September was already late autumn. The south might still have been as warm as spring, but the Northwest was gradually growing cold, and at night, the wind already chilled people to the bone.
A silver moon hung like a hook, its bleak white light spilling over the boundless Gobi Desert. A powerfully built white steed flew across the scrubland, looking like a fleeting phantom beneath the moon. Before a hare poking its head out of its burrow could see what it was, it had already reached the edge of its vision.
On horseback, Ye Jingtang wore a black cloak and a scarf over his face to block the wind, his gaze constantly searching for the slightest stir in the wilderness.
The horse was running so fast that Niao Niao could not stand steadily in the wind and had simply hidden behind Ye Jingtang's backside.
Although Ye Jingtang had grown up on horseback and rode a Beyond-the-Pass Divine Steed that was one in ten thousand, there was no avoiding the jolting of a galloping horse.
Not daring to subject the unconscious Empress Dowager to any more shocks, he stood in the stirrups with his knees slightly bent, holding her horizontally in his arms and using his legs to absorb the impacts, doing his best to keep the jolting from reaching her.
Ye Jingtang had an excellent foundation in the horse stance, and his control over his body ranked among the finest in the world. Lying in his arms, even the Empress Dowager's chest did not bounce, as though she were lying on a perfectly steady, soft bed.
But Ye Jingtang's legs were flexing and extending at an extremely high frequency, and after several hours of travel, his back and waist were somewhat sore.
Fortunately, this little problem was nothing to Ye