Chapter 3: Hiding in the Secret Cave

Hiding in the Secret Cave

"Civet slave, civet slave."

Ruan Ci followed the civet cat and asked in a low voice, "Where are we going? —Am I not going to survive?"

She took off the wooden talisman and looked at it, seeing that the green light on it had gradually dimmed, and sighed in her heart, "Civet slave, stop walking, it's useless."

As Ruan Ci expected, the door that the civet slave broke open was not simple. There was a secret door inside the room. The civet slave scratched the ground again, telling Ruan Ci to open it. One person and one cat went down to the ground, which was a secret passage extending in all directions. Ruan Ci followed the civet slave and had walked for several hours, and her heart gradually turned to ash.

Unless she stayed in the secret passage for the rest of her life, otherwise, when the talisman power was exhausted, she would be sucked of her vitality by the fire miasma when she went out and die of thirst. If she stayed in the secret passage, she would die of hunger. The power struggles of the noble families in Song Guo were never afraid of having fish that slipped through the net. Even if ordinary people escaped, without a road pass, the Talisman Master would not infuse talisman power for a living person. Ruan Ci even felt that the civet slave had actually brought the wrong person. If Ruan Rong and Ruan Qian could escape the city from the secret passage, they could survive. They could use talisman power, and the hope of survival would be a few points higher.

But, how could a cat understand human speech? The civet slave still walked unhurriedly in front. It seemed to be very familiar with this place. Ruan Ci could vaguely see many forks in the road in the dimness, but the civet slave did not hesitate at all, one turn after another. Ruan Ci was tired from walking, so it lay on the ground and waited for her for a while, and after a while, it stood up and led her forward.

Although Ruan Ci was not afraid of the dark, she felt uncomfortable in such a dark and enclosed environment. She was not afraid of death now, but she just did not want to die in such a remote place, without even anyone to collect her body, and even less did she want to face the difficult time before death alone. Although she had no hope of survival, she gritted her teeth and followed the civet slave forward.

The secret passage connected by this room was as tall as a person at first, but now it gradually became low, and the top changed from brick to soil. Ruan Ci could gradually not stand upright, walked for a while with her waist bent, and the civet slave turned again and drilled into a small hole. Ruan Ci almost could not squeeze through. Fortunately, she was young and narrow, and she endured the fear, regardless of everything, and squeezed forward hard, only thinking in her heart, "If the hole is too small, will I be able to enter but not exit? If the civet slave doesn't care about me, I will be stuck here."

Fortunately, the entrance was extremely narrow at first, but after crawling a few steps, Ruan Ci vaguely saw light, and even faintly heard people talking. She was both surprised and happy, and quite careful. Having walked for so long, she could no longer distinguish the direction, and it was hard to say whether she had left the Ruan mansion. And Ruan Ci also knew that she was probably not walking on the right path. The road she crawled was very much like a cat hole dug by the civet slave.

Sure enough, after crawling for a while, her hands were empty, her body was light, and she almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, Ruan Ci was agile and supported the ground to crawl out in a sorry state, without making any noise, but her hands had been rubbed to bloody flesh, and she could not even feel the pain. She had gone deep underground, and the space was quite open, with the sound of wind whistling. The people in the distance did not notice her arrival and were still shouting something sharply.

Ruan Ci hid the wooden talisman in her clothes, looked around, and this place seemed to be a natural stone cave, extending in all directions. As far as she could see, there were seven or eight holes, and dark winds blew from time to time, bringing "woo, woo" sounds, like weeping and complaining, which made people's hair stand on end. In the distance, stone walls stood, surrounding an open space, inside which faint firelight flashed. Near the open space, the ground shone with green light, as if a spiritual jade mine was born here, emitting fluorescence.

Ruan Ci could not find the civet slave and did not dare to call out, so she tiptoed over. When she walked to the place with green light, she squatted down and looked, her heart was terrified: this was not any mineral, this was someone who died here, the wooden talisman on their body was not extinguished, emitting talisman light!

This ground full of green light meant...

