Chaos at the City Lord's Manor (Major Revision)

Sang Ying was destined to have no peace that night.

After nightfall, she had just closed her eyes to rest when a faint commotion drifted in from outside.

Liu Yuzhi, across from her, had long since been taken away for another interrogation. Sang Ying instinctively looked through the crack at the man in black in the neighboring cell.

She had expected him to be lying leisurely on the stone bed as usual, but the cell next door was completely empty!

Sang Ying's heart jolted, and she instinctively moved closer to the wall.

Looking through the crack, she saw that the neighboring cell was indeed deserted, as though the young man in black had never existed at all!

His cultivation definitely wasn't sealed! What was he trying to do by pretending to be trapped?

Sang Ying slowly clenched her fists, growing even warier of him. She was about to look again when she noticed something gleaming silver in the crack in the wall.

After a moment's thought, Sang Ying reached in to feel around.

She touched something cold. When she brought it up for a look, she saw that it was a key!

Sang Ying compared it with her shackles and found that the key was just right for opening those on her hands and feet. The young man in black had clearly left it for her.

Once the shackles were open, Sang Ying could absorb Spiritual Qi again. After leaving this place, she would have a chance to find Elder Chanyi and bring her to rescue Nan Gurong. But the young man in black had said that cultivators were guarding the area outside the dungeon.

What if I rush out and get caught?

Holding the key, Sang Ying hesitated.

Before she could decide, a strange noise suddenly came from the ceiling of her cell. Bits of stone kept falling.

Sang Ying hurriedly moved aside. The next second, countless chunks of stone crashed down where she had just stood. The entire ceiling of the dungeon collapsed, and light from outside streamed in at once.

Sang Ying looked up and saw a young cultivator.

His voice was somewhat flippant. "You've already got the key. Why haven't you unlocked the shackles and made a run for it?"

Sang Ying pressed her lips together and said nothing.

The shackles were soon undone, and Sang Ying felt her whole body grow lighter in that instant.

With the young man's help, she climbed out through the collapsed ceiling of the dungeon. Come to think of it, she had used the same method to rescue Nan Gurong and the others before. She hadn't expected these people to have learned nothing after falling for it once.

As Sang Ying had expected, something had indeed gone wrong aboveground. The whole residence was in chaos. Someone had set a fire, turning the residence into a sea of flames.

Everywhere Sang Ying went, she could smell the scent of burning.

"Follow me!" The young man seemed very familiar with the residence. He led her along, and before long they had retrieved the belongings that had been confiscated from Sang Ying.

Only when the spirit sword Elder Chanyi had given her was back in her hand, and she heard Gu Shu squawking in her head, complaining about how worried he had been these past few days, did Sang Ying feel a little more at ease.

"Now that you have your things, this is no place to linger. You'd better leave soon!" the young man said after all that was done.

Sang Ying naturally agreed, but Nan Gurong was still in danger, and she had to take her along.

The young man's identity was mysterious, however, and Sang Ying couldn't discern his cultivation at all. Presumably, he was no ordinary character.

Sang Ying had never liked dealing with people like him, because any male cultivator who was even a little outstanding would eventually become entangled with Su Fuyun. She didn't know whether he was friend or foe, and even though he had saved her, she didn't dare let down her guard.

So Sang Ying said, "You're right, fellow cultivator. I'll leave as soon as I can!"

Only after Sang Ying gave him her word did the young man leave, satisfied.

Once his figure had vanished completely, Sang Ying turned and headed for the other courtyards within the City Lord's Manor.

Seeing this, Gu Shu asked in puzzlement from within the spirit sword, "Weren't you going to leave? Why are you going farther inside?"

"Nan Gurong is still here. I have to find her," Sang Ying explained, then carefully avoided a squad of guards coming to put out the fire.

Hearing that, Gu Shu grew even more jealous, and his words turned sarcastic. "You can barely save yourself, and you still want to rescue her! Do you even know where she lives?!"

Sang Ying stopped in her tracks. "You're right." Her expression instantly turned grave.

"That's more like it!" Seeing Sang Ying turn and start walking toward the exit, Gu Shu felt that his words had carried more weight than Nan Gurong and was delighted. "The important thing is to seize this chance and escape. Someone will come save that little medical cultivator... Hey, what are you doing?!"

Sang Ying charged straight at a guard, kicked him in the chest, and dragged him into a corner. Watching her carry out the whole move in one smooth motion, Gu Shu almost thought his master had been a bandit.

Sang Ying didn't answer Gu Shu's question directly. Instead, she showed him the answer through her actions.

She whipped out the spirit sword and pressed it against the man's throat. Lowering her voice, she fixed him with an icy gaze. "Talk! Where are you holding the medical cultivator you captured and brought back?!"

Gu Shu: ... A beautiful face spells disaster!

The guard had only come to work at the City Lord's Manor for the benefits, so Sang Ying had barely begun questioning him before everything tumbled out of him like beans from a tipped jar, things he should and shouldn't have said alike.

Sang Ying didn't dare delay. She knocked him unconscious at once and hurried to Nan Gurong's courtyard, following his directions.

The person who had set the fire had also come prepared. The flames were a kind of spirit fire, ordinarily a fine thing for refining pills. But once lit, nothing could put them out except spirit rain formed from spiritual power.

As it happened, the City Lord's Manor's high-level cultivators had been lured off somewhere, turning the entire manor into a sea of flames. The guards were so busy fighting the fire that they didn't even notice the prisoners had escaped.

As a result, Sang Ying found Nan Gurong without encountering any obstacles along the way.

When she arrived, Nan Gurong was still busy trying to save the Spirit Plants and spirit medicines in the courtyard!

"Fellow cultivator Sang Ying!" Nan Gurong's face lit up with surprise and delight. "What are you doing here, fellow cultivator Sang Ying? I thought you were still locked up in the dungeon!"

Sang Ying stepped forward and swept all the Spirit Plants into her Storage Bag with a wave of her hand. "It's a long story. Let's get out of here first. If the city lord's people come back, I'm afraid we won't be able to leave."

Nan Gurong still wore shackles on her hands and feet, so she couldn't use spiritual power and could only resort to those clumsy methods to save the spirit medicines.

Fortunately, Sang Ying hadn't thrown away the key, and she soon helped her unlock the shackles.

But while the two of them were delayed, Nan Gurong's courtyard caught fire as well. The raging flames swallowed more than half the courtyard in an instant. Everywhere the blue flames had "graced" was blackened, with nothing left but ashes.

Sang Ying gripped her sword, unsure whether Sword Qi could disperse the flames.

"Fellow cultivator Sang Ying, I did find a tunnel in this courtyard. But my spiritual power was sealed before, so I didn't dare go in. Would you be willing to take the risk with me?" It was simply too dangerous aboveground, and Nan Gurong had hesitated for a long time before raising the question.

Sang Ying looked at the flames surrounding them on all sides. In the end, she gritted her teeth and agreed. "Rather than sit here waiting to die, let's take a chance!"