sbdcsierra Chapter 456 If Only You Were Here
Chapter 456 If Only You Were Here
After thinking for a moment, Prefect Ling called Xu Lang over.
"Have Xu Lang take a few people with you."
Then he leaned closer to Lu Yangyang and lowered his voice, "Your Highness must have arranged for people over there. If you encounter any trouble that you can't handle, seek help immediately. Do not act rashly. First, find a way to rescue that girl, and wait for me to bring people over to meet you. Do you understand?"
Lu Yangyang had originally planned to find a way to rescue the young girl, Xiu Niang. According to the Taoist priests, Xiu Niang would not be sent to the Immortal Palace until early tomorrow morning at the earliest. If they rushed there now, even if they couldn't intercept her on the way, they could find a way to rescue her once they arrived at the Immortal Palace. She knew that His Highness had important matters to attend to. Only by dealing with the person behind him could they completely eliminate the cancerous tumor that was Master Shangqing. Therefore, she absolutely could not disrupt His Highness's plans at this time.
He quickly nodded: "Understood!"
Prefect Ling patted her shoulder with satisfaction: "You've grown up, girl."
Lu Yangyang touched her nose somewhat embarrassedly and quickly gave Xu Lang a wink. Xu Lang stepped forward, put his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her away, saying, "Brother will call some good guys for you, just wait."
As Lu Yangyang agreed, she waved to Luo Jing, "Uncle Luo, come with me!"
Luo Jing naturally agreed; even if Lu Yangyang hadn't brought it up, he would have gone along anyway.
Xu Lang quickly called over four or five people, all of whom were his brothers who had followed him for many years. Lu Yangyang noticed that one of them seemed to have a foot injury, so she went over to massage it for him and kept him there.
After the group was assembled, Lu Yangyang went to find Zhang Shi and squatted down to speak to Zhang Shi, who was overwhelmed with grief and tears streaming down her face because of the girls. She said, "I'm going to save Xiu Niang now. I promise you, as long as there is even the slightest hope, I will bring her back. Before I come back, I have one more thing to ask of you."
Upon hearing her words, Zhang looked up at her excitedly, her hands trembling as she stepped forward and grabbed her hands tightly. "I'll do anything for you, whether she lives or dies, please, please bring her back."
Before seeing these girls, Zhang might have harbored a sliver of hope deep down. Perhaps she hadn't seen them, perhaps, perhaps those girls were still alive somewhere, as long as they weren't dead, that was enough. But when she saw them, she immediately understood why they dared not lift the clothes covering them. It was possible that some of them were girls from their village, perhaps even their relatives, but would they dare to acknowledge them? How could they dare? When they were innocent, they could be sent to exchange for elixirs of immortality; now, reduced to this state, what would they do when they returned? Could they even go back?
The more one can empathize, the more sorrow arises.
Lu Yangyang grasped her hand in return and solemnly promised, "Okay."
Then he turned to the girls and said to her, "Lord Ling will rescue all the surviving girls. I would like to trouble you to take care of them."
"Okay, okay." Zhang nodded repeatedly, her eyes no longer showing the madness and helplessness she had when she arrived, only gratitude and expectation remained. She had met kind people, this girl and that adult, they were all kind people. If she held on a little longer, her Xiu Niang would come back.
Lu Yangyang then got up and walked back to Luo Jing and Xu Lang, who were waiting for her.
Luo Jing asked her, "Which way do we go?"
Lu Yangyang thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to the bottom of the well and see what those passages are all about. If they don't work, we'll take another route."
Lu Yangyang found the passages inside the mountain very strange. If they really wanted to build a secret room, wouldn't it be easier to dig a cellar or something similar? Why dig so many passages inside the mountain? What was the purpose of those passages? Were they just there to imprison those girls?
This is impossible.
With the ability to manipulate even the government and make even the neighboring Yingzhou wary, how could Master Shangqing, with such powerful backers, possibly care about the possibility of a few lives being discovered? And to go to such lengths to hide them is simply illogical.
Those passages must have other uses.
Luo Jing immediately guessed her intention. He used to be a soldier and later spent many years in the mountains. The passages in the mountains were all abnormal, so he really needed to explore them first.
Having made up their minds, the group climbed back up the well wall one after another. Once at the bottom, Xu Lang handed the lit torch to Lu Yangyang and said with a smile, "When you treated Xiao Liu's injury just now, it felt like we were back in Qingzhou. You have no idea how much we dared not get hurt after you left. Not only do doctors charge money, but medicine is also expensive. It's so distressing for the adults. Every time we go out, they say, 'If only you were here.'"
Lu Yangyang rolled her eyes at him: "The master was just trying to fleece me. He took advantage of my youth and gullibility back then, and he was always stingy when he asked me to do things."
Xu Lang laughed heartily and ruffled her hair: "It's so great that we can work together again now!"
A brother behind him shouted, "Boss Xu, you can actually say such emotional things now!"
Xu Lang turned around and kicked him: "Shut up, hurry up and go! Lead the way!"
The group quickly took their torches and went to the front.
Looking at their lively scene, Luo Jing couldn't help but smile. He thought back to a long time ago, when he was still in the army camp. They were like this every day. Even though they had just come down from the battlefield, they never knew what fear was. They just felt that being able to fight side by side like this was the best thing.
But all his brothers who fought alongside him were gone.
His hesitation and mistakes when he was in Wangshan Village were because of those things that were once engraved in his blood, which made him mistakenly believe that such feelings could last forever. But in fact, what he was unwavering in was only the past.
That was the obsession he couldn't shake off.
Lu Yangyang and Xu Lang chatted casually, but soon walked to the front. These passages were all dug very large, and two or three people could walk through them at the same time without any problem. Except for the passage leading to the secret room, the passages along the way, as Lu Yangyang had observed, actually went downhill.
When they reached the fork in the road they had discovered earlier, there were three paths. One of them led to the secret chamber, which Lu Yangyang and Luo Jing had observed before and found to be normal. So there were two more paths left.
There were six of them in total. After discussing it, they split into two teams. Lu Yangyang led two people, while Luo Jing and Xu Lang each led one person, and they went to explore the two passages respectively.
"Regardless of whether you find anything unusual, if there's no way to go, you must come back first. Don't act on your own, understand?" Lu Yangyang instructed.