Ruan Ci dared not think carefully, and even dared not look carefully at the appearance of the dead. In fact, she already had a guess in her heart. This should be a secret hiding place built by the Ruan family for themselves, or it might also have the function of storage. It was normal for the family not to tell the children who were still young. She had walked in the secret passage for several hours, and many Ruan clansmen had probably escaped here, but they still could not stop the enemy's footsteps. The great family was now full of corpses, and even if it was not wiped out from now on, I am afraid it could never return to its past glory.

She tiptoed toward the open space, and the closer she got, the heavier her heart became: along the way, she saw many people lying on the ground, the place where she stepped was wet and sticky, and there was a fresh smell of blood, and some people were not completely out of breath. The "woo woo" was not just the sound of the wind, but also the "he, he" sound made by the people on the ground before they died. The civet slave brought her to the hiding place in its heart, but it did not expect that animals were just animals after all. The safest place in its heart turned out to be the execution ground of the Ruan family.

"Eldest Master, are you really not going to hand over the Earth Pendant?"

Ruan Ci got closer and could gradually hear human voices. Her heart sank more and more. She peeked from behind the stone wall and dared not get close, and did not see the whole picture, only seeing shadows in the center of the open space. A general stood in the middle and spoke loudly, surrounded by wings and followers, and someone was bending over in a corner to sharpen a knife, making a harsh scraping sound, which was very noisy, and a row of soldiers behind were waiting, all in full armor. Ruan Ci had heard Eldest Uncle say that if you kill too many people on the battlefield, the guns and knives will roll their edges when they meet blood, so you have to sharpen your guns before the battle. She did not expect to see it with her own eyes for the first time, but it was on the mountain of corpses and sea of blood of her own family.

"A bright person doesn't speak dark words. Today, no Ruan family member can escape. If you hand it over honestly, you can still leave a whole corpse for your family. If any remnants escape—as long as they don't have the surname Ruan, whether they are Ruan family members or not is just a matter of a word. If you are still unwilling to make it convenient—"

He laughed and said, "Do you see it? This is your beloved wife, your beloved son—"

Ruan Ci could not see it, and she did not want to see it. She lowered her body, hid in the shadows, and fled. Suddenly, light shone from behind her. She was shocked in her heart, pounced on the ground, and pretended to be a corpse. The soldier held a lamp and walked out, lazily shone a circle, and returned to the open space. Faintly, his voice could be heard, "Nothing, there are still people outside who are not dead, it doesn't matter. After a few more hours, they will all be dead."

Laughter, sharpening sounds, forced confessions, screams, echoed in this stone cave. Ruan Ci seemed to have fallen into a very clear nightmare, not knowing where to flee. After the civet slave darted into the stone cave, she did not know where it went. There was light here, and its eyeballs no longer shone, which was harder to find than in the dark.

With the fright of the soldier, she did not dare to stand up and walk, so she had to use her hands and feet to crawl back along the way. The green light was shining, and all she saw were familiar faces, Second Aunt's maids Xiao Ji, Xiao Xiang, Thirteenth Cousin...

The family members in Second Aunt's courtyard were all here. Ruan Ci's originally gradually numb emotions became tense again. She was afraid that she would see Ruan Rong in the next moment, but she could not help but look very carefully, and was also afraid of missing her. When she checked them one by one, her hand suddenly paused, and she sighed softly, "Second Aunt..."

"Hehe..." Although she said it in a low voice, she was stimulated by the sound. The middle-aged woman lying on the ground raised her head with difficulty. She was covered in blood, and if Ruan Ci was not very familiar with her, she would almost not recognize her. This was Second Aunt, who was still spirited and decisive yesterday. "Ci-gu?"

Ruan Ci swallowed the exclamation in her mouth, knelt down to help her, and said in a low voice, "Second Aunt, it's me, don't shout."

Her voice was extremely faint, and Second Aunt did not know if she heard it clearly. Ruan Ci could not help her up, only feeling that Second Aunt was heavy, like a piece of dead meat. Her heart was sad and scared, and she could not help but tremble and ask, "The family has a traitor, right?"

Second Aunt wanted to speak, but had no strength, only shook her head gently, looking like she was about to die.

