Chapter 18 - Ice Mountains

"Hey Angela are you ok?" Luan asked her still hugging and looking down.

"...Yes" She said in a dizzy voice. She seemed to have recovered from the mental attack from before but not fully.

"We need to get stronger, right?" He asked her in a warm voice.

"... Yes" She replied.

Hearing her answer he continued.

"This happened because I was lazy. I wasted time on needless things this past week. I...I thought I was strong enough to protect both of us."

Angela just stayed quiet but listened carefully.

"Im going in the Ice mountains."

Angela looked at him in a little confusion.

"It would probably take me some time to come back." Luan continued.

Angela realized what he was trying to say and her eyes widen.

"Do you want to come with me or stay here until then?" He asked her without beating around the bush.

Angela looked at luan in disbelief. Their embrace was over as she could not stand up properly.

Luan was looking down the entire time with shame.

'I say I want to get stronger. But the only thing I do is wait. I wasted an entire week doing nothing but socialising.'

'Angela doesn't talk much but I can tell she likes being with people she knows. Besides the ice mountains will help me to make a core and not Angela. I don't expect her to follow me everywhere...It is her life after all.'

"Taking her with me without her consent is selfish, I know this. But why...Why can't I look at her?. '

Sniff

While he was thinking these things, luan heard a small sniff. He looked at the front to find tears welling up in Angela's eyes.

"Wh-Why are you crying?" He felt a heavy feeling in his stomach.

"You're...You're leaving me...?" She asked in between the sniffs while trying to rub the salt water from her eyes.

"What"

"Don't... Leave me" She said in soft and shaky voice.

Watching this luan couldn't help but grab ahold of her and pulled her closer. She didn't let go and embraced him.

Luan closed his eyes and acted calm.

"I understand. I won't leave you behind ever." He said in an assuring voice.

"Promise?" Angela asked him with big eyes.

He looked at her surprised but said.

"Yeah, It's a promise."

Her anxiety slowly turned to a smile and she replied.

"Let's go!"

'She is so childlike and immature.' He thought to himself with a genuine smile.

The people were whispering what it was the two were talking about but they started going their own way after a while.

The two then went to Eloise's house and asked her if she could take notes of the classes from. She of course said yes. They also asked her about the outer sect tournament.

Every year the outer sect does a tournament to decide the strongest person in the outer sect. Everyone from the outer sect will take part in it. Including those who are close to reaching Meridian opening realm.

•••

The next day luan and Angela woke up before the sun and packed their bags for the destination.

They took a lot of food and sect's clothes with them.

"The ice mountains were mentioned in the ice and water book quite often. Those are the only mountains one could form a core in the sect's land." Luan spoke to Angela as they sprinted in a specific direction in the forest. Angela nodded.

It would take them roughly 1 day to get on one of the starting mountains. There was another thing he wanted to try as well.

They found quite a lot of beasts on their way. Luan and Angela took care of everyone of them.

"I noticed this before but..."

There was a beast in front of him. It was a bull.

Luan concentrated every bit of his Qi in his fist and punched the the beast in the face. The beast's skin exploded on the impact and a hole almost 20 meters wide was created around the area.

"So I can destroy 20 meter around me with my strongest punch huh?" He murmured.

"Hmm"

Luan and Angela then rested and filled their dantian again.

After a few hours, another beast came. It was a leopard now. It's strength was the same as the bull. The beast ran towards luan and luan did not move.

Slam!

"ARKH!!!"

The impact echoed through the forest and luan crashed on the ground with incredibly strong force.

Slash!

As soon as the beast moved his claws to finish him off, Angela enhanced her strength using Qi and slashed the beast's stomach wide open.

"KREDEG!" The beast cried out in pain but Angela used this opportunity to cut his head as well.

She looked at luan who was barely breathing. His leg were broken, his arms were broken and a small hole was also present in his chest.

"He... Re" Luan ordered the system to take healing pills from the dimensional storage. Angela saw this happen and she feeded him the pills.

...

"Haaa" After half an hour, luan was completely recovered.

"I knew it"

"Appraisal"

Name: Luan

Race: Human

Cultivation: Qi Gathering 3

Hp: 240

Agility: 310

Int: 135

Strength: 440

Name: Angela

Race: ???

Cultivation: Qi Gathering 2

Hp: 300

Agility: 204

Int: 95

Strength: 210

"My health is far lower than anyone in Qi gathering 3."

'I could kill a beast stronger than me in one blow if I used all the Qi in it. But if I'm hit by even one of it's average attacks, I'm severely injured."

A person in Qi realm 3 can destroy ground in a maximum of 15 meter radius around them with their strongest punch. And can endure many attacks of someone from similar realm. Luan on the other hand can destroy 20 meters around him and can kill even a beast stronger than him with a punch.

But could only endure two hits from beast in similar realm. And only one hit from a minor realm higher than his.

For Angela, it was her health that was impressive. It reached Qi gathering 3 even though she hasn't stepped in the realm yet.

'I need to work on it.'

"Anyway, let's continue the journey." Luan said and moved forward with Angela.

•••

As they moved forward, they encountered many beasts and slowly they stopped coming at them. The weather was also slowly changing. The ground beneath them also started changing its colour.

Woosh~

They reached a big town and now snow was starting to fall gently. A thin coat of snow had appeared on the ground.

