He had dreamed of that valley countless times, and now the closer he got to it, the more Yun Ye felt a sense of timidity about approaching home. It wasn’t just Yun Ye who felt this way—Wang Cai kept neighing constantly. When the horse saw that familiar great river, Wang Cai vigorously pawed at the ground with his hooves. Seeing that Yun Ye was busy and not paying attention to him, Wang Cai repeatedly bit at the leaf-plates of Yun Ye’s armor, trying to leave.

“Wait a moment. It’s too late today. We’ll go tomorrow. Are you going home without bringing any gifts? Spring has just begun, the green grass has just started growing, and the herd certainly has nothing to eat. Let me bring more for you to take back for them to eat.” Yun Ye stroked Wang Cai’s long face, constantly comforting him. Wang Cai still kept calling out incessantly, his two large nostrils flaring wide, continuously sniffing the air, wanting to distinguish those familiar scents.

That night, Wang Cai stayed inside Yun Ye’s tent and wouldn’t go out. Na Rimu didn’t mind—in fact, she preferred Wang Cai being this way. She wrapped herself in the quilt with only her head exposed, staring eye-to-eye with Wang Cai. She even pulled out a pear from inside the quilt to feed Wang Cai. Wang Cai took a casual bite and then lay down on the hay specially prepared for him, drooping his head, looking quite listless. Na Rimu crunched through the rest of the pear in a few bites.

Yun Ye burrowed into the quilt, then crawled back out. Frowning, he pulled out four or five pears from the bedding and dumped them all beside Na Rimu’s pillow. This woman still had the habit of hiding food in the quilt even now. To make her break this habit, Xinyue had beaten her quite a bit.

Lying in bed, listening to Wang Cai constantly snorting loudly, he knew the fellow must be extremely excited at this moment. Yun Ye closed his eyes, recalling the circumstances when he first arrived in Great Tang. He discovered that he now very much wanted time to turn back—even having lived twice, his heart was still full of regrets…

Na Rimu fell off the bed onto the floor—Wang Cai had pushed her down with his big mouth. The morning star was still hanging in the sky, yet Wang Cai was already impatient. Na Rimu climbed up, hugging the quilt and viciously kicking Wang Cai twice. Yun Ye stood at the bedside and began dressing. From inside the tent and outside came Yuan Shoucheng’s muffled coughing sound, just like how Old Nainai used to worry that Yun Ye would indulge in pleasure and would call him up early in the morning. When he came out of the tent, he discovered that Wu She was already sitting on horseback, ready to depart.

The military affairs had already been handed over to the Five Barbarians Commander and Lai Chuanfeng the day before. Yun Ye hurriedly washed up once, then mounted Wang Cai and galloped toward the place of his dreams.

Yun Ye didn’t need to look at the road—Wang Cai was even more familiar with this place. When the sky brightened, Yun Ye saw the intersection where he had met Zhang Cheng. Wang Cai sniffed with his nose twice, then charged straight down along the main road.

“Marquis Yun, could this horse come from the same place as you? No wonder it’s so spiritually intelligent. Now with the old horse knowing the way, we two need not worry about taking the wrong road. Hehe, I never expected Madam’s horsemanship to be so excellent as well. Wu She, it seems we two must put in more effort.”

A hundred-plus-year-old man sat on horseback as steady as Mount Tai, swaying up and down with the warhorse’s undulations. Man and horse seemed to merge into one—this was a very high level of horsemanship.

Wang Cai kept sniffing the road, sometimes even licking the ground with his tongue. Once he confirmed the direction, he would gallop wildly. The small path that used to be for hauling salt had already become a main road. Ox carts hauling salt streamed endlessly along the road. This place had now become the location of the largest salt lake in Longyou, currently supplying the salt needs of Longyou’s nineteen provinces. People called it dry salt. Even the distant Northern Court Protectorate and Anxi Protectorate relied on its supply—it was a vital region of Longyou. The garrison troops of Jincheng County under Lanzhou’s jurisdiction were stationed here, constantly guarding this lifeline.

Wang Cai was extremely proud. In this territory, he was king. He raised his head and called out once, his two large ears rotating constantly like radar. Not detecting any movement made him somewhat anxious. He leaped over those salt ponds and continued running downstream along the Yellow River.

Yun Ye quietly counted—that enormous tree root was still there. Wang Cai raised his hooves and leaped over it. The horse’s hooves stepped on the scattered cobblestones, sending sparks flying.

They had arrived at the place. Yun Ye dismounted, removing Wang Cai’s saddle and bridle completely. He gave Wang Cai’s rump a slap, and Wang Cai bounded into the wilderness. The waist-high wild grass parted before his body. He kept calling out, kept running—only here was Wang Cai truly free.

“You and Ancestor Grandpa lived here?” Na Rimu looked around curiously, asking Yun Ye in a low voice. Yun Ye shook his head, changed to another horse, and was the first to enter the wilderness.

The mountain pass at the end of the wilderness was still there, visible from afar. He wondered whether Li Er’s scouts had come to this place. He hoped they hadn’t. If Wang Cai’s herd suffered a devastating blow because of his own existence, Yun Ye would absolutely never forgive himself.

Yun Ye’s mounted party advanced straight toward that mountain pass. Wang Cai ran chaotically across the wilderness, his calling becoming increasingly desolate. Even Yun Ye could hear how desperate Wang Cai was at this moment.

