Chapter 98: When Crisis Arrives, Humanity Fades
The moment Yun Ce saw the albatross, he involuntarily recalled the famous line from Zhuang Zhou’s Free and Easy Wandering—flying in anger, its wings like clouds hanging from the sky.
A bird this big definitely couldn’t fit in one pot to stew.
E Ji was nearly snatched away by a large bird when she was little, so she has always been very afraid of large birds. Now, with such a huge one in the Royal Hunting Ground, hiding in the room was no longer safe, so she hid behind Yun Ce, one hand grabbing her puppy, the other grabbing Yun Ce’s clothes.
Feng An and Liang Kun stared at the large bird with wandering thoughts, their feet itching to move as if they wanted to hop on and fly a lap.
Zhang Min, on the other hand, stood proudly at the front, facing the air pressure from the large bird’s landing, but her other hand gripped Peng Zeng’s arm tightly, as if letting go would mean Peng Zeng would run off.
After the large bird landed, Yun Ce was somewhat disappointed. This thing looked enormous in flight with wings spread and feathers fluffed, very impressive.
Once landed, with wings folded, it was only about the size of an old fighter jet, and the feathers were a dingy gray, quite ugly.
Though the large bird’s golden eyes and long beak looked very fierce, Yun Ce was judging whether this guy could withstand the might of Eighth Master’s autocannon.
It probably couldn’t, because when the person dismounted from the large bird’s back, a bird feather fell off. The feather was blown by the wind to Yun Ce, who grabbed it and squeezed hard, turning what seemed like a sturdy feather into a crumpled ball.
Among the people who dismounted, none were particularly tall, one especially was dwarf-like. He stood under the large bird’s head, using a pole to hold up a piece of meat to feed the large bird.
1 This made it clear: to measure the large bird’s load capacity, they deliberately replaced the less useful bird husband with someone lighter and smaller, to free up more space and weight for passengers or cargo.
1 The leader was a woman wearing a veiled hat, her face unclear, but her chest was impressively grand, layered and substantial. She held a sword with an ancient, mottled scabbard that was surely not just decoration.
1 Zhang Min went up to greet her, and the two started whispering. Feng An said longingly it was Chang’an official dialect, but Liang Kun said it was more like Luoyang official dialect.
1 Yun Ce knew Chang’an was three thousand li from Luoyang, yet the accents of these two places were remarkably similar. This alone showed the exchanges between Chang’an and Luoyang must be very close.
1 That woman spent all the remaining time on Peng Zeng, though she occasionally glanced back at the puppy in E Ji’s arms, but said nothing.
1 Zhang Min came to Yun Ce’s side and gave him a small metal plate engraved with: redeemable for one thousand taels of gold.
1 After giving the metal plate to Yun Ce, Zhang Min probably felt they wouldn’t meet again, so she said no extra words, didn’t mention anything about doing that with Yun Ce, turned, and left, utterly heartless.
1 “If I catch more people like this in the future, I’ll sell them to you.”
1 Yun Ce shouted after her. Zhang Min stopped, tossed him a token, then jumped onto the large bird’s back.
1 Logically, such a large bird under load would have a hard time taking off, but unexpectedly, it ran duck-like for over a hundred meters into the wind, flapped its wings a few times, and flew away.
2 He thought Zhang Min would leave the slightly smaller large bird she rode in on, but no, it flew off too. Probably because it had no load, it just leaped once and whooshed straight into the sky.
2 With the giant bird and large bird gone, the Royal Hunting Ground instantly returned to its former deathly silence. Only E Ji was very happy—she had another thousand taels of gold—but she worried Zhang Min might cheat her, and the token wouldn’t redeem for gold.
2 Chuyun Prefecture was completely unmanaged, and rebel army often appeared near the Royal Hunting Ground, waving banners of killing corrupt officials and eliminating harm to the people, besieging the Royal Hunting Ground to rob the women and valuables inside.
2 Yun Ce didn’t intervene. These people were clearly summoned by Miss Hong. Uprisings everywhere, riches everywhere. If they were strong enough, Yun Ce even wanted to go join Miss Hong, but seeing over two hundred charging messily only to be routed by Old Cheng alone on a Thunder Smoke Beast, asses and piss streaming, Yun Ce gave up the idea of going to Miss Hong.
2 The token Zhang Min tossed him when leaving should be a communication token. Feng An said holding this token lets you send letters via official post stations, and ultimately, the letter reaches Zhang Min.
2 Throughout Twilight Month, Yun Ce practiced martial arts. He knew his martial skill was poor, and his nonstop random practice was just to fully stimulate the excess potential in his body.
2 Compared to Peng Zeng, his body was the true infinite treasure. Though Ao Bing didn’t say what benefits eating dragon eggshell would bring, Yun Ce firmly believed the advantages were huge.
2 Great strength was his trait. For now, he just wanted to solidify that trait. In his view, wasn’t the purpose of practicing martial arts to go higher, faster, stronger?
