(First, apologies. After finishing writing this afternoon, the website crashed and I couldn't update it. Then I had urgent business to attend to today, so I sent the chapter content to my editor, asking him to help with the update. I didn't expect to come back and find it hadn't been updated. I'm truly sorry.)

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Gao Da's pupils constricted slightly as he stared at the eunuch before him. Having secretly guarded the royal family for many years, he naturally recognized the inner court expert. He immediately wondered if Eunuch Yao had also come to Dazhou. He took a deep breath. Although he wasn't afraid even if Eunuch Yao came in person, he realized that the palace must have discovered his whereabouts in advance. The difficulties he was about to face would likely be terrifying.

The eunuch coughed softly, took a cloth from his sleeve, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said in a hoarse voice, "Eunuch Yao didn't come. This is a matter of the court. I am now working with Grand Scholar He."

Gao Da glanced at him, cautiously retreating half a step, his eyes sweeping around. He gripped Ya Niangzi's hand even tighter. Hearing the eunuch's words, he realized that someone in the court had never believed he was dead and had been secretly investigating the matter.

Two more eunuchs emerged from the shadows beside the city gate.

Gao Da stared at the leading eunuch and said, "You are no match for me."

The three inner court experts were silent, especially the one in front, who was in a particularly complex mood. They knew vaguely that they were accompanying the experts from the Thirteen Offices of the Ministry of Justice to handle matters near Dazhou, and that Grand Scholar He was investigating the oversights of the Dadong Mountain incident three years ago. But this eunuch truly did not expect that they would actually find Gao Da, the Tiger Guard.

The officials of the Ministry of Justice had already surrounded them. Apart from those injured by Gao Da's blade, there were still dozens of them. Given the current situation, Gao Da couldn't escape even if he had wings.

The eunuch coughed twice more. He had been injured by the backlash of internal energy when he clashed palms with Gao Da earlier. The gaze he now cast upon Gao Da naturally carried a hint of apprehension and admiration.

"I didn't expect you were really alive, and I didn't expect you haven't slacked off all these years." The eunuch's eyes were somewhat cloudy, but they held a cold, fierce glint. "Since we've luckily run into you today, don't even think about leaving."

As if changing masks, the eunuch's expression suddenly turned sinister and cold. Gao Da had long been accustomed to the inner court's methods. He simply watched him quietly and said, "If you want to keep me here, I'm afraid you'll have to pay a great price."

"We're not afraid of paying the price." The eunuch glanced at the beautiful woman beside him and said with a strange smile, "It's just that the price you'll pay might be something you can't bear."

"Surrender. You know you have no chance of survival. Why burden others?" The eunuch said gently.

The setting sun had already dipped below the horizon, leaving behind a helpless twilight that enveloped the city gate, dim and heavy, making people feel drowsy.

A flicker of struggle, a hint of sorrow, flashed in Gao Da's eyes. After a long silence, he said quietly, "If you catch me, I have no chance of survival. Does she have one?"

The eunuch lowered his head for a long moment and then said, "Adults naturally have to pay the price for their actions. As for whether the child in your arms lives or dies, only the palace can decide."

"Then why shouldn't I fight?"

"Because you don't have to die now, you can live a few more days. Regarding this child, perhaps that young sir will be willing to protect him for you after he learns of this matter." The eunuch gave him a meaningful look.

The young sir? A trace of bewilderment flashed in Gao Da's eyes. If Master Fan knew that he was still alive in this world, that he was surrounded at the city gate of Dazhou, and that he had a child in his arms, what would he do? He had committed the crime of deceiving the emperor, so of course there was no hope of escaping punishment, but Master Fan should be able to protect the child, right?

The officials of the Ministry of Justice remained silent, but the gazes they cast upon the swordsman held a trace of fear. In the battle at the city gate earlier, only a few breaths had passed before six of their colleagues had died tragically beneath that flurry of blades.

They knew that this swordsman carrying his wife and child was the legendary Tiger Guard, the Tiger Guard who was rumored to have fought Si Gu Jian to the death on Dadong Mountain.

They had already surrounded him, so why not rush up immediately and hack him to pieces? This impulse arose in everyone's hearts due to unease, but they knew that Grand Scholar He's secret investigation ultimately relied on these three inner court experts. If they didn't give the order to attack, it was best for them to remain quiet.

