The Invincible Bodyguard Starting by Escorting the Doomsday Imperial Princess Chapter 74 : Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Anci Town

That was the equivalent of several years’ worth of expenses for an army a million strong.

No matter how much she raised the price, there was no way she could outbid that number!

That sum of money, let alone lasting a lifeti, would be enough anywhere in the world to make a person into a local magnate and found a family that could flourish for three generations without decline!

Chen Guan truly had not expected this troubleso girl to be worth so much!

One million taels...

His gaze struggled for quite a while before he finally drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the greed rising in his heart, deciding to give her a chance.

“Hurry up and raise the price for . Quickly. I’m about to lose control!”

“Ah?!” Luo Li froze for a mont. Then her will to survive exploded forth, and she nodded frantically.

“I’ll raise it! I’ll raise it! I’ll raise it! I’ll add five hundred thousand taels, but... but I’ll need to wait until I reach Shangjing City before I can find a way to give it to you.”

As soon as she nad that deferred amount, her pretty face flushed red, and she quickly tried to explain herself.

“Although... although it’s a little less... you have to understand, even if you completed that bounty mission, there’s no guarantee you’d actually be able to collect it! And besides, you’d provoke my uncle and the others into frenzied retaliation...”

Seeing that she was at least willing to slash the difference in half, the bitterness in Chen Guan’s heart finally receded a little.

He quickly withdrew his gaze, afraid that if he looked at her one second longer, he really would lose control and tie her up to cash in the bounty.

[Ding! On-the-Spot Price Hike Successful!]

[Mission Escort Points Reward Increased by 10%]

[Escort Mission: Escort Luo Li to the Grand Preceptor’s Manor in Shangjing City of Great Zhou.]

[Current Mission Reward: Escort Points 352]

The mont he saw the numbers jump on the system panel, the agitation inside Chen Guan at last settled down.

Still, compared to a real million taels of silver, this glorified IOU still felt a little lacking!

Suppressing that painful feeling in his heart, Chen Guan deliberately shifted his attention and carefully examined the wanted notice.

Judging by the degree of yellowing and wear in the paper, it was clearly not sothing issued recently. It had been out for at least a month.

Half a year ago... Great Zhou had already started hunting this troubleso girl?

Was Great Zhou’s information network really that efficient?

He instinctively turned his head to look at Luo Li. The mont he did, the heart that had only just cald down started pounding restlessly again.

At that mont, Luo Li, having just escaped death, stared at the cold corpses on the ground, her face frosted over, her heart icy.

She had never imagined that the so-called “subordinates” she had been waiting for with such hope would actually be carrying a wanted notice bearing Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty’s bounty on her head!

Only now did she realize—so-called royal power, boundless wealth, and world-shaking achievents were worth nothing at all in front of a million taels of silver dropped right into one’s lap!

Greed was human nature.

These people had spent a century lying in wait inside Great Zhou. What had they been aiming for?

Was it not simply the hope that one day they might succeed in following the dragon and thereby obtain wealth and power beyond asure?

And what could be more direct, more brutal, than a reward of one million taels of silver slapped straight in their faces?

She instinctively turned to Chen Guan.

If the one she had encountered today had not been this experienced, cold-blooded Chen Guan standing in the way, then the mont she left with them, she likely would have been bound and sold in exchange for that million-tael reward, causing her entire restoration plan to collapse.

Only a freak like Chen Guan, soone who valued “the rules” more highly than his own life, could in the face of such temptation still force himself to keep the last shred of reason by clinging to the code of an Escort Master.

Could this... be the “jianghu” Chen Guan had been talking about?

Where there were people, there was jianghu. And where there was jianghu, there were struggles for profit and gas of human nature.

At that mont, she seed to understand the deeper aning of those two words.

Thump!

Suddenly, Luo Li’s heart sank again.

An even more terrifying thought surfaced in her mind: if even these “allies” who had lain hidden for a hundred years could be swayed by a wanted notice, then among those so-called loyal remnants of the Luo Clan, among those restoration forces scattered in all directions, how could there not be others whose hearts had also turned greedy?

