Chapter 153: Meiling.

Lian followed the group into the building and then down into the basement. The basement was filled with stacks of dried food either in bags or barrels that they probably used to feed the prisoners until it was their turn to be sacrificed. 

There were shelves lined with miscellaneous objects that had no real purpose of being there other than storing things there. Lian looked to the back of the room in the little light that she had and saw the iron door with a grate of bars on the top of it. It looked like something to be expected of a dungeon. 

But as she took a closer look she saw the keyhole had rusted over and had become frail from the stress. She took her hand out from her pocket and hit against the lock with her palm. The door flew from its hinges causing air to be sucked into the room and sending the dust upwards and out of the hole Haru was stood next to. 

That was the indication that they had entered and he had nothing else to do but wait for them to come back out with all of the survivors. That was the priority for now at least. The dead would be put into bags to try to reduce further decay of their bodies and a team would come later on and retrieve them.

Haru walked over to the staircase of the building and sat down on the steps after letting the girl down. As soon as he sat down she sat down next to him and silently waited. 

Haru looked down seeing the girl looking straight ahead. She had a lot on her mind and was probably confused. But she looked comfortable at least. He could feel at ease knowing that she wasn't in any mediate danger. He rested his hand on top of her head to get her attention. 

"How are you feeling?" Haru asked her with a gentle expression on his face. His eyes had a hint of sympathy in them that gleamed when he looked at her.

"I'm okay." She said bluntly and then looked back up at Haru.

"But I'm a little bit cold." She shivered as she spoke and brought her arms up to her shoulders in an attempt to warm them before looking straight ahead. 

She seemed to go into her own world once more but now she shivered at a regular interval until Haru shuffled closer to her and then began to spread out the layer of Qi that surrounded him. He couldn't move it much since the amount of Qi was too much for him to handle all at once but he managed to expand it enough to cover the girl. 

Her eyes widened for a moment as she felt the warmth overwhelm her body. She didn't feel even the slightest bit cold. She then looked up to Haru to see if it was his doing which was confirmed when he smiled at her and then looked off into the distance.

As he sat there a voice called out in his head. "Luo Yang… If you are hearing this, DON'T come back to… Ugh!" The voice boomed around the inside of his skill as if someone had shouted into both of his ears at the same time. 

"Jasper…" Haru stood up after recognising the voice to be the voice of the elven man that he had met in the soul tempering grounds. He looked around in all directions and then began to sense for his Qi but there was nothing. He was nowhere nearby. 

"Are you okay mister?" The girl stood up after being startled by his sudden movements and then grabbed the back of his shirt in fear that he was going to leave her. 

Haru turned with a cold expression on his face. Something didn't sit right with him. He couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened in the soul tempering grounds. But he wondered how he had heard Jaspers voice. He then looked down at the girl who had a look of worry stretched across her face.

'I will ask Lao once this is all cleared up.' He thought to himself before smiling once more to put her at ease. 

"I'm fine. I just remembered something that's all. It's nothing to worry about." He reassured her and then sat back down. 

"I forgot to ask you what your name was didn't I?" Haru chuckled and then leaned forward slightly to get a better look at her.

'This kid needs to take a shower.' He thought as he looked at the dirt that stuck to her face and neck. If he could he would have used Kun's power to burn the dirt away but her body wouldn't be able to handle the heat of the flames. So for now she had to continue staying filthy. 

"My name…? Meiling… What is yours?" Her reply was a little bit static before she asked for Haru's name with a gleeful cheer. 

"I'm Haru. It's nice to meet you Meiling." He joked and held out his hand for her to shake. 

Meiling smiled before taking his hand and then stopped as she saw something in the distance. She looked up to the rooftop of one of the buildings with a serious gaze. Haru noticed the change in her immediately and then looked to see what she had spotted. 

As he looked up he noticed a dark shadow on the roof of one of the buildings. He shadow seemed to be humanoid and gave off a strong wave of Qi. He then used his Qi to see past whatever was creating the shadow. 

'A concealment technique?' He thought as he used his spiritual sense to look past the humanoid shape.

There was a man inside the shadow with a surprised expression on his face, The surprise quickly shifted to fear though as he realised the Qi creating the shadow was useless. He felt fully exposed within Haru's gaze as if he was looking deep into his soul. 

He stayed still out of shock for a few seconds. Until Haru moved his hand up into the air. As soon as the man saw him raise his hand he made a retreat and ran across the rooftops before disappearing into the distance.

"It's okay." He patted the girls back gently and then looked back up to where the man was stood on the roof. 

"It's safe to say that they are following my prediction. Now he will go back and tell his boss that he failed his mission of following me… But how did she notice before I did?" He thought to himself and then questioned the strangeness of what just happened.

He didn't sense the same amount of Qi that a cultivator would have within their body when he looked at the girl but somehow she managed to sense a cultivator using a concealment technique. 

"Li Jun. You there? I have something to ask you." Haru called out to his teacher but there was no response at all. He was planning on asking him if there was anything strange about the girl but he guessed he was probably busy with something. 

"Lao. Can I ask you something?" Haru called out once again but it was the same. There wasn't a response. He found it strange since usually when one of them didn't reply he would call the other to help him but it seemed like they were both preoccupied.

'Strange…' He thought and then heard a muffled cough from behind him as the sound of doors opening up from the building the group had entered through gentle creaked. Both Haru and Meiling turned to see the man with just a jacket wrapped around his waist, stood in the doorway clutching his ribs. 

In the light of the setting sun, he could now clearly see the injuries the man had received. The bones in his chest seemed to be jagged and stuck out in different directions from underneath his skin from them being broken repeatedly. And there was a scar on the side of his body, located where he kidneys would be. 

He was being held up on one side by one of the police officers that had come with them and were soon followed by Lian who was guiding the blinded man by the hand. 

"You were right. It is much worse than we thought." Lian admitted as she saw Haru and Meiling sat down on the steps. 

At the sight of both of the heavily injured men, Meiling grabbed Haru's arm and began to squeeze tightly. She looked away from them both out of fear as she kept holding his arm. 

"Well, I did warn you," Haru stated before a chuckle came from the blind man. 

"You're the nice young man who rescued us. You have my thanks. I thought we were going to die down there. But maybe I will have the chance to see… Meet with my children again." He stopped mid-sentence and an expression of anger formed on the lower part of his face. 

"I'm sorry…" Haru said sympathetically as he could tell that the man still hadn't come to terms with being blind yet. 

"It's fine… It's better this way I don't think anyone should have seen the things that happened down there. So I feel better knowing that I won't have to see anything like that again." The blind old man said before smiling once more. 

Ring Ring.

Lian's phone rang out. 

"Hello? Yes… I need everyone you can send… Trust me there are at least fifty people down there." She spoke back and forth with the person on the other side and then looked down at Haru, noticing his inquiring expression. 

"It was the police chief. The police will have to take over this case and do their investigation. They are also sending as many ambulances as they can." She said before he could ask what it was about. 

"I see." He responded simply and then get to his feet.