บท 194: Beauty Saves Beauty
"General Budo, are you alright?" The guards who had rushed to the scene hurried over to him.
"Send out the soldiers and search the entire capital. We must find that woman," Budo pushed away the guard who tried to help him, a cold glint flashing in his sharp eyes. He snorted, "She dared to take my Thunder Condensed Beam head-on; she must be injured and can't have gone far."
"Yes, sir!"
Meanwhile, Kaguya limped away, her face filled with frustration. She muttered, "That damn old man, I didn't expect him to be so treacherous. I really miscalculated."
Kaguya hadn't expected Budo to unleash his ultimate attack right away, like opening a battle with a grand move. She had misjudged the situation, and in her haste, used her eye technique to absorb Budo's Thunder Condensed Beam. Although she managed to absorb the lightning completely, her body became momentarily stiff afterward. This momentary stiffness caused her to sprain her ankle when she jumped down from the wall, as the usual protective force didn't take effect.
This was truly embarrassing. As the great Kaguya, she had made such a rookie mistake.
Fortunately, her speculation was correct: her mutated eye technique could indeed absorb energy; otherwise, it would have been more than just a sprained ankle.
If she had died, it would have been even more laughable: the first princess in imperial history to be killed foolishly by a general, becoming a joke in the annals of history.
The sprain severely slowed Kaguya's progress, while the imperial forces conducted a citywide search, placing the entire city under martial law. Her limping made her particularly conspicuous. Although she had managed to evade several rounds of searches using her agility, the search radius was gradually narrowing and getting closer to her position.
Kaguya could easily deal with them all, even if the Four Rakshasa Demons came; she was confident she could destroy them. However, doing so would alert the minister's forces to her capabilities, and she was not ready to confront them directly yet.
Truly, the mighty can fall from grace and be bullied by lesser foes.
Typically, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's body had extraordinary recovery abilities, and minor injuries like this would not have occurred. However, possibly due to the suppression of her powers, her ankle was recovering but not as quickly as before. Since it was a ligament injury, it would take one or two hours to heal completely.
In others' eyes, this was already remarkable but for Kaguya, it was far from enough. She was used to the best, and settling for less was hard to swallow.
Kaguya hid in a small alley in a poor neighborhood. It was a place where impoverished families lived, appearing rundown and messy. Unlike the tall buildings in the center of the capital, the houses here were low, mostly made of bricks and wood, showing signs of wear and age, with some already rotting.
The people here were generally thin and frail, especially the children, who looked malnourished and sickly as they gazed fearfully at the soldiers in the distance.
Kaguya frowned slightly, understanding why the citizens were so frightened. Although the soldiers were searching for her, some were taking advantage of the situation. They might arrest someone arbitrarily and accuse them of being a suspect, then demand ransom. If the ransom wasn't paid, they would be imprisoned, and it was rare for anyone to emerge from jail once inside.
The empire had clearly rotted to its core, teetering on the brink of collapse. How could this twilight nation rise again under her leadership?
She felt a heavy burden, and the sounds of doors being broken down, citizens' cries and screams, and the soldiers' laughter only added to her anxiety.
As Kaguya was about to intervene, a hand reached out from the shadows, and her eyes narrowed, preparing to counter. But sensing no malice, she allowed the hand to grab her.
"Don't speak, follow me," said a voice. Without waiting for a response, the person pulled Kaguya further into the alley.
The person was a beautiful young woman with long golden hair, tall and curvaceous, with an impressive figure and long legs.
From Kaguya's keen observation, she realized this was no ordinary girl. She possessed a strength that was rare for ordinary people, although it didn't compare to Kaguya's.
The golden-haired girl led Kaguya into a small alley, where the path ended in a dead end.
Kaguya's mouth twitched. Was she about to be robbed? Robbing her of her virtue seemed unlikely, but robbing her of money was futile as she hadn't brought much in her haste. Her purse had been lost during the fight with Budo, which she had only just realized.
While she remained on guard, the golden-haired girl searched the dead-end wall as if looking for something.
Suddenly, her eyes brightened as she reached down and tapped a brick in the lower right corner a few times. With a few creaks and groans, a hidden door in the wall opened.
"Don't just stand there, move!" The golden-haired girl grabbed Kaguya's hand and rushed inside. Once they were through, the wall closed behind them.
Inside was a tunnel stretching deep into the earth, shrouded in darkness with no light or illumination, silent and eerie.
"Be careful and follow me closely," the golden-haired girl whispered.
"Okay."
Kaguya nodded lightly. In truth, she had no trouble seeing in the dark, thanks to her eye technique. Though her overall strength was suppressed, her eye abilities seemed unaffected, allowing her to see the dark passage as if it were daylight.
"Alright, we're finally here," the golden-haired girl sighed in relief, gently pushing open the wall to reveal the bright sunlight streaming in, dispelling the tunnel's darkness.
As they stepped outside, Kaguya found herself in a lush forest, filled with vibrant greenery, birds chirping, and flowers blooming, exuding peace and tranquility. In the distance, she could see the tall towers of the capital, indicating they had reached the outskirts of the city.
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