No wonder... no wonder there had already been a wanted notice waiting for her the mont she arrived here. Clearly, her information had been sold out.

Only now did she understand why Chen Guan had said that her heart was filled with nothing but an unrealistic emperor’s dream.

At that mont, she felt almost ridiculous.

“All right, all right! I’m already taking a five-hundred-thousand-tael loss here and haven’t even had ti to mourn it yet, so who exactly are you putting on that long face for?”

Chen Guan’s impatient voice abruptly dragged her out of her endless thoughts.

Luo Li raised her head blankly and pointed at the headless corpses on the ground, her voice carrying both confusion and a hint of heaviness.

“Brother Chen... is this... what you ant by jianghu?”

Following her finger, Chen Guan glanced at the bodies.

What jianghu? This was nothing but a bunch of greed-ridden bastards.

Still, he gave her a perfunctory nod.

“You could say that.”

Jianghu?

What was jianghu?

Only at this mont did Luo Li truly carve those two heavy words into her heart for the first ti.

She now understood that this journey would not be nearly as easy as she had imagined.

The Luo Clan had developed for a hundred years, and like any tangled dragon-and-fish mix, there would certainly be no shortage of people harboring greed. From here on, every step she took would have to be made with the utmost caution.

Chen Guan said no more. He simply swung himself back into the saddle, pressed his legs against the horse’s sides, and with a neigh from the dark steed rode around the heap of headless corpses and continued down the official road.

Luo Li hurriedly shook off the confusion in her mind, mounted with practiced ease, and urged her horse after him.

Yet along the way, she was no longer as chirpy as before, nor did she act as though she knew everything and could do anything.

All at once she had beco subdued. On that once lively and spirited face there now rested a weighty, complicated gravity unlike anything she had shown before.

Clearly, she had not yet erged from the blow of that betrayal.

Out of the corner of his eye, Chen Guan glanced at her and found that this troubleso girl seed to have matured quite a bit in an instant.

“People only learn their lesson after getting slapped in the face.”

“Did she really think rebellion was child’s play?”

Chen Guan muttered inwardly, then with a thought activated his system.

[Escort Route Map Activated]

Before long, he found their current location.

This area belonged to Nanshan Commandery, at the edge of Great Zhou’s southern territory—a place of beautiful mountains and sparse population.

The map showed that from here to their final destination, Shangjing City, they still had to cross four commanderies.

The distance itself was not particularly great, only about two thousand li, but the road ahead would certainly not be peaceful.

They needed to hurry.

Once he had planned the route, he closed the map and calculated inwardly that, hopefully, they could reach Shangjing City within ten days.

The sooner he delivered this troubleso escort, the sooner he could move on to the next one.

...

Before long, they arrived at a small town called Anci Town.

The town itself was not large, but the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful.

Under the glow of the setting sun, a little lotus pond at the entrance of the town shimred with golden ripples, reflecting the wisps of cooking smoke rising over the entire settlent and giving off the unmistakable breath of mortal life.

The two of them rode past the little lotus pond and entered the town.

Yet their appearance did not, as it usually would, cause passersby to stop and stare.

The townsfolk’s gazes rely skimd over them before each person lowered their head and continued on their own way.

Back in Great Yun, in any town or city whatsoever, the mont Chen Guan entered carrying that Horse-Cleaving Saber on his back, it was guaranteed to attract countless stares—so reverent, so curious.

Chen Guan frowned, feeling that sothing was off, but after looking carefully, he could not detect anything obviously wrong.

Imdiately, he raised his guard and led the way deeper into town until he found a small, rather shabby-looking inn.

Without a word, Luo Li rushed straight into her room and called for the innkeeper to bring her a huge bucket of hot water.

But before she could even take off that tattered dress, there ca a thunderous crash!

Her door was violently kicked open from outside!

“Ah!”

Luo Li scread in fright and jerked her head around—only to discover that the one who had barged in was actually Chen Guan. Instantly, she beca both embarrassed and furious.

“Y-you you you... what are you trying to do?!”