Chapter 48: Rescue
When they arrived at the messy pile of carriages, Ruan Xing took Cui Yurong to find a half-carriage that was buckled at an angle, and they got in carefully, trying not to damage its original appearance.
Fortunately, Ruan Xing was a child and Cui Yurong was a thin girl, and the two of them did not take up much space when squeezed together.
The two hid for almost two hours, and there was no movement around them. Ruan Xing said, "Let's go back to the city and take a look."
The two men did not dare to walk along the main road, which was more than five miles long. Instead, they followed the forest path shaded by trees and did not reach the city gate until almost dawn.
Cui Yurong's face was covered with sweat. She was probably not only tired but also in pain. She had never walked such a long way before. But she refused to complain. She pursed her lips and said nothing. No one knew what she was thinking.
The city gate hadn't been opened yet. Ruan Xing was afraid that something might happen if he was late, so he went up to knock on the gate, took out a few banknotes and stuffed them through the crack of the door to the soldiers guarding the gate, "Brother, please be kind. My sister and I have come all night and are tired and hungry. Please let us in and find a store to rest!"
"Okay, okay." The soldier took the banknote and smiled, opening the door halfway, enough for two people to squeeze in. "Come in, I'll close it again after you come in."
"Thank you, brother."
After thanking Ruan Xing, she pulled Cui Yurong into the city gate. Cui Yurong followed behind her. Just when Cui Yurong's body had just passed through the half-open gap of the city gate, the gatekeeper who had been smiling suddenly drew out the long knife in his hand with an expressionless face and chopped Cui Yurong without warning.
Cui Yurong screamed in pain, fell to her knees, opened her mouth but could not utter a word, and then there was no movement.
Shit! Ruan Xing then remembered that the soldiers guarding the gate also belonged to the Patrol Security Division, and they were actually in the same group.
If Cui Yurong had stayed in the mountains with the bandits for three days, they would not have killed her to tarnish her reputation. But Ruan Xing brought her into the city, so she had to die.
Ruan Xing waved her hand and shot out several streams of white energy, killing several soldiers guarding the gate as a way of venting her anger. The soldiers sent out a signal for help before they died, and she stood there motionless waiting.
Breaking free from the memory, Ruan Xing shook his head helplessly. He failed again this time.
Fortunately, she took Cui Yurong back to that place to hide not only because it was darker and safer there, but more importantly, she needed to know what the goods were.
Most of them were medicinal herbs, some of which she had seen pictures of in "Detailed Explanation of Herbs", some of which she could not recognize at all, and the rest were daily necessities such as silk, cloth, tea, and grain. She might as well buy some of them to pretend she was there and see if she could blend in.
[Simulating]
Six years old, you were six years old. You used the [疾] character spell, traveled day and night, and arrived at Huaining City before dark.
After buying two carriages and some medicinal herbs and daily necessities in the city, you hired two coachmen to drive the carriages to the back door of the National Master's Palace. After the side door opened, a young man welcomed you into the National Master's Palace. You pretended to be Cui Yuqiong, the second daughter of the Cui family. The other party did not doubt you but complained about why you came so late, and then asked you for a pair of cards. You didn't know what a pair of cards was. The young man knew you were an impostor and took a few steps back. You were dead.
[End of simulation]
After reading the memory, Ruan Xing felt a little toothache. Why did she have to match the cards? She originally thought that if she could get in, she would not save Cui Yurong.
The situation was actually not bad this time. She successfully stepped into the door of the National Master's Palace and did not die. It was just that she did not play the right card in the end and was discovered by the other party. Otherwise, she could at least touch the map of the National Master's Palace this time.
But she couldn't take the matching card from Cui Yurong through the simulator, because once she had the urge to commit suicide, she would not be able to choose option two.
Damn it, she is already the day after tomorrow, why does she still have to suffer this kind of injustice?
Ruan Xing was a little unwilling, and gritted his teeth and said, "Come again! I don't believe that you can only kill me, and I can't kill you!"
……
"Cui Yurong!"
The girl was surprised and alert, "Who are you?"
"Don't worry about who I am. I'm here to save you. Do you remember how many bandits there were who tried to kill you?" Ruan Xing said as he skillfully slid down the slope and touched the unconscious man's carotid artery.
Although the girl didn't know Ruan Xing and thought it was absurd for a little girl to suddenly show up and say she wanted to save her, she still answered her, "Twelve people, they are all very powerful. My convoy has forty-five guards, all of whom are at the perfect external strength realm. But in front of them, they are as powerless as chopping melons and vegetables."
