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Book 3: Dark Sky Sanctuary

③ Dark Sky Sanctuary. Yu Mengzhou is a professional horse farrier. He was born to be close to horses, and all the horses whose hooves he had repaired would put their big heads into his arms and pamper them. Until one day, Yu Mengzhou suddenly fell into a new world.

The demonic war horses of the other world were huge and lofty, with black flames burning around them, and the lords of the herd had just started a rebellion, tearing and devouring their former riders, and sizing up the frail humans who had fallen from the sky, baring their fierce fangs – Yu Mengzhou stared at the warhorse lord studded with thorny bone thorns hooves, hesitated and spoke in a whisper, “Do you need to fix the hoof? Experience price …… can be free of charge.”

Chapter 66: Dark Sky Sanctuary (1)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

The stench inside the stable was overwhelming. The already damp and rotting grass mats were all mixed with wet dirt and feces, and caused the barn floor to resemble a shallow and dirty swamp. The flies were as relaxed as if they had returned to their own homes, and their buzzing and drumming noise almost overpowered the horses’ faint snorting noises.

“Little Yu, Little Yu! Come this way!”

Yu Mengzhou hurriedly patted the hoof shavings on his apron, and then compassionately stroked the forehead of the thin horse in front of him. The brown horse blinked his big, docile eyes, made a low rumbling sound, gently arched against the youth’s palm, and then tilted his head and boldly rubbed himself in his arms.

“Good boy.” Truth be told, the smell of this horse’s body really wasn’t too good, even for professionals who were accustomed to working with horses, they had to unconsciously scrunch up their faces here, Yu Mengzhou didn’t really care, he skillfully stroked the horse’s withers ¹, and comfortingly rubbed the end of the mane, “It’s okay. It’s alright, go stand in the clearing over there.”

The horse stable’s assistant pulled it slowly away, after calming the horse on his head, Yu Mengzhou’s mood was not so wonderful, and he stepped on a pair of dirty, worn-out rubber-soled boots, and trekked towards the party that had shouted to him.

The mud puddles on the soles of his shoes were dirty and in contact, and with each step, he made a furious “croak, croak” sound, and when he got close enough to see, Yu Mengzhou got a clear picture of the exact situation.

“Master Hu,” He stood still. “How is it?”

“Manic!” Master Hu was a short and stout man, speaking a strong dialect. If he hadn’t worked with him for a long time, Yu Mengzhou wouldn’t have been able to understand him at first, “The last one, like a stubborn donkey, won’t let it be touched, look at the hooves, I guess they’re rotten!”

The brown stallion with white blossoms was really too skinny. With a cursory upward glance, it was impossible to tell whether it was a young horse or a horse whose bones had already shriveled up. He was tethered to a stake, straining every jagged bone in his thin neck, and his four hooves, whose color had long since been lost, were slipping desperately in the mud, as he sputtered, struggled and refused to let anyone come near him.

“You see?” Master Hu rubbed the sweat off his face with the back of his hand, straining to straighten his back, then grinned and looked at him. “This requires you Little Yu. Guarantee it a little. No one else can do it.”

Yu Mengzhou shook his head and said in a low voice, “It will take time to fix it. The more time it takes, the more it can’t stand up at all. Then it will fall down.”

“I know,” Master Hu said. “Let’s call him. This stubborn donkey is as thin as a pole. I don’t believe that two people can’t hold him up.”

The horse huffed and puffed as it rolled on the ground. Its protruding bones stuck to its skin and banged against the ground. Yu Mengzhou carefully circled around from the horse’s left side, lowered his hands in front of his body and whistled softly to attract the horse’s attention.

“Good boy, good boy…” Yu Mengzhou whispered. “It’s okay. Look, Rish isn’t there. You’re safe. It’s okay.”

Master Hu watched the scene with wonder. No matter how many times he had seen it, he had to admit that Little Yu was skilled at dealing with horses. Others couldn’t hold down a restless, strong horse, but Little Yu always managed to approach them. No matter how proud and harsh the horse, with Little Yu there, he could stick to their ass like a small tail.

His daughter, after watching a video of it, always shouted in private that Little Yu was a Disney Princess. Master Hu was stifling laughter in his heart, but he didn’t dare to tell him that.

