He knelt down: "Respected Emperor, your subject dares to boldly request a reward from Your Majesty, would that be possible?"

The Qianwan Emperor was in a good mood and smiled: "What reward? Our two countries are on friendly terms. As long as it's within my permission, feel free to speak!"

Prince Qiu Duo proclaimed loudly: "Although it is my first time paying respects to the Celestial Empire, I heard long ago that when Your Majesty was still the Crown Prince, you personally led the army and conquered vast lands spanning thousands of miles. Your subject has long admired Your Majesty. I request that Your Majesty mount a horse today and allow us to witness the majestic bearing of your past conquests!"

After he finished speaking, he bowed deeply in an extremely respectful and loyal manner.

Although his words sounded pleasant, it was in fact a blatant challenge and deliberate provocation. The Yuezhi were skilled in mounted archery. Allowing them to show off on the Central Plains Emperor's territory would truly be a loss of face for the great nation, not to mention the challenge had already been delivered right before them.

The Yuezhi Prince's move was not empty talk. Galloping while shooting arrows and hitting the target every time was the mark of a master. Even soldiers who had been through life and death on the battlefield for many years might not necessarily achieve that. Perhaps even if the past world's top expert personally came, he would likely just smile and say "to each his own specialty"!

But if he accepted the challenge, it wouldn't necessarily preserve the Celestial Emperor's dignity either. No matter how much the Qianwan Emperor personally led troops into battle, that was his own business concerning the fate of the country, the rivers and mountains, the ancestral shrines. If he competed in archery with a prince from a small country in a little hunting ground, win or lose, it wouldn't sound good if word got out.

There's a saying that goes, your opponent's level represents your own level. When State Preceptor Zhuo lost to General Lu back then, it was just a private matter and not humiliating; however, if the Qianwan Emperor, as the revered Celestial Emperor, rashly accepted the Yuezhi prince's challenge, then he would be putting himself on the same level as a prince from a foreign vassal state.

The Qianwan Emperor just smiled without speaking. The two were at an impasse for a while, neither making a move.

After some time, it was Mingde who couldn't hold back. He had a bad temper to begin with, and even though his mind wasn't clear, his temper was still just as bad. Seeing that no one was coaxing him, he got impatient and slowly wobbled over to that prized Yuezhi steed, raising his hand to gently stroke the horse's nose.

The Yuezhi horse snorted, immediately drawing attention. A few palace attendants ran over in a panic: "Little ancestor! Quickly come back with your servants!"

Mingde completely ignored them. He looked at the warhorse, then turned to look at the bow, arrows and the arena, a hint of confusion gradually appearing in his eyes.

All of this should have had no connection to his life, yet he inexplicably felt it was so familiar, as if he could immediately mount the horse as long as he got up. The feel of the reins in his hands, the angle of the bow and arrows, it seemed he could imagine it clearly even with his eyes closed.

A strange impulse lured him. He looked at the warhorse and the warhorse looked back at him, the reflection in each other's eyes making it seem as if they had truly merged as one and fought together before.

A startled cry came from afar as the palace attendants stumbled and ran over. The Qianwan Emperor was shocked. With a glance, he saw Mingde leap up and lightly sit astride the horse.

The Qianwan Emperor was greatly alarmed at that moment, feeling his hands and feet go cold, his whole body almost going limp. Having experienced much, he only lost composure for a moment before fiercely pushing Prince Qiu Duo aside and rushing over.

"Mingde!" Li Ji shouted sternly, "Get down!"

But Mingde just looked at him curiously, not understanding what he was saying at all. That Yuezhi steed had an extremely fierce temperament, how could it tolerate someone other than its master riding it? Realizing something was wrong, it impatiently started to trot.

Although Mingde still remembered how to ride a horse and draw a bow, his physical condition had deteriorated with each passing day. If it were at his prime, let alone taming a fierce horse, making everyone in the arena submit in fear wouldn't be difficult.

But now he was in a daze, having no idea what was going on, completely acting on instinct thinking it was fun. If the horse threw him off, it really wouldn't be a joking matter.

The Qianwan Emperor was nearly at a loss, and with one glance saw an attendant still holding a horse. He immediately grabbed it, mounted in a flash and sternly ordered: "Someone! Stop him!"

Mingde blankly looked at the people rushing towards him, then at Li Ji. In his impression, this man had always brought him food and toys, carefully coaxing and persuading him, when had he ever been so harsh?

The little one instantly felt a bit aggrieved. He lightly waved his hand to turn the horse's head and leaned down to say to the black steed: "Let's go."

The Yuezhi horse immediately reared up, neighing in rage, while running and abruptly stopping in the arena, trying to throw Mingde off. Mingde felt a great force pushing him back and forth, the ground beneath his feet swaying, almost making him nauseous. His hands gradually couldn't hold on anymore.

No one around dared to rashly approach, all tentatively inching closer to that fierce horse. Li Ji was nearly scared out of his wits at this point, about to rush forward regardless, but was desperately held back by Zhang Kuo: "Your Majesty! Take care, Your Majesty! You mustn't put yourself in danger, Your Majesty!"

The Qianwan Emperor shook him off and was about to spur his horse forward. But right at that moment, Mingde looked at the horse beneath him, frowned slightly, then suddenly raised the whip and fiercely lashed it on the horse's hindquarters!

