Joy of Life

A smudge of white appeared on the horizon. Grandfather Sun was still rubbing his eyes and had not yet opened them. The faint morning light enveloped the grasslands, but it did not improve anyone’s line of sight. After the night of wild revelry, the people of the tribe were still subsumed in alcohol and sleep. They probably could not feel the calls of the sun. Gradually, in the tents of the tribe, faint sounds rang out as if many people were waking.

What shocked the people waking was not the rising sun. It was the thunderous sound of uniform horses coming from behind and the chaotic gallop of horses from the front. It seemed that all around them countless riders were drawing closer.

In the morning light, Fan Xian’s expression was calm. He glanced at Haitang for the last time. He lifted the little knife she had given to Liangzi from by his foot and slipped it solemnly into his clothes.

“See you. I hope I won’t have to wait another three years,” Fan Xian said seriously to Haitang. The threads of blood by Haitang’s lips made one feel great tenderness toward her, but the plans on the grasslands had already been put into motion. The Chief of the court had already sent soldiers chasing after him. If he wanted to escape, he had to leave now.

Haitang didn’t know how he was going to leave because the sound of horses was coming from all directions in the distance. It seemed that the court riders had already surrounded this patch of grasslands. She glanced at him with a complicated expression.

The glance landed like a heavy blow on Fan Xian’s body It made his body drift shakily toward the grasslands behind him. He drifted lightly and joyfully but also with an overwhelming sadness at the parting.

Without seeing the tips of his feet pushing against the ground, it was as if there was a slender rope tied around Fan Xian’s waist. Like a kite, he abruptly moved back, gradually accelerating. He became a blurry figure in the morning light, moving further and becoming smaller. He melded into the large patch of dust and smoke coming in from the left and front of the tribe.

The patch of dust and smoke looked like it should be free and that wild horses had galloped across the grasslands. To the side of the herd of horses, there were a dozen grasslands men holding lassos. It was as if they had followed the herd of horses for a number of days and nights, waiting to lasso the head horse among them.

Haitang watched this site calmly and knew that this herd of horses must be fake. It must be a group Fan Xian had prepared earlier to meet with him. Watching Fan Xian retreat, she knew that in the three years they had not met, this young friend from the Southern court had successfully melded the Tianyi Dao and Tyrannical zhenqis in his body and was standing firmly at the peak of the ninth-level. He had almost reached the limits of humankind.

No wonder he was so confident and dared to enter deep the grasslands and carry out an attack in the night against the court and Left Virtuous Prince. Given this kind of realm, who would be able to defeat him unless a Great Grandmaster once again appeared in the grasslands?

There was already the faint sounds of soldiers clashing ringing out in three directions behind him. Chief Su Bida had resisted for three days. His patience was at its limit. He had finally tightened the surrounding circle. Even if Fan Xian had set up a team of horses to meet him, would he be able to escape the pursuit of thousands of riders from the court on the endless grasslands?

Haitang’s eyes narrowed. A thread of worry rose in her heart. If a ninth-level ace met an enemy head-on, they would be difficult to defeat. But, the both of them were still an immeasurable distance away from the realm of a Great Grandmaster. If they were faced with thousands of soldiers, how could they manage to survive?

In the distance, Fan Xian’s figure had landed amongst the wild horses. Miraculously, the wild and freedom-loving horses, who looked like they would never be at peace, did not reject Fan Xian’s entry. When Fan Xian sat on the lead horse, the vicious horse only shook his neck helplessly but didn’t throw him off.

The sound of urgent horses swept passed Haitang’s side, carrying the sound of the wind, pieces of grass, and an unstoppable forward momentum. The valiant riders of the Western Hu court did not hold back. Sweeping across the meadow, they chased after the herd of wild horses in the distance.

A horse gave a long whinny and pulled to a halt from an incredible speed. The noble Hu figure on the horse used the inertia to turn his body and rise. With a slap, he landed by Haitang’s side. His feet were as stable as mountains and showed off his wondrous riding skills.

Chief Su Bida glanced at Haitang. Rage gradually rose in his eyes. “Are you hurt?”

Haitang nodded and smiled with difficulty.

“Fan Xian of the Southern Qing?” Chief Su Bida asked in a quiet voice. His figure was tall and broad. His facial features were strong and unyielding. His eyes shone with a piercing light. He looked at the figure riding southeast with the herd of wild horses.

“It’s him,” Haitang replied quietly.

Chief Su Bida would never underestimate any of his enemies, particularly a powerful and major figure like Fan Xian of the Southern Qing. He had endured for three days. Actually, he had prepared for three days, calling on the Hu men in this patch of grasslands. It was imperative that he kept the powerful official from the Qing Kingdom on the grasslands.

