It was a tiny aquatic plant—or perhaps it couldn’t be called that. At a glance, it looked like a clump of dead branches, and on those branches grew three bright red fruits.
’Could it be that these three fruits were what the Vine Seeds were so crazy about?’
With that thought, Su Qing took out the Vine Seed, placed it in her palm, and brought it close to one of the red fruits.
Sure enough, the Vine Seed imdiately flopped onto the red fruit. Within two seconds, the fruit shriveled, leaving behind nothing but a thin skin.
Next, Su Qing repeated the process, and the Vine Seed absorbed the other two red fruits as well.
After absorbing the three red fruits, the Vine Seed lay in Su Qing’s palm. It seed to be stuffed, even pulsing twice. Su Qing couldn’t help but laugh. ’Did this little guy eat so much it’s burping?’
After placing the Vine Seed into the Bagua Pool, Su Qing watched it slowly sink to the bottom. It seed to have fallen into a deep sleep, lying there completely still.
’Maybe the Vine Seed is about to level up.’
Su Qing turned her attention back to the underwater cave. She looked around, a little embarrassed. She had been following the Vine Seed’s pull the whole ti and now couldn’t tell which way she had co from.
After searching the cave for a while, Su Qing realized she was truly lost. Her control over plants with her Wood Ability felt sluggish, perhaps because she was underwater. So, Su Qing gave up searching and simply picked a random direction to swim in.
Fortunately, Su Qing’s luck was good. Before long, she found an opening. After exiting the cave, she swam up toward the surface of the water.
But when she got ashore, Su Qing realized this wasn’t the pool she had entered. In fact, it couldn’t be called a pool at all—it was just a tiny pond.
Su Qing quickly changed into dry clothes and started looking for a way out. However, just as she passed two cave openings, she heard the sounds of a confrontation up ahead.
"Listen up in there! Do not harm the hostages. Please release them imdiately. Don’t persist in this folly."
"Bullshit! If I let the hostages go, you’ll just arrest ! Do you take for an idiot?"
Hearing the two voices, Su Qing was speechless. ’Did I just stumble into another hostage situation?’
’What kind of luck do I have?’
"If you harm the hostages, that’s an even more serious cri. Do you understand?" Another voice shouted. Su Qing guessed the speaker was outside the cave.
"I don’t get it! All I know is that if I let the hostages go today, I’ll be in your hands. Cut the crap and do as I say! Otherwise, if these two end up missing an arm or a leg, don’t bla . It’ll be all your fault!"
The kidnapper’s voice was brazen. Amidst his shouts, Su Qing could faintly hear quiet sobs.
’Since I’ve run into this, I can’t just ignore it. Besides, this kidnapper is blocking my only way out.’
Su Qing crept forward quietly. As she drew near, she discovered that a rock wall separated her from where the kidnapper was holding the hostages.
There was no connecting opening here.
’But if I can hear them so clearly, there must be a connection sowhere.’ So, Su Qing looked up.
Sure enough, the two caves connected high up on the rock wall. It was an opening just large enough for one person to crawl through.
Su Qing silently climbed the rock wall and peeked through the opening.
Her position gave her a view of the front-left side of the kidnapper and his two hostages. The kidnapper was a burly man in his thirties, his face a mask of cruel fat. He did not look like an easy man to deal with.
The two hostages were young won, looking to be about eighteen or nineteen. Threatened by the man’s knife, they didn’t dare to cry out loud, only sobbing quietly with their bodies trembling. One of them had cried herself to the point of fainting and was being held up by her hair, forced to kneel on the ground.
The other young woman seed a bit braver. Although her face was pale with fear, she was holding herself together. When she happened to glance up, her eyes landed right on Su Qing, high up on her front-left. The young woman’s eyes went wide.
Seeing that she’d been spotted, Su Qing quickly made a ’hushing’ gesture at the young woman.
The young woman understood instantly and quickly lowered her gaze. A spark of hope ignited in her heart. ’Maybe... maybe we can be saved.’
anwhile, the kidnapper was still yelling to the people outside the cave. "I’m giving you three minutes! If you still won’t let go, I’ll kill one of them first! I’ve got two, so I’ve got a spare. Even if I can’t get out of here today, it’s not a loss if I take two little brats down with !"
The kidnapper’s threat clearly made the police outside anxious. "Don’t do anything rash! Let’s talk this over."
"Talk my ass! There’s nothing to talk about! It’s simple: are you letting go or not? If not, then we all go down together!" the kidnapper bellowed.
Hearing the kidnapper threaten to kill soone, the semi-conscious young woman was jolted awake. She started crying and screaming, "Don’t kill ! Don’t kill ! I don’t want to die! Help !"
"You! Shut your mouth!" The young woman’s pleas infuriated the kidnapper. "You keep crying, and see if I don’t kill you right now!"
The kidnapper’s threat successfully silenced the young woman.
anwhile, the police outside hurriedly shouted, "Don’t do anything rash!"
"I said it! I—" The kidnapper grew even more agitated. He bellowed toward the cave entrance, but before he could finish, he pitched forward and collapsed onto the ground.
It turned out Su Qing had hit the kidnapper’s temple with a small pebble. She had controlled her strength perfectly, knocking him unconscious without killing him.
"AH—!" Seeing the kidnapper suddenly collapse, the more timid young woman let out a loud scream. The other one, however, looked up at Su Qing with a thrilled expression. She knew Su Qing must have done sothing to knock the kidnapper out.
Su Qing smiled at the young woman and made a ’keep it secret’ gesture. The young woman understood and silently mouthed ’thank you’ to her.
A small smile played on Su Qing’s lips. Hearing movent from outside the entrance, she quickly slipped back into the previous cave. ’I really don’t want to deal with the police again. It’ll just be like that Feng Bozhou, trying to recruit . I really don’t want a job. These days of freedom are just too good.’
When the police outside heard the kidnapper’s words cut off abruptly, followed by a young woman’s scream, they knew sothing must have happened inside. Several officers imdiately rushed into the cave.
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