Silly Dog Mount

The once-majestic Silver Moon Wolf King had now turned into a husky.

Its single eye was narrowed to a slit, blood trickled from the corner of its mouth, and it lay motionless on the ground.

But it had finally discovered the pattern.

Whenever it showed a fierce look, that slap would come down.

Whenever it lay there obediently, the slaps stopped.

Zhou Qi raised his hand again.

The Wolf King shuddered all over and hurriedly lowered its head, burying its face between its front paws as a wronged whimper rumbled from its throat.

Zhou Qi nodded in satisfaction.

"Wouldn't it have been better if you'd behaved like this from the start?"

He rose to his feet, grabbed Silly Dog by one hind leg, and dragged it back just like that.

The Wolf King was dragged across the ground, stumbling and bumping along the way, crashing through shrubs and rolling over rocks. It twitched in pain, yet did not dare make a sound.

When they returned to the foot of the rocky hill, the bonfire was nearly out.

Zhou Qi tossed the Wolf King onto the ground, added several dry branches, and got the fire going again.

That fine horse had completely stopped moving. It lay on the ground, its body gradually stiffening.

Zhou Qi glanced at it and sighed.

What a fine horse. Fast and steady, too.

And it had been ruined by this pack of beasts.

He turned to look at the Wolf King. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, so he went over and gave it two more punches.

The Wolf King rolled its eye whites from the beating, but it only dared shrink its neck and whimper pitifully.

After Zhou Qi was done hitting it, some of his anger had subsided.

He untied the reins from the horse's back, found several spare ropes, and tied the Wolf King up securely.

One end of the rope was fastened around its neck, while the other was tied to that Qingling Tree.

The Wolf King struggled twice, discovered it could not break free, then obediently lay still.

Zhou Qi ignored it. Leaning against the rocky hill, he closed his eyes.

That night, the Wolf King tried to escape twice.

The first time, it gnawed at the rope with its teeth. It had barely bitten halfway through when Zhou Qi's fist arrived.

The second time, it tried to squeeze out from beneath the tree, only for its head to get stuck because it was too large. Then Zhou Qi gave it another thorough beating.

After the second beating, it finally behaved itself.

It lay on the ground and no longer dared move.

Early the next morning.

Zhou Qi opened his eyes, and the first thing he did was look toward the Wolf King.

Silly Dog was lying on the ground. When it saw him looking over, it hurriedly buried its head, even wagging its tail ingratiatingly.

Zhou Qi checked the rope. It was completely intact.

He nodded in satisfaction, rose, and walked over to the horse.

The horse was thoroughly dead now, its body stiff.

Zhou Qi squatted down, took out the Cold-Iron Saber, and began butchering it.

He cut off the good meat from all four legs, as well as the meat from its back, and wrapped them in leaves.

After working for the time it took an incense stick to burn, he carried several bundles of meat back beside the fire, gathered some dry branches, and lit the fire again.

The Wolf King lay nearby, its eye fixed firmly on the raw meat as long streams of drool ran from the corner of its mouth.

Zhou Qi glanced at it and ignored it.

He skewered the meat on branches and roasted it over the fire.

Before long, the scent of meat filled the air, grease sizzling and dripping.

The Wolf King drooled even harder.

Once Zhou Qi had roasted a piece, he ate it himself.

Silly Dog anxiously paced in circles, the rope around its neck pulled taut, but it did not care about the pain. It only stared at the meat.

Zhou Qi finally looked at it.

"Want some?"

Silly Dog nodded frantically. It understood human speech.

Zhou Qi picked up a piece of raw meat and tossed it over.

Silly Dog caught it in one bite, swallowed it in a few gulps, then continued gazing at him eagerly.

Zhou Qi tossed it several more pieces of raw meat, while he ate two pieces of roasted meat himself.

One man and one wolf shared that fine horse just like that.

After eating, Zhou Qi stood and stretched his limbs.

Then he walked over to the Wolf King, untied the rope, and grabbed the saddle taken from the horse's back, pressing it onto the wolf's back.

Silly Dog's expression changed drastically as it struggled desperately.

