Heaven Gate

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

After sending White Tiger away, Xu Yuan stood alone atop a side peak. Ahead of him lay the Hanging Heaven Cliff, plunging tens of thousands of feet into the depths below.

He took a step forward and tried to peer down from the Hanging Heaven Cliff.

As far as he could see, an endless abyss was shrouded in clouds and mist.

Suddenly, the clouds and mist atop the mountain churned. A fierce gust swept over him, whipping Xu Yuan's embroidered robe into a flurry and making him stagger.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan sensibly retreated to the interior of the peak.

In the game Cangyuan, he could control his character to leap off the Hanging Heaven Cliff without a second thought, but he decided against it for now.

He drew his gaze back and looked toward the main peak of Heaven Gate Mountain.

The two peaks stood a thousand zhang apart.

Beyond the towering, sheer walls of the main peak, immortal mist swirled.

From the base to the summit, the clouds seemed to tear through the sky.

A gigantic circular breach, hundreds of zhang across, gaped in the colossal mountainside like a gate reaching to the heavens!

For some reason, as Xu Yuan gazed at that enormous Heaven Gate, he felt more than just awe. A strange unease stirred within him.

Only after he looked away did the unease slowly fade.

Curiosity got the better of him, and Xu Yuan looked toward the Heaven Gate again.

Before long, the unease that had just faded began creeping back into his heart.

"What is this? Why does staring at that Heaven Gate make me feel this way?"

Sensing something amiss with his body, Xu Yuan hurriedly tore his gaze away. Astonished, he recalled the description of Heaven Gate Mountain in the official guidebook.

Almost unconsciously, he lifted his eyes to look again. A trace of baffled doubt crossed his face.

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

Xu Yuan suddenly realized how little he understood about the world of Cangyuan.

The game Cangyuan was rendered in a 2.5D pixel-art style, and its limited visuals had left him with no concept of just how powerful the strongest experts in this world could be.

The astonishing thought that someone in this world had once pierced a mountain hundreds of zhang across with a single sword made Xu Yuan think of many things in an instant.

Compared with orthodox cultivation, this world, as Xu Yuan understood it, seemed closer to the world of xianxia.

There were sects, martial circles, and imperial courts.

Could someone in this world really wield a sword so coldly brilliant that its light chilled the nineteen provinces?

But if anyone truly possessed such strength, wouldn't the Northern War God, who stood at odds with his father in the Great Yan court, be a laughingstock?

No matter how masterful his tactics, they could never stand against a supreme expert casually swinging a single sword strike. What authority could a war god like that possibly command?

While Xu Yuan stood dazed, the clouds and mist around him roiled and surged.

By the time he came back to himself, he realized that the tip of his nose was already wet.

He raised a hand to wipe it, and the bright red smear on his palm made him realize he was bleeding from the nose simply from staring at the Heaven Gate.

He hurriedly turned around and refused to look at it again.

As he did, Xu Yuan happened to see the pale glow of dawn gradually rising in the east.

The clouds dispersed, and the sunrise atop the mountain was beautiful. The Hundred Thousand Mountains stretched out before him, their boundless sea of forests dyed crimson.

The sight before him left Xu Yuan stunned.

What was going on?

He had only been dazed for a brief moment. How had noon suddenly become dawn?

Because he had taken Flame Spirit Fluid, he felt no hunger, but the aches from standing for so long were gradually returning to his body.

Something beyond his understanding had happened to him. Xu Yuan tried to find the reason, but after a moment's thought, he suddenly realized that now was not the time to dwell on it.

His most urgent task was to meet up with Ran Qingmo.

So much time had passed. Where was that Big Ice Block?

White Tiger had needed only half a day to climb from the mountainside to the summit. At least a day and a half had passed now, yet Ran Qingmo still hadn't arrived?

As he thought it over, Xu Yuan's heart sank little by little.

The best-case scenario was that Ran Qingmo had deliberately lured the enemy away to stay safe, and still hadn't managed to shake them off.

And the worst...

There was no question that Ran Qingmo was strong, but at this point in the story, there were still plenty of people in the world stronger than her.

Xu Yuan quickly cut off his thoughts, refusing to let his imagination run wild.

He understood his current predicament perfectly well.

If Ran Qingmo had died on the way, then unless he could stake his life on his three points of Fortune and leap from the Hanging Heaven Cliff, successfully reaching the cave dwelling below, he could consider himself dead too.

If he stayed beside the Hanging Heaven Cliff, whether the first to find him was the person trying to kill him or one of his father's subordinates, he would be doomed either way.

The onset of Alienation Syndrome had sealed off many of the escape routes Xu Yuan had relied on.

The method by which he had crossed over and taken over another's body wasn't a perfect soul transfer that stood above the laws of this world. It was a reincarnation through possession, bound by those very laws.

Although possession and reincarnation were nearly perfect aside from a brief bout of Alienation Syndrome at the beginning, everything had its yin and yang.

Possession had existed in this world for so long that naturally, methods of detecting it had emerged.

Those methods had nearly been lost, but they did exist.

Worst of all, one of his father's subordinates knew how to use them.

No one would suspect him without reason, but Xu Yuan wasn't really Xu Changtian. Before anyone truly close to him, he'd probably be found out in moments.

Once his abnormality was discovered, and a full battery of tests was performed, Xu Yuan couldn't even imagine what would happen to him.

There was a way to perfectly fuse the physical body with the Will Soul, and Xu Yuan knew where to find it. But it was in the cave dwelling beneath the Hanging Heaven Cliff.

If that Big Ice Block died, Xu Yuan would have no chance of going down to retrieve it.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath and forced himself to stop thinking. Controlling his aching body, he sat cross-legged on the ground.

There was no point in worrying about it now. All he could do was wait patiently for the outcome.

"Rumble."

The ground trembled as soon as he sat down, giving Xu Yuan a sudden jolt.

He looked down. All he could see were a few small stones lying motionless on the ground.

Was it his imagination?

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

"Rumble."

The faint quivering among the sand and stones traveled through his fingertips, growing steadily stronger.

Xu Yuan furrowed his brow.

An earthquake?

The thought had barely crossed his mind when—

"Boom!"

A shock wave spread, and the summit lurched violently.

Xu Yuan instinctively held his breath.

It wasn't an earthquake. Someone was fighting!

One second,

Five seconds,

Ten seconds,

"Boom—"

A thunderous crash and tremor rolled over them again, and this time the entire cliff seemed to sway.

Xu Yuan clenched his fist, a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes, and looked toward the path he had taken to get here.

Time seemed to stand still.

Between the dazzling sun climbing higher in the east, a black speck appeared.

It rapidly grew in his field of vision, turning in an instant into a massive shadow that eclipsed the morning sun as it hurtled toward the summit.

In the space of a breath—

"Boom—"

Like a meteor from beyond the heavens, the enormous shadow slammed into the open ground a dozen meters in front of Xu Yuan. The powerful impact sent sand and stones flying across the summit, and dust billowed everywhere!

When the dust settled,

Through the fingers shielding him from the haze, Xu Yuan saw the head of a giant serpent, more than ten meters tall.

And in that golden dawn,

Upon the serpent's hideous head,

A graceful black-clad figure stood with her sword lowered, the three thousand strands of her waterfall-like hair fluttering gently in the wind.