Clouds and Moon Shadow

The two exchanged a glance, for they had both heard cries coming from not far away.

"Stop!" Mu Yun Chu raised the torch and shouted to the surroundings.

"Master," several black-clad guards immediately stepped forward, bowing and awaiting orders as soon as he stopped.

"Look ahead, there are cries and shouts," Mu Yun Chu said succinctly.

The men in black exchanged glances. Had their master's internal strength improved again? They hadn't heard anything.

Gu Qingyue turned to look at the black-clad guards and walked towards the direction from which the voice came.

In fact, the passage turned into many small caves of varying sizes after about a kilometer. They had been searching for almost an hour and had not seen any bandits. They guessed that they had taken many detours.

Following Gu Qingyue's direction, several men in black waved behind them, and the soldiers quickly caught up, searching carefully everywhere.

Gu Qingyue took the lead, releasing her spiritual power to carefully sense the surroundings, and holding a torch, she tried her best to examine the traces along the way.

Speaking of which, Gu Qingyue can be considered an expert in this field. Identifying, deducing, and tracking various traces are her strengths.

Mu Yun Chu gripped his sword tightly, following behind Gu Qing Yue. He watched the young man in front of him squat down, touch the stone wall, grab a handful of soil, blow out a breath to determine the wind direction, and even lie on the ground to look for traces. Although his back was thin and weak, he gave people an invisible feeling of resilience as strong as a mountain, as well as a sense of trust. He couldn't explain why, but he just trusted his judgment.

After walking for about 15 minutes, we finally located the source of the sound. The cave itself was deep and had many openings, so the sound would echo due to the terrain and environment. Therefore, it was not easy to pinpoint the direction of the sound from a great distance.

Once they determined the correct direction of the cries, the group immediately quickened their pace in pursuit.

Half an hour later, the group arrived at a tall stone gate.

Gu Qingyue was the first to use her mental power to see a group of miners huddled in a mountain valley. There were four or five bandits with ferocious faces shouting and threatening to kill them as an example if anyone cried out again. The exhausted miners huddled together, trembling as they looked at the bandits' large knives.

Behind the shivering crowd, seven or eight bandits stood smugly with their chins held high, telling everyone that there would be food soon and not to rush, especially the chubby middle-aged man standing in front.

Gu Qingyue suddenly stopped.

Using his mental power to scan the surroundings, he found no bandits guarding the stone gate, probably afraid of revealing their whereabouts, which made it convenient for them to carry out their plans.

She turned around and asked, "There are twenty or thirty bandits in the cave ahead, and they have over a hundred miners as hostages. How can we rescue them?"

Mu Yun Chu was taken aback. Looking at the tall stone gate in front of her, she began to think about how to rush in and strike the hostage without harming her.

They didn't doubt Gu Qingyue's statement about the number of people, assuming it was something she had seen when she rescued people earlier, unaware that it was actually something Gu Qingyue had just observed through her mental power.

Through the stone gate, one could vaguely hear a lot of noise inside, but it was impossible to make out what they were saying.

Suddenly, Gu Qingyue's body trembled as she heard a familiar voice.

Gu Qingyue quickly focused her mind and released her mental energy again.

"The path to the left outside the gate is the only back door to escape this mine. You two go and scout ahead. Zhu San, you arrange for the miners to evacuate in batches." The voice paused, then turned to ask the person next to him, "Has the message to Master Pan been sent out? He's waiting!"

Steward Qiu! How did that shameless scoundrel who traffics in people end up here? How come he wasn't caught? What on earth is Mu Xiaoqi doing?

Gu Qingyue beckoned with her finger and gave Mu Yun Chu a look. Mu Yun Chu understood, and the two walked towards the stone wall.

"Didn't you catch Master Pan? And that Steward Qiu?" Gu Qingyue asked in a low voice.

Mu Yun Chu raised an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "How did you know?"

Gu Qingyue choked.

She just heard and saw it with her mental powers, how should I explain that?

Gu Qingyue was stunned, while Mu Yun Chu looked the cunning young man up and down. Pan Xiangye was indeed arrested, but during the interrogation, it was discovered that he was a disguised substitute. The real Pan Xiangye escaped. Very few people knew about this. How did he know?

As for Steward Qiu, he was mentioned in the intelligence, but he was never seen during the several arrests.

"You... didn't you hear that? The person inside just said that. I recognized the voice of Steward Qiu. He just asked if the message to Master Pan had been sent out yet," Gu Qingyue said, puffing out her chest and appearing calm and collected, though she was actually forcing herself to speak.

When it comes to lying, she can be flawless. Unless she doesn't want to.

Looking at the sincere eyes of the young man before her, Mu Yun Chu was momentarily bewildered.

Was there really such a loud sound just now?

How come he didn't hear it?

Well then, seeing Gu Qingyue's sincere and trusting gaze, Mu Yun Chu gave up worrying about whether she could hear or not; saving lives was the priority.

"What else did you hear?" Mu Yun Chu asked again.

“They said this path on the left leads out of the mountain and is the only back door,” Gu Qingyue said in a low voice, getting closer to Mu Yun Chu.

“They will evacuate in batches, taking this route,” he said, pointing to the dark passage next to the stone gate.

Mu Yun Chu's eyes narrowed slightly, her face turning as cold as a gust of wind, becoming icy in an instant.

He turned around and beckoned to a man in black, then whispered something to him.

Gu Qingyue watched as several black-clad guards headed down the left path, while one of them ran back the way he came.

Gu Qingyue pursed her lips and remained silent. She had done all she could, hoping to successfully rescue these poor miners.

Mu Yun Chu directed the large number of soldiers behind her to cover their figures, extinguish the torches, and grab Gu Qing Yue's arm to push her behind a large rock. Before she could even squat down, she saw the tall stone gate in front of her slowly open.

Then a furtive figure peeked out, went out the door, and ran straight down the path to the left.

Then, Steward Qiu, whom Gu Qingyue had met once in the deep mountains, came out, followed by four or five bandits.

Half an hour later.

Gu Qingyue sat on a large rock, panting, looking at the bandits who were squatting by the stone wall with their hands tied. Finally, a huge weight was lifted from her heart.

She had never seen such a shameless and cowardly enemy in her entire life.

Honestly, she didn't want to mention the process of capturing this group of people. Of course, these were just small fry of the bandits. As for Steward Qiu and a few highly skilled martial artists, they ran towards a cave. Mu Yun Chu had already gone after them, and she didn't know the outcome yet.

"Hey, lift your head up," Gu Qingyue said, looking at a middle-aged man who was squatting not far away with his head drooping.

The man was round and chubby, with a very cheerful appearance; he was the same Qiuqiu who had been acting all high and mighty in the cave just now.

Upon hearing Gu Qingyue's voice, he immediately raised his head and revealed a standard, extremely obsequious smile.

Well, she accidentally thought of her cheap apprentice, Doctor Zhang. The smile was so similar. How did they manage to do it?

While taking the pulse of a wealthy man in the prefectural city, Doctor Zhang suddenly sneezed and shuddered.

Is anyone thinking about him? Dr. Zhang looked bewildered.