The fine hairs on Chen Xuan's back prickled, but not even half a second of hesitation showed on his face. He hurriedly withdrew his hand into his ragged sleeve and spoke with a look of tearful gratitude. "Third Miss, Miss Lin! After I went back to the stables last night, it hurt so badly I couldn't sleep, so I mixed some herbal dregs from an old country remedy I'd saved back home with soot from the bottom of a pot and some cooking oil, then smeared on a thick layer! Actually... actually, the flesh underneath still burns with a pain that drills right into my heart. It's just that the soot covered up the red marks. I wouldn't dare let honored ladies see anything so filthy, so I deliberately rinsed the surface with cold water this morning!"
"Soot mixed with herbal dregs? Tsk, the folk remedies you servants use really are filthy!" Xiao Ling'er wrinkled her dainty nose in distaste, but Chen Xuan looked so honest and simple that she had no inclination to investigate further. She snatched the reins from him. "Enough, enough. Stop playing the victim and step aside!"
"Yes! Sit tight, Third Miss!"
With lowered eyes and a submissive manner, Chen Xuan retreated two steps.
Xiao Ling'er pressed one hand against the saddle and lightly touched her left toe to the stirrup, swinging herself onto the horse like an agile red swallow. Her movements were crisp and clean. But at the instant she swung her leg over and settled into the saddle, the wind lifted the hem of her fiery-red martial outfit high, and a stretch of firm, snow-white skin beneath her waist sash flashed in the sunlight, dazzling the eye.
Chen Xuan kept his eyes on his nose and his mind on his heart, but his peripheral vision honestly took in that glimpse of creamy white. He silently praised it. Tsk, no wonder everyone says girls who practice martial arts have firm figures. With that waist-to-hip ratio, those influencers from my previous life who made their living off retouched pictures wouldn't even be fit to carry her shoes.
Just then, Zhang Kui, an older guard instructor standing at the edge of the grounds, glanced at the black horse pawing the ground and frowned slightly in warning. "Third Miss, the sun's fierce today. I've noticed this beast Treading Snow keeps snorting heavily, and his eyes look a little dull, as though he has some wicked fire he hasn't let out. Be sure to keep a tight rein when you ride your laps, and watch your footing."
"Oh, Instructor Zhang, stop making such a fuss! I've been riding Treading Snow for almost two years. How could I not know his temper?" Xiao Ling'er waved dismissively, leaned forward, and patted the black horse's sleek, long neck, her voice clear and bright. "Treading Snow, be good and take me around the grounds twice!"
Treading Snow snorted and lightly stamped his forehooves twice on the bluestone paving, seemingly calming down.
Xiao Ling'er tipped her chin smugly at Lin Wan'er and gently squeezed the horse's flanks with her legs. "Hyah!"
Treading Snow set his four hooves moving and trotted along the broad riding track around the training grounds.
Chen Xuan withdrew to a white marble table just five paces from the track and picked up a cloth, pretending to wipe its surface. His ears, however, were pricked high. The powerful five senses of early-stage Bright Force instantly sharpened to their utmost, locking firmly onto Treading Snow's four hooves-and Liu San, who was huddled by the side gate watching the show!
One step, two steps, three steps...
Just as Treading Snow had trotted a dozen or so steps and was about to pass the bend leading from the training grounds to the rear garden's stone bridge-
Rustle, rustle...
Without warning, an extremely faint scraping sound, like spring silkworms chewing mulberry leaves, slipped into Chen Xuan's ears!
It wasn't the sound of horseshoes striking bluestone!
It was the sound of sharp bamboo barbs hidden deep in the gaps of the horseshoes being driven straight through the tender flesh of the hooves as the horse accelerated and stamped hard against the ground, scraping across the hard stone slabs!
Holy shit?! Poisoned barbs hidden in the horseshoes?! That bastard Liu San wasn't trying to harm me-someone behind the scenes used an opening at the stables to target Xiao Ling'er?!
Chen Xuan's pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints. In that instant, every muscle in his body and the Qi and blood in his dantian instinctively tightened to the limit!
Almost in the same second that thought flashed through his mind-
"Hrrrhh-!!"
A piercing, horribly distorted neigh exploded over the training grounds like a thunderclap!
Treading Snow, who had been trotting docilely along, suddenly had his two bell-sized black eyes flood with blood and turn fiery crimson. Every black hair on his body stood on end, and his forehooves shot high into the air as though red-hot branding irons had seared straight through them!
"Ah-!!"
Caught completely off guard, Xiao Ling'er was thrown sharply backward in the saddle, frightened out of her wits! She clutched the reins with all her might, her legs instinctively trying to clamp around the horse's belly to steady herself, but the agony in the soles of his hooves and the poison had already driven Treading Snow utterly mad!
Crash!
The bowl-sized hooves slammed heavily into the ground. Paying no heed to the rider on his back, Treading Snow's four hooves flew like a raging storm as he became an uncontrolled bolt of black lightning, charging madly toward the stone bridge in the rear garden beyond the training grounds!
Fierce wind struck her head-on. Xiao Ling'er's petite body jolted and bounced violently in the saddle, the hem of her fiery-red martial outfit snapping wildly in the gale. Worse still, after several savage jolts and tugs, the hidden clasp on the red-gold ribbon around her waist burst open with a snap. The front of her martial outfit was tossed into disarray, and at any moment she could be flung from the saddle and trampled into a puddle of minced flesh!
"Help!! Treading Snow's gone mad! He won't stop! Someone save me-!"
However spoiled and overbearing she usually was, she was still only a seventeen-year-old girl. Faced with this terrifying loss of control on the knife-edge between life and death, Xiao Ling'er completely panicked. Her piercing cries for help already carried the desperate sound of tears!
"No! Third Miss!!"
At the other end of the training grounds, the expression of guard instructor Zhang Kui, whose cultivation was at An Jin, changed drastically! A battlefield veteran, he had reacted the moment Treading Snow let out his first agonized neigh. The bluestone slab beneath his feet shattered with a crack, and he became a blur as he sprinted madly forward. "Both squads on the left flank, take the shortcut and intercept the horse! We cannot let that mad horse charge onto the rear garden's stone bridge!"
But to give Third Miss room earlier, he had taken the main group back to the weapon racks thirty paces away!
Treading Snow was an exotic, fierce steed capable of traveling a thousand li a day. From standing still to going mad and reaching top speed, less than half a breath had passed! Even an An Jin martial artist needed at least two breaths to mobilize all his Qi and blood from a standstill, burst into a sprint, and cross thirty paces!
"Out of the way! I'll stop him!!"
The two young guards stationed at the bend lunged from either side with reddened eyes, trying to grab the bridle. But the crazed Treading Snow suddenly swerved and swung his hindquarters around, lashing out with iron-pillar-thick hind legs bearing tremendous force-
Bang! Crack!
"Pfft-!" One guard's breastbone caved in on the spot. Spraying blood, he flew backward like a kite with its string cut, landing three zhang away and knocking over a row of weapon racks. By the look of him, he would not survive! The other guard was knocked straight to the ground by the horse's rampaging body!