The twin continued to be rather gentle with Yun Kou, something she was thankful for in this rather dire situation. While she would've loved flying at any other moment, right now she could not appreciate the wind brushing over them or the nice view of the outer sect mountain.

They did however not fly very far! Quite quickly a big stone house appeared in front of them. Calling it a "House" was quite the disservice to the building, it was a big mansion, with multiple wings! Very different from the houses the other outer sect disciples had gotten - it even had a wall and a lavish garden inside of it! However, Yun Kou's eyes showed disinterest. These big houses were not practical with so many places to get in and out, so many places to guard! She liked her tiny house better.

The boys stepped down from the leaf and Protector Mu left on his leaf, not without flowery praise for the Prince, making Yun Kou wonder who the senior was. With the old man gone, she was carried inside. The entrance hall was large! A big set of stairs lead up to the upper floor. Kou had little time to look at all the different valuables in the room, she just noticed a set of golden qilins bigger than a grown man and a golden sword resting on a wall before her eyes were pried away from all the riches! The number of spirit stones she could get for all of that!

While being carried off, she tried to regain as much Qi as she could but it was impossible. These cuffs around her wrists seemed to eat away all the Qi she gathered, she could only use the little bit she still had leftover inside of her dantian, it was barely enough to use her ice-flame once for a few seconds. Not that, that would be much of a boon... She was carried down into the basement. This Mansion had a prison cell! Sadly, it lacked the splendor everything else seemed to have. It was a 3 by 3 room with a small bed made out of hay, no windows and only a solid metal door leading outside.

"Well, I hope you enjoy our lovely arrangements for you. I'm truly sorry to ask for some of your time. But you are a very important chess piece in my little game." Ning Yue spoke with biting sarcasm. "Mister Fu you may do whatever you want for now, albeit I'd prefer her alive and in one piece. A little roughing up is fine, but see that she does not bleed out." Fu Tengfang nodded slowly and stared at the Twin that was still carrying Yun Kou "You get her patched up and give her a few slaps for now..."

Fu Tengfang...seemed a little off, he was less angry and even seemed somewhat hesitant in his "Punishment" He could whip her or break her bones, do the things he wanted to do to the little thief that brought shame to his name! But now that he was confronted with the opportunity and with the girl being still part of the prince's plan... he felt a little bad about all of this, deep in his core. But now there was no going back. Flicking his sleeve and adjusting his robe he let out a cough and moved off, followed by the other twin behind him.

"Sorry about that lil'one, our boss got caught up with that prince's antics, I'll leave the bandage and the slaps to be imagined. Can you tend to your wounds yourself or do you need my help?" The twin's voice even while only being around 11 or 12 was deep and rough but very kind. Not that Yun Kou would react to this kind of thing she was starring at him suspiciously as he lowered her on the hay bed.

"Fine on my own.." Kou hissed at him! No matter how kind he was or how hesitant his Master it did not change the fact that they had abducted her here against her will, weakened and even cut off her Qi - there was no way she would treat this guy with any respect whatsoever! And the boy seemed to understand that, giving her a shrug he stretched his left arm out, the small ring around his index fingers glowed for a moment and fresh bandages, as well as a small bottle with pills, appeared next to Kou "Those are earthen healing pills, those should heal you back up somewhat."

With these words, he left her behind closing the large metal door in front of her leaving her in only darkness. Luckily darkness was her best friend so she had no problems with at least this. Quickly she threw off her robe and ripped off the bandages Li Zhi had put around her wound already... urg, just at her waist was a deep flesh wound still bleeding slightly, luckily it did not look infected so Kou quickly exchanged the bandages, it hurt but there was nothing she could do about that at this moment.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Done with her "work" she let out a sigh, she would have to learn how to properly dress wounds in the future but for now, her amateurish attempt at this was good enough. Finally, her attention went to the bottle with pills, a small glass bottle holding 3 small brown pills. Kou had never used all that many Pills or elixirs, aside from what she got from the lessons.

