Those simple words.
They felt like a heavy hammer slamming into Elias's brain.
His eyes trembled with shock.
At this moment.
To hell with the authenticity of the Scale Two potion recipe.
To hell with the promotion ritual process.
He threw it all out of his mind!
Elias felt goosebumps erupting over his skin, layer after layer.
His scalp tingled.
He had actually heard a horse, in a bizarre dream constructed by blue moons, say the words "Year of the Horse" in such a matter-of-fact tone?!
This was absurd!
Were there... really other transmigrators in this world?!
Was it a friend or a foe?
A kindred spirit, or a psychopath whose brain had long been polluted by an evil god?
Most importantly—
If another fellow countryman truly existed, did that mean he still had a chance to find a way back?
Could he return to that modern life which, though boring, at least didn't involve brushing past death every single day?!
Memories he hadn't touched in a long time surged up like a tide.
Elias suddenly felt an uncontrollable wave of nostalgia for the days in his hometown.
Back then.
He, Jiang Huan, was at most a "workhorse" running around for a living.
He worried about making ends meet and went bald over his boss's bizarre demands every day. The biggest crisis he faced was coming home empty-handed after fishing in a wild lake.
But at least he didn't have to deal with these monsters crawling all over the place!
He didn't have to constantly be on guard against the city's sewers.
After all, what came out of a sewer wasn't necessarily Mario; it could very well be a cultist.
And he didn't have to worry about the vicious curses on his body at every moment!
The intense emotional fluctuation made Elias's breathing extremely heavy, as if his lungs were filled with crushed glass.
The horse's words had completely ignited the long-suppressed desire for knowledge and survival deep within him.
After his previous experience of being kicked, he had figured out a pattern.
The horse in front of him, though hot-tempered and dismissive, was basically a mechanical NPC that answered whatever was asked.
Of course.
Whether it would still answer if it involved certain unspeakable and hidden taboos, Elias wasn't sure.
But on this matter, he had to take a gamble!
“Here...”
Elias stared intently at the horse's face and asked urgently.
“Do you follow the Chinese Zodiac here too?!”
He swore that since he transmigrated to this hellhole.
It had been a very, very long time since he had been this desperate to know the answer to a question!
In the vast, distorted midnight dream.
The air seemed to freeze for two seconds.
“Pfft—”
The horse snorted again, a look of pure stupidity reflecting in its eyes.
“What is a Chinese Zodiac?”
It moved its thick lips.
If it weren't for the fact that a horse's face lacked the complex facial muscles to support expressions...
The creature would definitely be wearing a look of complete confusion and bewilderment right now.
...
Hearing this counter-question.
The heart that had been hanging in Elias's chest finally sank. It died.
All that excitement for nothing.
It seemed there was no concept of a "Chinese Zodiac" in this world.
However.
Elias immediately reacted.
Even if the horse didn't know the specific term "Chinese Zodiac."
It truly understood the concept of the "changing years" and clearly knew the actual concept that this year was the "Year of the Horse"!
What did this mean?
It meant that some "fellow countryman" who knew their stuff had absolutely left traces here!
Elias's eyes lit up. Like a drowning man catching a life-saving straw, he immediately changed his angle of approach.
“Then what year is next year?”
He stared fixedly at the horse, even suppressing his breathing.
The horse moved its lips without hesitation:
“The Year of the Goat.”
!
Elias felt a brilliant firework explode in his mind.
Just as he thought!
Although they didn't call it the "Chinese Zodiac" here, they had the exact same concept of the twelve Earthly Branches cycling through the years!
“Isn't that exactly what the Chinese Zodiac is?!”
Elias was so excited he almost jumped on the spot.
Like he was reciting a menu, he spoke with rapid-fire speed, his words coming out like a machine gun:
“Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig!”
After reciting the list in one breath, Elias panted heavily and stared deathly at the other party.
The other party spoke in a tone used to correct an illiterate:
“Those are the twelve animals of the Great Earth Veins.”
“That 'Chinese Zodiac' you're talking about...”
“What on earth is that?”
“Great Earth Veins?”
Elias's excited expression froze instantly, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Twelve Earthly Branches?”
What kind of hellish translationese was this?!
Why did this feel like someone had forcibly translated "Heilongjiang" into the "Black Giant Dragon River"?!
This was definitely the bad taste of some fellow countryman who had too much time on their hands!