Ruan Ci's relationship with Second Aunt had always been lukewarm. She and Ruan Rong were about the same age, but she grew up in the inner courtyard as an adopted daughter, so they had been very close since childhood. But the two were similar in appearance, and Second Aunt often suspected that she stole the limelight from Ruan Rong. Ruan Ci knew that she had suggested to Eldest Uncle many times to send her away. She had always been careful in front of Second Aunt and had a lot of fear. At this time, she was barely holding Second Aunt's shoulders, but she was miserable, wishing she could cry out loud, and said in a low voice, "Second Aunt, can you wait for me? I don't want to die alone."

Second Aunt's breathing became heavier, and she suddenly grabbed Ruan Ci and said in a low voice, "Don't cry!"

Her breath was extremely low, intermittent, and her voice was light and shallow. Ruan Ci had to tilt her ear to hear clearly, but the tone still carried a bit of decisiveness, which was the taste Ruan Ci was familiar with. "Don't be afraid."

She grabbed Ruan Ci tightly, "Don't blame yourself... live on."

Don't blame yourself? Ruan Ci's heart was full of doubts, but before she could ask carefully, Second Aunt loosened her hand that was grabbing Ruan Ci, pointed to the front, "Take the talisman... go there."

She reached into her own bosom again, "Take it on the road to eat..."

Before she finished speaking, her throat made a series of "ge ge" sounds, her breath weakened, and she stopped breathing in Ruan Ci's arms.

Ruan Ci shook her hands and gently put her down, reached out to explore Second Aunt's clothes, but did not touch the wooden talisman, only pulled out a purse. Her heart moved because of this: Yes, she did not dare to go out before because her talisman power was exhausted and she could not continue. There were many wooden talismans here. Even if she could not take them all, taking ten or so was a way.

Moreover, the wooden talismans were all worn on the body and would not be lost easily. So many people died, and the wooden talismans were still worn on their bodies. The wooden talisman on Second Aunt's body was gone, which was naturally taken by someone—Ruan Rong was not here, nor was she in the open space. Did she take her mother's wooden talisman and escape to the cave Second Aunt pointed to?

Her spirit was greatly lifted, and she hurriedly picked the wooden talismans from the corpses, fearing that the light would change and attract the soldiers' attention. She picked one every few people, silently chanting in her heart, "Xiao Zhu, Cousin, may your spirits in heaven bless me, I will avenge you in the future."

Thinking of this, regardless of the risk, she crawled to another stone wall. Just now, she was behind that group of people and could only see Eldest Uncle, Cousin, and others, all of whom were covered in blood and in a sorry state, but she had not seen the true face of the enemy. Since she wanted revenge, she had to see the enemy's face clearly.

Just as she crawled halfway, something furry stepped on her foot. Ruan Ci was terrified and almost screamed, pounced on the ground, and pretended to be dead. The thing brushed past her and darted in front of her, a pair of eyeballs glowing bright yellow—it was the civet slave that did not know where it went just now.

Ruan Ci's heartbeat was like a drum, and she breathed a few times before barely calming down. She pointed at the civet slave and vented her anger silently, but where would the civet slave understand? It tilted its head, took a piece of wooden talisman from Ruan Ci's arms, and jumped to the distance. It ran a few steps, looked back at Ruan Ci, and with the green light, the light in its eyes faintly revealed, and it could barely be distinguished in the dimness, so it would not be nowhere to be found.

So, the civet slave did not deliberately leave her alone, but could not lead the way here?

Ruan Ci was secretly surprised. She gradually felt that this cat was full of spirituality, winning over ordinary civet cats, and even had a strange taste. Looking back at the direction of the open space, she hesitated for a while, crawled to the civet slave, and said in a low voice, "Civet slave, do you remember the smell of the enemy?"

The green light on the civet slave's mouth moved up and down. Ruan Ci thought, "So many soldiers are wearing helmets, I can't see their faces. I heard the voice of the main general was a bit muffled. If he also wore a helmet, then looking at it would be useless. But the face can be covered, the smell cannot be covered. The civet slave can recognize it. I can always find them in the future. For now, it is better to save my life."

She used the stone wall of the open space as a reference and remembered the direction of the cave pointed to by Second Aunt. Only then did she follow the civet slave, dodging all the way, and entered a low and small cave entrance. The cave wall here was tortuous, the passage was narrow, and Ruan Ci felt relieved instead. Even if those soldiers found her tracks, they could not chase her.

