Chapter 4: 第081章 重伤，真颜

It seemed she had cried enough; Feng Xiling finally stopped. She turned around, her back to Gu Xizhi, and whispered, "My Imperial Father sent hundreds of death soldiers to intercept Crown Prince Chen's party. If you rush there now, you should still be able to make it."

Even though he had already said such things, why could she not help but tell him this?

Could she not have simply watched his daughter die at the hands of those death soldiers? As long as Gu Qingcheng died, the memories that woman left him would slowly fade, and she might even have the chance to be by his side once more, could she not?

But why—why could she not bear to see him suffer?

Was it because she knew how much he cared for his daughter, Gu Qingcheng, that she told him this news? Was it because she simply did not want to see him in pain?

Hearing this, the chill in Gu Xizhi's eyes deepened.

"If anything happens to Cheng'er, I, Gu Xizhi, will surely wash the Southern Barbarian Imperial Palace in blood." Hurriedly dropping this extremely bloody and arrogant threat, Gu Xizhi sprinted out.

As time passed, Gu Xiaowu gradually began to feel a sense of panic.

Although the martial arts of these men in black were not equal to hers, they had the advantage of numbers.

Furthermore, they were attacking them with specific intent; they ignored the noble young ladies and lords entirely, focusing their siege solely on Dugu Chen, A-Xun, Shiyi, and her.

Those young ladies and lords were currently hiding in their carriages, showing no intention of coming out to help.

Normally, she wouldn't worry about these people at all, but the problem was that her poison had flared up at this very moment!

From head to toe, her entire body was screaming; the piercing pain made it impossible for her to concentrate on dealing with the men in black.

Cold sweat gradually broke out on Gu Xiaowu's forehead, and her complexion turned terrifyingly pale.

Biting her lip, she struggled to ignore the pain coursing through her body and began to fight the men in black without reservation.

However, as the poison took hold, her internal power began to gradually diminish. The men in black also seemed to notice something was wrong with her; they left only a few to contend with Dugu Chen and the others, while the rest rushed over to deal with Gu Xiaowu.

Dugu Xun had been wondering why these people had suddenly withdrawn, only to find that they were flying toward Gu Xiaowu, and that the girl's appearance seemed somewhat off.

Panic seized his heart. He feinted a move and then flew toward Gu Xiaowu's direction.

In terms of lightness skills, those black-clad death soldiers were naturally no match for Dugu Xun. Thus, although they had rushed toward Gu Xiaowu first, Dugu Xun arrived a step ahead of them.

But just as he planted his feet, before he could even reach her to provide support, he watched helplessly as a man in black's sword pierced through Gu Xiaowu's chest. And that girl, Xiaowu, didn't even have the strength to fight back!

The blood on that sword was... it was actually as black as ink!

Having dealt with their respective attackers, Dugu Chen and Dugu Yi also arrived simultaneously, but they could only watch helplessly as Gu Xiaowu was impaled by the longsword, powerless to stop it.

Dugu Chen was the first to react. He slashed his sword across the wrist of the man who had stabbed Gu Xiaowu, but he did not strike directly at his throat.

How could he let the person who harmed Xiaowu die so easily?

Dugu Xun immediately caught the limp, falling Gu Xiaowu. He scooped her up and ran hurriedly toward the nearest carriage.

"Imperial Brother, I leave the rest to you."

Under normal circumstances, Dugu Chen would certainly have taken Gu Xiaowu from Dugu Xun's arms, but after seeing the blood on the death soldier's sword, he tacitly accepted Dugu Xun's course of action.

At a time like this, only his third brother could save Xiaowu, so he had no choice but to make this decision.

He indeed could not save Xiaowu, but he could still kill. He would not let a single one of these people escape.

His strikes grew increasingly ruthless. Dugu Chen cast aside his usual refined elegance, appearing exceptionally cold. Even Dugu Yi was seeing his Crown Prince brother in such a state for the first time.

Gu Xizhi rushed to the scene with all his might, only to be met with the sight of his daughter being stabbed.

Perhaps due to the sudden shock to his heart, he actually spat out a mouthful of blood.

He hurriedly dismounted. Ignoring Dugu Chen and Dugu Yi, who were still fighting for their lives against the death soldiers, he rushed forward to check Gu Xiaowu's injuries.

Seeing this, Dugu Chen quickly found a moment to intercept him.

"You cannot go in. Right now, only my third brother can save her." While contending with the death soldiers, Dugu Chen diverted his attention to block Gu Xizhi, who was attempting to leap onto the carriage.

"Why?" Why was he being stopped?

"Now is not the time to ask. If you don't want something to happen to her, you had best not disturb my third brother," Dugu Chen said coldly. Having finished, he ignored Gu Xizhi and focused on killing the enemy.

These death soldiers were not people he could deal with if he lost focus.

Gu Xizhi gave Dugu Chen a deep look, and reason finally triumphed over emotion.

If anyone else had said those words, he certainly wouldn't have believed them, but this person was Dugu Chen, the Crown Prince Chen of Tianchen; he had no reason not to believe him.

