This night, Jiang Yichen leaned against a tree root, lost in thought, while the Little Brown Horse was tethered nearby.
Fortunately, Murong Jing was thoughtful and had thoroughly prepared a full bag of feed beans and wheat bran in Jiang Yichen's luggage. For the Little Brown Horse, this was a feast. After eating to its heart's content, the Little Brown Horse did not complain about its master making it work too hard during the day; it lowered its head, closed its eyes, and fell asleep.
Seeing his companion fall asleep nearby, Jiang Yichen also found a comfortable angle to lie down, covering his face with his conical hat to prepare for sleep.
A spring night, a breeze gently brushed by.
Although the restlessness of the daytime had been brushed away, it was still difficult to fall asleep.
Having darted about the valley for an entire day, apart from some birds and beasts, he had not seen a single figure.
The information on the map was even more limited. The Peach Valley Secluded Forest depicted on the map had only one path connected to other locations on the map, which was the road from Taoyuan Town. Now, he could not even find the way back.
Furthermore, the map only had eight characters marked: "Peach Valley Maze Forest, winding paths lead to seclusion." A maze forest, a maze forest; he feared it would not be so easy to walk out of, and he did not know if this would cause him to miss the time to meet the old man.
Winding paths leading to seclusion must be the Opportunity that the two Murongs spoke of. He knew the two Murongs would not deceive him, but he feared the so-called Opportunity would not be so easy to find.
As his thoughts were in turmoil, he suddenly heard a howl sound.
A wolf!
Subsequently, wolf howls, some high and some low, some far and some near, rose and fell one after another.
A pack of wolves!
Wolves are accustomed to appearing at night, so it was no wonder Jiang Yichen did not see any wolf shadows during the day.
Hearing the wolf howls gradually approaching, Jiang Yichen finally stood up. He had dealt with many wolves on West Mountain Island and could manage to dance with wolves, but he did not know if the wolves in Peach Valley would be fiercer and harder to tame.
He saw that the Little Brown Horse nearby still had its eyes closed; he did not know if it had a big heart or if it had slept itself to death.
A moment later, Jiang Yichen and the Little Brown Horse were surrounded by more than ten wolves.
More than twenty pupils, which appeared unusually bright in the darkness, were tightly locked onto the two prey before them, and they were especially vigilant toward the figure standing there with a sword.
He had not expected to become the hunted prey upon his first arrival. Jiang Yichen did not know if he should feel gratified to be so welcomed.
Seeing the encirclement around him and the Little Brown Horse gradually shrinking, Jiang Yichen dared not delay and acted first. No, he used his feet; a loose stone by his feet flew with a "whoosh" and smashed down beside the Alpha Wolf's feet.
The Alpha Wolf was not intimidated; such a provocative act instead filled its anger meter to the brim.
With a sharp howl, the horn for the attack was sounded, and more than ten wolves, led by the Alpha Wolf, moved and charged simultaneously.
The movement speed of the pack of wolves was far beyond Jiang Yichen's expectations, but fortunately, before the encirclement became small enough, he had already provoked them into launching their attack.
Several wolves in the pack were actually running directly toward the Little Brown Horse. That fellow was finally startled awake by the sharp howl, and suddenly discovering that it was also in dire straits, it reared up and stomped its hooves, terrified.
After observing the trends of the wolf pack, Jiang Yichen also noticed this. His Sword Qi cut the rope tied to the tree, and following that, he used a "Falling Petals" style to meet the three Evil Wolves pouncing toward the Little Brown Horse. Youthful Beauty covered the ground, falling petals scattered, and a brilliant display of Sword Qi dispersed, hindering the figures of the three wolves. He turned around and delivered a flying kick to the Little Brown Horse's butt.
Although his sword was not unsheathed and its Power was slightly weaker, it had already won enough time for the Little Brown Horse to gallop away.
"Companion, you go first!"
The remaining wolves, whose Target was originally Jiang Yichen, pounced in an instant. Jiang Yichen either twisted his body or used his Sword Sheath to withstand the sharp teeth and claws. Dodging and retreating, he used a carp leap to jump and roll out of the wolf pack's encirclement.
Seeing that one of their prey had escaped, the wolf pack's anger grew even more intense. How could they give up? Without giving Jiang Yichen a moment to catch his breath, they pounced again one after another.
The wolves in the Peach Valley Secluded Forest were indeed much more formidable than those on West Mountain Island. Before closing in, they had a sharp, instantaneous acceleration, which made their pouncing momentum unusually fierce. At first, Jiang Yichen could still withstand them with ease and dodge as he pleased, but how could he, unwilling to draw his sword, withstand the wolf pack's war of attrition?
Stamina was Jiang Yichen's weakness. After the time of two sticks of incense had passed, Jiang Yichen was already exhausted from the response. There were wounds on his Arm and Calf where the wolves' Sharp claws had scratched him. Fortunately, the wounds were not deep, but if this continued, he would sooner or later lose his Life to the Evil Wolves.
