Chapter 173 - 140: Departure and Fate
Since I couldn’t find enough Martial Scholars to act as guarantors, I’ll just have to find a few other candidates in the Prefecture City to vouch for each other once I get there.
Time is short, and I can’t afford any delays.
I can’t wait any longer.
Five days later, Fang Yue bid farewell to his parents and family and set off on the road to the Prefecture City.
~~~~~~
Dark clouds shrouded the entire sky, casting the world into darkness.
The cold wind howled and roared.
Bolts of lightning snaked through the clouds like roaming dragons. They tore through the black canopy of the sky, streaking it with brilliant light.
Finally, with a series of muffled rumbles from within the clouds, a torrential downpour began.
The frigid rainwater, mixed with shards of ice, merged into a solid sheet.
In an instant, it obscured all vision, making it impossible to tell one direction from another.
On the official road in the distance, Fang Yue, clad in a straw cloak and a bamboo hat, appeared, slowly leading a fine steed.
The storm was fierce and bitingly cold, and the ground was already a sea of mud.
In such conditions, a horse couldn’t gallop. It would be too easy to slip on the slick road and have an accident, so they could only proceed at a walk.
’I didn’t expect it to rain ice before it snowed this year. This weather is really strange.’
With his current physical conditioning, Fang Yue had long been impervious to heat or cold.
But the feeling of being soaked to the bone was still unpleasant.
Worse, this weather made it impossible to travel quickly, which was incredibly frustrating. ’I’m going to lose more time on the road.’
"Heh heh, look at you. Got a horse, but you’d rather walk. What a joke."
Just then, the sound of horse hooves approached from behind, and Fang Yue heard a mocking voice.
He turned to see a young man in blue robes, a Long Spear strapped to his back, catching up to him on a fine horse.
"Friend, you can’t be racing a horse in this weather. Be careful it doesn’t break a leg," Fang Yue replied with a slight smile, his tone just as blunt.
The weather was cold, the rain was pouring, and the road was muddy—these were not conditions for galloping a horse. It would be all too easy for an accident to happen.
While a Martial Artist of Fang Yue’s caliber had no fear of such accidents, if his horse were injured, he’d be forced to walk the rest of the way.
"Haha, country bumpkin! This is a genuine Da Wan thoroughbred. How could it possibly break a leg? Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. You can stay here and eat my dust!" The young man in blue laughed, then spurred his horse and galloped off.
In the blink of an eye, he was far in the distance, and he soon vanished into the curtain of rain.
Seeing this, Fang Yue just shook his head.
’The world is full of people who insist on making their own trouble.’
Fang Yue wasn’t one to get angry or flustered over a few words from a stranger. He simply gave a dismissive smile.
He simply led his horse and went on his way. What others thought was none of his concern.
The rain had come on suddenly, and it passed just as quickly.
An hour later, the rain had passed and the sky was clear.
The clouds parted to reveal the sun, and its light shone down upon the earth.
Seeing that the weather had cleared, Fang Yue swung himself onto his horse. He didn’t need to urge his mount; he simply let it carry him forward.
"HYAH~"
Just then, a carriage approached from behind.
It was a two-horse carriage, pulled by a pair of magnificent steeds with glossy coats. The driver was a middle-aged man with steady, powerful arms—a trained martial artist, by the looks of him.
The carriage was luxuriously decorated, clearly belonging to no ordinary family.
The carriage quickly drew up alongside Fang Yue, and a head poked out from inside.
"You, how can you do that? The road is muddy, and you’re still riding your horse. Aren’t you afraid it’ll break a leg? You have no regard for your animal."
Fang Yue looked at the young man in the carriage and was momentarily stunned. ’What is with today?’
’When I walked my horse, someone had something to say. Now I’m riding it, and someone still has something to say.’
’What’s next? Is someone going to tell me to carry the horse on my shoulders? And then will someone else mock me for carrying it instead of riding it?’
"You’re so kind-hearted, Your Excellency, why don’t you carry the two horses pulling your carriage? Forcing them to pull such a heavy load while you sit comfortably inside—it’s simply monstrous."
Fang Yue retorted with a faint smile.
His logic was simple: if he shouldn’t ride his horse, then this man should be carrying his.
"Hmph. I won’t waste my breath arguing with you. Country bumpkin."
The young man was clearly taken aback by Fang Yue’s response. After all, these two carriage horses were just common animals from his family’s stables, not the prized steed he usually rode himself.
Their status was entirely different; how could they even be compared?
At that, the young man urged his driver on, and the carriage sped away into the distance.
Fang Yue expected more people might come along to "mock" him.
But after riding for a long time, no one else caught up to him.
The sky quickly grew overcast, and the cold wind began to howl once more.
He was still a long way from the next market town, and it was clear he wouldn’t make it there by nightfall.
So, Fang Yue decided to find a place nearby to rest for the night.
~~~~~~
’This village looks promising. A good place to rest.’
Before long, Fang Yue found a village. It was only after he entered that he realized it had long since fallen into ruin.
It had probably fallen into this state during the famine a couple of years back. After all, not every village was like Da Liushu Village, which was exempt from land tax and had a patron like Fang Yue willing to distribute grain.
That was how they had managed to survive the hard times and recover.
In fact, throughout all of Shanyang Prefecture, the famine had been so widespread that the villagers of countless settlements had become refugees.
As a result, many villages had been abandoned and left to decay.
As he walked into the village, just as he was about to find a place to take shelter, Fang Yue heard the sound of an argument.