The two went inside the town. There were many two floor houses and some Chinese courtyards. It wasn't too cold yet. The temperature was just below 0° so people were still outside.

A man is sitting there lovingly putting his flowers on to the pile of blue flowers. He is wearing traditional clothes of ancient China and a coat on top of them to stay warm from the weather. There are also some honey bees buzzing and juxtaposing around the otherwise fresh flowers.

On one of the shop there are weird looking masks of a human with an oval mouth with two large sockets on the eyes. A child is whispering in her mother's ear and she is leaning over to hear her in front of the bizarre looking souvenirs.

"This is peace." Luan said.

"...Yeah. It's...good." Angela replied.

The two went inside one of the shop. The person was waiting for customers and passing time. They asked him for coats.

The shopkeeper looked at their uniform and realized where they were from.

"Wait a second I'll get the coats which are suitable for the mountains." The shopkeeper said and went inside the store.

A light smell of Clothes roamed around the shop with a mixture of Concrete's smell. The inside of the shop was just as cold as outside. There wasn't a heater and anything to keep the place warm.

After a while, he came back with a thick coat of blue colour. It looked different than the rest of the coats he saw on people. Luan tried it and he immediately felt the difference.

'It's hot inside it. In fact, way too hot,' Luan asked. "Does these coats have runes on it?"

"Yeah, there are runes inside of it."

"Hmm. Quite handy"

Compared to normal coats which were easily below 10 golds, the price of those coats was much higher. It was 100 golds.

The two couldn't cover themselves with Qi to protect themselves from cold as they weren't in the realm yet.

Luan wanted to absorb ice Qi so it was great for him. But he needed a coat for Angela. He wanted to try one for himself so he brought two coats from the store.

"Please come again~"

Luan and Angela started moving again. They could see the mountains far away from them. It was already night so nothing was too clear.

After 12 hours of running again. They were finally on the foot of the first mountain. The sun was down and light disappeared from the sky.

The cold snowy wind had already started moving wildly.

Woosh!

They gazed up at the rugose and rough-hewn mountain with a sense of awe. They were mysterious and violent. The phantom-white mountain reared into the sky at the minimum height of height greater than 7000 meters. It's peak couldn't be seen by the two as a thick fog covered the top. Rumbling and roaring, a wave of white surged down the mountain side from time to time.

If Luan could compare the mountain with something, he could do it with mount everest. The mountain with the highest altitude in his homeworld.

"Not...Cold." Angela spoke.c

"Yeah, I only feel a slight discomfort." Luan replied.

As cold as the outside looked, they didn't feel too much different from being in a room.

Luan and Angela started climbing up. There weren't any stairs so they had to climb it the hard way. They walked on the slope in the thick sheet of ice at first. There weren't any trees everywhere they could see. Although they couldn't see much as the ice storm covered their vision. After about an hour, they reached a point where they had to climb straight up.

It was a 90 degree slope. It looked quite slippery, with only a few areas for gripping. A cultivator has tremendous strength so climbing a mountain was easier than normal people.

"I should have brought ropes with me. If we fall from this height, it's definitely over." Luan shouted as he looked down the cliff. They could barely see the ground. The sound of the storm was high and they had to shout to communicate even with Qi.

"We could be well over 4000 meters above the ground."

"Scary..." Angela spoke.

"True."

Whoosh!!

The two resumed their climbing again on the new slope. It was very difficult for them to go up because of many reasons.

First, they didn't had any climbing experience on climbing a mountain and second was their size. They could only go up slowly and finding a solid surface to grab on was becoming harder and harder. They were only 10 year olds with the height of 4'7.

They could still use their strength to make a way for themselves but their height was still a problem.

Nevertheless, they managed to get a few hundred meters up and reached a point where they couldn't move anymore.

"Shit... I'm feeling way too much cold. Is the coat...not working anymore.? Luan shouted as he slightly trembled from cold.

He waited for a few seconds for her but Angela didn't hear him from all the noise of the surrounding.

Instead someone else answered him.

Ding

「Analyzing the object and individual's body....」

Ding

「The coat is working properly but the outside temperature is too high was the individual to feel it's effects.」

Angela heard it too and looked at luan.

"Then... What should.... I do...?" Luan was beginning to lose his consciousness.

「Requesting to go to a safer place and rest before doing anything more.」

Angela started getting closer to him but then saw something.

System's voice kept him awake. Just then he heard Angela's voice.

"There!" She pointed above some meters high.

There wasn't a a layer of ice like everywhere else. The place was just perfect for the ice to not seclude on top of the 75° small 10 meter slope-like ground.

Whoosh!!

Luan noticed it and had a ray of hope. He started moving faster and quickly went on top of the rock.

Ding

「Noticed a place that could be used for resting. Requesting to make a crack of the rock and make a cave.」

Luan heard this and the hope quickly vanished. He was just too weak to even bury fingers inside the rock properly let alone make a hole in it.

"An... Angela" Luan said in between huffing and panting.

But his words weren't needed as she was already ready to use her fist upon the slope.

Thud!

Whoosh

When her fist landed, it made a huge noise and the impact seemed to shook the area.

But it wasn't a good thing as they saw death approaching. An avalanche erupted because of the shock in their direction from above, and the rock still wasn't destroyed.

"No" She noticed the rage of the mountain coming straight at them.