2 Since Yun Ce sold Peng Zeng, Doggy hadn’t spoken to him in three days, probably shocked by Yun Ce’s overly flexible moral bottom line. Judging the bottom line of Yun Ce’s morals from chaotic, inconstant data must require massive computation.
2 Yun Ce was satisfied with Doggy’s reaction. It showed this guy was still a machine brain, unable to be flexible without data support.
3 On the last day of Twilight Month, E Ji prepared lots of delicious food. Though everyone knew it was An Ji and four big girls who made it, E Ji just symbolically brought out a basin of soup. Feng An, Liang Kun, and specially invited Steward Qiu for the watchnight all stood to thank E Ji.
3 Others outside enjoyed delights like mutton soup, braised pork, steamed fish, baby beans with meat filling, roasted vegetables, and more.
3 Yun Ce got a bowl of wheat rice from E Ji, plus several blank tokens made of unknown wood, polished very finely and emitting a fresh fragrance. These were wooden tokens E Ji had worked on for a long time. He didn’t know what for before, but now he did: E Ji wanted him to write the names of Yun Clan old ancestors on them, then eat wheat rice with the ancestors.
3 Of course, the title mattered. Communicating with ghosts, gods, ancestors was the patriarch’s duty.
3 Yun Ce hesitated long, finally respectfully wrote his parents and grandparents’ names on the memorial tablets. After much thought, he still didn’t write Yun Linchuan’s name.
3 Though when he left, he felt that guy might not live long, what could defeat someone as hard as stone?
3 Yun Ce sat in the room talking to his family all night. Though unsure if his ancestors could receive prayers from a descendant on another planet, Yun Ce assumed they could.
3 E Ji came in in the morning. She’d kept watch outside the door last night. Seeing four extra tokens on the table, she knelt respectfully on the left, facing Yun Ce, not the tablets.
3 Seeing Yun Ce dazed, E Ji said: “A new wife meeting ancestors needs the young master’s introduction, then they become family.”
3 Yun Ce introduced E Ji to his parents and grandparents. Though tears streamed down E Ji’s face expressing longing for Yun Ce’s ancestors, if her lips weren’t upturned, Yun Ce would believe those tears were from longing.
4 Before the sun rose, E Ji wrapped the memorial tablets one by one in beautiful silk, then put them in a pretty wooden box. Yun Ce remembered that box was formerly for E Ji’s treasures.
4 “Ancestor memorial tablets are the head wife’s responsibility to cherish. Bring them out again after two sacrifices and four bows.”
4 Thus, E Ji finally became Yun Ce’s wife, ancestor-certified. Even if Yun Ce didn’t want her, as long as the Yun Clan tokens were in her hands, she was indisputably the Yun Clan first wife.
4 Now, they just needed to have a child. If the baby was born and Yun Ce disowned her, E Ji could take it to the emperor. If not, to the Yellow Emperor—it would work. Anyway, she had right on her side.
4 On becoming Yun Ce’s wife, E Ji was steadfast. Even with Yun Ce’s terrifyingly strong abilities, E Ji firmly believed her young master was Yun Ce and none other.
4 Truth be told, Yun Ce had never been chosen so firmly in his life. On Earth, Yun Linchuan always sifted through their group of descendants, picking and choosing, ultimately not focusing cultivation on him but sacrificing him, sending him here.
4 Since E Ji chose him so firmly, Yun Ce wouldn’t disappoint her.
4 But at night sleeping, besides sticking out her buttocks, E Ji gave all her tenderness to Dog King Nao Sheng in milk dog state.
4 “A large troop is marching near the Royal Hunting Ground.”
4 Former Black Armored Army centurion Old Cheng was so scared he could barely speak. From this man’s terrified reaction to the army, Yun Ce thought Zhang Min was right: Zhou Chengming’s Black Armored Army was far from ready.
5 “You’re not planning to go into the Hunting Palace and demand the women there commit suicide, are you?”
5 Old Cheng gritted his teeth: “Suicide is better than endless torment.”
5 Yun Ce looked at Hua Ji beside him: “You think so too?”
5 Hua Ji said: “I don’t want to die, I want to live. They’re the same. Few truly want to die.”
5 Yun Ce looked at Old Cheng: “See, don’t casually decide others’ life and death. These days, you haven’t started treating the women here as yours, have you?”
5 Old Cheng trembling: “I’ll go kill them.”
5 Yun Ce kicked out, sending Old Cheng flying over ten meters to embed firmly in the earthen wall, impossible to pry out.
5 Hua Ji hurriedly said: “There are three first-class women, sixteen second-class, and fifty-eight third-class, the slightly older ones. When the chief manager presents the women, mention this concubine is here to guarantee they’ll behave.”
5 No choice, Yun Ce kicked again, embedding this woman in the earthen wall too, same as Old Cheng, impossible to pry out.
