0p0 Chapter 419: Holy Mountain God
Chapter 419: Holy Mountain God
The scorching midday sun was scorching the snowfield. Last night's accumulated snow had long since turned into muddy snow water, forming muddy streams on the rugged mountain road.
Hu Qing stepped on the soft ground and his boots immediately sank into half a foot of mud.
"If we continue to travel in the same way as before, it will be too slow."
He frowned and looked at the main peak of the holy mountain that was looming in the distance. A breeze condensed from his fingertips, instantly drying the mud on the soles of his shoes.
Gu Yang was squatting on a protruding rock. He grinned when he heard this and said, "That's easy. Just fly over there."
He stretched his neck, and the joints made a crisp crackling sound. "Since those snow monsters dared to come here and die openly, what else should we worry about?"
Xiao Zi could no longer contain himself and immediately spread out his huge purple-gold dragon wings upon hearing that.
The moment the wing membrane stretched out, a shadow covering the sky and the sun enveloped half of the hillside. In the sunlight, every scale reflected a cold edge, like thousands of unsheathed swords.
It flapped its wings excitedly, which suddenly caused a gust of wind, and rolled up the mud on the ground into turbid waves several feet high.
"Master Zi...Master Zi, please be gentler!" The rat man hurriedly jumped onto a huge rock, but was still splashed with mud.
It shook its wet fur and looked at Hu Qing pitifully: "My Lords, can I...can I..."
Hu Qing glanced at it and asked, "A rat demon in the Nascent Soul stage is afraid of flying?"
The rat man immediately swallowed the second half of the sentence "running on the ground", smiled awkwardly and began to use his magic power.
The rat man shrank his neck, and with a flick of his body, he transformed into a human form.
He was already thin, and at this moment he was deliberately restraining his breath. His whole body was like a gray shadow, sticking closely behind Xiao Zi.
Every time Xiao Zi's broad dragon wings flapped, they created a strong airflow, and the rat man had to grab a strand of mane on its tail for fear of being thrown off.
"You hurt me!" Xiao Zi turned her head and glared at him, her golden vertical pupils shining in the night.
The rat man quickly let go and said with an apologetic smile, "Master Zi... Master Zi, calm down. I'm just afraid of being left behind..."
Gu Yang laughed loudly and leaped into the air.
He stood in mid-air with a calmness a hundred times greater than that of the Rat Man. He even had enough energy to gather a wisp of spiritual power at his fingertips and carefully observed the sunlight.
"The spiritual energy in this place is really weird. The flying consumption is more than 30% greater than that in the outside world."
Hu Qing nodded slightly, his long green robe fluttering without wind, and his whole body rose up as light as a feather.
He looked towards the main peak of the Holy Mountain, a trace of solemnity flashing in his eyes: "The closer we get to the top of the mountain, the more chaotic the spiritual energy becomes. Those snow monsters last night..."
Before he could finish his words, Xiao Zi suddenly let out a low growl of vigilance.
Everyone followed its gaze and saw several white figures on the distant ridge moving towards them at an astonishing speed.
It's snow monsters! And there are many times more of them than last night!
"It seems that they don't intend to let us travel easily." Gu Yang's eyes were filled with fighting spirit, and his fists were clenched so hard that they were clattering.
Hu Qing shook his head: "Don't bother with it, it's a waste of time."
He made hand gestures with his right hand, and a series of green magic circles enveloped everyone. "Hide your body and move forward at full speed."
Xiao Zi looked at the group of snow monsters that were getting closer and closer with some reluctance, but still folded his wings obediently.
Under the cover of the light curtain, the group turned into several streams of light and rushed away along the muddy mountain.
Flying is more than ten times faster than walking. The towering ancient trees under your feet turn into blurred green shadows, and the cold mountain wind whistles in your ears.
As the altitude increased, the spiritual energy in the air began to fluctuate strangely, sometimes thick as glue, sometimes thin as fog.
At the end of the team, Hu Qing was riding the wind, his green robe rustling in the night wind.
His spiritual sense spread out like a spider web, covering an area of several miles.
No movement could escape his perception - the snow spiders crawling in the cracks of the rocks, the night owls startled by them, and even the subtle fluctuations of spiritual power in the air.
Gu Yang flew in the front, his figure like a sharp arrow breaking through the air.
He looked back from time to time to make sure that no one was left behind.