It’s hard to say whether it’s good news or bad news. In the last simulation, they were caught together on a low slope. There were only six people that time. It seems that those people were divided into two groups to search separately.
Ruan Xing pried open the man's mouth and fed him a pill, then held his chin and forced him to swallow it.
"What did you feed him?" the girl asked anxiously.
"It's a drug that stimulates his potential. He will be more energetic soon." Ruan Xing answered casually.
This is the medicine she once used on the assistant. It can stimulate the potential of the human body. Even a person who is at the end of his life can have a brief period of life, but he will die immediately after this period of time.
If this guard can wake up, he might be able to help later.
Ruan Xing put the man's head down, and the girl hurried over to take care of it carefully.
Ruan Xing sprinkled some gray-brown medicinal powder into the campfire, which made slight crackling sounds in the flames and raised light green smoke, which quickly dissipated into the air.
She took out a small porcelain bottle with a translucent white liquid in it, took a sip and handed it to Cui Yurong, "You two should take a sip too, this is the antidote for the smoke."
Cui Yurong was puzzled, but she still did as she was told. "What is this for?"
"I forgot to tell you just now that you shouldn't light a bonfire. This will expose your position and they will come to catch you soon." Ruan Xing said as he tied a thin rope fifteen centimeters above the ground under some trees.
The sky was dark, and the layers of branches and leaves blocked the already dim moonlight. If Cui Yurong had not seen Ruan Xing tie the thin rope with her own eyes, she would not have been able to see that there was a rope there.
Ruan Xing hadn't finished his work yet when the dull sound of horse hooves stepping on the soft mud became closer and closer. Six men on horseback with masks on their faces emerged from the shadows of the forest and slowly surrounded the few people.
The two groups were silent with each other, and the only sounds in the forest were the rustling of wind and the chirping of insects.
Ruan Xing drew out the dagger he was carrying and pointed it forward. The man covered in a black mask seemed to find it a little funny and let out a meaningless laugh.
Ruan Xing roared, "Sword!" The next moment, a stream of white Qi appeared from behind the masked man without warning. The man was unable to dodge and could only take the blow head-on. However, he had the Qi to protect his body, so only a deep wound appeared on his back, and his body was not split in half. He said in a hoarse voice, "Be alert."
He struck with the sword and then left, hiding himself immediately.
The sudden appearance of the mysterious enemy made the "horse bandits" a little flustered. This mysterious movement made it impossible to predict the direction of the opponent's appearance. But after hearing the voice of the man in the black mask, they quickly changed their formation and no longer surrounded the enemy. Instead, they formed groups of three to look after each other's backs and attacked from the front and back.
However, before they could change their formation, one of their horse was tripped by the thin rope and fell half to his knees. "There's a tripwire!"
Before the other party finished speaking, Ruan Xing's other hand had already touched the bottom of the tree trunk closest to him, and he urged his true energy violently, "Break!"
A series of explosions were heard, and the [Break] spells wrapped around the thin ropes were activated one after another. The horses closest to the thin ropes were instantly covered in blood and flesh, and the people on the horses were inevitably seriously injured.
Cui Yurong was already at the bottom of the short slope, and the mixture of blood and mud almost buried half of her body, but she held the man tightly in her arms, and dared not move except for breathing violently.
Ruan Xing had anticipated this and covered his head and face with the cloak behind him. After the aftereffects faded, he picked up the dagger and went to harvest. "Sword!"
The swords came out quickly, and the seriously injured "horse bandits" were not only in great pain but also weak and powerless, and could not resist at all.
The man in the black mask felt dizzy and his limbs were powerless. He barely blocked Ruan Xing's sword, but couldn't take the second sword. The sharp dagger pierced his lower abdomen and then took root in the tree trunk behind him. He uttered his weak and angry last words: "You are not a member of the Cui family..."
Ruan Xing drew back the dagger, her heart pounding with the surge of adrenaline. These enemies, whom she would easily lose to after just a few moves when facing them head-on, were all killed by her just like that?
There were no fish that escaped Jianlai's net. Ruan Xing took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and called Cui Yurong and the others to get up and work. "Move the bodies to the bottom of the slope and light a fire. Once that's done, we'll leave here quickly."
There are still six 'horse bandits', and I don't know when they will come.
Cui Yurong was not very strong, and her legs went limp at the sight of the broken limbs and arms all over the ground. But she also knew that this was not the time to be pretentious, so she suppressed her instinct of fear, grabbed a half-body soaked in blood, and dragged it to the bottom of the slope.
