Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 313 The Long-Eared One is a Donkey

Although Yun Ce was already quite dashing riding his chestnut horse across the wasteland in his long black cloak, Shen Tingyu still did not appear.

He decided to take another stroll.

Huo Wudi, dressed in a pale yellow gauze dress, was busy running around in the courtyard. She disliked those high and mighty heads of families, strategists, and managers, and even disliked the arrogant generals who looked down on everyone.

She loved to mingle with the hundred-man generals that Cao Kun brought, giving a fruit to one of them who liked her, or a candy to the one who held her back from falling. When she saw the hundred-man generals guarding the gate sweating in the sun, she would huff and puff as she carried over the parasol that only the Yun family had...

A six-year-old girl is at the age when she is most loved, not to mention that Huo Wudi has been pampered by Yun Ce recently and is now fair-skinned and chubby. People would believe she is a fairy.

Such a doll is so affectionate that those rough and tough men couldn't resist it, and they all took out everything they had that could make the doll happy and gave it to Huo Wudi.

Huo Wudi only likes thoughtful gifts, not expensive ones. If you give her a wooden knife, sword, or doll that you carved yourself, she will happily accept it and might even sweetly call you "Uncle".

When the little boy came across some precious jewelry or gold, he would blink his eyes and cry, asking the "uncle" to take these good things back so that he wouldn't have to sell his own dolls when he was poor.

Upon seeing a beautiful crying doll, even the most vicious and ruthless general would only think of snatching the doll home and raising it carefully, without harboring any dark or suspicious thoughts.

Whenever Huo Wudi started making purchases, Lei Ming would stand in a dark corner with his arms crossed, watching the little girl giggling among the hundred generals with gloomy eyes.

Even if she absorbed ten years' worth of internal energy from just one of the sixty-eight centurions, she could still absorb six hundred and eighty years' worth...

As darkness fell, Huo Wudi finally stopped playing with the white generals. After closing the door, her bright and charming face immediately darkened.

Looking at Lei Ming standing in the middle of her room, she said, "If you dare to peek at me while I'm working again, I'll gouge your eyes out."

Lei Ming, his face equally grim, said, "What you're doing is wrong."

Huo Wudi leaned forward, looked up at the tall Lei Ming, and said, "That's not your mother."

Lei Ming angrily retorted, "How can a girl use foul language?"

Huo Wudi jumped up and said, "Fuck your mother!"

Enraged, Lei Ming threw a punch at Huo Wudi's face. Just as the fist was about to hit Huo Wudi's face, he stopped and asked in confusion, "Why didn't you dodge?"

Huo Wudi jumped up and punched the unsuspecting Lei Ming in the eye, and took the opportunity to grab his fist, which he instinctively tried to resist.

Lei Ming glanced at the pair of fair, delicate hands that were gripping his large fist. Just as he was about to shake them off, he felt his inner energy flow into Huo Wudi's small hands like a river bursting its banks.

Lei Ming was startled and bumped his head into Huo Wudi's nose, causing her nose to bleed profusely. Only then did he untie her hands, quickly examine his body internally, and realize that his half-month of internal energy training had been in vain.

"Are you deliberately provoking me to drain my inner energy?"

With blood streaming from her nose, Huo Wudi coldly said, "Your internal energy is stinky, I don't want it." As she spoke, she placed her small palm on the low table, which trembled slightly, and a small palm print half an inch deep appeared on it.

Lei Ming glanced at the small palm print, then said with a smile, "You lose a portion of your inner energy with every use, right?"

Huo Wudi was taken aback for a moment, then immediately said, "Could it be that your internal energy is increasing the more you use it?"

Lei Ming laughed and said, "Of course not. My inner energy can be regenerated tomorrow after I use it up today. Your inner energy is stolen after all. Once it's used up today, it's gone tomorrow. Hahaha, you're just a thief after all. You can't last long."

Huo Wudi's small, white fingers, like hooks, reached for Lei Ming's waist and abdomen with a tearing sound as she ripped through the air. Lei Ming knew he couldn't beat Huo Wudi in her current state, so he flashed to the window, pushed it open, and fled.

Huo Wudi stared at the wide-open window for a long time before finally suppressing his anger. Thinking of Lei Ming's words, he rubbed his face vigorously, put on a simple and honest smile, picked up a plate of honey rolls from the low table, walked through the inner courtyard of the Yun Clan, went out the front door, and came to the tent outside the guest room. He lifted the curtain and smiled at the four centurions inside, saying, "Uncle, have some dessert before you sleep tonight, so you'll have more energy tomorrow."

Yun Ce searched the wasteland all day but failed to catch Shen Tingyu.

When darkness fell, he stopped wandering the wasteland, found a water source, lit a fire on the sandbar, heated up some food, ate a few bites quickly, then pulled out a blanket and had his chestnut horse lie down upwind to shield him from the wind, preparing to spend the night on the sandbar.

The dog crawled out of the wristband, climbed up Yun Ce's arm to his shoulder, and said, "Shen Tingyu is nearby." Yun Ce said, "Your location is inaccurate. I don't think he's here. I am his mortal enemy. Now that I'm alone in the wasteland, there's no reason for him to hide from me."