The horse had never been whipped like this and immediately started bucking wildly. But before it could start running, Mingde abruptly pulled the reins and viciously lashed it a few more times with a force that wasn't taming the horse but seemed intent on whipping it to death.

At the same time, he squeezed the horse's belly with his legs, forcing the black steed to rear up on its front hooves, and shouted: "Hiyah!"

The black horse let out a roar and suddenly charged forward. That streak of black lightning rampaged through the hunting grounds, no one daring to block its path, and later on unable to stop it either, because the massive dust it kicked up quickly engulfed them. Everyone's vision was obscured by a haze of yellow sand.

The Qianwan Emperor felt his hands and feet go weak. He frantically tried to catch up, repeatedly shouting sternly amidst the dust: "Mingde! Mingde, come back!"

Only the sound of arrows could be heard, sometimes in rapid succession, sometimes abruptly stopping; just like a wild storm, when it was raging, no one knew where the next round of iron arrows would shoot out from.

The Qianwan Emperor only felt his heart hanging in his throat, the blue veins on the back of his hand bulging. His entire vision was blood red, and even if someone stood in front of him, he would slash with his blade without a second thought!

Suddenly, an extremely clear horse neigh was heard, that single sound was like a bright lightning bolt in the rolling dark clouds, cutting through all the gloom. The dust gradually dispersed, and the scene before them gradually became clear.

Only Mingde was seen on the high ground in the field, pulling the reins, the Yuezhi precious horse rearing up to the height of a man. The rough wind blew fiercely, and he stood there as if on a mountain peak, looking down at them from a lofty height, immovable.

The quiver on the horse's back was already empty, the Majia bow still trembling. In the distance, the targets were pierced and fell one after another, startling the deer herd into a panic and scattering in all directions. However, the leader of the deer herd, the white deer, had already been shot through the head with an arrow!

Mingde threw away the Majia bow, looking at the ground full of blood and wreckage in a daze. He seemed to have experienced it all before, but he couldn't remember anything.

The people around him all looked at him in shock, looking at the person they thought was irrelevant and already wasted, suddenly revealing his edge unconsciously one day. That kind of sharp edge was not inferior to when he was at the height of his power on the battlefield, and was even more eye-catching and terrifying.

Mingde frowned, his expression unusually painful. The dust, blood, howls, war horses... everything that happened in the distant northern frontier seemed to be on the verge of appearing, pounding at his temples.

He seemed to be in a rich and grand palace, muddling through and enjoying a comfortable life; and also seemed to be on a battlefield with blood everywhere, countless people kneeling before him, bowing and pledging allegiance.

Who was it? What happened? Where am I? What is all this about?

Countless scenes came at him like a flood of beasts. Mingde instinctively shut himself off, not listening, not thinking, but it all made his head ache as if it was about to be torn in two.

"Ah!"

Mingde tightly hugged his head, leaning forward, then fell off the horse's back.

With a thud, the Qianwan Emperor ran over and knelt down, holding him tightly in his arms, with such force as if he wanted to crush him.

Mingde opened his eyes and looked at the Qianwan Emperor in fear as he shouted for the imperial physician; he watched as people ran towards him, clumsily lifting him onto a stretcher, and then he was picked up by the Qianwan Emperor, who left the arena without looking back.

That inexplicably familiar scene all went away from him, and in his muddled heart, he actually felt a bit of indescribable pain. The last thing he saw was Prince Qiu Duo in the crowd, that person was very strange, just looking at him like that, as if with an extremely strong desire to devour him, and couldn't help but want to kneel down and worship him.

What Mingde's muddled little brain didn't realize was that with that one shot, he had already amazed everyone. The archers of both countries no longer needed to compete. No one dared to take the field to challenge the glory and authority of that one shot from the Majia bow.

A good hunt ended so abruptly.

A few days later, the Yuezhi envoys took their leave, preparing to set off for home that very night.

When Prince Qiu Duo was taking his leave, the Qianwan Emperor was not in the palace. Old Junmei, who lived in the suburbs, was seriously ill at this time. He was an old imperial physician who had assisted the previous emperor and had always taken care of Li Ji when he was still the crown prince, so he was especially valued. As soon as the Qianwan Emperor heard the news of the old man's serious illness, he immediately set off to see him.

Only Ding Huang represented the Qianwan Emperor in bidding farewell to the Yuezhi envoys and escorted them out of the palace city. Qiu Duo secretly glanced at the farewell procession several times, but Mingde was not among them. He could only sigh, abruptly turn his horse's head, and shout in the Yuezhi language, "Let's go!"

"Your Highness, please slow down!"

Qiu Duo turned his head and saw a servant boy riding a horse to block the way. Qiu Duo frowned, recognizing this servant boy as the one who had delivered the jade plate from that concubine.

The servant boy looked left and right, cupped his hands to Qiu Duo, and smiled, "Your Highness, who knows when we will meet again after you leave. Our madam has already prepared a great gift for Your Highness. This is a map of the shortcut out of the capital, presented along with it."

Before Qiu Duo could react, the servant boy had already bowed and smiled, "Your Highness, until we meet again!" With that, he turned and raced back to the city.

Just as Qiu Duo was puzzling over what was going on, he suddenly heard a panicked attendant running over from beside the carriage, "Your Highness! Your Highness! Something terrible has happened!"

Qiu Duo rode forward and asked loudly, "What's the matter?"