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"He's not eloping anymore."
"Why?" Gu Jiao wrote.
Old Marquis opened his mouth, looked out the window, and said with difficulty, "She's gone."
"Oh." Gu Jiao responded.
Gu Jiao didn't ask further.
Today, Gu Jiao didn't take a carriage with her, and Old Marquis offered to escort her back. Naturally, she couldn't reveal her place of residence, so she shook her head and declined, indicating that she had other things to attend to.
Seeing that Gu Jiao didn't seem like someone without boundaries, Old Marquis gave her some instructions and then boarded the carriage, leaving.
In the early days of the eighth month, Tang Yueshan was ordered to go to the border. In name, he was going as a special envoy to grant Princess Ning'an the title of First-rank Country Protector and her husband the title of First-rank Marquis Wu’an.
The Emperor also instructed Tang Yueshan to bring a lot of rewards and winter supplies for the border.
In reality, the rewards and supplies were secondary. The focus was on the army escorting them.
Meanwhile, Old Marquis concealed his identity and mingled with the troops, accompanying them as an advisor from Tang Yueshan's residence.
……
On the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Gu Jiao went to the underground arena again.
Now that she was a first-level expert, she could fight against opponents two levels higher than herself. Today, she didn't know if it was luck or not, but her first opponent turned out to be a third-level Turkic swordsman.
Turkic people had exceptionally strong physical qualities. As soon as he stepped onto the stage, Gu Jiao felt an unusual pressure.
Indeed, the higher the level, the stronger the opponents.
Gu Jiao tested the strength of her opponent with her first punch, and she was forced back several steps, inadvertently biting her lip and drawing blood.
Gu Jiao smiled. Interesting.
Just as Gu Jiao was about to make her next move, a figure in black swiftly leaped onto the stage like a ghost. No one could see what had happened, but the Turkic swordsman was suddenly kicked away!
The Turkic swordsman fell into the crowd, landing on the ground and spitting blood as he fainted!
"What's going on? Who's causing trouble?"
The martial judge striking the gong hurried forward to drive away the mysterious expert in black, but the expert grabbed him by the neck and lifted him high in the air.
Seeing the situation turning hostile, the other martial artists in the arena rushed forward to surround and attack the mysterious figure. Gu Jiao was dumbfounded. Wasn't this the Dragon Shadow Guard who was even more formidable than the Emperor's Dragon Shadow Guard, and whom she encountered in the woods that night while saving Grandaunt?
Why was he here? And why did he kick her opponent off the stage?
Did he think she was being bullied?
Gu Jiao found this speculation absurd. After all, they were not related, so he wouldn't possibly help her. But no matter what, this time he didn't try to kill her like he did last time.
Gu Jiao walked up to him and hesitated for a moment before gently patting his wrist, signaling him to let the martial judge go.
He looked at Gu Jiao, then at the martial judge whom he was strangling, and surprisingly, he released his grip.
Gu Jiao took out her small notebook and wrote down why he had come here, but he remained silent.
Could it be that he couldn't read?
Gu Jiao rubbed her chin, looking at him, contemplating how to communicate with him. But he turned and walked away.
Gu Jiao: "..."
Were all Dragon Shadow Guards like this?
Gu Jiao apologized to the martial judge and promised to cover the medical expenses for the Turkic swordsman. She had him sent to Miraculous Hands Hall and then jumped off the stage, following the Dragon Shadow Guard.
The Dragon Shadow Guard arrived outside the private room of the State of Yan's pharmacist and stood motionless there.
Why was he guarding that place?
Was his master inside?
Or was his master the State of Yan's pharmacist?
Gu Jiao pondered for a moment and boldly walked up to the Dragon Shadow Guard.
The Dragon Shadow Guard didn't shoo Gu Jiao away, as if she was just an invisible presence to him, or perhaps... she deemed her as someone that could stay beside him.
Gu Jiao wanted to see who his master was. If the Dragon Shadow Guard was not exclusive to the State of Zhao’s imperial family, did that mean she could also acquire her own Dragon Shadow Guard through some means?
With these thoughts in mind, Gu Jiao raised her hand to knock on the door but was stopped by the Dragon Shadow Guard's sword hilt.
Gu Jiao realized that she couldn't knock on the door.
She couldn't... disturb the person inside?
It seemed that his master had given him an order not to let anyone disturb them.
So she waited.
Gu Jiao crouched outside the door.
Just literally crouching there bored her to death, so she took out a charcoal pencil to draw circles on the ground.
As she was drawing, she exerted too much force and the charcoal pencil snapped. A broken piece of the pencil flew up and smacked the Dragon Shadow Guard's mask with a loud "pop."
Although it was just a mask, it was equivalent to a hit in the face.
Wait a minute, a mask?
Gu Jiao touched her own face. Her mask was still there.
She hadn't worn a mask in the woods that day, but today she was wearing one, and she had been dressed in night attire that day while today she wore a normal black robe.
With this disguise, how did the Dragon Shadow Guard recognize her?
Gu Jiao tilted her head and looked at the Dragon Shadow Guard. Did he have some special skill for recognizing people?
The Dragon Shadow Guard, after being struck on the mask, paused briefly and glanced at Gu Jiao with eyes that underwent a subtle change.
He, like Gu Jiao, touched his mask.
Er, could it be that he was angry?
Was he going to kill her now?
It was no wonder Gu Jiao was so on edge. This Dragon Shadow Guard's temperament was unpredictable. The first time they met in the woods, he nearly killed her and even pinched her husband’s face!
Gu Jiao couldn't defeat him in a fight, and it seemed like she wouldn't be able to outrun him either...
Just as Gu Jiao's brain was working rapidly, trying to figure out how to escape, the door behind her creaked open.
Instinctively, Gu Jiao turned her head.
The person who walked out of the room was a woman dressed in a light green cloak and luxurious dress. It wasn't a flashy kind of luxury, but rather a low-key elegance that exuded a sense of opulence.
She wore a simple white veil on her face, revealing a high nose and a pair of calm and composed eyes hidden beneath the cloak's hood.
She appeared to be young, with hardly any fine lines around her eyes, but the noble and elegant aura emanating from her, as if it had been refined by the passage of time, made Gu Jiao feel that she might be a few years older than Yao Shi.
A phrase inexplicably flashed through Gu Jiao's mind—— "Time never defeats true beauty."
However, Gu Jiao's target was not the beauty inside the room.
Gu Jiao hadn't forgotten that she had come to find the State of Yan's pharmacist to inquire about purchasing a Dragon Shadow Guard. She clapped her hands as to dirt them off, stood up, and walked inside without paying any attention to the beautiful woman.
Likewise, the woman didn't pay any attention to the young martial artist crouching at the door.
The woman carried the medicine she had purchased from inside, adjusted her cloak's hood, and calmly walked towards the direction of the door.
The Dragon Shadow Guard followed behind her.
"Hmm?"
Just as Gu Jiao was about to step into the room, she retracted her foot.
She turned around and looked at the Dragon Shadow Guard, who was leaving with the woman. A big question mark appeared above her head.
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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