Chapter 273: Give Me Your Horse
“Hurrr…”
The Red Date Horse responded with a snort.
Yun Ce said to Doggy, “Can you also transform into a human form?”
Doggy said, “As long as I find the right material, I can make a body for myself.”
Yun Ce said, “I mean a real human form.”
Doggy said, “I’m a silicon-based lifeform, you know that, right?”
Yun Ce said, “I know.”
“Then, tell me, how the hell can a silicon-based lifeform turn into a carbon-based one?”
“Forget I said anything.”
“Why did Wu Tong deceive you, exactly?”
1 “I think their target is the High Priest. After all, the place they deceived E Ji and the others into going was the Dragon God Hall. The Ancestral Fire is eternal and can’t be dealt with, so the only one who can be dealt with is the High Priest.”
1 “Logically speaking, you should support Wu Tong and his group.”
1 “Don’t joke. Compared to them, I trust Miss Hong more. This is something our stance decided long ago.”
1 “Alright, stance is important.”
1 “Actually, it’s not that stance is important, but the ultimate goal this stance aims to achieve is important. The Grand Marshal hopes for peace to replace the Great Han, Wu Tong and his group hope to revive the Great Han, and Miss Hong and her group want to overthrow the Great Han.
1 Among these three stances, the one closest to us is Miss Hong’s. It’s just that after Miss Hong and her group overthrow the Great Han, they plan to establish a new dynasty that gives the common people at the bottom a way to survive.
1 On this point, we differ greatly from them. What we must do is end the feudal dynasty and establish a new country where the masses are the masters of the house.”
1 Doggy said, “The Grand Marshal has the most supporters, Wu Tong and these reformists aren’t few in number either, Miss Hong and her group are few in number but have many potential allies. Only you have no one to help.”
1 Yun Ce laughed and said, “Back then on the red boat, there were only 13 people, representing 50 across the nation. Now we have over a hundred people, representing seventy thousand. The situation is much better than at the ancestral land.”
1 Doggy said, “You can say that, but you know the actual situation yourself.”
2 Yun Ce certainly understood. Mass foundation was a big problem. Those three groups all had vast mass foundations, but he did not.
2 Talking about these things made the future seem bleak. Neither Yun Ce nor Doggy wanted to talk about it. For many things, it was better to just bury one’s head and do them without looking up. Looking up too many times would only lead to disappointment or despair.
2 The Red Date Horse had drunk too much tea and was extremely spirited at night. It didn’t sleep, disturbing Yun Ce so he couldn’t sleep either. With no other choice, he packed up the tent and continued on his way riding the Red Date Horse.
2 By dawn, the Great Wall had disappeared from sight, and the mountains gradually became lower. Between the hills, some market towns began to appear.
2 The people in the market towns basically lived by gathering and hunting, just like in Hekou Village. Poverty was the main tone here, and self-sufficiency was the characteristic.
2 With these first two characteristics, closed-off, ignorant, and indifferent became the way of life for the people here.
2 Fortunately, they had entered the territory of Xinping Prefecture, only three hundred li from Liangzhou, less than half a day’s journey for the Red Date Horse.
2 On the main road to Liang City, Yun Ce saw many people dressed as wandering knights, both men and women. Some had pretty good martial arts. Among them, there were fifteen or sixteen who caught Doggy’s interest, and three warriors who caught Doggy’s great interest.
2 Yun Ce was different from them. He was now riding a Thunder Smoke Beast, with a long sword at his waist, a horse spear hanging, and a book in his hand. He read while reciting aloud, clearly a scholar on a study tour.
2 Scholars of the Great Han rode horses, drove carriages, wielded swords, used spears, and were proficient in bow hunting. Of course, when facing danger, they could occasionally disguise themselves as knight-errants or bandits, which wasn’t impossible—especially for scholars bold enough to travel alone on horseback for study tours. Sometimes they even liked to rob in reverse.
3 Therefore, despite the awkward way the Red Date Horse ran, no one harassed this person who liked to read while bouncing along on the back of the leaping Thunder Smoke Beast.
3 In the afternoon, Yun Ce arrived at a place called Qianjiaji, less than twenty li from Liang City. Like the market near Xiangcheng, it was the first pass of the city.
3 Anyone wanting to enter Liang City had to stay overnight at Qianjiaji first, wait for the government officials to finish checking the travel permits, and only then could enter Liang City the next day.
3 Caravans stopped at Qianjiaji to pass inspection and pay taxes. Knight-errants stopped at Qianjiaji to pass inspection and get verified. Scholars like Yun Ce only needed to pass inspection at Qianjiaji.
3 Therefore, the price for staying one night at the guesthouses in Qianjiaji was ridiculously expensive. Actually, it wasn’t just the guesthouses; the prices of all things sold here were outrageously high.
3 As a result, caravan members camped in the wild, and poor knight-errants camped in the wild too. Yun Ce, this scholar, to maintain the face of his noble clan, tossed out a gold bead and obtained an elegant room.
3 Originally, Yun Ce planned to sleep in this room himself and let the Red Date Horse sleep in the stable. But after entering the room and smelling a stench of horse manure, he changed his mind and brought the Red Date Horse in to sleep together.
