Chapter 553: Reaching the Peak
Chen Yan was not climbing mountains of this height on foot for the first time.
The last time had been when he was still on Chenping Continent, before the Dao Inquiry Assembly of Chenping Continent was about to be held, when he had climbed Heavenly Summit Mountain together with Little Su.
Heavenly Summit Mountain rose about eight thousand three hundred zhang, while Qingxuan Mountain was even higher, reaching about eight thousand eight hundred zhang, nearly nine thousand zhang.
But if one had to say which was harder to climb between Heavenly Summit Mountain and Qingxuan Mountain, it really was Heavenly Summit Mountain.
Because on Heavenly Summit Mountain, starting from just over a thousand zhang in elevation, most of the mountain’s body was completely covered by snow deposited for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, unable to bear any external force.
Only cultivators of Qi Sea Realm and above could walk on the snow layers of Heavenly Summit Mountain as if on flat ground. Even someone with extraordinary talent like Su Hongzhen, at Martial Spring Realm cultivation, found climbing Heavenly Summit Mountain quite strenuous.
Qingxuan Mountain was different. Although Qingxuan Mountain was about five hundred zhang higher than Heavenly Summit Mountain, under the nurturing of the Qingxuan Immortal Sect, Qingxuan Mountain was verdant and green with springlike weather year-round.
Even though, in this realm now called Tianji Continent, the world was on the verge of destruction and the laws were breaking down, leaving Qingxuan Mountain desolate and barren, the difficulty of climbing to the summit’s Cangji Hall still fell far short of climbing Heavenly Summit Mountain.
At this moment, Chen Yan had already climbed from the foot of Qingxuan Mountain to an elevation of over one thousand seven hundred zhang.
He had used three days for this stretch.
The hardest part of climbing Qingxuan Mountain was the section from the base up to three thousand six hundred zhang.
Because above three thousand six hundred zhang, Qingxuan Mountain contained the Qingxuan Immortal Sect’s buildings and stairways.
During the climb up to this one thousand seven hundred zhang elevation, Chen Yan had fallen four times from steep parts of Qingxuan Mountain, the highest single vertical fall exceeding two hundred zhang.
When Chen Yan’s back slammed hard against the ground, he felt as if his internal organs and bones had been smashed to pieces.
It was an absolutely mortal wound.
But after a few breaths, his shattered bones and organs had undergone the barest minimum of healing.
The fragments of organs and bones were glued together crudely as if with a rough adhesive, barely able to function.
Chen Yan crawled up from the ground, his body swaying.
“Death not permitted.”
He recalled the words the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void had spoken just as his consciousness was about to completely dissipate.
He could not die, no matter what.
Even though each step sent waves of pain through his muscles, bones, and nerves as if they were being cut a thousand times, Chen Yan had long since grown accustomed to pain.
He simply continued climbing Qingxuan Mountain with steadfast determination.
In truth, Chen Yan did not know exactly what he was fighting so desperately for.
Perhaps being forever exiled into the spatial rifts, forever cut off from the great world and the chaotic flow of time, would be a form of release.
“Heh…”
When such a thought crossed Chen Yan’s mind, he only gave a bitter smile and slowly shook his head.
He would not be forever exiled into the spatial rifts. The moment the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void realized the fabricated cause and effect he carried, Chen Yan understood that Bai Chen would not easily let him go.
This also proved that Bai Chen’s understanding of cause and effect surpassed even Mr. You’s.
Because eight thousand years ago, Immortal Venerable Fusheng—no, more correctly called Venerable Fusheng—had determined that the six ten-thousand-year-long cause and effect Chen Yan carried was forged, based on the impossibility of two overlapping strands of cause and effect existing in one realm at the same time.
But the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void was different. He had only glanced at Chen Yan and saw through it.
Perhaps this was the gap between Returning to Void Realm and Uncarved Simplicity Realm.
He bore a Heavenly Dao Fate.
Chen Yan had originally thought that the Heavenly Dao Fate he bore was the Heavenly Dao Fate of Chenping Continent.
As his horizons widened, he realized that was not the case.
It was very possible that the “Heavenly Dao” he was burdened with stood even above the myriad heavens.
Now, leaning against a large boulder at an elevation of over one thousand eight hundred zhang on Qingxuan Mountain and resting for a moment, Chen Yan raised his head and looked toward the mountain peak.
The summit of Qingxuan Mountain shot straight up into the sky, completely shrouded by suppressed clouds, its form invisible.
From his current position, Chen Yan could only make out, after another thousand zhang up, the cluster of buildings that had once belonged to the Qingxuan Immortal Sect but were now reduced to ruins.
He had to keep climbing. That was the burden he carried.
Two thousand zhang.
Two thousand five hundred zhang.
Three thousand six hundred zhang.
By the time Chen Yan reached the Qingxuan Immortal Sect’s cluster of buildings at the mountain’s midsection, eleven days had passed.
Across the sky stretched a pitch-black rift some thirty thousand li long, like the gaping maw of a sky-devouring beast.
Chen Yan knew that something within that pitch-black rift was watching him.
When he had once escaped that withered eyeball’s vigilance in the spatial rift, it had been thanks to Hidden Immortal Art and Emptiness Annihilation Art.
Now that his meridians were shattered and he had returned to being a mere mortal, of course he would fall back into that existence’s view.
He continued to climb.
After stepping onto the stairways, Chen Yan’s speed toward the summit clearly increased.
When he reached an elevation of six thousand zhang above the ground, he could already see the towering palace at the summit, Cangji Hall.
There, at last, was the peak of Qingxuan Mountain.
He kept ascending.
His legs, numb from the stair steps, moved as if dragging a thousand-pound weight with every step.
Like porcelain smashed and then clumsily repaired by a craftsman, his bones, riven with cracks, made faint rubbing sounds inside his body, as if they could collapse again at any moment.
The air grew thinner and thinner, each breath burning his lungs.
Yet this world rejected his death.
Seven thousand three hundred zhang.
From here began the Inner Court of the Qingxuan Immortal Sect, the true core area of the sect.
Countless abandoned grand buildings sat here, and it was here that Chen Yan had spent nearly three hundred years.
After continuing his climb, Chen Yan finally stood before the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine steps leading up to the magnificent palace that crowned Qingxuan Mountain.
He kept moving forward.
When he stepped onto the one thousandth stair, his calf bone suddenly shattered, twisting outward at an inconceivable angle.
With such a leg, he could not continue to climb.
Chen Yan slowly looked back over his shoulder, then made up his mind and leaped down.
Thud!
Chen Yan hit Qingxuan Mountain heavily; his bones and organs shattered once more, agony assaulting every inch of flesh and nerve.
Chen Yan, expressionless, only stared at the pitch-black rift in the sky.
“Death not permitted.”
He repeated the words once more, the phrase the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void had spoken.