Chapter 683 The Crown Princess Returns! (Two Updates)

As dusk settled, a fiery sunset painted the sky and the landscape.

Inside the dilapidated temple, a monk, a boy, and a small snake sat facing each other in a triangular formation.

The little snake tried to run away several times, but the boy caught it each time. He shook the snake until it was dizzy, and then the snake stopped running and obediently coiled up there.

"Sigh." The monk sighed, "It's not that I don't want to teach you, but you simply can't learn those moves. Even if you do, you'll only learn the fancy moves and won't be able to unleash their power."

Gu Jiao said, "You knew I couldn't learn it without even teaching me?"

Do you have internal energy?

"No."

Do you know how to use qinggong (lightweight kung fu)?

"Won't."

The monk laughed and said, "Isn't that settled? Only those with profound internal strength can unleash the power of that set of boxing techniques."

Gu Jiao picked up the small snake.

The monk's expression changed, and he stretched out his hand: "Wait! I haven't finished speaking!"

Gu Jiao paused, and the little snake, hanging upside down in mid-air, cooperatively flicked its harmless forked tongue.

The monk composed himself, glanced at the red-tasseled spear beside the straw mat, and said, "Your weapon is a spear, so I will teach you a spear technique."

Hmm, the monk also knows marksmanship.

Gu Jiao's current marksmanship was taught by the old Marquis, and she only has a few moves in total, with only one move that can be used as a killing move.

That was the old Marquis who chose it for her based on her condition at the time. In fact, as her strength recovered, that spear technique was indeed not enough.

The monk stood up, walked over, picked up the red-tasseled spear leaning against the wall, and went to the open space outside the temple: "Watch carefully."

He touched the ground with his spear, his eyes sharpened, and his aura instantly shifted, as if invisible wind blades were sweeping across the land.

Gu Jiao clearly sensed that the monk's aura had changed. In fact, upon closer reflection, this monk had always been quite unpredictable.

She couldn't sense any martial arts skills from him, so she wasn't too surprised when he fell into the trap for the first time.

But the terrifying power he unleashed when he killed Tianlang made him seem like a completely different person.

Even if Gu Jiao were to describe it, she couldn't.

Perhaps... like a Buddha, a Buddha who has fallen into demonic ways.

Now, with both Buddhist and demonic aura gone, he brandished his spear, standing amidst the heavens and earth, exuding an aura of righteousness, even his peach blossom eyes had become exceptionally serious.

"What kind of marksmanship is that?" Gu Jiao murmured.

After finishing his final move, the monk tossed his spear to Gu Jiao: "Alright, it's your turn."

This spear is very heavy. He just threw it over like that. Wasn't he afraid she wouldn't be able to catch it?

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the spear carried a trace of the monk's own strength, and Gu Jiao almost couldn't catch it. She steadied herself and planted the spear heavily in the ground, thus avoiding being knocked to the ground.

The monk raised an eyebrow slightly: "Oh, you caught it."

"So you did it on purpose?"

"Let's see how well you've recovered. If you don't have enough strength, then I can't teach you the next few moves."

He said "try how well you've recovered," not "try how strong you were before." A difference of just a few words, but the meaning is worlds apart.

He knew what she was like before she was injured.

Could she then assume that he was already there five days ago when she was fighting against six Imperial Guards from the Crown Prince's residence?

He kept a close watch on her until she was on the verge of collapse before making his move.

"Why aren't you doing it yet? Didn't you remember? I'll demonstrate it for you again."

"Need not."

The marksmanship that the old Marquis taught Gu Jiao laid a very solid foundation for her, and she could basically understand some of the more complex moves.

The only problem is that her injuries haven't fully healed, so she's a bit lacking in physical strength, but she doesn't need to kill anyone; practicing shooting is enough for her.

The monk stood at the door, staring intently at Gu Jiao: "First move."

The first move is the simplest, not much different from the most important move that the old Marquis taught Gu Jiao, but the spearhead is raised two inches higher, and the force required to thrust it out is more than 20% greater.

