553 Chapter 553: Rescue Operation

"What…what happened to her?" Rossetti was staring at her nervously, unsure of what was happening.

"Her mind and spirit have been broken. She snapped under Xu Wu Cheng's abuse." I shook my head and sighed.

This was why it baffled me whenever Webnovel authors, mostly female, wrote some CEO or vampire story (or werewolf) with all these…toxic relationships. With the amount of abuse the female leads suffered, you would think they would suffer some sort of psychological trauma or mental breakdown. But no, they always forgave the male leads who abused them and lived happily ever after, no matter what the fuckers did to them. For some reason, the female leads never displayed any ill consequence of having suffered abuse and a toxic relationship, which was completely unrealistic at all.

Apparently, as long as the male lead was rich and handsome, it was okay if he raped and emotionally tortured the female lead. That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, but most of these female authors and readers wanted to read these absurd fantasies of "taming" the toxic and abusive male lead, and then living happily ever after with a rich stud. It never made any sense to me.

Of course, if it was an ugly, old or poor guy who randomly showed up from nowhere and tried to rape the female lead (and inevitably failed to), they would die. Either killed by the male lead or some sort of accident. It seemed that the crime wasn't so much the rape itself but being poor and ugly.

These were the type of ethics that these CEO novels were promoting, not to mention the disgusting glorification of rape and domestic abuse. It's all right to be raped and abused if the other party was your rich and handsome (soon-to-be in some cases) husband!

"We have to help her!"

I nodded in agreement and stepped back to allow Rossetti to offer her assistance. Given Ji Yan's current state, it was best if I didn't touch her. I believed that she would be so traumatized that physical contact with any man would set her off.

"Ji Yan, are you all right?!"

For a moment, Ji Yan didn't say anything. She merely gripped Rossetti's arms tightly, her eyes sort of glassy.

"Don't just stand there, Richard! Help me!"

"How?"

"Help her up…we need to bring her to the medics…" Rossetti looked sheepish. "Seems like we've hurt her quite a bit in the fight earlier."

"Uh…I'm not sure I should be touching her…"

"Come on!" Rossetti snapped. I sighed and moved forward.

"!!!"

"AAAAH!"

"Whoa! Wait! It's just me! Don't worry, it's just me!"

"Calm down, Ji Yan! Richard isn't going to hurt you!"

Rossetti struggled to restrain the flailing Ji Yan, who was desperately fighting to break out of her hold and scramble away.

"Ji Yan! Calm down! It's just Richard!"

"AAAAH! NOOOOO! Please, don't! Please forgive me! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"

"Yeah, yeah, I will."

"R…really?"

I watched Ji Yan, who was whimpering like a child, even as Rossetti tried to cradle her in a comforting embrace.

"Y…you won't rape me?"

"No, I won't."

That fucker Xu Wu Cheng had really done a lot of damage to Ji Yan's psyche. I shook my head sympathetically and watched Rossetti attempt to soothe her. Almost as if she was unaware of Rossetti's presence, Ji Yan continued staring wide-eyed at me. Then she began begging again.

"P…please don't rape me! I'm sorry! I won't do it again! I'll obey you! So anything but that! Don't rape me again! Please!"

"Do I look like the protagonist of Martial God Asura to you?" I demanded, annoyed. "I'm not Chu Feng! I don't go around raping heroines just because they wronged me in the past!"

"Richard!" Rossetti reprimanded me sharply. "This isn't the time for jokes or breaking the fourth wall!"

"Sorry."

Unfortunately, Ji Yan's mind was broken beyond repair. I could only watch her helplessly until the soldiers from the Federation hurried downstairs, having been drawn by her screams. They took her from Rossetti, and she began screaming and thrashing again. A female medic rushed over with a syringe, trying to sedate her.

"Why don't you just use sedative magic?" One of her male comrades asked. She blinked and put down the syringe.

"You're right. I almost forgot that this is a magic story. It��ll take some time to cast, though."

"What the heck did they do to her?" one of the other male soldiers whispered as the female medic wrapped a towel over the near-catatonic girl while attempting to comfort and sedate her with a spell.

"Apparently she was raped," I muttered, earning a glare from Rossetti for my insensitivity. Well, the soldier asked, there was no point hiding the truth. Ji Yan flinched at the word and stared at me.

"I'm sorry, Xu Wu Cheng! I'm very sorry! I didn't mean to disobey you! Please don't…please don't leave me with them! Please…it's so painful! I don't want to be raped again! I don't…!"

I turned away and sighed heavily. As bitchy as she was, even Ji Yan didn't deserve such a fate.

Closing my eyes, I departed the scene. I heard footsteps behind me, and turned around to see Rossetti approach.

"It's not your fault."

…since when did I ever say it was my fault?

Knowing that Rossetti was also worried about me and expressing her concern in her own way, I decided not to be blunt and argumentative. So I nodded to display some gratitude and then glanced down the corridor.

"I hope the other hostages didn't suffer the same fate."

"I hope so too."

"We should help them before…" I swallowed. "…before it's too late."

Pushing up my glasses, I scanned the place, the sensors on my lenses picking up readings and visual signatures. Following one of the proposed paths, I navigated the long corridors of the basement and eventually stepped into a room at the end of the huge place. Rossetti followed me without any question, entering the enormous chamber and staying on high alert for any enemies.

