Chapter 31

With spiritual energy impossible to gather inside the house, there was no way to undo the silencing talisman on Qian Jingjing’s throat for now.

Qian Jingjing was still trembling, but she gripped the pen tightly and scribbled “6 people” on the paper. After writing, she nodded repeatedly and pointed at the floor. She struggled to force a sound from her throat, her face flushing bright red with agitation.

“Six other people were kidnapped?”

Ding Ling reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Take your time. Are they locked up?”

With Ding Ling’s hand resting on her shoulder, the warmth radiating from it seemed to give her strength and courage, calming her down a bit. She nodded hard and wrote three more words: “In the basement.”

Those six people were locked in the basement.

“How many kidnappers are there?”

“10,” she wrote, then added an “8.”

“Ten in total, two went out, so there are eight in the house right now?”

Gradually calming down, Qian Jingjing began searching her memory for details that might help Ding Ling. She closed her eyes for a moment, opened them, and started sketching the layout of the house on the paper.

She was an art student by training, so with just a few strokes she outlined the general layout of the house, labeling the bedrooms, living room, and kitchen.

She marked the locations of the kidnappers: of the eight, two were sleeping in their rooms, five were downstairs playing cards, and one was guarding the basement.

“There’s a spiritual energy jammer because all six of those people are cultivators, right?”

Tears streaming down her face, Qian Jingjing nodded.

She was an ordinary person who had just taken on a freelance painting gig online.

The client had seen photos of the murals she painted on her own walls at home and reached out online, saying they wanted a wall painted as well. Because the planned area was very large, they offered a substantial fee.

Qian Jingjing hadn’t been able to find a steady job in the year since graduating, and she really needed the money. Finishing this one job would cover living expenses for her and Xiaobao for at least six months.

Even though the location was a bit remote, she hadn’t hesitated to take it right away.

Once she arrived, they gave her a draft sketch. One look at it made her uncomfortable. It was the dark style she disliked, specifically a demonic piece in the style of religious paintings.

The artwork mainly depicted a demon devouring seven human hearts.

“This… this painting goes on the wall?”

“Yes. The dimensions are slightly larger than what we initially quoted you, so how about this: we’ll add some extra money to your pay.”

Qian Jingjing merely assumed the villa’s owner had eccentric taste. Having taken the money, she set to work diligently.

She climbed up a ladder to check the proportions of the reference sketch, figuring out how to scale it up onto the wall. Then she drew a grid, sketched the line art, drew the figures, and added color.

She worked on it for over half a month. When she was just two days away from finishing, the person in charge said to her, “Our team actually really needs a permanent artist. Are you able to travel frequently for work?”

She was extremely pleased with Qian Jingjing’s work ethic and wanted to recruit her into their company.

Qian Jingjing thought it over and declined. Even though the pay offered was very generous, she did not accept.

Xiaobao was getting old, well into his senior years. She couldn’t drag Xiaobao along on constant travels, nor was she willing to leave Xiaobao in anyone else’s care.

“I’m sorry, but I have a cat at home.”

The woman hadn’t been angry. She simply said, “If we have this kind of work in Jiangcheng next time, we’ll reach out to you again.”

When Qian Jingjing was getting ready to pack up and go home, she went to wash her hands and noticed the basement door was open. Faint cries for help drifted out from inside.

She didn’t dare go down to investigate at all! Her immediate instinct was to run, get somewhere safe, and call the police!

Yet the moment she turned around, the person in charge was standing right behind her.

A smile was still plastered on her face. “You heard that?” She even let out a sigh. “Honestly, I told them to keep the door shut. A bunch of idiots.”

Just like that, Qian Jingjing was detained, and the woman drew a talisman on her throat.

Besides painting, Qian Jingjing was tasked with cooking and delivering meals to the captives in the basement. While doing her chores, she overheard conversations among the people in the villa.

Only then did she learn that everyone they captured was a cultivator, and none of them could use spiritual energy in this house.

“Just like dogs,” those people laughed.

This seemed to be an organization. All these people answered to the woman in charge, calling her Team Leader.

