Chapter 95 : Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Step Back One Zhang, and I’ll Treat You as Hijackers!

Luo Li stared blankly at Chen Guan.

She knew this man. That statement meant one of two things—either he was about to start a massacre, or he was warning her to have money ready.

Money itself was no concern. All she could do now was pray that the people arranged by her uncle would stop trying to approach her.

Otherwise, before they even reached Shangjing City, all the experts her uncle had raised over the years really would be killed clean by this unreasonable madman.

The two of them led their horses and slowly walked out of Qingan Commandery.

Once outside the city, they kept a measured distance behind a merchant caravan and proceeded at an unhurried pace.

But Chen Guan’s eyes were all the while quietly sizing up that merchant caravan of mixed ages ahead of them, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.

When they reached a fork in the road,

the caravan stopped to rest, and a beautiful middle-aged woman from within it actually took the initiative to come over.

The woman was full-bodied and still charming. In her hand she carried a roast chicken wrapped in lotus leaves, which she held out directly to Chen Guan with a smiling face.

“Young sir, judging by the way you’re dressed, you should be an Escort Master, yes?”

Chen Guan did not accept the chicken. He simply nodded. “I am Chen Guan, an Escort Master of the Great Yun Imperial Dynasty.”

The moment the woman heard the words “Great Yun Imperial Dynasty,” the smile on her face clearly stiffened for an instant.

But very quickly it returned to normal, and she smiled as she said, “Such a young Escort Master truly is rare. Might I ask... have you already taken a wife?”

At one side, Luo Li, who had been gnawing on a dry flatbread, glanced over at the two of them.

Then her eyes fell upon the woman’s ripe, curving figure, and she muttered inwardly, “How shameless. They’ve only exchanged a few sentences, and she’s already asking about marriage.”

Who would have thought that Chen Guan would directly lift his hand, point at Luo Li beside him, and say to the woman, “What, are you planning to marry this girl off to me?”

“Uh!!”

The beautiful middle-aged woman froze on the spot.

The dozen or so people in the caravan behind her all froze in unison as well.

As for Luo Li, her pretty face turned as red as a ripe apple in an instant.

“You—!” she cried, half ashamed and half furious. “She asked whether you have a wife or not, so why are you pointing at me?!”

After a brief moment of astonishment, the middle-aged woman suddenly burst into laughter. She looked Luo Li up and down, then actually nodded.

“So long as young sir is willing, why not?”

“Hm???”

Only then did Luo Li finally catch the whiff that something was wrong. She quickly edged even closer to Chen Guan and looked at the woman before her with wary eyes.

This might well be a whole gang of traffickers.

Chen Guan looked Luo Li up and down at his side, then shook his head as though making a serious evaluation.

“This girl has too many issues, and she’s a bit ugly besides. She doesn’t fit my standards in choosing a wife. If you have any other girls, though, you can let me take a look.”

The moment Luo Li heard those words, she froze.

Then her pretty face visibly cooled, bit by bit, until she simply stared at Chen Guan.

“Where... exactly am I ugly?”

Luo Li was not the only one whose face turned cold.

The still-charming middle-aged woman before them, along with the dozen or so figures by the caravan in the distance, all had their faces turn cold at nearly the same instant.

A strange chill swept over them. Luo Li instinctively pulled her clothes tighter around herself.

Yet she still stubbornly glared at Chen Guan, hoping he would give her an explanation.

Chen Guan, however, could not be bothered to spare her even another glance. He merely curled his lip and said blandly to the woman in front of him,

“I don’t care who you are or what your purpose is. Within three breaths, get one zhang farther away from me. Otherwise, I’ll treat all of you as people trying to hijack an escort.”

Only then did Luo Li finally understand that those words—hijack an escort—meant these people were not good people.

She hurriedly cast aside her irritation from moments ago and ducked behind Chen Guan, warily staring at them.

At that point, she also belatedly realized that the chill earlier had not been from a sudden drop in temperature.

It had been killing intent.

