"Save... save me..."
The young girl woke up and saw Ye Ling beside her, like a savior. She quickly asked Ye Ling for help in a hoarse voice, her eyes full of a desperate desire to live.
Seeing the girl awake, Ye Ling enveloped her entire body with spiritual energy, protecting her soul. "Relax first, don't get agitated. Everything is fine now."
This girl had cultivation before, but her meridians were destroyed, her cultivation was lost, and her soul was almost shattered, on the verge of dissipating.
However, the fact that an extraordinary person fell in a town full of ordinary people made the whole matter even more intriguing.
"Th-thank you..."
The girl felt a warm current flowing through her body. With her last bit of strength, she said thank you, then completely relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.
Looking at the sleeping girl, Ye Ling chuckled, "Fortunately, you met me. If it were someone else, you might have become a lonely ghost, imprisoned here forever."
Ye Ling picked up the girl and used spiritual energy to pack the other corpses into body bags, hanging them from the ceiling.
After finishing this, Ye Ling glanced at the black bottles placed in the corner of the basement. After a moment of thought, he decided to take them with him.
Those bottles contained the souls of girls who had been tortured to death.
Although Ye Ling didn't know the innkeeper's purpose for sealing those souls in bottles, it didn't prevent him from saving them.
Taking all the souls from the basement with him, Ye Ling then left the place with the unconscious girl.
In the lobby of the Welcome Inn, the innkeeper served two cups of tea on a tray, smiling as he placed them in front of Ye Ling and Feng Ke. "Here you go, please have some tea."
"Thank you," Ye Ling said, then downed the cup of tea on the table.
"Ye..."
Seeing Ye Ling drink the tea directly, Feng Ke was completely shocked and looked at him with disbelief.
Even she could tell that the tea provided by the innkeeper was problematic and shouldn't be drunk. She couldn't believe Ye Ling couldn't see it!
Ye Ling acted as if he knew nothing, smiling at Feng Ke and saying, "It's quite delicious. Would you like to try some?"
"Of course, it's authentic Longjing. I don't even drink it myself usually," the innkeeper said, patting his chest.
"Alright..." Seeing that Ye Ling was serious, Feng Ke no longer hesitated and drank the tea.
Seeing Feng Ke also drink the tea, the innkeeper's smile grew even more brilliant, making her scalp tingle.
"Old Yu, where are the guests?"
At this moment, a burly man strode into the inn and asked the innkeeper loudly, "Old Yu, where are the guests?"
Seeing Xu Tianling enter, Old Yu quickly stepped forward to greet him. "Little brother Xu, these are the guests. They came from afar to our Fulong Town for the hot spring festival, but my small inn is full, and I've inconvenienced them."
"You must treat them well!"
Xu Tianling grinned and said, "Don't worry, as long as the money is enough, the service will be guaranteed."
Although he tried his best to appear friendly, his tall stature exuded an oppressive aura, making it impossible to feel close to him.
"What are your plans now? Shall we go to the mountains to soak in the hot springs first, or go directly to my place?"
Ye Ling replied, "Let's settle down first and see the living environment."
"Alright, follow me. I guarantee you'll be satisfied!" Xu Tianling said with a hearty laugh and walked out of the inn.
Old Yu also smiled and waved at Ye Ling and Feng Ke, "Take care, enjoy your meal and drinks!"
After watching Ye Ling and Feng Ke leave, Old Yu's smile gradually turned sinister, and a hint of amusement flashed in his eyes.
Xu Tianling's house was only about two hundred meters away from the Welcome Inn. Soon, Ye Ling and Feng Ke arrived in front of Xu Tianling's house.
It was a detached, old-fashioned structure. It looked very old from the outside, but the surrounding environment was kept very clean, with a small garden, which was pleasing to the eye.
Xu Tianling stopped at the door and said to Ye Ling, "This is it. The deposit is three hundred, and it's two hundred per night. Cash or transfer?"
"Cash," Ye Ling said, pulling out a thousand yuan from his pocket. "I'll stay for a few days, and I'll pay more if it's not enough."
"Alright!" Xu Tianling's eyes lit up instantly when he saw the money. He took the money with one hand and handed the key to Ye Ling with the other. "This house hasn't been lived in for a long time, but I clean it often. Please take care of the furniture."
"Mm."
Xu Tianling, acting like a true landlord, explained all the precautions to Ye Ling in detail before leaving contentedly with the money.
"Ye... Ye Ling... I feel a bit dizzy and want to vomit..."
The moment Xu Tianling left, Feng Ke could no longer hold on and slumped onto Ye Ling's back, saying weakly.
Her body began to heat up, and she felt weak all over.
"It seems the medicine has taken effect..."
Seeing Feng Ke like this, Ye Ling's eyes narrowed slightly. He then picked her up and whispered, "Just sleep peacefully for now. I'll handle the rest."
He knew the innkeeper had drugged the tea. He drank it deliberately, partly to make the person behind the scenes lower their guard, and partly to make Feng Ke fall asleep.
The innkeeper had already decided to kill them. Since he had administered the drug, he would act soon.
However, Ye Ling hadn't expected that the seemingly ordinary innkeeper possessed a drug that could prevent extraordinary individuals from using their spiritual energy.
The girls who had been affected in the basement had likely drunk the same tea before their cultivation was destroyed by the innkeeper, leaving them at his mercy.
Ye Ling placed Feng Ke on the bed and used his spiritual energy to dispel the drug's effects from her body, protecting her meridians and keeping her in a deep sleep.
"Some things are better left unknown to you."
Ye Ling murmured softly, then disappeared from his spot, leaving Feng Ke alone in the room.
After learning about the unknown secrets beneath the inn, Ye Ling carefully searched the entire Fulong Town and was surprised to discover that the basement was not an isolated case.
In the vast Fulong Town, at least half of the households had such basements, with varying numbers of corpses confined within.
Including Xu Tianling's house, there was also a dungeon underneath.
This Fulong Town was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
And the townspeople were not as kind as they seemed.
If half the households in a town were doing the same thing as the innkeeper, others couldn't possibly be unaware, and no one could be innocent.
Feng Ke often came to Fulong Town to soak in the hot springs and was familiar with many of the locals. If she were to learn that the townspeople of Fulong Town were a group of bloodthirsty perverts, she might not be able to accept it for a while.
As for why the people of Fulong Town were so bloodthirsty and perverted, and the purpose of the mastermind who massacred the entire town...
Ye Ling had a feeling that the girl he rescued from the inn's basement should know something.