Chapter 092: Taming the Fire King (Please Subscribe)

“Today I will tame this horse, or I’ll die beneath its iron hooves.”

Just as Fang Xian and the others arrived, a group of soldiers had already surrounded the blazing red stallion. A giant of a man, nearly two meters tall, roared in defiance.

“Aru, you’ve tried more than ten times already. If it won’t work, it won’t work. Why keep pretending?” another broad-shouldered warrior shouted.

“Bullshit. I refuse to accept it. Is there really a feral horse in this world that cannot be tamed? If the Marshal can tame one, then I can tame this one too!” Aru bellowed.

In truth, whether in the Flying Phoenix Army camp before, or now in the Martial Guard Army camp, countless experts among the troops had dreamed of conquering this wild horse to prove their strength. Some even imagined that, by taming it, they might win the favor of the Princess Royal. After all, the two Ferghana horses were a matched pair, and perhaps those who subdued them would become a pair as well.

“Aru, then be careful. Don’t really get kicked to death,” the soldiers around him shouted.

With a thunderous cry, Aru charged toward the stallion, which had stopped a hundred meters away, as if he were prepared to meet death head-on. He meant to subdue the horse with sheer courage and force it to accept him.

But the moment he reached it, the answer he received was a vicious kick from the horse’s rear hooves as it whirled around.

With a loud bang, Aru’s massive body was sent flying backward, blood spraying from his mouth in a long arc through the air.

“Aru!” The soldiers rushed forward to catch him, while others kept a wary eye on the stallion, afraid that in its rage it might continue to maim people. Something like this had happened before: once enraged, the horse had chased down a provoking soldier and kicked him relentlessly, nearly killing him on the spot.

“Bad news! Aru has broken several ribs!”

“Quick, set the ribs back in place before they pierce his organs!”

“Where’s the army doctor? Go fetch the doctor at once!”

The camp burst into a chaotic uproar. By then Fang Xian and the others had already arrived nearby. He flashed forward, and a tremendous force pushed aside the soldiers crowding around Aru.

“Let me take a look,” he said calmly.

Just as the men were about to flare in anger at being shoved aside, they heard Fang Xian’s voice. The burly warrior instantly drew his blade and pointed it at him.

“Who are you? How dare you break into the camp?”

“Oh, it’s Divine Doctor Fang!” one of the soldiers exclaimed. “Adong, put that away. This is the famous number one divine physician under heaven, the Fang Divine Doctor, who has recently made his name in the Martial Capital. With him here, Aru won’t die.”

Some of the soldiers had visited his clinic before and recognized him at once.

“Clear the way. Let Divine Doctor Fang have a look,” came another voice. At that moment, Wu Ji hurried over and barked at the crowd.

“Greetings, General Wu.” Only then did the soldiers notice his arrival and recognize him as the deputy commander who had recently joined them, so they hurried to salute.

“Greetings, Great Commander.” At the same time, one of the soldiers spotted the other Ferghana horse ridden by Wu Qingluan and immediately recognized her identity, dropping to one knee in homage.

Wu Qingluan was now the commander-in-chief of the Martial Guard Army. Though her authority did not compare to that of the frontier marshal, she was still the army’s principal general, and in an ordinary camp the subordinates would usually address her as Great Commander.

“Divine Doctor Fang, please help me examine this fellow,” Wu Qingluan said as she stepped forward and clasped her hands to Fang Xian. Apart from a very small number of people who knew the two of them were acquainted, their relationship had not yet been made public.

“Your Highness, rest assured. With me here, he won’t die.” Fang Xian checked Aru’s condition and found that three ribs had been broken, with one nearly puncturing a lung. He immediately set the ribs back into place, fed Aru a Minor Life-Extending Pill, and then used a mysterious power to nurture the fractured bones.

In less than the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, Fang Xian withdrew his hands and said to the soldiers, “Carry him back to the military tent and let him rest. He’ll be able to get out of bed in three days, but he won’t be fit to wield a blade or spear for at least ten.”

“Thank you, Divine Doctor Fang.” Aru had never lost consciousness and remained fully alert. Now, feeling a cool warmth at the site of the broken ribs, he quickly clasped his fists in gratitude.

“It was nothing. No need for thanks.” Fang Xian waved it away, then turned back and looked toward the fiery figure in the distance. “Your Highness, that must be the other Ferghana horse. Truly magnificent. I like it.”

A long neigh rang out from afar.

The stallion had already spotted the mare nearby. It gave a drawn-out whinny, pawing restlessly at the ground with all four hooves, snorting white breath as its agitation grew.

“Divine Doctor Fang, it’s all up to you now,” the Princess Royal Wu Qingluan said with a smile.

Fang Xian nodded and walked leisurely toward the distant stallion. Only then did the soldiers around him realize that the princess had brought him here to try taming the wild horse as well.

“So Divine Doctor Fang is here to try taming the horse too. Do you think he can succeed?” one soldier muttered.

“The Fang Divine Doctor’s medical skill is unmatched in the world, but as for taming a wild horse, I don’t think he can do it,” another said, shaking his head.

