Jun Mohan watched the direction she left, lost in thought.
“Jun Mohan, she’s gone. Do we still chase her?” Leng Ruoli asked, her eyebrows furrowed.
“No need. Let’s go out! If I guessed correctly, this old woman doesn’t want to live anymore.” Jun Mohan shook his head, refusing.
Because she discovered that the person she had hated for so many years was hated wrongly, she would surely be devastated. At the same time, with no reliance in her heart and unable to overcome her inner demons, she would certainly not be able to live on.
“Then let’s get out quickly. This cave is too gloomy. Standing here makes people feel uncomfortable,” Leng Ruoli said indifferently.
Jun Mohan nodded.
Subsequently, the three of them walked out of the tree hole.
After coming out, they had only walked a short distance when they heard a “boom!” and the stone cave behind the ancient tree collapsed.
The three turned to look. The vines behind the ancient tree quickly covered the entire collapsed area, and it was no longer possible to tell that there had been a stone cave there.
Just as Jun Mohan had guessed, that old woman did not want to live.
Next, Jun Mohan helped Liang Bo, and the three quickly left the forest.
“Jun Mohan, let’s guess where Ju Jianxing might be hiding?” Leng Ruoli suddenly spoke.
After hearing this, Jun Mohan pondered for a moment before slowly saying, “The area around Zǐmù Village is protected by barriers, and there are illusions at the village entrance. Without dispelling the illusions, one cannot leave. Therefore, the only places to hide are the large trees at the edge of the village, within the village, and around the village. As for this forest, it’s filled with ‘killing vines,’ and he is a coward. He would absolutely not hide in the forest.”
Leng Ruoli and Liang Bo listened and found Jun Mo’s analysis to be reasonable.
“Let’s go, we’ll go catch him now and find out who he conspired with back then to slaughter everyone in the Zǐmù clan.”
Liang Bo said angrily.
Afterward, the three first came to the river mouth outside the village. There were three very large ancient trees here, estimated to be sixty meters high, with extremely lush foliage. They were dense, resembling giant green mushrooms, and one could not see the treetops from below the trunk.
Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan flew up the three ancient trees and conducted a thorough search, but they still did not find Ju Jianxing.
Subsequently, the three searched within the village, checking all the houses, but they did not find Ju Jianxing.
This left the King and Queen of Leng feeling somewhat perplexed. Where did this Ju Jianxing usually live?
“Jun Mohan, you used to live in this area. Did you notice any underground stone caves or cellars?”
Leng Ruoli reminded him.
“Underground stone caves? Cellars?”
Jun Mohan murmured to himself upon hearing this.
A few seconds later, a flash of inspiration crossed Jun Mohan’s mind.
“I know where he is.”
Jun Mohan’s thin lips curved into an arc.
Then, he led Leng Ruoli and Liang Bo to a small stone mountain near his mother’s tomb.
“There is a relatively large stone cave beneath this small stone mountain. When my mother and I lived here back then, we often hunted rabbits nearby with those mischievous village children and played in the stone cave,” Jun Mohan said, recalling the past.
“Heh heh, it seems you were quite naughty as a child too?” Hearing this, Leng Ruoli couldn’t help but tease him.
“How many children are not naughty?”
Jun Mohan seemed indifferent.
After speaking, Jun Mohan led the two to the entrance of the stone cave in the small stone mountain. The three quickly discovered fresh footprints in the soft mud.
“Your Highness, Your Consort, Ju Jianxing really did hide here,” Liang Bo said in a low voice.
“Although Ju Jianxing’s martial arts are not high, he is quite cunning. Everyone must be careful when approaching the cave entrance,” Jun Mohan warned.
Upon hearing this, Leng Ruoli and Liang Bo both nodded.
Subsequently, the three pushed aside the weeds taller than a person and were met with three sharpened wooden stakes, as thick as fingers, shot out from the cave.
The three reacted quickly, bending backward in unison to dodge the danger.
“Ju Jianxing, you have committed many evils, and you are scheming against us like this. Do you not intend to leave here alive?” Leng Ruoli threatened him.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she finished speaking, another volley of sharpened wooden stakes was shot out, and the three quickly dodged again.
“Ju Jianxing, if you refuse to come out, I will blow up your stone cave!” Leng Ruoli threatened him again.
As her words fell, the person inside the stone cave finally spoke.
“If you are willing to take me away from this damned place, I will tell you the secret of that year. How about it?”
At this moment, Ju Jianxing’s cautious voice came from the stone cave.
“Agreed!”
Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli agreed to his request without hesitation.
Next, the King and Queen of Leng and Liang Bo waited outside the cave entrance for a while longer before Ju Jianxing slowly crawled out of the cave.
Jun Mohan suddenly reached out and roughly lifted Ju Jianxing.
“Hey, you can’t treat me like this!” Ju Jianxing shouted at Jun Mohan.
“Not treat you like this? Then do you expect us to treat you like an ancestor?”
Hearing this, Leng Ruoli couldn’t help but find it amusing.
“I have the secret you want to know in my heart. You must be polite to me.”
At this moment, Ju Jianxing was truly using his supposed knowledge as leverage to threaten the three of them.
“Haha, should I call you self-clever or foolish? Since you’ve fallen into our hands, I have a hundred ways to make you spill your secrets.”
Leng Ruoli taunted him.
“You, you… you are going too far. We agreed that you would take me away from here, and then I would tell you the secret. Yet, you are breaking your promise.”
Ju Jianxing was so angered by Leng Ruoli’s words that he was speechless. He assumed that Leng Ruoli and the others were forcing him to reveal the secret and then kill him to silence him.
“Heh heh, are you very afraid that we will torture you to extract confessions and force out the secret you’ve kept in your belly for years, and then we won’t take you away from this place? Don’t worry! We will still keep our promise and take you away from here.”
Leng Ruoli smiled slyly after speaking.
“Hmph! As long as I haven’t left this place, I won’t tell you the secret.”
Ju Jianxing replied stubbornly.
After all, that secret was his bargaining chip for survival.
“Then don’t blame me for not being polite. Jun Mohan, take him to the big tree at the edge of the village.”
Leng Ruoli said calmly.
After speaking, she slowly took out a bundle of rope from her sleeve pocket.
Seeing Leng Ruoli take out the bundle of rope from her wide sleeve, Ju Jianxing’s face showed a strange expression.
He had noticed her sleeve when she was in that old woman’s tree cave just now.
Her sleeves were light and flowing, so how could she pull out so many strange and wonderful things from her sleeve pocket?
However, before he could figure out this problem, Jun Mohan was already carrying him towards the big tree at the edge of the village.