Chapter 186: Shehuo, A Beautiful Symbolism
The people Cao Kun called over mostly arrived by Albatross, and a few younger ones nearby came on Thunder Smoke Beasts.
As the giant Albatrosses slowly landed, Yun Ce inexplicably thought of the scene of various deities riding cranes and dragons to gather at the Heavenly Palace for the Queen Mother’s birthday banquet.
Not to mention anything else, the nobles of the Great Han knew better than the nobles of any era Yun Ce knew how to make themselves appear more noble than others.
Originally, Yun Ce thought that “wearing feathered robes and a crane cloak” was an exaggerated adjective, but he didn’t expect to see it today; after putting on such clothes, they truly looked like deities.
The guys who rode Thunder Smoke Beasts were different; they dressed themselves up like heroes. They knew they had no Albatrosses to ride, but the impression they gave was that they had Albatrosses at home but disdained to ride them, preferring the feeling of riding horses since birth.
He thought these people would definitely complain about the Yun Clan’s poverty, but unexpectedly, they all appeared very peaceful and showed great goodwill towards Yun Ce.
Of course, this was mainly because Yun Ce gave everyone a copy of *The Art of War* as soon as they met.
*The Art of War* is Liang Kun’s favorite book. He believes that such excellent military works should be owned by everyone. Only when everyone masters military strategy will the world become peaceful, somewhat embodying the idea of using killing to stop killing, and it aligns with the notion of Americans having a gun in every household on Earth.
To this end, inspired by Yun Ce, Liang Kun personally carved a woodblock edition of *The Art of War* and printed five hundred copies for the Yun Clan at one go.
He also told Yun Ce that selling books was much better than selling White Paper.
Yun Ce felt that what Liang Kun said was very true. Currently, under Liang Kun’s leadership, the scholars sent by Cao Kun were tirelessly carving templates day and night, with preliminary progress already made on the Four Books and Five Classics.
Tomorrow is the Shehuo Festival, so today, the Scions of nobility invited by Cao Kun naturally enjoyed the Yun Clan’s famous Meals and magical Baths.
Although they liked the Yun Clan’s Meals and expressed some joy about the Baths, Yun Ce could still discern from their words that they were still very shocked by the Yun Clan’s poverty.
Especially when they heard Cao Kun say that to support the Refugees and Slaves, Yun Ce and his wife only had one jin of Wheat or Beans for their daily food, their words of admiration flowed incessantly. If only their eyes didn’t carry such a strong look of seeing an idiot, it would have been even better.
“Refugees and slaves are as numerous as hemp, how did you, Brother Yun, come to this point?”
In the end, it was a naive young scion of nobility who asked the question in his heart.
“My Wife is kind-hearted and cannot bear to see poor people.” Yun Ce felt quite favorable towards this naive noble; at least, among this pack of wolves, there was a Husky, which made him feel quite happy.
“Oh my, how can you allow a woman to interfere in a man’s affairs like this?”
“You are still young and haven’t truly fallen in love with someone yet. If you truly meet the person you like, you will know that you would do anything for her.”
“If you like her, you can just give her more money…”
Well, this was also a guy who had been heavily poisoned by Great Han male chauvinism, basically beyond reform. After thousands of years, these guys had lost the ability to truly love someone. It was probably because of the “Beauty Misleads the Nation” theory brought by Huo Qubing that their ability to love someone was castrated.
Speaking of which, if not for those few descriptions of beauties misleading the nation in China’s History Books, the entire history book would appear dark and devoid of any other color.
Cao Kun, without any hesitation, told the invited nobles that in the first Eddy Bay of Qingshui River, there were eleven Elephant Pigs. It was strange for these eleven Elephant Pigs to remain in the small Eddy Bay, and he wanted to investigate. He hoped all the brothers present would participate, and the benefits would be shared equally.
This was entirely the tone of a big brother leading the way.
After he finished speaking, he looked left and right, as if he was about to say, “Who agrees, who opposes?”
However, there was no need to say that sentence; his gaze had already clearly expressed it.
After waiting for a moment, Cao Kun saw that no one objected and began to issue orders grandly: which family would provide how many people, which family would provide how many weapons, who would be responsible for digging traps, and who would be responsible for chains…
Yun Ce was naturally assigned the task of digging traps, cleaning up the battlefield afterward, and butchering the Elephant Pig meat, along with other miscellaneous tasks. Although there were many tasks, none of them involved risking his life on the front lines.
However, the Yun Clan’s Strength was evident. With women and children all over the mountains and plains, what use were they? They weren’t even enough for an Elephant Pig to step on.
He had initially thought Cao Kun was just talking without action, but after this man roughly assigned tasks and began to break them down, explaining the goals for each task, even Yun Ce had to admit that this guy had some substance.
At least, his arrangements for capturing Elephant Pigs were detailed and thoughtful. It was only after hearing his explanation that Yun Ce learned that the traps for capturing Elephant Pigs did not need to be dug seven or eight meters deep, but rather small pits one meter in diameter and no more than one meter deep. These small pits served two purposes: one was to slow down the Elephant Pigs’ running speed, and the other was to break their hooves.
