Stranger Danger

“Moo…”

Suddenly, the Three-Eyed Divine Bull turned and looked in Ye Qing’s direction as if it could sense that it was being spied on. Its third eye blinked, and deadly radiation washed straight toward Ye Qing.

In response, Ye Qing smiled and tapped the carriage with a finger. There was a burst of killing intent, and everything within tens of meters of the carriage were ripped into shreds. The area abruptly cleared up as if the snowstorm had lifted, and space itself was vibrating without a sound.

The Three-Eyed Divine Bull let out a painful moo, and tears began forming on its third eye.

“Bullseye Tear? How precious. I mustn’t waste it!”

On the cart, the dozing old man suddenly leaped to his feet and appeared in front of the Three-Eyed Divine Bull. He held a porcelain bottle near the bull’s eye and caught the tear right before it would fall to the ground.

As he caught the tear, he was urging the bull, “Come on, that can’t be the only tear you have. Cry some more!”

“Moo!”

Anger burned in the Three-Eyed Divine Bull’s eyes as it lowered its head and attempted to ram the old man with its twin horns.

Right before the old man would be skewered, a thin, wizened hand caught one of the horns and stopped the bull dead in its tracks.

“Moo! Moo!”

The Three-Eyed Divine Null mooed angrily as its eyes turned blood red in color. It crouched lower and snorted noisily as if it wanted to send the old man flying.

But no matter how hard the bull pushed, the old man’s arm did not move in the slightest. In fact, he didn’t even look winded as he continued to pin the bull in place. “Throwing a tantrum already, you silly old bull? I fed you, cleaned you, and treated you well, and you couldn’t give me a couple more tears, you bloody ingrate?”

A moment later, when the Three-Eyed Divine Bull realized that it could neither break free nor injure the old man, its anger gradually faded, and it mooed sadly at him.

“You done? You should’ve just let go from the beginning.”

The old man finally let go of the bull’s horn and gave it a pat on the head. A short while later, when he confirmed that the Three-Eyed Divine Bull wasn’t going to cry anymore, he reluctantly put away the bottle and complained, “Seriously, you couldn’t even squeeze me a second drop? What a waste of food and space you are.”

“Moo… moo…”

The Three-Eyed Divine Bull bumped the old man’s leg sadly before casting a glance at Ye Qing’s horse cart. Then, it mooed again.

“What, you want me to take revenge for you? Keep dreaming. They were just watching from a distance, and they didn’t try to attack or provoke you. You’re the one who tried to kill them and failed, so you deserved what you got.”

The old man understood the Three-Eyed Divine Bull’s meaning immediately and scolded him. Then, an idea occurred to him. “Well, I can punish them for you, but you gotta give me more tears. Don’t worry, I don’t need much. Ten bottles should do it.”

“Moo…”

Realizing that feigning weakness was pointless, the Three-Eyed Divine Bull regained its former arrogance and side-eyed the old man. You could practically hear it say: ten bottles? You’re the one who should keep dreaming!

“Come now. If ten bottles is too much, then what about five?”

The Three-Eyed Divine Bull turned around and pointed its butt at the old man. Its meaning was clear: Here, you can take my fart instead.

“Fine! One bottle! Just one bottle is enough!”

The Three-Eyed Divine Bull couldn’t even be bothered to snort at the old man. It just swung its tail and started walking away.

“Sigh… don’t go. This is not how you conduct a negotiation, dammit…”

The old man called out while chasing after the Three-Eyed Divine Bull. It wasn’t long before they both disappeared into the snow.

“How interesting.”

Ye Qing heard their conversation loud and clear and raised a curious eyebrow. He knew that the old man was no ordinary person to begin with, but he was really surprised when he found out that the thin old man was actually a body-tempering Grandmaster. When the old man grabbed the Three-Eyed Divine Bull’s horn just now, his vigor had flowed like a river, and his strength had gushed out like a volcano. It was quite scary to say the least.

“Say, do you think that old man might be the mythical leader of the Three Perfections Troupe, Qingyou?”

“He could be.” Feng Qingyou nodded before asking him smilingly, “If you’re that curious, then why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“Er… it was just a passing thought. I’m not about to stir a hornet’s nest if I can help it.”

Ye Qing shrugged and leaned back against his seat. While sipping his wine, he set their horse carriage on course and took off to the distance once more.

When they were passing by the sleeping men and women, Ye Qing flicked his finger a little. There was a flash of purple flame.

When the horse carriage had disappeared into the snow as well, the sleeping warriors disintegrated into ash all at once and scattered into the wind.

……

The wind was strong, the snow was fierce. This was doubly true during nighttime. For a traveler who had no choice but to weather the elements, the journey could easily be the last journey of their lives.

It was already difficult to travel during a snowstorm, but Yan’s poor geography meant that most parts of the realm had to deal with short days and long nights. So short, in fact, that the sky had completely darkened after five hours.

The snowstorm was always worse after it was dark, making travels even harder than it already was. It was why there was a common saying in Yan: “A snowy night on the road can kill both humans and ghosts.”

Despite this, a lone horse carriage was slowly making its way through the cold, bleak snowstorm, wisps of light peeking through the gaps of its curtains. It was the only warmth and light in this cold, dark world.

Inside the horse carriage, Ye Qing rubbed his forehead and commented from the bottom of his heart, “I’ve never seen such a big snowstorm in my life!”

When they departed this morning, the marked road was still pretty bare. Now, the snow was at least several meters thick. Luckily for them, their carriage was created using Magia and so were impervious to the harsh elements of nature. Otherwise, they would be hardpressed to make any headway.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the snowstorm had completely transformed their surroundings into a world of snow and ice. If they weren’t careful, they could easily miss the road and lose their way.

What this meant was that Ye Qing had to control the horse carriage and ensure that they were still following the path all the time. Even with his strength, he was feeling a little tired after twelve hours of non-stop travel.

“A snowstorm at this level hasn’t been seen in Chu for a hundred years, but for Yan, it was their daily life.”

Feng Qingyou said indifferently, “In fact, this is just an average snowstorm. It is already early spring, and warmth is slowly returning to the air. If this was winter, then it would have been so much worse.”

“Really? This is considered average?” Ye Qing asked with a frown.

“Indeed. The poet celestial, Tai Bai once made this poem: ‘The North Wind roared up from the sky, and the snowflakes are as big as a mat.’ It describes the wind and snow of Yan.”

Feng Qingyou explained, “And even then, the poet celestial only described the strength and size of Yan’s snowstorm. He neglected to mention the tragedies it wrought.”

“To the people of Yan, none are scarier than the natural disaster that is a snowstorm. Every year, countless crops are killed because of the cold, countless livestocks froze or starved to death, countless homes were crushed by ice and snow, and many, many more people died for all of the above reasons.”

“Every gust of wind that blows through these lands, every piece of snow that falls from the sky could be an innocent life.”

“Er…”

Ye Qing didn’t know how to follow up her musings. He was only commenting on the intensity of the snowstorm, and suddenly, Feng Qingyou had dragged the conversation to a cold, dark place.

It wasn’t a problem he could answer even if he wanted to.

Seemingly sensing the change in mood, Feng Qingyou shot him a gentle smile and said, “Don’t take it to heart, Joyless. I was just musing.”

The awkwardness and gravity in the atmosphere disappeared just like that.

“I’m fine.”

Ye Qing could have moved onto the next topic as if the conversation had never happened, but instead, he thought for a moment before saying, “We may never be able to change the world, but we can certainly try to create a better humanity, can’t we?”

“Perhaps you’re right.”

Feng Qingyou looked up and broke into a warming smile.

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