Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 94 Fate Cannot Be Changed

A heavy snowfall completely isolated the royal hunting grounds from the outside world, turning them into two separate worlds.

Normally, the snow here belongs to Izumo Castle. Clouds drifting from Mount Kora, whether it's rain or snow, always rush to Izumo Castle first. This is common knowledge to the people of the Royal Hunting Grounds.

This snowfall was different, mainly because the snow was so heavy. When the dark clouds drifted over from the Gaoliang Mountains, it looked like someone had hung a black blanket over the sky.

When the black blanket was on Mount Takara, it started to snow, and in a very short time, it turned Mount Takara white.

When the black blanket obscured the blue sky of the Royal Hunting Grounds, Yun Ce decided to have hot pot today.

The supplies brought back from Izumo City this time are so abundant that if we don't spend them, many of the rare meats will be difficult to store by the time spring arrives.

Honestly, Yun Ce doesn't like to eat cured meat, smoked meat, or bacon. In essence, these are all spoiled meats, products of humans compromising with nature when storing food.

Fresh meat is naturally the best.

The Han people had a very detailed classification of meat. Whenever they saw a live animal, their first consideration was whether it was edible.

Once you find that something is edible, you must figure out which part is the best to eat. If something is inedible, you must also figure out why it is inedible and whether there is something wrong with your cooking methods.
This is the biggest difference between the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and the descendants of other families. There was another major difference, which was farming. Unfortunately, only the Yellow Emperor was brought into this world by the dragon, while the Yan Emperor was not.

The Yellow Emperor's specialty was nomadic herding, a skill that the Han people have fully inherited, except that they raise relatively few animals, namely two kinds of sheep called "horses" and two kinds of horses called "thunder smoke beasts".

Emperor Yan, also known as Shennong, did not come to the Han people. As a result, the Han people's way of life was reduced to hunting and gathering.

Fortunately, this land is truly abundant, with a continuous stream of natural delicacies, making people even less willing to farm.

Yun Ce glanced at the almost transparent piece of meat in front of him. Steward Qiu said that it was the meat of a beast called "Shadow". Because the beast was transparent, it could only be caught by traps. Its meat was very elastic and would make a squeaking sound when bitten. Some people in Chang'an who ate "Shadow" meat could make a beautiful piece of music while eating it.

Yun Ce took a bite and found that the meat made a 'fa' sound. He took another bite and chewed it carefully, but it still made a 'fa' sound.

Yun Ce examined the sliced ​​"Shadow" meat and felt that the pronunciation of this thing should be closely related to the thickness and size of the meat slices. If you think about it carefully, it should also be closely related to the degree of rawness or cookedness of the meat slices.

If someone can eat meat and create music while eating it, then that feast must be incredibly elaborate.

There were many people eating at home, and everyone's mouth made the sound "fa," so Yun Ce's hot pot meal ended amidst a chorus of "fa fa fa fa."

To truly experience and immerse oneself in life is a beautiful and important thing, sometimes even more important than changing the world.

Peng Zeng left before the heavy snow, taking with him the kind old woman who had been so good to him. When he left, his injuries hadn't healed; he could only walk.

The two of them, supporting each other, left the Royal Hunting Grounds. Even though Yun Ce told them that it was going to snow soon, they still left without hesitation.

Watching their figures disappear on the mountain path, Yun Ce always felt that the old woman seemed to walk with much more determination than Peng Zeng.

The path was chosen by the person themselves, so Yun Ce had no choice but to respect their fate. To alleviate his guilt, Yun Ce even gave Peng Zeng a bag of money and a bag of food.

The black blanket cloud left a two-foot-thick layer of snow in the Royal Hunting Grounds and then hurried off to Cloud City. Only after the cloud had moved far away from the Royal Hunting Grounds did Yun Ce realize that this cloud was really well-formed and really looked like a blanket.

Since getting that silly dog, chopping wood has become Eji's greatest pleasure. And the dog seems to have no limit to how many times it can open its mouth. As long as you pinch its tail, it will open its mouth without hesitation.

Faced with the choice between the Black Armor Army and the Tiger Legion, Lao Cheng chose the Tiger Legion without hesitation. Lao Cao and the others liked to call him the centurion of the Black Armor Army, but Lao Cheng never liked it. He seemed to dislike Zhou Chengming at all.

This was the first time Lao Cheng had left the hunting palace to find Yun Ce.

After he left the hunting lodge, the gates were quickly closed, and the guards were very attentive.

"The hunting lodge lacked firewood, but also lacked servants to do the work."

Yun Ce still respected this centurion, who had been crippled and expelled from the Tiger Legion by Zhou Chengming. However, when the centurion proposed that some men from the Hunting Grounds Camp be their servants, Yun Ce's goodwill towards him vanished. Even if he had mentioned hiring him, Yun Ce would have helped him inquire with Steward Qiu and the others about their attitude. If he wanted to earn more money or supplies in the cold winter, working for someone in the Hunting Palace wasn't out of the question.

