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Chapter 233 - 232: Journey to the Snowy Mountains

The three departed at night, took a 10-hour flight to Nepal, and after landing in Kathmandu, rented a helicopter to fly directly to Everest base camp, finally arriving at the world’s tallest mountain’s foothills at two in the afternoon on the 31st.

April to May can be said to be the best time for trekking and climbing Everest in a year. In the base camp, one can see many scattered tents, where mountaineering enthusiasts from all over the world gather, making a place that ought to be rarely visited particularly lively.

"My god, it’s so beautiful." Elorie sincerely exclaimed while gazing at the mountains resembling giants ahead.

Indeed, Chen Xuan thought, in the past, he had only admired the view of these mountains through videos and photos, but compared to the experience of being here personally, it was completely on a different level.

The endless snow peaks looked like a silver dragon dwelling at the boundary between heaven and earth, with a sapphire-like clean sky above, devoid of any impurities; below lay the year-round frozen glaciers, each snow-capped peak reflecting diamond-like cold, sharp gleams under the sunlight.

If he were to describe it with one word, what he could think of was pure.

The sky, glaciers, snow, and stones all share this purity.

As if the altitude and cold could isolate all disturbances.

"So, how are you doing with breathing?" Lin Qing asked with a smile.

Chen Xuan took two deep breaths, watching the steam he exhaled instantly turn into white mist, "It’s no different than being on level ground."

No kidding, he could go naked into space!

"I’m feeling fine too." Elorie also said.

The altitude here had already exceeded 5,000 meters; a normal person running up within a day would definitely feel dizzy, but fortunately, the three of them did not belong to the rank of normal people, and did not have to worry about the troubles brought by altitude sickness.

"Getting here is easy; the trouble comes from the road ahead." Lin Qing scratched her head, "From now on, we can only rely on ourselves."

The reason why the three could arrive here so quickly was entirely due to this being a mature commercial route; as long as they forged identities and sorted out their passports and tickets, reaching the foot of Everest would naturally follow. The problem was, Everest was merely a small part of the Himalayas, and other peaks did not receive such treatment. For example, the location they intended to go to was still one hundred and eighty kilometers away, and on the map, the corresponding coordinates did not even have any artificial building markers.

Even if they offered more money, no one would be willing to send them there. To outsiders, flying a helicopter aimlessly among the ice-bound mountains was a typical suicidal act, not to mention heading to an uninhabited area where they didn’t even know if a landing site existed.

There were no roads connecting the two places, and the ground journey was absolutely impossible due to the sky-blue glaciers and steep mountain rocks.

"We’ll have to steal a helicopter." Lin Qing glanced toward the base camp’s helipad, "There are standby emergency planes here, so fuel and spare parts shouldn’t be a problem. The premise is that we can find the pilot among hundreds of people and get hold of the keys."

"No need, I’ve already thought it over." Chen Xuan retrieved a piece of talisman paper from his pocket, "This can get us anywhere."

"Hey, aren’t you unable to fly?"

"Before leaving, I borrowed the Talisman Technique from Liu Shuyue." He said smugly.

The ability gained through the transaction comes with the entire experience of the owner, thus making him equivalent to mastering Liu Shuyue’s flying skills, and operating the Wind Riding Talisman was no longer a problem.

"Borrow?" Lin Qing noted his wording, "Do you have to return it?"

"Yeah, the Talisman Technique is more useful for her to build Hot Pepper Village, so I told her I’d borrow it for a few days."

The only downside is personal use would cause the Talisman Technique to go into a stock phase, and once traded back to the other party, it gets locked, making it impossible to trick again in the future.

"Now she dares to lend you her abilities..." Lin Qing clicked her tongue, "Shuyue is really nice."

"It’s not like I won’t return it." Chen Xuan pouted, "Our shop treats customers with honesty, what harm with borrowing an ability. Let’s find a place where no one pays attention, then we’ll fly there."

Just relying on one Wind Riding Talisman to pull Lin Qing up was clearly a bit burdensome, but with the addition of Elorie’s Light Wings, it was no longer a problem. The two of them from both sides embraced her arms, exerting force together to take her into the sky.

To avoid being seen, they intentionally circled to the back of the camp before heading for their destination.

"Am I... heavy?" Halfway through the flight, Lin Qing suddenly asked softly.

