Chapter 1: Sacrifice

"Giddy-up!"

In the violently jolting carriage, Hua Changxi, her hands and feet bound, opened her eyes; after a moment of confusion, her expression shifted to one of shock and terror.

She had been kidnapped!

Today was the day Old Lady Hua had taken the women of the Hua family to Guangji Temple in the southern suburbs of Jingcheng to pray for blessings.

Impatient to attend the Dharma assembly inside the temple, Hua Changxi had slipped out alone, intending to see the famous marriage tree behind Guangji Temple; who could have known that just as she reached the rear mountain, her neck suddenly hurt, and then she fainted.

Had she known she would encounter such misfortune, even if she could not sit still, she would have stayed by her family's side.

Suppressing her panic, Hua Changxi forced herself to calm down and quickly scanned the interior of the carriage.

Inside the carriage, there was nothing but her; at this moment, her hands were tied behind her back, her feet were bound tightly, and even the slightest movement required great effort.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The carriage jolted severely from its rapid gallop, causing the windows to emit constant crashing sounds.

Watching the windows open and close repeatedly, Hua Changxi's eyes lit up; she struggled to twist her body, laboriously lifting her bound legs to rest them against the carriage wall, lying on her back in an L-shape inside the vehicle.

Then, Hua Changxi extended her feet toward the window, rubbing her right foot back and forth along the window ledge until she managed to scrape her shoe off and out of the carriage.

After closing her eyes to rest for a while and estimating that the carriage had traveled another five kilometers, Hua Changxi rubbed her foot again, scraping off the other shoe as well.

Her father was a Constable of the Six Doors; once her family discovered she was missing, they would surely come looking for her, and she hoped these two shoes could provide clues for her father.

Thinking it over, Hua Changxi worried that two shoes were not enough, so she leaned against the carriage wall, struggling to bend over and stand up, then used her bound hands to yank the purse from her waist and threw it out the window.

"Whoa!"

Feeling the carriage slow down, Hua Changxi quickly lay down, closed her eyes, and pretended she had not yet awakened.

Moments later, with a "creak," the carriage door opened.

Next, Hua Changxi felt herself being dragged out by the arm like a dead dog by the kidnapper, and then hoisted onto a shoulder like a sack of grain.

"To catch just this one, we've delayed for quite some time; today is the final deadline, and I was previously worried we wouldn't be able to complete our mission."

Hearing the dialogue between the two kidnappers, Hua Changxi's heart instantly sank to the bottom.

She had originally thought she was randomly kidnapped, never expecting that the kidnappers were specifically targeting her!

But what was the reason?

Robbery for wealth?

Jingcheng had no shortage of wealthy merchants; the Hua family could not even afford a servant, so kidnapping her would yield no silver.

Abduction for lust?

She was only thirteen; her face had not fully matured, nor had her body developed properly; even if sold to a brothel, she would need to be raised for another two years.

Could it be revenge by an enemy of the Hua family?

As a Constable of the Six Doors, her father often dealt with people from all walks of life, during which he must have made enemies and incurred grudges; this possibility seemed the most likely.

Being carried on a shoulder with her head hanging down, Hua Changxi assumed the two men would not pay attention to her, so she quickly opened her eyes to glance at the place where the kidnapper had brought her.

A dilapidated temple, more than half collapsed!

"Is this the last one we have on hand?"

"Yes."

While speaking, the two kidnappers carried Hua Changxi into the ruined temple.

"Click!"

A grinding sound arose.

Hua Changxi quickly opened her eyes again to take a look.

She saw the other kidnapper standing before the statue in the center of the ruined temple, which was so damaged that only a small base remained; he was holding a protrusion on the base with both hands and turning it.

The next moment, the statue slowly shifted aside, revealing an entrance to an underground tunnel.

"Let's go!"

The kidnapper carrying Hua Changxi jumped down into the tunnel.

Underground, the tunnels crisscrossed, and there were many stone chambers.

Hua Changxi tried hard to memorize the route they took, but unfortunately, being carried caused blood to rush to her head, making it swell; not only was her thinking hindered, but her vision was also severely limited.

She had originally hoped to memorize the route to facilitate a later escape, but now she could not even see the conditions inside the tunnel clearly.

Her upper abdomen was pressed uncomfortably; suddenly inspired, Hua Changxi made several retching sounds.

"Damn it!"

As expected, the kidnapper dropped Hua Changxi to the ground with a "thud."