The horse herd was nowhere to be seen. Logically, it should now be time for the horse herd to return to this wilderness to forage. The green grass on the ground had already grown a span high, stretching out its plump, tender leaves and swaying in the spring breeze—all good grass. But where had the horse herd gone?

Yun Ye summoned the Lanzhou official and asked, “Have you heard of anyone capturing a horse herd from here over these years?”

“Reporting to the Great General, this is wilderness, not a place where horse herds would come. If one needs to capture wild horse herds, one need only go to the grasslands. Our Longyou doesn’t have many horses. I’ve never heard of anyone capturing wild horses from here.”

“That’s good. Remember this for me: the horse herd here belongs to the Yun Family. Don’t concern yourself with whether this order of mine is reasonable or legal—I will make it reasonable and legal. I only want to tell you that capturing wild horses here is absolutely forbidden. If anyone disobeys the order, I will personally come and chop him into meat paste.”

The Lanzhou local official was obviously somewhat stunned, but seeing Yun Ye’s murderously fierce eyes, he quickly nodded. The Marquis only said no one was permitted to catch wild horses from here; he didn’t say he wanted this land. This was to avoid making things difficult for the local authorities. As for catching wild horses, no one had ever caught wild horses from here anyway. Now it was just a prohibition order—it didn’t count as a big matter.

Wang Cai ran around chaotically for a while without seeing the horse herd, then ran over to where Yun Ye was. His head drooped to the ground, still unwilling to give up as he sniffed about, hoping to find some useful information—such as a pile of fresh horse manure.

Yun Ye comforted the dejected Wang Cai, then spurred his horse toward the mountain pass. Passing through this not-too-large grassland, when Yun Ye reined in his horse at the mountain pass, that valley appeared before his eyes, exactly the same as the scene that had appeared countless times in his dreams—so real.

The mountain on the left was black, the mountain on the right was red. Right in the middle, a winding small river flowed down gurgling from the valley. At the end of the small river should be the location of his objective.

Wang Cai suddenly called out once and charged straight down the mountain pass, startling wild chickens in the grass to fly about in all directions. Occasionally two rabbits leaped over the high withered grass, hurriedly burrowing into the depths of the grass.

The horse herd was originally here. The current horse herd was much larger than what Yun Ye had seen before—fully four or five hundred horses. They stood quietly on the grassland eating grass. Hearing Wang Cai’s neighing, they all raised their heads in unison to look at Wang Cai, who was bouncing and jumping as he ran over.

A brown horse that was obviously a full circle larger than the other horses slowly walked out from the horse herd. It snorted loudly, then lowered its head and charged toward Wang Cai.

“Oh no, husband! The horse king thinks Wang Cai has come to seize the throne and wants to battle Wang Cai to the death. Stop them quickly! Wang Cai will get hurt—that horse king is so big!” Na Rimu cried out in alarm.

Yun Ye dismounted and sat on the ground, saying to Na Rimu, “You’ve forgotten—Wang Cai is also a fine horse. He knows how to deal with the horse king. We just don’t know whether they’re brothers or father and son.”

“Father and son. That horse king is clearly an old horse. His teeth would definitely be no less than twenty years. Wang Cai is only thirteen years old. We just don’t know whether he realizes that the horse king already considers him an enemy.”

Yuan Shoucheng swung one leg and jumped down from the warhorse, his movements exceptionally nimble. It seemed the old fellow had been holding back. With a body like that, going to Yanlai Building for nightly spring pleasures would be no problem, yet he always said he needed to find Sun Simiao to examine him.

Everyone dismounted, watching Wang Cai and the horse king chase and bite each other on the grass. Liu Jinbao and Na Rimu cheered wildly for Wang Cai. Even so, Yun Ye could see that Wang Cai couldn’t beat the agile horse king and was knocked to the ground with a single head butt.

Yun Ye closed his eyes, unable to bear watching anymore. With Wang Cai’s personality of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, he would definitely run back to complain. He opened his eyes—sure enough, Wang Cai was fleeing wretchedly in front, his two ears pressed tightly against his head. It looked like he was using every ounce of his strength to escape. The horse king chased closely behind, heading straight toward where Yun Ye was, without even making a single turn.

Wu She glanced sideways at Yun Ye and said, “The master raises the horse he deserves. Look—doesn’t Wang Cai resemble you?” Xiao Miao tugged at her master’s sleeve, wanting her master to stop talking about Yun Ye, because Yun Ye was preparing something for Wang Cai.

Since a frontal assault wouldn’t work, cunning became the only option. Yun Ye loaded all the fruit into a cloth bag, so Wang Cai could use it to bribe that horse king in a moment. Back then, he himself had perfectly bribed the horse king with fried dandelions in lamb fat and successfully mixed into the horse herd. Wang Cai’s skill at flattery was first-rate—surely he could learn this.

The horse king chased Wang Cai all the way to the foot of the mountain before turning back. Wang Cai scurried up the hillside in two or three steps. Before Yun Ye could demonstrate the purpose of the fruit, Wang Cai grabbed the cloth bag in his mouth and charged down the hillside again. Only then did Yun Ye remember—Wang Cai had not only fawned over elephants but was also constantly flattered by those children at the Yun Family Estate. How could he not know the purpose of fruit?

Yuan Shoucheng stared intently at Wang Cai’s every move, continuously saying, “Interesting.” The rest of the people were already laughing uproariously at Wang Cai’s behavior.

Because Wang Cai was now lying on the ground, using his mouth to lift up the bag and delivering it toward the horse king’s mouth…