Gu Jiao sheathed her red-tasseled spear, adjusted her breathing, and muttered to herself, "It looks simple, but I didn't expect it to be so physically demanding."

The monk untied his wine pouch, tilted his head back and took a big gulp, then looked at Gu Jiao with a leisurely air and said, "Second move."

The second move was more difficult. Gu Jiao leaped up and thrust her spear down fiercely.

Her angle was exactly the same as the angle at which the monk thrust his sword.

It's truly astonishing that someone could imitate it to this extent after only watching it once.

After using those two moves, Gu Jiao's stamina was reduced by half, and her wounds started to hurt.

The monk, however, had no intention of making Gu Jiao stop.

“The third move,” he said seriously.

It seems that ever since the monk started wielding the red-tasseled spear, and even now, watching her practice, the monk's aura has been quite different from any she had ever seen before.

The third move is a move within a move, which has a deceptive feint and requires a high degree of speed and flexibility.

In other words, Gu Jiao has never stopped exercising since she transmigrated, otherwise she would have broken her back.

After finishing this move, Gu Jiao was slightly out of breath.

The monk looked at Gu Jiao with considerable surprise: "You still have the strength."

Gu Jiao executed all the moves in one go. Although it was called all, there were actually only five moves, but the difficulty of each subsequent move increased exponentially.

The monk murmured, "This girl, I originally planned for you to complete the practice in three sessions..."

Gu Jiao's legs went weak and she was about to collapse at any moment, but she held herself up with her red-tasseled spear.

She raised her hand, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and asked breathlessly, "Is there any more?"

The monk paused, then said, "There's more."

He paused, as if hesitating, or as if he had made a big decision, "Three moves."

Gu Jiao was exhausted, her eyes were seeing stars, and she didn't notice the struggle in his expression. She handed him the red-tasseled spear: "Let me catch my breath, then you can start."

Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to see clearly.

The monk stood in the open space under the twilight, holding a red-tasseled spear. The night wind blew, making his robes flutter, and he gazed at the sky.

"I'm ready," Gu Jiao said.

The monk didn't move.

Gu Jiao tilted her head: "A monk?"

The monk tightened his grip on the red-tasseled spear: "Since you want to learn, I will teach you. But remember, you cannot use this spear technique for evil, nor can you use it to harm the innocent, otherwise I will kill you with my own hands."

Gu Jiao sat on the threshold, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at him: "I'm not used to you being so serious all of a sudden."

The difficulty of the last three moves is incomparable to that of the first six moves. Gu Jiao had learned them from watching, but she still felt somewhat powerless when she actually performed them all.

"Let's stop here for today," the monk said.

"Oh." Gu Jiao put away her red-tasseled spear.

The two practiced all night without having time to eat, so the monk went to the stream behind the dilapidated temple and caught two fish to grill.

He then went to the nearby area and picked some wild fruits.

When he returned with a bunch of wild fruits, the two grilled fish were reduced to bones. Gu Jiao's cheeks were bulging, and her little mouth was moving rapidly as she tried to destroy the evidence.

The monk immediately bristled: "How could you finish it all again! Couldn't you leave me some?!"

Gu Jiao puffed out her cheeks, looking just like a chubby little squirrel eating, and said indistinctly, "I expended too much energy and was starving, so I couldn't resist."

Monk: "..."

The monk caught two more fish, and this time he didn't leave his side for a moment, determined to prevent someone from stealing them.

Gu Jiao released the little snake, since it was no longer of any use to her.

The monk was focused on grilling the fish.

Gu Jiao sat on the hay and took a cotton cloth from her small basket to carefully wipe the red-tasseled spear, as if she were polishing a precious treasure.

The monk watched her wipe the red-tasseled spear, his thin lips pressed tightly together.

Gu Jiao noticed his scrutiny and looked at him, but he had already looked away and continued grilling the fish.

It is said that the monk never asked her why she appeared in Yan Kingdom, why she dressed as a man, or why she encountered the Imperial Guards of the Crown Prince's Palace.

Was he completely uninterested in her affairs, or had he already—

The monk snorted coldly: "Don't bother looking, it's no use. I'm not giving you any!"