The stars in the night sky are dim, and only a strange blue light is faintly visible high up on the holy mountain, like a lamp guiding those who are lost.
In just half a day, they had crossed several steep ridges and reached the halfway point of the holy mountain.
The temperature here dropped suddenly, and the white air exhaled condensed into ice crystals in an instant.
What was even more bizarre was that the spiritual energy floating in the air became sticky, like an invisible colloid, hindering their flying speed.
"It seems we are coming in the right direction." Hu Qing suddenly raised his hand and signaled everyone to stop.
He rolled up his sleeves, revealing the mark left by Old Xia on his arm.
The ancient rune was now glowing with a faint red light, like a red-hot iron, emitting bursts of heat.
Gu Yang also showed his own brand, which was also glowing: "Mine is also glowing, it seems that the direction is correct."
Xiao Zi folded his wings and landed on the rocks, flapping his tail nervously on the ground. He gestured, "I sense something terrifying on the top of the mountain..."
Its golden pupils shrank into a thin line. "A hundred times more terrifying than those snow monsters last night."
Upon hearing this, the rat man immediately shrank behind Xiao Zi, leaving only half of his head exposed: "How about... how about we wait until daybreak..."
"No." Hu Qing rejected it categorically, his eyes fixed on the mountaintop. "The night is long and dreams are many. We must act decisively."
Gu Yang moved his neck, and the joints made a popping sound. "Who cares? If I can't beat him, can I run away?"
Hu Qing did not respond, but took out a jade slip from his arms and crushed it.
The bright white light spots formed a three-dimensional map in the air, with a red line winding towards somewhere on the top of the mountain - exactly the direction of the branding induction.
"Follow me closely," he said in a deep voice, "the space here has begun to distort. We may get separated at any time."
Everyone set out again, this time more cautiously.
After three days and three nights of continuous flying, the atmosphere in the team became solemn and tiring.
Xiao Zi's originally bright golden vertical pupils were now filled with scarlet bloodshot, and each flap of the dragon's wings was much slower than before.
It was trying hard to fly, but its body had begun to sway slightly, like a lamp swaying in the wind.
The rat man was even worse off. He couldn't maintain his human form and his true form as a gray rat was revealed from time to time.
He held on to Xiao Zi's tail tightly, his eyelids kept twitching, and he almost fell from a high altitude several times.
"My Lords..." The Nezumi's voice was hoarse, "I... I might..."
Hu Qing looked back and frowned slightly.
Although he and Gu Yang were still in good spirits, they had to consider the situation of their two followers.
The cultivation level of the Duanchen period allows them to stay awake for a long time, but Xiao Zi and Shu Ren have obviously reached their limit.
"There are a lot of buildings ahead." Gu Yang suddenly pointed to the distance.
On the snow-covered mountainside, a group of gray-black buildings can be vaguely seen.
The buildings have strange shapes, neither resembling the human style nor the demon craftsmanship, but more like the relics of some ancient civilization.
The most eye-catching thing is a temple-like structure in the center, with a faint blue light flickering at the top.
"Then let's go there to rest." Hu Qing made a quick decision.
Xiao Zi felt as if she had been pardoned and almost fell down.
The rat man turned back to his original form, curled up on Xiao Zi's back and shivered.
A fierce gale howled outside the building complex, but strangely bypassed this area, as if isolated by an invisible barrier.
Hu Qing and his group landed on the open space in front of the central stone temple. The stone slabs under their feet were engraved with intricate patterns, and thin ice condensed in every groove.
The rat man transformed back into human form, his nostrils twitching constantly, and his green bean-sized eyes flashed with a strange light:
"My Lords, the precious aura here..."
He licked his cracked lips and said, "Although it's almost gone, it's definitely a trace left by a top-level treasure."
Gu Yang raised his eyebrows and looked at the rat man straight in the eye for once: "Your nose is more sensitive than your spiritual sense."
Hu Qing didn't say anything, but glanced around.
The layout of this building complex is extremely strange - in the center is a stone temple about three meters high, made entirely of some kind of blue-black rock, and the surface is covered with honeycomb-shaped holes.
Surrounding the stone temple are hundreds of densely packed pinewood shrines, each only half a person's height, arranged neatly, like subjects paying homage to the king.
Xiao Zi folded his wings tiredly, and his dragon tail flapped the ground anxiously.
Hu Qing walked to the nearest shrine and checked the items inside.