Long Xiao, feigning severe injury, lay in his room all afternoon. When dinner was served, a doctor arrived with a girl.
The girl, about eighteen or nineteen, wore a white and red tracksuit and white sneakers. Her delicate face featured a pair of dark, large eyes.
The only imperfection was a reddish-brown scar, about three inches long, on her right cheek.
Long Xiao controlled his vital energy, maintaining the pretense of being gravely wounded. After the doctor examined him and gave the girl some medicine with instructions, he departed.
After the doctor left, the girl began to administer the medicine to Long Xiao.
Her movements were gentle and unhurried. Long Xiao, observing her vacant gaze, sensed a faint trace of sadness.
"Little sister, what is your name?" Long Xiao opened his eyes and asked.
His sudden speech startled the girl. She instinctively stepped back, then resumed feeding him the medicine.
"My name is Luo Yan. Were you also captured by them?" the girl inquired.
Long Xiao nodded. "My skills were inferior, I was ambushed and injured."
After chatting with the girl for a while, Long Xiao learned that she had been brought here by people from Long Nian, abducted from a city in southwestern Huaxia. She didn't know why they had captured her; she was confined but not harmed, only her freedom was restricted.
"How did you get the scar on your face?" Long Xiao asked.
Luo Yan touched the scar on her cheek. "When I was first captured, someone tried to assault me. I struggled, and he cut me."
The man who had attempted to assault Luo Yan was punished by Chachai and had not bothered her since.
After Long Xiao took his medicine, Luo Yan left for a short while and returned with a plate of food.
She fed Long Xiao, and then, instead of leaving, continued to chat with him.
Long Xiao shared some details about his situation and then asked, "Luo Yan, is there a girl who was recently captured here?"
Luo Yan nodded. "Yes, she was captured the day before yesterday. Her name is Ji Yuelan."
"Is she injured?" Long Xiao asked again.
Luo Yan informed Long Xiao that Ji Yuelan had not been harmed. She was kept in a separate room and seemed to be very ill.
Having ascertained Ji Yuelan's location, Long Xiao decided to visit her after midnight.
Long Xiao and Luo Yan talked for a considerable time before she finally cleared the dishes and left.
Long Xiao rested for a bit. Just after midnight, he opened his eyes, got out of bed, and went to the window to observe the surroundings.
The entire camp was shrouded in darkness, silent as if deserted.
Long Xiao gently pulled the door open. It was unlocked. He crept out of the room and headed directly for Ji Yuelan's quarters.
His vital energy expanded, allowing him to perceive everything within a thirty-meter radius with perfect clarity. Under the influence of his energy, darkness lost its meaning.
He arrived at the door of Ji Yuelan's room. It was locked, and there were no guards.
Inside, Ji Yuelan lay on the bed with her eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
Long Xiao knocked softly on the door. Ji Yuelan's eyes snapped open, and she turned her head nervously towards the door.
"Yuelan, don't be nervous. It's me, Long Xiao. I'm coming in," Long Xiao whispered.
Joy flickered across Ji Yuelan's face. She immediately sat up.
"Brother Long, is it really you? Am I dreaming?" Ji Yuelan exclaimed, her face beaming.
Long Xiao reached out, broke the lock, and gently pushed the door open, stepping inside.
Seeing someone enter, Ji Yuelan, unable to see clearly, became apprehensive.
Long Xiao walked to her bedside. In the faint starlight filtering through the window, Ji Yuelan recognized his face.
"Brother Long, it's really you."
Ji Yuelan, overcome with emotion, jumped out of bed and embraced Long Xiao.
Her warm, soft body melted into his embrace. Long Xiao could clearly feel her trembling, and the dampness of tears wet his face.
"Yuelan, your heart is weak. Don't get too excited," Long Xiao whispered in her ear.
Ji Yuelan's breathing grew rapid, her heart pounding faster. Fearing her heart might give out, Long Xiao quickly used his life energy to assess her condition.
Ji Yuelan's cardiac meridians were almost completely blocked, and her heart was extremely weak, in danger of stopping at any moment.
"Yuelan, lie down. I'll massage and clear your cardiac meridians," Long Xiao said, on the ground.
The medicine and needles he carried had been confiscated, so Long Xiao could only resort to acupoint massage to treat Ji Yuelan.
Ji Yuelan lay down gently. Long Xiao placed his fingers on several acupoints of her pericardium meridian, massaging while channeling his life energy to clear the stagnant meridians.
When Long Xiao's finger touched the Zhongchong acupoint on Ji Yuelan's chest, she trembled, and her face flushed crimson.
In the darkness, Long Xiao did not see her face. He focused intently on the massage, fearing he might miss an acupoint and cause her harm.
The acupoints of the Jueyin Pericardium Meridian are located on the front of the body, and several of them are sensitive areas for women. While Long Xiao, as a doctor, was detached, Ji Yuelan's sensations were different.
As her cardiac meridians were unblocked and her body recovered, blood circulated throughout her body. Not only did Ji Yuelan's face redden, but she felt her entire body growing hot.
A tingling sensation overwhelmed her, and she involuntarily moaned.
Hearing Ji Yuelan's cry, Long Xiao was startled, thinking the massage had caused a side effect.
"Yuelan, are you alright? Where does it hurt?" Long Xiao quickly asked in a low voice.
"No, Brother Long, I feel hot all over, and it's very comfortable," Ji Yuelan replied bashfully.
Only then did Long Xiao realize that Ji Yuelan was a girl, and he might have touched a sensitive area.
Long Xiao examined her again. Ji Yuelan's cardiac meridians were now completely clear. He quickly withdrew his hands.
"Yuelan, your heart is fine now. I'll take you away from here tomorrow."
"Brother Long, there are hundreds of people here. How will we leave?" Ji Yuelan asked worriedly.
With Long Xiao's strength, not hundreds, but thousands of people couldn't stop him.
Since he had found this stronghold, he planned to eradicate it completely.
"Don't worry, I'll find a way to mobilize some people."
Long Xiao left Ji Yuelan's room, re-locking the door behind him.
On his way here, he had passed a small village. Long Xiao scaled the wall to leave the stronghold and ran along the dirt path in front of the gate towards the village.
Using his 'Chimei Xiaoyao Bu' technique, his body moved like floating smoke, covering a hundred meters in an instant. He reached the village entrance in no time.
The village was small, with about fifty to sixty households. Long Xiao chose a house with better construction, scaled the wall, and jumped inside.
Inside, someone was exercising, and the sounds were quite loud, the bed creaking non-stop.
"Can you be a bit quieter? It's not good if people hear."
"What are you afraid of? Your dead husband isn't here, no one will bother us."
After another burst of creaking, panting and groaning sounds intensified.