Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 359 Dark Place
Looking at the person in front of him, Guard Li seemed to be momentarily stunned. Of course, Guard Li was not the only one who was stunned.

Liu, the guard, was also somewhat stunned.

However, such a casual remark was enough to make Guard Li determined to move forward.

Her attitude was firm, and her tone showed no sign of backing down, indicating that she was determined to go and investigate herself.

Even though she was not afraid of danger and wanted to risk going alone, the two guards were absolutely unwilling.

"what?"

"Absolutely not!"

Jiang Xian never uttered a word of dissuasion, but Guard Li immediately stopped in his tracks upon hearing Jiang Xian's decision.

At first, he thought he had misheard, but he had indeed heard Jiang Xian say something without missing a single word.

After Jiang Xian finished speaking, Guard Liu was momentarily stunned. Such a simple and easy-to-understand sentence, yet he couldn't quite grasp its meaning. The light, airy words floated through his mind, but he seemed to have lost the ability to process information, unable to comprehend their significance.

It wasn't that Guard Li misheard, nor that Guard Liu couldn't understand; it was simply that they hadn't expected it and didn't want to believe it.

After regaining their senses, Guard Li and Guard Liu spoke one after the other.

Their most important mission on this trip was to protect their young lady. If they knowingly followed Jiang Xian's orders despite the unknown dangers ahead, and something happened, then they would be committing the greatest dereliction of duty. Compared to that, disobeying Jiang Xian's arrangements was not a big deal.

The most important thing right now is to protect Jiang Xian's safety. Nothing else matters to them.

“No problem, I’ll be careful,” Jiang Xian said to Guard Liu.

"Our duty is to protect your safety, Miss, not to mention..."

Seeing that Guard Liu looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated, Guard Li took over and said, "Not to mention that Miss doesn't treat us as servants at all, and has saved us many times. If it weren't for Miss, the two of us probably wouldn't have made it this far."

“He’s right. As a guard, there’s no reason for me to let my master take risks. I’ve been taken care of by you, Miss, along the way. Even without the master’s request, I would have protected you with my life to repay your kindness in saving my life,” Guard Liu continued.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xian pondered for a moment. Seeing the genuine emotions displayed by the two, he didn't say much. After a long while, he simply said, "One of you stay, and the other comes with me."

“But…” Guard Li clearly wanted to try to dissuade him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Guard Liu tugged at his sleeve, and he stopped talking.

Hearing Jiang Xian say this, the two guards naturally knew that there was no room for further discussion, and they did not say anything more to dissuade him.

“Alright, I’ll go with Miss!” Guard Li spoke first, without discussing it further with Guard Liu.

"Then you stay here and be careful," Jiang Xian instructed Liu, thus settling the matter and giving Liu no further chance to object.

Before Guard Liu could even open his mouth to argue with Guard Li, Jiang Xian and Guard Li had already turned and left without looking back.

Jiang Xian and Guard Li crept along one side of the path until they saw the scene before them...

On both sides of the path, several people held torches, their flickering light illuminating a corner of the dim place.

In the firelight, Jiang Xian and Guard Li could clearly see that two groups were fighting. However, what was strange was not only the people leisurely holding torches on both sides of the path, but also, upon closer inspection, a person sitting opposite the two carriages, leisurely drinking tea.

The man sat on a stone stool, his feet resting on a wooden box not far away. The box was about half a person's height, square in shape, and covered with a thick cloth, making it impossible to see what was inside.

At this moment, the two sides were fighting. There were not many of them, but they were evenly matched and fighting back and forth.

The people holding torches, those leisurely drinking tea, and several unmasked individuals involved in the fight all appeared to be a group based on their clothing.

Similarly, judging from their clothing, the two people fighting with their faces covered, who appear to be a man and a woman wearing hoods standing in front of the carriage, are probably also a group.

Although the two sides in the fight were evenly matched, it was clear that the masked group had little chance of winning. This was evident from the leisurely tea drinkers and the people calmly holding torches on both sides of the path.

The unmasked side did not lose the fight, and even though they narrowly lost, they still had many people behind them.

However, the situation is completely different for the masked party.

If the masked side loses, they will only have two people left behind, and those two people are clearly people of some status, not just any formidable thugs. Therefore, if the masked side loses, unless the two people behind them are top-tier experts, this situation is destined to end in defeat.

Compared to the unmasked side, the masked side is clearly under much more pressure.

However, what these two groups were unaware of was that not far from them, two other pairs of eyes were observing their every move.

Jiang Xian carefully observed the situation not far away, lowered his voice to a very low point, pointed to a dark place, and said, "There are still people."

Upon hearing this, Guard Li frowned even more deeply and looked in the direction Jiang Xian pointed... Sure enough, there were figures in that indistinct place, and there must have been quite a few of them!

……

After an unknown amount of time, the sounds of clashing swords grew slower and slower, clearly indicating that the physical condition of both sides was approaching their limits. It was difficult for them to display their skills and engage in a fierce battle as they had at the beginning of the fight. Now, both sides were struggling to hold on.

"puff……"

Among those who did not wear masks, some had already become so exhausted that they vomited blood.

Seeing this, they all knew in their hearts that soon there would be a second, a third... and then they would fall to the ground one after another, some even remaining on the ground for a long time.

"Alright, stop!" The man who was leisurely sipping his tea slowly stood up and looked at the two people in front of the carriage.

"Stop!" Seeing that the man drinking tea had stopped his men, the taller man standing in front of the carriage also spoke up.

The two sides stopped fighting after their respective leaders called for a halt.

Everyone involved in the fight is now completely exhausted.

"Miss, this is..." Guard Li, hiding in the shadows, asked Jiang Xian with an incredulous expression.

Jiang Xian didn't say much, but simply nodded, responding to his doubts.

(End of this chapter)