Chapter 1025 – Snow Man
The group of them turned around and headed up the mountain path with Ye Qingyu as their leader.
Tens of thousands of foreign-race experts stood behind them, and a few of them suddenly felt like scaling the mountain along with Ye Qingyu, but ultimately, no one made a move.
If they chose to follow Ye Qingyu, they would be going against the wishes of the Quasi-emperor of the Four Stars Sect, and even an idiot could predict what the consequences of defying a Quasi-emperor would be. Thus, even though several foreign-race experts had the urge to follow Ye Qingyu after witnessing his killing feats, that still was not enough for them to defy a Quasi-emperor.
Their cultivation had increased and they had gotten stronger and more respected, but their youthful impulses seemed to have left them. As they navigated political battles and formed alliances with others who were more powerful than they were, the worldly affairs unfurled like a net around them and trapped them within. The more they struggled, the tighter the net became.
Ye Qingyu did not seem to show any indication of instigating these people to follow him up the mountain.
After he walked out of the Heaven Wasteland Domain, he had weathered all kinds of difficulties, so he was extremely familiar with how the foreign races of the Vast Thousand Domains functioned—they tended to only mind their own business and would not meddle in the business of others. It would be absolutely impossible for him to get these foreign-race experts to join forces with him. Furthermore, even if he brought all these people with him up to the mountain peak, it would be difficult to predict whose side they would choose to take at the crucial moment.
If they decided to help the Four Stars Sect, who already had the upper hand, then wouldn't he be creating more trouble for himself?
The mountain paths were curvy and winding.
Ye Qingyu and the others soon disappeared behind the winding paths.
The wind and snow covered their tracks.
As dozens of foreign-race experts watched the group of six or seven Human Race experts disappear from view and looked at the remaining group of experts who had surrendered in front of the mountain, as well as the corpses of the lackeys and underlings of the Four Stars Sect, a range of complex emotions welled up in their hearts.
The only common emotion they had was an overwhelming sense of defeat.
Yes, it was defeat.
Every expert was well-aware of the amount of courage it took for one to walk up the mountain path. When they saw this group of six or seven Human Race experts disappear up the mountain path despite knowing that the entire group, including Ye Qingyu, could perish at the wrath of the Quasi-emperor, every foreign-race expert knew that this group of Human Race experts had chosen the correct path. This was the true path of a martial artist, so by choosing to remain where they were, they had lost to the fear of death that was within them. This would become a form of mental torture to them, and it would take a long time before they would be able to erase it from their heart of the martial way.
"Why didn't Ye Qingyu try to rouse us all to follow him? If he said a few words, I might have followed him."
Several younger foreign-race experts could not help thinking regretfully.
They were all once known as the Heaven's pridelings in their corner of the world and had been doted on by their teachers, friends, and even fate. They had always thought that they were unique and special, and it wasn't until they encountered Ye Qingyu that they realized that the ancient principle of how there is always someone better out there turned out to be true, and that compared to Ye Qingyu, they still had a long, long way to go.
The wind howled.
The only thing that these experts waiting at the foot of the mountain could do was to wait.
…
Ye Qingyu and the others made very slow progress.
After they walked three to four thousand meters along the winding path, they faced a sudden but terrifying pressure that appeared from the Void, or another possibility was that the earth's gravitational force had suddenly increased by a few hundred folds. So, as they trudged along the path, they felt as though they carried the weight of mountains with them. This frightening gravitational force seemed extremely heavy even to all these Saint realm experts.
As this heavy pressure crushed down on them, even the Great Saint experts were unable to rise into the air. They could only rely on their two feet to carry them along the mountain path.
"This is so goddamn tiring… My god, what kind of terrifying force is this?" the fatty Li Shengyan eked out breathlessly. He said with some annoyance, "Why do I feel as though the pressure increases another fold with each step I take?"
"You're right," Orchid Saintess said. "This should be the force field of a Quasi-emperor. Those who aren't powerful enough would never be able to approach a Quasi-emperor… Now that the authority of three Quasi-emperors has been released, its power will trap us within like prison gates. We… I'm afraid that we will be unable to reach the top of the mountain." She could not help glancing at Ye Qingyu as she said those words.
The further uphill they climbed, the more they were able to sense how mighty a Quasi-emperor was. These Quasi-emperors seemed so powerful that they felt hopeless in the face of such might.
Orchid Saintess felt that if anyone would be able to scale up the peak to witness the Dao battle of Quasi-emperors, it could only be Ye Qingyu. The others would probably only make it halfway up the mountain before they would be unable to withstand the terrifying pressure that crushed down on them.
It was clear that they would slowly become a burden to Ye Qingyu.
"Let's just treat it as some sort of training," Ye Qingyu said with a smile as he led the rest of the group. "Not everyone will get the opportunity to cultivate in the midst of a Quasi-emperor force field."
The moment he said that, the eyes of the rest of the group lit up. His words were indeed true.
If they didn't worry and fret about whether they would be able to reach the top of the mountain, putting aside their ultimate goal, everything would seem more optimistic as they treated this purely as an opportunity to cultivate and refine their cultivations.
Now that they had attained such high cultivation, it would be extremely rare for them to have such an opportunity again.
