Heaven Gate

At noon the following day, after nearly a full day of tireless galloping, the White Tiger finally carried Xu Yuan to his destination.

After releasing the White Tiger, Xu Yuan stood alone on the edge of the side peak, facing the Hanging Heaven Cliff, a precipice ten thousand feet deep.

Taking a step forward, Xu Yuan tried to peer down into the abyss.

Wherever his gaze fell, there was only an endless chasm shrouded in thick mist.

Suddenly, the clouds atop the peak churned, and a fierce gust of wind struck, causing the embroidered robes on Xu Yuan's body to snap violently and his stance to sway.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan very prudently retreated back into the interior of the cliff's summit.

In the game Cangyuan, he could have controlled his character to jump off this cliff without a second thought, but now, he decided against it.

Withdrawing his gaze, Xu Yuan looked toward the main peak of Heaven Gate Mountain.

Looking from here to there, they were separated by a thousand feet.

Beyond the towering, precipitous walls of the main peak, immortal mists swirled.

From bottom to top, the clouds were suddenly pierced through.

On the massive mountain body, a giant circular gap hundreds of feet wide stood like a gateway to the heavens!

Staring at that massive Heaven Gate, for some reason, beyond mere shock, Xu Yuan felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort in his heart.

It was only when he shifted his gaze away that this feeling of discomfort slowly dissipated.

Driven by curiosity, Xu Yuan looked toward the Heaven Gate once more.

Soon, the discomfort that had just faded began to creep back into his heart.

"What is this? Why does staring at that Heaven Gate cause this sensation?"

Noticing the abnormality in his body, Xu Yuan hurriedly withdrew his gaze. Feeling a sense of astonishment, the description of Heaven Gate Mountain from the official guidebook flashed through his mind.

Subconsciously raising his eyes to look again, Xu Yuan's expression carried a trace of skeptical shock:

"Is this sword intent? Could this Heaven Gate atop the mountain really have been pierced by a single sword strike?"

Xu Yuan suddenly felt that his understanding of this world of Cangyuan was still too limited.

Confined by the 2.5D pixel-art presentation of the game Cangyuan, he had absolutely no concept of just how powerful the top-tier experts of this world could truly be.

The shock of knowing that someone in this world had once pierced a mountain hundreds of feet thick with a single strike caused Xu Yuan's thoughts to race.

Compared to orthodox cultivation, in Xu Yuan's understanding, this world was more akin to the xianxia genre.

Here, there were sects, a martial arts world, and an imperial court.

Could it be that there really was someone in this world capable of a sword strike cold enough to chill nineteen provinces?

But if someone were truly that strong, wouldn't the Northern War God, who stood in direct opposition to his original body's father in the Great Yan court, become a joke?

No matter how divine one's military strategy, it could never withstand a casual strike from an absolute powerhouse; what dignity would such a "War God" have then?

While he was lost in thought, the surrounding clouds surged and churned rapidly.

By the time Xu Yuan regained his senses, he suddenly realized that the tip of his nose was wet.

He raised a hand to wipe it, and the crimson stain on his palm made him realize that he had actually suffered a nosebleed from staring directly at that Heaven Gate.

He turned away in a hurry, refusing to look again.

And as he turned, he happened to see the pale, fish-belly white of dawn gradually rising in the east.

The clouds dissipated, the sunrise atop the peak was beautiful, and the Hundred Thousand Mountains were all in view, the vast sea of forest dyed a deep, blood red.

The scene before him left Xu Yuan stunned.

What was going on?

He had only been lost in thought for a moment; how had it suddenly gone from noon to the break of dawn?

Because he had consumed the Flame Spirit Fluid, he felt no hunger, but the soreness from standing for so long began to revive in his body bit by bit.

With events beyond his comprehension befalling him, Xu Yuan tried to find the cause, but after his mind raced for a moment, he realized now was not the time to ponder this.

His top priority was to rendezvous with Ran Qingmo.

Since so much time had passed, where was that block of ice?

