Chapter 199: Avalanche

As Yuan Gang landed and broke into a short run, he raised the nose of the hang glider. The sudden wind resistance checked his forward momentum, and he came to a rapid stop without being carried very far.

The fruit tree growing from a fissure in the basin was almost impossible to see beneath the thin moonlight filtering through the clouds overhead. But one fruit glowed red in the darkness, conspicuous as an alluring jewel.

Yuan Gang did not dare waste time. Without bothering to check whether there was any movement around him, he carried the hang glider behind a rock so the wind would not blow it away. At this point, whether there was anyone nearby scarcely mattered. If the cultivators guarding the mountain discovered him, with his present strength there would be no possibility of escape.

As Xiaorong had explained when they came here earlier to select portrait settings, the Ice and Snow Pavilion possessed flying mounts of its own. A hang glider merely rode the lift of the air; it was not particularly fast. Once the Ice and Snow Pavilion discovered him, even if he managed to take off again, he could never outrun flying mounts in pursuit. Escape over the ground was even less realistic. Whether in strength or speed, he had no chance against cultivators.

So once he landed, there were only two possibilities. Either he remained undiscovered, or, if discovered, he would have no way out. Yuan Gang slipped out from beneath the wing and moved lightly but swiftly to the fruit tree.

He quickly untied the bundle on his body, placed it on the ground, opened it, and took out an ice-jade case. He opened the case as well and set it temporarily at his feet.

Then he stood and, ignoring everything around him, reached directly into the branches until his hand closed around the fruit glowing red.

It was icy in his palm, colder even than the bitter air on the mountaintop. Yet to the touch it possessed a faint softness. Master Dao had never mentioned that detail. Yuan Gang gave it a hard tug. He was surprised.

The stem joining the fruit to the branch was astonishingly tough. Even with his strength, he could not pull it free. Still, that made sense.

If the fruit detached as easily as an ordinary fruit, the screaming winds on this summit would blow it off long before it ever finished growing. His hand dropped to the dagger strapped against his thigh. He drew it, bent the stem between his fingers, slipped the blade between them, and gave a sharp outward cut. The stem parted. The fruit dropped into his palm. The dagger returned to its sheath. Yuan Gang crouched in the same motion, placed the fruit inside the ice-jade case, and immediately closed the lid.

Then he removed the other things from the bundle, placed the case inside, and swiftly tied the bundle shut again. Once a Scarlet Yang Vermilion Fruit was picked, it was difficult to preserve. It had to be stored inside an ice-jade case. Otherwise, after two hours, it would begin to rot and melt away. Yuan Gang slung the bundle onto his back and tied it across his chest. Then he picked up an explosive charge from the ground. It was not large, only about the size of a brick.

The amount of explosive inside was limited, but the force of an explosion depended greatly on how the charge was packed. Yuan Gang was an absolute expert in such matters. Feeling along the gaps beneath the fruit tree's roots, he shoved the explosive charge deep into a fissure.

Then he placed an artificial “meteorite” beside the roots.

He picked up a coil of fuse, found the end connected to the explosive, and began leading it backward. Around and around the fruit tree he went, laying the fuse in widening circles across the ground.

From time to time, he pulled stones from his belt, wedged them into cracks in the rock, and looped the fuse around them so the wind could not blow it out of place.

When he had come here earlier to choose painting backgrounds, he had already memorized the terrain and incorporated all of it into his plan. As a demolition expert, he would not allow the sort of mistake that should never occur.

By the time the coil of fuse reached the hang glider, Yuan Gang took out a tinder tube, blew it alight, and touched the flame to the end.

Hiss!

Sparks raced into the fuse. He put away the tinder tube, lifted the hang glider from behind the sheltering rock, and ran forward. Man and wing dropped from the mountain together. The wind caught the glider and lifted it into the air. Yuan Gang banked halfway around and passed over the summit once more. Hanging beneath the wing, he looked down carefully. The spark was still burning. Only then did he relax. He corrected his heading and vanished into the vast night.