Since he had dared to enter the depths of the grasslands, got close to the court, and challenged his dignity, Chief Su Bida would use the most straightforward way to express his anger.

The court’s preparations were thorough. They confirmed that there were no riders from the Qing Kingdom scouting the grasslands and prepared to pick up Fan Xian in the darkness. These scouts had not noticed the group of wild horses because they could be seen everywhere on the grasslands. More importantly, they had once seen this group of wild horses by a patch of reeds. From their jumpy behavior and habits, the scouts determined they were indeed a herd of wild horses.

No one would be able to escape using wild horses before taming them. This was an established theory. Now, this established theory seemed like it was going to be broken by someone.

Dust flew up in all directions as thousands of riders from the court charged across. Charging past the tents of the tribe, they rode toward the herd of wild horses under the shocked and scared gazes of the Hu people. It looked like they would surround the herd of horses, the dozen men, and Fan Xian, hidden among the herd of wild horses, in about three li but…

Hearing a long whinny rising into the sky, the herd of horses seemed to have received some kind of spur of energy. Immediately, they woke from their confusion and stretched out the muscles on their bodies. Raising their four hooves with excitement, they abruptly accelerated and charged toward the opening in the southeast of the circle.

The morning light was weak. The wild horses whinnied as hundreds of horses reflected the weak sunlight from their black coats. They galloped to their heart’s content and charged out of the enclosing circle of court riders moments before the circle closed.

This sight had a primitive beauty filled with power. It intimidated the heart of countless people.

Chief Su Bida held his reins in one hand as he stood by Haitang’s side. Looking at the sight coldly, his eyes narrowed slightly. He hid the shock in his heart well. Flipping onto his horse, he said, “I’ll chase that pretty boy back for you to vent your anger.”

He had actually already admitted that the young official of the Qing court, who was on par with Songzhi Xianling, was certainly not just a pretty face. Just looking at his god-like skill in controlling the wild horses, there was probably not another person like him on the grasslands.

“The court was attacked last night. And, there was an assassination attempt on the Left Virtuous Prince, whose life and death is uncertain.” Haitang stood on the meadow, in front of dozens of the Chief’s close guards, and calmly spoke of the matters Fan Xian had admitted.

The Chief held the reins in his hands and paused slightly. He then squeezed his horse and charged toward the end of the meadow.

That was why the Commissioner of the Qing Overwatch Council had come deep into the grasslands. The court being attacked was a small matter. As long as it wasn’t the elite of the Qing riders coming in, what did it matter if some people died? The Chief did not realize that the Overwatch Council were picky about who they killed. The people who died were important to his dream of building a country on the grasslands.

What was more important was the Left Virtuous Prince’s assassination. This news made the Chief’s heart go cold. Was the grasslands, which had been at peace for two years, going to return to chaos because of the Left Virtuous Prince’s death? Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but curse silently. The Left Virtuous Prince was his uncle. Back in the day, he had behaved arrogantly in front of him. No one though he would be killed by a Qing assassin. He was truly an extreme bastard.

The Chief looked furiously at the plume of dust in the distance. Squeezing his horse’s sides, he charged toward the southeast. Although that pretty face had used the protection of wild horses and unexpectedly broken through the blockade, the Chief believed that no one would be able to escape the pursuit of the court’s riders on this boundless grasslands.

Even without regard to the stamina of the horses and galloping madly, it would take at least 10 days to get from here to Qingzhou on the edge of the Qing Kingdom. Who would be able to endure wild galloping for 10 days on the grasslands while pursued by the riders of the Western Hu court? The Chief was riding a thousand-li horse that was one in 10,000. He believed that he would be able to stop Fan Xian. Although the riders of the Qing Kingdom were also very good, the people of the grasslands still believed that, in the entire world, it was the Western Hu men who had the best riding skills. If they couldn’t catch an enemy whose shadow they could see on the grasslands, then they may as well commit suicide.

The morning light gradually brightened as the horizon gradually grew clearer. The shape-changing rising sun had risen halfway up past the horizon in the east, lighting up the autumnal grasslands.

Haitang watched everything in front of her calmly. A trace of worry and darkness flashed through her eyes. She watched as a flood of Western Hu riders failed to close circle and quickly formed into groups to become a fan. It was like thousands of riders moving as one as they flew toward the west in pursuit.

However, hundreds of black wild horses were galloping excitedly two, three li in front of the pursuing Hu riders. They kicked up plumes of dust like thousands of strands of smoke as they moved east toward the bright red rising sun. Suddenly, some people jumped out of the group of wild horses and leapt onto their backs. No one knew where these people had hidden earlier or how they were able to follow the progression of the wild horses. Over a hundred Qing men rode on the hundreds of wild horses through the grasslands the Hu people ruled. In front of the red sun, the horses and figures on their backs appeared particularly spirited and arrogant.