So there was a bit of suspicion in her gaze as she looked the small bottle up and down. Usually, she relied on Xiu Shihong or Shi Shi to identify and explain everything she did not know about. Now that she was in this situation, however, this was sadly not an option for her, there was no Shi Shi here or Xiu Shihong, she was...actually alone. For the first time since coming here, she had nobody. That realization struck her.

Suddenly she understood how much she had taken from Xiu Shihong and her other friends and even more so from Shi Shi and how little she gave back to them. She could not sit here and wait for someone to rescue her, she had to deal with that herself! Lock Yun Kou up? I will break out and spit on you! She growled and opened the bottle with pills. The Qi suppressing cuffs barely hindered her movement. They were only there to stop her from gathering and using Qi.

Taking the pills, therefore, was of little difficulty she quickly felt a soothing sensation on her side. Good those pills were actually what they were supposed to! A brief feeling of thankfulness was quickly pushed away, she did not have to be thankful to anyone that was part of that group after all! No way!

She put the pill bottle still holding some into her sleeve after she had put on her clothes once more and stood up, firstly looking her cell up and down looking for weak points. Solid stone walls, probably strong enough to hold a vicious criminal! So she a little girl unable to absorb Qi was nothing! Quickly she made her way to the door. Solid metal. No way to break it open at all. Finally, her eyes found their way to the keyhole...

Patting up and down her clothes she let out a sigh, of course, she had no picklocks or anything on her. Why would a cultivator need something like that! Once more she realized how much she had changed in those years she had spent here already, she was not careful enough...

Cultivation was fun for her it was something she was good at that allowed her to be more than just a starving street child, more than just a mortal. She had found friends and family here. She had relaxed letting her guard down. Back in the streets, she would never get mixed up in things like these because she kept to herself. But was a live-in solitude worth it just because nobody would ever bother her?

She could not answer that at this moment. And it was meaningless to think about such complicated matters, first things first she had to get out of here. Carefully she reached out with her senses deep into her dantian, of course, her Qi reserves were rather depleted, barely enough to use her ice-flame just once. Carefully she tried to guide the energy to her hands but a sharp pain assaulted her head as she did!

Here fluffy ears tilted back and the hairs on her tail stood on end. This hurt so much! Falling back on her bum she blinked and quickly started to growl in anger! The pain was intense but if she could force her way through that she had a chance to get out of here!

So once more she started to guide her Qi, at a certain point the sharp pain once more assaulted her. But Yun Kou gritted her teeth through the pain slowly icy-blue Qi gathered around her slender fingertips.

The Qi slowly formed into her ice-flame and with tears in her eyes, she started to manipulate it. Slowly forming a set of icy lock-picks! The catch was that she would have to keep the ice-flame going even while picking the lock, otherwise, those lockpicks would become brittle and melt. Only with the active Ice-flame was the ice strong.

This meant she had to be quick! There was no room for failure here or she would only get out when her captors would let her and with them having some kind of elder on their side she could not even hope for other elders saving her.

Luckily she had always been good at getting into things she was not supposed to, or in this situation, getting out of things she was not supposed to. She had to work on the lock for a few moments but the "click" made her almost tear up. Quickly she stopped using her Qi.

Her face was read, some of the fine veins on her eyes had ruptured and her white hair was completely disheveled with her ears tilted backward, she had quite the appearance. Luckily there were some things the Cuffs could not take away from her. The "Passive" power-ups that came from her bloodline - Kou still had an excellent hearing!

Years as a street thief also made her steps as soft as a catspaw! There were also no guards...Naive Prince! He just like many other cultivators looked down on Mortals and commoners! He would've never expected a scruffy and dirty girl like her would have the willpower to use the little Qi she had left even past those cuffs! And even less so that she could pick locks!

Prince Ning Yue did not put Yun Kou in his eyes at all! She would show him! Show everyone!