Perhaps seeing that Gao Da was struggling and hesitating, the inner court expert's expression gradually darkened, and he shouted sharply, "You were originally a royal Tiger Guard. You deserted on Dadong Mountain, abandoning your emperor and disregarding your duty, which is tantamount to treason! If you don't kneel down, do you intend to continue to rebel?"

Gao Da's face turned pale. The scene of Si Gu Jian's heavenly sword strike on Dadong Mountain, the limbs of his comrades flying beneath the long stone steps, and the blood flowing between the mountains and rocks, reappeared before his eyes.

He was the commander of the Tiger Guards, an elite among the hundred or so Tiger Guards. Since his youth, he had been instilled with the concept of loyalty to the emperor and love for his country, willing to die for His Majesty. However, Gao Da had followed Fan Xian for three full years, and his horizons had gradually broadened. Most importantly, his temperament and his life views had been influenced too much by Fan Xian.

Fan Xian was usually gentle, but the small details and nuances in his words were enough to influence those around him.

So Gao Da became the first Tiger Guard in history to desert.

The inner court expert mentioned the Dadong Mountain incident in order to weaken his fighting spirit, but the paleness on Gao Da's face did not last long. It gradually returned to normal. He glared at the other party with a coldness and said, "Abandon the emperor?"

Abandon the emperor? When he made the decision to flee Dadong Mountain, Gao Da's heart was not without struggle. However, the three years of wandering among the people of Qing, the midnight reflections, and the rumors he had heard, had made him think about the events of that year countless times.

His voice became sharp and cold, like a knife. He roared, "Did I abandon His Majesty, or did His Majesty abandon me?"

"On Dadong Mountain, a hundred Tiger Guards were wiped out by the enemy, all for the sake of exhausting Si Gu Jian's killing intent!" Gao Da became furious, his voice growing louder, his eyes wide with anger. "I am a Tiger Guard, I am willing to protect His Majesty's safety with my life, but I am not willing to die for such bullshit reasons."

"Even if I die, I want to die knowing why!"

Gao Da's hand slowly tightened around the hilt of his blade. He pulled Ya Niangzi behind him and glared at the inner court expert, saying each word clearly, "I just don't want to die as uselessly and confusedly as those comrades, what's wrong with that!"

The inner court expert's voice became shrill and trembling. He seemed not to have expected to hear such rebellious words from this Tiger Guard at the city gate of Dazhou. He angrily cursed, "The emperor commands his subjects to die, and the subjects must die! You, as a Tiger Guard, dare to say such rebellious words, you are truly beyond redemption!"

"I've already done rebellious things, let alone talk about them." Gao Da suddenly felt relaxed all over. He had finally vented his resentment towards the emperor. Yes, the Tiger Guards were just royal dogs raised as expendable pawns, but Gao Da was already an independent person. He didn't want to live and die in ignorance!

Gao Da tightly tied Ya Niangzi to his back with strips of cloth, forcefully tightening the lines. No one at the city gate moved while he was doing these actions. They were all nervously waiting for the inner court expert to speak.

"If you resist the imperial decree again today, don't you think about how Master Fan will be implicated by you?" The inner court expert's hands trembled slowly, gathering his energy, but at this moment he suddenly said a sentence that pierced Gao Da's heart.

Gao Da sneered and said, "What is Fan Xian anyway? If he's implicated, then he's implicated. Where are there any good people in this world?"

The inner court expert's face changed slightly. He seemed not to have expected Gao Da to say such a thing. Did the other party have no affection for Master Fan at all?

The truth, of course, was not like this. When the inner court expert said that he was not acting under the orders of Eunuch Yao to hunt him down, Gao Da knew that something was amiss. And when he heard the name of Grand Scholar He, Gao Da knew immediately what the other party wanted to do. More precisely, what that Grand Scholar He wanted to do.

Whether in the imperial court or among the people of Qing, everyone knew that Master Fan was now doing his best to suppress Grand Scholar He, and Grand Scholar He, relying on the emperor's favor, was also desperately resisting Master Fan. The two forces were like fire and water, but they had not had a chance to erupt under the emperor's suppression.

Moreover, Gao Da knew that with Master Fan's ability and strength, He Zongwei simply could not find any way to defeat Master Fan.

Because Master Fan seemed to have no loopholes at all.

And unexpectedly, the one who escaped from Dadong Mountain and survived, was undoubtedly a loophole for Fan Xian.

He Zongwei just wanted to capture Gao Da, or Wang Qinian, but he did not want these two people to die. As long as he captured Gao Da, it would be equivalent to seizing a tail of Fan Xian's, although Fan Xian himself did not know that he had a tail.