…

…

The Western Hu soldiers had made a big mistake in their judgment. They had thought that when it came to riding, the riders of the court were without equal and that it was impossible for anyone to compare. Furthermore, they didn’t know how the Qing people were controlling the wild horses. Although wild horses were valiant, they could not compare to warhorses when it came to obeying orders and stamina. Thus, they thought that it would take, at most, half a day on the flat and expansive grasslands for them to catch up to the escaped Qing people.

Chief Su Bida also thought this way. He was even wondering if after they had surrounded the Qing people, whether he should first shoot the powerful Qing official called Fan Xian dead and not give Songzhi Xianling any chance to beg for mercy.

However, nothing progressed the way the Western Hu court riders thought they would. Half a day passed, and then a day passed. The riders, who were the pride of the grasslands, were still unable to catch up to the Qing people. They couldn’t even reduce the distance between them.

The reason was simple. This herd of what the Hu people saw as wild horses were not wild horses at all. Rather, they were military horses the Qing Overwatch Council had been raising for a long time. They were able to fool the countless eyes on the grasslands and those tribes renowned for their horses with the wild herd of horses lingering among the reeds because these people had been drugged.

It was a drug that had ephedra mixed into it. This made the military horses of the Overwatch Council appear livelier, wilder, and more freedom loving than common horses. Furthermore, this group of horses had not been shoed or branded. Even their manes had never been trimmed. Once they ran, they truly gave the sense of long hair floating in the wind. Regardless of who saw them, they would think it was a herd of wild horses. Thus, they were able to silently get so close to where Fan Xian was that night under the wary watch of the court riders.

Fan Xian held the reins in one hand and flattened himself against the horse, carefully sensing the horse’s condition. A hundred subordinates had come to meet him. Other than the dozen elites who were disguised as horse lassoing men, the other people were hidden among the herd with their superior riding skills.

After a number of trials, the effect of the ephedra drug on horses was not as powerful as on people. It was not enough for the warhorses to become disobedient. For the pursuing riders of the court, the speed these horses were running at was slightly scary.

A warhorse disguised as a wild horse was still a warhorse. Furthermore, it was a warhorse on stimulants. Fan Xian knew the effect of stimulants would not last long, but he didn’t need it to last long. A hundred people took turns riding hundreds of horses. It gave the rider-less warhorses enough time to rest and take a break from the medicine. If the riders of the Chief’s court managed to still catch up to them, then Fan Xian might as well slit his own throat and be done with it.

A good horse still needed a person to ride it. This was the second mistake the pursuing Western Hu soldiers made. They always thought that there was no one whose riding skills were superior to theirs and they were particularly powerful when it came to long-distance raiding, but they had forgotten a name: The Black Knights.

The riders of the Qing Kingdom were already powerful and taking away their armor. They would not be too different from the riders of the Western Hu. However, the Black Knights were the riding elite of the elite in the Qing Kingdom. Under Chen Pingping’s careful selection and training, their individual quality was very high. They were truly astonishing.

Particularly in the thousand li raids and the long distance pursuits the Western Hu had always been proud of, the Black Knights had the most illustrious battle history in the world.

When the Qing Kingdom’s Northern expedition had failed tragically and the Qing Emperor had been trapped amidst barren hills and wild rivers, Chen Pingping learned of it and led the Black Knights to the rescue. Within six days, they had pushed a thousand li into the battlefield and rescued the Qing Emperor, who had had still been the Crown Prince at the time.

Another year, Chen Pingping personally led the Black Knights deep into the Wei Kingdom and captured the formidable Xiao En. Before the Wei military even had time to react, they had returned to the Qing Kingdom like a flash of lightning. This in and out covered thousands of li over land and water.

History had long proven that the Black Knights’ ability to raid over a thousand li was the best in the world, bar none.

The Black Knights of the Overwatch Council had made their name through thousand li raids. After it was formed, this was the situation they practiced for most often. They put in a great deal of work when it came to maintaining the power of the drug for the warhorses. They trained to enter abruptly like wind and fire and retreat like water and cloud, disappearing from the battlefield in an instant. They were the best in sudden entrances and rapid retreats. How could the intrepid riders of the Western Hu court hope to catch up to a sudden attack group that was like a flock of flying birds?

The autumnal wind on the grasslands batted at Fan Xian’s face. He narrowed his eyes and glanced at Jing Ge by his side. Looking at the metal mask on his face, he couldn’t help smile. If he didn’t have complete confidence in his subordinates, he would not have dared to do such dangerous things as entering deep into the grasslands’ court, the heart of the Western Hu, to lure out Haitang and the Chief, and then drop two large bombs.