Picking up a longsword from the ground, Gu Xizhi vented his full fury upon the men in black.

Inside the carriage, Dugu Xun placed Gu Xiaowu gently onto a mattress, his expression exceptionally solemn.

The longsword was still embedded in her chest, but he did not dare to pull it out easily.

If the blood wouldn't stop once the sword was removed, Xiaowu would surely die from excessive blood loss.

He had checked; the longsword had not been coated in poison. Therefore, the reason the blood on the sword was that color must be because of the poison in Xiaowu's body. What was hateful was that he could not even distinguish what kind of poison she had taken.

However, regardless of the poison, he had to try.

Looking at Gu Xiaowu's increasingly pale face, Dugu Xun turned to pick up a clean teacup. He then took a dagger in his hand, pulled up the sleeve of his left arm, and without hesitation, sliced the dagger across his own wrist.

He watched quietly as his blood flowed from the wound in his wrist into the cup. His expression was calm; aside from the hidden worry in the depths of his eyes, he didn't even frown, as if he felt no pain.

After collecting a full cup of blood, Dugu Xun lightly sprinkled some hemostatic powder on the wound on his wrist, then haphazardly bandaged it with prepared cotton cloth.

He sat beside Gu Xiaowu, propped her up, and rested her head against his arm.

With one hand supporting her, he held the cup containing his own blood and carefully fed it to Gu Xiaowu. Only after the blood in the cup was finished did Dugu Xun gently lay her down.

Ever since his biological mother passed away, before he met his Master, he had spent almost all his time being oppressed by palace servants. Being injured was a common occurrence. Fortunately, his residence was close to the Imperial Pharmacy, so every time he was injured, he would secretly sneak in to steal some medicine.

However, he was too young back then and understood nothing of medical theory; the medicines he took were all grabbed haphazardly, so he often took the wrong medicine.

After meeting his Master, he was even soaked in medicinal vats every day and was often forced to eat various unknown medicinal ingredients. However, it was precisely because of this that he had instead forged a body immune to a hundred poisons.

Most importantly, having consumed countless rare medicinal herbs and toxins since childhood, his blood actually possessed detoxifying properties, which was why he was feeding his blood to Xiaowu.

But if word ever got out that his blood could detoxify, it would surely bring significant trouble, which was why he had brought Xiaowu into the carriage.

And his Imperial Brother was the only person in this world who knew his blood could detoxify.

Glancing at the longsword embedded in Gu Xiaowu's chest, Dugu Xun turned and took out many bottles and jars along with a stack of fresh white cloth from a chest.

He placed these within reach, then gripped the hilt of the sword with his right hand while holding a bottle of hemostatic powder in his left.

Looking down at Gu Xiaowu's small face, which had turned deathly pale without a trace of color, he gritted his teeth and pulled the longsword from her chest.

As his right hand withdrew the sword, he immediately poured the powder from his left hand onto the wound, then quickly pressed the prepared white cloth against it.

At this moment, Dugu Xun felt incredibly fortunate—fortunate that he hadn't lost much blood when he had sliced his own wrist earlier.

His hand remained pressed against the white cloth covering Gu Xiaowu's wound until the bleeding stopped. Only then did he loosen his grip and pick up another roll of white cloth to carefully wrap the wound.

However, this simple action took him a considerable amount of time.

Because the wound was on her chest, he had to support Gu Xiaowu with one hand while bandaging her with the other.

Though the bandage wasn't perfect, it would at least hold for a while. Once the men in black were dealt with, he would ask his Imperial Brother to help re-bandage her.

By the time he finished, Dugu Xun was drenched in sweat.

He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and lightly placed his fingers on Gu Xiaowu's wrist.

Although the bleeding had stopped, he wanted to check her pulse again just to be safe.

He sat by her side, his gaze fixed on her wrist.

After a long while, he finally withdrew his hand.

He lifted his head, intending to check if her complexion had returned to a healthy flush, but the moment his eyes met her face, his entire body froze.

Dugu Xun rubbed his eyes and looked at Gu Xiaowu's face again, only to find that he hadn't misseen just now.

For a moment, he even thought he was dreaming.

Thus, he performed a very foolish action.

Dugu Xun—the Third Prince of Tianchen, whose fame was equal to that of the Crown Prince Dugu Chen—actually pinched his own face to confirm whether he was dreaming!

The facts proved he was not dreaming.

But...

Xiaowu's face... why had it become like this?

She was clearly just a plain, pretty little girl, so why had she transformed into a stunningly beautiful maiden in an instant?

The blooming red lotus on her forehead was lifelike, and the skin on her face was as delicate and fair as a newborn infant's.

If he hadn't been here the entire time without leaving, he would have certainly thought the girl had used a disguise.

But what was the matter with that red lotus on her forehead? Was it something she was born with? All of this was far too eerie.

The sounds of fighting outside the carriage gradually subsided. Dugu Xun knew that the death soldiers had likely been mostly dealt with.

Looking back at the still-unconscious Gu Xiaowu, Dugu Xun felt a sense of hesitation.