At first, only three people were locked in the basement. Every few days, they managed to capture another. Each time a new captive arrived, the team leader was thrilled.

Qian Jingjing gradually realized that once they gathered seven people, they would make their move.

Were they really going to eat human hearts like the demon in the painting? And once they ate those hearts, what would they do with her?

The man Ding Ling had just knocked out had expressed his “interest” in Qian Jingjing several times, constantly urging her to join them voluntarily.

“As long as you join us willingly, you can gain power.”

Power even greater than that of ordinary cultivators.

Qian Jingjing didn’t dare agree. She feared that when the day came, she would be forced to eat human hearts.

Today was the day they were going to get their seventh.

Ding Ling patted her head. “I’ll get you out first.”

Qian Jingjing shook her head and pointed at her feet. That person hadn’t just placed a curse on her throat, but on her feet as well. The moment she stepped outside the house, she wouldn’t be able to breathe.

She had tried to escape once before. Barely three or four steps out the door, her breathing seized up and she collapsed onto the gravel outside.

The people in the house hadn’t even bothered to chase after her. They simply watched as she crawled back, inch by inch.

“Find a place to hide.”

Qian Jingjing nodded.

Ding Ling tied up the man on the floor, shoved him into a wardrobe, and turned to leave. Then she looked back at Qian Jingjing and said, “Your cat is fine.”

Qian Jingjing’s eyes lit up, and tears welled in them once more. It had been twenty-seven days; she had assumed Xiaobao was dead. In her heart, she had silently prayed that Xiaobao had at least managed to get out and become a stray, which was better than starving to death at home.

If she made it out alive, she would definitely search for Xiaobao.

“He also said that when you get home, he wants roast chicken.”

Having said that, Ding Ling walked out of the room. She slipped into the two neighboring rooms where people were sleeping, knocked each of them out with a single strike, then bound them with bedsheets and tossed them into the wardrobes.

There were still five people downstairs. As Ding Ling headed down the stairs, she glanced at the series of iron railings along the staircase.

She snapped one off and hefted it in her hand.

Snapping the railing made quite a bit of noise. Someone getting up to use the bathroom spotted her and cried out in alarm, “Who are you? How did you get in?”

The words had barely left his mouth when the iron bar slammed into him. Ding Ling leaped lightly, and before her toes even touched the ground, she bent down to scoop up the iron bar and swung it at the person rushing her from behind.

Knocked back a couple of steps, several people gasped, “You’re an immortal cultivator? Impossible! Spiritual energy can’t be used in this house!”

When those immortal cultivators entered this house, each of them had ended up as if powered down. Without their spiritual energy, they were nothing more than useless.

Ding Ling spun and stood firm, gripping the iron bar as if holding a sword.

It had just been an impromptu thought earlier to find a weapon that was longer, narrower, and handier.

This iron bar was still a bit too thick, lacking lightness and sharpness when thrusting…

“I am a sword cultivator.”

Even without spiritual energy, as long as she held a sword, she felt no fear.

That aged, smiling voice echoed in her mind again: “Xiao Lingdang, let’s hang a little bell on your sword too.” A hand had hung a golden bell on her sword.

The men looked at each other in confusion. “What did she just say?”

“Sounded like she said she’s a sword cultivator?”

No sooner had the words fallen than the iron bar swept forward with fluid grace. With each strike, another person collapsed.

Once all five had lost the strength to fight and lay on the ground, Ding Ling drew back her weapon and turned.

The villa door was pushed open. A woman stood at the entrance, likely the team leader in charge that Qian Jingjing had mentioned.

“A sword cultivator? I’ve never seen one before.” The woman looked Ding Ling up and down from head to toe, clapped her hands, and another person stepped out from behind her, dangling a cat in hand.

“This furball was scratching around the wall. Is it your cat?”

Held by the scruff of its neck, the cat let out a pitiful mewl, tears welling in its round eyes.

With Ding Ling taking so long to come out, the cat had spotted a car approaching from the distance and tried to climb over the wall into the house to warn her.

After speaking, the woman swept a glance over her fallen subordinates on the floor. “Useless trash.”

