TVLMS Chapter 67.1

The Yao Kingdom was large and prosperous compared to the surrounding kingdoms. It occupied a good geographical location that extended in all directions, making it a must-pass for many merchants, and as a result, this facilitated easy trading, which in turn pushed the economy to another peak. With the kingdom’s wealth and strength, its position as a powerful kingdom was firmly established.

But with a strong kingdom came a lot of problems, and bandits were one of the biggest headaches for the people. The mountains were so beautiful, but the people were particularly afraid to go into the mountains, for there was no guarantee that they would not encounter a bandit fortress or a robber coming down the mountain and lose their lives. There were so many bandits that even the kingdom couldn’t control them, let alone those who were in collusion with them, so the matter could only be put aside for the time being.

Of course, most of the court and the bandits were still at odds with each other. The bandits who came to block the road thought they were ordinary merchants, only to discover that they were a bridal party heading to the palace, so they drew out their weapons and fought with the troops.

When Murong Qingwan saw that the situation was not right, she dashed back to the wedding carriage and said to Gu Xiyu anxiously, “It seems that we have met bandits.”

Gu Xiyu frowned slightly, and seeing Murong Qingwan’s worried face, he said soothingly, “At least they are the guards sent by the palace, so they should be able to defeat the bandits. Don’t worry for now, just wait and see what happens.”

Little did they know that the bandits they had encountered were not local bandits at all, but the Tianyun Zhai, who were a big headache for the imperial court. The bandits always appeared in the villages and towns, and whenever they appeared, they would steal a lot of money and food, and even take away beautiful girls or women, sometimes even children.

It was not that the court had not tried to eradicate this force, some years ago, a lot of time and effort was put into planting spies to ambush them, but in the end, they only destroyed one of the fortresses of the Tianyun Zhai. Those who took part in the eradication of the bandits’ fortress were later subjected to reprisals, and were quite miserable.

“Look what we’ve got here.” The leader of the bandits was a very stout man in a reddish brown coarse shirt. He bore several scars and looked very hideous.

After a slight clash, the tension between the two parties had reached a peak.

“Isn’t this attire for the guards of the palace? This joyful procession… Hiss! I remember, didn’t our kingdom have a dispute with that little Dayan kingdom a while ago?”

“I’ve heard that this matter ended in a peace settlement, but I didn’t expect that we’d run into this bridal party.”

A man on the side stroked his beard and said with a big smile, “A marriage of peace means that the person in the wedding carriage is a princess, right?”

“It is said that the Dayan Kingdom has great beauties. I originally waited with the gang for some merchants, but I never thought we would stumble upon such a good thing.”

Sensing their mischievous intentions, the military general of the bridal party warned, “This is a procession is going to the palace; I advise you not to mess around!”

“So what if it’s the palace? We have never been afraid of the power of the imperial court!” With those words, the two sides started a fierce battle.

The people of Tianyun Zhai were squatting around this area for merchants or personnel, and now when they saw the brothers outside fighting, those who were hiding in the jungle at the side also rushed out brandishing their swords, and their number far exceeded that of the bridal procession.

After a long time, someone outside lifted the curtain of the carriage to inform them in a low voice: “Your Highness, there was an accident on the way back to the palace, the guards will sort it out soon. But for safety’s sake, the captain asked us to escort the princess away from the path first, so as not to let those villains sneak up on her while we’re busy.”

To take him and Murong Qingwan away, it was only natural that the horses had to be dismantled. As a “delicate” princess who was not good at riding horses, he should have been escorted by one of the strong generals sent by the squad, but fearing that his true identity would be discovered by the people of the Yao Kingdom, Murong Qingwan led a horse and said, “This big brother, don’t burden yourself.”

“Her Highness is a royal princess, and although there was an accident, men and women should not get too close to each other after all. Moreover, it is inconvenient for her, a girl who is about to marry your third prince, to share a horse with another man. Wan’er has been skilled in riding since she was young, so the princess will be fine with me.”

The general did not doubt her, and after a moment’s silence, he nodded and said, “The safety of the princess is your responsibility.”

So, while the men in front fought fiercely with the bandits of the Tianyun Zhai, Gu Xiyu and another small group of men retreated and turned to another path to leave. However, the men of Tianyun Zhai soon noticed their movement and being familiar with the geographical location, they also sent another group of men to take a shortcut to overtake them and intercept them.

Gu Xiyu’s veil was still over his head, so he could only see a splash of red in his vision and could only distinguish what was happening outside by using his ears.

“The Imperial guards are cunning, sounding out the east, and almost making us lose our beauty.”

“Our fortress master has grown tired of playing with the women he has captured before, he has never tried a princess, so he would be happy if we could bring one back to the fortress.”

“Once he’s happy …… we might be rewarded!”

The reward seemed to be the motivation for them to take him away. They escaped from the big battlefield with difficulty, but then fought again in a small place. Gu Xiyu soon smelled the blood and Murong Qingwan’s shriek and guessed that something bad had happened.

He pulled off the red veil that obstructed his vision and saw the scene where the guards in gray uniforms were fighting with the bandits in rags. The bandits were so wild that they were not afraid to take a knife to their bodies, relying on their brute strength and courage to charge forward, and the guards were gradually overwhelmed.

When Gu Xiyu took off the red veil from his head, he attracted the attention of several people, especially those who had been itching to see how beautiful the so-called princess was.

“…… Brother, quickly, look, that’s the princess of the Dayan Kingdom!”

“As expected of a place with beautiful landscapes, the fortress master will definitely be happy when we take her back!”

The original owner was delicate and weak, except for being a little taller than the average young girl, his figure was also very slender. In particular, his face was feminine and handsome, and with the powder on his face, it was hard to tell a man from a woman. With his feminine wedding dress and gentle bun, no one would suspect that he was a man.

