That Starry Sky!

Ordinary people climbing mountains always had to bring a full set of climbing gear, follow a guide, and set out in groups. Even seasoned mountaineers would bring some essential equipment.

But Gu Shaoshang was dressed in barely enough to cover himself, barefoot, carrying nothing at all as he climbed step by step.

His expression was tranquil, without surprise or joy. It was as though he were not climbing a mountain, but merely walking about in his own bedroom.

Early spring was hardly warm to begin with, and that went without saying in the Kunlun Mountain range, whose average elevation stood at five or six thousand meters.

Gu Shaoshang never slowed, striding like a tiger and moving like a dragon. Each rise and fall carried him more than ten meters, and before long, he reached the foot of the tallest snow-covered peak.

Clouds churned overhead. Vast glaciers formed from ten thousand years of accumulated snow sprawled across the mountain, with ice lakes and rivers scattered among forests of ice towers... The noon sun blazed fiercely, and beneath its intense rays, clouds steamed and rosy mists swirled, creating a rare world of icy peaks in countless dazzling forms and colors.

In snow deep enough to swallow his ankles with every step, his toes flexed and straightened while every muscle in his body worked violently.

Gu Shaoshang's martial arts had entered his body. He could seal his pores against the invading cold and preserve his body heat; otherwise, his legs would have been frozen useless long ago, like an ordinary person's.

A gust of wind swept past, sending snow whirling through the sky. Gu Shaoshang was blanketed in snow, only for the rolling heat radiating from his body to melt it away.

Yet this boundless, white snow path held not the slightest trace of another color. Looking down, he could no longer see the path he had come by. He could go neither up nor down, and an involuntary terror rose in one's heart.

The farther upward he went, the colder it became. Even with Gu Shaoshang's inhuman constitution, his body felt utterly chilled, as if even his muscles were about to freeze.

Whenever that happened, a warm current would flow from within his body and spread into his limbs and bones, instantly restoring vigor to all his sinews and joints.

It was not the first time Gu Shaoshang had marveled at the wonders of the Nine Cauldrons World. The very same Xingyi Quan could be cultivated into internal force that resembled the true qi of internal martial arts!

This internal force was what allowed Gu Shaoshang to travel the world barefoot. Not only could it restore the fatigue in his sinews and bones, it could also support his immense exertions like a reserve energy source.

It was like some all-purpose remedy.

Upon the snow mountain that had remained unchanged since time immemorial, Gu Shaoshang climbed without pause, climbing ever onward.

Within the vast snow mountain, where all beneath heaven was white, snowflakes were lifted by the wind and drifted down in fluttering swirls. Only one youngster remained, leaving one footprint after another in the snow and treading out a long, long road up the mountain.

Gu Shaoshang closed his eyes. In the depths of his silent state of mind, he could hear the gentle gurgle of blood flowing through his vessels like a little stream.

His heart was like a massive pressure pump, circulating blood endlessly through every part of his body via his blood vessels.

The tremor of his lungs as he breathed, the squirming of his stomach and intestines, the pulling sounds of bones and muscles as his body moved...

His martial arts had reached a level of exquisite precision, penetrating deep into his five viscera and six bowels.

Gu Shaoshang stopped and looked around. The mountain ranges bowed low, clouds curled about him, and the sky was blue beneath light clouds! In the boundless world, he alone stood high upon the summit of Kunlun Mountain!

Several hundred kilometers from Gu Shaoshang, a group of tough-looking men hurried through an endless forest.

They traveled at extraordinary speed, yet all of them moved as though taking a leisurely stroll, without shedding a single drop of sweat. Clearly, they were all martial arts masters!

This group consisted of burly men in camouflage. Yet leading them were an old man with a tortoise-like frame and crane-like back, along with a long-legged beauty.

The girl had two exceptionally long legs, as graceful as a crane's, enough to make the long legs of any supermodel in the world hang their heads in shame!

Her figure was exquisitely proportioned, but even more striking was her rosy face, delicate and radiant as a peach blossom. She looked languid, moved with poised elegance, and seemed drunk all day long.