The horse, which was as thin as wood, gradually didn’t move around, just lay on the ground, its eyes suffering, and it couldn’t help looking at Yu Mengzhou as it gasped for breath.

Yu Mengzhou was heartbroken. He slowly squatted down his body, and first took a cursory look at the condition of the hooves. Ulcers, pus and blood were definitely inevitable. He slightly squeezed the sole ²had a sense of emptiness…With the harsh environment in the stable, maybe there were even maggots in there.

“Alright, alright, oh…” Yu Mengzhou stroked its nose, wiped the mud stains from it, and slowly encircled the horse’s neck, as he first helped it stand up steadily. “We’ll help you, okay? You’re having a hard time too, aren’t you? It’s alright, we’ll fix it for you when we’re done…”

Master Hu beckoned, and another of his young, strong helpers carefully walked over and put his shoulder against the horse’s body as the individual half-supported and half-racked him into the dry clearing, as they finally got him to stand up straight. Master Hu took the time to pry at the horse’s lips and look at his teeth.

“The premolars are out,” Master Hu said. “Almost four years old. It’s a colt!”

Yu Mengzhou breathed a sigh of relief. The situation was bad, but a colt would still have a chance to recover. However, if it was a horse, its future would be very unpredictable.

He grabbed the hoof stool, then lifted the severely problematic front hoof, grabbed the hose, followed the side of the leg and roughly flushed the dirt and feces from the hoof.

Most of the horses in the stable were Chakouyi horses³, which were known for their fast pace. However, this horse had never had a horseshoe. Yu Mengzhou endured the stench in his nose and held the loop knife⁴ first, lifted the mud and grass pieces that were stuck together, swished a few times, and then sketched the horse’s two hoof forks in a crisp manner. He then drew out his hoof-trimming knife to scrape clean the mud, dirt, and gravel growth of keratin on the hoofs. 

His strength was good. He shaved up the hard hooves, just like he was shaving ice, until the black-like scabs of the hooves fell down with a crash, revealing the snow-white clean cuticles. A big hole on the left hoof surface was clearly exposed. The inside was pitch-black, ulcerated, and rotting, and soon enough, the parasitic maggots fell out.

Yu Mengzhou muttered a curse. He took the nippers, roughly cut off the edge of the shoe, and then continued to change to a single-sided loop knife. This kind of knife was like a small hook, he hooked a circle next to the hoof cuticle that had long been softened and plucked out the maggots that were still alive and kicking and crushed them to death. He then carefully scraped towards the inside until the ulcerated points were hollowed out, and the living flesh was exposed. Then he moved towards the wounded area, which was finally exposed. Only then did he relax, as he applied a thick layer of chlortetracycline ointment to the injury and wrapped it in a bandage.

During the hoof trimming process, the brown horse trembled all over, but still held back and didn’t move around, as it allowed Yu Mengzhou to concentrate on it.

“Is it okay?” Master Hu asked.

“One’s done!” Yu Mengzhou replied, “The most troublesome one is done.”

Master Hu nodded, “Okay, change sides!”

The second serious hoof didn’t have maggots, but probably because the colt was naughty while it was running and jumping, something hard accidentally stabbed the hoof. The hoof was already filled with pus and blood. Yu Mengzhou finished repairing the hoof, nailed a catheter in it, lightning fast, and then pulled it out. The fluid inside dripped out all over the place, and the horse kept huffing and puffing in pain.

“Alright, alright. It’s alright. So good. You won’t be in pain anymore…” Yu Mengzhou coaxed it even as he quickly and swiftly applied tincture of iodine to sterilize the hoof, then similarly wrapped it with a bandage.

For the remaining two hooves, the lesions weren’t as serious as that one, and it was much easier to repair them. Yu Mengzhou even applied a hoof file and hoof care oil, and gave the hooves a good polish.

“–Great job!” He straightened his back and heaved a heavy breath. Master Hu, also tired and sweating, helped lead the limping colt. Before it left, it plunged headlong into Yu Mengzhou’s arms, pausing for a long moment in grateful exhaustion.

“Go,” Yu Mengzhou patted its neck. “Don’t stay here. You’ll get a good life later.”

After a few days of hard work, on that day, they finally finished the work on that horse farm.