Hua Changxi's features contorted from the fall, but ignoring the pain, she dry-heaved a few more times, pretending to have just woken up, and looked at the two kidnappers with a terrified expression.

"Luckily, she didn't vomit on me."

"What do we do now?"

"We are already underground; are you still afraid she might escape? Untie the ropes on her feet and let her walk on her own."

The kidnapper hesitated for a moment, then drew his saber and, with a swift "swish," cleanly cut the ropes binding Hua Changxi's feet.

Watching the kidnapper's decisive movements, Hua Changxi's heart sank.

A martial artist!

The person who kidnapped her was actually a martial artist!

"Get up quickly!"

The kidnapper yanked Hua Changxi up and then shoved her forcefully forward.

Now able to see the conditions inside the tunnel clearly, the deeper they went, the more shocked Hua Changxi became.

The underground space was incredibly vast, resembling an underground city.

Even while facing a life-or-death crisis, she was still profoundly stunned.

The two kidnappers still exchanged a few words above ground, but once underground, they remained completely silent throughout the journey, their expressions grave and solemn.

As they ventured deeper, the temperature in the air began to rise.

Gradually, beads of sweat seeped onto the foreheads of the two kidnappers, their clothes becoming soaked, yet Hua Changxi remained entirely dry and cool.

One kidnapper, seeing that Hua Changxi feared not the subterranean heat, muttered under his breath, "No wonder..."

The moment the words left his lips, he immediately drew a warning from the other kidnapper.

Hua Changxi's expression flickered slightly; the two kidnappers were sweating as if they had entered a sauna, while she had not even broken a single drop of sweat.

Her intuition told her that this kidnapping might not be the ordinary act of revenge she had assumed.

The kidnappers had likely taken her precisely because of her constitution that feared no heat.

For the rest of the journey, the two kidnappers remained exceedingly silent.

After traversing the underground for more than half an hour, the two kidnappers, drenched in sweat like rain, forced open a stone door and shoved Hua Changxi inside with great force.

"Bang~"

A scalding wave of heat slammed into her face; Hua Changxi was pushed to the ground, struggling for quite some time before managing to sit up, and when she clearly saw the scene beyond the stone door, her jaw dropped in shock.

Beyond the stone door lay a wide stone platform carved with complex patterns, surrounded on three sides by churning, boiling magma, with only the stone door behind serving as the sole exit.

Had she been brought to... a magma layer?

What caused Hua Changxi's pupils to tremble even more was that dozens of boys and girls, roughly her own age, lay scattered haphazardly across the platform.

Their hands and feet were all bound; some lay down, some sat upright, some sobbed in whimpers, while others remained motionless in despair.

Seeing this scene, Hua Changxi's heart instantly turned ice-cold; she guessed who had captured them.

A demonic monk!

Or a demonic Daoist priest!

If her guess was correct, this stone platform must be an sacrificial altar!

In the Great Jin Dynasty, Buddhism and Daoism flourished; the numbers of Daoist priests and monks surged dramatically, and with such a large base, scum was inevitable, resulting in an endless stream of demonic monks and demonic Daoist priests; rarely a day passed without hearing tales of such evildoers causing chaos in this prefecture, that commandery, or some county.

Hua Changxi's father had once handled a case involving a demonic Daoist capturing boys and girls to cultivate evil arts; the sacrificial altar and the children described in that case matched her current situation with one hundred percent similarity.

Hua Changxi's heart plummeted to the very bottom; as far as she knew, whenever demonic monks or demonic Daoist priests committed crimes, those captured had almost no chance of survival.

Could her father discover the shoes and pouch she had dropped in time and rush over to save her?

In this life, she had only lived for thirteen years; could it be that she was destined to die even younger than in her previous life? Although she had worked the 996 schedule in her past life, she had at least lived to be twenty-eight.

Suppressing the panic in her heart, Hua Changxi began to scan her surroundings, attempting to find an opportunity to escape.

Fortunately, her feet were free to move.

Scanning the stone platform, Hua Changxi finally spotted a ridged protrusion on the stone wall adjacent to the door; she immediately struggled to her feet, walked over to the protrusion, placed her bound hands against it, and began rubbing the ropes vigorously.

After rubbing for a while, she realized the protrusion was not sharp enough; the ropes would never wear through in a short time.

Worried that someone would arrive soon, Hua Changxi turned her gaze toward the others on the platform.

