415: Chapter 328 415: Chapter 328 The Mountain King, upon hearing his minions revealing their most crucial secrets to others, felt blood seep out of the corner of his mouth in anger, itching to smack the traitor to death.
When Luo Yaxuan heard about this, he and Lai Jianlin went to the rescue, instructing their followers to stay put and prevent the escape of these people.
Ding Ling and Mo Wen descended from the large tree and stood at the entrance of the stockade, ensuring no one could flee from the premises.
Unknown to them, within the stockade, there were secret passages and hiding places.
The commotion had allowed not only the commonly seen bandits, like certain servants and women captives brought to the stockade, to escape through these passages!
The women captives, some already mothers, fled with their children, having taken root in the stockade with no face to return home, were now fleeing solely to save their lives and those of their children.
Whereas these people wouldn’t think of killing them, perhaps, they might not harm the women, but the children were innocent, born to bandits though they were.
The Mountain King did not just have one Bandit Chief’s Wife.
Over the years, he’d taken many women, besides bestowing some as wives to his brethren; he himself had married several.
Recently, upon seeing young and beautiful women, he could not resist taking a few more wives.
Luo Yaxuan and Lai Jianlin charged into the house mentioned by the bandits earlier, where the courtyard outside was adorned with red double happiness characters and red streamers, and the bridal room inside presented the same jubilant decor.
Entering a row of such decorated rooms, they pushed open doors to find a maiden in each, all lying in bed dressed in red bridal attire, appearing as though they were about to faint.
Luo Yaxuan entered one room after another and found maidens but not the Disciple Sister he was searching for, so he continued his search.
Lai Jianlin recognized a maiden who seemed somewhat familiar, yet he could not ascertain if she was the Disciple Sister.
After checking a few more rooms, he realized these so-called brides were all fellow Disciples Sisters, merely unacquainted.
They couldn’t very well carry out all the maidens.
The brides were brought by the bandits, but it was uncertain if they were the ones they were searching for.
Finally, Luo Yaxuan came upon Liu Jiaojiao, waking his Disciple Sister and observing her flushed face, as if she were feverish.
“Disciple Sister, wake up!”
Liu Jiaojiao, hearing the voice, thought she was in a dream between consciousness and slumber, reaching out to touch Luo Yaxuan’s handsome face.
“Disciple Brother, sob sob, finally found you.
Please rescue my parents quickly.”
Liu Jiaojiao spoke weakly, her once lively demeanor changed so, making Luo Yaxuan feel both heartache and sorrow, for they had encountered hardship in their search for him.
“Disciple Sister, don’t worry, take a seat on the chair for now.
I’ve found out they are imprisoned in this house’s dungeon.”
“Okay, Disciple Brother, don’t mind me, quickly find my parents.”
“Okay, Disciple Sister, don’t worry.
Even if we can’t find the antidote here, Disciple Brother will find a way to obtain it for you,” Luo Yaxuan asserted, thinking that if they couldn’t get the bandits’ antidote, he would have to seek Jiang Tang.
“Okay!”
Luo Yaxuan opened a large bed, and there, when the bed board was lifted, was truly an entrance to an underground passage—such ingenuity of the stockade, allowing the chief to escape into the tunnels from his bed in case of danger!
Lai Jianlin, standing aside, felt it inappropriate to wake the women himself, so he called Ding Ling in.
Ding Ling flew in from the main gate and, upon hearing the situation from her Disciple Brother, went from room to room, identifying four Disciple Sisters.
Were these not the women who used to be around Bian Shasha?
She had vivid memories of these women, even with their makeup, from when Bian Shasha harbored ill feelings against her and was constantly nitpicking in her presence.
These women had always been Bian Shasha’s lackeys, spouting sarcastic remarks at her direction, and she had suffered their disdain many times.
Seeing them in distress, she didn’t gloat but rather showed a bit of pity for her Disciple Sisters; they had been disrespectful in speech but had never harmed her.
Feeling a tinge of compassion, she took the initiative to wake them up.
She also moved them all into one room, prompting them to sit in chairs.
Now awake, the women saw Ding Ling as if she were family, weeping before her about the hardships they’d suffered during these days.
Ding Ling too noticed, even with their makeup disguising it, they spoke weakly and showed symptoms of poisoning.
Comfort them, and tell them that their senior brother has come to rescue them, that they will be saved and have their poison cured.
“I’m sorry, I was disrespectful to you before.”
“I’m sorry, senior sister, we were all so thoughtless before!”
One by one they confessed, apologizing to Ding Ling.
“Let bygones be bygones, we will have a bright future.”
Ding Ling smiled without minding; she genuinely wasn’t angry anymore.
It wasn’t her first time seeing them; she had already lost much concern over these women!
A cultivator has a bright future if they aren’t burdened by too many distracting thoughts or bothered by other people’s harsh words.
Lai Jianlin entered the dungeon and saw that Luo Yaxuan had already reached the bottom.
Following him to the deepest part, they found several rooms, each secured with a locked door.
It seemed like someone had been guarding this place before, but now there was no sign of the guards.
They also discovered another door, which was left open.
It seemed that the thieves had fled in such a hurry that they didn’t close this door.
Ignoring the fleeing thieves for the moment, they used spells to cut the door locks and opened the locked rooms, which all contained prisoners.
Inside the rooms were many people, not just those they knew, but also strangers.
Searching through the many prisoners, Luo Yaxuan found one room where his master was chained and his mistress was in another room with some women.
These women were middle-aged, visibly emaciated from being imprisoned too long; their skin no longer held its natural color, showing their youth only through their hair.
The two men unlocked the chains of all the prisoners.
However, these people did not immediately leave; they seemed too weak to walk.
Luo Yaxuan unlocked his master’s chains and asked him, “Master, how are you?”
“Jiaojiao, how is your mistress doing?”
Liu Yong spoke feebly.
It was unfortunate that a Golden Core master ended up in such a state, a result of his own lack of caution!
“Master, Jiaojiao is fine now, and Mistress also wants to take her out.”
As Luo Yaxuan said this, he had Lai Jianlin take the fellow disciples upstairs first, then brought his junior sister down to carry his mistress up.
As a disciple, it was inappropriate for him to carry his mistress up himself!
Lai Jianlin had already found Fan Dingding and Bi Renchuan, both of whom were drugged and despite being conscious, they were unable to walk!
He could only carry one under each arm upstairs, then brought Ding Ling down.
Aside from taking his master up, Luo Yaxuan also brought his servant disciple, Sun Zi’an, upstairs.
The remaining people, their bodies limp and weeping, also pleaded for help, begging them to find an antidote to save them.
Luo Yaxuan and Lai Jianlin first moved the people they recognized upstairs, then they went to the square to find the thieves and demand the antidote.
The thieves, frightened of them, dared not withhold the antidote.
With their freedom at stake and their storage bags likely to be searched anyway, they willingly handed over the medicines, hoping for mercy.
Having obtained the antidote, Luo Yaxuan first administered it to all the familiar faces, ensuring they took it before giving it to the people in the dungeon.
Dozens of prisoners in the dungeon, with an unknowable duration of captivity, were finally seeing daylight after enduring dark days.
Consequently, they knelt in gratitude.
Having been drugged for so long, the antidote did not instantly restore their strength to walk, but they mustered all their energy to help each other up to the rooms above the dungeon.
In the rooms, they paused at the sight of the red interiors and then looked out the doorway to see the scenery outside: dead and injured bandits.
These people no longer posed any threat to them.