The Divine Martial Stars

“Quite the headstrong one, eh?”

Lin Jingxin’s eyes lit up with interest. “Good horse! I like horses with a character like this! If I could tame it, this animal would be a great boon to me! Come! Let me try!”

He took the chest of medicine from the Trailblazer medic and strode to the injured horse.

“Neigh!”

Schwarzdrachen whinnied with rage. The stallion reared, swinging its hooves menacingly at the approaching Lin Jingxin. But even the captain of the Trailblazer failed to fare any better; Schwarzdrachen planted a hoof into his shoulder and Lin careened off unsteadily.

“Dammit, you beast!”

Lin Jingxin grimaced sourly, refusing to accept that the animal adamantly rejected submitting to him.

Everyone else was surprised.

None of them expected such aggression and defiance from a beast now on the brink of death.

None of them would have been able to apprehend the beast if not for its current injured state.

A stubborn Xiao Jianfei stepped forward, eager for a try. But he was no better than Lin Jingxin, if not worse since he escaped with a few broken ribs.

Ye Ying was interested in testing herself as well.

But she barely lasted beyond a half-hour, walking out of the contest looking worse for wear and her dignity tatters.

“Allow me.”

Li Mu thought that he might perhaps give it a go.

The pandemonium last night had deprived him of the chance to gain a better observation of how dangerous these Beast Kings were. He was surprised to find that even in its wounded state after surviving a fatal three-way battle royale with the gigantic scorpion and that giant snake, it still wielded such strength. Woe unto all three Trailblazer squads if they had to contend with Schwarzdrachen on its best days; the magnificent beast would have been easy to annihilate them all without any difficulty.

“No, wait,” Something else dawned upon Li Mu. “The three Trailblazer squads had to fight through rows and rows of wild beasts to get to the Lunar Specter last night. That means the Beast Kings weren’t this strong yet! So what’s changed? Is this the effect of the Deluge of Illumination?”

Lu Ye did not take the medicine box. Very slowly, he approached the horse, warily to avoid sharing the same fate as the two captains and Lieutenant Xiao.

“NEIIGGHHH!”

The great stallion eyed Li Mu’s approach with loathing and unfriendly eyes.

But as Li Mu’s slow and gentle pace inched closer and closer, rage and rancor evaporated from the obsidian and beady eyes of the brutish and implacable equine, giving way to a tinge of surprise interlaced with bewilderment and puzzlement. No longer agitated and anxious, it stared at Li Mu quietly.

“Relax, partner. I’m here to help.”

Li Mu put on the best grin he could manage as he shuffled forward in piecemeal steps.

What happened next stunned everyone.

What animosity Schwarzdrachen reeked off was gone in the blink of an eye. The animal even bent its head down and walked forward to meet Li Mu. Lowering its head, it rubbed its horn tenderly into Li Mu’s palm with never-before-seen docility.

“Huh?!”

Lin Jingxin, Ye Ying, and Xiao Jianfei couldn’t believe their eyes.

“What the heck just happened?!

“The beast just submitted itself without even a fight?!

“Is this because it knows how dangerous Li Mu is?!”

Even Li Mu himself did not see this coming.

Li Mu needed to be certain that Schwarzdrachen no longer bore him any ill will before he dared to come near. He gently placed his hand on the horse’s forehead, just between its eyes. Next, he channeled the Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures discipline and produced a soothing aura from his hand. The Natural Qi of Easterly Vitality—a natural energy of incredible healing properties, especially towards external wounds, where no other healing aura or herbs could ever compare—was absorbed by Schwarzdrachen, and its magic began to take hold.

An emerald-green aura engulfed Schwarzdrachen, swirling around him like a lingering mist. The grasses and weeds surrounding Li Mu and the black stallion started to wither at a noticeable pace. It was the magic of the Natural Qi that drew all life from anything nearby, restoring it into Schwarzdrachen.

Such was the power of the Natural Qi of Easterly Vitality.

The stallion’s wounds healed right before everyone’s eyes as if the hands of Time were turning backward.