Just like the saying: "Her face and the peach blossoms reflected one another's red."

Yet this girl drew far less attention than the old man beside her!

The old man was tall, and as he walked, he possessed the agility of a spirit ape along with a fierce, majestic power.

His arms were thick and long, and he carried an iron staff thicker than an ordinary person's arm as though it were nothing, like some great ape. A heavy, tyrannical aura naturally seized the soul.

"Uncle Ape, why did you insist on coming with me this time? Afraid I'd mess it up?" the long-legged beauty asked lightly.

"Stillness breeds movement! Stillness breeds movement! Every day, I'm matched against those two little snakes, and there are few chances to come out! This time, I'm out to clear my head!" The old man laughed heartily.

"The team we sent to the mainland to trade antiques—more than ten people in all—was wiped out by someone! The culprit truly was a youngster?"

As she walked, the long-legged beauty moved like a dancing crane, indescribably graceful and captivating.

"That brat is vicious! He punched a man's head right into his stomach! If we don't take revenge, the Big Circle Gang might as well stop existing!"

The old man's brows shot up, and he resembled an enraged ape king.

"We mobilized all our intelligence and spent nearly a year before finding that he seemed to have come all the way to Kunlun Mountain! I'll smash his head to pieces with one blow of my staff!"

The old man swung his long staff once, drawing a white streak through the air.

"First, we'll rest up in the town ahead and ask around for news of that brat!"

After nearly a year of investigation, the Big Circle Gang had finally located Gu Shaoshang.

After all, Gu Shaoshang could not possibly avoid everyone. Perhaps he had even deliberately been waiting for the Big Circle Gang to come for him!

The sky gradually darkened. Gu Shaoshang sat upright atop Kunlun Mountain. Two snow wolves had been completely skinned and tossed aside by him, and before long, they had frozen as hard as stone.

The nighttime temperature on the summit dropped to twenty or thirty degrees below zero. Even Gu Shaoshang's physique found it difficult to withstand, so he had no choice but to kill two wolves, drink their blood, and take their pelts against the cold.

Wrapped in wolfskin, Gu Shaoshang quietly contemplated nature's divine might.

Loneliness, cold, raging winds, waiting, darkness, exhaustion—his body gradually stiffened, and Gu Shaoshang inevitably began to feel certain negative emotions. But he did not cut them away. He simply savored them in silence.

Night had completely shrouded heaven and earth. Stars dotted the sky, and a crescent moon hung high above!

Gu Shaoshang raised his head to gaze at the heavens. The stars filling the sky were countless as dippers, and deep within his eyes, a scroll of the starry firmament was imprinted.

At some unknown moment, the clouds overhead had vanished. All he had to do was look up to see that dazzling river of stars.

Gu Shaoshang seemed to experience an incomparable silence. It was as though every sound in the world had vanished at this very moment.

In that instant, an inescapable tranquility arose in his heart, as if he had tasted the loneliness of the stars.

Gu Shaoshang had once heard someone say that there were two things worthy of our wonder and reverence.

One was the vast, brilliant starry sky above our heads; the other was the moral law within our hearts.

"How many outstanding heroes and jade-like beauties have there been beneath heaven and earth? The realm is a painting! Through the rolling thousands of years, who can still remain?"

Gu Shaoshang leaped up and began practicing his fists at the edge of the steep, unfathomable icy peak. At such a height, no matter how formidable Gu Shaoshang's physique was, one misstep would mean certain death!

"I will not be a hero among heroes! I care not for realms picturesque as paintings! I only wish to endure alongside this starry sky, eternal and undying!"

Gu Shaoshang shifted and wheeled along the cliff face, the essential principles of every kind of fist art flowing forth with practiced mastery.

Inevitably, his thoughts returned to the scene branded deep into his soul when the Myriad Heavens Projection Mirror had carried him across the Vast Continent, streaking through the starry sky!

"So this is it! What I wanted has always been in my heart!"

A tranquil smile curved Gu Shaoshang's lips.

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