At that moment, a shaft of moonlight slipped through the clouds and happened to illuminate the hang glider in flight. It did not matter. They had specifically chosen weather like this with such possibilities in mind.

Even if one of the mountain guards below happened to look up, the figure would be difficult to make out clearly and could easily be mistaken for a drifting patch of dark cloud. He had approached without a sound, landed, completed every preparation, and now drifted away just as silently. He had come without a shadow and departed without a trace, like a wandering night owl disappearing into the darkness. Back on the summit, the fuse continued burning through circle after circle.

When Yuan Gang had made it, he had repeatedly tested the burning rate. Everything depended on the amount of powder mixed into the fuse.

It needed to burn steadily enough that the wind would not easily extinguish it, while also giving him sufficient time to escape beyond the range where he could be seen with the naked eye. Moonlight occasionally filtered through the clouds and washed the earth below.

But from high in the sky, the entire landscape remained dim and indistinct. Yuan Gang could not clearly identify the terrain well enough to use it as a precise navigational reference. He could only fly in the general direction he remembered.

At the same time, he used the wind to gain altitude and repeatedly searched the darkness ahead for the man-made guide points they had prepared. On the summit behind him, Yuan Gang's lingering scent gradually dispersed. One by one, the Snow Fiends that had retreated from the mountaintop began returning. And at last, the spark circling the fruit tree reached the explosive charge beneath its roots.

Boom!

A violent detonation split the night. Fire burst across the summit. Shattered stone erupted in every direction. The Scarlet Yang Vermilion Fruit tree was torn apart and blasted away in the flames. The Snow Fiends nearing the summit all froze in fright. The terror in their eyes seemed to recall the dreadful scent they had encountered earlier. Then a rain of stones came crashing down around them. The creatures panicked. Some howled as they scrambled and tumbled back down the mountain.

Far away, however, the true disaster on the summit had only begun. The Snow Fiends fleeing downhill had lived in this frozen country for countless years and seemed to sense something the humans could not. Suddenly, one after another, they turned and raced back uphill, charging madly toward the summit. The snowpack began to collapse. At first only small sections gave way. Then entire slopes broke loose. Clouds of powdered snow exploded upward as a vast white mass thundered down the mountainside with overwhelming force.

The Snow Fiends that had failed to turn back in time clawed wildly at the moving snow, unable to find purchase. They were swept downward with the avalanche and vanished beneath it in an instant. Snow Fiends halfway down the mountain sprang up in alarm. Others burst from snow caves. All fled desperately toward lower ground, only to be swallowed mercilessly by the roaring white flood. Cultivators guarding the mountain shot out from their caves and leaped into the air.

Their feet repeatedly touched the cresting waves of the avalanche as they climbed higher, fighting upward toward the summit. Moon Butterflies tossed and spun wildly in the violent air currents around them. That single explosion had been extraordinarily clear in the stillness of the night.

Inside the canyon of the Ice and Snow Pavilion, people poured out from the cave residences one after another. They could see nothing clearly. But the rolling thunder that followed was unmistakable to anyone who had lived long in this frozen land.

Avalanche!

More people rushed outside and flew onto the cliffs to watch. Moonlight leaked through gaps in the clouds and fell upon the snowy mountain where the disturbance had begun. Even so, no one could see the mountain clearly. The entire peak seemed wrapped in a dim haze while the tremendous rumbling continued without pause. Within the land of jade halls and towers, a Moon Butterfly rested on the scroll rod of a mounted portrait. In the painting, the woman lowered her head to breathe in the fragrance of a flower.

