Escape the Miaojiang Villain - Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Gusheng Valley-Escape
Tu Lingxiang’s mind raced, and she immediately added, “The symptoms of my gu won’t show up until three days from now. Are you sure you want to waste three whole days waiting here? By that time, I’m afraid my young master will have long since tracked us down.”
Yuan Zhedao held Zhang Haiming back once more and advised, “Senior Brother, forget it. Three days is too long.”
His long sword unsheathed, its cold, gleaming blade pointing directly at her. “Speak—who exactly is your young master?”
Tu Lingxiang shrank back in fear and answered, “My young master’s surname is Lian, named Jing. His ancestors were all corpse-drovers—you know all of this! What else do you possibly want from me? I was only bought by him for three years, so I know nothing about what happened before three years ago. If he offended you in the past, that’s only natural—he’s always been arrogant, rude, and completely selfish. Do you think I actually want to serve him? I don’t! If I hadn’t signed a deed of indenture, I would have run away long ago. If you want to deal with him, I’m willing to cooperate—as long as you help me get my indenture deed back from him.”
She spoke with tears welling in her eyes, lowering her gaze to put on a pitiful act.
Originally, she had wanted to directly reveal her identity as the eldest young lady of the Tianyi Sect so they could team up against Lian Jing. But on second thought, the relationship between the Shentu Sect and the Tianyi Sect was extremely shallow. If they harbored malicious intentions, wouldn’t she be jumping from one pit straight into another?
She couldn’t trust them.
“Fine. You said you’ll cooperate.” Yuan Zhedao didn’t care whether she was telling the truth or not—as long as she was willing to cooperate, that was enough.
Tu Lingxiang asked, “What is your plan? Tell me so I can coordinate with you.”
Zhang Haiming smiled maliciously and said, “Junior Brother, I’ve suddenly changed my mind. Since that Lian Jing could go so far as to plant a gu in her, it shows he tolerates betrayal least of all. If we…”
Yuan Zhedao instantly understood his thought process. “Then, Senior Brother, let’s do it that way.”
In the woods, Lian Jing’s group of three still sat in front of the campfire. Baili Xi hadn’t added any more firewood; the flames were gradually weakening, and the warmth was fading. Lian Jing cast a glance toward the back from time to time, inwardly cursing: That dead girl! I told her to come back quickly—did she take it as wind passing through her ears?
“Why haven’t Miss Ling and the other one returned yet? Could something have happened?” Baili Xi stood up, intending to go search for them. “I’ll go take a look.”
Lian Jing also stood up, dusted off his long robe, and followed behind him without a word.
Seeing this, Sang Yu naturally refused to stay behind alone, so she immediately jogged to catch up, muttering, “What’s wrong with Sang Qing? He didn’t drag little Ling-zi off somewhere for a rendezvous, did he?”
Lian Jing whirled around abruptly, his voice harsh and stern: “He dares?!”
Sang Yu shuddered in fright from his tone and hastily shook her head. “No, no, he wouldn’t dare!”
Lian Jing turned back around, his pace noticeably quickening.
With Sang Yu leading the way, they soon arrived at the spring outlet. However, though the clear spring gurgled and the small pebbles glowed like fireflies, not a single soul was in sight.
Baili Xi’s expression tightened. “Let’s search around.”
Thus, they split up. Unwilling to be on her own, Sang Yu clung to Lian Jing’s back. Annoyed by her, Lian Jing ditched her in just a few steps.
He searched for Tu Lingxiang in the dark mountain forest, refusing to believe she was truly bold enough to ignore his warning and secretly meet up with Sang Qing.
Yet when he caught sight of the scene in the distance, he realized just how laughable his warning had been. She hadn’t taken his words to heart at all.
He let out a sneer. “The grand eldest young lady of the Tianyi Sect… is actually this cheap.”
In a small patch of wild chrysanthemums in the distance, amid a sea of pale yellow flowers, the moonlight illuminated two intertwined figures. Those two faces were all too familiar to him—the young girl’s clothes were half-slid off, her fair shoulders partially exposed, her jet-black hair spilling down freely, and the silver earring on her lobe swayed right along with the small chrysanthemums beside her.
And on her flushed face, a happy smile overflowed. For some reason, he utterly detested that smile of hers; he still preferred it when she glared at him with hatred.
