I became the God Brother of the Regent King after Transmigration!-Chapter 371 - 287: Wounds
Rong Heng ignored Wu Shao, as the flickering firelight around them reflected off the dagger in his hand, casting an orange glow across his pupils. He resembled a leopard locking onto its prey, calm to the extreme, yet faintly emitting a hint of killing intent.
Just as Rong Heng was about to plunge the dagger into the Empress Dowager’s heart, completely ending her life, two streaks of firelight pierced through the pitch-black night from the dense forest.
"What, what is that?" Wu Shao looked to the sky in amazement, "Is it Young Master Gu’s signal?"
Rong Heng lifted his head, watching the flaming arrows burn out and fall, finally feeling at ease.
Two arrows, signifying safety.
It seemed that Gu Lan had already caught up to the assassin and taken care of it.
He looked at the deeply poisoned Empress Dowager before him and put away the dagger.
Since there was time, he decided to take a different approach.
...
After Gu Lan rode into the forest, she slowly began to realize what had just happened.
Lu Ping and Qingzhi attacked her from both sides, Zhao Cheng simultaneously stabbed at Rong Heng, and an arrow shot in from the forest behind her. To conceal Rong Heng’s identity, she and Rong Heng killed Zhao Cheng together, and then Empress Dowager Su was suddenly stabbed by her beloved handcrafted vase, Little Xu. Who knows if she’s dead or alive now...
However, being close by, she saw clearly that, logically speaking, with the depth of Little Xu’s arrow, the Empress Dowager shouldn’t be dead.
But with Rong Heng by her side, it’s uncertain.
If it weren’t for...
Gu Lan touched her own buttocks and sighed mournfully.
If it weren’t for her injury, and the fact that she’s hurt on her backside, she wouldn’t have run off to chase any assassin.
Luckily, the Empress Dowager was suddenly stabbed, so she slipped away first, letting Rong Heng decide whether Empress Dowager Su was dead or alive.
Gu Lan calmed her tumultuous inner breath, thinking that handing Su Xinyu over to Rong Heng would require some time regardless of Rong Heng’s choice.
—She could also take the time to deal with the injury on her backside.
If Rong Heng knew she was hurt, he would certainly take the initiative to help, which could lead to a ridiculous situation if anything slipped.
Gu Lan glanced back; at this distance, the torches of the guards were barely visible as tiny sparks of light, already far away from her. She narrowed her eyes and slowed her riding pace.
The surrounding forest was dark and unpredictable. Luckily, it was not a primeval forest with large animals like wolves and bears.
Gu Lan leaned against her horse under a towering ancient tree, instantly taking out two arrows, wrapping them in oil cloth, and lighting them with flint. Then, she shot the sharp arrows into the sky to reassure Rong Heng.
—This action was also to prevent him from worrying too much and following her.
Subsequently, she placed the torch in a branch above to illuminate the area.
The orange flames danced on Gu Lan’s porcelain white face, reflecting in her clear black and white eyes, the interplay of light and shadow resembling flowing amber.
Hong seemed to sense her owner’s mood under him, letting out an anxious whinny.
Gu Lan gently rubbed his mane with her uninjured hand, softly saying:
"I’m fine."
This time, she really was fine.
Because when she killed Zhao Cheng, her mind was wholly occupied with her own injury, completely unaware that she had instinctively used the brutal Black Tiger Heart Stealing technique, resulting in such a revolting way to kill.
Gu Lan shook her head, banishing the scene from her mind, roughly wiping the blood off her hands onto her clothes, and discarding her outer robe.
This white outfit could no longer be discerned in its original color. Ignorant people might think she’d just fled from a crime scene. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
However, calling it a crime scene wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate.
Gu Lan felt her back with her hand, touching a wet area. She brought her hand back under the torchlight to find it stained with blood.
Earlier, that arrow had struck her slightly lower than her lower back. Thanks to her skill and the change in angle, it wasn’t deep. She pulled the arrow out in an instant, so Rong Heng didn’t notice her injury.
Gu Lan took out a bundle from her horse’s back, searching for hemostatic powder, while reflecting on and analyzing everything that just happened.
It was known that the Empress Dowager brought a total of six palace attendants to Qingliang Temple for retreat—two eunuchs and four maidservants.
The two eunuchs were Zhao Cheng, adept in martial arts, and Xie Xu’s handmade Little Xu, who apparently possessed no martial arts but... could stab people.
Among the four maidservants was Aunt Fang, whom she knew, and the other three—she had early sensed that two green-skirted women had martial arts ability, while the one in blue had medical skills.
During the previous ambush, Lu Ping and Zhao Cheng hadn’t concealed their abilities, drawing their swords to protect the Empress Dowager and creating an impression that the two were quite skillful.
In contrast, Qingzhi in her blue gown appeared very weak, leading Gu Lan and everyone to think she had no martial arts.
The initial ambush was meant to weaken the imperial guards by her side;
Later, she drew back her sword and dismounted, essentially reducing her defense;
The Empress Dowager feigned weakness with words, asking her to accept the women, to lower her guard;
Even when Qingzhi approached and spoke, if she remained on alert, she would only guard against Lu Ping and Zhao Cheng, not caring about a seemingly martial arts-less woman.
At this point, Gu Lan completely relaxed her guard, thinking even if the black-clad men made a comeback, she could handle it, completely unaware that the three women the Empress Dowager wanted to give her had already approached.
Finally, Little Xu shouted, drawing everyone’s attention, disrupting her focus. The Empress Dowager dropped her handkerchief, and the three women attacked simultaneously, with the commander in black, who had never left, shooting a sharp arrow from the forest.
Link by link, from four directions, sealing off all her exits—she was almost certainly doomed.
Indeed, it was so—no matter how she used Qinggong to leap, at least two blades awaited her, and she still got shot.
But at the crucial moment, Zhao Cheng did not kill her and chose to kill Rong Heng instead.
Why?
The wind in the forest blew at the flames, making her expression unreadable and enigmatic.
Because Zhao Cheng had once gone to Yinzhou to deliver an edict. Somehow, he recognized the masked Rong Heng as none other than Prince Xiang, who ought to be in Yinzhou!
He wanted to expose Rong Heng’s identity, so he aimed at him, giving her a slim chance of survival.
The Empress Dowager’s falling handkerchief was a signal akin to smashing the cup.
She cried out Zhao Cheng’s name after his death, questioning why he acted on his own accord, switching targets to Rong Heng.
Gu Lan thought hard—throughout the journey, only when the Empress Dowager put down the curtain to whisper with Little Xu in the Phoenix Carriage was she unable to observe. Zhao Cheng sat outside, so those two never exchanged information.
It seemed that the Empress Dowager didn’t realize Rong Heng’s identity, and Zhao Cheng didn’t have the chance to inform her.
As for how Zhao Cheng detected Rong Heng’s identity—by his stature, or voice... He’s dead now, and Gu Lan may never find the answer.
While the Empress Dowager faced betrayal from her own handcrafted figure... Ha, in the end, she still witnessed the grim spectacle of her kin turning on each other.
Gu Lan’s fingertips paused as she found the hemostatic powder and pills Rong Heng had prepared for her.
She tossed the pills into her mouth and swallowed, her gaze sharpening as she looked towards the dim surroundings:
"After hiding for so long, do you think you can still shoot that one arrow?"
