fell silent, unconscious, and collapsed to the ground.
"You, you, you!" Fang Lanrong was so frightened that she couldn't speak.
"Let's go."
Mu is not flustered at all. Jianjian.
"You just knocked him out like that?" Fang Lanrong's eyes screamed "madwoman!" "What if you had just made a mistake? All three of us would be dead here! And I have no idea where the road leads out!"
"So I won't fail." Mu Jianjian walked inside without turning back.
We still need to find a way, and besides, to prevent the old man from having any other tricks up his sleeve, it's best to knock him unconscious and tie him up first.
Fang Lanrong was speechless for a moment.
She hurriedly followed behind the girl, watching her search for something in the room, and finally stopped at one place.
"Here." Mu Jianjian gently pointed with her slender finger, and Fang Lanrong resignedly stepped forward to begin breaking the formation as instructed.
"Boom boom boom—"
The instant Fang Lanrong stopped, the stone wall in front of her began to tremble violently, the sound so intense it seemed to penetrate everyone's chest.
Fang Lanrong was panting heavily. Because she had consumed too much spiritual energy over a long period of time, she was unsteady on her feet. She lost her balance and fell down, but was caught by Mu Jianjian next to her.
"Thank you." She looked at the stone wall that was slowly opening and placed the two bags of spirit stones into the woman's hands.
Fang Lanrong was somewhat at a loss, as this price was more than double what they had initially agreed upon!
Just as she was about to accept the gift, her heart pounding with excitement, she heard the boy behind her speak.
"I hope that after you accept the spirit stones, you won't reveal Miss Mu's identity."
Fang Lanrong's smile froze. "You were indeed kind to me back then. After I entered the East District, I also brought you food, didn't I?"
"Do you think those things can be wiped clean?" What Lu Shaocheng and his group wanted was never some condescending charity.
After catching the eye of the head steward, she was taken into his backyard. He greeted them with a smile and served them some food, after which they disappeared without a trace.
"Clang—" The stone wall split open on both sides. Mu Jianjian didn't have time to listen to what the two people behind her were saying. She walked straight forward and was a little surprised to see Fang Lanrong still following her in.
"Now that I've come all this way, it would be a waste not to come in and take a look." Fang Lanrong didn't see any resentment towards her "betrayal" in the girl's eyes, and her voice hardened again.
"You!" Lu Shaocheng wanted to send her away, but seeing that Mu Jianjian didn't mean it, he stopped talking.
"Be careful, I can sense there are many people inside." Mu Jianjian took a tinderbox from the wall and held it beside her, which could vaguely illuminate the surrounding area for about a meter.
The stone path was long but not narrow, yet it was completely dark. After walking for a quarter of an hour, they could no longer see the way they had come from, and the stench of decay and filth grew stronger and stronger in front of them.
"It stinks! What is this smell!" Fang Lanrong covered her nose and walked behind the two of them, her face showing displeasure and regret.
If she had known it would smell so bad in here, she wouldn't have come.
Mu Jianjian didn't speak, but her scattered divine senses became even more alert. The three of them's sense of time became increasingly blurred in the endless road until she stopped.
"It's over."
Fang Lanrong, who was behind her, almost stopped in her tracks when she heard this. She looked at the fork in the road ahead and nearly fell down.
"How come this place is so big?" Fang Lanrong leaned down and looked down into the stone path where the bottom was invisible. "Is this an oval-shaped place?"
“Yes,” Mu Jianjian nodded, “To be precise, it is an oval-shaped vertical strip space, with one side leading up and the other leading down.”
"Why do you want to do this?" Lu Shaocheng asked.
"I'm afraid it's to keep people locked up here layer by layer." Mu Jianjian took the lead and walked towards the left-hand path leading down. The three of them hadn't gone far when they heard a voice.
Is anyone there?
Mu Jianjian followed the sound and shone a tinderbox inside, where she saw a emaciated woman locked in a stone chamber.
The woman had clearly not seen light for a long time. The moment she saw them, she covered her eyes with her arms. Only then did the three of them see the dense and terrifying marks of talismans drawn on her arms.
Fang Lanrong was so frightened that she took a few steps back.
Who would have thought that so many people were hiding beneath the inner courtyard of the East District Governor's Office?
Lu Shaocheng clenched his fist.
Upon seeing this, Mu Jianjian immediately extinguished the tinder in her hand. "We're from the Stone Cliff area, not from the East District. May I ask who you are—"
"Please, kill me, okay? I don't want to live anymore, it's too... too painful." The woman's voice was hoarse and filled with despair.
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