Chapter 52: Saintess in the Stormy Earth Temple, Three Kidnapping Cases (Seeking Monthly Votes)

The night is like ink, the cold moon like a hook.

Outside Tongzhou City, on the official road of Phoenix Mountain, a crisp sound of bells jingles; the Saintess Yaoguang leaps between the treetops, the bells tied to her ankles with red cords emitting a crisp sound, exceptionally distinct in the dark night.

The wind blows, trees sway, and flowers and grass bend.

Boom!

Accompanied by the strong wind, there are bursts of thunder in the sky.

Saintess Yaoguang stands on a tall, straight cypress tree, looking up at the sky, seeing that the night sky is already covered with dark clouds, clearly a heavy rain is about to arrive.

However, there is still quite a long distance to Tongzhou.

So she decides to find a place to shelter from the rain for now.

The next second, raindrops are already falling from the sky.

She looks down at the surroundings from a high vantage point.

Soon, she discovers firelight on the mountain to the front left.

She immediately taps her toes and flies toward that direction.

At the same time, the rain has already turned from beads into lines, falling with a pitter-patter, making the leaves rustle.

………………………

Inside an abandoned Earth Temple, the dust-covered offering table has no offerings, the incense burner has been knocked over onto the ground, only half of the deity statue remains, its head having flown away, giving it a somewhat eerie feeling.

In the middle of the temple, a pile of firewood is burning, with two wild chickens sizzling with oil roasting over the fire; five men dressed in different ways are all sitting around the fire, and nearby are three unconscious young women with their hands and feet tied.

One middle-aged man with a smooth face complains: "How unlucky! We just came in to rest and eat something, and it suddenly rains, wasting our time again."

"Our luck is considered good; it only started raining after we entered the temple. Some people might still be looking for a place to hide from the rain right now," another fat man says with a yawn.

Suddenly, the man who is focused on roasting the chicken looks up and asks: "Did you all hear any sound?"

"What sound?" The other four look at each other upon hearing this, and subconsciously prick up their ears to listen.

"Jingle-ling~ jingle-ling~"

A thin, gaunt youth says: "It's a bell!"

Everyone looks toward the entrance in unison following the sound.

Outside, the wind and rain are raging, and it is pitch black.

The next second, Boom! As a thunderclap explodes and lightning flashes, a woman with fluttering long sleeves and a graceful figure stands quietly at the entrance; the driving wind and rain do not leave a single trace on her clothes, vanishing upon contact.

The expressions of the five people in the temple change.

Subconsciously, they all grip the weapons by their sides.

They do not relax their vigilance just because the woman outside is beautiful; instead, they are even more fearful.

Because in the middle of the night, for an extremely beautiful woman to appear alone in the deep mountains and old forests, if she is not a Demon, she must be a martial arts expert.

"Greetings, Miss." The oldest among the five, the middle-aged man who is the leader, puts away his weapon, stands up, and cups his hands: "My five brothers are also here to shelter from the rain. The rain is heavy outside; come in and warm yourself by the fire."

Facing his initiative to show goodwill, Saintess Yaoguang remains expressionless and says nothing, her gaze falling on the three unconscious young women beside the offering table.

Seeing this, the five exchange glances.

"Miss, we are just strangers meeting by chance; you surely wouldn't interfere in our Jiang Hu grievances," the middle-aged man says in a deep voice, his tone carrying a hint of warning.

Saintess Yaoguang still does not speak, her eyes indifferent as she steps into the ruined temple, ignoring them and walking straight toward the three unconscious women, bending down to reach out to check their pulses.

The five men's expressions change drastically; two of them prepare to step forward to stop her, but are blocked by the leading middle-aged man.

Facing his companions' puzzled looks, the middle-aged man only gestures for them to look at Saintess Yaoguang's feet.

Only then do they realize she is not wearing any shoes!

More importantly, even without shoes, her jade feet are still white, tender, and delicate, without a trace of dirt.

An expert!

The two who were about to step forward to stop her break into a cold sweat.

"Senior, we yield this place to you; we shall seek another," the middle-aged man says. As his voice falls, he turns and leaves, not caring about the three young women.

