Fortunately, Qin Jue was a very resilient and tenacious person, otherwise, he wouldn’t have made it past the escort guards in the first place. The unknown aspect was how far does his limit go, and will he have enough courage to surpass his limits one by one.
When Qin Jue had climbed to the halfway point of the mountain, his legs felt heavy as lead. Throughout the fourteen years of his life, he had always been treated as the valuable and esteemed Crown Prince. Even if he had gone through many obstacles these past few months, instincts were not something that could be improved overnight.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his hand, continuing to climb up the mountain solely based on willpower.
If he wanted to rendezvous with Xie Lin Lang, he must climb over eleven mountains. And if he didn’t want to make her wait too long, he would need to climb faster, and even faster!
By the time the moon hung high in the sky, Qin Jue finally finished climbing a single mountain. And by the time he found a temporary shelter to rest for a short time, he was completely exhausted.
But he didn’t rest straight away, instead, he started a fire and tossed all the herbs he had gathered along the way into the fire.
After the herbs caught on fire, they began emitting a very pungent scent. This scent was able to drive off the poisonous creatures in the area as well as drive off some of the animals that haven’t entered hibernation.
He finally sat down on a giant boulder after completing all this, first taking a sip of water, then eating a few bites of dried food. Only after he had recovered a bit of stamina did he finally remove his boots.
As a result of the non-stop mountain climbing for an entire day, plus with the paths being extremely uneven and steep, it caused many blisters to form on his feet. Being out in the cold all day, his hands and feet were full of frostbite, with some unnoticeable traces of decay.
Qin Jue looked at his wounds and suddenly laughed.
He was no longer a Crown Prince, but his body has yet to catch up to that fact. Even if he had already gone through a month of torture, his body still couldn’t handle any hardship.
Thinking this, he popped the blisters, applied medicine over them, toasted them next to the fire, and finally put his shoes back on again.
It would be more comfortable if he continued warming his feet without shoes on, but thinking about all the unknown possibilities that can occur at any time, he decided it was better to be on guard.
Xie Lin Lang sat on a tree looking at him, silently nodding in approval. Even though it was Qin Jue’s first time surviving in the wilderness, he was doing very well, way better than when she first started.
After a night of rest, the campfire had gone out by the time that Qin Jue woke up. If this was in the past, sleeping in the mountains like this for a night would undoubtedly make Qin Jue sick. But now, he felt his mind become clear and light, and all of his energy replenished!
This disparity made him feel his breakthrough clearer than ever, boosting his morale for the rest of the road ahead! But what he didn’t expect was that the second mountain turned out to be much harder to climb than the first…
The second mountain consisted of extremely steep paths. Because of the lack of trees and thickly gathered snow throughout the mountain, it was very easy to misstep and fall while walking such that Qin Jue had a very hard time traveling up the mountain.
Ascending the mountain was difficult, so naturally, descending was even more difficult. Qin Jue held onto tree branches; every one of his steps was done with extreme caution!
Because of his complete and continuous focus, sweat ran endlessly across his forehead.
Suddenly, a rabbit appeared! He was caught off guard that he lost his footing and fell heavily!
His fall was extremely painful, causing not only his body to ache all over, but his wounds were also burning.
He sat up with the help of a tree, peering inside his clothing, and as expected, two of his wounds opened up again.
The flowing blood quickly soaked through his bandages. He furrowed his brows, tying the bandages even tighter!
He seemed to have twisted his ankles…which only worsened his situation. If it went on like this, he might not be able to descend the mountain before nightfall. But if he doesn’t descend, it will be more dangerous to stay on the mountain overnight!
Qin Jue bit his teeth and got up from the ground, found a branch for walking, and continued walking in this unbalanced manner down the mountain!
(This translation was brought to you by LeafInBloom on Patreon and Sleepy Translations.)
After injuring his legs, on top of his exhaustion and unstable roads, Qin Jue stumbled almost every two steps he took.
This was perhaps the most challenging task he’s done in his life! All those rocks and tree roots hidden beneath the surface of snow were traps that could lead him to his demise. And just left of his hands stood a bottomless cliff! Its opened mouth cried out in anger into his ears, as if it was ready to devour him at any moment!
The hand he held onto the branch with was cold with sweat. Suddenly, he tripped over a rock hidden by the snow again! But this time, there was nothing in front of him to hold onto. As he fell, he headed straight towards the edge of the cliff!
A branch suddenly flew through the sky, after landing in the snow, the gathered snow was shaken off, revealing the knotted roots under it!
Qin Jue reacted as soon as he saw it, grabbing onto the roots with his hands as he fell, finally stopping his movements!
At this moment, he had already slipped to the edge of the cliff. The harsh mountain wind stirred in the air, blowing on him and almost turning the cold sweat on his back to ice!
He tried multiple times to crawl back up but was unable to muster any strength. Both his hands became cracked due to the frostbite: the pain on all ten of his fingers connected straight to his heart. The heart-wrenching pain felt familiar to him as it cleared his mind…
After a while, he took in a deep breath, and little by little, he climbed up from the cliff and onto a comparably flatter surface purely through his iron-like willpower. Then, he was no longer able to move at all.
He felt his hands and feet turn into stone and wanted to rest like this for a few moments longer, just for a bit…but it was starting to get dark and sounds of wolves howling echoed in the air. If he closed his eyes right now, he probably won’t ever wake up again.
As this thought crossed his mind, he bit his teeth and stood up again, but before he could walk even a few steps, his body became limp and toppled over again!
As he fell back down, he accidentally swallowed a mouthful of snow and immediately choked violently! He went to cover his mouth, coughing so much his body curled up, soon slowly turning into a rough coarse voice laughing…
This was only the second mountain…
He was laughing at himself. He knew that he was weak, but he didn’t think that he was this pathetically weak!
Just how did he imagine that he was going to take revenge with his body being this weak? He must have really overestimated himself.
As such, his consciousness grew increasingly blurry, the frostiness chewing on his body bit by bit, and he felt his whole body become heavy, very, very heavy.
He was tired…He just wanted to sleep here like this forever…
He should have just died simply like his mother, not like how he was now, struggling to stay alive…
His mother must be feeling so lonely being all by herself underground…
His breath grew weaker and weaker. Perhaps this was his limit after all. Just when Xie Lin Lang decided to step out and interfere, Qin Jue, who was originally about to pass out, suddenly jerked! His hand buried in the snow suddenly clenched into a fist!
He finally remembered!!
He finally remembered the reason why he came back in the first place.
It’s revenge! He was going to make all those people who had hurt his family pay for their crimes in blood! He was going to make sure that all those people who took advantage of his situation would never be able to laugh again! The reason he came back was to bring hell to earth!
Before any revenge can take place, he first must obtain unrivaled strength! He can’t give up, and most definitely can’t fall down now!
Then, he began to get up slowly from the ground…bearing an unimaginable pain and with an extremely twisted position, he stood up again!
At the same time, his body seemed to have attained a tiny string of Chi. Under the influence of the Chi, his originally dull body could feel pain once again, and a feeling of itch.
He looked at his body that’s fully covered with wounds and clenched his fist!
As he expected, hatred was the most powerful force in existence! With hatred as his motivator, there was nothing he couldn’t do!