Inside the bedchamber, Xue Luo’er had unbound her cloudlike coiffure after bathing. Clad only in light gauze, her graceful figure half veiled beneath it, she stood under the eaves outside with her long hair loose over her shoulders. Her coldly beautiful face tilted upward toward the moonlight filtering through the clouds. Softly, she murmured, Fallen blossoms—one stands alone.
Fine rain—paired swallows fly.
The moon of those days is still there,
Once it shone as rosy clouds returned.

The sudden explosion made her pause. Slowly, she turned her head toward the mountain behind the buildings, though the halls blocked her view. Then came the rumbling avalanche. Her expression changed.

At the same time, the noise startled the maids serving her, and a group of them hurried out.

“Dress me!”

Xue Luo’er gave the order sharply. Two maids immediately accompanied her back inside. Before long, a long robe and skirt concealed the gauze beneath. Xue Luo’er flew toward the rear with a group of attendants. Several enormous birds launched from the land of jade halls and towers as well. High in the night sky, Yuan Gang suddenly turned his head toward the lower left. His gaze locked onto a glow of fire. He immediately corrected course and plunged downward. His speed increased rapidly in the dive.

On the mountaintop below, Niu Youdao stood with his sword planted before him, staring intently toward the Ice and Snow Pavilion. His expression was grave. Then he noticed a dark shadow sweeping through the night. One hand dropped at once to the hilt of his sword and gripped it tightly. His entire body became highly alert. Only when the outline gradually resolved into the hang glider did Niu Youdao relax slightly.

“Got it. Go!”

Yuan Gang shouted. The hang glider swooped low across the summit, carved a broad arc, then lifted its nose and climbed again. For a brief instant, firelight illuminated Yuan Gang hanging beneath the wing. Using the direction marked by the snow wall, he adjusted course and continued into the depths of the night. Niu Youdao spun around. Holding his sword in one hand, he thrust his other palm out again and again. The snow wall collapsed inward and buried the fire, extinguishing it.

After completely destroying the wall, Niu Youdao launched himself into the air and chased after Yuan Gang. As for the artificial traces left in the snow on the summit, no one would notice them easily at night.

By dawn, when such traces might become visible, the wind would have blown across the peak for an entire night and naturally erased them. No one was likely to be bored enough to dig through the snow on every mountaintop looking for disturbances. Niu Youdao flew without pause. Thirty li later, he reached another snowy peak and landed beside Black Peony.

“Master Dao!”

Black Peony cried out in delight. She had been worrying the whole time. Master Dao had said that if he had not returned within four hours, it would mean something had gone wrong and they were to leave on their own. Now that he had returned within the agreed time, how could she not be relieved? Niu Youdao raised a hand to silence her and looked up. Almost at the same moment, a dark shape dived from above and swept over the summit. It was Yuan Gang.

Black Peony stared blankly.

What had she just seen?

Yuan Gang had actually flown past while hanging beneath a piece of cloth? She was completely speechless. At the Ice and Snow Pavilion shops, he had beaten people the moment he walked through the door. Then there had been that astonishing way he skied across the snow. And now came something even more shocking. He could actually fly through the sky with nothing but cloth? Was there anything this man could not do?

“Quick!”

Niu Youdao barked in a low voice. Black Peony hurriedly joined him. Together they destroyed the snow wall and buried the fire that had served as a navigational marker. Then the two launched into the air and followed Yuan Gang's route.

The descending terrain of the mountains, dropping progressively from high to low, was also extremely favorable to Yuan Gang's control of the hang glider... Behind the Ice and Snow Pavilion, the avalanche had finally subsided. Snow mist still drifted through the air.

The avalanche had stopped some distance from the Ice and Snow Pavilion itself, but glittering crystals of powdered snow had floated all the way into the canyon. Above the canyon, groups of people whispered and discussed what had happened. On the summit after the avalanche, Moon Butterflies flew everywhere. Xue Luo’er stood on the mountaintop, her robes streaming in the wind. Her loose hair whipped around her. Her face was coldly beautiful. For an instant, she seemed almost ready to ride the wind away.

[End of Chapter 199]