The following day, having raced tirelessly for nearly a day, the White Tiger finally brought Xu Yuan to his destination.
After releasing the White Tiger, Xu Yuan stood alone at the summit of the side peak, with the deep abyss of the Heavenly Cliff stretching before him.
Taking a step forward, Xu Yuan tried to look down the Heavenly Cliff.
His view was shrouded in an endless abyss enveloped by clouds and mist.
Suddenly, the clouds above the mountain peak stirred violently, and a gust of wind attacked, flapping Xu Yuan's splendid robe around him and causing his figure to wobble abruptly.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan prudently retreated back inside the peak of the Heavenly Cliff.
In the game "Cangyuan Chronicles," he would have controlled his character to jump down this Heavenly Cliff without hesitation, but now he thought better of it.
Turning his gaze away, Xu Yuan looked towards the main peak of Tianmen Mountain.
From here to there, the distance was a thousand zhang.
Around the majestic and steep exterior of the main peak, fairy mist swirled.
From bottom to top, the clouds and mist seemed to break through the sky.
The massive mountain was split by a gigantic circular opening hundreds of zhang wide, resembling a gate to the heavens!
Looking at that huge Tianmen, Xu Yuan was not only shocked but also inexplicably felt a sense of discomfort.
Only when he moved his gaze away, did that feeling of discomfort slowly dissipate.
Driven by curiosity, Xu Yuan looked at the Tianmen again.
Soon, the feeling of discomfort that had vanished before began to creep back into his heart.
"What is this? Why do I feel this way when I look at that Tianmen?"
Noticing the abnormality in his body, Xu Yuan quickly diverted his eyes and was somewhat astonished as the description of Tianmen Mountain in the manuals flashed through his mind.
Looking up again unconsciously, Xu Yuan wore an expression of disbelief mixed with skepticism:
"Is this sword intent? Could it be that this mountain's Tianmen was really pierced through by someone with a single sword?"
Xu Yuan suddenly felt that he still knew too little about this world of Cang Yuan.
Limited by the 2.5D pixel style of the game "Cangyuan Chronicles," he had no concept of how powerful the world's top experts could truly be.
The shock of someone having pierced through hundreds of zhang of mountain with a single sword made Xu Yuan's thoughts race with many possibilities.
Compared to traditional cultivation, in Xu Yuan's mind, this world was more akin to the realms of mythical martial heroes.
Here there were Sects, martial communities, and imperial courts.
Could it be that in this world there was someone capable of chilling the light of a sword across nineteen provinces with a single strike?
But if someone really could be that powerful, then wouldn't the Northern War God, the sworn enemy of his original father in the Yan Dynasty, be a joke?
No matter how divine military strategies might be, they could never match the power of a single stroke of the sword from such an exceptional warrior. What majesty could such a War God have?
In a daze, the clouds around him began to roll and surge at a rapid pace.
By the time Xu Yuan came to his senses, he realized that the tip of his nose was already wet.
Wiping it with his hand, the crimson on his palm made him aware that he had actually gotten a nosebleed from staring directly at the Tianmen.
Hastily turning around, he looked away.
But as he turned his head, he just happened to see the pale light of dawn gradually rising in the east...
The clouds dissipated, revealing a beautiful sunrise above the mountain peak; a vision of ten thousand mountains stretched out before him, the vast forest sea dyed a blood-red hue.
The sight before Xu Yuan momentarily stunned him.
What's happening?
He had only been in a daze for a moment, so how had it suddenly transitioned from noon to the break of dawn?
Since he had consumed the Spiritual Liquid, he hadn't felt hungry, but the soreness from standing for such a long time gradually resurfaced in his body.
As this incomprehensible event happened to him, Xu Yuan tried to find the reason, but as his thoughts spun, he suddenly realized that now was not the time to think about this.
His priority was to meet up with Ran Qingmo.
If so much time had passed, where was the Big Ice Lump?
The White Tiger only needed half a day to travel from the mountainside to the top, and now at least a day and a half had passed—why hadn't Ran Qingmo arrived yet?
As he pondered, Xu Yuan's heart sank bit by bit.
The best-case scenario for the current situation was that Ran Qingmo had deliberately lured away the pursuers to ensure safety and had not yet managed to shake them off.
And the worst...
Ran Qingmo's strength was unquestionable, but at this point in the story, there were still many in this world who were stronger than her.
Xu Yuan quickly halted his thoughts to prevent himself from worrying needlessly.
He was very clear about his current predicament.
If Ran Qingmo died on the way, unless he was willing to bet his life on a 3-point luck to jump off this cliff and successfully enter that cave dwelling, he might as well declare himself dead.
Staying by the side of this cliff, no matter who came looking for him first—be it those wanting to kill him or the subordinates of his original body's father—he was doomed without a doubt.
The emergence of the "Rejection Syndrome" directly sealed off many of Xu Yuan's potential escape routes.
The means by which he transmigrated and took over the nest was not a perfect soul transfer that was above the rules of this world, but a soul possession and rebirth under the rules of this world.
Although soul possession and rebirth only caused "Rejection Syndrome" for a short time initially and was relatively perfect otherwise, there are pros and cons to everything.
Soul possession had existed in this world for so long that naturally, detection methods had developed.
These detection methods were almost lost but indeed existed.
And most fatally, some of Xu Yuan's original father's subordinates knew how to use them.
No one would suspect him for no reason, but after all, Xu Yuan was not Xu Changtian, and he estimated that those truly close to him would notice something was off in no time.
Once any anomaly was discovered, and after a series of detection procedures, Xu Yuan dared not imagine what his fate would be.
Indeed, there was a method to perfectly fuse the flesh with the will-spirit, and Xu Yuan knew where it was, but that thing lay in the cave below the cliff.
If Big Ice Lump died, he, Xu Yuan, would have no chance to retrieve it.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan forced himself to stop his train of thought and, controlling his slightly sore body, sat down on the ground.
Thinking more about it was useless now; all he could do was calmly wait for the outcome.
"Buzz buzz..."
Just as he sat down, a slight tremble of the ground made Xu Yuan jolt.
He looked down only to see some small pebbles lying quietly on the ground.
An illusion?
Xu Yuan's eyes flickered as he gently placed his palm on the ground.
"Buzz buzz..."
The faint vibration from the sand and stones transmitted through his fingertips, the sensation gradually growing from weak to strong.
Xu Yuan's brow furrowed.
An earthquake?
As the thought crossed his mind,
"Boom!"
With the sound waves spreading out, the mountaintop suddenly shook.
Xu Yuan instinctively held his breath.
It wasn't an earthquake; it was someone fighting!
One second,
Five seconds,
Ten seconds,
"Boom—"
The sound waves, accompanied by the vibrations, came again, and this time the entire mountainside seemed to be trembling faintly.
Xu Yuan clenched his fists tight, a hint of shock and uncertainty flashing in his eyes as he looked up towards the path he had come from.
Time seemed to stand still,
And between the continuously rising bright sun, a black dot appeared.
This black dot was rapidly enlarging in his field of vision, in a blink of an eye transforming into a vast black shadow that covered the sun and sped towards the mountaintop...
In a single breath,
"Boom—"
The gigantic shadow, like a meteorite from beyond the heavens, crashed heavily into the open space a dozen meters in front of Xu Yuan, the powerful impact instantly sending sand flying and dust billowing on the summit!
Until the dust settled,
Xu Yuan saw through the gaps in his fingers a giant serpent's head that was more than ten meters tall.
And in that golden dawn,
Atop that fierce snake head,
Stood a beautiful black figure with a sword in hand, her three thousand strands of hair cascading like a waterfall gently fluttering in the wind...