Chapter 67.2
The fall had left Gu Xiyu dizzy, and in his dizziness, he saw several figures coming out of the shadows. They were all burly men, dressed somewhat similarly to the bandits who were chasing him, but with a different style of clothing from those men, clearly from two factions.
They slowly approached Gu Xiyu, who felt as if his whole body had fallen apart, he was unable to move at all and could only remain on the ground in pain.
Gu Xiyu really hated this body.
“Where is this bride from?”
“A bride who ran away from the wedding? What a mess.”
“She’s quite pretty. You said the fortress master didn’t like all those goods we sent before, and this one is obviously much better looking than them. Anyway, she was accidentally shot, so let’s just take her back. We can just silence her if he doesn’t like her.”
Very well, the kingdom of Yao was worthy of being a place where bandits were rampant. He had just narrowly escaped from one group and accidentally sent himself to another.
This time, he really didn’t have the strength to struggle anymore.
Gu Xiyu was tied back up in a daze. They brought a black cloth to cover his eyes, as if they didn’t want him to recognize the path they were taking.
When he saw the light again, it was already dark, and the blue-white moon was hanging high in the sky.
The smell of the forest was all around him, and he was being carried over a shoulder, heading towards where a fire was coming from. It seemed to have rained the day before, and the land was still a little damp, so the men made a squelching sound as they stepped on the muddy road.
The man carrying him was twice the size of this body, with a sensational amount of hair and a brownish beard all around his mouth and chin. As they got closer to the fortress, the man who had been joking and laughing with the men on the side suddenly said to him, “You’re funny.”
“Every time we catch a woman back, she makes a fuss throughout the whole journey, crying and sobbing, so we have to stuff clothes in their mouths to gag them. If so, they still struggle. It’s the first time I’ve met one as calm and resigned as you.”
Gu Xiyu didn’t answer, and if his eyes weren’t open and he was still breathing, they would have thought he was dead.
Just as they crossed the gate, Gu Xiyu heard a harsh scream from the fortress, the sound coming from a man.
Passing by torch after torch, he was eventually carried up a ladder by the strong man and taken into a place covered with a carpet of animal skins. The surroundings were sparsely furnished, not like a lobby for entertaining people. The rest of the men took the loot they had collected today and happily walked in the direction where the crowd was gathered.
The strong man continued to a somewhat filthy place where the air reeked.
There was also the smell of blood in it.
As he was thrown to the floor, Gu Xiyu saw a bloodied man tied up next to a wooden stake not far away. None of the arms and legs on his body were intact, and the wounds looked appalling, as if he had been injured in the same places repeatedly, with deep scratches that were just about to scab over before being re-cut with a sharp blade.
He couldn’t help but frown, this was a little too cruel.
The scream from earlier seemed to come from this man. His limbs were broken, and his body was slumped over. His mouth was dislocated and he couldn’t move it, only his eyes were still moving, and they were raised upward, staring in horror at the man holding his jaw.
That’s right, in front of this poor fellow sat a man in a narrow-sleeved red and black robe, and from Gu Xiyu’s angle, all he could see was his back with his long hair tied up high.
“If you can’t even answer that, then you’re not much use.” The man’s voice was low, yet somewhat pleasant, not like the kind of roughness that would appear among this group of brash men.
Gu Xiyu looked at the pitiful man tied to the stake who didn’t even have a chance to retort, and his jaw was directly crushed by the man. Tears of pain slipped from the corners of his eyes. He tried to shout out from the pain, but he couldn’t even make a weak cry.
The man let go of the other party’s jaw in disgust, then stood up and turned around, and Gu Xiyu finally got a good look at his face—well, not entirely.
He was wearing a silver mask over his right eye that extended to the lower part of his cheek. Unlike the masks that people normally use to keep their faces from being seen, this mask only covered his right side.
Although the face was partially covered, Gu Xiyu could still tell that the other man was really handsome through the outline of his three-dimensional features. Such a finely sculpted face could only be seen in the ancient portraits of those old worlds.
The moment he met the other man’s eyes, Gu Xiyu was slightly stunned.
Under his dark brown eyes lay a heavy gloom. When he lowered his eyes and looked down, he invariably gave off an aura of superiority.
The man was obviously a little surprised by his appearance as well, and after frowning lightly at the man who carried him in, he asked, “What is this?”
“A runaway bride I accidentally met on my way back, I thought she was pretty, so I brought her back with me to see if she was to your liking. We are all hoping that you will soon marry, Lord. You are so good-looking, and you need a woman worth your immortal beauty!”
The man seemed to have little interest in such matters, and his eyes quickly withdrew from Gu Xiyu: “I’ve seen it; I don’t like it, so kill it.”
Gu Xiyu saw the strong man with a full beard sigh and stare at him with some pity: “Is your lordship really not going to think about it anymore? This is the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen.”
The man he called ‘my lord’ turned around and left as if he hadn’t heard his words.
Gu Xiyu looked at the man on the stake who was being tortured to death, and thought with a blank expression that he was going to die in this place before he could even see his target.
A familiar notification suddenly rang out in his mind.
[[Your cute and beautiful Intelligent System is online~!]]
Gu Xiyu was already being carried up when the voice came over, not noticing that the man in black who had just stepped out of this place had suddenly stopped in his tracks, his cold eyes staring at the empty space ahead.
[?]
Gu Xiyu saw the familiar question mark and said in his mind, “Hello, I am Gu Xiyu, the mission executor of this world.”
“I know you have been reset again, but I’ve run into a bit of trouble here, can you help me sort out the situation first and I’ll follow up with the explanation later?”
He said helplessly, “I was on my way into the palace to meet Wei Chiyan, but I didn’t expect to be captured by bandits from the Yao Kingdom, and they are now planning to have me executed. If this matter cannot be resolved, do we have to find a new host body?”
It was better to change! This body was too weak to do anything.
Gu Xiyu waited for a moment but did not get a reply from the intelligent system. Instead, as the bearded man was about to take him to the special ‘execution’ place, the brutal man in black who was supposed to leave suddenly turned back and said in a cool, clear voice, “Wait.”
The bearded man didn’t seem to expect him to return either and looked back in surprise, only to hear the other man say, “Let me take another look.”
Gu Xiyu was put down again, but this time, he was supported by the bearded man. He was out in a standing position facing the man, who was gradually approaching him.
The other man looked inexplicably curious, and after a while, he suddenly said, “On closer inspection, this young lady is indeed beautiful.”
“You said she ran away from a marriage?” Gu Xiyu saw the man who had dismissed him earlier gently hook the corners of his mouth, and ask him, “I wonder – whose marriage did the young lady escape?”