Chapter 1266: Jumping Between Stormy Waves
Meng Chao knew that Ice Storm was right because the information she had was almost the same as the one her father and Ka.n.u.s, the Jackal, had.
If there really was a shortcut, the Wolf King would have taken it first.
In the end, they were still half a step behind the Wolf King.
It was definitely not easy to overtake him at the curve.
“According to your estimation, how long will it take us to reach Scarlet Peak?” Meng Chao asked.
“If you’re willing to take the risk of pa.s.sing through the main battlefield, where the Holy Mountain battle took place three thousand years ago, and the place labeled Angel Graveyard in the memory crystal, you will be able to grab the vines and tree roots from the bottom of a floating mountain range that’s more than ten kilometers long in half an hour. Then, you’ll be able to seize an opportunity to change the s.p.a.ce.”
Ice Storm lowered her head and did some mental calculations. “If that’s the case, we’ll arrive at Scarlet Peak in about forty hours.”
“Forty hours? Almost two days?”
Meng Chao frowned. “No, it’s too slow. Ka.n.u.s, the Jackal will definitely not give us such a long time. The Lion King’s exploration team will soon fall into his ambush.
“If we wait until two days later to reach Scarlet Peak, the Lion King’s army would be wiped out by then. Meanwhile, the Wolf King and Tiger King would have finished cleaning up the battlefield and be heading to the Holy Mountain’s summit!
“Forget stopping them, we don’t even know how to find the entrance to the Holy Mountain Temple from the summit!
“Is there any other route? A faster route? We have to reach Scarlet Peak in one day. It’d be best if we can reach it in half a day!”
Ice Storm hesitated for a moment.
“Basically, no.”
The snow leopard warrior shook her head.
“You hesitated for a moment. Why?”
Meng Chao stared at her. “Also, what do you mean by ‘basically, no’? Is there a route, or is there not?”
“There’s definitely no conventional and safe route. There’s also no shortcut, where having a 50% chance of awakening the evil energy puppets does not remain a great risk. However, there seems to be another ‘suicide pa.s.sage’ that is almost certain to kill us.”
Ice Storm contemplated for a moment and said, “Let’s put it this way. Let’s imagine the s.p.a.ce deep inside the Holy Mountain of Turan as hundreds of small ships bound together by chains floating in the vast ocean.
“This is a very fragile chain that can be easily broken by the wind and waves.
“On the vast ocean, waves will be stirred up at random, which will cause the fleet of small ships to break apart effortlessly. Every small ship will be pulled by the waves and drift everywhere.
“However, there is another type of chain that is made of magnets and has a strong suction force.
“When the wind and waves gradually subside, the broken chains will automatically find their closest companions and reconnect the small boats together. However, the arrangement of the fleet will be completely different from before. Two small boats that were close to each other earlier will likely fall to the two sides of the huge fleet, separated by dozens or hundreds of other small boats.
“There is another rule. Generally speaking, people can only walk among the small boats when the wind is calm and the small boats are once again bound by the iron chains into a fleet. But, before people can pa.s.s through three or five small boats, the waves will surge again and disrupt their arrangement.”
Meng Chao nodded. “That’s a vivid metaphor. So, what should we do to arrive at the small boat named Scarlet Peak in the shortest time?”
“It’s absolutely impossible when the wind and waves are calm and the fleet is stable…”
Ice Storm said, “…Because the small boat named Scarlet Peak has already drifted far away. In the next few series of ‘calm waters and huge waves,’ it will be on the other side of the huge fleet, dozens of small boats or even hundreds of boats away from us.
“Be that as it may, if the storm attacks and the fleet splits into pieces, every small boat will either be at the edge of the storm or sink into the deepest part of the swirl. I do know that in the blink of an eye, you will have a one-in-ten-thousand chance to jump onto Scarlet Peak as it is being dragged into the depths of the swirl.”
Meng Chao blinked quickly.
He did not understand what Ice Storm meant.
“I once witnessed the death of a human soldier in the memory crystal.”
Ice Storm explained, “During the battle three thousand years ago, this soldier was responsible for exploring a s.p.a.ce labeled Thousand Blades Peak because he was skilled in climbing and jumping.
“When he finally climbed to the highest point of Thousand Blades Peak after going through all kinds of difficulties, dense fog suddenly surged around him. The mountains that looked like swords, spears, and halberds around him disappeared one by one as if they were being swallowed by an invisible b.l.o.o.d.y mouth.
“It was obvious that the s.p.a.ce inside the Turan Holy Mountain was being distorted, torn, and reorganized again. Some power that was a hundred times more terrifying than totem power turned into raging waves and attacked him.
“Even though the soldier tried his best to insert ten fingers and ten toes deep into the crevices of the mountain rocks, when the giant waves in the s.p.a.ce hit him, he still felt as if his flesh and bones were about to be torn apart and blown away from his soul.
“And the mountain that he was clinging to, which was standing between the other mountains like a giant pillar, also followed the entire s.p.a.ce and started spinning at a high speed like a top.
“The enormous spinning force quickly shook him off.
“He was like a withered leaf in a hurricane, dancing in the air.
