To be precise, Ling Rui wasn’t lost. He was quite familiar with this area.
But somehow, retracing the same path he had walked before, he couldn’t find his way out this time.
Ling Rui furrowed his brow and dismounted.
There was no one around.
After surveying his surroundings, he realized he was probably trapped in an ambush, as someone had set up an array in advance.
In his classes at Guan Shan Residence, the teacher had mentioned such things, but not in great detail. He had learned more about weapon-making than about formations and mechanisms.
“Uncle?”
After walking in circles for who knows how long without finding a way out, Ling Rui called for his uncle.
As expected, there was no response.
His pony, anxiously stomped its hooves.
“Guozi, don’t be afraid. We’ll be fine.” Ling Rui gently patted the pony’s neck, speaking calmly to comfort it.
From dawn to dusk, the bright sky slowly darkened. The pony, hungry, bent down to nibble on some grass.
Ling Rui touched his stomach, which was growling with hunger. He hadn’t eaten anything since he woke up that morning and was now starving.
“Sigh, Uncle must be worried sick by now.”
After not seeing him all day, it was easy to imagine how anxious his uncle must be.
Thinking of his uncle, Ling Rui also thought of Ah Wu.
With no one around, he couldn’t use his foresight ability, so he couldn’t even reach out to Ah Wu for help.
The frontier wasn’t a pleasant place, but the night sky was beautiful.
Tired from wandering, Ling Rui sat down on the ground. “Guozi, let’s rest for a bit before we continue.”
Guozi snorted in agreement.
While Ling Rui was resting, back at the military camp, Murong Xu was indeed burning with anxiety over his missing nephew.
“How could I lose such a big nephew? How is he just gone?”
Murong Xu’s handsome face was filled with frustration. He had sent out several search teams, but none had found anything.
He had personally searched as well, but still no sign of Ling Rui.
“General, the message has already been sent. Once the Grand General arrives, she’ll surely find a solution,” one of Murong Xu’s trusted subordinates said softly.
The “Grand General” referred to Murong Xue.
Murong Xue was some distance away, but she was known for her speed. After receiving the message, she was already on her way and wouldn’t take too long to arrive.
“General, it’s late. Why don’t you rest first?”
“I can’t sleep until Little Seven is found,” Murong Xu said, rubbing his temples, which were starting to throb.
The fatigue from the past few days, coupled with the stress of his nephew’s disappearance, was taking a toll on him.
“General, you haven’t written the letter to the palace today. Shall I prepare—”
“Prepare the paper and ink.”
Murong Xu interrupted, requesting the materials and then writing the letter.
Only his closest confidants knew how frequently he sent letters to the palace.
Sometimes his subordinates found it odd. After all, there wasn’t that much happening on the battlefield to warrant daily reports.
But despite their curiosity, as loyal subordinates, they kept their mouths shut.
“Alright, send it out.”
As he handed the sealed letter to be sent, Murong Xu glanced at a string of beads on the table. He had found the beads during a battlefield sweep and had intended to send them along, as he had with other small items in the past.
But right now, he wasn’t in the mood.
In the letter, he mentioned Little Seven’s disappearance. There was no point hiding it, and he didn’t want to.
Time passed slowly.
Murong Xu went out to search again, conducting a thorough sweep for any trace of his nephew. In the distance, Ah Wu, now in his true form, was also on his way to check on his little one.
The intense heat of the day gave way to the bitter cold of the night.
Ling Rui, frozen, reverted to his soft, fluffy white form, using his fur to keep warm.
As he curled up to wait for morning, a long, ethereal flute melody drifted through the air, winding its way toward him like a thread, wrapping around his ears.
At first, he didn’t want to pay attention, so he covered his ears with his paws.
But it was no use—the flute continued to disturb him.
After who knows how long, the white puffball opened its eyes in annoyance.
“Who’s playing the flute in the middle of the night!”
The puffball squeaked indignantly. “So rude!”
The angry puffball stomped for a moment before suddenly pausing.
Looking in the direction of the flute’s origin, his eyes brightened. If there was flute music, that meant someone was nearby! He could follow the sound to find his way out!
“Guozi, Guozi, wake up, we’re going to find people.”
The little white fluffball, not even as tall as the pony, nudged the pony’s leg, signaling for Guozi to follow him.
Guozi was a calm little pony.
It had just witnessed its rider turn into a puffball and hadn’t even flinched. Now, watching the puffball lead the way, it trotted along behind.
The little white fluffball followed the direction of the flute music as he walked along.
The moonlight shone on the pony and the fluffball, but as they moved forward, the once-bright moon seemed to take on a paler, more ghostly hue. It was hard to say whether the trees or the darkness made the moonlight appear so eerie.
“How strange.”
The white fluffball frowned as he looked at the unfamiliar path ahead. He knew this area was remote, but it shouldn’t have led into a forest.
Cautiously, he continued forward. As he walked, he suddenly recalled an old local book he had flipped through out of boredom a few days ago.
The book mentioned a secluded tribe that lived deep in the forest, avoiding contact with others. Someone had once stumbled upon this tribe by chance and later wrote about the experience in a travel journal.
