Chapter 50: Fierce Battle
“Come out and face your death, you dog thief!”
The voice boomed like thunder, and the slaves all covered their ears. Even the Thunder Smoke Beast beside him stamped its hooves and retreated.
A pig head suddenly emerged from the darkness and appeared right in front of Peng Zeng. A very good-looking fist grew from small to large and finally landed on Peng Zeng’s face.
With a “crack,” Peng Zeng’s robust body flew backward, smashing into five or six slaves who were watching the spectacle, before landing on the ground, unconscious.
Yun Ce didn’t care about Peng Zeng flying away. He wiped the sweat from his palms and carefully reached toward the Red Date Horse.
This time, the Red Date Horse didn’t commit suicide, nor did it glance at Peng Zeng who had been knocked unconscious. Seeing Yun Ce touch it, it brought its long face over, appearing extremely docile.
After confirming that the horse wouldn’t commit suicide, Yun Ce fished out a two-catty gold ingot from the unconscious Peng Zeng’s bosom. Earlier, when he had sent the guy flying, he had wanted to follow up with a punch to the chest, but when his fist touched the chest, he suddenly felt something was off and pulled his fist back. Unexpectedly, it was a long, bar-shaped gold ingot.
Yun Ce put away the gold ingot and once again approached the Red Date Horse, extending his arm to touch its cheek. The Red Date Horse lowered its head and affectionately rubbed its long face against Yun Ce’s face.
The temperament of a tamed horse is basically docile. Yun Ce still couldn’t figure out how Peng Zeng’s horse had been so fierce.
Carefully mounting the horse, he lightly shook the reins, and the Red Date Horse obediently followed his guidance into the darkness.
1 Yun Ce left, leaving Peng Zeng behind.
1 The slaves first watched from afar, then, seeing Peng Zeng motionless, drew closer. Upon approaching and still seeing him motionless, someone began throwing clods of dirt at Peng Zeng. Seeing him still motionless, they all rushed forward and surrounded him completely.
1 When the crowd dispersed, Peng Zeng had been stripped stark naked, curled up on the ground, with only his slightly rising and falling chest showing that he was alive.
1 The slaves who got the spoils ran off out of sight. At that moment, a pitch-black figure crawled out from a haystack by the roadside. He slowly moved to Peng Zeng’s side, tore off his own filthy and tattered clothes, and pressed his ice-cold body tightly against Peng Zeng’s back, wrapping his arms around his chest and sincerely sighing— so warm…
1 Clop clop went the horse hooves…
1 On the deserted horse path at night, the Red Date Horse was galloping wildly, its long mane raised high, tail straight back. Yun Ce, riding on the Red Date Horse’s back, could clearly feel the movement of its muscles as the wind whistled past his ears, and the trees on both sides of the road flashed by rapidly.
1 Based on experience, Yun Ce reckoned that at this moment, the Red Date Horse’s speed had exceeded a hundred kilometers per hour. Horses on Earth couldn’t run this fast—top speed of eighty or ninety kilometers per hour, maintainable for just a few seconds at most.
1 Now, riding the Red Date Horse, he had already run at a hundred kilometers per hour for half an hour, and the Red Date Horse showed no signs of exhaustion, still galloping hard.
1 It wasn’t that Yun Ce insisted on it running so fast; the Red Date Horse seemed to want to run faster itself. Yun Ce was excited by the rapid gallop, and the Red Date Horse seemed even more excited.
1 “Fine steeds in the world mostly end up humiliated in the hands of slaves.” Yun Ce thought this saying was very true.
2 The Red Date Horse didn’t know how many laps it ran on the horse paths in the city before stopping in front of a winery that was still open.
2 Yun Ce looked up at the wine banner, then at the torch inserted into the stone pillar at the entrance, chuckling as he stroked the Red Date Horse’s sweat-covered big head. He hadn’t expected this one to be a drinker too.
2 However, horses metabolize alcohol poorly, so Yun Ce had no intention of letting it drink.
2 Lightly salted water was more suitable for it.
2 So, Yun Ce ordered himself some ice-cold rice wine and some warm lightly salted water for it to replenish fluids and the electrolytes it had just expended.
2 In the eyes of the shopkeeper at shops in Sheyang City, the Thunder Smoke Beast was indeed somewhat more noble than people—at least more noble than Yun Ce, who was dressed in clothes made from Yi Tree Bark.
2 So, the ice-cold rice wine was served in a fine wooden tub to the Thunder Smoke Beast’s mouth, while the warm lightly salted water was served in a rough porcelain bowl to Yun Ce.
2 The Thunder Smoke Beast snorted and began enjoying the rice wine. Yun Ce glanced at the owner, then at the noble Red Date Horse, and felt he really did need to replenish electrolytes, so he picked up the lightly salted water and drank it.
2 In the dead of night, the Red Date Horse drank happily, and Yun Ce drank the lightly salted water quite comfortably too. When the blood moon hung high, draping the ground in a layer of pale red, Yun Ce stood up, drew the horse spear from the Red Date Horse’s saddlecloth, swung it twice in the moonlight, and said to the Red Date Horse: “Let’s go take a pair of sinful feet!”
2 Perhaps sensing the killing intent emanating from Yun Ce’s entire body, the Red Date Horse neighed loudly and came to Yun Ce’s side. He gave a slight push with his feet and leaped onto the horse’s back, shook the reins, and the Red Date Horse galloped off along the horse path.