Even the White Tiger only needed half a day to reach the summit from the mountainside; now that at least a day and a half had passed, how could Ran Qingmo still not have arrived?

As he pondered, Xu Yuan's heart sank bit by bit.

The best-case scenario for this situation was that Ran Qingmo, to ensure safety, had intentionally lured the enemy away and had not yet managed to shake them off.

And the worst case...

Ran Qingmo's strength was beyond doubt, but at this point in the plot, there were still plenty of people in this world stronger than her.

Xu Yuan quickly stopped his train of thought, refusing to let his mind wander.

He was very clear about his current predicament.

If Ran Qingmo had died on the way, unless he could gamble his life with his 3 points of Fortune to jump off this Hanging Heaven Cliff and successfully enter that hidden abode, he might as well declare himself dead.

Staying here by the Hanging Heaven Cliff, regardless of whether the first person to find him was someone looking to kill him or his original father's subordinates, his death was certain.

The emergence of Alienation Syndrome directly sealed off many of the retreat paths Xu Yuan had relied upon.

The method by which he had transmigrated and usurped this body was not a perfect soul-transmigration that transcended the rules of this world, but rather a rebirth through possession under the constraints of its laws.

Although rebirth through possession was relatively perfect aside from the initial period where Alienation Syndrome would manifest, all things had their yin and yang.

Possession had existed in this world for so long that, naturally, various detection methods had evolved.

These detection methods were nearly lost to time, yet they undeniably existed.

And most lethally, some of the subordinates under his predecessor's father knew how to use them.

No one would suspect him without cause, but he, Xu Yuan, was ultimately not Xu Changtian; in front of those truly close to him, he estimated that any anomaly would be detected in mere moments.

If the anomaly were discovered and a series of diagnostic tests were performed, Xu Yuan dared not even imagine what his fate would be.

A method to perfectly fuse the physical body with the soul did indeed exist, and Xu Yuan knew where it was, but that item was located in the cave dwelling beneath this Hanging Heaven Cliff.

Once that massive block of ice died, he, Xu Yuan, would have no chance to go down and retrieve it.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan forced himself to stop his train of thought, controlling his slightly aching body as he sat cross-legged on the ground.

Thinking any further was useless now; all he could do was wait calmly for the outcome.

"Hum."

Just as he sat down, a slight tremor in the ground made Xu Yuan shudder instantly.

Lowering his gaze to look down, all he could see were some fine pebbles lying quietly on the ground.

An illusion?

Xu Yuan's eyes flickered as he gently pressed his palm against the ground.

"Hum."

The subtle vibration between the sand and stones traveled through his fingertips, the sensation gradually growing from weak to strong.

Xu Yuan frowned.

An earthquake?

As the thought flashed through his mind, "BOOM!"

Accompanied by a spreading sound wave, the mountain peak shook violently.

Xu Yuan instinctively held his breath.

It wasn't an earthquake; someone was fighting!

One second, Five seconds, Ten seconds, "BOOM—"

The sound wave and tremors arrived once more, and this time, the entire cliff seemed to be swaying faintly.

Xu Yuan clenched his fists tightly, a flash of uncertainty and suspicion in his eyes as he looked back toward the path he had come from.

Time seemed to stand still.

Amidst the dazzling rising sun, a black dot appeared.

This black dot rapidly magnified in his field of vision, instantly transforming into a massive shadow that blotted out the morning sun as it flew toward the peak at high speed.

In the span of a single breath, "BOOM—"

The enormous shadow slammed into the open ground ten meters in front of Xu Yuan like a meteorite from beyond the heavens; the powerful impact sent sand and stones flying across the peak, kicking up a cloud of dust!

When the dust finally settled, Xu Yuan peered through the gaps in his fingers, which were shielding his eyes, and saw a giant python head over ten meters tall.

And there, in the golden light of dawn, Atop that ferocious snake head, A graceful, slender figure in black stood with a sword hanging at her side, her three thousand strands of waterfall-like hair fluttering gently in the wind.