Fairy, Please Listen to My Explanation

Chapter 13: Heaven’s Gate

By noon the next day, after nearly a full day of tireless running by the white tiger, it finally carried Xu Yuan to their destination.

After sending the white tiger away, Xu Yuan stood alone at the peak of the side mountain. Before him stretched the Suspended Heaven Cliff, plunging ten thousand feet downward.

He took a step forward and peered down.

All he could see was an endless abyss shrouded in mist.

Suddenly, the clouds churned violently, and a fierce gust of wind howled past, whipping his embroidered robes and nearly knocking him off balance.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan wisely retreated back from the edge of Suspended Heaven Cliff.

In the Ancient Origin, he could control his character to jump down this cliff without hesitation. But in reality, it was a different matter entirely.

Averting his gaze, Xu Yuan looked towards the main peak of Tianmen Mountain.

A thousand zhangs ahead, he could see the mountain’s peak.

Immortal mist coiled and lingered on the imposing and grand mountain.

From below, the mist surged upward, parted the sky, and revealed the heavens.

On the mountain’s body lay a gigantic crater hundreds of zhang in diameter, resembling a gate leading to heaven!

Yet, as Xu Yuan stared at that immense crater, his heart not only filled with awe but also with some inexplicable sense of discomfort.

Only when he shifted his gaze away from the distant view did this discomfort slowly dissipate.

Out of curiosity, Xu Yuan looked toward the heaven’s gate again.

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

“What is this? Why do I get this feeling when staring at that heaven’s gate?”

Noticing the strangeness in his body, Xu Yuan hastily averted his gaze again. Startled, he recalled the description of Tianmen Mountain from the game’s official wiki.

He subconsciously looked up again, his expression a mixture of disbelief and astonishment.

“Is this… Sword Intent? Was this Heaven’s Gate atop the mountain truly formed by a piercing strike of someone’s sword?”

Xu Yuan suddenly realized how limited his understanding of the world of Ancient Origin truly was.

Limited by the 2.5D pixel art style of the game Ancient Origin, he had no real concept of just how powerful the top-tier experts in this world could be.

The shocking realization that someone in this world had once pierced through a mountain hundreds of zhang thick with a single sword strike sent his mind reeling.

Compared to traditional wuxia stories, in Xu Yuan’s understanding, this world seemed to align more closely with the xianxia genre.

Here there were sects, the martial world, and the imperial courts.

Could someone in this world truly have the power to make a single sword strike cleave across the nineteen provinces?

But if such power existed, wouldn’t the Northern War God, who stood in direct opposition to his “father” in the Great Yan’s Imperial Court, be rendered a joke?

No matter how brilliant a strategist he was, what use was a “War God” if he couldn’t withstand a single slash from a supreme expert? What dignity would such a “War God” have?

Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the clouds and mist swirling and surging around him at an incredibly fast pace.

By the time Xu Yuan came back to his senses, he suddenly noticed his nose was wet.

Raising his hand to wipe it, the crimson on his palm made him realize he had gotten a nosebleed from staring directly at heaven’s gate for too long.

He hastily turned away, not daring to look again.

But as he turned his head, Xu Yuan happened to see the first rays of dawn gradually painting the eastern sky.

As the clouds and mist dispersed, the sunrise atop the mountain peak was breathtakingly beautiful. A vast expanse of mountains stretched out before him, dyed vibrant crimson as the sun rose.

The scene before his eyes made Xu Yuan’s mind freeze.

What’s going on?

He had only been lost in thought for a moment, so how had it suddenly gone from noon to dawn?

Thanks to the Flame Serpent Essence, he didn’t feel hungry, but the soreness from standing too long was creeping into his limbs.

Faced with something beyond his understanding, Xu Yuan’s mind instinctively wanted to figure it out, but he suddenly realized this wasn’t the time for that.

His immediate priority was to reunite with Ran Qingmo.

Since so much time had passed, where was this ice block of a woman?

Even the white tiger had only needed about half a day to climb from the mountainside to the peak, and now at least a day and a half had passed. How had Ran Qingmo still not arrived?

As he pondered, Xu Yuan’s heart gradually sank.

The best-case scenario for the current situation was that Ran Qingmo had deliberately drawn away their pursuers to ensure his safety and hadn’t yet been able to shake them off.

And the worst…

Ran Qingmo’s strength was undeniable, but at this point in the story, there were still many in this world stronger than her.

Xu Yuan quickly stopped himself from spiraling into negative thoughts.

He was acutely aware of his current predicament.

If Ran Qingmo had died on the way, his only hope was gambling on his measly 3-point Luck stat by jumping off the Suspended Heaven Cliff and somehow surviving to reach the hidden cave below.

Otherwise, he was as good as dead.

Regardless of whether the first one to find him was his father’s people or those who wanted him dead, staying here would also be no different from dooming himself.

The emergence of Soul Rejection had effectively sealed off many of the fallback options Xu Yuan had been relying on.

His transmigration wasn’t a perfect soul transmigration that transcended the rules of this world; rather, it was a body possession within the confines of this world’s laws.

While soul takeovers were near-perfect aside from the initial period of Soul Rejection, everything had its trade-offs.

Since possession had existed in this world for so long, there were bound to be some methods of detection that would eventually expose him.

These detection methods were nearly lost to time, but they definitely exist.

Worst of all, someone among his original body’s father’s subordinates knew these methods.

No one would suspect him without reason, but Xu Yuan was ultimately not Xu Changtian. In front of those who truly knew him, they would probably notice the difference in an instant.

Once suspicions arose, a full examination would follow; Xu Yuan dared not imagine what his fate would be.

There were indeed methods to perfectly fuse the physical body with the spirit and soul, and Xu Yuan knew where to find them, but those things were in the cave dwelling below this Suspended Heaven Cliff.

If that ice block died, he would have no chance to retrieve them.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan forced himself to stop thinking, controlling his slightly sore body to sit cross-legged on the ground.

There was no use in thinking too much now; all he could do was wait calmly for the outcome.

Rumble…

Just as he sat down, a slight tremor in the ground startled Xu Yuan.

Looking down, he saw only small pebbles lying motionless on the ground.

An illusion?

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

Rumble…

The subtle vibration of sand and stones transmitted through his fingertips, the tremors gradually growing from weak to stronger.

Xu Yuan frowned.

Was it an earthquake? The thought barely formed when—

BOOM!

A shockwave rippled through the mountain peak, shaking the ground violently.

Xu Yuan instinctively held his breath.

Not an earthquake—someone was fighting!

One second.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds

BOOM—

Another blast of sound and force rattled the cliffs, making the entire mountain tremble.

Xu Yuan clenched his fist tightly, his expression tense as he stared back the way he had come.

Time seemed to stand still.

Between the dazzling rising sun in the east, a black dot appeared.

This black dot rapidly expanded in his vision, instantly transforming into a massive black shadow blotting out the dawn as it hurtled toward the peak.

In the span of a single breath—

CRASH!

The massive shadow slammed into the ground like a meteor, landing just ten meters away from Xu Yuan. The powerful impact instantly sent sand and stones flying across the mountaintop, raising dust in all directions!

As the dust settled, Xu Yuan peered through his fingers and saw a giant serpent’s head over ten meters tall.

And atop that giant head, bathed in golden dawn, a graceful figure clad in black with her sword lowered. Her long black hair flowed like painted ink, scattered as the gentle breeze of wind caressed her face.