3 Watching Yun Ce’s figure disappear, Miss Hong and Pei Chuan emerged from the wine shop together. Pei Chuan laughed, “He didn’t even notice—there were no patrolling soldiers and horses today.”
3 Miss Hong said, “He doesn’t care.”
3 “Does he think he’s King Huo? If we hadn’t lured away the soldiers, he’d have been caught by them by now.”
3 Miss Hong burst out laughing: “He just doesn’t care!”
3 Pei Chuan said again, “Didn’t see him at the guesthouse.”
3 Miss Hong said, “That’s why I say he doesn’t care!”
3 Pei Chuan pondered for a moment and said, “If we don’t act soon, it’ll be too late. Our people can’t hold the gap for long.”
3 Miss Hong glanced at the dense crowd on the other side of the grove and laughed, “Then let’s act!”
3 Pei Chuan grinned, raised his hand and smashed a pottery jar onto the wine shop, its pungent liquid splashing onto the roof. Then he kicked the torch at the entrance, and flames immediately burst into life.
3 Yun Ce rode like the wind, and in a moment, Duke Yu’s Mansion was right before him. Though it was late at night, Duke Yu’s Mansion was extremely busy, with countless servants loading all sorts of trunks onto sheep carts.
4 The Red Date Horse brutally trampled through the crowd. Yun Ce clung tightly to the horse’s back, shooting through the open gate like an arrow. Amid the servants’ terrified shouts, the heavy hooves crushed the flower tiles inside the gate, the massive horse body shattered the intricately carved flower windows, and the horse spear like a venomous dragon pierced the warrior raising a saber high. As the warhorse surged forward, the horse spear kept thrusting. Yun Ce let go, vaulted over the warrior’s sturdy body, grabbed the spear shaft from behind him, and yanked the horse spear out of the warrior’s body.
4 No special techniques—just a bloodied horse spear sweeping horizontally. The immense force struck the intercepting warriors’ weapons, the clash of metal ringing out continuously. The horse spear’s sharp edge severed the saber in the warrior’s hand, and along with it, their bodies.
4 Hooves trod the flower path, countless petals falling. Just as it was about to charge into the front courtyard flower hall, Yun Ce wheeled the horse around and charged fiercely at the warriors in the left corridor. The horse spear pointed forward, piercing unhindered through a body amid the warrior’s terrified gaze, followed by a second, a third. The Red Date Horse surged ahead forcefully; six men were now impaled on Yun Ce’s horse spear, pushed forward by the Red Date Horse until they burst out of the corridor, blood already staining the ground.
4 “Who are you?”
4 Yun Ce had just emerged from the corridor and discarded the warriors impaled on his horse spear when he heard someone roaring angrily at him from the opposite side.
4 In that instant, he hurled the horse spear toward the source of the voice and leaped after it. The horse spear crossed twenty meters and struck the speaker. Yun Ce arrived just in time, grabbed the tail of the horse spear, shook it hard, and flung the impaled man away.
4 At the same time, arrows rained down on him like hail, making Yun Ce’s body burn with stinging pain as if stung by bees.
4 After the volley of arrows, Yun Ce moved his hand from in front of his face, shook his arrow-pierced clothes, and the arrows all fell to the ground.
4 “The Pig Demon who broke Pingyuan City?”
4 A familiar voice came from the pavilion above. Yun Ce looked up and saw the pavilion crowded with archers, with the clerk Peng Jing—the same one he’d seen at the checkpoint—standing in the middle.
5 At the same time, neat heavy footsteps approached from the other end of the corridor. Not only that, but armored soldiers holding short spears for throwing appeared even on the walls.
5 “You can’t escape. Surrender now.”
5 Yun Ce felt that Duke Yu’s Mansion was likely a massive trap, probably set for Miss Hong and her band of rebels, but now he had stumbled into it.
5 “Where is Duke Yu?” Yun Ce asked, looking up.
5 “Do you have a grudge against me?” A clear, pleasant voice came from the left. Yun Ce turned to see a sedan chair appear behind layers of armored soldiers, with a middle-aged man in a blue soft robe seated cross-legged on it.
5 With a pig face, Yun Ce said, “This afternoon, a girl died. I think it was your fault, so I came to find you.”
5 Duke Yu frowned slightly and said, “I know nothing of it.”
5 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “You don’t need to know. It’s enough that I know.”
5 Duke Yu chuckled, “That’s too unreasonable.”
5 With that, he was slowly carried backward, fanning lightly with something like a banana leaf fan. As he retreated, Yun Ce didn’t idle—he curled his body, kicked hard with both feet, and shot like a cannonball into the load-bearing pillar at the base of the pavilion.
6 With a boom, the wooden pillar on the stone base was knocked off its seat by Yun Ce. He didn’t stop, enduring the arrow rain and slamming into the pillar repeatedly. Booms echoed incessantly, and in an instant, all six pillars supporting the pavilion were knocked askew by Yun Ce. The wooden pavilion lurched forward, half-collapsed, its roof tiles raining down and forcing the archers to scatter.
6 “Ah—” Yun Ce’s eyes bloodshot, arms straining, he uprooted the thousand-catty stone base, twisted his hips, and hurled it toward the last remaining beam pillar in the northwest corner.