Only the fatty continued to pant heavily and grumble the entire way.
One hour later—
They had walked almost tenthousand meters up the mountain.
The mountain path was full of twists and turns, like the intestines of a sheep, and it would probably be another few tens of thousands of meters before they would reach the peak. It would be extremely difficult for them to accomplish this feat under such frightening circumstances and with the gravitational pull. And to make things worse, the terrifying gravitational pull would continue to increase with every meter.
"I can't move anymore."
Situ Kongming, who had the weakest cultivation of the group, decided to give up because he was no longer able to bear the crushing pressure.
He chose an empty spot and sat down cross-legged as he began to comprehend the mysteries of the Quasi-emperor's force field. He was trying to make use of this mighty pressure to push for a breakthrough on his own martial way.
Ye Qingyu nodded and did not say anything else. He continued to make his way forward.
He would not force them to make their way ahead if they weren't able to bear the pressure.
Otherwise, it could create adverse effects and even cause that martial artist to be killed by this force field.
Fifteen minutes later, the second person to drop out of the group was Tao Jieqian.
Zhang Wudao also dropped out soon afterward.
Surprisingly, it was the two female Saints, Tan Tianzi and Orchid Saintess, who managed to hang on for a longer period of time.
However, after another thirty minutes, these two female heroes were also no longer able to bear the pressure.
They ultimately decided to sit and cultivate within a mountain cave that had partially collapsed.
Then, the fatty and Ye Qingyu were the only two people left in the group.
Ye Qingyu's current strength meant that he was able to handle the pressure.
His physical cultivation was extremely mighty and he had climbed up the mountain path effortlessly thus far with his hands behind his back. He walked leisurely and used his heart to comprehend the power of this mysterious force field, attempting to find the origin of the Quasi-emperor's power within it. He truly treasured this opportunity to gradually comprehend the power of the Quasi-emperor from its weakest points to its strongest points, from its easiest parts to its most difficult parts. Thus, he had to make full use of this opportunity to increase his own strength.
As for the fatty…
He had resorted to crawling to push himself forward.
His current cultivation was around the standard of Tan Tianzi and the others, even if he tried to resist the pressure with all his might.
But he had managed to last so long because he was determined to climb up the peak to see his ancestor.
This fatty was both afraid of pain and death and perhaps also had developed this natural inclination after the Li family of the Ming Domain had fallen onto hard times and faced being hunted down or bullied by the various forces. One could imagine how much insult and pressure this fatty carried on his shoulders after his entire family had been killed and bullied to hang on to the tiny shred of hope that his family could still prosper once more. This fatty must have crawled along in the darkness for such a long time, finally finding hope again after finding Li Xiaofei in the 18th district of the Black Demon Abyss. This was probably why the fatty was willing to die at the Black Demon Abyss if he could not rescue Li Xiaofei. And perhaps only someone like Ye Qingyu, who also had a similar experience wandering alone, could empathize with that fatty.
"Even if I have to crawl my way up, I have to make it to the top," the fatty clenched his jaw and swore to himself.
At that moment, he was truly relying on all four limbs to crawl forward, just like how a monkey climbs up a mountain.
Ye Qingyu did not make any move to help the fatty.
If the affairs of the world were a huge chessboard, then as a pawn, even if his progress was slow, no one would see him retreat.
Every person had their own destiny.
If the fatty truly managed to make it up to the mountain peak, then this feat would be a huge breakthrough for him in both his martial way and his mental state of mind.
Ye Qingyu continued to make his way up leisurely.
He could no longer see the fatty behind him fifteen minutes later.
This fatty was also surprisingly determined and did not ask Ye Qingyu for any help at all.
Ye Qingyu made his way up the winding path alone.
If this mountain path was compared to his martial way, despite the fact that he was accompanied by many teachers and advisors and also had friends with similar interests, he would ultimately have to make his way up to the pinnacle alone. Precious few people would be able to enjoy the view from the top, which was why there was a saying that it's lonely being in such a high position.
Since the beginning of time, there was only one way up the Capital Sky Peak.
He walked past a thin strip of sky, past the pine forest, the snowy low-lying land, the frozen lands, the narrow wooden road, single-plank stone bridge, icy maze cave, the drifting ice on the hot springs…
Climbing a mountain was like living out a life.
He saw many exotic scenes along the way and also came across many unexceptional and common views.
Isn't this just like life?
Just as there are grand and spectacular events, there are also common and quieter moments.
Ye Qingyu took in the view as he strode along the path, as though he was truly a tourist admiring the scenery.
Approximately two hours later, Ye Qingyu also started to sweat.
His entire body was drenched in sweat but he felt more comfortable and relaxed than he had ever been.
He felt extremely pleased, just like how uplifted a tourist would feel when soaking in an amazing view after a long trek. It was as though his mind and soul had been cleansed, with white bubbling mist swirling around his body. When he exhaled, he realized that the air he exhaled was also white.
Then, he stopped.
There was a cliff up ahead.
This cliff was thousands of meters deep, and at the edge of it, a man sat cross-legged in the midst of the snowstorm with snow covering his entire body. Only the long spear that laid horizontally across his knees was completely untouched by the snow.