Gao Da lifted his wife's body up a little, the killing intent in his eyes becoming more and more intense. He stared at the inner court expert without saying a word. What harm would it cause if he were captured alive by the court and used by He Zongwei to deal with Master Fan?

Gao Da had followed Fan Xian for too long and understood Fan Xian too well. Master Fan seemed ruthless, but in fact he was extremely protective of his own people.

This protectiveness was different from that of Dean Chen. Fan Xian showed the most sincere concern for the people close to him. If the court captured him, Master Fan might risk violating taboos to save him.

And Gao Da was unwilling for Master Fan to be in danger for his sake, so he decided to fight to the death and not surrender. He would rather die in front of the city gate of Dazhou than be captured, and he was even less willing to live a few more days for himself and implicate him.

It was just that he was wronging the woman behind him and the child in front of him.

A trace of despair and deep guilt flashed in Gao Da's eyes. He gripped his blade, roared, and charged towards the front!

...

...

People were endless to kill, and a blade would eventually break. How could one person fight against the powerful state machine? Although Gao Da was powerful, he was not a Grandmaster after all. He had managed to hold on until nightfall under the Qing Dynasty's powerful siege, which was already extremely terrifying.

He was covered in blood and exhausted, but he had only managed to rush three miles out of Dazhou City. The experts of the Ministry of Justice and soldiers who were besieging him were smart enough to keep their distance, only charging in waves, without allowing the situation to become chaotic enough for Gao Da to find any opportunity to break through.

Torches were everywhere, scattered around the official road, looking brighter than the stars in the sky.

The inner court expert coldly watched the chase on the official road, judging when Gao Da would run out of strength and collapse. He frowned slightly and said, "Tell the children to be careful not to aim at the woman on his back."

A Ministry of Justice official was slightly surprised and looked back at him, asking for instructions, "Eunuch, why is that?"

In the eyes of these officials, although the Tiger Guard Gao Da was more powerful than they had imagined, he had a child in his arms and a woman on his back. As long as their blades were aimed at those places, he would always be wary, and he would be injured even more.

The inner court expert slowly walked towards the center of the battle, coughing as he went, squinting his eyes and saying, "If we accidentally kill that woman, how can we capture Gao Da alive if he goes crazy? As long as that woman is alive, she will be as heavy as a mountain for Gao Da. If he wants to kill himself, he will have to think about it longer."

Even at this point, this inner court expert still wanted to capture Gao Da alive, after all, this was what Grand Scholar He had requested countless times. If Gao Da died, how could they blackmail Fan Xian? He Zongwei was still hoping to use Gao Da to sow discord between Fan Xian and His Majesty, but the inner court expert could not guess this.

Gao Da did not know how many people he had killed. He was like a mad tiger, covered in blood. Two of the three inner court experts had already been seriously injured by his heavy blows, and many officials of the Ministry of Justice had also died by his blade, but his blade was gradually cracking and the true energy in his body was about to run out.

Everyone could see that this ferocious criminal wanted by the court was finally about to collapse after the court had paid dozens of lives. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the Ministry of Justice's specially made anesthetic had also begun to be applied to the blades, ready for the final roundup.

Just then, a row of black carriages came down the official road. This row of carriages was very strange, dark and gloomy like people from the underworld. The row of carriages was extremely long, seemingly without end.

Gao Da cut off the right arm of a Thirteenth Office expert on his right, and suddenly felt his left knee soften. Knowing that it was the time when his lamp was about to run out of oil, he roared unwillingly and charged towards that row of carriages.

The officials chasing from behind were not nervous, nor were they worried about whether that row of carriages would suffer any collateral damage. They still approached unhurriedly.

In the black carriage, the Supervising Office official who was talking to the old man inside next to the window curtain, saw the lights of the city and a blood man at this time. His eyes became complicated.

It was not until the blood man ran close that this Supervising Office official saw clearly that this blood man was actually three people.

The Supervising Office official floated over and caught him at the moment the blood man fell to the ground. He raised an eyebrow, hoarsely and with suppressed excitement, said, "Gao Da, you kid actually got married."

Gao Da's blade was stuck in the ground. He was preparing to subdue this person as a hostage, but when he suddenly heard this joke, he looked up and saw a stranger.

The stranger was wearing a familiar official uniform. Gao Da's heart relaxed and he fell into the man's arms.