Without another word, Zhou Qi stepped forward and gave it two bang, bang punches.

Silly Dog immediately behaved itself.

The saddle was not quite the right size, but it could barely be secured. Zhou Qi tied it down with several more lengths of rope, making sure it would not fall off.

Then he swung himself onto the wolf's back.

The Wolf King's body sank, its four legs trembling slightly.

It looked back at Zhou Qi on its back. A trace of cunning flashed through its single eye, then its legs went limp and it flopped onto the ground, pretending that it had been crushed and could not get up.

Watching its darting, spinning eye, Zhou Qi was so angry he laughed.

This damned dog was putting on an act for him.

Sitting atop it, he delivered another two bang, bang punches to its head.

The Wolf King yelped and scrambled to its feet in a roll, no longer daring to pretend.

This time, the Wolf King stood steadily, all four legs ramrod straight.

Zhou Qi patted its head.

"Go."

The Wolf King hesitated for a moment, then sprang forward and began racing wildly.

The wind howled past his ears as the trees flew backward.

Zhou Qi's eyes lit up.

It was far too fast.

More than two or three times faster than that horse.

And a wolf's agility in the Forest was simply unbelievable. It dodged left and right, moving over the ground as though walking on level earth.

At this rate, it probably would not be long before they reached the border of Western Profound City.

Zhou Qi nodded in satisfaction and patted the Wolf King's head again.

"Good dog. You've got a bright future."

The Wolf King could not understand human speech, but it could sense that the person on its back was in a good mood.

So it ran even harder.

One day later.

The outskirts of the Azure Profound Mountains.

Zhou Qi lay sprawled over the wolf's back, his face pale.

Running fast was a good thing, but a wolf's back was not a horse's back.

A horse's back was flat and bounced up and down when it ran. A wolf's back was arched and swayed from side to side when it ran.

On top of that, the terrain in the Forest was complicated—uphill one moment, downhill the next, sharp turns and sudden stops.

After two days of this, Zhou Qi felt as though his internal organs were about to be jolted out of him.

If he had not already reached the Foundation Establishment Realm and strengthened his body, he would have vomited long ago.

Dusk was approaching.

Zhou Qi rode Silly Dog through the woods.

That beast had run for an entire day, yet showed no trace of fatigue. Its four legs churned at incredible speed.

It went around trees and leaped over ditches.

Zhou Qi stroked its head. Silly Dog looked back, a hint of ingratiation flashing through its single eye, and ran even harder.

The Qingling Mountains belonged jointly to Blackstone City and Western Profound City. After running for a full day, Zhou Qi did not know whether this place counted as the border between the two cities' territories.

But Western Profound City was still some distance away.

The trees and grass to either side sped backward.

Just then, Zhou Qi's brow furrowed slightly.

The spiritual senses of someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm far surpassed those of ordinary people. Though the distance was still great, he had clearly caught unusual sounds carried on the wind:

The scrape of weapons, mixed with human shouts.

He lightly patted Silly Dog's head twice.

Silly Dog understood. Its speed immediately slowed, its four paws landing without a sound. Like a silver-gray shadow, it crept toward the source of the noise.

After going another several dozen steps, the sounds suddenly became clear.

Zhou Qi flipped off the wolf's back and casually tied the reins to a tree.

He swept his gaze around, chose a towering tree several zhang high, activated Gale Step, and with several leaps climbed into its crown.

Parting the branches and leaves, he looked ahead.

An open clearing lay in the woods ahead.

Five figures were surrounding something and attacking it in turns.

By the lingering glow of dusk, Zhou Qi saw clearly.

They were five burly men dressed as hunters, wielding hunting forks and machetes as they surrounded and hunted a wild boar.

The boar stood as tall as an adult. Its entire body was black, its bristles standing upright like steel needles, its tusks protruding from its mouth. It was drenched in blood, and its four hooves had already begun to stagger.

The five hunters coordinated seamlessly. Three held forks to restrain it from the front, while two wielded blades and circled behind in search of an opening. Clearly, they were seasoned hands who had worked together for years.