Gu Jiao's thoughts were interrupted. After a pause, she decided to ask him, "What's your name?"

Monks don't have names; what she asked for was their Dharma name. For example, Jingkong is a Dharma name, but Jingkong likes this name and even after leaving the monastic life, he is still called Jingkong.

After asking, Gu Jiao pondered for a moment what kind of Buddhist name a monk would have, and then she heard him whisper a single word.

Gu Jiao was taken aback: "Steam? Steam what? Steam rabbit or steamed ribs?"

The monk roared, "Can't you think of anything else besides food?!"

Gu Jiao: No, I've been starving these past few days.

The monk sighed, picked up a dry twig, and wrote a character on the ground in Yan script: "峥".

This character doesn't seem to be his Buddhist name; it's his secular name.

The monk ended the conversation by saying, "It's getting late, you should go to sleep."

Gu Jiao: "I want to eat fish."

Monk: "..."

After eating another plump and juicy grilled fish, Gu Jiao patted her round little belly and fell asleep contentedly.

...

That night, Gu Jiao had a dream.

After arriving in Shengdu, she had significantly more dreams than before. Interestingly, she would forget most of them upon waking, but in her dreams, all the memories seemed to be connected.

For example, after entering the dream, she remembered the courtyard full of bellflowers and the cemetery without tombstones.

Tonight, however, it was neither a courtyard nor a graveyard, but an endless battlefield, with clashing swords and galloping horses, blood staining the yellow sand, and endless fighting. Soldiers fell one after another, and the blood mist filled the sky, turning it blood red.

Atop countless skeletons, a man clad in silver armor rode a Black Wind Rider, also clad in silver armor, one hand gripping the reins and the other holding a red-tasseled spear.

His silver armor was already covered in blood, yet there was not a trace of retreat in his eyes.

He looked at the thousands of troops before him and said, word by word, "Even if the sons of my Xuanyuan family fight to the last man, they will never surrender!"

The next second, the scene in the dream changed.

It's still the same man.

Clad in silver armor, he stood at the head of the camp, coldly looking at the official opposite him and said, "Rebel? So what if my Xuanyuan family rebels? Heaven has wronged my Xuanyuan family, so my Xuanyuan family will defy Heaven!"

"Yinyin...Yinyin..."

It was that man's voice.

The scene changed again.

His voice sounded especially gentle and doting in this scene.

However, his appearance was truly appalling.

He was hit by an arrow in the shoulder and two in the thigh. He lay on the ground, bleeding profusely.

He struggled to support himself with his hands so that he could sit up.

Squatting beside him was a little girl who looked only two years old.

"Uncle, you're bleeding, you're bleeding a lot."

He smiled nonchalantly, wiped the blood from his palms off his armor without leaving a trace, then raised his hand and patted the little girl's head: "Uncle didn't bleed. Uncle was just playing around with Yinyin."

The little girl tilted her head, as if trying to discern the truth or falsehood in his words.

Then she asked, "Uncle, does it hurt?"

He smiled and said, "It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt at all. Yinyin, shall we play a game?"

"What do you want to play?" the little girl asked.

He struggled to lift his head, enduring the excruciating pain tearing through his body, and pointed to the small, dilapidated house ahead, saying, "Do you see that little house over there?"

The little girl nodded and said in her childish voice, "Yinyin saw it."

He smiled weakly: "I'll count to three, and you run over there. Run really fast, don't stop, and don't look back. Find a place to hide in the house. If you can keep your uncle from finding you, he'll buy you candy."

...

The little girl hid in the darkness for a long time, so long that when she woke up from a nap, it was dark and then light again.

She struggled to climb out of the box, and with her short legs, she stumbled and walked back.

The once-thriving mountains have become a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

Her lonely little figure crawled over one corpse after another lying in pools of blood.

"Uncle, where are you?"

"Yinyin isn't playing with you anymore."

"Yinyin doesn't want candy anymore, Yinyin wants her uncle."

The little girl looked up and gazed at the city wall.

