"My lord, won't doing this stir up their anger?"
"Wild people are all hardcore masochists."
"Subordinate understands."
"Alright, find someone to boil some hot water for me. I'm taking a bath and then having a good sleep."
The war was over; it was about time to relax a little.
"Yes, my lord."
Outside, it was still a mess. Counting the population of the Naman Tribe and tallying up their goods and wealth wasn't something that could be done in a short time. Friction was inevitable in the process, but it all stayed within controllable limits.
Inside the tent,
a wooden tub had already been prepared, and an armored soldier personally poured in the hot water.
When Zheng Fan dismissed the others and walked in himself, he even saw the soap his own people had produced back in Shengle sitting by the bath.
All one could say was, rich people's lives all had something in common. No matter whether the folks below could even get a bite to eat, the true nobles could always live in drunken luxury.
After sighing a bit over the corruption of the nobility,
Lord Zheng took off his armor and underclothes and sat down in the wooden tub.
Whoo…
Comfortable.
He put the stone that held the Mo Wan into the bathwater. Zheng Fan's arms rested on the rim of the tub as he slowly closed his eyes.
The stone floated on the surface of the water,
occasionally releasing a few bubbles.
"Glug… glug… glug…"
...
"Glug…"
Seeing A Ming walking toward it, the Pixiu, which had been lazily lying there sunbathing, instinctively swallowed a huge mouthful of saliva.
From its own perspective, it knew Zheng Fan was its master.
This "master" came from the result of its earlier training.
After all, the Yan State royal family had a long tradition of keeping Pixiu and Pi Beasts. Even a Pixiu was something only the truly high and mighty could have, so the training had to be done in advance.
Otherwise, if the royal family granted someone a Pi Beast and its wild nature proved untamable so it ended up swallowing or biting its master to death, what would the royal house have done that for?
Thus, in the Pixiu's eyes, Zheng Fan was indeed its master, but that master was merely a symbolic label—meaning Zheng Fan could ride it, and it, in turn, had to cooperate with Zheng Fan.
But on another, more emotional level, the Pixiu felt Zheng Fan was just like itself, both prisoners under a bunch of demon kings. Fellow sufferers in a foreign land naturally needed to support each other and huddle for warmth. So, sometimes when Zheng Fan wanted to try some high-difficulty moves, the Pixiu would also do its best to cooperate, adding a bit of comfort and encouragement from a sorrowful "brother in misery" to this pitiful "kin";
so that he and it could keep striving and stubbornly live on bravely under the demon king's shadow!
Watching A Ming approach again,
the Pixiu felt a little jittery,
then it
silently lay down on its side on the ground,
slowly rolled over,
and offered its belly to A Ming.
A Ming reached out and patted the Pixiu's belly; all four of the Pixiu's legs twitched.
However, A Ming had no interest in its fresh blood anymore—he'd already confirmed it was useless—so he just sat down by himself, took out his waterskin, drank a mouthful of blood, and a look of intoxicated bliss appeared on his face.
The Pixiu immediately rolled back over and slowly brought its head close to A Ming.
"You want a drink too?"
A Ming shook his head.
"Can't give you any."
Disappointment appeared on the Pixiu's face.
But soon,
its nose suddenly twitched,
and then it stood up on all fours,
its head whipping around in all directions.
"What's wrong?" A Ming asked.
The Pixiu's forepaws started scratching the ground restlessly, its snorts grew rougher, and its eyes gradually flushed red.
"In heat?"
"Which little mare did you set your eyes on? Tell me, I'll lead her over for you."
The Pixiu's gaze suddenly fixed in one direction, staring hard, so excited it was just shy of leaping straight out of the stable to go wild.
"Sit!"
A Ming barked in a low voice.
"Yiii…"
The Pixiu instantly sat down like an eggplant hit by frost.
A Ming put away the wineskin, stood up, walked over to the Pixiu, and picked up the reins around its neck, saying:
"What exactly did you sense? Take me to it."
The Pixiu immediately became excited again, panting nonstop, even drool starting to drip down.
A Ming shot the Pixiu a slightly disgusted look,
and led it out of the stable.
But very soon, the excitement on its face faded once more; it lowered its head to the ground and began sniffing around, as if sunk into some deep confusion.
A Ming wasn't in a hurry; he just stood beside the Pixiu.
"You've lost the trail again? What the hell is it, anyway?"
...
"What the hell is it—why does this Lord Pingye have a Pixiu by his side!"
In the underground tunnel, the black cat growled in a low voice.
In front of the black cat was a fox.
Only, whether it was the fox or the black cat, their bodies were marked with obvious scorch-black, as if they'd just been burned.
"Hey, Hua Ji, are you even listening to me? It's a Pixiu, not a Pi Beast!
If I hadn't sensed it in advance and used my ability to cover up the demonic aura on us, we would've been found already!
Good thing that Pixiu seems like it hasn't matured yet; its level's not there, or we'd never have fooled it!
But I can't keep this concealment up for long!"
The white fox immediately turned its head, speaking human words:
"You're so noisy. I heard you. We're almost at position. The place where Lord Pingye is right now is just ahead."
"You still don't want to give up?"
"What good would giving up do? How could we possibly give up? We're under his military camp right now. If we give up and go back, how long can your demonic power last? Long enough for us to dig a tunnel out of here?"
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