Not long after Ma Tianyi and the Zhao Zhen brothers began plotting to murder Ma Shaokang, the young manor lord of Ma Family Manor was riding hard beneath the escort of several accompanying manor retainers, heading for Hengqu Mountain, sixty li outside Ma Family Manor, to hunt.
On the day of the horse racing meet, he would use a mighty ferocious beast to win cheers for Ma Family Manor's opening!
Ma Shaokang cut a dashing figure in his youth, clad in fitted white attire, an Ox Horn Longbow slung across his back. A saddlebag at his side held a steel saber and three quivers of arrows. He was tall and powerfully built, with a pair of blade-like brows that radiated authority. Though his face still looked young, he gave off an air of razor-sharp edge.
The several manor retainers around Ma Shaokang were also quite young, roughly his age. They were all right-hand men Ma Ruzhen had selected for Ma Shaokang. Since childhood, they had been brought to live at Ma Family Manor. Gifted in martial training, they had received martial education and ideological indoctrination from a young age, and were utterly loyal to Ma Ruzhen and Ma Shaokang, father and son. In the future, they would also become the backbone of Ma Family Manor.
That Ma Shaokang had brought no one else on this trip, only these few young men, showed just how much he trusted and valued them.
"Young Manor Lord, the most famous ferocious beast in Hengqu Mountain is that Golden-Winged Azure-Eyed Flying Eagle. It possesses boundless strength, can whip up gale-force qi winds, comes and goes without a trace, and soars through the blue heavens. If we can hunt this beast today, the Manor Lord will surely be delighted!"
Hengqu Mountain was not a great mountain