“A dense fog that was baring its fangs and brandishing its claws was all around him, like layers of huge gray waves.
“Suddenly, a crack opened up right below him in the dense fog.
“It was as if two huge gray waves were colliding with each other, creating an area where there were no waves and was temporarily calm.
“Therefore, the soldier saw Scarlet Peak through the gap between the two giant gray waves.
“The curve of Scarlet Peak and the shape of the mountain range are unique. Other mountains are usually cone-shaped, but Scarlet Peak is rhombus-shaped, like the bone plate on the back of some giant beast. Moreover, there is a bright scarlet waterfall on the left side as if the throat of a giant dragon had been cut open by a giant blade and fresh blood was gushing out.
“As such, it left a very deep impression on the soldier.
“He learned that he could jump to Scarlet Peak directly from Thousand Blades Peak when a certain special s.p.a.ce changed.”
“I see!”
Meng Chao was overjoyed. “How far is Thousand Blades Peak from here?”
“Not too far.”
Ice Storm said, “If we go all out, we’ll have a chance to climb to the highest point of Thousand Blades Peak within six hours and reach the spot where the soldier fell off the cliff.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Meng Chao said impatiently.
“We’ll jump from Thousand Blades Peak!”
Ice Storm looked at him silently.
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes. “Why? Is there a problem? By the way, you haven’t told me how things ended for the soldier yet. Did he successfully jump to Scarlet Peak?”
“No.”
Ice Storm replied, “I’ve told you that the memory crystal can only store the memories of the Holy Light believers before they die.
“The soldier was crushed by the spatial crack while he fell.
“The last sound he heard was his bones, including his skull, being crushed into powder.
“The last thing he saw was his blood being squeezed out of his eyeb.a.l.l.s, dyeing the entire world scarlet.
“In his scarlet world, the two gray waves crashed violently again, sealing up the spatial crack. Naturally, he could no longer see Scarlet Peak after that.”
Meng Chao’s expression froze.
The fire of hope that had just risen in his eyes was struck head-on by the raging waves.
“I didn’t mention the existence of this route in the beginning, because it’s not a route that can really be traversed.”
Ice Storm extended her hands, one high and one low, and quickly crossed them, simulating the scene of two small ships quickly crossing each other amidst the raging waves. “Look, the top is Thousand Blades Peak, and the bottom is Scarlet Mountain Range. There are no chains connecting them, and they are not close to each other. Yet, in the blink of an eye, they pa.s.s each other on the huge waves.
“You want to jump from Thousand Blades Peak to Scarlet Mountain Range while the fog is surging and the s.p.a.ce is changing dramatically. It’s like jumping from a small boat on top of the waves to another small boat at the bottom of the waves when a storm is raging above the sea and huge waves are rolling.
“Do you really think that this is something that a human, even a black-haired, black-eyed human, can do?”
Meng Chao leaned against the mandrake tree and sat down slowly.
He crossed his fingers and pressed them against his forehead, deep in thought.
His fire of hope, which was about to be extinguished in the gaps between his fingers, kept jumping in the form of sparks. It seemed to condense billions of lights into one point that was even more dazzling than before.
“Do you remember how long it took for this soldier to fall from Thousand Blades Peak until he was squeezed into a meat patty by the spatial gaps?”
After thinking for a long time, Meng Chao raised his head. The sparks in the depths of his pupils had already spread along the blood threads that covered his eyeb.a.l.l.s. “And from the moment he saw Scarlet Peak until Scarlet Peak was once again enveloped by the dense fog, how long did it take?”
“This…”
Ice Storm recalled it for a moment. “From the time he fell to his death, about eighteen breaths pa.s.sed. About one or two breaths before his death, he could no longer see Scarlet Peak in the gaps of the dense fog.”
“Whose eighteen breaths was it?”
Meng Chao pressed on. “Was it the eighteen breaths of an ordinary rat citizen, or the eighteen breaths of a barbarian elephant warrior? Was it the eighteen breaths of a calm person, or the eighteen breaths of a panicked person, whose heart was beating like a drum?”
“It was my eighteen breaths.”
“It was my eighteenth breath of a calm person,” Ice Storm said.
“That means I fell for about fifty-eight seconds, and the window period between Thousand Blades Peak and Scarlet Peak was about fifty-two to fifty-four seconds.”
Meng Chao made quick calculations in his heart, but he felt that something was wrong when he thought about it. “Wait a minute, how can you know this soldier’s falling time so precisely? He was dancing in the air at that time. Shouldn’t he have been panicking or even scared out of his wits?”
“That’s because these are his near-death memories.”
Ice Storm explained, “You know, when a person, be it a Holy Light human or a Turan orc, is about to die, he will always feel that time pa.s.ses very slowly. He can clearly sense everything around him as if the entire world has slowed down by ten times.
“If an arrow were to hit him, the arrow would be like a wriggling worm in the air to him. It’s just that he doesn’t have enough strength to push the worm away.
“When I receive this near-death memory and experience it repeatedly, it becomes easy to extract a lot of details from the owner of this near-death memory and accurately calculate his time of death..”