"Still... alright." Elorie panted, "You’re not... not heavy at all!"

Unexpectedly, the French girl was so adept in social graces, Chen Xuan secretly noted. Fortunately, the Wind Riding Talisman uses the wind to fly; he couldn’t feel much burden.

Moreover, Lin Qing’s arms were gentler than he anticipated; he thought the prosthetic would feel exceedingly hard to touch, but in fact, it felt no different from a real person.

Looking at the bustling ridges and valleys below, he proactively changed the topic: "Building the Treasure Vault at such a place, no wonder few know about it. Elorie, did that Governor Lady ever mention how the Demons attacked here?"

The Angel shook her head, "No... She only said, it was a rare group action. Whew... Nevertheless, there weren’t many defenses at the Holy Temple Treasure Vault to begin with, so it’s not surprising it couldn’t hold."

According to later times, the biggest mistake of the Angel Alliance was treating artifacts with a custodian mindset. They collected artifacts discovered all over the world and hid them in unknown places, missing the opportunity to expand themselves utilizing the artifacts. It led to the Alliance’s shallow research into artifacts, failing to recognize the uniqueness of Mother Lucy, and only realizing the severity of the issue when new Angels stopped being born after the Holy Temple Treasure Vault was destroyed.

"If they deployed heavy guards at the vault, we wouldn’t even dream of sneaking in." Chen Xuan shrugged, "Overall, there are pros and cons."

The Angel nodded hard, "Yeah! All we need to do is snatch the artifacts beforehand, let the Demons go empty handed."

Though said so, numerous problems still remained unsolved.

For instance, how the artifacts were stored, if there’s a self-destruction system, and how large Mother Lucy actually was.

What Chen Xuan worried most was precisely this point.

Considering the Angel Alliance manufactured so many Rings of the Mind from it, meaning they carved lots of flesh from it. Even though every ring contained a piece of flesh no larger than a fingernail, they couldn’t escape the large quantity. Analyzing from this angle, it’s either highly regenerative or enormously sized. If Lucy appeared like the Tower of Flesh and Blood in Chang’an City, it’s out of question for them three to secretly transport it.

Unfortunately, intelligence about artifacts was extremely limited, let alone something destroyed a century ago.

Apart from visiting personally, they would never know the answer otherwise.

"Look! Seems like there’s something halfway up that glacier!" Lin Qing keen-eyed discovered an unnaturally level patch of land between the snowy mountain covers.

She cross-examined the map, the coordinates quite matched, although the mountains here didn’t have any markers, purely desolate whiteness.

Chen Xuan took out the Invisibility Talisman, making the three of them vanish.

This ensured they wouldn’t be visually detected by the guards upon approaching.

He and Elorie while moving closer, also lowered their altitude until about five hundred meters before stopping. From this distance, the three could clearly see a wooden house semi-buried under the solid ice — its outer walls had collapsed, the dark insides seemed like a cave. Scattered irregularly on the flat ground were some containers, including oil drums, shipping boxes, and many empty cans.

"Expertly disguised." Lin Qing appraised, "Even if photographed by a satellite, they’d just think it’s an abandoned climbing base."

Chen Xuan agreed, even the exterior oil drums and cargo boxes seemed to have endured many years, wrapped in a layer of thin ice, with faint visible rust spots, the details were absolutely realistic.

But why would a base suddenly emerge here, remote from heaven and earth?

Building a wooden house at an altitude of five or six thousand seven hundred meters in itself signified something unusual.

"The collapsed house should be a decoy, entrance most likely elsewhere." He analyzed, "However, walking through the front door isn’t an option; avoiding confrontation is best, preventing any clashes with the guards. Lin Qing, do you have a way to infiltrate such places?"

"You’re asking the right person." Lin Qing confidently smiled, "As long as it’s a facility buried underground, there must be emergency exits and ventilation pipes. Emergency exits generally open from inside and can be disregarded, as for the pipes... I’ve already found them."

She pointed to the other side of the ridge, "There are heat source reactions there, fly over and take a look."

The two dragged her past the abandoned wooden house, arriving at the snowy mountain’s rear. Sure enough, they discovered several sets of ventilation holes hidden in the cliff. They were subtly recessed, showing no flaw from the side, while below was a near-kilometer abyss, completely unreachable.

The seemingly impregnable position still couldn’t withstand the fact that those with intentions could fly.