"Why didn't I know there were such caves under the Song capital."

After escaping the danger, she could not help but mutter, "Civet slave, how long have you known? Did you often come here to play before?"

The civet cat naturally could not answer her. While speaking, the passage turned upward, and finally became almost vertical. Ruan Ci climbed as hard as she could, and like the civet cat, held the wooden talisman in her mouth to illuminate. Fortunately, the stone wall was uneven, and there were many places to borrow strength. She climbed for a pillar of incense, and finally squeezed out from the cave entrance, sat on the ground and breathed heavily, and curiously looked around, thinking in her heart, "Where is this place again, why is there still so much green light."

From the height, this place should have gone up another level, and it was ten or so feet away from the open space below, but it was brighter. Green light penetrated everywhere in the stone wall, high and low, and some stones themselves had very strong green light, almost illuminating people's faces. Ruan Ci touched the glowing stones, feeling cool, and boldly licked them, her mouth was moist, and she suddenly realized, "Is this what the spiritual jade mine looks like before it is mined?"

With the jade mine, there was grain rice, and she would not die even if she lived here for a year. Although she did not know how to mine yet, Ruan Ci finally settled down in her heart and praised the civet slave, "Good cat, it turns out you are really smart."

She looked around, only to see that this place was like a large basket leaking everywhere, with passages connected in all directions, but the thickness was different, and there should be other wide passages to enter. The Ruan clansmen left some tables and furnishings here. Ruan Ci walked over to look, and on top were some offerings, ancestral tablets, etc., all of which were old and difficult to distinguish. In the center of the open space in the distance, two coffins were still parked far away.

The environment in Song Guo was harsh, and death was a common occurrence. Although Ruan Ci grew up in the deep boudoir, she had attended many funerals and was not afraid of these things. She hesitated for a while, but still walked over slowly, while walking, while looking at the holes below to see if she could see the scene on the next level. The closer she got, the faster she walked—the coffin was parked above the open space where the Ruan family was imprisoned and tortured, and she had already seen the firelight penetrating through the hole.

"How did you find this place?"

She asked while walking, and the civet slave followed her side with small steps, and ran again. It jumped onto the stone coffin a few times. Ruan Ci was so frightened that she gasped and said in a low voice, "Come down quickly! Don't offend others!"

The civet slave sprayed its nose, as if to express disdain. It spat out the wooden talisman, lay on the stone coffin, and began to lick its fur. Ruan Ci could not help it, and was more concerned about the things under her feet. It was a pity that the holes here were winding and could only transmit light but could not see the scene clearly, and only the sound was clear.

Ruan Ci touched the coffin for a week, but did not find a suitable peephole, so she had to give up. She felt that these two coffins were large and small, like an adult and a young child. She wanted to find the epitaph, but did not find it. She was secretly strange in her heart, thinking, "The Ruan family's ancestral grave is clearly not here, who is this sacrificing? And, this place extends in all directions, with caves everywhere. If there is no civet slave to lead the way, how to enter and exit? If you get lost, you will definitely die inside."

The sound could be transmitted up, and naturally could be transmitted down. Ruan Ci did not dare to speak, sat with her back against the coffin, just letting her mind wander. A night had passed, and she was really tired and thirsty. She reached into her sleeve and squeezed the embroidered bag containing the spiritual jade grains, which had long been empty, and she had eaten them one after another overnight.

Ruan Ci suddenly remembered the small purse she touched from Second Aunt's bosom. She opened it and saw that it was full of spiritual jade pieces. She took one and put it in her mouth. The spiritual jade dissolved upon entering her mouth. Ruan Ci held a mouthful of water, reluctant to swallow it, and burst into tears unconsciously—what Second Aunt did not forget to tell her to bring before she died was exactly the sweet jade she had tasted the day before and liked very much.

Screams came from the bottom of her feet. It was the tone of her foster father. Eldest Master probably would not die, but would be tortured for a while, but it would not be too long. The Ruan family below would not survive. He would naturally not hand over the Earth Pendant. If Ruan Ci were him, she would do the same.

She closed her eyes and cried, but did not want to cover her ears, still listening to the last sound of her foster father in the world. While crying, she was still swallowing the sweet jade in her mouth. At this time, every supply could not be easily consumed. Second Aunt told her to live on, and Ruan Ci naturally had to listen to her.

