Chapter 5: Presenting You with a Fortunate Opportunity!

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Zhao Laosan and the others were wondering why this horse demon seemed so familiar.

The horse demon, now standing upright, imitated a human by kneeling on the ground, raising its front hooves, and repeatedly bowing to Du Yuan, pleading:

“Master, please show some mercy and spare this little horse this once. I truly have no intention of harming anyone!”

This statement was met with disbelief from a young man in the caravan, who shouted:

“Master, don’t listen to its nonsense! If it really didn’t want to kill us, why would it chase after us?”

Hearing this, the horse demon lowered its head even more in grievance and said:

“It’s only because I was afraid that you all would come back and Master would really subdue me. At first, I really only wanted to quietly release my kin and then leave on my own.”

Du Yuan, standing among the crowd, instantly understood the root of the problem. Naturally, he also feared encountering someone truly powerful.

“But I was hesitant about whether to pursue you. One, I wanted to end things here; two, well...”

As it spoke, the horse demon cautiously glanced at Du Yuan as if it were human.

This made Du Yuan smile to himself.

Obviously, he feared it, and it feared him even more.

Du Yuan reflected quietly, while several young men behind him angrily exclaimed:

“So it was you who wanted to chase us down and kill us after all!”

The horse demon quickly waved its hooves to deny:

“No, no! If I really wanted to kill you, I could have just thrown a handful of stones and you’d be either dead or badly hurt.”

“Then why did you chase us?”

Its voice immediately softened as it lowered its head and muttered:

“I just wanted to scare you off so you wouldn’t come here again and cause trouble by scattering in the forest. But I hesitated too long, and you ran too fast, so you ended up here…”

At this point, Du Yuan saw clearly: this horse demon was not very intelligent. It neither wanted to truly harm anyone nor could it let go completely, nor did it have the courage to go all out. Hesitant and timid, it ended up in the current mess.

This was really...

Du Yuan didn’t know what to say.

But on second thought, if not for this incident, who knew when he would realize that he might harbor something extraordinary.

By that reckoning, this was actually a good thing?

Du Yuan was speechless.

The horse demon then tentatively said:

“Master, little horse truly has no intention of harming anyone. So, could you please let me go?”

Upon hearing this, the caravan members immediately became anxious.

Because their pack horses hadn’t returned yet!

Losing the goods was one thing; they could tighten their belts and survive. But if they lost their pack horses, they really wouldn’t know how to get by.

So Zhao Laosan and the other men hurriedly said:

“Master, no—”

But before they could finish, they glanced again at the kneeling horse demon.

This was a demon; without the master, they couldn’t afford to provoke it.

Moreover, the master seemed unwilling to kill a demon that didn’t intend harm.

So they hurriedly changed their tone:

“Master, of course we have no objection to letting it go, but please, please don’t let this demon take away our pack horses!”

Hearing this, everyone suddenly realized the gravity of the matter and knelt down, pleading:

“Yes, Master, those pack horses represent the savings of our entire families for many years!”

“Master, if we lose the pack horses, we won’t die, but it’ll be almost the same as death to us!”

“Master, Master, I beg you, please make sure it returns the pack horses to us, even if only six remain!”

…

Not to mention a makeshift caravan made up of villagers pooling money together— even a legitimate caravan losing all their pack horses would be a disaster.

Even aside from the horses, the loss of their goods was a huge issue.

The shipping contract was still in Zhao Laosan’s oilcloth pouch. If the goods weren’t delivered by early autumn, the deposit would be forfeited fivefold.

More importantly, without pack horses, they would have no face to return to their families and neighbors, and they would lose their livelihood completely. The upcoming labor service, military conscription, and taxes would be impossible to manage.

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This wasn’t just greed—it was a matter of life and death!

Through conversations with passersby, Du Yuan also understood what the pack horses meant to them.

Seeing the people prostrating themselves and wailing in misery, the horse demon knew it couldn’t take away its kin.

So it could only lower its head, sigh quietly, and console itself that it had done its best and it was fortunate to save its own life.

As for the other horses, it was truly powerless.

Unexpectedly, Du Yuan said:

“Not just six, all the horses will come back!”

Hearing this, the caravan members were overjoyed, but the horse demon’s expression changed dramatically.

“Master, you, you can’t say that!”

The caravan members might not fully grasp the meaning, but the horse demon, having been exposed, immediately understood what Du Yuan meant.

It was asking it to return!

But the caravan was not pleased.

They immediately scolded:

“You monster! The master has already spared your life out of mercy, and now you won’t even let our horses come back? Those horses are our lifeblood, bought with real gold and silver! We neither steal nor rob—that’s honestly ours!”

But as they spoke, Zhao Laosan, the first to regain his senses, suddenly exclaimed:

“Wait, wait, are you Red Stone?!”

They had eight pack horses, each one cherished dearly and named.

Red Stone was the horse Zhao Laosan cared for most, named for its reddish mane and because the villagers were illiterate.

They hadn’t recognized it befor