Chapter 17: Gao Dazhu

“Charge!”
“Forward!”
“Faster, even faster!”
“Chase the wind, run! Run!”

A black steed galloped freely across the boundless tundra.
Its hooves struck the swirling moss like black lightning streaking across a jade-hued sky.

“Advance! Advance! Haha, well done!”

Feeling the gust of wind sweep past, Dailongmei’s face broke into a joyful smile.
This was the vast tundra in the western reaches of Jinyuan Road, where countless strands of moss danced with the breeze.

Amid the green sea, a rider charged relentlessly forward.

“Faster! Chase the wind! Faster!”
Dailongmei urged the horse beneath him onward.

The black horse, named Chasewind, neighed happily and thundered ahead.

Behind Chasewind followed a swiftly galloping gray horse,
carrying the exhausted Longzhu, who panted heavily.

“Big brother... I’m exhausted... I can’t keep going...”

Dailongmei tightened the reins, and Chasewind let out a long whinny before halting on a hill.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked at Longzhu, who was drenched in sweat from the rough ride on his beloved gray horse.

“Hahaha, Bamboo, you’re already done after just a short run?”
“You’re from the northern Wolf Tribe, after all, how can your riding skills be so weak...”

“Fifth Master... we... Wolf Tribe riders use wolves, but those gray wolves can’t run as fast as the Liaodong horses... Hah, I’m dead tired.”
“And Fifth Master... your Chasewind runs like a mad thing. Catching up to him is impossible.”

Dailongmei caressed Chasewind’s neck, and the horse responded with a joyful call.

“So, brother, you’ve got to keep up with my training. Our Liaodong cavalry are the best in all of Tianyu. Bamboo, don’t be a drag.”

He squeezed his horse’s belly, turned its head, and gazed out over the thousand-mile tundra ahead.

“Hahaha, a true man must gallop like the wind and ride across the battlefield, becoming a hero!”

“Oh Fifth Master... I can’t keep up, I really can’t... oh, my backside hurts from racing you just now...”

Before Longzhu could finish, Dailongmei shouted once more and charged forward.

“If you’re late to the Gaodazhu, you owe me a drink!”

“My goodness, Little Wolf, you know we weren’t trying to race the Fifth Master,”
The gray horse tilted its head to look at its rider, then at Chasewind, who streaked forward like a meteor,
snorting defiantly.

“Little Wolf?”
“Hey, hey! Why did you take off? Hey, slow down!”

One man and one wolf raced across this vast land.
Their destination was the distant Gaodazhu.

---

The so-called Gaodazhu didn’t look like a pillar at all.
It resembled a colossal battle robot standing steadfast on the earth.

No, it was actually a war machine—an ancient combat mech damaged in a long-past war.

“Look, we’re almost there already~”
“Haha, Bamboo, this is much easier than walking.”

Dailongmei laughed heartily as he looked at Longzhu, who nearly fell off his gray horse.

Gaodazhu was now close.

Sword sheathed and horse reined, Dailongmei gazed upon the towering mech standing on the tundra.

From afar, the mech, forged from hardened alloys, had clearly endured countless years of weathering.

Once tough and corrosion-resistant, its armor was now covered in rust and thick moss.

The blue-gray paint, faded by time, had turned into a mottled pattern of reds and greens.

War had long since departed from the land it once fought upon.

The bloodshed and fury were replaced by flourishing moss.

A fragrant breeze swept across the earth, displacing the presence of war.

Yet the pilots who once controlled the mech—and the enemies they slew—
had long since perished in the pages of history.

Death from the past and life in the present converged here simultaneously.

Dailongmei’s gaze fixed on the cockpit at the center of the mech, resembling an eye.

Still several hundred meters away, he could not discern its details.

It was said that a few years back, some treasure hunters who had been thwarted in the Jinyuan underground city
had turned their sights on Gaodazhu.

Under cover of night, using some device retrieved from the depths, they opened the cockpit.

Inside, they found only the pilot’s skeleton and a pistol discarded beside him—used to end his own life.

They took the pistol, believing they had secured a priceless divine weapon that would fetch a fortune in Yulong coins.

But on a dark, windless night about a month later, that pistol mysteriously exploded the heads of those treasure hunters and vanished.

Rumor had it that the old Taoist masters of the Jade Sect divined that the weapon had returned to its rightful owner.

Thinking of this, Dailongmei rubbed his eyes.

He had no desire for such a troublesome immortal weapon.

“I’m dying here, Fifth Master, next time... can we not run like this?”

Longzhu panted heavily.

“Look at you, exhausted. But see, my Little Wolf here isn’t tired at all, right, Little Wolf?”

Dailongmei turned and gently stroked the little wolf’s ear.

The horse twitched its ear happily.

“Heh, this one’s just like your Chasewind—same fiery spirit.”

Longzhu watched the two horses nuzzle affectionately.

“Haha, I think Little Wolf still wants to run.”

“Ah, come on, Fifth Master, I really can’t keep up anymore...”

Watching Longzhu’s comical plea, Dailongmei chuckled, feeling much better.

The fragrant scent of the western Jinyuan tundra filled his nostrils.

Such abundant moss, thriving so lushly in the cold and poor soils of Liaodong, was a rare sight.

As the most populous section of Tianyu, Jinyuan Road’s moss growth surpassed that of the other two routes combined.

So much so that during disaster years, Jinyuan’s moss could aid the other two routes and the capital region.

Yet now, the Jin army occupying Jinyuan Road had no intention of “helping” Liaodong.

“Sigh, Fifth Master, you really have skill. Who races over two hundred li on horseback?”

“Second Master would say you’re ‘completely mad.’”

“Bah, two hundred li is nothing. When I followed Second Brother north to quell the rebellion, I rode over eight hundred li without a break.”

“Bamboo, you’re born of the northern cold lands, a true Wolf Tribe cub—how can you be so weak?”

“Enough, enough, your family’s young master is made of copper flesh; how can I compare to you heavens-born demons?”

“Hahaha, ‘heavens-born demons’—I like that.”

“Legend says they roam free, doing whatever they please. I like that, haha!”

Dailongmei patted Longzhu’s shoulder with such force that even the Wolf Tribe strongman winced.

“All right, all right. Next time I won’t race you, geez...”

Longzhu muttered softly.

As they bantered, a jade dragon banner appeared fluttering from a hill behind Gaodazhu.

“Look, here come the Jin army guys.”

Dailongmei’s smile faded as he focused his gaze.

A soldier raised the dragon banner, clad in rhinoceros hide armor embossed with dragon patterns—clearly elite troops of Jinyuan.

“A Jin soldier, headcount checks out.”

Following the soldier was an officer in similar hide armor, but wearing a more ornate bronze helmet.

“A liaison officer, count seems right too.”

Yet behind them came the neighing of horses once more.

A cavalry unit of over thirty riders emerged, mounted on sturdy Jinyuan warhorses, armored and armed with bronze halberds.

Their faces were covered with copper masks, exuding a domineering air.

“Tsk, the numbers don’t add up.”