Except that there were no longer any enemies in the room. Instead, a single person was held aloft, suspended in midair by manacles.

"Zhao Yan!"

"What did they do to her?!" Rossetti gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.

Zhao Yan's eyes flickered open as she raised her head weakly. For a moment, she didn't recognize us, but I didn't care. With a swing from my Hei Yue and Bai Ri, I severed her bonds and caught her before she could fall onto the ground.

"Are you all right?"

"Ah…you're…Richard?" Zhao Yan then lolled her head about to look at my partner, who had also hurried forward. "And you are…Rossetti?"

I nodded and propped her up. She looked pale and so frail, a stark contrast to the Zhao Yan I usually knew. Studying her, I saw that her eyes were dilated. Feeling a sense of unease, I placed my fingers on her pulse.

I knew it. Her heartbeat was irregular.

"You are going to be okay!" Rossetti assured Zhao Yan. "We are getting you out of here!"

"They drugged her," I informed Rossetti, my voice hard. "Probably to disrupt her mana flow and prevent her from casting spells."

"How horrible!"

"Seems like she's also suffering some side effects from the drugs." I paused for a moment and dredged my memories for more details. I had read a lot, and this time I benefited from the myriad of knowledge that I had accumulated from countless books. "Zhao Yan is possibly experiencing delirium, hallucination and some form of memory loss."

No wonder Zhao Yan didn't seem to remember who we were.

"Why would they do this to her?!"

Why, indeed? Who knew? I didn't. All I could do was curse at the perpetuators. Damn them…

Then again, given how skilled and powerful Zhao Yan was, the vampires wouldn't be able to restrain her unless they drugged her.

"Looks like they gave her quite the heavy dosage."

"We need to call the medics here!"

"We will. But first…" I glanced tersely toward the entrance. Rossetti noticed my defensive posture and she also spun around cautiously.

"What happened?"

"They're coming. And this time, there's someone who's stronger than Xu Wu Cheng."

I felt a chill run down my spine when I detected the potent mana from the group bearing down on us. They weren't from the military. This blood aura…it unmistakably belonged to the vampires. Scanning the exterior of the huge chamber with my glasses, I had the impression that several figures rapidly flying down the corridor, yet my lenses depicted them as leisurely strolling toward our position.

They would be here within seconds.

I gulped as cold perspiration flowed down my back. I wasn't a healing mage and didn't receive medical training. I clearly didn't have the aptitude for it. And before you could demand that I summon a healing spirit or whatever nonsense, for the umpteenth time, that was NOT how summoning magic worked. I couldn't conveniently summon whatever I wanted or needed. I had to learn healing magic before I could summon a spirit capable of healing spells, and given how I sucked at that (and how it took many years to master healing magic), that simply wasn't practical.

Preparing myself to escape the inevitable assault, I gently hefted Zhao Yan up. Even without my glasses telling me, I could sense the single colossal aura of mana that dwarfed the other presence. I was willing to bet that Fan Le Lao was among them.

Could we win against him and his friends?

"We should get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Shouldn't we defeat those bastards that will be arriving here?" Rossetti countered, her voice icy with fury. I shook my head.

"I understand how you feel. I truly do. But don't let your emotions override your judgement. Check the amount of mana they are emanating. Are you sure we can defeat those guys? It'll be an extremely difficult fight."

"…you are right," Rossetti reluctantly agreed. "The vampires approaching us are too strong."

"Yeah. I know our chances of victory are not zero, but they are not very high either. And don't forget our objective. Our primary objective isn't to defeat Fan Le Lao – we can leave him to the military and the Midnight Order. We're here to save as many people as we can. We should prioritize saving Zhao Yan and bringing her to safety."

"That's right!" Rossetti's eyes widened and her eyes flickered toward the stationary Zhao Yan. "We need to get her out of here!"

"W…wait…"

Zhao Yan suddenly grabbed my arm. I flinched at how cold her fingers were.

She needed treatment and she needed it fast. I had to bring her to a medic as soon as possible.

However…

"Ji Yan…please save Ji Yan."

"Yeah."

"They have my sister…trapped somewhere in this castle…with the other hostages. Please help them."

Even when drugged, even when mired in the depths of delirium, Zhao Yan continued to be concerned over the wellbeing of her sister. And of others. I felt a spike of shame, but I suppressed it. I had been so focused on rescuing Zhao Yan that I had forgotten abut the rest.

"We already rescued Ji Yan. She's safe now."

"That's right!" Rossetti added. "We're bringing you to her right now! You can see her yourself!"

"Thank you."

She closed her eyes and seemed to have fallen back asleep. Taking a deep breath, I summoned Taurus and had him create a new entrance. He smashed through a wall opposite the entrance to the chamber, and we quickly stepped through the hole to escape.

"!!!"

However, we weren't given the chance to leave. Red spears sprang up from the ground, creating a barrier of their own and fencing us back in the enormous chamber. I yanked Rossetti back with my free hand and we tumbled away from the barrage of blood lances.

"Damn it! This is…!"

"You have something of mine."

Whirling around, I caught sight of Fan Le Lao strolling toward us, his hands coolly inserted into the pockets of his coat.