A Vast Chasm

(Second update. Please support me and recommend and bookmark the story. If you can, please support me on Sanjiang—just don't let me finish dead last. Thanks.)

Time flew by between Er Dongsheng and the others' escape and their arrival deep in the vast mountain range...

"My lord, there's another tall peak ahead! What should we do?" Xierjie the Fairy called to Er Dongsheng on the platform.

"I see it. Go around the side." His right claw, pale and unlike the scales around it, gripped the rope tightly as he adjusted the sail's angle. Hearing Xierjie's warning, Er Dongsheng answered without expression.

They had been flying through this vast range for more than ten days. The forest lay far behind them now.

"My lord, we're too high. Should we descend a little? Otherwise we'll lose our way!" Xierjie said worriedly. They were already several thousand meters up, surrounded by darkness. Only the towering, snow-covered peaks gave off a faint glow, serving as dim beacons.

Without those peaks to guide them, they would certainly lose their way in the black sky!

The immense range stretched on without end, one towering peak after another. They had been traveling for more than half a month, and Er Dongsheng reckoned they had reached its heart and were nearing its highest ridge. The tall peaks were appearing one after another now; they had encountered four or five today alone.

Such enormous peaks gave them the worst headaches. Faced with pillars that seemed to prop up the sky, they could not simply fly higher to cross them. They had to explore bit by bit and slip through whatever narrow gaps they found.

The terrain rose higher and higher beneath them. To keep the hot-air balloon from striking ground that suddenly jutted upward, Er Dongsheng and the others