3 He thought he’d have to argue with the guesthouse shopkeeper, but unexpectedly, the man acted as if it were nothing unusual and immediately agreed. He even sent a shop assistant to deliver Yun Ce’s meal and the Red Date Horse’s horse feed to the room together.
3 The Red Date Horse was a clean horse. Yun Ce took out the Shehuo, lit a fire in the room, and the smell of horse manure and some other strange odors immediately disappeared.
3 Doggy muttered something in Yun Ce’s head, but he didn’t catch what it said. Seeing the whole room become clean, Yun Ce lay down on the bed fully clothed. As for the meal sent by the guesthouse, Yun Ce didn’t eat a bite, and of course the Red Date Horse didn’t eat the horse feed they sent either.
4 The Red Date Horse really wanted to sleep on the bed with Yun Ce. Seeing no invitation, it bit a blanket out of the bag, spread it on the ground, and before sleeping, didn’t forget to nudge Yun Ce’s shoe sole with its hoof. This time Yun Ce didn’t move. Doggy extended a tentacle to tuck it in with the blanket.
4 Sleeping in such a guesthouse, though his eyes saw nothing, his ears heard a whole night of the world’s sounds. The neighbor to the left had a man and woman making love all night. Whether it was the man’s thrusting force, the woman’s delicate responses, or their coordination in timing, it was all top-notch. No wonder they dared to act so boldly; it left people envious with nothing else to say.
4 The neighbor to the right was more unusual. Yun Ce listened to the sound of a whip lashing a human body all night. He could tell the one being beaten was a man, and it wasn’t some playful trick—it was real interrogation and torture. Yun Ce heard more than once someone ask in a lowered voice where He Junnian was.
4 The man in the room across snored like thunder, while the people in the room behind seemed to be fiddling with an abacus; the sound of bamboo chips scattering and gathering continued all night.
4 Fortunately, before dawn, all the sounds stopped, and Yun Ce could finally sleep without covering his ears.
4 Just as he relaxed and prepared to catch up on sleep, his gate was violently smashed open. A strong man in apricot-yellow clothes flew into the room along with the shattered wooden door.
4 Immediately, three more strong men rushed into his room. Before the fallen strong man could get up, the three charged forward and gave him a beating with roundhouse kicks. They kicked hard, each strike aimed at the strong man’s vital points.
4 Yun Ce sat on the bed hugging the blanket, watching wide-eyed as the strong man went from begging for mercy to falling silent. Yun Ce said not a word in between. The Red Date Horse also raised its long neck, watching the violence before it, seemingly a bit scared as it pressed its long face against the edge of Yun Ce’s bed.
4 Of the four who came in, one was kicked to death. Two dragged the corpse out of the room. The last one leaving politely closed the doorless gate for him, leaving only a thick, heavy bloodstain for Yun Ce.
4 Sleep was impossible now. Yun Ce threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and prepared to demand his room money back from the shopkeeper. Whoever wanted to stay in such a guesthouse could; he wasn’t staying.
5 In the front hall, he saw the shopkeeper dozing over the counter. Yun Ce told him about his experience and demanded his lodging fee back. The result was predictable.
5 “Guest, do you know why they didn’t kill you after killing him?”
5 Faced with the shopkeeper’s meaningful warning, Yun Ce was startled. He raised his hand in salute, asked no more about his room money, and hurriedly left the guesthouse with the Red Date Horse.
5 The shopkeeper was quite satisfied with this young scholar’s perceptiveness, feeling he had once again kindly saved a young man. He couldn’t help sighing, slightly reproaching himself for his own goodness.
5 Qianjiaji’s fortified gate facing Liang City hadn’t opened yet, nor had the officers for verifying travel permits. Yun Ce naturally couldn’t leave Qianjiaji. After looking around for a while, he led the Red Date Horse slightly closer to a bearded man dozing under a tree, stopped three zhang away, took a cushion from the leather pouch on the horse’s back and threw it on the ground, sat on it, and imitated the bearded man by closing his eyes in feigned sleep.
5 Doggy said urgently, “You could get closer. This would be tantamount to offending him. He’ll challenge you, then you’ll counterattack, and finally I’ll drain your internal breath. Do you think doing this is above your moral bottom line?”
5 Yun Ce said, “This man looks like a real hero. Let’s not mess with him.”
5 Doggy said regretfully, “A guy with Thousand-man General level cultivation. We haven’t encountered many like that before.”
5 “Sleep. After daybreak, we’ll head to Liang City.”
5 Seeing he couldn’t persuade Yun Ce to suddenly attack, Doggy obediently shut up and continued calculating the star map it could never finish.
6 When the sky was slightly bright, the bearded man nearby opened his eyes. He first glanced at the Red Date Horse that kept hopping like a rabbit, watched for a long time, then finally turned his gaze to Yun Ce, who had also opened his eyes.
6 “This Thunder Smoke Beast of yours is quite majestic, young man.”
6 Seeing the man ask, Yun Ce smiled and said, “It didn’t go through the Beast Supervision’s reform and instead damaged its brain. Now it’s just barely rideable.”
6 The bearded man stood up, and Yun Ce realized this guy was over two meters tall, with an extremely oppressive presence.
6 “Give this beast to me. Maybe I can get it back to normal.”
