HLnovel Chapter 453: Bottom of the Well
Chapter 453: Bottom of the Well
This morning, it wasn't just Yujia Village and Zhangjia Village that came to offer sacrifices and ask for elixirs of immortality; other nearby villages also brought five girls. Xiu Niang from Yujia Village was sent to the celestial palace, two others were taken away by celestial officials, and the remaining two, who weren't chosen, naturally stayed at their temple.
Lu Yangyang truly never expected that these stinky Taoist priests would be so shameless.
She grabbed the old Taoist priest and lifted him up. "Lead the way, hurry up!"
The old Taoist felt like his bones were about to break from Lu Yangyang's kick, and he was so frightened that he had no strength left. He almost fell over after taking just one step forward.
"Useless trash, hurry up!" Lu Yangyang kicked him impatiently again.
The old Taoist priest dared not utter a single complaint, and staggered ahead to lead the way, taking Lu Yangyang towards the backyard of the Immortal Temple.
Seeing this, Zhang and several other women quickly followed.
The layout of all the temples is similar: a large courtyard in front, a main hall in the middle to enshrine the Shangqing Immortals, and a back courtyard behind the main hall, where the Taoist priests who guard the temple live. There is a vestibule, and inside there is a row of side rooms opposite, and another row of side rooms on the left and right, making it look very spacious.
Walking into the backyard, the old Taoist priest pointed tremblingly to a side room on the west side, "In, in there, those two girls are really not good-looking, not very attractive, so, so I gave them medicine and left them in the room."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yangyang took two steps forward, raised her hand, and slapped the old Taoist priest across the face, causing him to spit out several teeth and nearly faint on the spot.
Lu Yangyang pushed him away and strode towards the room he pointed to. She kicked the door open. The room was small, and you could see a bed against the wall at a glance. Two girls in red dresses were lying on the bed, their hands and feet bound, and they hadn't woken up yet.
Lu Yangyang walked over and checked their breathing. Only after confirming they were still alive did she breathe a sigh of relief.
The medicine was strong, and its effects wouldn't wear off for a while, so Lu Yangyang simply picked up the two girls, one in each arm. But as soon as she reached the door, she suddenly remembered something. If two girls were able to stay this time, what about the girls who were left behind before? Where were the girls who were left behind before?
Lu Yangyang put the two girls down and handed them over to the two women who had followed her. She then walked up to the old Taoist priest who had collapsed to the ground in fear. The old Taoist priest instinctively tried to crawl to the side, but Lu Yangyang stepped on his leg and pressed it down: "Besides them, where are the others? Where are the girls you left behind before? Tell me!"
"No, no..." the old Taoist mumbled, but Lu Yangyang stomped on his shinbone, crushing it to pieces. The old Taoist's screams instantly pierced the sky.
"I...I...I'll talk..." The old Taoist priest struggled to raise his hand, pointing to the central courtyard, "Down...down there..."
Lu Yangyang kicked him away and walked towards the courtyard.
At this moment, Prefect Ling and Luo Jing also came over. Seeing this, they hurriedly asked, "Is there something wrong with that well?"
Lu Yangyang nodded: "I'll go down and take a look first. You two call two people over, and we'll go down together later."
Luo Jing stepped forward and said, "I'll go down first."
Lu Yangyang didn't refuse, "Let's go together, I'll go find a rope."
Lu Yangyang looked around the courtyard, ran to the storage room in the corner, found two bundles of hemp rope, quickly tied the ropes to the stone pillar next to the well, and climbed down into the well by pulling on one rope. Luo Jing also took a rope and followed her down. Prefect Ling called two yamen runners over to stand guard outside and shouted into the well, "If anything is wrong, come up quickly!"
Lu Yangyang responded from inside the well.
The well was quite deep, but the inside was surprisingly spacious. Luo Jing lit a tinderbox and discovered that a ladder was hanging on the well wall. Lu Yangyang grabbed the rope and swung to the ladder, then pulled herself down the ladder. After climbing for quite some time, she finally reached the ground. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Lu Yangyang realized something was wrong; there was another passage at the bottom of the well.
Lu Yangyang glanced at Luo Jing, who nodded. The two walked quietly along the passage. They hadn't gone far when they could finally hear a faint sound.
Lu Yangyang quickly walked towards the direction of the sound, only to discover that there was actually a secret chamber hidden in the belly of the mountain at the bottom of the well!
And there wasn't just one passage in the mountainside; besides the place where she heard the sound, there were new passages in other directions! How much effort must have taken to dig such deep passages in this place! Lu Yangyang didn't have time to analyze it; the closer she got to the secret chamber, the clearer the sounds she had faintly heard became. She quickly walked to the door, looked at the iron lock hanging on it, and pulled on it.
Luo Jing followed and was about to suggest smashing it open with a stone when he saw Lu Yangyang grab the iron chain and pull hard, breaking the lock with a snap.
Luo Jing: "..."
Lu Yangyang kicked the door open.
An indescribable stench, a mixture of foulness and blood, surged towards Lu Yangyang, making her feel as if her vision was going black. She endured it, blinked, and finally readjusted her eyes to the light, looking inside.
In a small, secluded room, about a dozen girls lay sprawled out, all covered in filth, their hair disheveled, their ages and even their faces obscured. Even when disturbed, they showed no reaction. Lu Yangyang noticed one girl's body writhing unnaturally, emitting a barely audible moan. Her gaze fell on the girl's abruptly swollen abdomen, and suddenly she realized something, her pupils freezing in shock—she…she was giving birth!
Lu Yangyang's gaze unconsciously fell on the other girls, and she then realized that all of them were pregnant, although the degree of their pregnancy varied slightly.
Her fingers involuntarily clenched, her mind almost completely blank.
She didn't have time to think, and shouted to Luo Jing behind her, "Uncle Luo, go and call for help!"
Then, disregarding the filth on the ground, he quickly walked over to the girl, squatted down, grabbed her hand with one hand, and quickly placed his other hand on her swollen belly. The baby's feet were pointing downwards. She didn't know how long she had been in pain; now all she could do was convulse instinctively. If he delayed any longer, she would surely die!
Given her condition, she simply couldn't hold on long enough to be taken out, and the conditions there made it impossible for her to undergo a cesarean section.
Lu Yangyang grasped the girl's skinny wrist, glanced at her, made a firm decision, reached out and touched the foot of the child emerging from her womb, pushed it inward, then touched her abdomen, turned the child around, pushed it forward, and pushed the emerging head of the child out.
But by then, the child's face was already bruised and purple, and he had stopped breathing.
With trembling hands, Lu Yangyang took out a silver needle and inserted it into the girl's acupoints. After a while, the girl barely opened her eyes and looked at her.