Only Four Carriages Could Be Taken

The sky stretched blue for ten thousand miles. A rising sun hung on the horizon, its enormous halo casting seven-colored light in every direction. The sun itself was several times larger than usual.

On the You Lan Great Grassland, cool breezes still rustled the knee-high grass from side to side. Elk, antelope, grass rabbits, and other creatures leisurely grazed on green grass and drank clear water. When they were happy, they frolicked, leaped, and ran. Everything was peaceful.

Suddenly, near the mountains on the eastern side of the grassland, the little animals all stopped, their ears pricking straight up. Then they fled desperately into the distance, occasionally looking back as though something terrifying was approaching.

Before long, a pack of enormous blood wolves came walking from afar. Yet strangely, they turned a blind eye to the fleeing animals and merely ambled along at an unhurried pace. This grassland had always been the territory of elk and the like; blood wolves were rarely seen here, much less strutting about so openly. It was truly thought-provoking.

Even stranger, amid the loose formation of blood wolves were four carriages pulled by elk!

Of the four carriages, only the foremost had someone seated in the driver's place: a tall, thin young man sitting lazily with his eyes closed, cross-legged, holding no whip at all. Whenever the elk pulling the carriage strayed slightly from the path or slackened, a blood wolf would immediately dart out from the pack beside them. With a flick of its broom-sized tail, the elk would instantly turn back and obediently quicken its pace, without the young driver needing to do anything.

The other three carriages followed close behind. Their curtains fluttered open in the wind, revealing indistinct boxes within, but no people. At that moment, not far from the cliffside,