Chapter 260

Chapter 260: Underground

Yu Tie Zhu swung a slap, but whether it was age or bad luck, his palm didn’t land on Yu Zhi Yi’s head.

His second slap came hot with anger. It was fast and precise, leaving no room to dodge. Just as his palm was about to hit, it stopped less than a foot from her head.

Li Chang Huai blinked hard. He thought he was seeing things. An invisible ripple flashed above Yu Zhi Yi’s crown. Then Yu Tie Zhu flew backward like a kicked doll, slammed into a pillar in the hall, and spat a mouthful of blood. Li Chang Huai even thought he heard bones crack.

He stared at the man sliding down the pillar, then at Yu Zhi Yi, not knowing what to say.

The other guards of Immortal Cave finally reacted and surged forward. Blades, spears, and halberds all came for Yu Zhi Yi and Li Chang Huai. Startled, Li Chang Huai muttered: “What the heck,” and reached to pull Yu Zhi Yi into the air to dodge.

He tugged and didn’t budge her. Instead, she pulled him behind her again.

Then he witnessed something even stranger. Yu Zhi Yi sprang up and launched the attack herself. Before the weapons reached her, she caught each wielder’s wrist and gave the lightest twist. In the chaos, Li Chang Huai still heard bones snapping, followed by the clatter of weapons on the floor, and then the heavy thud of bodies hitting the ground.

Yu Zhi Yi moved nimble and calm. She didn’t look like she was fighting. She looked like she was dancing.

By the time she slipped past and struck once more, a few dozen guards were already down, groaning and unable to get up.

Li Chang Huai felt numb all over. [What kind of monster is she?]

He was the young lord of Tianyu Manor. He had trained since he was three, more than twenty years now, and was considered a standout in the martial world. Yet facing the people of Immortal Cave, he had only been able to surrender. He never thought the woman he had looked down on would wipe out Immortal Cave so easily. He felt defeated, and his gaze on Yu Zhi Yi grew complicated.

Sensing his shaken mood, Yu Zhi Yi glanced back and smiled: “Our Heavenly Secret Sect doesn’t only practice mystic sect arts, I also know a bit of ordinary fighting.” [What did he think I do every morning? Not sit around chatting with the ancestor.]

Li Chang Huai rasped: “A little…?”

[If that is only a little, then what am I? A martial idiot? A waste?] Young Lord Li didn’t want to talk anymore.

Yu Zhi Yi ignored his crisis. If not for the way he had tried again and again to shield her, she wouldn’t bother with him at all. She took out a talismanic seal and tossed it toward the roof. The paper looked weightless, but it punched through the tiles in an instant and burst into bright fireworks in the dark night.

Li Chang Huai froze, thinking: [Huh?]

Before he could ask, the swish of robes came from far to near. Soon, the Jiang clan father and son and Marquis Wu’an’s heir apparent rushed in, each leading a team.

Yu Zhi Yi reported in a clear voice: “All of these men took part in human trafficking. There is a dry well in the back courtyard, full of women they threw in there. There are also hundreds of women inside Immortal Cave, all abducted or tricked from different places, and some are…” She pressed her lips and didn’t speak the words daughters of officials. She only ordered the guards to settle the rescued women in one room first. After she checked on them, people would be sent to take them home.

She paused, then added: “As for the clients, arrest them all first.”

It was a long night of work. In the dark mountains, firelight rose high, not from a wildfire, but from dozens of torches gathered into a blazing glow. After the women in Immortal Cave were settled and the clients locked up, Yu Zhi Yi left half the people to keep watch. The rest went to the dry well to carry out the dead.

By rights, moving bodies should be done at noon, under strong sunlight. But with Yu Zhi Yi present, even deep in the night there was nothing to fear.

At the well, everyone felt the air was far colder than anywhere else. Mountain nights were cold to begin with, and these were trained fighters, but this chill at the well made many of them shiver.

Yu Zhi Yi lit incense and candles and burned paper money. Facing the dry well, she said softly: “We are here to send you home. Rest easy. The wicked will be punished as they deserve.”

Under their eyes, the incense burned away quickly into a small mound of ash. A breeze passed, and the cold around them seemed to lift.

Only then did Yu Zhi Yi say: “All right, you can go down.”

Many guards still felt weak in the knees. Carrying bodies in the middle of the night was not a task anyone wanted.

Seeing his men so spineless, Marquis Wu’an’s heir apparent set his jaw: “I will go.” He tied a rope around his waist, waved off the guards trying to stop him, and jumped into the well.

Jiang Liu Yun stepped up too: “One person won’t be enough. I will help.” He was glad he could do something for his sister. As for bad luck, he hadn’t thought about it at all. [My sister is a master of mystic arts. How could anything happen to me?]

Yu Zhi Yi did not refuse. Bringing these poor women up to be buried would build merit. She wouldn’t say that out loud, but if someone wanted to earn that merit, she would not oppose it.

Jiang Yu Chuan thought it over and said: “I will help as well.”

Li Chang Huai hesitated. He recognized those two as the Martial Alliance’s Second Lord and its young master. Their rank in the martial world was much higher than his. If they were willing to move bodies and he just stood there, would that look right? After a moment of struggle, Young Lord Li said he would go too. [If I just stand here, that looks bad.]

Yu Zhi Yi was a bit surprised, but she still did not refuse. With so many nobles taking the lead, the remaining guards and soldiers felt ashamed and volunteered to go down as well.

Yu Zhi Yi shook her head: “The few of you are enough. The rest of you have other tasks ahead.”

Before long, the heir apparent of Marquis Wu’an carried up the first woman’s body. It was already very cold outside, and the mountains were colder, so the body neither stank nor had begun to rot.

Then came Jiang Liu Yun.

Then Jiang Yu Chuan.

Then Li Chang Huai.

They brought up more than twenty newly dead women. The bodies deeper down were in far worse shape. Everyone grew heavy-hearted. It meant that just in the time since the weather turned cold, more than twenty women had died in Immortal Cave.