Gu Jiao: "No—"

Gu Jiao shuddered and opened her eyes.

The monk sat cross-legged beside her, giving her a half-smile: "Had a nightmare?"

It seemed like she had a nightmare, but when she woke up she couldn't remember anything except for one image—a man in silver armor being pinned to the city wall by a red-tasseled spear.

Gu Jiao rubbed her chest.

The monk looked at it, took something out of his wide sleeve, and tossed it into her arms: "Here you go."

"What?" Gu Jiao asked.

"Sugar," the monk said.

"I don't like sweets." Gu Jiao returned the candy to him.

"Oh?" The monk raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How could anyone not like sweets? My little disciple loves them. Whenever he's unhappy, I just give him sweets and it always cheers him up."

Gu Jiao asked him strangely, "You have an apprentice?"

What kind of apprentice could survive three days in your hands?

That must have such a tenacious vitality!

...

Gu Jiao didn't dream again in the latter half of the night and slept until dawn.

Her health is much better now. Even if the people from the Crown Prince's residence come after her again, she can at least escape, if not defeat them.

It's time to go back.

"Huh? Where's the monk?"

Speak of the devil and he appears.

The monk, carrying a bunch of fresh wild fruits, walked into the dilapidated temple: "Just eat this and see, we'll be on our way soon."

Gu Jiao asked, "Are you leaving?"

The monk asked, "Aren't you leaving?"

Gu Jiao said, "I'm leaving."

The monk said, "What else is there to say? Let's eat and get going!"

"oh."

Gu Jiao ate a few wild fruits; they were so sour.

After filling her stomach, Gu Jiao packed her things. There was hardly any medicine left in the first aid kit, and the bow was lost, but she could make another one. With Master Lu and Xiao Shun around, making a bow wouldn't be difficult.

Gu Jiao carried a red-tasseled spear and a small basket on her back.

The monk stuffed the remaining few sour fruits into her small basket: "To eat on the road!"

Gu Jiao glanced at him sideways: "You just shoved it at me because you were too lazy to take it yourself, didn't you?"

The monk held prayer beads in one hand and said, "Amitabha, well said, well said. This humble monk meant well."

Gu Jiao: I'd be a fool to believe you.

The two left the dilapidated temple.

Gu Jiao actually wanted to go to the imperial mausoleum to check on the Crown Princess's condition, but six days had passed since the Crown Prince's residence dispatched the first wave of Imperial Guards, and everything that was supposed to happen should have already happened.

Either the Crown Princess acted quickly enough to discover the bodies of the Imperial Guards behind the broken bridge and returned to Shengdu before the second wave of Imperial Guards arrived.

Or... the Crown Princess has already been murdered.

"I'm going back to Shengdu. Where do you plan to go next?" Gu Jiao asked the monk.

"I……"

The moment the monk opened his mouth, a murderous aura suddenly emanated from behind him!

The monk suddenly turned around, shielding Gu Jiao behind him, and struck out with a palm to meet the opponent's attack!

The impact of that move caused a crack to appear in the road surface.

The monk looked at the empty path, sneered, and said, "Heh, you dare to ambush me from this far away, your skills have improved. Girl, you go first."

Gu Jiao poked her little head out from behind him and asked, "Can you beat him? If you can't, I can stay and help you."

If he were someone who could be crushed in one move, he wouldn't have forced the monk to strike so hard. The internal force of that strike was far greater than when he dealt with the three Heavenly Wolves.

The monk chuckled casually, his peach-blossom eyes narrowing slightly. "He's a somewhat troublesome fellow, but not someone I can't beat. I'm letting you go first because I don't want that Taoist priest to see your face and think you're in cahoots with me, and then come looking for trouble later if he can't beat me. Of course, if you insist on staying..."

Before he could finish speaking, he turned his head and saw that Gu Jiao, who had been helping him just a moment ago, had already disappeared in a flash!

Monk: "..."

...

Gu Jiao spent two days traveling from Guanshan back to Shengdu.

The people in the Crown Prince's residence didn't actually know who killed the first wave of Imperial Guards; they found their way to the dilapidated temple by following the clues at the scene.

