Meanwhile, Zhao Jia Rui was deep inside a cave near the river.

Two other disciples from the Qing Feng Sect were behind her.

They had followed the trail left on the ground by the robbers into the underground maze deep inside the cave.

"Which path should we take?" one of the disciples asked.

Zhao Jia Rui glanced upon the three paths in front of them, with the light from the torch in her hand flickering, unable to decide.

If the three of them checked on one of the paths by themselves, it would be faster.

But that would expose them to more risk.

"What do we do?" the other disciple also asked while glancing around into the darkness.

The torches in their hands could only light up the surroundings up to a few meters.

Any moment spent standing and waiting there caused more anxiety for them.

"Tsk." Zhao Jia Rui glanced at the disciple and said, "We will check on the path in the middle together."

She wasn't going to risk their lives by separating themselves.

Especially not after being wounded by the mysterious man previously.

They proceeded to walk into the middle path in front of them.

Zhao Jia Rui walked between the two disciples.

Nothing happened for a while through the wet and slippery path.

The narrow path opened eventually, and they came into an opening.

She waved the torch in her hand around to check on the surroundings.

But before she could finish doing so, the disciple in front of her suddenly ran and the torch in his hand turned into a small dot in the distance and disappeared.

Then, there was only darkness.

She wanted to turn around and check on the other disciple, but he was grabbed by something and lifted up into the darkness.

Clonk.

The torch from the disciple dropped onto the ground and rolled in front of her feet.

It didn't stop and she started to hear sounds of something dripping down from the ceiling.

Drip.

Some of the liquid dripped onto her shoulder and she tried to wipe it off.

But she realized that it was warm and sticky.

The smell was familiar, with an iron smell.

It was blood.

Splash.

More of the blood splashed down from above, and something dropped onto the ground in front of her, giving out a muted thud.

It made her stumble a step back.

"Hehe." A man's high-pitched voice came from behind.

Zhao Jia Rui drew out her sword, twisted her waist, slashed it at neck level when her body rotated with force.

Clank.

Her slash stopped in midair, and she could see that a white pale hand was holding onto the blade of her sword.

She tried to push forward to make the blade thrust forward but couldn't.

Whoever was holding the blade was much more powerful than her.

"Hehe." The high-pitched voice rose from the darkness again.

To her surprise, Zhao Jia Rui saw that the long and thin fingers holding onto her sword clenched together and it broke into pieces.

Thud.

She was hit by a kick in her abdomen the next moment.

It was so fast that she didn't have time to react.

Her body flew ten meters away, tumbling across the hard and wet ground of the cave.

Splatter.

Zhao Jia Rui tried to get up but coughed out a mouthful of blood instead.

"Who are you? Do you know who I am?" She staggered back on her feet and shouted into the darkness.

"The Qing Feng Sect will not let you off if anything happens to me.

"My master has left a trailing mark on me, and he will find where you are and make sure you wish you were better off dead."

"Hehehe. She sure is spicy." That high-pitched voice came from the darkness again.

Another man's voice stopped him and said, "Stop playing around."

Zhao Jia Rui tried to sense where they were but couldn't.

She reached into her sleeve pocket and tried to throw the talisman she had inside it.

But before she could do so, the long and thin fingers held onto her wrist and pain struck her immediately.

Crack.

She could hear her wrist bone being crushed by the long and thin fingers.

Struggling to break free, she glanced at the bracelet on her other wrist.

Zhao Jia Rui quickly diverted her Spirit Qi into the bracelet.

The bracelet gave out a green glow.

And the next thing before the man in high-pitched voice could react, her figure disappeared and moved away like the wind.

"What are you waiting for! Get her back here, she is our bait for the Qing Feng Sect disciples." The other man's voice shouted.

Whoosh.

The opening in the cave was then swept by a gust of chilling wind.

...

"So, how is it? I told you that it'll taste great." Lin Xuan Qi glanced at Xue Cong, Yue Jie, Yue Xin and Liu Shi Shi with a smug smile.

They had their fill and were apparently satisfied with the taste of the clams, crabs and swamp eel.

It was so good that everything was swept clean by them.

Xue Cong nodded her head and said, "I think we can have more outings in the future."

"I second this." Yue Xin was happy with how the day went.

The sun and open nature were a welcome change to the daily chores in the mansion.

Yue Jie and Liu Shi Shi also didn't have any qualms about the suggestion.

"Actually, picking up seafood when it's low tide by the seaside is much more fun." Lin Xuan Qi said while he recalled the fun times he had at the seaside with his friends and family.

"Seaside? It'll be a great idea for the next outing!" Yue Xin said with excitement, eager to have more fun by the seaside.

Lin Xuan Qi nodded and said, "We can plan for it after I'm done with the soap business."

He started to plan for the outing by the seaside after the expansion of the soap business was successful.

"Stop where you are!" the voice of Sima Long's guards suddenly shouted in the distance.

Birds that were perched on the tree branches startled and flew away into the air.

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