Uti had erupted in rage in the Golden Tent, causing all his officials to be completely at a loss on what to do. Before he was even done with his words, Uti suddenly turned around to leave, heading off to discuss strategy with the High Priest Ryun, leaving everyone else where they were. He did not tell them to wait or allow them to return, so all the dozen or so insectoids from various departments could only awkwardly stay where they were.
All of them knew that this was Uti’s disguised punishment. It seemed that Uti did not trust the veteran statesmen beside him, having turned to seek the High Priest’s help, instead.
The lot of them sighed, and only the Sacred Guild’s guildmaster Duabi had a look of ease. His recent escape from death had greatly affected him. This was especially true after his warship had been instantaneously moved to the mammoth region, where exotic beasts gathered. Duabi understood a universal truth: There was really an existence of supreme strength in this universe. Otherwise, there would have been no explanation for what had happened to him. To cross millions and millions of lightyears in a few seconds, this was something that went well beyond any scientific explanation. If he were to summarize it, Duabi was more than willing to classify it as mysticism.
Seeing the still loyal Laresh despite his two broken arms, as well as the frowning ministers and chiefs around, Duabi suddenly found the entire affair to be laughable. After all this hard work, in the end, were they not doing it all so that they could live better? The truth was plain for all to see that Xia Fei was a very mysterious human who could very well grasp some ultimate power that went well beyond everyone’s understanding. No matter what happened, he would no longer pit himself against that human. After all, one only lived once, so it was more important to cling onto his life closely.
‘Better find a chance to retire.’ When the various insectoid elders were quietly discussing strategies and plans, Duabi smiled in his mind as he thought of this.
……
Heading out eight hundred meters south of the Golden Tent was Goldshard Lake where Qingyan resided. There, the air was humid and the climate was warm. The scenery was pretty like an oil painting, which was perfectly suitable for a peerless beauty like Qinyan to care for her skin, stroll, and partake in whatever leisure activity she desired.
However, Uti’s gold ship did not fly south but had gone north, instead.
Out in the north was a land of bitter cold. There were mountains and ridges everywhere as heavy snow descended from above. The jagged mountain peaks looked like daggers that had been stabbed into the snow, sharp and primeval. The wind blowing from this valley caused the warship to sway gently, and the overcast sky gave off an oppressive gloom.
This was a forbidden zone of life. Aside from the few creatures and plants that could adapt to this extreme cold, practically nobody would dare to come here.
Uti peered out the ship’s window to look at the treacherous mountain region of wind and snow. Though the inside of this warship was very warm, in perfect contrast to the world of ice right outside, he could somehow feel a bone-deep chill in him.
Uti’s attendant handed a white fox furcoat to him. He thought about it before rejecting the coat. He instructed someone to find a soft and light antelope leather innerwear to be worn underneath, instead. High Priest Ryun had a strange personality, and Uti did not want to appear weak in front of him. It was just windchill, so he decided to just endure it.
*Whoosh!*
The warship parked by a landing apron halfway up the mountain, though it was inaccurate to call it a landing apron. It was but a flat platform that workers had managed to lay down by the waist of the mountain, and it had gotten covered in ice and snow. There was no signalling device or smart guidance system in place, so the pilot of the warship had to rely on their experience to land.
Opening the ship hatch, the freezing cold winds buffeted with snow. The interior of the warship, which was warm like a summer’s day, immediately turned into an icehole. The blizzard was so heavy that all of them could barely see anything in front of them.
Uti furrowed his brows, rejected the help of his guard, and painstakingly made his way down the warship. He was wearing a pair of windproof goggles, which prevented the heavy blizzard from hurting his eyes.
In order to train the spirit of enduring hardship and fortitude among him and his underlings, Uti had the Golden Tent situated in the cold grass plains, but comparing that place to this mountain range, the grasslands were simply paradise.
The edge of the platform was a bottomless abyss. Uti gave a furtive glance and broke out in a cold sweat. This sweat was being blown by the wind, and that caused a bone-chilling cold to run across his entire body. Thus, he quickened his pace and followed along the narrow and steep path up the mountain.
The guards carefully surrounded Uti. Because the narrow path did not have any guardrails on either side, a single slip would send anyone down the valley.
However, though these guards were here to protect Uti from afar, none of them went up to help him. This was also a rule set by the High Priest Ryun. Whoever wished to meet him had to climb the way up by themselves, and the master of the Golden Tent was not exempted from it.
Uti spent two hours climbing this mountain path, which went for over three kilometers. He fell seven times. He was freezing all over he had lost all sensation.
Finally, the steep mountain path turned into a snow-covered bridge connecting two mountains.
Uti patted the snow off himself as he stood by the side of the bridge. This bridge was like a single large wooden plank placed in the valley. It was no wider than one meter and went as narrow as forty centimeters.
All the guards stopped here. Up ahead was High Priest Ryun’s abode, and lowly characters like themselves did not have the qualifications to enter.
Fini, one of the Seven Champions, stepped forward and bowed. “Emperor, do you wish for me to accompany you?”
The cold winds blew harshly, which made it difficult to stand upright. Never mind that Uti was expected to cross this wooden bridge of over six hundred meters long; each factor caused Fini to worry over Uti making it through.
Uti shook his head. “High Priest Ryun lives just across this bridge. He’s the first Sacred Champion—the apex expert among all insectoids. Do you really want me to be unable to raise my head in front of the high priest?”
