Hundred-Li Long Gorge appeared abruptly amid the endless snowfields, stretching onward into towering snowy peaks. From afar, it looked as though an immortal had cleaved the entire mountain range in two with a single sword stroke.
Xie Jinhuan stood holding his horse at the mouth of the rift, his cloak stirring in the wind. Gazing ahead at the sword-straight chasm through the mountains, he looked astonished.
"Could this really have been cut open with a sword?"
This was Bu Yuehua's first visit too. Wrapped in her cloak, she looked down into the rift. It was half a li wide and stretched into the depths of the mountains, its end nowhere in sight. Her eyes held equal measures of belief and doubt.
"It's probably a legend later generations invented around a natural wonder. Sword River is three hundred li long. How could human strength have made it?"
Ye Hongshang stood beside them with the Red Umbrella resting on her shoulder, her expression calm.
"Against the whole of heaven and earth, this gorge is only a tiny crack. With sufficiently high cultivation, making it would be nothing unusual."
Xie Jinhuan's cultivation was still relatively low, and he could not imagine how formidable someone would have to be to cleave three hundred li of mountains with one sword stroke. After surveying the scene, he left his horse on the snowfield and proceeded on foot along the frozen river, searching for the faintest clues.
Although the rift was straight, it contained a frozen river and woodland. Once they entered the mountains, they could also see a few mine openings in the cliffs on either side. The terrain was fairly complicated.
Still, the two were reasonably lucky. After following the rift for over thirty li, they discovered traces of human passage on the frozen river,