"What's wrong?" Huang'er noticed Jiang Chen's expression shifting from clear skies to cloudy in an instant and realized the situation wasn't as optimistic as it seemed.
Jiang Chen cursed under his breath. "People in this line of work really are animals. Every single one of them not only had their five senses sealed, but their entire qi circulation has been locked down as well. If anyone tries anything rash, their Qi Sea will detonate on the spot. Truly vicious!"
Huang'er's expression darkened the moment she heard this.
"Let's check whether the others are here first." Huang'er was the first to recover her composure, stepping forward to help. One by one, the masks were torn away.
Again and again, familiar faces of fellow disciples emerged.
Suddenly, Huang'er cried out in excitement from the other side: "Sister Gouyu!"
She pulled away a mask, and Gouyu's face appeared before the two of them. Her five senses were sealed, but her expression still carried that stubborn defiance, her look proud and unyielding.
It was clear she had not been treated well during her captivity—her cheeks were gaunt and pale, drained of color.
Seeing Gouyu gave them a small boost of encouragement, and with renewed vigor they removed every last mask.
Xue Tong, Guo Jin, the Qiao brothers, Wen Ziqi, Shen Sanhuo, Rong Zifeng, Ouyang Chao…
There were fifty or sixty people in total, mostly disciples from Danxia Valley's prodigy district.
Not a single one was an elder.
Most importantly, Jiang Chen couldn't find Mu Gaoqi or Elder Yunnie among them.
According to the intelligence Jiang Chen had previously obtained, Elder Yunnie should not have been killed. The people from the Central Domain of the Red Cauldron had been instructed to capture them alive—they needed to extract the recipe for the Myriad Longevity Pill from Elder Yunnie.
The Myriad Longevity Pill recipe had indeed been obtained eventually, which at least proved that Elder Yunnie had survived the fall of Danqian Palace.
The recipe must have been wrung from Elder Yunnie's lips.
Since they hadn't killed Elder Yunnie back then, then given his status, he would have been the most valuable asset to sell as a slave. The royal family of the Central Domain of the Red Cauldron had absolutely no reason to kill him.
Even if they had killed Elder Yunnie, Mu Gaoqi had always kept a low profile—so why was he also missing?
Not finding Elder Yunnie and Mu Gaoqi left Jiang Chen feeling somewhat discouraged. Truthfully, apart from his own handful of retainers, he had no real emotional attachment to most of the people he was rescuing. They were merely fellow disciples from Danqian Palace.
He had gone through countless hardships to come here for the sake of rescuing those he truly knew.
Back at Danqian Palace, the people Jiang Chen truly cared about were Palace Master Danchi, Elder Yunnie, Mu Gaoqi, and the Ling sisters.
Ling Bi'er had been separated from Danqian Palace during its fall, her whereabouts unknown. Ling Hui'er was with her father and should be safe.
Huang'er knew that Mu Gaoqi was closest to Jiang Chen, and seeing that Mu Gaoqi wasn't among these people, she understood his distress.
"You've done everything you can, Young Master Jiang. The outcome is in heaven's hands—don't blame yourself too deeply," Huang'er consoled him.
From her deep understanding of Jiang Chen over this time, she knew he was someone who carried heavy burdens on his heart. She worried that failing to rescue Mu Gaoqi would cause him to drown in self-blame.
Huang'er's words brought Jiang Chen some measure of comfort.
But looking at this group of people—every one of them with sealed senses and sealed qi—he couldn't help but feel a tremendous headache.
The sealing technique itself wasn't particularly sophisticated, but the problem was that with these seals in place, these people's lives were essentially in the hands of whoever controlled them.
Their controller could choose to let them live or die with a single thought.
If he didn't have absolute certainty that he could remove the seals in an instant, it would inevitably alert the controller. Once alerted, a mere thought from the other side could kill them all.
That was the thing giving Jiang Chen the biggest headache right now.
Huang'er saw Jiang Chen deep in concentration and knew he was troubled by this very problem. She desperately wanted to help ease his burden.
"Young Master Jiang, I once heard Elder Shun speak about something related to the sealing of Qi Seas."
"Oh? What did Elder Shun say?" Jiang Chen was indeed mulling over this exact issue, and hearing that Elder Shun had discussed it before piqued his curiosity.
"He said that when he was young, he had seen something similar. During a conflict between factions, people from one sect were captured by an enemy sect and had their Qi Seas sealed. Later, those people were rescued by their fellow disciples, but the seals couldn't be removed. The moment anyone tried to tamper with a seal, the other side could activate it and kill the sealed person…"
"What happened then?" Jiang Chen's expression shifted.
"Eventually, Elder Shun said they were all saved. They hired a formation master who set up a grand formation. The formation contained countless streams of power, each one corresponding to a single seal to break it. Once activated, the formation's power would simultaneously assault all the seals, shattering them in one stroke. The requirements were extremely demanding—first, it had to be one-to-one, a perfect match; for every person sealed, a corresponding stream of power had to be prepared. Second, the window for breaking the seals had to be extremely short—completed within one or two breaths. Fast enough that the controller wouldn't have time to kill the sealed people."
"So the formation succeeded?" Jiang Chen's heart jolted.
This was an entirely new approach. His mind had been a complete muddle before, and he truly hadn't considered this method. Now, with Huang'er's reminder, a storm of inspiration flashed through his mind.