Fairy, Please Listen to My Explanation

Chapter 8: Tianmen Mountain

Xu Yuan felt like a fool. A genuine fool.

He had actually expected a dimwit who could freeze her hostage to death to have a sense of direction in the wilderness.

After two seconds of silence, he patted Ran Qingmo’s shoulder in consolation before standing up with the map.

“First, take me to the highest nearby point so I can look around. Maybe I can figure out our location.”

Ran Qingmo’s eyes flickered with doubt.

Xu Yuan knew what she was doubting.

“I may have wasted my years, but I picked up some skills along the way.”

“Oh.”

Xu Yuan walked to the cave entrance, staring at the misty forest outside, then turned to look at the black-robed woman who was packing her belongings.

“It’s still raining outside.”

Ran Qingmo looked at him, then at the water skin attached to his waist.

Xu Yuan sighed slightly, eyeing her drenched clothes.

“I know with the Flame Serpent Essence, we don’t have to worry about chills or the like for now. But don’t you find it uncomfortable wearing wet clothes?”

Ran Qingmo blinked her eyes; she contemplated this before nodding in agreement.

Xu Yuan ruminated for a moment, then looked at the ice spike that still impaled the Flame Serpent’s corpse through the curtain of rain.

A minute later, a man and a woman stood suspended dozens of meters in the air.

The man wore an elegant brocade robe and held a sheepskin scroll, while the woman, her face covered with a thin veil, stood gracefully beside him holding an umbrella made of ice crystal.

The rain was subsiding, though the wind persisted, transforming the mountain’s downpour into a fine, continuous drizzle.

Standing on the transparent platform Ran Qingmo had formed with her Qi, they looked down at the vast forest of towering trees stretching as far as the eye could see.

The Wanxing Mountain Range extended along the southwestern border of the Great Yan Dynasty for tens of thousands of li.

The thick white mist greatly affected Xu Yuan’s vision, but after reaching this high ground, he discovered he didn’t need to look for directions at all.

In the distance, at the edge of the forest, loomed the massive silhouette of a towering mountain peak, blotting out the sky.

Despite being separated by an unknown amount of distance, its massive form was still vaguely visible through the misty rain curtain, like a colossal beast spanning between heaven and earth. Even Mount Everest from his previous world would pale in comparison.

When a game map transformed into reality, the shock before his eyes was beyond words.

Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes, staring at that enormous shadow.

“Is that Tianmen Mountain?”

Ran Qingmo held her umbrella, her sleeves fluttering gently in the wind.

“Yes.”

“Can we climb it?”

“Is the cave dwelling you mentioned up there?”

“That’s right.”

The cave dwelling on Tianmen Mountain was a hidden map location available in the game’s righteous storyline.

The trigger conditions were quite cliché.

Being hunted, escaping into the Wanxing Mountain Range, climbing Tianmen Mountain, and being forced to jump off a cliff. So long as the player’s Luck stat is above 80, jumping off the cliff would lead to the hidden cave dwelling.

What if your Luck is below 80? Say hello to the ground.

Lost in thought, Xu Yuan shook his head slightly.

According to the game’s wiki, the Third Young Master possessed a measly amount of Luck stat, just 3. Jumping off that Suspended Heaven Cliff a hundred times wouldn’t get him inside. It was as if he had used up all his lifetime’s luck just by being born.

But now, with the master cultivator Ran Qingmo by his side, once they reached Suspended Heaven Cliff, she could simply fly down with him to search slowly.

Ran Qingmo stared at the massive Tianmen Mountain in silence for two seconds, then said,.

“Very well.”

As her words fell.

She immediately dispersed the Qi-condensed platform beneath their feet.

Xu Yuan: “…”

The sensation of free fall was far from pleasant, but fortunately, this dim-witted woman still knew that falling from such a height would turn an ordinary person like him into a meat patty.

Just before hitting the ground, a gentle force wrapped around Xu Yuan’s body, and the two landed in the forest with him held in a princess carry.