“Heeheehee...”

The woman let out a shrill, seductive laugh. “The last person who dared use such a tone of voice with this White Bone Lady was someone over a hundred years ago—”

But before she could even finish the sentence, the Horse-Cleaving Saber by Chen Guan’s feet rang from its sheath in an instant!

A cold, dazzling arc of light flashed past like a frozen moon!

The White Bone Lady’s laughter stopped abruptly. Her pupils shrank violently, and her figure instantly shot backward in retreat.

Yet in the middle of that retreat, the head that still wore that seductive smile suddenly flew straight into the sky.

And her headless body, propelled by inertia, continued onward in a perfectly straight line for ten zhang before falling!

Bang!

With a dull thud, the bloody head rolled through the dust and came to rest right at the feet of those in the caravan.

When they saw the familiar face upon that head, they froze in stupefaction for a moment.

Then, one after another, they drew their weapons from the wagons. Their bodies flickered, and in an instant Chen Guan and Luo Li found themselves completely surrounded.

“Chen Guan! Don’t think that just because you’re Purple Palace Realm, there’s no one who can deal with you!” The leading middle-aged man’s face was full of tightly suppressed fury.

“Is that so?”

Chen Guan slowly returned the blood-dripping Horse-Cleaving Saber to its sheath before leisurely rising to his feet. His eyes swept over the middle-aged man in front of him.

“At the very least, your lot can’t.”

Then he paused and pointed at Luo Li, his tone full of extreme impatience.

“If you want her to join you in rebellion, then get the hell to Shangjing City and wait obediently.”

“Once I safely deliver this little girl to the Grand Preceptor’s Manor, then you can do whatever you want, and it won’t have a thing to do with me!”

“But right now, stop getting in the way of me making money!”

When these people heard such naked, arrogant words, all of them were inwardly shaken.

To speak of rebellion as though it were a joke and to say it so casually?

They had seen Escort Masters who kept to rules, but never one so overbearing and so recklessly bold—one who clearly knew that this girl was the head of the remnants of the former dynasty, yet still dared hold her in his grasp and refuse to let go.

This was not merely a matter of disrupting their plans and standing in opposition to them.

Even if the Emperor of Great Zhou discovered that he was escorting Luo Li, he himself would be wanted throughout the entire realm.

They truly could not understand what Chen Guan was thinking.

If he had colluded with the Emperor of Great Zhou, then that would be one matter. But last night they had already investigated. The Southern Suppression Army had only escorted him for part of the road. That did not directly prove collusion.

For the moment, they simply could not see through Chen Guan at all.

Luo Li gripped the corner of Chen Guan’s clothes tightly, her face icy cold.

From their conduct just now, she had already realized that her uncle’s purpose was not pure.

A moment ago, that White Bone Lady had said, “So long as young sir is willing, why not?”

The meaning was obvious. Without even asking for her consent, they were deciding the greatest matter of her life on her behalf and marrying her off to Chen Guan.

Her eyes moved back and forth across the people surrounding them.

These people all belonged to the organization standing behind her uncle, yet not one of them had treated her like their true master.

“Insolence!”

Luo Li could endure no more and at last angrily shouted,

“In your eyes, is there truly no place for me as your Highness?!”

That furious cry abruptly checked the sword-drawn tension in the air.

Everyone turned to look toward Luo Li, then exchanged glances among themselves, surprise flickering in their eyes.

Clearly, none of them had expected that this little girl who had only ever read the sages’ books would possess such presence.

After a few seconds of silence, the leading middle-aged man finally clasped his fists and spoke, his tone carrying a trace of respect.

“Your Highness, we have all come here for your great cause of restoring the dynasty. But this Chen Guan has opposed us at every turn and already disrupted our hundred-year grand plan. He is clearly obstructing your restoration of the dynasty!”

“Hmph. Do you take me for a fool?” Luo Li’s eyes were cold as frost. “Are you restoring the dynasty for yourselves, or are you restoring it for me?”