I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress

Chapter 289: Rare Encounter

’Is the entire kingdom surrounded by giant walls?’ he thought curiously as even the White Jade Kingdom, which was among the Great Kingdoms, wasn’t so fortified.

It was only the cities in the border regions which were surrounded by walls.

As a result, instead of relieving his mind, her words only ended up adding to his curiosity, making him want to arrive at his destination even faster, wanting to understand what she meant by those words.

"I don’t know why, but I somehow feel like I’ll be able to reach there by tomorrow," he muttered with a grin while increasing his pace even further.

Just then, an intense light flashed several meters ahead of him, making him forcefully stop in his tracks.

"This...!"

He raised his hand in front of his eyes to block the incoming light, and while squinting hard, peered through his fingers as his eyes adjusted themselves to the light.

A beastly figure that had been lying on the ground a few meters ahead could be seen standing up at that moment.

’Was it sleeping? Did I wake it up...?’

He thought while noticing how curled up it had been earlier.

However, his thoughts immediately came to a halt when the beast finally stood on its four legs, and its ethereal appearance became evident to him.

"A....horse?"

He muttered with knitted brows while looking at the house-sized figure standing in front of him with awe apparent in his eyes.

Each of its legs was the width of an average human’s body, each fibre of its muscles as sculpted as rock and a head that was as big as a car’s nose.

It was truly the largest horse he had ever seen in his life...to the point he was starting to doubt whether the beast in front of him could really be called a horse.

However, what stood out even further wasn’t its colossal size but the white jade-like coating all over its body, which was accompanied by glacial blue hair flowing down the back of its long neck.

The white coating shone in the darkness, emitting an intense light that subconsciously made one lower their guard.

This view, when complemented by the sight of ice fog continuously emanating from its body, gave rise to only one word in the viewer’s mind: ethereal.

HOOOF!

As if finding Yi Chen’s prolonged stare disrespectful, the horse snorted powerfully, making all the nearby leaves, along with Yi Chen’s robes, flutter in the cold wind.

Feeling the intensity, Yi Chen also couldn’t help but take a few steps back to resist the force.

’So powerful! With just its breath, it...’

Before even completing his thoughts, he pulled open the beast’s status panel, intently going over it the next moment.

===== STATUS ======

Name: Mythical Frost Horse

Nature: Water

Cultivation: Grade 0-10 [&#*$X]

Remark: Stay still or you’re dead. [Regenerate: 10,000 EXP]

===================

"!!!"

Yi Chen’s eyes screamed in horror when he noticed the unfamiliar format. Whenever the ability had shown such discrepancies, it had only meant one thing: danger.

Fully abiding by what the system instructed, his entire body froze that very instant, not moving even an inch.

Sensing this change, the horse’s eyes, which had a clear hint of annoyance evident in them, grew curious, and it took a few steps forward the next moment.

In contrast to its huge figure, each step of the horse was as light as a feather.

However, that wasn’t what Yi Chen was currently focused on at the moment.

Snffff!

Snffff!

Stretching its nose next to Yi Chen’s face, the horse started sniffing him with curiosity.

"..."

All of his being wanted to run away at that moment, but he resisted the urge and, tightly clenching his jaws, forced himself to stop breathing as his heart raced furiously.

’Go away...just go away...’

Yi Chen kept repeating in his mind, but the horse showed no signs of hurry, even taking a few extra moments to smell the exact same spot twice before moving on to the next.

All this while Yi Chen forced himself to stay as still as a statue, but that too had a limit.

’I can’t...I can’t anymore...’

The colour started waning from his face as he came closer and closer to the point of being unable to hold his breath for any longer.

However, just when Yi Chen was about to go out of breath, the horse finally pulled back its head.

Hrrrr-chooo!

Yi Chen had just slightly opened his mouth to suck in a deep breath when his entire face got drenched in a slimy substance that also managed to make its way inside his mouth.

His entire face scrunched up the moment he realised what the sticky thing was, as a salty taste pervaded his tongue.

However, noticing that the horse was still looking at him, he forced himself to maintain as neutral an expression as possible.

Nheee-heh!

Clearly noticing the changes in Yi Chen’s expression, the horse snorted in an amused manner while glaring towards Yi Chen with a taunting look.

Even though Yi Chen couldn’t understand beast language, that universal look was something he understood clearly.

Not waiting to see Yi Chen’s reaction, the horse turned away and started galloping the next instant.

Hoof!

Hoof!

Hoof!

Finally sensing that the horse had left far away, Yi Chen started retching as loudly as possible while falling onto his knees.

UUaaaaaaak!

YAaakkkk!

"Disgusting piece of shit!" he grumbled while using his robes to wipe all the snot off his face.

Not stopping at that, he immediately took out the stored water from his storage ring and, after pouring it all over his face, roughly rubbed and washed his face with all his might.

"Goddammit! It still stinks!"

Hearing Yi Chen’s annoyed scream from afar, a satisfied glint formed in the horse’s eyes as it neighed in satisfaction.

Nheh-eeeee!

This was its way of getting back at him for disturbing its slumber.

It gave out a short snort the next moment and, putting this matter at the back of its head, continued galloping towards the deeper end of the Great Beast Forest at an unhurried pace.