Hooves clattered, and the warhorse kicked up a trail of dust.
Mo Chen lay low over its back. After a day and night of hard riding, the jolting had nearly shaken his bones apart. The warhorse beneath him was exhausted too, no longer as spirited as it had been the day before.
Mo Chen loosened the reins, letting the warhorse slow on its own.
Foam was already flying from its mouth and nostrils, and its sweat was thick enough to soak Mo Chen.
"This won't do. I need to let it walk and rest, or I'll run it to death."
Mo Chen quickly assessed the situation. He had already fled for a day and a night; there was no need to keep racing like a madman.
He dismounted and walked ahead, slowly leading the horse.
After crossing another small hill, Mo Chen spotted a village town up ahead.
Once he descended the hill, however, he found the scenery on either side of the main road utterly desolate.
More than a dozen fields lay on either side of the road. Farmers should have been working among the crisscrossing ridges, but weeds had taken over, and he could even see burned farming tools.
"Strange. Wasn't this supposed to be a campaign against my master's wife?"
"Or have the rebels already taken control of the entire Tai'an Kingdom and only come to settle accounts with her at the end?"
Mo Chen could not make sense of it. That did not seem right either.
Didn't wars and coups in the mortal world always need a righteous banner to march beneath?
As he pondered this, he found himself at a three-way junction, with a small town visible nearby.
An almost dry stream ran beside the town. Looking inside, he saw low houses everywhere. Farther ahead,