“What are you capturing immortal cultivators for?”

She was neither a demon cultivator nor a demonic cultivator; even if she actually ate human hearts, it would not benefit her cultivation in the slightest.

The woman replied in an unusually matter-of-fact tone, “To bring happiness to ordinary people, of course.”

Ding Ling did not understand. The woman chuckled, forming hand seals, and quickly cast a spell.

She could actually use spiritual energy without being affected by the spiritual energy jammer?

Before the spell could reach her, Ding Ling leaped aside with a nimble spring. The woman fired off another fire spiritual energy spell, blasting the floor and coffee table to pieces upon impact.

Ding Ling evaded the spells several times.

The woman sighed. “No matter how formidable a sword cultivator is, your physical stamina will run out eventually.”

Ding Ling said nothing. As she leaped away once more, she struck down the woman’s subordinate in a single blow, snatching the quest-giving cat from his grasp.

The cat whimpered, about to speak, when Ding Ling covered its mouth.

The woman’s face darkened. “So you calculated your jumping positions all along.”

Having unleashed over a dozen fire spiritual energy spells in succession, virtually the entire first-floor hall was blown apart, and the power behind the woman’s spells grew increasingly weak.

Ding Ling was slightly out of breath, and so was the woman, who pulled a syringe out of her pocket and plunged it into her leg.

Almost the moment the injection took effect, her spell power grew visibly stronger.

The stairs leading to the second floor had been blown apart. The house was about to collapse!

Qian Jingjing was still on the second floor. Ding Ling vaulted past the woman and leaped upstairs.

The woman failed to follow. Could she not follow?

What was more, from start to finish, she had only used a single spell.

“You have no spiritual root,” Ding Ling said, standing on the second floor.

The woman froze, her expression twisting as she shrieked, “So what?! Even without a spiritual root, I can still use magic to kill you immortal cultivators!”

“You’re here for Qian Jingjing, aren’t you? She can’t survive outside this house.” She struck out with another palm. The blast radius of this strike was so massive that the entire second floor began caving in.

Ding Ling rushed into the room and pulled Qian Jingjing out of the bathroom cabinet.

The moment Xiaobao saw its owner, it leapt into her arms, meowing softly as it stuck out its tongue to lick her face.

Unable to speak, Qian Jingjing held Xiaobao tightly. It was Xiaobao! Xiaobao had found someone to save her!

“The house is collapsing. We need to…” Ding Ling had not finished speaking before remembering the restriction on Qian Jingjing: she would be unable to breathe if she left the house.

The second floor was no longer safe to stay on, and the explosions downstairs had temporarily ceased.

That woman had definitely gone to the basement to kill those immortal cultivators.

Qian Jingjing also knew the house was about to blow. Taking two deep breaths, she thrust Xiaobao into Ding Ling’s arms and mouthed, “Go, hurry.”

Chi Shuai drove recklessly as he sped out of the city. “Boss, can that light behave itself? If I keep driving like this, I’m going to crash!”

Gu Cheng frowned deeply. After all, it was a replicated array formation, so its tracking was unstable. Just as the light was on the verge of fading away, they brushed past a taxi.

“Force it to pull over!”

Before Chi Shuai’s mind could even process it, his body had already obeyed Gu Cheng’s order.

There was only this one car on the entire road; F had definitely taken it.

They really had found the place. As soon as the car arrived, they heard explosions echoing from the mountains. Judging by the noise, the scale was quite large.

Gu Cheng immediately activated the car’s intercom system. “Gu Cheng, Special Investigation Department. Requesting backup.”

With no cover left on the first floor of the house, Ding Ling could only take Qian Jingjing and Xiaobao down to the basement. She said, “As long as we defeat the caster, the restriction on you will be lifted.”

Qian Jingjing had seen clearly by now that Ding Ling was a girl much younger than herself. She shook her head and pointed at Xiaobao, urging Ding Ling to take her cat and run.

Ding Ling paid no heed to Qian Jingjing’s noble decision to sacrifice herself.

“Stay behind me.”