Departure 02

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

Fearing that making too much noise after daybreak would lead to discovery, these people moved with aggressive force. Coupled with their immense strength, a forceful tug caused the villagers, who were strung up and tied together, to be dragged forward despite their reluctance.

"Who are you people? What are you doing!"

"Is there no law in this world anymore! What right do you have to come to our village and kidnap people!"

"Let me go!"

...

Seeing that they were being dragged away from their village, the villagers were filled with anxiety and anger, voicing their protests one after another.

However, the five men ignored them completely, merely hurrying in the opposite direction of the path the villagers usually took to enter the city.

The village chief's wife thought of her infant daughter still at home and burst into anxious tears. Yet, no one cared about her crying. No matter how much she resisted, her body was dragged forward uncontrollably, leaving a long trail on the mountain path.

Tied up near the back, Tong Jialiang did not shout.

He looked back with some concern, though he didn't dare make it too obvious.

He was afraid of being noticed by the kidnappers.

But he did not spot Han Weishu in the crowd. On one hand, he was somewhat relieved, figuring she must have escaped this disaster; on the other hand, he was deeply worried about her being all alone.

As for Han Weishu, upon seeing these people leaving, her first instinct was to immediately follow them.

But seeing the crying and shouting of the village chief's wife in the crowd, she suddenly remembered that the woman's child was still in the house; the kidnappers had not taken the baby.

After some thought, she decided to stay behind temporarily. After all, the doors to the houses below had been thrown open by the kidnappers and left ajar. Being deep in the mountains, it would be terrible if a wolf came and snatched the child away.

Watching the group go far enough away that Han Weishu estimated they wouldn't spot her, she finally let Qiuqiu down from her body and quietly gave chase.

After watching Qiuqiu rapidly dart off in the direction the captors had left, Han Weishu emerged from the shadows and hurried into the village chief's house to check on the baby.

Checking the pulse with her hand, she found that the child had merely fallen into a deep sleep and was otherwise unharmed. She went out, closed the door, and proceeded to check the other houses one by one.

She discovered that everyone capable of working in the entire village had been taken away, leaving only the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled.

The elderly were truly old, emaciated down to the bone, looking as though their limbs would tremble just from standing up.

There was also a middle-aged man missing a leg.

Other than them, the only other person left in the small village was the baby in the chief's house.

Han Weishu took a bottle of a mind-clearing, awakening drug from her storage bag and waved it under the noses of those who had been knocked out by the sleeping gas.

This had been prepared for her by Elder Huang from their sect's apothecary; she wasn't sure if it would work against this particular knockout drug.

Seeing them stir and gradually wake up shortly after, she thought Elder Huang's craftsmanship was indeed reliable—the medicine was quite effective.

When the few remaining villagers woke up and saw that they had all been moved into the same room, with Han Weishu standing nearby, they were momentarily confused about the situation.

Han Weishu concisely explained what had just happened. Then, under their suspicious gazes, she hauled over a sack of rice from the chief's house and handed them the baby she had brought over, saying:

"You take care of this little baby for now. You can all share this sack of rice and flour from the chief's house for the time being. I have to go after them. If possible, I will try my best to save the people, but as you can see, I'm just one small person, so don't get your hopes up too high."

Seeing their untrusting looks, Han Weishu knew that since disaster had struck the village the very day after she and A'Liang arrived, she wasn't exactly a trustworthy figure in their eyes. Thus, she added:

"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. Anyway, this baby belongs to your village; it's up to you whether you want to take care of her. I can't manage anything else. That's all, I'm leaving."

Seeing her turn to leave, an elderly person finally spoke up:

"Child, be careful out there yourself. I hope you can... save the people of our village. Thank you..."

Han Weishu paused her steps but did not voice a promise. She then hurried off in the direction Qiuqiu had gone.

Just then, the baby held in the arms of the crippled middle-aged man began to wail. An old man slowly stood up, figuring he should go make some food for her.

The other elders also struggled to stand, intending to help.

Meanwhile, Han Weishu chased after the direction indicated by Qiuqiu.

Fortunately, because those people had to accommodate the villagers' pace, they weren't moving very fast. Rushing at full speed, Han Weishu soon caught up.

After confirming the direction, she recalled Qiuqiu early on to cover her body, preventing the cultivators from detecting her.

But she didn't dare to rashly attempt a rescue just yet.

And so, she trailed behind the group, following them for two whole days and one night.

She didn't know that because the village was located in such a remote area, after traveling for two days and a night, they had gradually crossed the borders of the Pu Si Kingdom.

It wasn't until she followed them onto a vast, sweeping grassland and saw a spirit ship parked there that she belatedly realized they might no longer be within the borders of Pu Si.

She hid in the distant dense forest, not daring to step out.

From afar, she watched as those men herded the villagers and Tong Jialiang onto the spirit ship.

It was only then that she noticed these people were all wearing uniform attire. Because it had been dark earlier, and she had been trailing far behind, she hadn't noticed this detail at all.

One look at this uniform and it was clearly the standard issue of some sect.

However, she had seen the clothing styles of all three major sects in the Pu Si Kingdom, and none of them looked anything like what these people were wearing!

From the looks of it, these people were highly likely not cultivators from Pu Si.

At this thought, Han Weishu's expression turned solemn.

To think that cultivators from another country had secretly infiltrated Pu Si to kidnap people.

Moreover, when she carefully observed the spirit ship, she discovered that there were many, many other people on board, all tied up securely just like the kidnapped villagers.

It was obvious that these cultivators had not only kidnapped the people from the village.

At a rough glance, the total number of kidnapped people amounted to as many as three or four hundred!

What were they trying to do?

Once everyone was aboard, the spirit ship swiftly took off.

Seeing that her own foot speed could never possibly catch up to a spirit ship, Han Weishu had no choice but to wait until the ship had flown a distance away before sending Qiuqiu to quickly follow it.

She remained where she was, pondering her next move.

Should she go home and ask her father for help, or report this directly to the authorities?