They exchanged a look. Ran Qingmo supported her umbrella with one hand, gently placing Xu Yuan on the ground.

“Let’s go.”

Xu Yuan steadied himself, patting his robes to hide his embarrassment, but then frowned upon hearing her words.

“Go?”

“Yes.” Ran Qingmo nodded.

Xu Yuan mentally estimated the distance between Tianmen Mountain and their current position.

“You mean we walk there?”

Ran Qingmo tilted her head.

“What else?”

“Can’t you fly?” Xu Yuan asked with an odd expression, “Walking would take us at least ten days.”

Ran Qingmo was silent for two seconds. She stared at Xu Yuan and said very seriously, “I can’t fly.”

“But just now—” Xu Yuan pointed to the sky.

Ran Qingmo followed his finger to look at the sky and explained, “That was the Frozen Cloud Steps from my cultivation technique.”

“Frozen Cloud Steps?” Xu Yuan, knowing nothing about this world’s cultivation techniques, asked instinctively.

Ran Qingmo showed no intention of answering him, just staring at him.

Xu Yuan realized that questions about cultivation techniques were probably considered private, so he changed the subject.

“Can’t you use Sword Flight?”

Ran Qingmo thought for two seconds before answering.

“My cultivation technique doesn’t include Sword Flight, only Frozen Cloud Steps. Sword Flight is part of the Still Heaven Sword Art.”

Hearing the name Still Heaven Sword Art, Xu Yuan’s mind quickly raced through what he remembered about this technique from the game’s wiki.

But he couldn’t recall any mention of Sword Flight. It seemed the world was automatically filling in the missing information.

From Ran Qingmo’s explanation, Xu Yuan roughly understood her meaning.

In this world, there were methods to move through the air, but due to different cultivation techniques, the means of flight also varied.

After a pause, Xu Yuan asked.

“Then why not simply use your Frozen Cloud Steps to take me there?”

Ran Qingmo didn’t answer immediately. She looked Xu Yuan up and down, assessing his physique, then shook her head.

“Your body is too weak. You’ll die.”

“But I was fine just now, wasn’t I?” Xu Yuan frowned. When Ran Qingmo had taken him up to scout their position, he hadn’t felt any discomfort.

“That speed was very slow.”

“…”

Xu Yuan fell silent.

He realized he had been taking things for granted, overlooking a very important issue.

Ran Qingmo didn’t have the AT Field like some robots from a certain anime in his previous life, and the human body could only withstand limited acceleration.

Ran Qingmo’s method of traversing the sky clearly involved condensing platforms of Qi to leap continuously through the air.

For someone like him—a young master whose body had been hollowed out by wine and women—unprotected acceleration of even 4-5G could send him straight to the afterlife.

And based on Ran Qingmo’s previously invisible speed, she was likely starting at accelerations of at least 30 Gs.

Thinking this, Xu Yuan took a deep look at the veiled woman before him.

Though she occasionally seemed somewhat dim-witted, she was quite reliable in certain aspects.

If she hadn’t considered this point, he might have died instantly at the first acceleration.

For a moment, Xu Yuan thought about asking Ran Qingmo to control her speed.

But as soon as the idea came, he dismissed it.

Ran Qingmo could control her speed, but doing so would increase their time spent airborne.

The Wanxing Mountain Range was teeming with demonic beasts. The Flame Serpent they had encountered earlier was already under the control of that mysterious force; staying airborne longer would inevitably risk being discovered by beasts hiding in the shadows.

And demonic beasts weren’t just on the ground.

Some flying demonic beasts had vision far superior to humans.

Traveling on foot, concealed by the trees and bushes, coupled with Ran Qingmo’s heightened senses as an expert to perceive their surroundings, wouldn’t guarantee a hundred percent chance of not being discovered, but it would at least ensure no witnesses were left alive.

Thinking this through, Xu Yuan sighed softly and surveyed the endless forest that stretched beyond sight.

Walking it was, then. He would consider it his first sightseeing tour in this new world.