As for servants, forget about them. They are a group of people who work for others for free, without receiving any wages, and are treated as less than human by the people they serve.

"The people of the Hunting Camp are just a bunch of country bumpkins. How would they know how to take care of nobles? In addition, the local people are fierce. If someone with no eyes sees the good looks or money of the nobles in the Hunting Palace and has bad intentions, how am I supposed to explain this to Brother Cao who is far away in Chuyun City?"

Such an explanation was enough to shoo away a boorish man like Lao Cheng, so half an hour later, the woman that Lao Cao had introduced to him arrived.

Receiving women was naturally the responsibility of Eji, the young lord. Although the woman who ran the brothel was very beautiful, Eji still gave her no kind look and bluntly told her that the people in the hunting camp were all official servants of the royal hunting grounds and it was impossible for them to do the work of slaves.

Eji also warned Huaji that the situation outside was becoming increasingly chaotic, and several bandit groups had appeared near the Royal Hunting Grounds. The current manpower of the Hunting Grounds camp was insufficient to defend it. If it weren't for her husband holding on desperately, she would have wanted to go into the Hunting Palace to borrow some more manpower to increase the defense.

When Yun Ce first met the eloquent E Ji, even Feng An and Liang Kun, after witnessing E Ji's silver tongue, thought that E Ji had the air of a wealthy housewife.

The heavy snow covered the land, making it impossible for even wild animals, let alone thieves, to cross the difficult snowfield and enter the royal hunting grounds.

However, even under these circumstances, one person still crawled for more than ten miles, slowly carrying his body to the royal hunting grounds.

Feng An heard a continuous, faint knocking sound and thought it was a mischievous little bird. When he opened the door, he found that it was Peng Zeng, who had already left.

This time, he was more seriously injured. He was stabbed more than a dozen times in the chest and abdomen, and a piece of his intestine was sticking out of a hole. He had been in the snow for too long, and that piece of intestine had turned black and was no longer needed.

The wounds were all stabbed with a knife, probably by a woman or a child, because each stab wound looked terrible, but none of them were truly fatal, and each cut was not very deep.

"The one who killed me was Granny Hu!"

Peng Zeng fainted after struggling to say those words, as if Yun Ce would definitely avenge him. He fainted so decisively.

Yun Ce naturally wouldn't waste his energy helping him hunt down Granny Hu; it wasn't his business. Anyway, Peng Zeng always made the wrong choice at the last moment. Even if he was saved this time, he would still end up in the same situation next time.

The dog remained curious about Peng Zeng's body and once again used the silver thread to go inside him, not only removing a section of Peng Zeng's intestines, but also thoughtfully stitching up his wounds.

They threw him back into the room that hadn't been tidied up yet, and then nobody paid him any attention. Anyway, people like him never want to die.

Raising carrier birds is a very troublesome thing. Although Lao Chou had explained to Yun Ce and E Ji in detail how to raise them, the carrier birds they raised were not in good spirits at all. On the other hand, the four carrier birds raised by An Ji and the other three were full of energy and had a bright future.

Yun Ce felt that the process of raising the messenger bird was no different from that of An Ji and the others. Until one night, Yun Ce discovered that the silly dog ​​would always stare at the messenger bird in the dead of night, causing the messenger bird to be on the verge of mental collapse at all times. No wonder it was in such a bad state.

With Peng Zeng's brilliant example before him, Yun Ce had almost lost interest in actively participating in changing the fate of others. He felt that he was not a god, but an ordinary Han Chinese.

Often, only when you integrate do you truly become a part of the whole. If you refuse to integrate, then, without a doubt, any attempt to integrate yourself into the whole is tantamount to robbery.

This is the profound truth that Yun Ce realized during this heavy snowfall—you are not even a Han Chinese, so how can the Han Dynasty be yours?
Yun Ce could no longer integrate into Izumo City. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but the thick smoke rising from Izumo City could be clearly seen even from Mount Gaoliang, two hundred miles away.

This is what Lao Chou told Yun Ce. They went up Gaoliang Mountain together again, and just as Lao Chou said, thick smoke was billowing over Chuyun City. Although the sounds of fighting could not be heard, just by looking at the places where smoke was rising, one could tell that a fierce battle had spread throughout the city.

Feng An watched for a long time, and finally burst into tears. Yun Ce didn't understand why he was crying, but Liang Kun said that he had been gaining something from his studies recently.

And every gain he received taught him to be kind in his actions.

Yun Ce didn't know if Liang Kun was telling him what he was thinking. At least, Feng An was definitely not crying over the burning Izumo City because his heart had become kinder.

Just seeing a large bird emerge from the black smoke and head straight for the Royal Hunting Grounds, Yun Ce knew that Zhang Min had arrived.

(End of this chapter)