Ling Rui, who had read many books of all kinds, found the journal interesting and read it twice. Now, looking at the scene before him, he wished the journal had included more details.
The deeper he ventured into the forest, the thicker the vegetation became.
Ling Rui carefully led the way. When they passed a few trees bearing bright red fruit, the pony craned its neck, clearly tempted by the fruit.
It trotted ahead of Ling Rui, trying to grab the low-hanging fruit with its mouth.
But before it could taste the fruit, it suddenly fell with a loud “thud” into a pit hidden by the grass.
Hearing the pitiful neighing, Ling Rui’s expression changed, and he hurried over to check.
The pit it had fallen into was clearly a man-made trap. Though not particularly advanced, it was well-camouflaged by the grass, making it hard to spot.
“Apple, don’t be scared. I’ll get you out!”
In his small beast form, Ling Rui couldn’t lift Apple out of the pit. His teeth were sharp, but they weren’t much help here.
To rescue Apple more easily, Ling Rui changed back into his human form.
He leaned over the edge of the pit and looked down.
Apple had hurt its leg in the fall and was lying at the bottom of the pit, unable to stand.
With no tools at hand, Ling Rui stared at Apple for a few seconds, then turned to gather some herbs and tossed them into the pit. “Apple, eat these herbs.”
Apple responded with a soft whinny and ate the herbs.
Seeing Apple eat the herbs, Ling Rui felt a bit more at ease.
He sat by the edge of the pit, looking around and thinking of a way to get Apple out. At one point, he even turned back into a fluffball and jumped into the pit. Once inside, he used his paws to scratch at the walls of the pit, trying to carve out a step for Apple to climb.
But the walls were too hard, and after a while, all he had achieved was getting his paws dirty, with no visible progress on the steps.
He sighed softly, feeling a bit discouraged.
After a whole night of effort, when dawn broke, Ling Rui jumped out of the pit.
Changing back into his human form, he comforted Apple, “Apple, I’ll go find a rope to pull you up. You rest for a while, don’t worry.”
Apple gave a gentle neigh in response.
The forest was full of plants, and Ling Rui wandered around, hoping to find some vines.
If he could find some long vines, he could use them to pull Apple out.
Ling Rui was so focused on rescuing Apple that he had completely forgotten about the flute music he had heard earlier.
This was an unfamiliar place, and Ling Rui was afraid to leave Apple here, fearing something bad might happen to the pony.
His uncle had told him that Apple was a warhorse in training.
Though still young and not yet as strong as a mature warhorse, Apple would grow into a powerful warhorse someday.
Warhorses were extremely valuable, as they were comrades of the soldiers.
Ling Rui didn’t want anything bad to happen to Apple.
By the time most of the day had passed without finding any vines, Ling Rui had resorted to a simple, labor-intensive solution.
He gathered a lot of grass and dirt and threw them into the pit.
The idea was that Apple could gradually step on the pile and climb out as the height increased.
This method was exhausting, and Ling Rui was soon panting heavily.
To save time, he didn’t even stop to look for food.
As the sky darkened once again, a weary Ling Rui continued filling the pit with dirt and muttered to Apple, “If Ah Wu were here, he’d have filled this pit in no time.”
Ah Wu, in his beast form, was large and had very useful claws.
A while later, after throwing another bundle of grass into the pit, Apple finally managed to step up and climb out.
Once Apple was out, it affectionately nuzzled Ling Rui, who was sitting on the ground.
Ling Rui, tickled by Apple’s touch, couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, alright, stop nudging me. We need to hide.”
Since someone had dug the trap, it was likely they would come to check it.
The two of them had been lucky that no one had come by in the past day and night.
Now that it was night again, Ling Rui knew he couldn’t rely solely on luck, even though he was an auspicious Beast.
“We need to find a place to hide. I need to sleep for a bit.”
Ling Rui hadn’t slept at all, and his head was throbbing with exhaustion. If he didn’t rest soon, he felt like he might just collapse on the spot.
Apple stayed close to Ling Rui as they walked together.
They hadn’t gone far when the flute music from the previous night began to play again.
Ling Rui yawned and ignored it.
He was too tired. After finding a rock to shield him from the wind, he spread out some dried grass and lay down, falling asleep immediately.
He slept soundly and deeply.
Meanwhile, the flute music was growing closer, and with it came the sound of footsteps—clearly more than one person.
If Ling Rui had been awake, he would have noticed the approaching danger.
But unfortunately, he was sleeping too deeply.
Apple, however, heard the movement and began pacing anxiously.
After pacing for a while, the pony finally lifted its hoof and gave Ling Rui a kick.
Ling Rui: “…”
He was rudely awakened by the kick.
Sitting up in a daze, he was about to scold Apple when voices, carried by the wind, reached his ears.
“Second Young Master, someone fell into this trap.”
“Search.”
Ling Rui’s ears twitched, and in the next second, he wrapped his arms around Apple’s neck, urging the pony to lie down.
“Shh, stay hidden. I’ll go take a look.”