Eldest Master Ruan's voice gradually became smaller. Ruan Ci had some induction in the dark, knowing that her foster father had passed away, and tears could not help but burst out. The civet slave did not know when it jumped down, leaned on her knees, stood up, and licked her face. The prickly tongue licked her with pain. Ruan Ci cried and hugged it into her arms, madly smoothing its fur. In the past, she would always stroke the civet slave when she was in a bad mood, but now she felt more and more sad as she touched it, and finally buried her face in the civet slave and cried loudly.

She did not know how long it had passed, and her emotions gradually calmed down. The civet slave moved again, broke free from her arms. Ruan Ci wanted to speak, but the civet slave kicked over with one foot. She was sealed by the cat's claws, and she woke up, hearing the bottom shouting, "Immortal Master! Zhou respectfully welcomes the Immortal Master's carriage! Delaying the Immortal Master's important affairs, please punish the Immortal Master!"

With a soft "um," the stone cave below suddenly shone brightly, and pure white rays of light reflected up from the hole, looking strange and weird. Ruan Ci's heart was in her throat, curled up on the edge of the stone coffin, instinctively avoiding being illuminated by this white light.

"Haven't you found the Earth Pendant yet?" The Immortal Master's voice was very gentle, but it was also very clear through the hole, without any loss. That Zhou—mostly General Zhou, his answer sounded vague, nothing more than saying that there were still people who had not been found, perhaps on the escapees.

The Immortal Master "um"ed and said unhurriedly, "It doesn't matter. My Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Moistening Divine Light can illuminate the lungs. What is the difficulty in illuminating the earth well here?"

He smiled slightly, "In less than two hours, the light seeds will be born and transformed, and you just need to take the light seeds to find them."

Ruan Ci was confused about the divine light and light seeds he spoke of, but she was already shouting "not good" in her heart. If these light seeds could fly, flew up from the hole, and illuminated this place, then the Immortal Master would have an induction, and what was the difficulty in capturing her?

She instinctively looked at the civet slave in her arms, and the civet slave was also looking at her. Its round cat eyes were still unhurried. It turned around, stepped on Ruan Ci's shoulder, jumped onto the large stone coffin, jumped to the edge of the small stone coffin, waved its claws, and the stone coffin lid was pushed open a crack. The civet slave jumped into the coffin, a cat claw stretched out from the crack, scratched a few times, hooked the lid from the inside, and covered the coffin tightly again.

Is this civet slave really just a cat?

Ruan Ci was dumbfounded and did not know what to think, but in any case, the small stone coffin was narrower than a child's body, and she could not get in no matter what. Time was tight, she did not have time to think, got up and turned onto the stone coffin, learned from the civet slave to push the coffin board—this coffin did not use glutinous rice juice to seal the mouth, and it felt extremely light, and it was pushed open a large opening at once.

Who knew what the coffin looked like after not being opened for hundreds of years? Ruan Ci held her breath and let it go, but did not smell any strange odor. She boldly used the green talisman to shine—the coffin was clean, not stained with dust, and there were no funeral objects. Only a white jade coffin lay in the coffin.

The coffin of a wealthy family was not nested seamlessly, and there was always room for some funeral objects. Ruan Ci measured it with her eyes, and she could not hide on both sides of the coffin, but she could lie on the coffin, and even turn over.

"Civet slave, civet slave..."

She whispered a few times with her breath, thinking that if the civet slave could lie in the coffin with her, there would be a companion. But the small coffin was silent, and the civet slave seemed not to have heard at all. Instead, the white light seemed to find something wrong, and it suddenly flourished. Ruan Ci gritted her teeth, dared not delay, turned and jumped into the coffin, turned and closed the coffin lid, and it went dark in front of her eyes.

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If the titles are all four characters, I feel it will be very difficult to name them later...

But there are already three titles that are four characters, and I have a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This chapter continues to send red packets~ In order not to spoil the fun of everyone discussing the plot, I decided not to mention any plot and world view in the words, let's talk about food. Recently, corn, bayberry, and cherries are on the market in large quantities. Have you all eaten them!

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