Chapter 1: Sacrifice
“Giddy up~”
Inside the violently jolting carriage, Hua Changxi, whose hands and feet were bound, opened her eyes. After a moment of confusion, her expression turned to one of shock and fear.
She had been kidnapped!
Today was the day Old Madam Hua was taking the female members of the Hua family to Guangji Temple in the southern suburbs of the Capital City to pray for blessings.
Unwilling to participate in the Buddhist ceremony at the temple, Hua Changxi slipped away alone. She had intended to see the famous matchmaking tree on the back mountain of Guangji Temple, but as soon as she reached the back mountain, her neck felt a sharp pain, and then she fainted.
If she had known she would encounter such bad luck, she would have stayed by her family’s side, no matter how restless she felt.
Hua Changxi suppressed her panic and forced herself to calm down, quickly surveying the interior of the carriage.
Besides herself, there was nothing else in the carriage. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her feet were also tightly bound, making it difficult to move even an inch.
“Bang bang bang~”
The carriage bumped violently as it sped along, the carriage windows making constant crashing sounds.
Hua Changxi watched the constantly opening and closing carriage windows, her eyes lighting up. She struggled to twist her body, laboriously lifting her bound legs to rest on the carriage wall, her entire body lying in an L-shape within the carriage.
Afterward, Hua Changxi extended her feet to the carriage window and rubbed her right foot back and forth along the window frame, scraping her shoe off the carriage.
She closed her eyes and rested for a while. Estimating that the carriage had traveled another five kilometers, Hua Changxi rubbed her feet again, scraping the other shoe off.
Her father was a constable for the Six Doors. If they discovered she was missing, they would definitely come looking for her. She hoped these two shoes would provide a clue for her father.
Hua Changxi pondered for a moment. Worried that two shoes might not be enough, she leaned against the carriage wall, struggled to bend over, and stood up. With her hands tied behind her back, she pulled off the sachet from her waist and threw it out the carriage window.
“Whoa~”
Feeling the carriage slowing down, Hua Changxi quickly lay down, closed her eyes, and pretended to still be unconscious.
After a moment, with a “creak,” the carriage door opened.
Then, Hua Changxi felt herself being dragged out by her arm like a dead dog by the kidnappers, and then carried over a shoulder like a sandbag.
“It took us quite some time to capture this one. Today is the final deadline. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to complete the task.”
Listening to the conversation between the two kidnappers, Hua Changxi’s heart sank to the bottom.
She had initially thought she was randomly kidnapped, but she never expected the kidnappers were after her specifically!
But why?
For ransom?
There were plenty of wealthy merchants in the Capital City. The Hua family didn’t even need to hire servants, so kidnapping her wouldn’t yield any silver.
For sexual assault?
She was only thirteen years old, her face hadn’t fully developed, and her body hadn’t matured. Even if she were sold to a brothel, she would need a couple more years of nurturing.
Could it be revenge from the Hua family’s enemies?
Her father, as a constable for the Six Doors, dealt with people from all walks of life regularly. He must have made enemies and created grudges along the way. This possibility was the most likely.
Being carried over a shoulder with her head hanging down, Hua Changxi figured the two men wouldn’t pay much attention to her. She quickly opened her eyes to get a look at where the kidnappers were taking her.
A ruined temple that had collapsed for the most part!
“Is this the last one we have?”
“Mm.”
As they spoke, the two kidnappers carried Hua Changxi into the ruined temple.
“Click~”
A grinding sound was heard.
Hua Changxi quickly opened her eyes again to look.
She saw another kidnapper standing in front of a statue in the center of the ruined temple, which was so damaged that only the base remained. He was holding onto a protrusion on the base with both hands and turning it.
The next moment, the statue slowly moved aside, revealing the entrance to a tunnel.
“Let’s go!”
The kidnappers, carrying Hua Changxi, jumped down the tunnel.
Underground, the tunnels were crisscrossed, and there were many stone rooms.
Hua Changxi tried hard to remember the route they were taking. Unfortunately, being carried, her head was congested and throbbing, not only hindering her thinking but also severely limiting her vision.
She had originally hoped to remember the route to escape later, but now she couldn’t even see clearly what the tunnel looked like.
Feeling uncomfortable with her upper abdomen being pressed, Hua Changxi suddenly had an idea and coughed a few times.
