(Brendan POV)

*A few hours ago*

This is quite embarrassing.

Liehui and I were just walking along the road when a group of riders came from behind us.

Both Liehui and I thought they were just travellers who were also headed towards the capital so we simply stepped towards the side of the road to let them pass.

Who knew one of them actually reached out and grabbed me by the collar when he rode past, dragging me along with the group.

Liehui immediately tried to grab me back from them but the rider behind her tried to attack her with a halberd.

She managed to grab on to the weapon and used it as a lever to throw him off the horse, but doing that allowed the rest of the riders to run off with me.

And thus, right now I'm tied up in a bundle on the back of one of the men's horses. They even stuffed a cloth in my mouth and blindfolded me rather quickly preventing me from knowing where we were. They're definitely not your run of the mill kidnappers.

I wonder what these kidnappers want though?

"Halt! We'll stop here for tonight!"

The horse I was on stopped and the rider got off, tethering the horse somewhere before picking me off the horse and dumping me on the ground unceremoniously.

I felt the familiar scent of grass and soil and judging by how damp it is, we should be within a forest right now.

I'm not sure how fast their horses were and they were riding the beasts hard to get away so we could be quite far from the location of my kidnapping.

"How's our cargo?" Someone called out.

"Still out, not sure for how long more though."

"Give him another dose of the sedatives. Can't have him waking up on us. We'll meet up with the main group tomorrow and teleport across the mountains."

Seems like they have a Practitioner who can teleport as well. Definitely not normal bandits then, considering this is only the third Practitioner I've met who can teleport.

Since I'm not sure which mountain they are referring to, they might belong to one of the Grand Sects around here. Maybe they might be dissenters from Dong?

Oops, no time to think about that now.

I felt someone tilt my head up and pry open my mouth, sticking what I assume to be a vial at my lips and dumping its contents in.

They then pushed my head up to force the liquid down my throat before letting me go.

I continued to feign unconsciousness as I manipulated my Quarks to control the liquid that was going down my throat, forcing it back up to my mouth before it could reach my stomach.

Very slowly, I let the sedative dribble out from the corner of my lips and onto the floor, making sure not to drop too much in one go lest it makes a sound.

I remained still as the kidnappers went about their business, most likely setting up their camp.

It was only about half an hour later did someone came to me again, this time carrying me somewhere and securing me to what I assume to be a wooden pole hammered into the ground.

Then it was another waiting game as the kidnappers ate and talked.

I learned nothing much from their conversation since they only talked about inconsequential stuff, mostly about getting money from this job and retiring or something.

"Hey, you sure this is alright though? Taking him like this?"

Hmm? Are they talking about me?

"What? That alchemist guy? Of course, who's gonna know?"

"One of us got taken, remember?"

"Yeah… But he would have killed himself already. Make sure to give a cut of the money to his family and add a bonus to compensate."

"Got it. But… Are you sure that Master of his won't come and find us?"

"Psshh, that guy has to know we're the ones that took him in the first place. By the time he tries to find us, we would be on the other side of the mountain already. No way that stupid looking guy could catch us."

"Hahaha! That's true!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down. Don't forget we're still in enemy territory."

Ok, yep. These guys are dead men.

I had wanted to sneak out of here without killing them at first but now that they insulted Master, they're all dead men.

I stayed still for the rest of the night, the kidnappers going back to talking about their own things before they dispersed, leaving two men behind to keep watch.

Judging by their voices, the two were more interested in talking than actually keeping watch, believing that no one would come here this deep into the forest.

Silently, I summoned a pool of water near my hands and manipulated it to flow up along my arm towards my face, using it to soak through my blindfold.

The opaque blindfold slowly turned translucent from being wet, granting me limited vision to check my surroundings briefly.

The two men on guard duty were seated a distance away, though I could only tell because of their moving shadows. The kidnappers had opted not to set up a campfire to hide themselves better. Even better for me.

I called forth another pool of water and used it to cut my bindings, careful to make as little movement as possible.

With my bindings free, I used a stream of water to reach into my shoe, digging out the storage ring I kept underneath the sole since they had taken away the one I had on my finger.

I used the cloth they had stuffed into my mouth to wrap around my nose, covering it and acting as a filter.

I then materialised a bottle from my ring that I silently uncorked before rolling it towards the two guards.

The gas within it immediately leaked out, filling the air with a potent sleeping gas that soon made the two collapse in an unconscious heap.

The sleeping gas also seeped into the tents, ensuring none of them inside would wake up for the next few hours. Nothing should wake them up short of an explosion or something gnawing on them.

I got back up on my feet and went towards the tents, slowly searching through them until I found my other storage ring in one of their bags.

I also took the opportunity to take what I could from them, figuring that it would help me identify them later. Also, it's not like they would need all this after tonight.

Let's see… All I need is this vial potion that erases my scent after I smear it on me and this bottle that attracts monsters into the area.

I made sure to smear myself with the scent eraser first before pouring out the entire contents of the other bottle down on the ground.

Had they not insulted Master, I would have just made them sleep and ran off instead. But too bad for them, they deserve to die for their transgressions.

Soon enough, I could hear the growls of monsters in the distance, no doubt already catching wind of the scent and coming here to investigate. These guys would be killed in their sleep while I would be long gone by then.

Mounting one of the horses, I did not look back as I rode out of the forest, following their tracks back to where they had came from.

If I can find a road, I should be able to find my way back to Master's Sect.

Hopefully Master isn't too worried about me.

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