Gouzi said, "He's nearby, I'm pretty sure of it, but his location is unpredictable, sometimes east, sometimes west. While you're looking for him, he's also observing you from the shadows, and seems very wary of your presence."

Yun Ce thought for a moment and said, "We didn't have anything that could kill a Grandmaster before, but now we do. Judging from his suspicious nature—to the point that he could kill his own father—he still wants me to cause trouble for the Mountain Moving Sect. He'll launch a surprise attack from the shadows; that's the safest thing for him."

Gouzi said, "I've calculated that you can't kill Banshan in a short time, and it won't work even if I join forces. We might be able to kill Banshan if we work together, but it would be a Pyrrhic victory. Once Shen Tingyu suddenly appears, you're doomed."

Yun Ce sighed and said, "They are so extravagant that they have sent two Grandmasters at once, and they even support each other. This is simply a dead end that cannot be solved."

Gouzi said, "Then let's just stay here. As long as you don't encounter Shen Tingyu and Banshan at the same time, even if you can't beat them, escaping won't be a problem."

Because of you, Shen Tingyu couldn't join forces with the Mountain Moving Sect to continue searching for Cao Kun. Overall, you've come out on top, holding back two Grandmasters of the Ghost Fang Sect and preventing them from attending to other matters—it's a very prestigious thing to talk about.”

Yun Ce nodded in satisfaction and said, "Then let's stall for time. I don't believe that Shen Tingyu can change his location without sleep or rest."

"Last time, the chestnut horse abducted a female Thunder Smoke Beast from Shen Tingyu. I think he's riding on the Thunder Smoke Beast around right now. What I don't understand is, you have me to help you locate him and find his whereabouts, so what does he rely on to determine your location?"
I drew out the route we took during the day, and I found that there were several times when we could have met Shen Tingyu, but we just missed each other.

I don't believe this is a coincidence. After calculating, I'm even more certain of one thing: if you can use my abilities to search for Shen Tingyu, then he probably also has a magical device that can find you.

I am a silicon-based life form. Since the possibility of another silicon-based life form appearing in this world is slim, it must be a carbon-based life form. Let's search again for this carbon-based life form that can monitor us.

Yun Ce gazed at the dark night sky and asked, "What kind of carbon-based life form could it be?"

The dog said, "They are nothing more than birds and beasts."

Seeing that the dog left four tentacles to support its body and stretched the other four tentacles toward the sky, Yun Ce could feel a slight ripple in the air, which spread outwards in circles like ripples.

After a long while, the dog retracted its four tentacles and said to Yun Ce, "Shen Tingyu searched the area twenty miles to the west but found no unusual birds or beasts."

Yun Ce rested his head on the chestnut horse's belly, fed it a baby bean, and then asked, "When did you betray me and side with Shen Tingyu?"

Upon hearing Yun Ce's words, the chestnut horse was so surprised that it dropped the baby bean it had just put in its mouth, and looked at Yun Ce, who was leaning against its belly, in confusion.

Upon hearing this, the dog immediately extended four tentacles and firmly attached them to the chestnut horse's belly. After a moment, it climbed onto the chestnut horse's body, wandered around for a while, and then actually pulled out a silver-white metal rod from the chestnut horse's tail hair and held it in front of Yun Ce.

Yun Ce carefully examined the metal rod, which was not much thicker than an embroidery needle, and said to Gouzi, "This is the tracking device that belongs exclusively to Shen Tingyu, right?"

Dog said, "The metal pillar that can emit shockwaves on its own is in the same place as what's in Tiger Ben's mind. Shen Tingyu should be able to receive the shockwaves from this metal pillar and thus determine your location."

However, the deviation should be quite large.

Yun Ce raised his hand and pinched the chin of the chestnut horse, saying, "Be smarter. They didn't let you go just because you hid in the mud. They put a tracker in your tail. Luckily, you ran fast enough that the tracker was off track, which is why they didn't find the location of Yun Family Manor."

Otherwise, they would have come to our house seeking revenge long ago. Then, I would die in battle, Eji would be killed, Zhang Min would be killed, and the two children wouldn't survive either. Chestnut Horse, use your brain! I always let you make your own decisions before, and now you see, the result of your decisions is the death of our whole family.”

Upon hearing this, the chestnut horse jumped to its feet, looking extremely angry. It neighed and was about to run out to fight Shen Tingyu, but after taking two steps, it stopped and looked back at Yun Ce, its big eyes filled with tears—it didn't know where Shen Tingyu was.

Yun Ce stood up, hugged the chestnut horse's big head, stroked its long ears, and said to the chestnut horse, "I'll dig a hole in a bit. You shout into the hole, 'The one with long ears is a stupid donkey.' Shout it three times in a row, and I'll forgive you and let you continue to eat and drink well with me from now on."

After saying that, Yun Ce pushed away the chestnut horse that was still trying to stick to him, and punched the ground lightly, creating a pit about one foot in diameter and three feet deep.

The chestnut horse, tears welling in its eyes, came to the edge of the pit. It stuck its long snout into the pit and began to bellow, "Aww! Aww! Aww!"

Dog couldn't stand it anymore and said to Yun Ce, "Do you have to be like this?"

(End of this chapter)