"We thought he was trying to make the Vanguard Commander jealous!"

Ji’an took a step back, raising her hands defensively. "Lady Meng, I implore you to lower your voice and seek psychiatric help—"

"But this!" Lady Meng interrupted, cutting Ji’an off entirely, her eyes shining with unshed tears of tragic narrative ecstasy. "This is so much worse! He’s not trying to make the Commander jealous! He is actively cheating on him! He has taken a gigolo!"

The word echoed off the cobblestones.

Gigolo...

Blue’s head snapped back to Ji’an, an expression of baffled outrage crossing his handsome features.

"A gigolo?!" Lady Meng’s companion gasped, clutching her pearls. "An exotic, wild, fiery-haired paramour from the borderlands! Oh, the tragedy! The Vanguard Commander fought a war for him, carried him from the banquet hall, declared his silent devotion to the world... and the Martial Uncle repays him by seeking solace in the arms of a rough, untamed mercenary!"

"The Commander’s heart will shatter!" another girl wailed, weeping openly into her sleeve. "He is too stoic! He will suffer this betrayal in silence! He will watch his beloved brother run away with a crimson-haired scoundrel, and he will bleed tears of ice!"

Ji’an completely stopped breathing.

Her soul, physically detached from her body, hovered over the market for three seconds of pure, existential agony, and then slammed back into her mortal shell with a violent surge of panic.

They weren’t just shipping her with her brother anymore.

They had integrated Blue into the narrative and created a toxic, tragic, NTR love triangle in the span of thirty seconds!

The merchants around them were whispering furiously.

A man selling steamed buns was actively taking notes.

A woman selling cabbages looked at Ji’an with an expression of judgmental disgust.

Ji’an looked at Blue.

The red-haired rogue was staring up at the balcony.

His fists were clenched so tightly his leather gloves were groaning under the strain.

The air around him was dropping in temperature, which was beginning to frost the cobblestones beneath his boots.

He looked as though he was half a second away from unleashing a catastrophic martial art to silence the gossip permanently.

’He’s going to kill them,’ Ji’an realized, recognizing the unmistakable aura of a powerful cultivator preparing to commit mass murder. ’He’s a rogue! He doesn’t care about imperial law! He’s going to slaughter the Prime Minister’s daughter, and I’m going to be an accessory to high treason!’

Ji’an didn’t have time to explain or defend her honor.

She acted on pure survival instinct.

"I am so sorry about this," Ji’an hissed to Blue.

Before the red-haired guy could even blink, Ji’an lunged forward.

She grabbed his large, cold hand in a vice-like grip.

"RUN!" Ji’an screamed.

The cobblestones beneath Ji’an’s boots literally exploded, sending a shower of obsidian stones flying into the air.

With a resounding BOOM, Ji’an launched herself forward, dragging the towering, red-haired rogue behind her with the strength of her Qi.

"What are you—?!" Blue choked out, completely caught off guard as he was violently yanked forward, his boots skidding across the pavement as he struggled to match her terrifying velocity.

"Don’t ask anything and don’t look back!" Ji’an roared, sprinting down the grand thoroughfare like a woman possessed by the God of Speed. "If they make eye contact, they’ll write a sequel! Keep moving!"

The escape was a chaotic disaster.

They tore through the Eastern Market like a hurricane as Ji’an ducked under a palanquin carrying a terrified noble.

She vaulted over a cart overflowing with cabbages, dragging Blue over the vegetables with her.

"My cabbages!" the merchant wailed as green leaves exploded into the air.

"Put it on the Lin Estate’s tab!" Ji’an yelled back, not slowing down for a microsecond.

Blue, despite being dragged like a kite in a hurricane, adapted with her speed soon.

After the initial shock, the rogue cultivator effortlessly adjusted his stride, matching her frantic, explosive pace.

He didn’t pull away.

In fact, his grip on her hand tightened, his long legs eating up the distance as they blurred past the colorful stalls and screaming pedestrians.

"They are fleeing!" Lady Meng’s amplified voice echoed behind them, growing fainter as they put distance between themselves and the silk pavilion. "The tragic lovers are escaping the crushing weight of imperial society! Oh, write this down! Write this down immediately!"

"I am going to burn this city to the ground," Ji’an sobbed, sprinting faster, the wind whipping her gray hood back to expose her panicked face.

They hit the outer perimeter of the market.

The towering iron gates of the Eastern Wall loomed ahead.

The Imperial City Guards stationed at the gate saw the blurred, gray-and-red streak hurtling toward them.

They raised their spears, preparing to shout a halt order.

Ji’an didn’t stop.

She reached into her robes with her free hand, pulled out the golden jade token signifying her status as a Lin family scion, and held it high above her head.

"Official Sect Business! Make way!" Ji’an roared, projecting her voice with a burst of Qi.

The guards took one look at the glowing token, one look at the terrifying speed of the approaching duo, and wisely threw themselves out of the way, plastering themselves against the stone archway.

Ji’an and Blue blasted through the eastern gates, leaving the polished obsidian cobblestones of the capital behind, their boots hitting the soft, packed dirt of the provincial borderlands.

They didn’t stop running until the towering black walls of the Azure Capital were a mile behind them, completely obscured by the rolling hills and dense pine forests of the outer territories.

Ji’an finally slowed her pace, her Wind-Step technique burning out.

She stumbled to a halt in a quiet, sun-dappled clearing surrounded by ancient weeping willows.

She let go of Blue’s hand, collapsing at the base of a massive willow tree.

She braced her hands on her knees, her chest heaving violently, gasping for air as if she had just sprinted up a mountain.