Plan of Action

Pulling out the remaining two light talismans I had I shoved one back into my robe before lighting the other. Light once again radiated outward.

The table came into view and so did the floor, scattered with books. Nothing about the scene had changed yet I couldn't help but be wary of my surroundings. I couldn't really tell which way I came from since they all looked the same, so I picked one at random.

Eventually I made it to the stairway and as soon as I made it the rest of the group members did as well. Everyone was there being led by Chen Huang over here.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

On the shoulder of the other man in our group was the captive. He must of been carried along while they searched, at some point waking up. He squirmed and wiggled while trying to speak through the gag placed in his mouth.

'Has he been doing this the entire time while carried? That must of been annoying.'

"Brother Ip? What a coincidence we met, did you get lost or something?"

'Well yes, but actually no. I made it here after.'

"Nah, of course not! I was just... taking a look at the books."

He smiled before proceeding up the stairs "Of course, whatever you say!"

The others gestured toward me and said a few words before proceeding up as well. Since there's less of us it should be easier to remember their names, now should be a good time to realize what they were called. I think I remember most of them saying it at some point before we were even in the stronghold.

It'd be awkward if I just called the person ahead of me talisman girl to get her attention.

"Glad to see you're ok." Said a girl holding a talisman, her name should be Zhen Wuying.

Reajusting his grip on the captive, "I'm surprised anyone even survived these people." I think his name is Liang He.

"Hi."

"Hello again." These two girls should be Xing Shun and Xidong Dai respectively.

"En" Nodding my head I followed after them. When we reached the top the wall was already cracked open with chatting sounds coming from inside.

Everyone entered before I finally did closing the wall behind me.

"So this is the group you were talking about? My name's Jin Bo" The

Soon after the question was asked Zhen Wuying spoke up "Well there are others, but we were separated when those people attacked."

"Look we managed to capture one of them!" Liang He dropped him on the table. He tried his best to get out of his situation, but the binds must of been really tight.

"Mmph! Mmph! Mmm-Mmh Mn Mhn!" He tried his best to say any coherent words, yet his muffled screams were all that were heard. From the look in his eyes though I could pretty much hear what he was thinking. His eyes bulged a bit as red lines appeared on his white parts.

After everyone looked at the struggling man Chen Huang asked "So I've heard that you have a plan to get us out of here?"

Jin Bo the janitorial disciple scratched his head "Well, I don't but..." He tilted his head until it faced the little Hu girl "She does."

"Are you kidding me? This little girl is going to get us out of here?" Liang He stood up, pointing a finger at the little girl.

"She's the only one who knows the layout of this place. Why don't we give her a chance? Besides She's only a little girl, how could you yell at her like that?" Chen Huang stood up blocking Liang He's finger.

He lowered his arm "*Sigh* I'm sorry... I'm just scared. I saw my friend die back there. They're so brutal. When we were running I turned back only to see as them keep hacking and chopping at his corpse.." He sat back down, facing the floor.

While that happened I walked over to the little girl, kneeled down to her level and dug through my robes for a few seconds before taking out the jade pendant and handing it over.

When I took it out I could see a small light appear in her eyes as she looked at the pendant. Her eyes widened and her small mouth opened a bit as well. She kept her eyes on the pendant until it fell into her hands.

Once it was in her palms she hugged it a few moments later, before finally taking her eyes off it. She looked up at me before suddenly launching toward me. She wrapped her little arms around my neck, her head beside my own.

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶... 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵." Whispers came from my right ear.

"You're welcome..." I didn't really know what to do as it was a little too sudden, but eventually I gave her a few pats on her back before she let go.

'Wait a minute... She didn't think I'd be able to find it? Did she think she was giving me an impossible task? Nah, it can't be. Why would she even do that?'

After the little hug everyone stared at me.

I couldn't handle being stared at for much longer so I spoke up. "So, now that we have a way out, let's talk about what we'll do."

Another moment of awkward appeared. I thought I failed before someone else spoke up.

"Brother Ip is right, we should think of how we'll get there now that we have a exit."

Ah my savior, looking over to where the voice came from I realize it's Yao Ya.

'Thank You! Thank you so much!'

Soon a hand was raised and one of the girls who were always together, Xing Shun spoke "Um, what about the others? I-If we just leave then what will happen to the others? W-We can't just leave them, can we?"

'Oh shit, that's right what about them? Can we save them? What should we do about them.'

"First of all we need to see this exit. If we can't even save ourselves then how will we be able to save them?" Zhen Wuying added

"Alright our first task will be to secure the exit, only then will we be able to go back in and find the others. I think we should keep those three in the center of the group since they can't fight. We'll lead the way to the exit, guided by Little Sister Hu here. How does this sound?" Chen Huang came up with a plan.

"Alright sounds good to me, but what are we going to do with this guy?" I asked pointing to the man still struggling with his binds on the table.

"Oh.. um.. ah.. how ab-"

"Why don't we just kill him?" Jin Bo Stood up staring directly into the eyes of the man on the table.

"They've killed everyone in our sect and I heard they even killed a couple of your people as well!"

Seemingly reignited by his words Liang He stood up as well. "I agree with this man! I, Tang He, shall avenge my friend. He'll rest in peace if I do so."

'Wait his name's Tang, not Liang? Oh I'm glad I didn't have to say his name yet.'

"Wait! Didn't someone say we could get some information from him? Let's not kill him or at least not yet." Zhen Wuying stepped in front of the man before he could draw his weapon.

"Alright, fine! He'll live a little longer then." Once again he sat down, crossing his arms while sitting.

Before we could continue this conversation any longer, Yao Ya shushed us putting a finger on her lips. A few seconds later a pair of soft foot steps were heard outside. Muffled voices were soon heard after which slowly increased in volume along with the foot steps.

"...do you think are in here?"

"I don't know, we probably scared the shit outta them though. Might have been too scared to even think and regroup so maybe two or three at most are in here somewhere. They couldn't of all coincidentally gone to the same room right?"

"Nah, they probably scattered. But man this library is huge! I even found an entire erotic section, let's go check it out in a bit."

"Man, you know I have a girlfriend! But! I suppose I could come if you really needed me to... help you or something."

"Heh I knew you'd come."

They stopped right outside of our door, so we started hearing their conversation.

"Mn? MMN! MMMMMMPH! MMN MMN!" The struggling man increased his efforts after hearing voices outside and tried even harder to attract their attention.

See that he did that I was about to do something, before Yao Ya used her hand and gave chop to his neck knocking him out.

"Huh, did you heard something?"

"Yeah I did, it sounded like some muffled voice although it was really feint."

'Damn it, I was really hoping they'd just say 'must of been the wind' before walking away. Maybe I've just played too many games with idiot AIs.'