The man who had been protected by Cui Yurong also woke up and carried the body in silence.
Jian Lai's speed was much faster than the two of them. He raised it and swung it, and threw the corpse over.
After everyone had finished moving everything, Ruan Xing threw some dry branches and leaves on top and set them on fire.
Ruan Xing patted the dust off his hands and said, "Let's go."
Jian Lai disappeared into the air, and the three of them headed towards the city. After less than a quarter of an hour, they heard the familiar thumping sound of horse hooves again.
Ruan Xing held the sword and the talisman in his hand, ready to meet the enemy.
……
After regaining her consciousness, Ruan Xing let out a long breath. She still lost this time. With the power of the talisman and the sneak attack from the sword, she tried her best to kill a "horse bandit", but was then killed by several other people on the other side.
This time they didn't plan to capture her alive, probably because they thought she was not a member of the Cui family, and it would be too troublesome to capture her alive.
There was no other way. The patrol department in the capital was indeed different from that in a small country town. Not only were there Thousand Ling Guards everywhere, but each of them had rich practical experience. Ruan Xing couldn't even defeat them alone, let alone six against one, unless she was given enough time to prepare.
Or she could use the [疾] character spell to quickly get herself and Cui Yurong back to the city... Unfortunately, there were only a few dozen [疾] characters, and they were all used up when she was on the road. Otherwise, she would not have been able to shorten the journey of a day and a half to just one day.
She thought the monkey skin [御] character curse was too heavy, so she left it to Hu San. What a joke. Who would carry more than a hundred monkey skins with them when going out?
She only wore one on herself. Anyway, she could simulate it and avoid most dangers.
She didn't even take the three books. She could look through them at any time in her memory anyway. The old man's cave was also quite safe. No one could go in alive except her and Jianlai. She felt at ease leaving the books and 40,000 taels of silver notes there.
She could only try harder and harder to find a way to survive. Cui Yurong was the only way she could find to enter the Imperial Master's Palace safely. She had to at least try all directions before giving up.
Sighing, Ruan Xing silently began to simulate.
……
Ruan Xing grabbed the hand of the man who was carrying the corpse, and the latter looked at her in confusion.
"Put on this." Ruan Xing used his dagger to lift the black mask off the corpse, "Put on his clothes, and this dagger."
The man quickly understood what she meant. He dropped the corpse in his hands and began to change his clothes without any hesitation.
Cui Yurong seemed to be hesitant to speak, as if she didn't want the man to sacrifice himself to cover them. But after being silent for a long while, she turned around and stopped looking at the man.
After more than a quarter of an hour, the two were finally caught up by the dull sound of horse hooves. Unexpectedly, the man only delayed for less than ten minutes. However, Ruan Xing keenly noticed that one of the "horse bandits" had a shoulder injury.
Before the horse's hooves could stand firmly, Ruan Xing had already waved his hand and cast several [Break] character spells. Although the spell was powerful, its range was not large. If it retreated a distance of seven or eight feet, it would only cause scratches at most. Otherwise, Ruan Xing would not have thought of using a trip rope to connect the spells.
It also consumes a lot of her inner energy. Ruan Xing had already used up most of it when she dealt with the trip rope and hadn't recovered yet. Now she cast a few more spells and her inner energy was quickly running out. With the inner energy she currently had, casting fifty spells in a row in a short period of time was already her limit. Seeing that the [Break] spell did not do as much damage to the six 'horse bandits' behind her as it did in the forest, Ruan Xing made up her mind and drew the pennant from her waist.
She had never used this flag to collect souls because she felt it was too cruel. Killing people was not enough, but taking people's souls would make them unable to rest in peace even after death.
After waving the flag a few times at the enemy, they lost consciousness and fell off their horses one by one before they could react to what was happening.
True Qi can only protect the body but cannot save the soul, so Ruan Xing extracted the soul very smoothly. However, when she extracted the fifth soul, her arms became sore and her vision went dark.
Using the flag only requires a thought and does not consume any energy, but she has no spiritual power, so what exactly is the power needed to use the flag?
Ruan Xing didn't know, but when she collected the last soul, her legs could no longer support her body, and her eyes were blurry and she couldn't see anything.
She felt Cui Yurong holding her and letting her head rest on her shoulder. She heard the other person's worried voice in her ears, "Are you okay?"
"Not very good." Ruan Xing chuckled and reached out to pull the hairpin off Cui Yurong's bun. "See you next time."
(End of this chapter)