"Young master, the ropes on my hands have loosened; please bite them open for me, and once my hands are free, I will immediately untie you as well."

Hua Changxi appealed for help to the nearest boy.

The boy pointed to more than ten people on the platform groaning in pain and said, "They are just like you; they attempted to escape, but unfortunately, they were discovered by patrols, and their hands and feet were broken."

Hua Changxi saw the miserable state of those few individuals, their limbs bent at unnatural angles; after a moment of silence, she still said, "I am not afraid of being discovered; please help me untie these ropes first."

The boy replied, "But I am afraid," before numbly closing his eyes.

Hua Changxi frowned but said nothing further, turning instead to appeal to the next person.

Unfortunately, after asking several people in succession, no one responded to her.

Hua Changxi fell silent for a moment, scanning the expressions of the crowd; it seemed those who had been captured had lost all desire to survive, their faces marked only by despair and numbness.

Suddenly, Hua Changxi met a pair of eyes that were calm and unruffled; those eyes held no despair.

It belonged to a young lady roughly her own age.

Upon meeting Hua Changxi's gaze, the young lady immediately closed her eyes.

Hua Changxi had no time to ponder why this young lady remained so composed amidst such peril; she only felt that this girl must still harbor a desire to survive, so she quickly walked over and asked, "Young lady, can you help me?"

At first, the young lady ignored her, pretending to be asleep.

Seeing this, Hua Changxi could only gently touch and shake the young lady repeatedly, encouraging her again and again not to give up hope of survival, imploring her to offer mutual aid.

Under Hua Changxi's nagging, reminiscent of Tang Seng, the young lady finally opened her eyes.

The young lady's gaze was somewhat complex; before Hua Changxi could decipher it, she heard the young lady instruct her to turn around.

Delight flashed across Hua Changxi's face, and she immediately complied.

The young lady proved very capable; within a short while, she had bitten through Hua Changxi's ropes.

The moment her hands gained freedom, Hua Changxi moved to untie the young lady.

Unexpectedly, the young lady refused, saying, "I do not need your help."

Hua Changxi froze; before she could ask further, someone nearby spoke up, requesting her assistance to be untied.

Seizing the opportunity, the young lady said, "Go help those who need it," before closing her eyes once more and ignoring Hua Changxi completely.

Sensing something peculiar about the young lady, Hua Changxi said nothing more; she quickly went to the person who had asked for help, and while untying them, said, "Once you are free, go help the others; I will search for the mechanism to get us out."

After freeing that person, Hua Changxi headed straight for the stone door, inching her hands along the stone walls surrounding the door, attempting to find the switch to open it.

Unfortunately, she found nothing.

In the meantime, several others who had gained their freedom ran over to help search for the mechanism.

Hua Changxi searched the area around the stone door repeatedly; seeing no hope of finding a switch, she began walking around the platform again, even daring to stand at the edge and peer down into the magma below.

What were those stone carvings?

Around the perimeter of the platform, some stone carvings were engraved; did they resemble birds?

Hua Changxi could not see very clearly; after circling several times, although she still discovered nothing, she had at least figured out the structure of the stone platform.

Just as Hua Changxi grew increasingly anxious, a sound came from the stone door.

Knowing someone had arrived, Hua Changxi immediately lay down nearby.

At this moment, her position was right in the center of the stone platform.

The stone door swung wide open, and an old man clad in a red robe walked in.

Those few who had freed their bindings were not as quick-witted as Hua Changxi; failing to fall and feign unconsciousness in time, they were caught red-handed by the old man in the red robe.

"Ah~"

A shriek rang out. Hua Changxi could not help but crack her eyes open a slit, only to see the old man in the red robe holding a dagger gleaming with cold light, slicing through each person's wrist one by one.

Those few who had freed their bindings had not had their limbs broken; instead, the old man in the red robe had knocked them unconscious.

"Ah~"

Shrieks rose and fell in succession, and a thick scent of blood began to drift across the space above the stone platform.

As the blood flowed into the recessed grooves on the stone platform, an invisible force pushed it, causing it to rapidly converge toward the center of the platform.

During this, Hua Changxi saw that the old man in the red robe was cutting everyone's left wrists, so she secretly pressed several acupoints on her own left arm.

Soon, the old man in the red robe arrived before Hua Changxi.

Hua Changxi had originally thought she could bluff her way through, but who knew that after her wrist was cut, a searing pain struck the back of her head, and then she plunged into darkness.