I finally arrived at the bottom of the mountain, or should I say the wall. It was an almost vertical surface that went up for a bit over two thousand meters and didn’t have any gap in both directions for as long as my eyes could see.
I quickly pondered my options. I could try to find a valley or a place where the slope was less steep. Or I could attempt to climb the wall.
The first option was too time-consuming and I didn’t know when I would find an opening. The second was impossible since I lacked the opposable thumbs to make use of the little protrusion on the wall and the wall was so steep that even an ibex would have time climbing it.
As I was mulling over my options, I had a stroke of inspiration. I could try to use qi like the chakra of that famous manga with a fox sealed into a youth, where the energy was used to coat the limbs to stick the body to any surface and even walk on water.
The idea seemed feasible so I gave it a try. I encountered the same problems that there were in the manga: too little qi and the paw didn’t stick and too much and I left a paw print.
I found the correct ratio fast enough but a new problem emerged: I weigh too much. The paw attached itself to the rock but when I put my weight on it, a chunk of rock detaches itself from the wall still attached to my paw.
‘Hmm, it seems that until I find a proper lightweight technique (a technique to decrease the weight of the user) I will not be able to climb walls or walk on water.’
Having determined that I decided to test another method. To create my footholds using qi and climbing the mountain this way. I first tested which type of qi was the most efficient for the task: normal qi, Yin qi, or Yang qi.
Firstly I used normal qi and the rock exploded. Well, I should have expected that given the effect that coating too much qi had.
Secondly, I tried yin qi and it corroded and froze the rock.
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Thirdly I tried yang qi and it melted the rock.
Hmm, Yang qi is faster but leaves the rock too soft to climb on it. Yin qi it is then. But just as I was going to start the climb an idea came to me. And if I tried to combine the two attributes?
I immediately tried: in my first try the two attributes qi canceled each other, and so in my second, third, fourth, fifth…
On my nth try, I remembered that I didn’t need to guess the correct ratio: I already have it. It is the ratio used when powering up my muscles.
I tried and this time I succeeded in forming a gray qi with golden and black streaks on my pawns. But, just as I was rejoicing, the new qi started to attract more and more raw qi from the surroundings and then exploded.
When I woke up I found myself at the center of a 3 meters high crater with a badly hurt body. I was full of wounds with a mess of different qis running around constantly worsening them. I supposed that if left as they were they would kill me in another couple of hours, and given how tough my body is, it’s enough to tell how bad my situation was.
I started to operate my qi to get out the other qis wreaking havoc inside my body. It took an hour to stabilize the situation. Then I activated my regeneration skill and my body started slowly mending itself.
The body was so hurt that, before it was done, it evolved into regeneration II.
Ok, until I don’t understand more about what happened, better not try again.
Returning to mountain climbing: in the end, I decided to use both yin and yang energy not together but one after the other.
Firstly I would use the yang qi to create the foothold then I would use a flash of yin qi to harden it. Rinse and repeat.
I tried and it worked. I slowly started climbing the rock wall while always creating new footholds.
As I climbed I noticed that my control over elemental qi and my swapping of yang with yin was becoming constantly better until after half a day of climbing I arrived at the top.
From the top of the mountain, I looked behind and saw an enormous sea of green with some mountains on the horizon. It was a sea of trees, and among the trees, there were a few little structures. probably temples.
I looked forward and I saw the sea. I couldn’t see the end but I could see a piece of land almost 100 km from where I was.
Next was finding a method to descend: I looked down and saw that I was on top of a high cliff with the sea right under me full of pointy rocks. At this point, the most sensible courses of action were to climb down or to find a slope.
I did neither: I jumped.