Seeing the situation is wrong, they slip away.

The other four companions hurriedly follow.

Suddenly, a cold glint flashes; a thin, soft long sword appears in Saintess Yaoguang's hand, the tip of the sword dripping with blood, and the five men who had their backs to her are separated from their heads before they even have a chance to resist, their corpses falling in a heap on the ground as blood flows slowly.

Saintess Yaoguang flicks her wrist, and the soft sword dances in the air like a silver snake; the five heads are all flicked onto the offering table, just like offerings to the gods.

Afterward, she conjures a chair out of thin air, sits on it, and takes out a handkerchief to carefully wipe the sword blade. After wiping away the blood, the soft sword vanishes from her hand into thin air.

Clearly, she also possesses a Storage Magic Treasure.

Not until dawn does the rain stop. Saintess Yaoguang, who was dozing on the chair, opens her eyes, only to find that the three women with their hands and feet tied are still unconscious.

She steps forward, snaps the ropes, and wakes the three of them.

"Ah, hiss~ what happened? My head hurts so much."

"Where is this place? Who are you?"

"Ahhhhh!"

The three women are very bewildered just after waking up; as they sit up and turn their heads, they happen to come face-to-face with the heads on the offering table.

They are all terrified, their faces turning pale as they scream.

Saintess Yaoguang frowns slightly, somewhat disgusted by the trio's noise. She has no interest in asking why they were kidnapped, turning around and leaving without looking back.

After all, saving people needs no reason; just because she encountered them, she saved them. As for who they are or why they were kidnapped, that has nothing to do with her.

When the three women calm down from their fear, they realize Saintess Yaoguang has already vanished without a trace. One of them chases out in a panic, but also sees no one.

"I remember now! Last night I was embroidering a handkerchief at home when someone suddenly broke through the window, and then I lost consciousness. I was kidnapped!"

"I... me too! Where is this?"

"I know this place; it's the abandoned old Earth Temple in Lijiagou outside the city. Let's hurry back."

…………………………

People in the city had already gone to the County Government to report the cases.

"My Lord! You must uphold justice for me! I woke up this morning and my daughter was gone!"

"My Lord, my daughter too; there were footprints on her window, she must have been abducted!"

"And... and my daughter as well. I don't know which god-forsaken thief did this. My poor daughter was still a maiden, she wasn't even betrothed yet!"

The three pairs of parents whose daughters had gone missing knelt on the ground with a thud as soon as they entered the County Government, wailing repeatedly.

Hearing that it was a missing persons case, Wang Xianling immediately frowned; these cases were the most troublesome, for once someone left the city, where could they possibly search across the vast mountains and plains?

But he could not ignore it; he had to investigate!

In all things, one must hope for that one-in-a-million chance.

Wang Xianling took a deep breath, "Alright, everyone be quiet, speak one by one."

"My Lord, let me speak first!!" A fat man dressed like a wealthy merchant ran forward a few steps: "My daughter was still there at dinner yesterday evening. After eating, she went back to her room to embroider a handkerchief and never came out. This morning, when she didn't appear for a long time, my wife went to her room to check."

"Unexpectedly, the room was completely empty. There were several shoe prints on the window and also on the courtyard wall. It must have been a thief who could vault over roofs and climb walls who kidnapped my daughter. My Lord, you must catch this fellow and rescue my daughter!"

After listening, Wang Xianling suddenly no longer felt this case was troublesome, because judging by this person's attire, he certainly possessed considerable wealth, and the courtyard walls of his home would surely not be low.

For that thief to be able to scale the courtyard wall to enter, and then silently take a living person out beyond the wall.

It meant it was highly likely a ranked Martial Artist.

This case should be for the Jing'an Guard to worry about.

His mood instantly lightened, "Be patient and do not be restless; I will first arrange for the constables to go to the scene to take a look."

We are number one on the new book chart! Number one on the new book chart! Number one on the new book chart! Please let it be known! Seeking monthly votes! For these last few days of the month, let me suffer a little and occupy the first place for a long time (dog head).

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(End of this chapter)