Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Why is the White Crocodile King here? Haven’t we already given it this year’s offering?” said the captain of the boat, his face going white.
Anyone who wished to travel across the river would have to pay a fee to its ruler for protection against turbulent currents and monster attacks. Even a ship made out of steel wouldn’t be completely safe from the dangers that lurked in the river.
The White Crocodile King was the river’s ruler. It had never caused an incident, at least not until that day.
“Sis, what is that? Why is it so big?” said the young girl, her face, too, going white. She was gripping tightly onto the railing. Then, as if not at all reassured by the cold hard metal, she turned around and held fast to her sister’s arm.
Her sister seemed shaken as well. However, looking at the young girl’s shivering form, she tried to put up a brave front. Holding the young girl’s hand, she said, “Don’t worry, I’m right here.”
The White Crocodile King surged upward, revealing its light gray abdomen in the water.
“Why has it suddenly appeared here? We already gave it an offering half a month ago. Is it not satisfied?” said the captain, frowning. The offering in question was worth thousands of Alliance credits. These monsters seemed to be getting greedier by the day.
Whoo—
Suddenly, the water began rising and flowing back against the boat. The mountains on both sides of the gorge hummed as huge rocks creaked and swelled. Dirty brown energy began spreading across the river, disturbing the mud and water near the riverbed. In an instant, the clear, green river was transformed into a shade of murky yellow.
The ruckus that the White Crocodile King had caused not too long ago seemed trivial in comparison to what was going on just then.
Sploosh! Without warning, the water parted as a massive, brown shape rose to the heavens.
The boys and girls on the boat fell back in their seats, gazing in awe and fear at the appearance of this towering entity. The creature was impossibly massive.
A brown glow was emanating from its body. It was almost palpable, weighing down on everyone and everything around it. Then the river calmed down, its waves subsiding. Only this massive mountain of a monster stood towering over the middle of the river.
This wasn’t Stripey’s true body, but rather the result of its elemental ability. Being capable of manipulating the earth element in its surroundings, Stripey was naturally able to build a temporary “armor” around itself, making it surge up to 3,000 feet tall.
Gao Peng, who was sitting on top of this mountain, yawned. The hut that he had set up on Stripey’s back was completely ruined. Only the two orange trees on its head had survived its transformation.
Putting away his fishing pole, Gao Peng walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the river below.
Despite being an enormous thing itself, the White Crocodile King seemed like a puppy in comparison to Stripey. The crocodile shakingly looked up at the mountainous creature.
Receiving the full brunt of Stripey’s aura at such a close distance, the White Crocodile King had completely lost all its will to fight. It had never seen such a massive creature in its entire life.
Back then, it had sensed the presence of a powerful aura in the river. Outraged, it had decided to emerge from the water and confront its intruder personally. It hadn’t expected something so big to be floating down its river.
“What is that? There’s someone on its back!” A few people were shouting and pointing at the figure perched atop Stripey’s head. Said figure belonged to Gao Peng, who was now calmly tying up his fishing line.
“That… that’s not his familiar, is it?”
“No familiar is that big. If that’s just its head above the water, then its entire body must be bigger than a mountain!”
People began shushing each other on the boat, fearing that the noise they were making might anger the behemoth.
“I’ve been to one of the Mountain Spirit rest stops that were built on Mountain Spirits as big as this one here. Is this thing also a Mountain Spirit then? I’ve never heard of anyone taming these creatures.”
“The Mountain Spirits, don’t they belong to the Southern Sky Group…? Could this person be related to them?”
Being rich enough to afford cruises along the Wu Gorge, most of these people were naturally privy to the goings-on in high society. Some of them were able to quickly make the connection between this towering creature and the Southern Sky Group. However, none of them knew the true nature of its relationship with the group.
Stripey was now feeling annoyed. You interrupted chow-time! It raised a leg.
The river roiled violently. Through the waves, one could see a hundred-foot-long spider appendage coming out of the water.
A dark shadow had fallen over the boat. The White Crocodile King jumped and dove back into the water.
However, it was too late. The spider leg fell from the heavens and plunged into the water like the magical shape-shifting staff of Sun Wukong!
Boom! The resulting waves knocked the boat away. When the Disaster Mountain Spider finally lumbered away, the waves had calmed down. A mangled corpse floated to the surface, staining the water around it red.
The passengers of the boat stared at it for a moment or two, as if struck by lightning. The boat sped towards the White Crocodile King’s corpse, stopping close enough for its passengers to begin harvesting the dead monster’s organs.
…
The Wu Gorge was named as such due to the tall, steep mountains on both its sides. The river flowing through it was choppy and dangerous most of the time. The gorge itself was as empty as it was impressive. Poets in ancient times had even sung praises of the Wu Gorge’s majesty in the form of poetry.
Gao Peng and Stripey were now approaching the Wu Gorge’s boundary. A thick fog had surrounded them, reducing their visibility to a mere 32 feet.
“Up ahead is Mount Wushan and its Twelve peaks, including the Goddess Peak,” muttered Gao Peng as he scanned the map in his hand.
The major attractions along the Wu Gorge were its Three Platforms, Eight Sights, and Twelve Peaks.
The Three Platforms referred to the Chuyang Platform, where King Huai of Chu had supposedly met the Goddess of Mount Wushan in a dream; the Shoushu Platform, where King Yu had been given a mystical book by the Goddess herself; and Zhanlong Platform, which had been named after King Yu beheaded a dragon that once terrorized the gorge.
The Twelve Peaks included the Denglong Peak, Shengquan Peak, Chaoyun Peak, Goddess Peak, Songluan Peak, and Jixian Peak to the north, and the Feifeng Peak, Cuiping Peak, Juhe Peak, Jingtan Peak, Qiyun Peak, and Shangsheng Peak to the south.
The Twelve Peaks were distributed unevenly along both sides of the gorge. The Goddess Peak was located right in the middle of the area. As they moved deeper and deeper into the fog, a strange sensation came over Gao Peng.
However, Gao Peng wasn’t afraid. He was ready for anything.
When they finally came out on the other side of the fog, a terrible roar echoed from the western peaks. The whole place seemed surreal, with thick forests covering the mountains on both sides of the gorge.
“Ignore it,” said Gao Peng, ordering Stripey to press onward.
Around ten minutes later, Gao Peng could hear the clear trickling sound of a nearby spring that had completely drowned out the gushing sound of the river beneath him.
Gao Peng simply threw a glance in the direction of the trickling sound and ordered Stripey to continue moving forward. They passed Denglong Peak, Shengquan Peak, and Chaoyun Peak.
The Goddess Peak was just ahead on the left shore of the river. Suddenly, Gao Peng heard the sound of a book being flipped open from the right side of the gorge.
He turned around and saw that a thick fog had enveloped the mountains there. In a flash, a downpour came down from the murky clouds above and onto the steep cliffs. Through the curtain of water, one could see the almost surreal shapes of mountains and trees.
On the other hand, nothing stirred on the left side of the gorge, where the Goddess Peak stood.