Fini was slightly taken aback, then he backed away immediately. High Priest Ryun’s personality was extremely withdrawn. If he were to accompany Uti, there was no telling if High Priest Ryun would be displeased with Uti, and that would be terrible. Uti had expended quite a lot of effort coming here to request the high priest’s return, and there was no room for the slightest error at this point.
His freezing fingers lightly touched his combat suit, and the originally one-centimeter long shoe spikes extended to three centimeters. Such a length made walking more difficult, but it did improve its grip onto the ground. In order to make it across this long and narrow bridge, Uti had no better choice.
“All of you, wait here. If you’re cold, head down the mountain and take shelter from the wind. I may not be back for quite some time.” Uti waved his hand dismissively as he said this.
The guards were all tearing up in their gratitude. This was how smart Uti was; he knew how to deal with people, when to punish them and when to show concern. This simple statement of his bought plenty of goodwill.
When dealing with others, the key was not being kind but knowing when to pressure them. Only when someone had been placed under pressure for too long would they be happy with even the tiniest compassion. If someone were to shower them with kindness constantly, it would instead cause them to be numb toward it. Of course, it was important not to go overboard with the pressure, too, as too much would cause them to become frustrated and lose motivation.
In any case, Uti was definitely a master of manipulation, and the entire insectoid race had been subdued under his dominance.
Uti gingerly made his way onto the bridge. He tried his best to keep his center of gravity low, taking small and steady steps forward. Moving slowly and with great difficulty, the guards behind him watched, heartbroken. They wished they could just rush forward and use their lives to help weather the storm for their emperor.
Someone like Uti was the most afraid of taking any risk, and aside from the High Priest Ryun, perhaps even his parents would have been unable to get him to put his life at risk.
High Priest Ryun was a prophet responsible for paying respects to heaven, earth, and even gods.
In insectoid culture, aside from the two gods, the High Priest Ryun was the next most respected figure. He was different from Uti, for the latter was only a mortal emperor, while Ryun was an existence closest to the gods.
Not only must he pay homage to the two Black and White Gods, in fact, many places would pay tribute to High Priest Ryun in addition to those two heavenly beings. This was because he was the spiritual leader of the entire insectoid race. He was whom the insectoids have entrusted, a living god.
After about seven hundred years, the insectoids were still spreading that the High Priest Ryun might become a true god eventually. However, it was unknown why Ryun continued to remain with the insectoid for tens of decades, not at all turning into a god.
Perhaps it was precisely because Ryun could not transcend that he became stranger with each passing day. He began detesting interacting with his fellow insectoids more and more. Even when Uti did his best to invite him to return to the insectoid capital, he still chose such a strange and secluded location to stay, even setting harsh rules to keep everyone out.
Uti actually did not believe in gods. He reckoned that this so-called transcendence to godhood was perhaps the ability to enter a state only powerhouses were capable of attaining. It was very apparent that High Priest Ryun considered himself to possess the strength to step into that circle, but it was just that he had not been invited. Presently, that’s a good thing, since once the high priest departed, the insectoid race would once again lose their only super expert.
It was with this thought that Uti finally made it past that dangerous single plank bridge. In such cold weather, Uti was actually sweating buckets. He anxiously pulled out a warm handkerchief from his bosom and wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead. In such freezing weather, sweating was an easy way of getting a chill.
He casually tossed the handkerchief down the valley. Since it had turned into an icy lump after it got wet from his sweat, it was most definitely unsuitable for wiping sweat after, and it hardly would be of use now.
The bottomless gorge made Uti dizzy. He hurriedly turned around and went ahead, no longer willing to take a second look at that danger he had just made past.
This mountain was higher than the one before, much like a single candle standing atop a birthday cake which went past the clouds.
A bright light could be seen shining on the peak, and it would light this white piece of land from time to time.
Uti knew very well that after the High Priest Ryun settled in this mountain range, there had not been anything that would shoot forth such a pretty flame on any of the mountains, but everything had changed after that elder came. That platform, mountain path, and bridge all appeared overnight, and it included the place where High Priest Ryun was staying.
Uti found everything to be inexplicably strange, and High Priest Ryun was just such a frightening existence that no one could explain.
Fortunately, there was yet another stretch of flat land after crossing the bridge, so there was no need for him to climb up a mountain path again. Otherwise, Uti might not be confident that he could last given his small stature.
A three storey building appeared hazily in front of him, built with the sturdy and beautiful redwood. There were carved beams and waterside pavilions everywhere. Although this building was standing in the heavy blizzard, it was hardly disturbed by the terrible weather. The floor was clean Italian marble, with not even a speck of snow. It did not matter how heavy the snow was, for everything would just bypass the building and fall to the side.
At this point, Uti was already frozen like a snowman. His eyebrows had formed icles, while his mouth was chattering non-stop, his lips blue and purple.
He quickened his steps as Uti braved the strong winds and snow, struggling to press onward.
The moment he stepped into the area around that strange building, he was completely dumbfounded!
The blizzard had abruptly disappeared, and above him hung a fiery hot sun. He could hear the sound of insects, and everything around him was a lush greenery!
That mountain, the snow, and even that bone-numbing coldness—everything was gone without a trace, as if he had stepped from one world to another!
That was when an old voice unhurriedly drawled from within that red building, “Come in; I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
