“Oh! You can talk!” Lu Zheng was shocked to hear the lingzhi horse’s voice in his mind.
“Spare me! Spare me!”
“Hm, what else can you say?”
“Spare me! Spare me!”
So, this lingzhi horse was an idiot?
“Chirp chirp chirp!”
That sound came from reality.
“Spare me! Spare me!”
That was in Lu Zheng’s mind.
Lu Zheng understood: the lingzhi horse couldn’t speak, only convey simple ideas, automatically translated into a voice the listener could understand in their mind.
But…
Lu Zheng shook the tangled net.
“How could I let you go?”
“Chirp chirp chirp!”
“Wah wah wah—”
It was crying now?
Wait, it could understand human speech?
Lu Zheng’s eyes flashed, and he growled at the lingzhi horse, “Stop crying, or I’ll eat you!”
“Chirp!”
“Hic!”
The lingzhi horse hiccupped and fell silent.
“So magical!” Lu Zheng’s eyes widened, as if he’d discovered a new world.
“If I sent you to a research institute, could I get straight to the top and strut around the country?”
The lingzhi horse stayed silent.
“Tsk tsk, the researchers would slice you up for study~”
The lingzhi horse stayed silent, trembling.
“You’re a spirit now, so how come you’ve got no powers besides running fast? A regular mountain cat could trap you?”
The lingzhi horse stayed silent, its lingzhi visibly wilting.
“How long have you been a spirit?”
No response.
“Speak, or I’ll eat you!”
“Chirp chirp!”
“Don’t know!”
“Besides ‘spare me’ and ‘don’t know,’ what else can you say?”
“Chirp chirp!”
“Don’t know!”
Definitely an idiot!
…
Having caught the lingzhi horse and gathered plenty of herbs, Lu Zheng had achieved his goals in the deep mountains. Now over a hundred li from Tonglin County, he decided not to go deeper and to head back.
As he turned to leave, the lingzhi horse in the net suddenly stirred.
“Chirp chirp!”
“Water! Water!”
“What? Water? You need a drink? You drink water?” Lu Zheng paused, thinking it wasn’t the time to mistreat captives.
Looking down, he saw the lingzhi horse staring at the small valley.
“Hm?” Lu Zheng’s eyes glinted.
Legends said lingzhi spirits and horses were clever and swift, rarely trapped under normal circumstances.
It shouldn’t have entered a dangerous spot with only one exit it couldn’t escape.
Unless…
Something in there drew it in, making it take the risk?
Could there be more to gain?
Lu Zheng’s eyes gleamed as he carried the net into the valley.
The small valley was elliptical, surrounded by cliffs over seventy degrees, greyish-white with sparse plants and trees growing in the cracks, dotted with threads of green.
With only one entrance, Lu Zheng felt a chill as he stepped in, no wind but a cold that seeped into his bones.
“Chirp chirp!”
The lingzhi horse urged him deeper.
Logically, a creature like this would prioritise survival when facing danger.
Hence, it had tried to break out when the mountain cat blocked the entrance.
But now, caught by Lu Zheng with no hope of escape, it seemed more concerned with whatever had drawn it here.
Might as well die satisfied, right?
Carrying the lingzhi horse, Lu Zheng slowly approached the valley’s depths.
A clear stream flowed down the white cliff.
Drawing closer, Lu Zheng caught a faint fragrance.
He lifted the net, parted a gap for the lingzhi horse’s head to poke out, and held it near the stream.
The lingzhi horse stuck out its tiny tongue, lapping like a puppy.
After a while, it licked its lips, sighed, and settled down.
Lu Zheng thought for a moment, leaned in twenty centimetres above where the lingzhi horse had licked, and tasted the water.
Sweet!
His inner true qi and blood qi stirred, becoming much more active after a cycle.
Good stuff!
Unlike the lingzhi horse, Lu Zheng wasn’t going to lick a cliff. He wanted the source.
Looking up, the cliff was about fifty or sixty metres high. He emptied his backpack, placed the lingzhi horse inside, and started climbing.
Following the stream upward, at twenty metres, the water vanished.
Lu Zheng frowned. Was it flowing from inside the mountain?
That would be tricky. He couldn’t exactly chisel the mountain, and he wasn’t strong enough to haul an excavator.
Maybe at the top?
Unwilling to give up, he climbed a few more steps.
The lingzhi horse in his backpack started thrashing wildly.
What the—?
Lu Zheng’s eyes narrowed, and he slid back down.
The lingzhi horse gradually calmed.
He slipped down the cliff silently.
Patting the backpack, “Danger up there?”
“Chirp chirp chirp!”
“Scared to death! Scared to death! Scared to death!”
Lu Zheng, “…”
He couldn’t tell if the danger that terrified the lingzhi horse was dangerous to him.
After all, even a mountain cat could eat it.
Still…
This spring water was no ordinary thing.
Recalling Daoist Mingzhang’s words, Lu Zheng decided to play it safe.
He travelled to the modern world, emptied some mineral water bottles, and returned to collect the water against the cliff.
The flow was sparse, though. By evening, he’d only filled three bottles, and the stream dwindled until it stopped.
“I’ll take a bottle to Master and see if he’s interested. Bringing him along would be safer,” Lu Zheng muttered.
No matter how powerful a Gatling Bodhisattva might be, what if it was a spirit-soul type?
It was getting late, but Lu Zheng didn’t dare travel from here. He left the valley, returned to an ordinary hill, climbed a tree, and then travelled back to the modern world from the treetop.
Placing the backpack by his bed, Lu Zheng washed up and fell asleep.
…
Lu Zheng didn’t go straight to White Cloud Temple but headed to Peach Blossom Ridge.
“Lu Lang!” Shen Ying greeted him, “Qingyan said you went into the mountains?”
Lu Zheng nodded, “Just got back, haven’t gone into the city yet.”
Shen Ying’s smile bloomed as she linked arms with him, “Then why come to me first?”
“I’ve got a question.” Lu Zheng patted his backpack.
The lingzhi horse trembled twice.
Shen Ying glanced at the backpack, sniffing, “What a lovely scent. Did you really catch a lingzhi horse?”
Lu Zheng nodded, “I wanted to ask if you could keep this little guy contained if I raised it in the peach grove?”