Master Hu smoked a cigarette and looked at the empty horse farm.

“Doggone amateurs…This is bullshit.” The old man muttered curses. ” Thinking that standing in the wind can let anything fly, and also not thinking about whether their own pig brain is worthy. I think horse breeding is the same model as pig breeding, but pigs still need to eat some concentrated feed! Advanced breeding experience is absent. Just think about how they lay in rotten mud, but don’t bathe them. They don’t buy a horn grinder, don’t hire anyone to repair their hooves, and don’t learn from themselves, so they just let the horses live and die on their own…If they want to make money and sell them at a high price, they’re lucky if they don’t lose their virtue!”

Yu Mengzhou shook his head. “This stable isn’t the worst. At least it’s willing to sell the horses at a discounted price. If they really don’t care, what can we do?” ⁵

“He doesn’t care about the horses, but he won’t let the money go down the drain!” Master Hu spat. “But today you did a good job. Let’s go back and have a little wine and I’ll give you a big red packet, huh?”

Yu Mengzhou laughed, “Forget it Master Hu. I appreciate your kindness, but I just settled down. My house is a mess, so I’d better go back and clean up.”

Master Hu thought about it, and didn’t argue with him, just nodded his head. “Okay! Speaking of which, these two days were indeed exhausting. You go back first, and also rest for two days…Aigoo, I’m falling apart!”

Yu Mengzhou laughed. He walked to the hose under the water pipe, roughly rinsed the dirt on the rubber-soled boots, unzipped the pocket apron, put the hoof trimming tools from it into the toolbox in order, then said goodbye to Master Hu, before he turned to his motorcycle and left.

Master Hu looked at him and couldn’t help but sigh.

Yu Mengzhou was tall and from a distance, he was as upright as a bamboo. Even though he worked daily under the sun and in the wind, he wasn’t tanned but handsome and had a good temperament. His strength was even more amazing and he was able to work in this line of work. His patience was tenfold, not to mention that the young man had a dimple on his face when he laughed.

The conditions were good, but unfortunately…his family’s condition was too terrible. He was all alone, with no parents to take care of him, and no siblings to help him out. How could it work? Master Hu couldn’t help but feel sorry.

Yu Mengzhou didn’t know about Master Hu’s mental activities, as he put the toolbox on his feet and rode his motorcycle to his rental house.

The site of the horse farm was in a remote open area, with only a crude asphalt highway connecting it with the county. The evening wind blew gently, coolly blew dry his sweat, but also blew away a lot of the turbid energy from his body.

He exhaled, his heart really not feeling very good.

Things weren’t exactly common on that horse farm, but they were by no means rare either. The self-righteous investor had felt that he grasped the pulse of the wealth market, but refused to sink his heart into the venture. It was just wishful thinking where he acted in accordance to his own whims. So, the final result was thus: he lost money and the horses suffered.

Fortunately, there were professional horse farms that were willing to buy such dying horses at a discounted price, but only without major illnesses, and they hired hoof trimmers to take care of them. Otherwise, those horses would really be in bad shape.

Yu Mengzhou slowed down the speed of his motorcycle as he thought about the things on his mind.

Although there wasn’t a single car on this road,and he wasn’t riding fast as was his habit, but…

“Where did this big pothole come from?” Yu Mengzhou was dumbfounded. “It was fine on the way here. What happened?”

He clearly remembered that when he came, the road was still very flat, but now the road surface had a big pit. It wasn’t deep, but dug right in the center where people couldn’t see it.

It was really evil…

Yu Mengzhou hurriedly turned around and went around the side.

As he traveled to the side of the road, he couldn’t help but move towards some thick smoke that was vaguely sweeping around.

Ghost, natural gas, or prank? He shook his head. He was planning to speed up and leave the range of the deep pit, when the pit suddenly lengthened!

Just like a determined bully who must trip you, Yu Mengzhou couldn’t escape that scourge even if he veered around it. His jaw dropped, and he only had time to curse “Shit! Ghost!” and then he tumbled into the pit with his bike.

After it swallowed a man and a small motorcycle, the pit belched a satisfactory, sulfurous smoke. Then it abruptly closed and there was no trace.

The night wind blew. The road surface was as level as before, and all was quiet and peaceful, without the slightest hint of what had just happened.