Chapter Two: Knife Horse, your escort has been intercepted by dogs.
In the seventh year of the Great Cause, Hexi Corridor.
The yellow sand fills the sky, and a cart bumps along the Gobi.
A man sits on the cart's axle. He wears a bamboo hat, carries a horizontal sword at his waist, and has a scar that diagonally crosses his face. His gaze is like the stones on the Gobi, both cold and hard.
Knife horse.
A small head pokes out from the car, about seven or eight years old, with bright, sparkling eyes.
"Dad, how much longer until Dunhuang?"
"Shut up."
The knife horse does not look back.
Little Seven pouts and shrinks back into the car.
Suddenly—
"Hush!"
The knife horse tightens the reins.
The cart comes to a sudden stop.
Ten feet ahead, on top of the sand dune, sits something.