Secret Passage

Perhaps the mastermind behind it all felt that the Pei Family's downfall was already completely inevitable.

Or perhaps the losses the masterminds had suffered during their operation had exceeded expectations somewhat.

Or perhaps the two of them had simply been lucky enough not to run into any enemies.

Overall.

The retreat went fairly smoothly.

After spending a little over an hour.

Ling Wuyuan and the little girl arrived at their destination without mishap.

It was a small house in a relatively remote location, utterly ordinary in appearance.

Faintly.

Traces of daily life could still be seen inside.

Presumably, the Pei Family had people regularly maintain this place as a disguise, perhaps even specifically sending people who knew nothing to live their daily lives here.

The little girl merely rummaged around the roots of a nearby tree for a while before pulling out a metal key still smeared with a little dirt.

Soon after, the metal lock on the front door was opened.

The little girl gestured for Ling Wuyuan to follow.

Ling Wuyuan did not refuse, closing the door behind them as well.

After standing inside the house and looking around.

He saw nothing unusual.

At present.

Though the room contained lighting items such as candles, neither of them lit any. They merely relied on the thin moonlight to see.

Ever since transmigrating here, Ling Wuyuan had possessed a few weak Special Abilities, such as [Glimmer Vision]. With this ability, so long as there was some light nearby, no matter how faint, he could see things.

Besides that.

Though it gave him little practical advantage compared with the humans of this world, perhaps because his body had been repeatedly reconstructed when he transmigrated here, his actual Physical Fitness was far stronger than it had been when he was five or six in his previous life. Even poorly clothed and poorly fed, he rarely fell ill.

This Physical Fitness that surpassed his previous self at the same age was also one of the fundamental reasons he had managed to struggle through life in this world.

At least eating a rat would not knock him flat on the spot...

Ling Wuyuan felt that the true reason might be that, after his body had been repeatedly reconstructed during transmigration, his bodily structure had become closer to that of the humans in this world than to the humans of his previous life...

After all, once the humans of this world naturally reached adulthood, even if they were somewhat malnourished and had never practiced martial arts, as long as they trained properly, they could casually lift objects weighing over a hundred kilograms above their heads. They were far beyond anything the humans of his previous life could compare with.

[Both sides are human, but there should be some essential difference in the composition of their bodies.]

This conjecture had existed in Ling Wuyuan's mind for a long time.

However, if he wanted to verify it further, he felt he might need to find a suitable opportunity to dissect a corpse.

As a transmigrator.

He did not possess some trump-card cheat like a system.

His specialties were living miserably and scavenging...

But since he had already possessed an eidetic memory before transmigrating, his memory had grown even stronger afterward, not to mention the second enhancement brought by the [Spirit Awakening Ritual].

He could clearly recall the diagrams of the Human Body's structure he had seen while studying in the past.

So long as he found a corpse to dissect.

He should be able to identify the general differences.

As for anything more professional... in his previous life, he had neither studied medicine nor biology, so he truly could not make heads or tails of it.

The reason the little girl did not light the candles, aside from worrying that firelight would invite unnecessary trouble, was mainly because, as a martial arts practitioner with a special physique, her eyesight far surpassed that of ordinary people.

To a large extent.

Even Ling Wuyuan, who possessed [Glimmer Vision], might not be better adapted to the current dim environment than she was.

After she and Ling Wuyuan followed Pei Zhizong's instructions, forcibly pried up a wooden board in the floor, then used certain tools in the room to dig nearly half a meter down through the soil.

Finally.

A metal trapdoor with a ring pull appeared before the little girl and Ling Wuyuan.

"The Patriarch once said that this secret passage has a history of more than a hundred years. It was secretly dug by the family as a means of self-preservation. Its actual length is around five kilometers, and its far end directly connects to a hidden cave inside a barren mountain outside the city. As one of the family's contingencies, it also contains some emergency supplies to meet the basic needs of fugitives..."

After roughly explaining the purpose and significance of this secret passage.

The little girl looked at Ling Wuyuan before her and spoke with an exceptionally earnest expression.

"Come with me!"

"So long as we join up with the Pei Family's remaining forces scattered throughout the outside world, although our circumstances cannot compare with when the Pei Family was at its peak, we will still be much stronger than many small factions. There, I can teach you martial arts..."

Though even now neither had asked the other's name.

They had already earned each other's trust.

For a moment.

The little girl was already imagining in her heart how she and Ling Wuyuan would join forces and rebuild the Pei Family's strength.

However.

Faced with the little girl's sincere invitation, Ling Wuyuan thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"No need."

"At this point, there's nothing more I can do to help you."

"As a fugitive, traveling light is the best strategy. If you bring along a burden, it will only have a negative effect and increase the chances of something going wrong..."

Yes.

A burden.

Ling Wuyuan was not being modest. It was simply the truth.

Though after undergoing the [Spirit Awakening Ritual], his Physical Fitness had become roughly comparable to that of an ordinary fifteen- or sixteen-year-old child, and he could accelerate himself by one or two times in critical moments.

The strength he possessed was utterly insignificant compared with the little girl before him...

Though she had not mentioned her true strength, after observing her along the way, Ling Wuyuan could fully judge that the little girl before him could casually strangle ten versions of him to death with one hand...

[She has practiced martial arts, and her realm should not be low.]

Considering that she had successfully escaped from the birthday banquet, along with the fact that her clothes had previously been covered in blood while she herself bore no wounds, Ling Wuyuan immediately realized this.

Even if someone had covered her retreat, escaping safely from such a situation was no simple matter.

The enemies who had plotted for so long could not possibly let members of the Pei Family stroll away as though taking a walk...

Therefore.

Someone who could forcibly fight her way out of the scene while preserving herself undoubtedly possessed genuine skill!

And when fleeing, one should always travel light and move as fast as possible.

Just run for your life!

Having to bring him along would truly be a negative enhancement for her.

It was as inconvenient as a special forces soldier having to carry a five- or six-year-old child while fleeing.

Therefore.

To avoid increasing the odds of them all being wiped out, Ling Wuyuan decisively refused her proposal.