The only drawback was that a relatively large number of these pits were needed, and the Yun Clan had plenty of people, which was perfect for this task.
By the time the tasks were arranged, it was already late at night. Before the discussion began, Cao Kun had already sent people to scout the Eddy Bay of Qingshui River.
When the discussion was over and the scouts returned, they looked quite miserable. They said that there were indeed an unknown number of Elephant Pigs in the Eddy Bay, but these Elephant Pigs were extremely violent. Even the slightest disturbance would cause them to charge out en masse, and they would not stop until the invading enemy was killed.
Therefore, out of the ten people Cao Kun sent out, only four and a half returned; the half was a guy whose legs had been trampled into mud by an Elephant Pig.
After the injured warriors were carried away, Yun Ce said to Cao Kun, “After the festival, I will accompany you to the Eddy Bay.”
Cao Kun laughed, “Can you defeat an adult Elephant Pig?”
Yun Ce shook his head, “No, but because I previously killed a young beast and trapped an adult Elephant Pig, if I accompany you, and the Elephant Pigs break free and attack, we will split up and run. The Elephant Pigs will definitely chase me and let you go.”
Cao Kun was deeply moved. He patted Yun Ce heavily on the shoulder and then said to the other scions of nobility, “In the future, when my brother needs your help, consider it as if I, Cao Kun, am asking you directly.”
The scions of nobility all rose to agree, and many were moved to tears by the pure friendship between Yun Ce and Cao Kun.
Yun Ce didn’t know if the friendship was pure or not; he only knew that if he didn’t show up during Cao Kun’s hunt, the guy would definitely hold a grudge.
To accommodate these scions of nobility, Yun Ce specifically cleared out the entire Hot Spring area for them and assigned a large number of Maidservants to take care of them.
There was no other choice; Yun Ce couldn’t send An Ji and the others, and he couldn’t let these dandies feel that the Yun Clan had mistreated them, so he had to rely on numbers.
The Maidservants of the Yun Clan were not particularly attractive. Their only notable advantage was their cleanliness and their ability to serve people. While the dandies enjoyed their service, they wouldn’t spare them a second glance. However, they would likely not be stingy with rewards, otherwise, it would be a loss of face for the dandies.
After midnight, Yun Ce locked himself in an empty room and had E Ji, holding a Milk Dog, guard the door, forbidding anyone from entering.
According to the Doggy, the Shehuo had long wanted to go out and stroll. During the time when the Shehuo Festival had already begun, Yun Ce wanted as much freedom as possible.
When a Candle Flame lit up inside the room, a light yellow halo slowly spread outwards in a ring shape. However, the further out it went, the fainter the color became, eventually fading until it was indistinguishable from the moonlight, merging together.
The first person to sense the presence of the Shehuo was Cao Kun. As the halo passed over him, Cao Kun, who was receiving a foot massage from two Maidservants, sat up abruptly, reached out and pressed in the air, then retracted his fingers in confusion, lightly rubbing his thumb and index finger together, and dismissed the Maidservants.
The Guard leader, Cao Ling, immediately entered. Cao Kun said, “Did you feel the presence of the Shehuo?”
Cao Ling shook his head in confusion, “Our Shehuo doesn’t cover this area.”
Cao Kun also said with confusion, “I know that too, but just now, I truly felt the presence of the Shehuo. This feeling is exactly the same as the one in Huaiyang Prefecture.”
After speaking, he closed his eyes and continued to feel the warmth brought by the Shehuo. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, “I can’t feel it anymore. Perhaps it was the power of the Ancestral Fire coincidentally passing by here.”
Cao Kun was only familiar with the Energy of the Shehuo, which gave him some sensation. Yun Ce’s situation was different; as the halo of the Shehuo spread out, he felt a strong connection to the Ground through the cluster of Shehuo on his fingertips.
This was a feeling he had never experienced before. Through the Shehuo, Yun Ce felt as if his Soul had departed, lightly floating over the courtyard wall, over the Camp, over the treetops, and then circling down along the treetops. After pausing briefly on a pair of squirrels sleeping soundly, he burrowed into the Ground.
It was cold and damp beneath the Ground, and green grass was sprouting. After being gently touched by the Shehuo, the sprouting green grass suddenly emerged from the Ground to receive the cold radiance of the Full Moon.
Yun Ce wanted to use the Shehuo to look at people, but the Shehuo was very disobedient; it liked Trees, Grasslands, Squirrels, and the Insects beneath the grass.
It just didn’t like people very much.
Even though Yun Ce tried hard to get the Shehuo to go to Cao Kun and the others, the Shehuo burrowed into a fish’s body and swam happily in the water.
A fish leaped out of the water under the light of the Full Moon and joyfully swished its tail a few times under the big Moon. It was at this moment that Yun Ce saw several figures as tall as mountains. They stood by the river, gazing silently at the water.
A Doggy can’t keep anything in its belly; it wants to let it out as soon as it gets it.
