Chapter 255: The Miserable Wound
When Yun Ce left Hai Prefecture, snow was falling heavily.
He did not stay in Hai Prefecture to wait for the snow to end; instead, he braved the snow and left.
Just as Cao Kun had said, he came alone on one horse, and he left the same way: alone on one horse. A powerful person might be able to unscrupulously rampage, but that was really just unscrupulously rampaging. To gain real benefits through personal strength, without a powerful force backing him up, the things one person could do were very limited.
This time, the Cao Clan annexed three prefectures’ territory, so Cao Kun dared to pat Yun Ce on the shoulder and recruit him. That earlier bit of wariness had long since vanished like smoke after gaining three, or even four, prefectures’ territory.
Many times, having more people and larger territory was the embodiment of strength.
After the Cao Clan took time to fully integrate the six prefectures’ territory, the Cao Clan’s strength should increase by another three times.
Cao Kun stood on the city wall watching Yun Ce’s figure disappear into the blizzard.
Cao Ling couldn’t help but say, “His back really looks like a doggy.”
Cao Kun shook his head and said, “He is not a doggy; he should be a dragon. It’s just that this dragon is too lonely, stranded in shallow waters, toyed with by fish and shrimp like you.
He could actually return to the abyss, and once back in Chang’an, this dragon would have room to maneuver. Unfortunately, this is another stubborn dragon. He is unwilling to return to that abyss in Chang’an, unwilling to borrow the abyss’s waters, but instead diligently digs the ground north of the Great Wall with his claws, hoping to dig it into an abyss.
1 A Ling, people who are too proud can’t achieve great things. Yun Ce is just like that; he looks down on everyone around him too much.”
1 Cao Ling frowned and said, “He actually dares to look down on the Eldest Son?”
1 Cao Kun sighed and said, “He has never looked up to anyone of the Great Han.”
1 “Including a close relative like the High Priest?”
1 “Including the High Priest!”
1 Their words had just left their mouths when they were blown away by the wind. Some went to the sky, some fell to the ground, just like the snow. When the weather warmed up, they would disappear.
1 No matter how great the blizzard, it could not block the hooves of the red date horse. No matter how cold the blizzard, it could not make Yun Ce feel the slightest chill.
1 “So, does our Shehuo have no ideas about Hai Prefecture’s Shehuo?”
1 Doggy said, “Last time it was scared badly. When you went to the Dragon God Hall in Hai Prefecture at night, Shehuo shrank itself into a candle flame, seemingly not wanting Hai Prefecture’s Shehuo to detect its existence.”
1 Yun Ce sighed and said, “We still need to find a way. Only when our Shehuo becomes powerful will we be truly powerful. Like the Cao Clan occupying a few more pieces of territory—that kind of power doesn’t really count.”
2 Doggy shook his head and said, “There’s no way, unless we can find new high-density energy material. The radioactive source at Cao Kun’s place can no longer provide more energy to Shehuo.
2 I think the Gui Fang people should have some, and even the Black Wind Great King that gives the Gui Fang people such headaches should have some. Unfortunately, we have no connections.”
2 Listening to Doggy’s nagging words, Yun Ce shook the snow off his cloak and also patted the snow off the red date horse’s head and neck. This way, the black cloak and red warhorse became much more conspicuous in the flying snow.
2 On snowy days, the sky gets especially dark early. Originally, the red date horse had no problem continuing to travel at night, and Yun Ce was not worried about freezing.
2 But seeing that it was getting dark, he had no mood to continue traveling, so by a riverbank, he prepared to camp. Of course, it was mainly because he had picked up a few flying birds frozen hard in the flying snow.
2 The military camping tent brought from the ancestral land was as reliable as ever. The seemingly thin tent blocked the wind and snow. After Yun Ce lit a small stove, the temperature inside the tent rose quickly.
2 Doggy now had no complaints about handling chores like preparing flying birds. Yun Ce’s appetite had been huge lately; four flying birds weighing five or six pounds each probably still wouldn’t fill him up.
2 So after Yun Ce chopped up the four birds and put them in a pot to stew soup, he took out another pot to steam a pot of delicious rice.
2 This pot naturally couldn’t use firewood underneath. Lighting the stove earlier was for the camping atmosphere, and having a faint firewood smell in the tent was part of camping.
2 Too much firewood smell would affect the camping experience, so Shehuo was taken out by Doggy and placed under the pot. Don’t underestimate that it was just a candle flame; in moments, the water in the rice pot started gulu gulu bubbling.
3 There was plenty of time, and Yun Ce was not in a hurry to eat, so whether it was the rice or the bird soup, it had to reach the best taste to be worthy of the blizzard outside the tent.
3 The red date horse always used its mouth to pull open the tent zipper and stick its head in, and the heat that had just built up quickly dissipated. Finally, Yun Ce simply let the red date horse into the tent and gave it a basin of beans to chew slowly by itself.
3 Once the red date horse entered the tent and lay down, more than half the space was gone, leaving Yun Ce little room to turn around. But he didn’t need it; leaning against the warm back of the red date horse, he waited for the bird soup and rice to finish.