All that was left was the scorpion’s sting jutting out of the stallion’s neck.

Li Mu quietly activated his Third Eye without anyone else noticing. A cursory scan over the wound showed that the scorpion’s venom had entered the horse’s veins and was spreading all around its length and breadth. But not all was lost; a strange force was inside the magnificent stallion, resiliently fighting the venom, although Schwarzdrachen’s aggression just moments ago had aggravated the situation and more venom was entering his bloodstream and he would not be able to hold on any longer.

Something must be done to stop the venom and it must be done quickly.

Li Mu asked the Trailblazer medic for several types of antidote that he tried to staunch the wound with. But nothing seemed to be working.

“What else can I do,” Li Mu murmured, frowning.

The gravity of the situation wasn’t lost on Lin Jingxin as well. “That scorpion sting must be the most dangerous weapon of that monstrous insect. If the venom reaches this horse’s heart… Not even the gods could save him… What a shame…”

Li Mu said nothing.

Somehow, those words reminded him of something else: his blood was impervious to poison and venom. Maybe he could use it to cure the scorpion’s venom!

“Well, it’s sink-or-swim now, partner. I might have a way to save you, but if you’re fine to let me try it, give me a nod and I’ll start by removing that sting on your neck.” Li Mu stroked the stallion’s mane. “It’s your choice to make. Nod if you’re fine with letting me do what I can.”

Schwarzdrachen gave a weak neigh and leveled his head in what appeared to be an unmistakable nod.

“Very well there. Here goes; this could hurt a little.”

Li Mu placed his hands around the wound. He caressed the area, looking for a proper spot, then he squeezed as hard as he could.

Sizzle!

The thirty-centimeters-long scorpion sting was finally forced out of the wound.

As it spewed out of the flesh, foul-smelling suppuration as dark as the filth in the sewers flowed out of the wound.

Li Mu immediately sliced his wrist and allowed golden drops of blood to fall on the wound. He watched the aureate glob assimilate into the stallion’s blood.

Everyone watched him with dubious stares.

But their curiosity and confusion were quickly answered.

...

The pus that streamed out of the gaping hole on Schwarzdrachen’s neck was no longer green and dark; it has become a pale-golden ichor. Within seconds, the shade of gold was no more, replaced with the ordinary red-sanguine claret. But that was all. The emanation of the stallion’s aura and strength began to spike all of a sudden, like a tepid lagoon of stagnating water suddenly being given a new lease of life, rippling with fresh waves in the billowing winds that skimmed its surface.

“Gods, he’s done it! It’s saved!”

Lin Jingxin’s mouth gaped so wide that it could fit an ostrich’s egg.

Ye Ying too was too astonished beyond words. She stared at Li Mu. “That golden blood could cure even the venom of such a monstrous and deadly Beast King?! Is this another one of the many secrets he’s hiding?!”

Xiao Jianfei instead burst into peals of hearty laughter. “That’s incredible, my friend! What a performance well done!”

“Just plain good luck,” Li Mu sighed with relief. “I did not expect it to work myself.”

In the meantime, he used his Third Eye to reexamine Schwarzdrachen. The dark-green venom-infused veins in its body were quickly being devoured by a golden radiance. It worked better than what Lu Ye expected. In just mere seconds, the venom has been fully expelled.

“NEEIIGGHH!”

Schwarzdrachen gave a long and glorious whinny.

Its black coat glistened with a sleek luster and its wounds were beginning to heal with the skin crusts shedding off like leaves falling in autumn, revealing no scars at all but handsome silky-smooth fur underneath. One might even think that it had not been injured at all in the first place. With its power, the magnificent beast would have been able to heal on its own, but it was the venom that was preventing his recovery while gnawing at its life in perpetual torment.

Schwarzdrachen steadily and quickly regained full health and splendor. But what now beset the Trailblazers were no longer amazement and wonder, but fear and apprehension. A crippling sense of suffocation at the stallion’s vast and majestic stature threatened to buckle the knees of the men. Strong and clean-limbed, but also powerful and dangerous, even Lin Jingxin, Ye Ying, and Xiao Jianfei could not help withdrawing backward cautiously, their faces fraught with unmistakable awe and angst.