When the chase had reached the third day, the riders of the court realized something was strange. They had not reduced their speed at all. The fine grasslands horses beneath them were already at their breaking point, yet they were still unable to reach the other party. Furthermore, the reckless Qing people, who had entered deep into the grasslands, seemed to still have strength left over. It was as if they could let their horses go at any moment and were forcefully suppressing their speed to lure out the court riders behind them.

Hearing the cautious and exhausted report of the major household, a chill flashed across Chief Su Bida’s windblown face. It was actually he who first realized the problem. He could feel that there was something not right about the herd of strange and even magical wild horses in front of them. Although the hawk of the court still circled above, there were no large tribes on the grasslands between here and Qingzhou that would be able to stop them. The Chief had no other way.

The assassination of the Left Virtuous Prince had been confirmed. The Chief knew what he should do. Once the entire grasslands knew of this, they would all turn their suspicious gazes toward him or the Right Virtuous Prince. The men under the Left Virtuous Prince’s banner were certainly already crying out for revenge.

In order to stabilize the position of the court, Chief Su Bida, needed to pull back on his reins and turn back to give the Left Virtuous Prince’s side an account of the situation. The longer he was away, the more suspicious the Left Virtuous Prince’s banner would be of him.

Chief Su Bida was not afraid of retribution from the subordinates of the Left Virtuous Prince. But, if he wanted to become the true ruler of the grasslands, he had to stop a bloody internal strife from happening. He believed in Princess Songzhi’s words. In order to build a country in the grasslands, more than blood and killing was needed for it to succeed.

However, it was unsatisfying. The fine steed beneath the Chief slowed down. Looking at the gradually retreating herd of wild horses that seemed as if they would never tire, he sighed deep in his heart.

All of the court riders stopped and turned their gaze to the mighty Chief, not sure what they should do after. Should they continue pursuing to no avail or turn back? They all knew that the grasslands seemed a little chaotic. If they turned back and watched as the Qing people showed off their military strength on the grasslands, they felt truly unsatisfied.

Chief Su Bida was also unsatisfied. As the master of the grasslands, sometimes he had to suppress the anger in his heart and think about the wider interests and choose the most correct path. He waved his hand darkly and indicated for the court riders to turn their horses around to return to the court. Suddenly, a bright fire of rage rose in his eyes.

In the moment the Western Hu riders stopped their pursuit, the escapees in front also stopped under the dusky light. They stopped on the shallow meadow. Turning their heads back, it seemed like they were waiting for them.

How humiliating was this? The Chief gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. He relaxed his expression a moment later. In a cold voice, he said, “Return.”

…

…

“The other party won’t fall for it.” Jing Ge glanced at the Commissioner with a head full of sand and dirt. “Looks like they won’t give chase anymore.”

Fan Xian spat out the sand and dirt in his mouth. He furrowed his brows, but his mood relaxed slightly. It appeared that he and these escapees were relaxed, but only they, the people escaping, could feel how terrifying the Hu riders were.

These elite riders of the Western Hu court had truly put a great deal of pressure on the Black Knights. Just speaking of their speed, the Western Hu riders were indeed the most powerful in the world. They were far more powerful than the Wei riders of the past. The Black Knight’s escape appeared relaxed. In reality, they were indescribably wretched. If the court riders could last for two more days until the effect of the drugs for the Black Knights’ warhorses gradually wore off, then Fan Xian would probably be in bloody trouble.

The reason Fan Xian had not allowed the Black Knights to gallop wildly was to create a confident image to strike at the morale of the riders from the Chief’s court. It looked like the trick had worked. Furthermore, Fan Xian knew that someone with such a great ambition and goal as the Western Hu Chief would not let anger go to his head. He would not only focus on chasing him and forget about the chaos in court and possible violence that the Left Virtuous Prince could incite.

A few li behind them, the riders of the court gradually formed into groups and turned back. Chief Su Bida fell to the very back. The setting sun shone on his light armor and reflected a faint glow. He still looked very grim.

Fan Xian spat out the last bit of sand and dirt in his mouth. “Presumably, I left a very deep impression on him this time. When we fight in the future, he will not engage casually.”

“Scaring them off is indeed a good idea.” Jing Ge glanced at him. “However, the heir had laid soldiers in an ambush by the mouth of Hong Mountain for a dozen days. Yet, he would not see the Chief’s arrival. He is probably going to be disappointed.”

“Please, this is the master of the grasslands.” Fan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked toward the distance at the Chief’s lonely figure on his horse on the meadow. His mouth split open in a smile. “How could he be killed by me this easily?”