Chapter 30: Eye of the world.
Yun Yantian quickly ran after Yao Jun. Since they had already climbed so far up the mountain, just running down and escaping would leave a bad taste in his mouth.
Yao Jun and Yun Yantian ran up the mountain, more and more snow apes forming around them as they ran. As they got closer to the peak, there were already so many snow apes chasing them that the entire mountain slightly shook each time they took a step.
The only solace they could find in this situation was that the snow apes were incredibly brittle. A single slash from either Yao Jun or Yun Yantian was enough to completely destroy the snow ape, returning it to the snow around them.
Even though the snow apes were incredibly brittle, Yao Jun and Yun Yantian could not stop and fight the snow apes. They had considered fighting earlier, but when they saw that the snow apes could simply reform themselves after being shattered, they quickly gave up that idea.
The snow man also walked next to them, looking like he was taking a leisurely stroll in his own garden. He would occasionally shout things at them, warning them not to step here or there, advising them that if they just killed the apes a few times, they would stop regenerating. The two of them simply ignored him and continued running, they could already see the peak not far ahead of them.
As they ran, Yun Yantian continuously controlled his swords to slice open any snow apes that got too close to them. Yao Jun could not use his lightning to attack at a distance yet, and since the snow apes were not living beings, his mental powers were also useless on them. Because of this, Yun Yantian was forced to divert some of his attention to attacking, slowing them down.
After running at full speed for almost an entire hour, activating several arrays on the way, they finally broke through the clouds and reached the peak of the mountain. The wind below the clouds had been howling, the snowflakes almost moving fast enough to slice open their skin. But once they breached the clouds, the world was oddly still.
The snow apes stopped chasing them, there was no wind or snowflakes. There was only a flat mountain peak lit up by a warm stream of sun light. Yao Jun and Yun Yantian couldn't resist the tiredness, quickly sitting down and panting, catching their breaths.
“Congratulations, you broke through the cover of the clouds. Your reward is a bit of rest.”
The snow man broke through the clouds not long after them, swaggering over to them with a slight smirk.
“Fucking hell, I never want to have to run like that again. Let's get the hell out of here Jun.”
Yun Yantian glared at the little snow man as he stood up and started exploring the peak of the mountain. The peak was flatter than they had expected. The mountain was shaped like a sword, so they expected the peak of the mountain to be shaped like a sword tip, but it was just a round and flat surface.
Yun Yantian and Yao Jun spent half an hour examining every inch of the peak, but they still found nothing that resembled an eye. Yun Yantian even used his swords, stabbing them into almost every inch of the peak, yet nothing happened.
“It's not here.”
Yun Yantian spoke with a grim face and glared at the small snow man. He had stabbed every inch of the mountain peak, but there had been no reaction. This could only mean that this mountain peak was not the eye that they had to stab to escape from this world.
“I never said that this mountain peak was the eye did I? I only said that your reward was a bit of rest.”
The little snow man couldn't help but grin when it saw Yun Yantian glare at it. It had indeed never mentioned that this mountain peak was the eye, not even when they broke through the clouds.
Yao Jun stood at the side and looked at the little snow man grinning at Yun Yantian. He had also realized that this mountain peak was not the eye that they were looking for, so they would have to climb down the mountain and look for other places that could be the eye.
As Yao Jun was looking at the little snow man grinning and teasing Yun Yantian, he was suddenly struck by an idea. Thinking about this idea, Yao Jun felt like cursing loudly, but he forced himself to not show any signs, lest the little snow man get any funny ideas.
“Come here Yantian.”
Yao Jun beckoned Yun Yantian with his hand, summoning Little Gray at the same time. When the little snow man saw Little Gray, his expression suddenly turned solemn. Yao Jun ignored his change in expression and jumped onto Little Gray's back. Yun Yantian realized that Yao Jun had probably noticed something and followed him onto Little Gray's back.
“You. Why do you have that?”
The little snow man pointed at Yao Jun and spoke in a solemn voice, but Yao Jun was not in the mood to play along with whatever joke this little incarnation had planned now. He patted Little Gray on the head and ordered him to take off.
Little Gray flew up into the air before breaking through the clouds, flying down the mountain at full speed. Yao Jun knew that Little Gray would only be able to fly in this cold weather for at best a half an hour, so there was no time to fly slowly.
The little snow man followed after them, floating not far behind them as they flew through the sky. The snow apes quickly noticed them after they broke through the clouds, resuming their pursuit. Yao Jun patted Little Gray on the head once more, indicating for it to slightly raise it's altitude to escape the snow apes.
The snow apes quickly realized that they would not be able to reach them if they just continued to run after them. They stopped their pursuit and quickly gathered together into a massive group.
Looking at them grouping up, Yao Jun and Yun Yantian couldn't help but feel uneasy. Their unease was quickly proven right as the snow apes started merging together, forming a snow ape that was quickly growing in size.
Yao Jun pat Little Gray on the head, urging him to raise his speed as much as he could. The snow apes quickly gathered together to form a snow ape that was several hundred meters in height, towering above Yao Jun and Yun Yantian.
Yao Jun only heaved a sigh of relief when he noticed that the massive snow ape was much slower than the smaller ones. With Little Gray flying at full speed, they were barely able to stay ahead of the snow ape. Yao Jun looked at the world around them, quickly figuring out where they were and giving Little Gray directions.
With Yao Jun's directions and Little Gray's max speed, they managed to reach the mountain Yao Jun had been looking for. When they had left this mountain, it had taken them several hours before they managed to travel from here to the sword like mountain. But now that they were no longer examining every inch of their surroundings, they managed to retrace their steps after only 20 minutes.
Yao Jun quickly ordered Little Gray to land, the snow ape not far away from them. Yun Yantian still didn't know why Yao Jun had made them come back here, but he also knew that now was not the time to question his actions.
Yao Jun hopped down from Little Gray's back and returned him to the Garden of Eden, landing in front of the message carved into the mountain. Yao Jun quickly walked up the words and pulled out his sword, stabbing it into the word 'Eye'.
When he stabbed his sword into the word, the wind around them completely vanished, the massive snow ape dissipating into dots of white light. The only thing that was left was the little snow man that was staring at Yao Jun.
“Really. Such a shitty sense of humor you have.”
Yao Jun couldn't help but curse at the little snow man as the space around them started congealing. They had spent over half a day running around in this icy wasteland, looking for any hint about what the eye of the world was. Yet it had been in front of them the whole time, all they had to do was follow the orders as they were written.
As the space thickened around Yao Jun and Yun Yantian, the world in front of their eyes turned white as they were sent away from the frozen world.