After blocking the offensive of a few more wolves, Jiang Yichen had reached the end of his bow.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves rang out from behind, and then the sound approached rapidly.
Jiang Yichen was truly pleasantly surprised, "Good fellow, you're really loyal!"
Who could have expected that after running away for half an hour, the Little Brown Horse would have a change of heart and return to save the master who had just saved it.
The dozen or so wolves obviously also discovered the figure of the Little Brown Horse. How could they let the cooked duck fly away? The Alpha Wolf issued the command for a total attack, and they all killed toward Jiang Yichen for one final strike!
In the flash of lightning and sparks, Jiang Yichen drew his sword. With all his Strength, he converged his Internal Energy into the Sword Body. In the instant the pack of wolves pounced, he unleashed the Heavenly Sword All Wounds! A large-scale icy Sword Qi exploded toward the surroundings, as if freezing time, and as if freezing Heaven and Earth. The entire pack of wolves was frozen in the instant they pounced.
Just as the freezing ended, the Little Brown Horse arrived.
This ultimate technique had almost emptied Jiang Yichen's body. He used his last bit of Strength to leap up, but he could no longer mount the horse's back and could only collapse onto the Little Brown Horse's back.
Perhaps out of pity for Jiang Yichen, the wolf pack was very accommodating. After the Little Brown Horse had carried Jiang Yichen a hundred paces away, they finally regained their freedom and began a chase and kill!
Jiang Yichen was very fortunate that he had fed the Little Brown Horse well and full today. However, what he did not expect was that this foodie was still thinking about his own food; it ran back to the place where the luggage was kept, and only after letting him take the luggage did it begin the journey of escape again.
This was a chase that tested patience. Jiang Yichen had already raised the white flag, but the Little Brown Horse did not want to be eaten just like that, and the wolf pack was even more unwilling to let go of the prey they had chased for half the night. Seeing it was about to be in their hands—er, in their mouths—it had just slipped away.
Persist, persist, persist for a little longer, that horse is about to fall down!
Night turned to day, and the chase and being chased were still continuing. Jiang Yichen was truly impressed by these two species; they were truly too patient.
Although the wolf pack's instantaneous acceleration and sprint were extremely fast, there were too many twists and turns in the Peach Valley forest, making it difficult for the wolf pack to utilize their speed advantage. They only almost caught up to the Little Brown Horse in a few flatter places, at least almost pouncing and biting Jiang Yichen down, but they were all knocked away by Jiang Yichen using his Sword Hilt. Jiang Yichen still had that much Strength.
The horse was not good at short-distance sprinting, but its endurance for long-distance running was top-notch. It ran forward steadily, so for most of the time, the distance between the two remained over three zhang.
After tossing and turning all night, Jiang Yichen had little Spirit left at this time. He shamelessly tied himself to the Little Brown Horse's back, looking like he was leaving it to fate: either we escape together, or you can't run anymore and we get eaten together, and then, I'll sleep for a while.
If the Little Brown Horse had time to look back, it would definitely use all its strength to roll its eyes at this useless Jiang Yichen.
Despite the bumpy ride, Jiang Yichen really fell asleep from exhaustion, truly completely disregarding the feelings of the Little Brown Horse and the wolf pack. The wolf family and the horse family had been running for an entire night!
I do not know how much more time passed, when he only heard a "clatter" sound.
Jiang Yichen saw stars, dizzy and confused, as if he had been retaliated against by the Little Brown Horse hitting a wall with its head.
A wall! Where did a wall come from?
After Jiang Yichen opened his eyes, he discovered that the darkness before him was still blurry, with only a little light shooting out from the direction the Little Brown Horse was running.
Could it be that they were in a passage of a cave inside some mountain, and it was actually an upward passage? Was this the road up the mountain?
Jiang Yichen looked back again; they still had not given up. Although he could not see clearly, the wolf pack was still in close pursuit. In the gloomy cave, the light in their eyes was that of "I just want to eat you."
After about a cup of tea's time, the light became more and more sufficient; he must be reaching the cave opening.
As expected, with a leap from the Little Brown Horse, they had run out of the cave's passage. However, the Little Brown Horse did not continue to run forward; it raised its front hooves and neighed toward the sky. If Jiang Yichen had not tied himself quite solidly, he would definitely have fallen off.
Hearing the despair in the Little Brown Horse's neighing, Jiang Yichen realized that he feared there was no way to escape.
After adapting to the light outside the cave, he opened his eyes.
This place was a platform three zhang square, and there was no path forward; it was actually a sheer cliff!
There are three or four definitions online for the time of one stick of incense and one cup of tea. Whether a stick of incense in ancient times was 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 1 hour made the author confused as well. Here, I will make a clear definition of the time units in this book, which is also what I personally consider to be more reasonable: one cup of tea = a quarter of an hour = 15 minutes, one stick of incense = two quarters of an hour.
✦✦✦