...

“Gods be damned… This beast… Is it this dangerous… And we didn’t know it?!”

Even Li Mu found himself breathtakingly awash with admiration.

“A Beast King no less! This emanation of power! That’s at least in the Great Way Realm, no?”

With the deaths of both the giant scorpion and that humungous snake, Schwarzdrachen would become the undisputed overlord of the whole wilderness.

“NNEEIIGGHH!”

The brawny black stallion pawed the ground and trotted around excitedly. Without a warning, it bolted, racing away with the speed of lightning and vanishing in the horizon before Li Mu’s eyes could even keep up.

Its strong and sonorous whinnies echoed through the skies.

Schwarzdrachen was gone. Gone to where no one could see.

Silence hung over everyone for seconds.

“That’s it? Just like that?” Lin Jingxin’s jaws were hanging wide. “Not even a thanks? Heavens, Li Mu. You’ve been short-changed.”

Li Mu merely smiled. “I think not. Saving it forges some kind of bond. What makes you think that that loud whinny wasn’t it trying to say thanks? Surely you don’t speak its language so you don’t know what could it be trying to say?”

Lin Jingxin did not know how to respond to that.

Even Ye Ying had to crack into what was beyond any doubt a grin despite her usually aloof demeanor.

“All right, we’re done here. This interlude has cost us precious traveling time. We need to get to Lauffeuer as soon as we can, so let’s get on it,” Xiao Jianfei called loudly.

The Trailblazers dealt with the carcasses of the snake and the scorpion before everyone got ready to set off again.

They were a hundred miles away almost a half-hour later.

“NNEEIIGHH!”

The whinny of Schwarzdrachen borne up from the plains upon the mountain winds.

A blur swept into everyone’s sights, its triggered a raging tornado as its mane flowed in the wind of his speed. When it finally stopped, there it was: Schwarzdrachen now returned.

It saw Li Mu and checked its pace. Trotting gently forward it stooped its proud head and nuzzled its flaring nostrils against Li Mu’s arm.

He caressed its mane, feeling its hair as smooth as silk.

Next, to everyone’s amazement, Schwarzdrachen bent its front legs into a doubtless kneel. It looked at Li Mu.

“What the—” Li Mu was very surprised.

“It’s allowing you to ride on its back! It’s acknowledging you as its master!” Lin Jingxin gasped with shock and envy. “Gods, some people just have all the luck. This is a Beast King that has enjoyed the enhancements of the Deluge of Illumination. What future it must have and here it is, submitting itself to you! Damn! And I’m supposed to be the handsome one here!”

Li Mu guffawed at that funny remark.

“Well, Li Mu did save its life,” Xiao Jianfei commented.

“And since when you’re more good-looking than Li Mu?” added Ye Ying.

“Huh?!” Lin Jingxin could not believe his ears. He stormed up to Ye Ying. “What Xiao said, I can’t contradict that. But I can’t accept what you just said! Look closely with those dreamy eyes of yours! Since when Li Mu is more handsome than me?!”

“Heh, moronic…” Ye Ying scowled and trotted off.

While they bickered, Li Mu vaulted a leg on the horse and mounted on Schwarzdrachen.

He squeezed his heels.

Whoosh!

He was gone. Nowhere in sight.

“What incredible speed is this?!”

Everyone was bewildered.

They knew that the stallion was fast, but no one knew that it could be this fast. Not even the flying conveyances and other beasts of the high-echelon officers of the military were this fast. If there was anything remotely close to matching Schwarzdrachen, that would only be Aetos, the prized mount of Dai Quan the Swift, a famous general of Legion Kommodore.

Another blur assailed everyone’s vision.

Li Mu had come back.

“Heavens, you’re fast,” Li Mu breathed under his breath.

He had stumbled upon what could very well be the rarest gift horse in this world.