Chapter 2: A Glimmer in the Solitude
“Thump, thump, thump…”
The sound of wooden soles striking the wooden planks echoed, the footsteps gradually approaching the carriage door.
Luo Xue’s heart skipped a beat. She had sat up to observe her surroundings, not expecting that even a slight movement would attract the traffickers’ attention.
What kind of traffickers had such sharp ears…?
From the few words she had overheard, these traffickers didn’t want the girls in the carriage to know they had been kidnapped, so she absolutely couldn’t let them discover she was awake.
If they found out… what these scumbags might do was unthinkable.
As for whether this was a dream, whether death meant true death or a return to reality, she didn’t know. Luo Xue didn’t dare to gamble.
This kind of inexplicable experience of suddenly arriving in an inexplicable place wasn’t new to her. The most urgent matter was to deceive these traffickers.
Luo Xue looked around. When she first woke up from her coma, her mind was a bit foggy, and she hadn’t carefully observed her surroundings.
Including Luo Xue, there were at least ten little girls in the carriage, all around ten years old, about the same age as her.
The style of their clothing looked ancient, but Luo Xue wasn’t an expert and couldn’t tell which dynasty it belonged to.
—Of course, if the small text that had appeared earlier, [Immortal Martial World], was correct, this should be another fictional world, and possibly a high-martial world where immortals might appear.
Besides these little girls, there was nothing else in the empty carriage, and an unbearable stench permeated the air.
Fortunately, Luo Xue’s sense of smell seemed to have been greatly weakened, and the foul odor didn’t make her faint again.
“Is this considered a dream’s protection?”
The thought flashed through Luo Xue’s mind. The footsteps outside had stopped; the trafficker was standing at the door.
She quickly closed her eyes, leaving a sliver of vision open, and leaned against another little girl’s shoulder.
Whether it was due to the bumpy carriage or just an illusion, the shoulder Luo Xue leaned on seemed to tremble slightly at that moment.
“Creak—”
With a grating sound of turning axles, a small figure entered the carriage.
“Damn, how can it be so stinky!” He covered his nose and mouth, cursing. “I should have let you come. You haven’t even reached the ‘Nose Sensitivity’ realm!”
“Stop mentioning that I’m one minor realm behind you. The Immortal Master said that after the deed is done, he’ll bring us into the Innate Realm. By then, this small gap won’t matter much.” Another voice sounded from outside the carriage.
Hearing these words, Luo Xue’s heart stirred. So there really were cultivators in this world.
So… it wasn’t a dream?
Dream or not, Luo Xue couldn’t tell anymore.
But clearly, whether it was or wasn’t, she had to get through this ordeal first.
The trafficker inside the carriage held a small bamboo pole, casually poking at the girls lying haphazardly on the floor. His gaze fell on the depths of the carriage, his brow furrowed.
Perhaps because the filth inside the carriage far exceeded his imagination, he didn’t venture further in.
“Alright, it’s nothing. They’re all dead asleep!”
The trafficker spat and retreated, as if afraid of being soiled by the filth.
“Ha, I told you, they’re just a few little girls. What trouble could they cause?”
“You never know…”
The two continued their chatter, but they no longer paid attention to the situation inside the carriage.
Luo Xue secretly breathed a sigh of relief and sat up slightly, glancing at the little girl she had just leaned on.
This glance startled her. She saw the little girl’s large eyes staring right back at her, a trace of lingering fear in their depths.
Clearly, the trafficker entering the carriage had also frightened her.
“Besides me… someone else is awake!”
Luo Xue’s breathing grew heavier, but the little girl quickly blinked nervously, as if signaling Luo Xue not to make a sound.
The little girl pressed close to Luo Xue and, with difficulty, managed to free a finger from her bound hands, drawing something on Luo Xue’s thigh.
Luo Xue was stunned for a moment but quickly realized she was writing.
In this environment where they couldn’t speak, this was the only way to communicate.
“What’s your name?”
Luo Xue hesitated. She wanted to say her real name, but she vaguely remembered the traffickers calling her Ah Chou while she was unconscious.
Out of concern for her current unknown situation, Luo Xue decided to use a different name for now.
“Ah Chou.”(ugly)
Perhaps surprised by Luo Xue’s name, the little girl paused for a moment before continuing to write,
“Su Yiyao.”
It seemed that Su Yiyao, like the other little girls here, was around ten years old.
She seemed to have woken up before Luo Xue. It was hard to imagine the psychological impact a ten-year-old girl would experience upon waking up to this scene.
Even more unimaginable was that Su Yiyao had endured it.
At least before Luo Xue made a noise, she hadn’t attracted the traffickers’ attention.
Luo Xue felt a pang of pity for this little girl, though her own situation wasn’t much better.
“Can I call you Xiao Yao?”
Luo Xue clumsily drew the unfamiliar characters, her touch brushing against Su Yiyao’s soft yet cold skin. Another sigh escaped her heart.
She remembered someone.
Luo Xue wasn’t the only one left behind in the settlement. There were a few other children who had depended on each other for survival.
But in the nightmarish disasters… many had already perished.
“Yes… Ah Chou.”
Su Yiyao’s fingers trembled slightly. She… was happy.
Waking up alone in this dark, confined carriage, surrounded by peers who looked like corpses, with monstrous traffickers outside…
She didn’t know how long this had been going on. Su Yiyao had almost lost track of time, only loneliness and fear constantly accompanying her.
At this point, Su Yiyao was on the verge of collapse. If Luo Xue hadn’t woken up, she might have chosen to end her own life soon.
The two young girls huddled together in the dim carriage. Su Yiyao, who had been holding on for so long, finally relaxed a little, her eyelids drooping with exhaustion.
She tilted her little head, leaning against Luo Xue’s shoulder. A few faint rays of light filtering through the cracks in the carriage gently sprinkled on her cheeks, her long eyelashes shimmering.
It seemed that Xiao Yao would grow into a very beautiful little person.
“She’s asleep…”
Luo Xue’s lips curled up involuntarily, but thinking of their current situation, the faint smile turned bitter.
Just then, the carriage suddenly stopped, accompanied by the slightly trembling voice of a trafficker,
“Immortal Master?! You… why did you personally come here to receive them?”
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