The two of them drank and ate a little occasionally, almost without stopping. Even so, they took four days to reach the mountainside.
In just four days, the two of them had lost quite a bit of weight. Their eyes and cheeks were sunken, making them look like skin and bones.
The two rather handsome lads looked like hunched old men.
This wasn’t their fault. They used all their strength with every step. Their bodies were exhausted and they couldn’t stop to rest. The reason they were able to last until now was because of their extraordinary physiques. If it were an ordinary Epic stage, they probably wouldn’t be able to withstand it even if they didn’t die of exhaustion on the Immortal Seeking path.
Looking up, they still couldn’t see the mountain peak. All they saw was endless stone steps. Looking down, there was fog lingering around, and they couldn’t see anything. In this godforsaken place that prevented them from seeing the sky or the ground, the reason they knew that this was halfway up the mountain was that there was the word ‘Half-Cliff’ engraved on a boulder beside them.
“Once we cross Half-Cliff, we still have halfway more to go. However, it’s even more difficult than the first half of the journey. Can you still hold on? If you can’t hold on, you can rest for a day on Half-Cliff’s platform before turning around and leaving the mountain. You won’t be affected by the taboo of Immortal Seeking Mountain. However, once you reach Half-Cliff’s platform, you can never go up the mountain again,” Jiang Yan said.
“We’re already here. No matter what, we have to go up and take a look. It’s impossible for me to give up halfway. I can still persist. Let’s continue,” Zhou Wen said.
“After Half-Cliff, if you continue walking forward, you will see things. When the time comes, no matter what you see, don’t speak or make a sound. Just close your mouth and walk forward, or something bad will happen,” Jiang Yan added.
“No speaking. Got it.” Zhou Wen nodded slightly, but he was somewhat puzzled.
The taboos on Immortal Seeking Mountain weren’t written anywhere. If Jiang Yan knew about these taboos, someone must have tried them. Otherwise, if it was really as Jiang Yan had said, he would have died if he took a step back. Zhou Wen refused to believe that Jiang Yan wouldn’t retreat without knowing about the taboo.
However, Zhou Wen didn’t dig into it since Jiang Yan didn’t say anything more. He continued walking behind Jiang Yan.
The stone steps on the first half of the mountain were very narrow, but after Half-Cliff, the stone steps became much wider. It was more than enough for two to three people to walk side by side.
But now, the two of them couldn’t speak. If they were to walk side by side, it would be even worse if they accidentally spoke. Therefore, they continued walking one after another without saying a word, like two mutes.
Every step Zhou Wen took made him feel like his legs were trembling. No matter how powerful his Essence Energy Arts and Essence Energy Skills were, they were useless in this godforsaken place. Using external forces to strengthen his body would also increase the strange power. It would still push his body to its limits.
As he walked, Zhou Wen’s gaze accidentally swept across the stone steps in front of him. His pupils constricted as he nearly shouted.
If Jiang Yan hadn’t warned him beforehand, he would definitely have shouted. This was because there was a corpse lying in the stone path above. The corpse’s clothes and looks were identical to Zhou Wen’s.
Zhou Wen was puzzled, but he couldn’t say a word. All he could do was continue walking forward as he sized up the corpse by the side of the road. No matter how he looked at it, it was identical to him. However, the corpse had collapsed on the stone steps and wasn’t breathing.
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It’s definitely the same as before—an illusion. Zhou Wen stopped looking at the corpse and continued walking upwards.
After walking for a while, he circled around a mountain ridge and saw another corpse on the stone steps ahead.
This time, he saw it even more clearly. It was Zhou Wen’s corpse. What Zhou Wen couldn’t tolerate was that it looked like his corpse but without any clothes covering it. Its limbs were spread wide open as it was nailed to the mountain wall by metal nails. It looked like it had died a tragic death.
Everything is an illusion… Everything is fake… I’ll endure it… Zhou Wen secretly calmed himself down. Although he knew that it was only an illusion, it still infuriated him. The crux of the matter was that the person resembled him too much. Even the marks and scars on his body were identical.
As he walked further up, Zhou Wen saw several different ways of dying. Some were hanged to death, while others were cleaved into two. All the deaths were tragic.
However, he became immune to it after prolonged exposure. Along the way, he saw at least hundreds or thousands of different ways of dying. He was no longer surprised.
After walking for another seven or eight days, when the sun rose again, the two of them finally saw the top of the mountain. There were no buildings there, only a crooked tree of unknown species. The branches extended to the edge of the cliff.
On one of the branches of the crooked tree hung a huge green cocoon. On careful look, they saw that the cocoon wasn’t in contact with the tree branch but was floating.
Beneath the crooked tree was a white beast. It was snow-white and had two horns on its head. There was a vertical eye on its forehead, but the vertical eye was closed. It was likely the Bai Ze that Jiang Yan had speculated.
Zhou Wen and Jiang Yan walked to the top of the mountain. Bai Ze had definitely discovered them, but it completely ignored them. It continued resting and lying there, completely ignoring them. It didn’t even spare them a glance.
Zhou Wen had heard from Jiang Yan that the white beast wouldn’t take the initiative to attack them. This was also one of the main reasons why he had determined that the white beast was Bai Ze.
Bai Ze was a kind-hearted auspicious beast. It was knowledgeable and capable of human speech. It could identify all kinds of supernatural beings. Legend has it that it had been entrusted by Yellow Emperor to create a map of tens of thousands of supernatural beings for humans to easily identify them and avoid danger. It was one of the ancient divine beasts that were good at exorcism.
“Did you see those strange corpses earlier?” Jiang Yan asked Zhou Wen.
“Yes, all the corpses looked like me,” Zhou Wen answered.
“How many were there?” Jiang Yan asked again.
“I don’t remember. There were so many that I didn’t count them. There should be more than a thousand.” Zhou Wen paused and asked Jiang Yan, “Why are you asking this? Aren’t those illusions?”
Jiang Yan looked at Zhou Wen with a strange smile. “A thousand? That’s impressive.”
“What do you mean?” Zhou Wen didn’t understand what Jiang Yan was getting at.
Jiang Yan said with a smile, “Legend has it that the path to immortality is a process of transcending one’s mortal coils. Every corpse illusion you see is a crime you once committed. Only by purging the sins you have committed can you not be killed by the Heavenly Tribulation when you become an immortal. You saw more than a thousand corpses—which means that you have committed more than a thousand crimes.”