3 Doggy, who had been holding the rice pot being roasted by Shehuo, suddenly said, “Something is coming.”
3 Yun Ce said, “Can it be eaten or not?”
3 One sentence revealed the majesty of the king of beasts without doubt.
3 Doggy said doubtfully, “Somewhere between edible and inedible.”
3 Yun Ce fished a piece of bird meat from the pot and tossed it into his mouth. After chewing twice, he spat out a small bone and casually said, “Somewhere between edible and inedible—that means it’s a spirit.
3 No need to bother with it. If it doesn’t provoke me, I won’t provoke it.”
3 Things in the world are strangely like this: whenever you say you don’t want trouble, trouble always finds its way to you.
4 Just as Yun Ce was about to pour a full pot of bird soup into the rice pot for a hearty meal, his tent was flipped over by a huge claw, which then casually tossed the tent aside.
4 Yun Ce, who had just poured the bird soup into the rice pot, stared blankly at the tent rolling away with the wind until it rolled into a dense forest. Only then did he turn his gaze to the black shadow in front of him.
4 Feeling the temperature of the scalding rice pot rapidly dropping, Yun Ce annoyedly set down the rice pot and continued looking at the huge black shadow in front of him.
4 Doggy used a tentacle to pick up a still-burning piece of firewood and tossed it into the high altitude. Only then did Yun Ce see clearly that the black shadow in front of him was actually a bear spirit.
4 It was only the second complete evolution bear spirit Yun Ce had seen.
4 He felt that he had been camping peacefully in the snowstorm, enjoying life, and hadn’t offended this bear spirit. He couldn’t figure out why it had flipped his tent.
4 Just as he was about to kill this bear spirit and use its hide to rebuild a campsite, the bear spirit’s knees buckled, and it actually knelt before him.
4 Just as Yun Ce was about to spare it for being relatively polite, the bear spirit’s massive upper body came pressing toward him.
4 Yun Ce quickly picked up the pot and retreated rapidly, watching as the bear spirit’s huge body crushed the campfire.
4 At the same time, Yun Ce saw a extremely gruesome wound on the bear spirit’s back.
5 The wound was called gruesome mainly because it gaped open like a huge mouth, revealing the stark white bones inside and teeth-like things. The most gruesome part was that this wound kept opening and closing, as if lamenting its own misery.
5 The bear spirit had probably fallen into a deep sleep.
5 The red date horse brought back the rolled-away tent from the forest side. Yun Ce checked it and found the damage wasn’t severe, so he re-pitched the tent beside the bear spirit. With such a huge meat mountain blocking the wind, Yun Ce felt he should first save his bird soup rice.
5 The snow continued falling, very heavily. According to Yun Ce’s estimate, such heavy snow should be disastrous. This wasn’t snow that should fall in a Shehuo-protected area.
5 Charcoal fire roasted the bottom of the pot, and the bird soup in the pot was gulu gulu bubbling.
5 Bird soup rice, of course, tasted best right after mixing. Reheating it a second time would make the perfectly steamed rice soggy, losing some chewiness.
5 Glancing at the bird soup rice, then at the sweetly sleeping bear spirit with its head at the tent entrance, and finally at the dark red charcoal fire, Yun Ce’s eyes suddenly lit up. He handed the pot to Doggy, leaped onto the bear spirit’s back, and soon returned with a nice piece of loin meat ringed with fat in his hand.
5 Doggy quickly sliced the loin meat into thin slices, placing them one by one on the charcoal fire. The fat-rich loin meat curled up upon meeting the charcoal fire. Yun Ce urged Doggy to add seasoning while shoveling bird soup rice into his mouth with a spoon.
5 After eating half a pot of bird soup rice in a row, Doggy’s tentacle delivered a piece of golden-roasted meat slice to Yun Ce’s mouth. He opened his mouth, and the slice went in. His tongue stirred a few times, then his teeth sheared it, and Yun Ce happily sent that extremely flavorful piece of meat into his stomach.
5 With roasted meat supplied, Yun Ce naturally alternated bites of bird soup rice and meat. By the time he finished the full pot of bird soup rice, almost no roasted meat was left. The last slice went into his stomach, and Yun Ce contentedly stroked his belly, saying to Doggy, “It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten so comfortably.”
6 Doggy said, “Your body is still severely depleted and needs major replenishment. Although this bear spirit’s meat doesn’t contain much energy, it’s not comparable to ordinary food. You should cut more and save it to eat slowly.”
6 Yun Ce stroked his belly and said, “I already cut three times earlier. Cutting again might be impolite, after all, this guy is still alive.”
6 Doggy waved its tentacles and said, “With such a huge wound on its back, it won’t mind it being a bit bigger. Wait, I’ll cut some more. You need to properly replenish your losses, or when you go back, your wife might see you aged several years and not even recognize you.”
6 Yun Ce watched Doggy leave the Dragon Pearl, its eight legs quickly climbing onto the giant bear’s body. Soon it returned, bringing back over a hundred pounds of meat. It was just that this meat wasn’t as nice-looking as what Yun Ce had cut earlier.
6 Unknowingly, the snowstorm stopped, and the full moon emerged from behind the clouds, illuminating the ground very brightly. Yun Ce huddled in his sleeping bag, leaning against the red date horse, sleeping very soundly. The giant bear’s body was covered in snow, but in the snow was a wound even more gruesome and sorrowful than before, silently complaining to the full moon.
6 No matter what is said, it’s just an excuse. No need for reasons—anyway, it’s my fault. Sorry, give me some time to adjust. Thank you.