“The princess has a maid to accompany her, and when the beauty is offered to the lord of the fortress, the maid will surely be given to us, brothers.”

The heroine had a straight temper and had long been furious at the bandits who coveted her and Gu Xiyu. Hearing them spout further disrespectful words and seeing that the battle was not going well on either side, she took the longsword from the dead guard beside her and confronted them head-on.

This made it difficult for the bandits who wanted to sneak over and take them captive to get close.

But even if the heroine was powerful, she was still just a young girl, and it didn’t take long for her to start losing her strength against so many powerful adult men, and she even received a few bruises on her body.

Gu Xiyu’s heart skipped a beat as he watched, and he pulled her back just when she wanted to continue to charge forward: “You’re injured.”

He had always been relatively calm in the execution of missions in the previous worlds because he still had his strength, so the people in those worlds were unable to bully him. In this world, the system had not repaired his body in order to maintain the original owner’s sick and weak persona, so even if he wanted to join the fight, he would not be able to use even half of his original strength, let alone lift the sword that the heroine held in her hand.

Murong Qingwan didn’t act impulsively anymore. She took a few steps back with him, then suddenly jumped onto the horse with him and galloped away in another direction.

“Quick, don’t let them get away!”

“I really underestimated these two.”

Murong Qingwan sat in front of Gu Xiyu, and the hand around her felt a growing wetness.

The heroine was bleeding! She had suffered a considerable injury, and if she continued her strenuous activities, her injury would become more and more serious.

In his mind, he asked the system, “In which direction is the nearest town from here?”

The intelligent system had not yet come online, and it was the main system at the central station that finally answered him: [[Because of your good performance in the previous world missions, I will give you a hint.]]

[[Go southeast, and after ten miles, you’ll be within the boundaries of Ningan Town. It’ll be much safer there.]]

“Won’t the bandits enter the town?”

[[Not really, but there is a greater chance of meeting some kind people within the town. The people of Tianyun Zhai are not afraid of anything, so they may break in, but at least there will be more sheltered places to hide.]]

Gu Xiyu’s expression was serious, and he didn’t ask any more questions, only saying to Murong Qingwan, “Go southeast.”

Murong Qingwan glanced at the sun in the sky and maneuvered the horse beneath her to turn in a different direction. Her injuries were still spilling blood, her lips were turning paler, and a cold sweat was breaking out on her forehead from the pain. But her eyes were clear, and there was a stubborn look of defiance in them.

Gu Xiyu estimated the distance, and when they began to approach the boundaries of Ningan Town, he told Murong Qingwan to stop.

“Imperial brother, what’s wrong?” It was hard for Murong Qingwan to say more than a few words to him now.

At the yellow sand path ahead, a rather flashy carriage leisurely drove up. When the curtain of the carriage was lifted by the wind, Gu Xiyu managed to see who was in it – it was a few nuns. The carriage swayed as it moved along the road, but the nuns inside still looked very calm and composed, with warm, light smiles on their faces, which were extremely attractive.

Gu Xiyu helped the heroine off the horse and came to the carriage to ask if they could give his injured sister a lift to Ningan Town.

The Buddhist nuns were compassionate and seeing how badly Murong Qingwan was injured, they did not ask the reason behind it, but put their hands together and said, “It is fate that we’ve met the two benefactors, please come in.”

Perhaps because she had seen her savior, Murong Qingwan’s tense body finally relaxed a little, but thirst and dizziness followed. She was helped into the carriage and waited for Gu Xiyu to enter, but to her surprise, the young man in the big red wedding dress took off all the accessories on his body, including the phoenix hairpin on his head, leaving only a little silver on himself and giving the rest of the valuable ones to her.

“You ……”

Gu Xiyu took a step back and calmly said to Murong Qingwan, “I am their target, this place can take you in, I don’t want it to be implicated.”

He raised a hand to his mouth and coughed a few times, his frail body like a candle in the wind. The pallor on his face could hardly be hidden by the makeup. But he turned and mounted his horse with such determination, his red wedding dress fluttering as he ran off towards the road they had come from.

Murong Qingwan was so anxious that she wanted to get off the carriage and intercept him, but her injuries did not allow her to do so. The nuns accepted Gu Xiyu’s request and did not let her out, but sighed and took her back to Ningan Town.

As the curtain slowly fell to block Gu Xiyu’s distant figure, Murong Qingwan gritted her teeth in anger and said to herself: ‘Imperial brother will be lucky, he will be fine.”

When she recovers from her injuries, she will definitely look for him!

Gu Xiyu’s advice these days was still lingering in her mind.

—-“If you meet a man called Yuchi Rong, you can feel free to befriend and cooperate with him, he is a trustworthy person.”

She heard that this man was the fourth prince of the Yao Kingdom, and since her imperial brother wanted to marry the third prince, would she be able to reunite with her brother if she went straight into the imperial city of the Yao Kingdom to look for this fourth prince?

As she thought about this, her heart tightened slightly again.

First, her brother had to survive this calamity.

Gu Xiyu left the path to Ningan Town on the horse to keep the bandits chasing him from disturbing the peace of the townspeople. He saw the men coming after him run down the steep slope from a distance and pulled the reins to continue his run in an unknown direction. In ancient times, there was a lot of unexplored land, and the terrain off the main road was complicated and mainly wilderness.

With a little ingenuity, he took advantage of the terrain to throw the bandits off his back.

But before he could relax, a flying arrow came from nowhere just as he was passing a rugged road lined with sand and gravel, and shot straight into the back of his left shoulder. The shock of the pain hit him so hard that he lost his grip on the reins and fell off the horse.

His palm was scratched by the rough road, and drops of blood immediately coalesced from the wound.