They had insisted on taking the traditional Chinese Twelve Earthly Branches and wrapping them in a heavy mantle of epic, mystical nonsense!
“Correct.”
The horse raised its head proudly, its nostrils pointing toward the sky.
“The Great Earth Veins.”
“...”
Elias was speechless.
He looked up and down at this horse, which looked like a complete slacker no matter how he viewed it.
“So, you are the... horse from those twelve Great Earth Veins?”
“Yes.”
The horse's voice suddenly became low and solemn, as if it were announcing some great and unviewable name.
It suddenly straightened its body, and the spiritual light around it surged.
“The Peak Horse!”
The air fell into a deathly silence.
Only the distorted stars overhead twinkled slowly.
The Wu Horse?
Wu, as in high noon, the peak of Yang energy.
So it really was just a literal translation?!
Before Elias could finish venting his internal complaints.
The magical creature calling itself the "Peak Horse" glanced sideways at Elias, its tone thick with dismissiveness.
“Are you finished with your questions?”
“No!”
Elias shouted decisively.
Was it a joke? He had finally caught a high-level NPC left behind by a fellow countryman; how could he let it go so easily?
He took a deep breath and gritted his teeth as he asked:
“I want to know, who exactly created this concept of the 'Great Earth Veins'?!”
Elias stared intently at the horse's face.
He tried to pry even a sliver of information about that mysterious transmigrator from its mouth.
However.
The Peak Horse shook its massive head decisively.
“You cannot hear it.”
“Huh?”
Elias was stunned.
A hint of pity for a weak ant appeared in the horse's eyes, and it explained in a flat voice:
“That name has been placed under the 'Rat's Seal'.”
“With your current pathetic level...”
“That syllable is hidden. Even if I were to say it, you would not be able to hear it.”
After speaking, it paused.
It stared at Elias with its large eyes and urged him again.
“Are you finished with your questions?”
...
The horse asked again, tirelessly.
That urgent tone, those horse hooves constantly stomping in place.
It was clear that this "Peak Horse" really wanted to clock out and go home.
Elias wasn't actually surprised by this answer.
It was logical.
Since the other party was a transmigrator capable of forcibly embedding the concept of the "Twelve Earthly Branches" into the underlying logic of this world.
They were definitely some indescribable high-level existence!
An unspeakable super boss!
How could an old fox of that level reveal their true name so casually?
Naturally, they would hide themselves thoroughly.
Seeing that the other party was about to turn and leave again.
Elias quickly pushed aside those grand narratives that were temporarily out of reach and seized the time to grab some practical benefits.
“Wait!”
“Then do you know the Scale Three spirit vision potion recipe?!”
Since he couldn't get the name of his fellow countryman, testing whether he could get something practical shouldn't be wrong, right?
If he could even get the recipe, wouldn't he just take off from here?
However, the Peak Horse didn't hesitate for even half a second, answering very bluntly:
“I do not know.”
“What?”
The horse glanced at him with disgust.
“Who would bother remembering that stuff?”
?
This was truly ridiculous!
Elias felt his blood pressure rising in a straight line.
He found that as long as it involved questions for a normal transcendent, this damned horse's answers were always bizarre to the extreme!
“No...”
Elias said in confusion.
“Shouldn't this be very simple knowledge?”
The horse tilted its head.
It didn't think there was any problem with its answer.
“What is the problem?”
It retorted righteously:
“I do not need to drink that stuff to promote myself, so why would I remember it?”
Damn it!
That actually made a lot of sense!
He couldn't refute it at all!
“Besides.”
The Peak Horse suddenly spoke again.
Its voice echoed in the silent midnight dream.
“Your question is very foolish. It is only because you are here that you are safe. Do not ask it again in the future.”
“The Dream Prayer Ritual is essentially having your spirituality ask questions of a high-level existence.”
“It is essentially the acquisition and peering into of knowledge.”
“And a potion recipe is the path that guides you toward the high-level.”
“Because this place is special, you will not be perceived by high-level existences.”
“If you truly asked a certain deity, your end would either be backlash from the church's secret techniques.”
“Or, you would be polluted by the deity's information.”
Elias was secretly alarmed, but he also discovered a new key point.
“This place is special?”
“Isn't this the dream of the Moon Lord's Dream Prayer Ritual?”
The horse moved its hooves.
“Who said I was the Moon Lord's messenger?”
Rate on N.U.
