White Snake Prefecture
Great Deer Kingdom, White Snake Prefecture, Snake Tail County.
White Snake Prefecture is located next to Li Prefecture. Similar to how Li Prefecture got its name from the Li River, White Snake Prefecture got its name from White Snake Mountain.
It was a towering mountain range stretching for thousands of miles. Because it was so high, its peaks were covered in snow, resembling a white snake winding its way across the earth, hence the name White Snake Mountain.
The entire White Snake Prefecture is divided in two by White Snake Mountain.
Fifteen days have passed since the incident in Li Prefecture.
For fifteen days, Old Ma traveled day and night, galloping all the way, and finally escaped Li Prefecture, no longer needing to worry about the officials catching up.
It's just... across state lines.
This was Li Qi's first time traveling across states; even in his original world, he had never gone this far.
It's thousands of miles away.
To put it in perspective, it's roughly the distance from Beijing to New Delhi.
Li Qi couldn't help but marvel at the vastness of the world.
Earth is fucking... it's only about the size of a Great Deer Kingdom.
As it turned out, the Great Deer Kingdom was just a small, remote place. It was said that the entire Great Deer Kingdom was only the size of a county in the Tang Kingdom. As far as Wushen Mountain was concerned, there were thousands of such small countries as the Great Deer Kingdom.
It's an unimaginably large size.
According to Shen Shuibi, they had traveled about halfway to the Lady Luofu and it looked like they would arrive soon.
That's why Shen Shuibi has been very happy lately, and she can't wait to look westward every day.
However, Old Ma couldn't hold on any longer.
After fifteen days of continuous travel, it was definitely not enough to just eat some beets, oats, and grass. Old Ma lost weight rapidly during those fifteen days of arduous travel, and he visibly lost a lot of weight.
Anyone who didn't know better would think that Li Qi had prepared twenty mares for him.
Therefore, Li Qi decided to stay in Snake Tail County for a while, both to replenish supplies and to give Old Ma a rest so he could get some nutrition and gain some weight, and also to earn some money to make up for the money he had spent.
How do I make money?
I don't know, let's see when we get to Snake Tail County.
Snake Tail County, as its name suggests, is located at the tail of White Snake Mountain, which is the very edge of White Snake Mountain. It is adjacent to Li Prefecture. The endless snow on White Snake Mountain melts here, rolls down the mountainside, and then becomes waterways, which converge into one, becoming the source of the Li River.
"Li Qi, do we really have to stop here..." Shen Shuibi looked dejected and miserable. She wished she could fly to the Your Highness's side immediately and was very distressed by Li Qi's plan to stop and rest for at least seven or eight days.
"Miss Shen... there's nothing we can do about it. Look at Old Ma, can he even run?" Li Qi patted Old Ma's belly, but it wasn't the usual loud patting sound. Instead, it felt like he was hitting the bone with a dull thud.
Old Ma snorted, his eyes sunken, and turned around to look at Shen Shuibi with a bitter expression.
Shen Shuibi was speechless.
After traveling day and night for fifteen consecutive days, even Dragon Steed couldn't take it anymore. He lost at least 200 pounds. Who could withstand that?
"Alright..." Shen Shuibi lowered her head and reluctantly agreed.
Now that everything was settled, Li Qi rode his Old Ma into the city.
This time, since he had already arrived at White Snake Prefecture and the main purpose was to fatten up Old Ma, he rode there directly on horseback.
Anyway, Li Prefecture is thousands of miles away from here, so what happened in Li Prefecture has nothing to do with here.
However, even though Li Qi had made preparations, he was still shocked by himself before he even entered the city.
He carried a sword at his waist, rode Dragon Steed, and had a beautiful woman named Wuchen hanging behind him, looking around curiously. Although she was not dressed in luxurious clothes, but only in a plain cloth from an ordinary family, she still had a certain air about her.
In reality, he has no real presence; it's all thanks to Dragon Steed and Shen Shuibi.
Anyone could stand here and exude an air of grandeur.
The only advantage is that it's clean, so clean that it doesn't look like someone who's been in the wild for more than ten days.
That's normal. Li Qi needs to find a water source every day to practice his skills, and he soaks in the water for three Chen a day. It's hard for him to get dirty.
At the same time, he was reluctant to wear nice clothes in the wild, and always wore coarse cloth clothes. Only now, before entering the city, did he take out his nice clothes to wear. At first glance, they still looked new and quite presentable.
In short, this group of people was quite intimidating.
Old Ma had a big basket hanging on his back, which looked kind of cheap, but there was nothing he could do about it.
There's no space for rings Mustard Seed Bag, no baskets, nowhere to pack luggage!
However, that's about it. Although there was an unsightly basket on his back, the scene of riding Dragon Steed, carrying a long sword, and being accompanied by a beautiful woman was so outstanding in a county town.
So much so that when Li Qi reached the city gate, no one dared to stop him.
It was only after Li Qi dismounted and paid money to obtain the necessary permits that the soldiers guarding the city bowed and scraped before they would comply with his Li Qi.
Feeling this difference in treatment, Li Qi couldn't help but sigh.
It's strange that even though they get no benefit from currying favor with Li Qi and can just do official business as usual, they still have to bow and scrape.
Normally, just like when Li Qi was in Li Prefecture, he wore coarse clothes and had dark skin. Even though it wouldn't do Li Qi any good to make things difficult for him, they still liked to find something to do.
That's just how people are; they're hard to explain.
In short, things were easy to handle. Li Qi still had about ten gold coins on him, so there was no need to stay in a bad inn. He found one with stables as soon as he arrived, paid a thousand coins in advance, and gave the Old Ma the best food: beans, beets, oats, and even mountain produce and fruit.
This old guy has had a tough time; we need to fatten him up and give him some good food.
Seeing that Li Qi was generous and that his horse was tall and powerful, and that the shopkeeper was extremely nice, the shopkeeper arranged for a groom to take care of the Old Ma and give it a thorough wash.
Li Qi may appear wealthy, but his heart is bleeding.
Raising horses is really expensive.
This kind of Dragon Steed Old Ma is said to be worth a thousand gold pieces. A real thousand gold pieces, according to modern luxury car standards, would be at least a Bugatti Veyron, and the maintenance cost would be more than 100,000 yuan per year, right?
However, as long as he doesn't display his cloud-like abilities, he's just an ordinary spirit horse, not Dragon Steed, only a bit taller, so he won't attract attention.
If you think about it, Old Ma has really suffered following me, only able to eat mundane things, when he should be eating heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
Fortunately, every time Li Qi searched for a water source, he was able to get some pure water vapor to eat to make up for the consumption of his cloud energy, so he wasn't in too bad shape, just that his physical strength couldn't keep up.
After all, the water at the foot of the mountain can rise into the clouds, and the clouds themselves are formed by the rising water vapor from the foot of the mountain, so it won't weaken him to the point that he can't even walk on the clouds.
According to Shen Shuibi, the Shuowen Jiezi says, "Clouds are the vapors of mountains and rivers, which follow rain."
After settling Old Ma in, Li Qi took Shen Shuibi upstairs to book a room.
(The winds and frosts of heaven and earth have ceased, the universe is filled with harmony, a new year has been added to the calendar, and spring has filled the old mountains and rivers!)
(Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! May you celebrate the new year and its many joys!)