Suddenly, all the righteous cultivators hidden in the crowd leaped up and drew their swords to stab at Gu Baizhi.
Gu Baizhi felt a wave of dizziness.
"Who is the demonic cultivator? Me?" Before Gu Baizhi could figure it out, the righteous cultivators had already surrounded her.
Gu Baizhi then realized that the demonic cultivator they were talking about was herself.
"Witch, how dare you come to Qin Zhong! Do you think the righteous cultivators in the Western Qin Kingdom are easy to mess with?" one of the righteous cultivators said.
Gu Baizhi was still in a daze. How did she become a demonic cultivator?
"This fellow Daoist seems to have some misunderstanding... I have always cultivated the righteous path, how did I become a demonic cultivator..." Gu Baizhi explained.
"You call yourself a righteous cultivator? You can lie, but the demonic energy on your body doesn't lie. A demonic cultivator dares to run wild in the Western Qin Kingdom? I want to see your true face! Who is it that has such audacity?" With that, he reached out to remove Gu Baizhi's veil.
Before Gu Baizhi could react, her veil was forcibly ripped off by this person.
Everyone was stunned; they were all captivated by Gu Baizhi's stunning beauty. When they first met Gu Baizhi, she was still wearing a veil, yet she had already mesmerized them. Now that she had removed her veil, she had completely bewitched them.
Gu Baizhi didn't miss the chance to catch them off guard. She leaped high into the air, jumped to the roof of the building next door, and used her light-footed skills to rush towards the palace.
"Don't stand there! She's gone! Chase after her! Otherwise, the master won't let us off! Chase after her!" These words jolted the surrounding cultivators awake. Seeing that Gu Baizhi, who had been surrounded, had vanished without a trace, they panicked and immediately gave chase in the direction Gu Baizhi had fled.
Gu Baizhi was utterly speechless. How did she, a perfectly righteous cultivator, become a demonic cultivator? Gu Baizhi thought to herself.
Just as Gu Baizhi was only a short distance from the palace and about to escape, a sword aura suddenly landed directly in front of her. Gu Baizhi leaped up and dodged the sword aura.
Immediately afterwards, a dozen or so cultivators appeared and blocked Gu Baizhi's path.
"You run pretty fast, now I see you..." Before the man could finish speaking, Gu Baizhi turned and ran away.
She had only run a few steps when another massive sword aura blocked her escape route. Several more cultivators arrived and sealed off Gu Baizhi's retreat as well. Soon after, more cultivators arrived and surrounded Gu Baizhi.
"Still trying to run? Let me tell you, you're trapped here. There are cultivators within a hundred meters of you trying to capture you. Where do you think you can run to? Come with us obediently, and we'll make your suffering a little less," the leading cultivator said contemptuously.
Gu Baizhi still wanted to explain, after all, she was indeed not a demonic cultivator, and being captured without any explanation was really too frustrating.
"I am not a demonic cultivator! Aren't you afraid of being punished by the royal family for randomly arresting people?"
"With such intense demonic energy emanating from you, how dare you claim you're not a demonic cultivator?"
"Brother, don't talk to her anymore, just grab her and claim the reward from the magistrate!" one of them said.
"Alright, brothers, catch this witch!"
Immediately, the group of cultivators leaped up, took out Immortal Binding Ropes from their sleeves, and these Immortal Binding Ropes flew towards Gu Baizhi at an extremely fast speed.
Gu Baizhi tried to dodge, but with so many binding ropes, there was nowhere to hide.
Just as the Immortal Binding Rope was about to reach Gu Baizhi, Gu Baizhi suddenly disappeared without a trace.
"Where did they go?!"
"My brother doesn't know, he disappeared in the blink of an eye..."
"A bunch of useless trash! So many people and she still managed to escape! Get her to the city and block all roads leading out of Qinzhong. Qinzhong is only so big, I don't believe she could get away!"
"Yes, yes! We'll act immediately and bring that witch back to you. What are you all standing around for? Go find her!" said the leader of the henchmen.
"Yes!" the crowd responded.
Gu Baizhi slumped in a small alley, her face flushed and her body limp. She clenched her teeth and gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, feeling excruciating pain. She had just used the "Nine Heavens Free and Unfettered Journey" technique to evade the cultivators' capture. But as soon as she teleported here, her spiritual energy suddenly became chaotic, and she could clearly feel a demonic energy constantly corrupting her spiritual energy, causing it to surge wildly through her meridians. Each surge brought tearing pain, making her want to curl up in agony.
Gu Baizhi gasped for breath, trying to use her cultivation technique to stabilize the spiritual energy within her body. However, she discovered with despair that she couldn't control even a single trace of spiritual energy. In other words, Gu Baizhi was currently unable to use any spiritual energy, let alone perform any cultivation techniques.
"How could this be…" Gu Baizhi muttered to herself.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside the alley. Gu Baizhi, barely managing to stay upright, hid in a dead corner of the alley.
"Sigh... Where do you think she could have run to? How did she manage to escape when so many of us were chasing her?"
"Who knows? Hurry up and find it..." another person said.
"If you say, if the two of us find that person first, then can we go first..."
"Hmm, that's the kind of person the adults want. You really dare to dream."
"She only said she wanted her alive, she didn't care about anything else. So, can't we enjoy ourselves first, and then hand her over?"
"Then I want her virginity, haha!"
Hearing their words, Gu Baizhi clenched her fists. "They call themselves righteous cultivators? They're scum!" Gu Baizhi cursed inwardly.
"Who are you? Can't you see where you're going?" one of the righteous cultivators cursed.
"I'm sorry, Uncle, I was just rushing to deliver medicine to my mother..." A childish voice reached Gu Baizhi's ears. Gu Baizhi secretly peeked from behind the wall and saw a little girl, only a dozen years old, kneeling in front of the two cultivators.
"Uncles... I really didn't mean it. Can you please let me off this time? My mother is seriously ill and needs this medicine. Can you give it back to me?" the girl pleaded.
"I can let you go, but as for this medicine... you either have to trade one of your hands for it, or I'll destroy it right now."
"Uncle, my mother really needs this medicine, could we please not have it..."
"I don't care, she's not my mother. I don't care whether your mother needs it or not!"
"What's wrong? Your mother is still bedridden. This medicine must be very rare. Do you want your hand or your mother's life?"
Gu Baizhi clenched her fists silently. She never expected that these two so-called righteous cultivators would be such scum.
"What should I do? Do nothing...? I...I can't do that."