“Damn it!”
As expected, Hua Changxi was thrown to the ground by the kidnappers with a “bang.”
Hua Changxi’s face contorted from the fall, but she ignored the pain and dry-coughed a few more times, feigning just waking up and looking at the two kidnappers with a terrified expression.
“Good thing you didn’t throw up on me.”
“What do we do now?”
“We’re already underground, do you still think she’ll run away? Untie her feet and let her walk herself.”
The kidnapper hesitated for a moment, then drew his sabre and “swish,” he cleanly cut the rope binding Hua Changxi’s feet.
Hua Changxi watched the kidnapper’s swift movements, her heart sinking.
A martial artist!
The people who kidnapped her were actually martial artists!
“Get up quickly!”
The kidnapper grabbed Hua Changxi and roughly shoved her forward.
As she was able to see the conditions of the tunnel, the further they went, the more shocked Hua Changxi became.
The underground area was very spacious, like an underground city.
Even though she was facing a life and death crisis, she was still awestruck.
The two kidnappers had some communication on the surface, but underground, they remained silent the entire way, their expressions solemn.
As they went deeper, the temperature of the air began to rise.
Slowly, sweat began to bead on the foreheads of the two kidnappers, and their clothes gradually became soaked with sweat. Hua Changxi, however, remained perfectly dry.
Seeing that Hua Changxi was unaffected by the underground heat, one kidnapper muttered, “No wonder…”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was immediately warned by the other kidnapper.
Hua Changxi’s expression flickered. The two kidnappers seemed to have entered a sauna room underground, yet she hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Her intuition told her that this kidnapping might not be the ordinary revenge she had imagined.
The kidnappers might have abducted her precisely because of her heat-resistant physique.
For the rest of the journey, the two kidnappers remained very silent.
After traversing underground for half an hour, the two kidnappers, sweating profusely, opened a stone door and forcefully pushed Hua Changxi inside.
“Bang~”
A wave of scorching heat washed over her. Hua Changxi was pushed and fell to the ground. After struggling for a while, she managed to sit up. When she saw the scene behind the stone door, her mouth fell open in astonishment.
Behind the stone door was a wide stone platform. Complex patterns were carved onto the platform, and three sides were surrounded by churning, boiling lava. Only the stone door behind her was the sole exit.
Had she been brought to… the lava layer?
What made Hua Changxi’s pupils contract even more was that dozens of young boys and girls, about her age, were lying scattered on the stone platform.
These people had their hands and feet bound, lying or sitting, some whimpering and crying, others lying motionless in despair.
Seeing this scene, Hua Changxi’s heart turned completely cold. She guessed who had captured them.
Demonic monks!
Or Demonic Daoists!
If she wasn’t mistaken, this stone platform should be an altar!
In the Great Jin Dynasty, Buddhism and Daoism flourished, and the number of Daoist priests and monks surged. With such a large base, it was inevitable that there would be scoundrels, and demonic monks and demonic Daoists appeared endlessly. She often heard news from various prefectures and counties about demonic Daoists or monks causing trouble.
Hua Changxi’s father had once handled a case where a demonic Daoist captured young boys and girls to cultivate evil cultivation techniques. The altar and the young boys and girls described in that case were a hundred percent similar to her current predicament.
Hua Changxi’s heart sank completely. As far as she knew, anyone captured by demonic monks or demonic Daoists had almost no chance of survival.
Could her father discover the shoes and sachet she threw out in time to come and rescue her?
She had only lived thirteen years in this life. Was she going to have an even shorter lifespan than her previous one? In her past life, despite working overtime, she had lived to twenty-eight.
Hua Changxi suppressed the panic in her heart and began to look around, trying to find an opportunity to escape.
Fortunately, her feet could move.
Hua Changxi scanned the stone platform and finally found an angular protrusion on the stone wall near the stone door. She immediately struggled to stand up, walked to the protrusion, placed her bound hands on it, and began to vigorously rub the ropes.
After rubbing for a while, she found that the protrusion was not sharp enough, and the ropes couldn’t be broken in a short time.
Hua Changxi worried that someone would arrive soon, so she turned her gaze to the other people on the stone platform.
“Young sir, the rope on my hands has been loosened. Can you help me bite it open? Once my hands are free, I’ll immediately help you untie yours.”