Meanwhile, the young man, his side facing him, was leaning over the girl, kissing her slender neck that was whiter than snow.
“Sang Qing, I like you so much. Take me away… take me away from Lian Jing.”
The girl’s voice drifted into his ears.
It sounded so full of irony.
They had only known each other for a few days, hadn’t they?
And she already liked him?
He clenched his fists tight, the rage in his chest swelling with extreme speed. In order to escape him, she truly was capable of doing anything.
Furious beyond control, he strode toward them, his boots stepping heavily onto those wild chrysanthemums, crushing the blossoms to pieces.
“If your husband knew you were like this right now, would he be pissed half to death?” His voice was loud enough for the people over there to hear.
“Husband?” Hidden in the dark, Zhang Haiming said in shock, “You have a husband?”
Tu Lingxiang was currently being held by him and Yuan Zhedao, hiding behind a thick bush. The two figures in the chrysanthemums over there were entirely an illusion they had set up—they weren’t real.
She nodded.
“Before I was sold to Lian Jing as a slave, I did have a husband.”
Zhang Haiming raised a question: “But you don’t look that old. Three years ago you were thirteen at most—you got married that young?”
“Uh… a child bride, okay?”
Tu Lingxiang looked at the illusion in the chrysanthemum patch. It was so realistic that she almost thought it was real. Even though she knew the scene over there was fake, she still felt deeply embarrassed.
Luckily Sang Qing wasn’t here. If he saw this, how bad would that be?
She wondered what Lian Jing was feeling right now.
Judging by his appearance, he was extremely angry.
So angry he wanted to kill.
She didn’t understand what he had to be angry about. Could it be that he felt even a slave had to belong exclusively to him?
Isn’t that meddling a bit too much?
Over there, Lian Jing swept a palm toward the two people in the illusion. The Shentu Sect’s illusion technique was exceptionally lifelike—even after being struck by his palm, the illusion didn’t scatter. The two paper cutouts acted just like real people, spewing blood from their mouths as they collapsed to the ground.
Lian Jing walked over, grabbed Sang Qing with one hand, and slammed a fist straight into his face. Following that, his hand actually thrust directly into his chest, ruthlessly grabbing hold of his heart. Blood flowed in a steady stream, and Sang Qing breathed his last right there in his hand.
Too, too, too bloody!!!
Zhang Haiming’s goal in setting up this illusion was precisely to crush Lian Jing’s composure first, waiting until he lost his mind before striking.
After killing Sang Qing, Lian Jing turned his head to look at Tu Lingxiang on the ground, saying expressionlessly, “Your turn.”
He crouched down, lifted her up in front of him with one hand, and whispered, “I forgot… I can’t kill you right now. But I really want to kill you so badly…”
Unable to restrain himself, he clamped his hand around her neck, his face twisted like an evil ghost, his knuckles tightening with force. “Are you that desperate for a man? In just a short while, you ran off to hook up with someone else.”
“You think following him means he can take you away from me? Absolutely delusional!”
“Speak! Tell me why you betrayed me!” he roared loudly at her.
Tu Lingxiang thought to herself: I was never loyal to you in the first place, so how is this betrayal?
Seeing that she didn’t speak made him even more enraged. With a force of his hand, the young girl in his grip actually closed her eyes.
He instantly loosened his grip, lightly testing her breath, and then gasped in shock: “How could you be dead? Impossible!”
He patted her face morbidly, now truly panicking, roaring: “Hurry up and come back to life!”
“You can’t die yet! You can’t!”
“I won’t choke you anymore! Wake up quickly!”
Yet the young girl lay lifeless in the flower patch; no matter how he patted her, she wouldn’t wake up.
Looking at the young man going mad over there, Zhang Haiming revealed a satisfied smile. “I told you so—this girl holds quite a bit of weight to him.”
Tu Lingxiang knitted her delicate brows, gazing at Lian Jing over there. She knew in her heart that Lian Jing’s frenzy was because her death would mess up his upcoming plans. But why did seeing a scene like this make her feel a trace of discomfort?
She had rarely seen Lian Jing look panicked; he was always calm and composed. It seemed she played a crucial role in his plans.
“Little Slave Bell, I really won’t choke you anymore. Wake up quickly, okay?”