Before she and the monk left, they erased every trace of the dilapidated temple.

As long as she doesn't give herself away, she won't be discovered by the people in the Crown Prince's residence.

Gu Jiao returned to the house in the evening.

Hearing the sound of horses' hooves outside the gate, Madam Nan went over without thinking and opened the courtyard gate: "Jiaojiao!"

These past few days, whenever there's the sound of horses' hooves in the alley, Mrs. Nan would come out to check.

"You're finally back!" Madam Nan looked around the alley, pulled Gu Jiao inside, closed the courtyard gate, bolted it, and asked worriedly, "Are you alright? Why did you take so long?"

"I'm fine," Gu Jiao said. "Is everything alright at home?"

Nan Shi Niang sighed, "We're fine, it's just that Yan'er... had a heart attack on the second night after you left. Luckily, you left some medicine, and he had a fever all night, but he was much better the next day."

The second night after she left, she was locked in a fierce battle with the Imperial Guards.

She was injured, so Gu Yan was also upset.

"I'll go check on Gu Yan," Gu Jiao said.

"He just went to sleep." Nan Shi Niang and Gu Jiao entered Gu Yan's room together.

On the bed, Gu Yan's breathing was shallow and even, and his face was as pale as ever.

Nan Shi Niang whispered, "Are you really alright? What happened?"

Gu Jiao glanced at Gu Yan on the bed and said to Nan Shi Niang, "We had a fight with the people from the Crown Prince's residence and encountered some trouble. We were delayed in the dilapidated temple for a few days, but the trouble has been resolved. Nan Shi Niang, you don't need to worry."

Knowing her tendency to only report good news and not bad, Madam Nan pressed further, "Are you injured?"

Gu Jiao vehemently denied it: "I didn't."

Even if you did, you wouldn't admit it. Nan Shi Niang helplessly turned the page and said, "Liu Lang has come a few times, but he just left this afternoon."

I've worried my husband and Xiao Jingkong.

Gu Jiao said, "I'll go to the city to find them another day."

Nan Shi Niang said, "Then ask Xiao Feng to take you there. He comes over every day to ask about your situation."

Gu Jiao agreed: "Okay, by the way, where are Xiao Shun and Master Lu?"

Nan Shi Niang said, "They went to buy firewood. Are you hungry? I'll go make you something to eat."

Nan Shi Niang came out of the house.

Gu Jiao came to the bedside, bent down, and reached out to touch Gu Yan's forehead.

Gu Yan slowly opened his eyes.

Gu Jiao smiled gently: "I knew you were awake."

A glint of tears welled up in Gu Yan's eyes as he stared intently at her: "You're lying."

Gu Jiao opened her mouth: "I..."

Gu Yan said, "You're injured."

Gu Jiao knew that even if she could deceive the whole world, she couldn't deceive Gu Yan.

Gu Yan pointed to the edge of the bed: "Sit down."

Gu Jiao replied, "I'm dirty."

Gu Yan didn't say anything, just stubbornly stared at her.

Gu Jiao sighed and sat down beside Gu Yan's bed. Gu Yan rested his head on her lap and hugged her waist, saying, "Sister."

"Um?"

"Don't stay out for so long anymore."

"good."

...

Gu Jiao came out of Gu Yan's room, and Nan Shi Niang had already cooked the noodles.

Nan Shi Niang placed a steaming bowl of noodles with cured pork and dried bamboo shoots on the octagonal table in the main room and asked Gu Jiao, "Is Yan'er asleep?"

Gu Jiao nodded: "Yes, he's asleep. He was really angry this time, and it took a long time to coax him."

Nan Shi Niang couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's already good enough that you can coax me. Don't you know you've been gone for several days?"

Gu Jiao picked up her chopsticks and asked, "During the few days I was gone, nothing major happened in Sheng, right?"

After thinking for a moment, Madam Nan said, "There is indeed one important matter."

Gu Jiao paused in her slurping of noodles.

Nan Shi Niang said, "The Crown Princess has returned."

(End of this chapter)