“Exactly. Since the Flying Phoenix Army and then our Martial Guard Army, at least hundreds of brave men have tried, including Commander Wu Ji and many other top experts, but none of them succeeded.”

“That’s right. I think Divine Doctor Fang will be kicked flying by the Burning Blaze King before long.”

“Have you noticed? The princess seems to think Fang Divine Doctor might actually succeed.”

“If Fang Divine Doctor can do it, I’ll write my own surname backward.”

“Please. Your surname is Wang. Written backward, it’s still Wang. Why don’t you just change your name to Turtle?”

While the soldiers whispered among themselves, Fang Xian had already closed to within fifty meters of the stallion. He gave off no aura at all, looking no different from an ordinary man, which made the soldiers increasingly uneasy.

The stallion’s gaze had settled on Fang Xian. It seemed to sense danger in him, yet also something tempting. Its agitation increased; it tossed its head and stamped violently at the earth.

“General Wu, do you think Mr. Fang can really succeed?” Wu Ji asked nervously. He knew just how fearsome that horse was. Once it ran wild, even a top expert would struggle to master it.

“I think he can. If there is anyone in this world who can subdue that stallion, Mr. Fang must be one of them,” the Princess Royal replied with a nod.

By then Fang Xian was only about ten meters from the horse. The stallion had become highly vigilant, even taking on an aggressive stance, but Fang Xian did not panic. Instead, he took out the Blood Bond Pill and held it in his palm.

“Eat this, and you’ll become the true king of horses. No other horse in the world will dare stand beside you. But in return, you must follow me.”

Fang Xian believed such a horse must possess some degree of intelligence, so he extended his hand and spoke to it.

The Blood Bond Pill would establish a bond between master and beast, linking them together. Yet for a creature like this, it was a great tonic, capable of awakening its bloodline and driving its evolution.

“Why did Divine Doctor Fang stop? Why not seize the moment and go straight in to subdue it?” the soldiers asked one another in confusion.

“Could it be that he’s scared?” one asked.

“It looks like Divine Doctor Fang is talking to the Burning Blaze King. Is he trying to persuade it with reason and make it surrender?”

“Damn, you can do that? If I’d known, I would have gone to talk to the Burning Blaze King every day, built up some feelings with it. Maybe I’d have subdued it by now.”

“Dream on. First get within ten meters of the Burning Blaze King before you start talking about chatting with it every day.”

The soldiers were baffled. Wu Ji was baffled too. Even Wu Qingluan found it somewhat puzzling. From her experience, taming a wild horse meant first mounting its back, then beating it, and enduring its furious bucking until it finally yielded and obeyed.

Yet Fang Xian was not pressing the horse at all. Instead, he had stopped to speak with it. Could that really make it listen? Or did he have some other plan?

The stallion suddenly raised its head and gave a long, shrill neigh. Just as everyone thought it was about to explode in fury, it unexpectedly lowered its head, walked toward Fang Xian on its own, and licked his palm.

From a distance, no one could see that the stallion had in fact swallowed the Blood Bond Pill Fang Xian had offered it. Very quickly, a bloodline link was formed between man and horse, and Fang Xian smoothly became the stallion’s master.

“From now on, your name is Fire King. But we’ll still need to put on a show and make them think taming you is no easy task.” Fang Xian stepped forward and stroked Fire King’s neck.

The horse snorted softly, seeming to like the name and agreeing to play along.

Fang Xian swung himself onto the horse’s back. Fire King immediately let out a piercing cry and began to struggle, leaping and galloping wildly until, little by little, it vanished from everyone’s sight.

“Fire Blaze King is so fast. I wonder whether Divine Doctor Fang can hold on,” the soldiers thought anxiously as they watched him disappear into the distance.

“Divine Doctor Fang really is extraordinary. Not many people can even mount Fire Blaze King. If he can stay on, he may truly subdue it.”

“Now the question is where Fire Blaze King is taking Divine Doctor Fang. Will it throw him off?”

“Princess Royal, Divine Doctor Fang is truly no ordinary man. I never expected he could actually ride that fine horse,” Wu Ji said with admiration.

“No wonder I have confidence in him. He really did tame that stallion. Let’s return to the main tent and wait. They may still be a while yet,” Wu Qingluan said with a meaningful smile, though Wu Ji knew nothing of the hidden implication and heard nothing unusual in her words.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Fang Xian returned riding the fiery red stallion. Several soldiers led him to the commander’s tent, gazing at him and the horse with envy and admiration.

“Many thanks to Your Highness for gifting me this fine steed. From now on, it will be called Fire King,” Fang Xian said as he leapt down from the horse and saluted Wu Qingluan, who had come out to receive him.

“It still depends on whether you could tame it yourself. Otherwise, if I had given it away, I might as well have thrown it away for nothing,” the princess said with a hearty laugh.

“To tell the truth, I’m best at taming fierce beasts. Out in the Great Ba Mountains, I even have a tiger I subdued. Its name is Tiger King,” Fang Xian said with a smile.

“Mr. Fang, you’ve even subdued a tiger? Is that really true?” Wu Ji asked in astonishment. They had all seen tigers before, but none of them had ever fought one. They only knew that a tiger was no weaker than a top-tier expert; as for how strong it truly was, they had no idea.