“Little Slave Bell, be good and wake up…”
Tu Lingxiang’s brows furrowed even tighter. Why did this sound so much like wailing at a funeral?
Zhang Haiming and Yuan Zhedao wielded their swords and leaped out, attacking the mind-addled Lian Jing over there. One in front and one behind, they pincer-attacked him.
Seeing the bright sword tips about to pierce into Lian Jing’s back, Lian Jing suddenly leaped into the air. Spotting the two of them, his rage flared to the heavens: “It’s you two again!”
“Lian Jing, was the person who broke into Tanhua Pavilion that day you?” Zhang Haiming asked directly.
“Tanhua Pavilion? What Tanhua Pavilion? What Tanhua Pavilion is there?! Zhang Haiming, I haven’t even settled the score with you for pushing my maid into the water that day, and you actually come knocking on my door yourself!”
Zhang Haiming’s gaze intentionally or unintentionally swept over the two corpses on the ground, and he said with a smile, “Settle the score with me? Wasn’t your little maid killed by your own hands? You should settle the score with yourself!”
Hearing the four words “killed by your own hands,” Lian Jing let out a wild roar, sweeping his palm horizontally toward them.
Tu Lingxiang squatted in the bush watching the fight. It was very obvious that Zhang Haiming and his companion were no match for Lian Jing. However, they had a second step to their plan.
And this second step required her to step up.
Only after they had fought for a while over there did she stand up from the bush and shout loudly, “Young Master!”
Lian Jing looked over in shock: “You’re not dead?”
“Young Master, that was fake! I’m not dead, and I didn’t betray you!”
Zhang Haiming deliberately cursed loudly: “Damned girl, how did you wake up?!”
As he spoke, he was about to charge toward Tu Lingxiang. Seeing him coming, Tu Lingxiang’s face filled with terror, and she turned around to flee toward the back, shouting at the top of her lungs as she ran: “Young Master, save me!”
Lian Jing glanced down at the ground; the two corpses had turned into smoke and disappeared without a trace. He immediately gave chase in Tu Lingxiang’s direction, his head buzzing. Was everything just now a hallucination?
Could the her up ahead be fake as well?
“Young Master, save me! That pervert Zhang Haiming wants to strip off my clothes! He said you stole his clothes, so he’s going to steal them back from me!”
Upon hearing this, Lian Jing hesitated no longer, speed surging beneath his feet as he gave chase forward.
As Tu Lingxiang ran, a subtle smile touched her lips. Her performance in this act wasn’t too bad, was it?
As she ran, her front foot stepped into thin air, and she tumbled down into a deep pit. A call of “Young Master!” tumbled into the bottom of the valley right along with her.
She prayed in her heart: Lian Jing, jump down… jump down… jump down…
This was a trap meticulously prepared by Zhang Haiming and his junior brother, containing a massive talisman formation of the Shentu Sect inside. As long as he jumped in, they were confident they could kill him.
Most of the pits beneath Gusheng Valley were interconnected. Outsiders didn’t know this, but she—the author—knew it very well, because she had previously written a scene involving the male and female leads at the bottom of the pit.
After falling into this pit, she quickly searched among the dark stone walls and sure enough found a narrow alleyway. Turning sideways, she walked inward; luckily, she had a slender build, so passing through this alleyway posed no problem.
She quickly emerged from the alley, standing at the bottom of another pit. Looking back at the dark, obscure end of the alleyway, she said, “Lian Jing, if you die today, then I will be free.”
“Zhang Haiming, you guys must not let down my high hopes.”
This was Gusheng Valley, the place closest to the outside. As long as she got out of Gusheng Valley, she would be considered out of the Miao land.
Escape?
Lian Jing was currently unable to even look after himself—this was the absolute best opportunity to run away.
Without further hesitation, she turned around and ran.
Lian Jing jumped down into the deep pit, but he couldn’t see Tu Lingxiang down below.
He shouted loudly, “Little Slave Bell, where are you?!”
He shouted so loudly that his voice echoed through the alley, making Tu Lingxiang’s eardrums ache.
Frightened, she cast a look behind her. She could almost picture the miserable state she would be in if caught by Lian Jing.
She covered her ears with both hands, refusing to listen to his shouts, and turned around to sprint away.
“Lian Jing, I will definitely escape from you.”
Escape from this devil.