Hua Changxi asked for help from the nearest boy.
The boy pointed to over a dozen people groaning in pain on the stone platform and said, “They are like you, they tried to escape, but they were discovered by the patrolling guards, and their hands and feet were broken.”
Hua Changxi saw theTragic state of those people, their limbs bent unnaturally. After a moment of silence, she still said, “I’m not afraid of being discovered. Help me untie the rope first.”
The boy said, “But I’m afraid.” Then he closed his eyes numbly.
Hua Changxi frowned but said nothing, then turned to ask the next person for help.
Unfortunately, after asking several people in succession, no one paid her any attention.
Hua Changxi was silent for a moment, scanning the expressions of everyone present. These captured people seemed to have lost the will to live, their faces filled with despair and numbness.
Suddenly, Hua Changxi met a pair of calm eyes, eyes that held no despair.
It was a young woman about her age.
As soon as the young woman saw her looking, she immediately closed her eyes.
Hua Changxi didn’t have time to ponder why the young woman was so calm in such a dangerous situation. She only felt that this young woman should still have the desire to live, so she quickly walked over: “Young lady, can you help me?”
At first, the young woman ignored her, appearing to be asleep.
Seeing this, Hua Changxi could only gently touch and shake the young woman, repeatedly encouraging her not to give up hope of survival and pleading for mutual assistance.
Under Hua Changxi’s incessant nagging, like a Tang Monk, the young woman opened her eyes.
The young woman’s gaze was somewhat complex. Before Hua Changxi could get a clear look, she heard the young woman tell her to turn around.
Hua Changxi’s expression brightened, and she immediately complied.
The young woman was very capable. In a short while, she had bitten through Hua Changxi’s rope.
As soon as her hands were free, Hua Changxi was about to help the young woman untie herself.
Unexpectedly, the young woman refused: “I don’t need your help.”
Hua Changxi was stunned. Before she could ask more questions, someone nearby called out to her for help with untying.
The young woman took the opportunity to say, “Go and help those who need it.” With that, she closed her eyes and no longer paid attention to Hua Changxi.
Hua Changxi sensed the young woman’s strangeness and didn’t say much. She quickly went to the person who had asked for help, and while untying them, she said, “Later, you go and help others untie themselves, and I’ll look for the mechanism to get out.”
After untying that person, Hua Changxi headed straight for the stone door, her hands inch by inch feeling along the stone walls around the door, trying to find the switch to open it.
Unfortunately, she found nothing.
During this time, several people who had been freed also ran over to help search for the mechanism.
Hua Changxi searched repeatedly around the stone door. Seeing that finding a switch was hopeless, she began to walk around the stone platform again. She even boldly stood at the edge of the stone platform and looked down into the lava.
What are those stone sculptures?
On the outer edge of the stone platform, some stone sculptures were carved, shaped like birds?
Hua Changxi couldn’t see very clearly. After circling a few times, although she still found nothing, she had figured out the structure of the stone platform.
Just as Hua Changxi was becoming increasingly anxious, there was a sound from the stone door.
Knowing someone was coming, Hua Changxi immediately lay down nearby.
At this moment, her location was precisely in the center of the stone platform.
The stone door opened wide, and an old man in a red robe walked in.
Those few people who had been untied were not as quick to react as Hua Changxi and did not lie down to feign unconsciousness in time. They were caught red-handed by the red-robed old man.
“Ah~”
A scream rang out. Hua Changxi couldn’t help but peek through a slit in her eyes and saw the red-robed old man holding a dagger gleaming with cold light, slicing open people’s wrists one by one.
Those few people who had been untied were not had their limbs broken, but were knocked unconscious by the red-robed old man.
“Ah~”
Screams echoed one after another, and a strong bloody smell began to fill the air above the stone platform.
The blood flowed into the recessed patterns on the stone platform and was pushed by an invisible force, rapidly converging towards the center of the stone platform.
During this time, Hua Changxi saw the red-robed old man cutting the left wrists of everyone. She secretly pressed a few acupoints on her own left arm.
Soon, the red-robed old man arrived in front of Hua Changxi.
Hua Changxi had initially thought she could get away with it. However, after her wrist was cut, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, and then she plunged into darkness.
