The crowd steadied themselves and saw the faint glints of cold light emanating from Gu Qingcheng's hand.
With each glint of light that shot out, a person fell to the ground, struck.
"You, what sorcery is this?"
Young Master Li, terrified, darted to the side, hiding behind a stalagmite.
A cold glint struck the stalagmite beside Young Master Li, sparks flying.
"It's a sleeve dart! Everyone, quickly find cover!"
Young Master Li, it seemed, was not entirely ignorant, recognizing it at once.
At Young Master Li's shout, the remaining dozen or so lackeys quickly retreated behind the stalagmites, concealing themselves.
Seeing that she couldn't finish these people off all at once, Gu Qingcheng grabbed Du Lanyue and ran towards a passage on the side.
The passage they had entered through was blocked by Young Master Li's group, so they had to run deeper in another direction.
"Chase them! Want to run? No way!"
Seeing Gu Qingcheng retreat, Young Master Li immediately rushed forward, intending to capture them.
Gu Qingcheng and Du Lanyue dodged left and right, running swiftly.
During this time, Du Lanyue fell once.
Hearing the sound of pursuit from behind, Gu Qingcheng stepped forward, helped Du Lanyue up, and said:
"Sister Lanyue, I'll carry you."
"No, can you run fast enough carrying me? You go on ahead and I'll catch up later."
Du Lanyue tried to push Gu Qingcheng away.
"Don't worry, I'm very strong. Carrying you won't affect my speed at all."
Gu Qingcheng grabbed Du Lanyue's hand, turned around, pulled her onto her back, and then started running.
Seeing that he ran with ease and didn't seem strained, Du Lanyue was greatly surprised.
However, the anxiety of being caught by Young Master Li's group overshadowed her thoughts, and she didn't ponder it further.
Gu Qingcheng had been transformed by the Strength Pill, so carrying Du Lanyue was as light as a feather to her. She agilely carried her, evading the pursuit of Young Master Li and his lackeys.
However, as the sounds of pursuit from Young Master Li's group faded and disappeared into the silence, Gu Qingcheng put Du Lanyue down and realized they were in trouble. They had run into an unfamiliar area, and it was the deepest part of the cave.
Gu Qingcheng had run so fast that she hadn't paid any attention to the way they came. Looking back now, the path in this direction was winding, with many branches, some leading to dead ends, and others deeper into the cave...
Well, they were lost from being chased.
At this point, they could still see the path, thanks to a sliver of light from a crack in the rock above. However, only vines could squeeze through that crack, and it was impossible for them.
"We're lost. Sister Lanyue."
Gu Qingcheng, carrying Du Lanyue, took out her lighting artifact: a palm-sized but extremely bright flashlight, illuminating the surroundings like daylight.
Although Du Lanyue was a little worried, she didn't seem particularly scared, and calmly asked:
"Young Master Gu, is this a luminous pearl? The light is very strong!"
"Uh, sort of."
Seeing that she wasn't worried, Gu Qingcheng admired her composure.
She swept the flashlight around and saw that this was a small stone chamber, relatively dry. It was likely due to the wind blowing in from the rock crevices. There was also accumulated dry grass from years past.
Gu Qingcheng checked the time on her mall system. They had only been playing in the cave and fleeing here for an hour and a half.
In such a short time, Wang Dapeng wouldn't have noticed their disappearance or come looking for them. They were still relatively safe. If they wandered around aimlessly, they might encounter greater dangers, such as underground rivers.
Gu Qingcheng explained the situation to Du Lanyue and then said:
"Why don't we just wait here patiently for Dapeng or the cave administrator to find us?"
"Will they look for us?"
Du Lanyue asked.
"Yes. Even if Wang Dapeng doesn't notice I'm gone today, he'll definitely realize I'm missing tomorrow. He knows we came here, so he'll surely come looking."
Gu Qingcheng said with certainty.
The reason Gu Qingcheng mentioned Wang Dapeng would look for them the next day was that she thought Wang Dapeng might assume she and Du Lanyue were enjoying themselves and had gone off somewhere to play, forgetting to return.
But if only one day passed, and they were still missing on the second day, he would know something was wrong.
"Alright, then we'll wait here."
Seeing Gu Qingcheng so calm, Du Lanyue was no longer afraid.
Besides, wasn't this the chance she had always wanted – to spend time alone with Gu Qingcheng?
"Shall we start a fire? Are you cold?"
Gu Qingcheng, on the other hand, was hot from running.
But now that she had stopped moving after sweating profusely, the sweat turned cold and clung to her skin, making her feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Okay." Du Lanyue also felt cold.
Gu Qingcheng then scoured the area and surprisingly found quite a bit of dry branches, clearly from dead shrubs that had grown here before.
Gu Qingcheng, carrying Du Lanyue, used a lighter to ignite a torch and threw it into the pile of dry branches. A fire quickly sprang up.
Du Lanyue saw the torch and, though a little surprised, assumed Gu Qingcheng had taken it from her bulging backpack and didn't ask further.
"Are you hungry? Let's eat something."
Gu Qingcheng knew that Du Lanyue was emotionally unstable and a little flustered right now, and eating something was the best way to dispel negative emotions.
So, she took out a small pot and a packet of grilled meat patties from her backpack. To Du Lanyue's astonishment, she set up a tripod made of branches over the fire, hung the pot, and placed the meat patties inside to grill.
Before long, the fragrant aroma of grilled meat patties filled the cave.
Gu Qingcheng then took out mineral water in a glass bottle and handed it to Du Lanyue, saying:
"Sister Lanyue, are you thirsty? This water is clean. I brought it from the store."
Du Lanyue didn't refuse, took the bottle, and drank.
"Wow, this water is sweet and tastes really good. But you brought so many things. I couldn't even tell your backpack could hold so much."
Du Lanyue marveled that she had even brought a pot.
Gu Qingcheng smiled and said: "I'm always like this when I go out; I want to bring everything. Especially since we're outdoors today, I was afraid we'd be hungry if we missed mealtime, so I brought a bit of everything."
"Thank goodness for your foresight. Otherwise, we'd have to go hungry." Du Lanyue seemed very happy now.
"You won't go hungry, don't worry. We have plenty of water and provisions."
Gu Qingcheng said cheerily.
"Scoundrels, they got away."
Young Master Li and his subordinates regrouped after a circle.
Young Master Li said in exasperation.
"Young Master Li, should we search further inside? They must have run in there."
Gou Sheng said.
"Pah, the inside is like a maze. Even if we go in, we might not get out. Forget it, let's go to Yi Hong Yuan for some fun. My treat.
If they survive and manage to get out, I'll settle the score with them later. If they don't come out, it's their own fault."
Young Master Li said with a sinister smile.