Chapter 286 - The Return (1) (2/2)

Thousands of eyes watched intently as the Flying-cloud Stone rose up into the air and glided towards the horizons. Xiao Chen was in good spirits. It was long since he parted with Xian’er and his Brother Yifeng and at long last, he could finally meet them again.

Zhiluan dropped itself onto a soft bed made of hay. A bundle of cloth was hanging from its neck, filled with dried fish fillet Elder Plum had made especially for it. Xiao Chen peered at the bundle with narrowed eyes, wondering, “A powerful conjurer of the Nascent Soul Realm, making dried fish fillets for a cat…”

The flying-cloud stone climbed tirelessly in the air for miles. The sun was way off faraway and Xiao Chen could only surmise that it was near evening. The Burg of the Feral Phoenix must be thousands of miles behind by now, he mused. He leaned himself on a stone slab and shut his eyes, reminiscing the year-long period that he had spent in the Violet Manor and the Three Pure Sect in the Human World.

“How are they?” he wondered, longing for the three princes, Xiao Han, Xiao Wan’er, Shangguan Yan and his friends there. He remembered his promise that he would return. “And so I will,” he said to himself, “I must go back once I reached the Nascent Soul Realm.”

Suddenly, the Flying-cloud Stone shuddered so strongly that Zhiluan was almost tossed off and it yelped with fright. The first thing Xiao Chen did when he opened his eyes was to make sure that Huangfu Xin’er was fine.

“What’s wrong?”

One of Elder Plum’s students said, “It’s fine. We’re just caught up in a cold wave from the ranges of the Thousand Summits Mountain. Are we going over now, Senior Brother Xiao?”

Unlike the warm sunshine of the Burg they had left behind, they had found themselves grappling with the harsh chilly winds of the Thousand Summits Mountain that stretched higher than thirty thousand feet. The icy walls of the unscalable mountain loomed over them, blazing blue and crystalline in the pale sunlight. The Flying-cloud Stone would have to fly to the altitude of forty thousand feet to pass over this leviathan obstacle.

But even with the best Flying-cloud Stone of the Burg, well-stocked with spirit energy fuel, could hardly prevent from malfunctioning at the altitude of forty thousand feet. Xiao Chen shuddered to think about what would happen to them if the stone conveyance fails and plummets.

There was no way his flying sword magic would work in such altitude, nor would his Phoenix Wings be of any help. Zhiluan screamed, “I suggest circumventing this mountain! It’s so high that even I, the great one can’t fly over this!”

“The range of the Thousand Summits Mountain extends endlessly into the horizon. There’s no way to circumvent this never-ending barrier of ice, save from above,” said the other of the pair, “Hold on tight! We’ll begin our climb now!”

“So be it then,” Xiao Chen muttered resolutely, nodding grimly.

They began gasping for breath as the stone conveyance began its steep climb upwards, skimming the side of the wall as they rose. The air was becoming thin and that made it difficult to breathe, especially with the frost, which caused icy crusts to grow at the ends of everyone’s eyebrows.

At long last, the Flying-cloud Stone blew past the thick swirling mists and clouds beyond the crest of the Thousand Summit Mountains, rising higher than its peak by three hundred meters. Zhiluan shivered and sneezed, gaping immediately at the mucus freezing instantly as soon as the thick, viscous fluid flowed out of its nose.

“Heavens! What cold is this?! Where’s your jade pendant, boy?”

Xiao Chen snuck a hand into his robes wordlessly and dug for his Fire-heart Jade and tossed it to Zhiluan. With their True Energy to ward off the cold, Xiao Chen and Huangfu Xin’er were hardly perturbed by the frost.

Shaking like a rickety bridge over a wildly rushing river, the Flying-cloud Stone skittered over the top of the mammoth ice barrier that cut off the Burg and its vicinity areas from the outside world. The top of the mountain range was so far and wide that they had yet to see anything resembling an end even after two hours of flying. The storm was more bitter and rigid here in comparison to the Thousand Summit Mountain that Xiao Chen once came from, and the continual shuddering of the stone conveyance only made the ride all the more unbearable.

The twilight of sundown was streaking over the western skies when they finally passed through the mountain range, a feat where few, if not none, had all but failed. The two disciples shared a look and smiled, relieved at their success. They had been worried sick throughout the journey over the mountain range, fearing with butterflies in the stomach at the dreadful prospect of the Flying-stone Cloud failing.

The pair of students immediately descended to a lower altitude. Warmer air caressed their skins, soothing them from the chilly bite of cold they felt earlier. In the dark, they could not see where they were hence, they decided against flying too low.

But Xiao Chen could see that they were in a rocky wilderness. For an entire night, they flew non-stop until they reached a little hamlet when the break of dawn shone at the horizons.

They landed their conveyance and went to the hamlet to have their breakfast and rested until they were ready to continue in the afternoon. The journey took another three days of poor and terrible weather until they finally reached the borders of the Middle Continent. Xiao Chen sat atop the flying stone, looking down at the views beneath him with the surrealistic feeling as if he had returned to civilization after months and years of being in the wilderness.

They were still in the South of the Middle Continent and the journey to Tianyuan City would take another three days.

The three days passed quickly, the Flying-cloud Stone lowered gracefully before the gates of the Tianyuan City and Xiao Chen recognized the devastation of the site not far away when he practiced using the Nine Heaven-scorching Flames technique.

“After two months… Finally, we’re back, although I am sure that there are people hoping for the worst for me,” Xiao Chen muttered, stretching himself as his eyes set upon the gates of the largest and busiest city in the Middle Province.

“And you’d do well to remember your promise to me, the elixirs!” Zhiluan reminded.

“All right, all right…”

The Flying-cloud Stone screeched to a halt, much to the protest of those before the gates. A few bolts of light shot down from the air and ripped apart the protective magic of the stone conveyance.

“You’ve indeed returned, Xiao Chen…”