"Do not make a sound," Xinghe signaled with a finger to his lips. He crawled forward toward the mouth of the cave crevice, hiding behind the thick roots of a silver tree. He tilted his head up, staring toward the open night sky above the river flow. His other friends followed from behind, crowding together to peek through the gaps in the roots.
The sight above them caused their breath to stop instantly. Their hearts pounded incredibly fast. At an altitude of several hundred meters above the forest, a group was passing by. They were humans. Dozens of humans flew through the night air with a calm yet steady speed. The whistling sound of clouds they had heard turned out to come from the energy friction of the objects these people were riding.
Several of them stood upright on metal swords that emitted a dim silver light. Those swords were large enough to be stepped on with two feet, gliding through the air as if they possessed invisible propulsion engines. Their clothes fluttered backward, blown by the high-altitude wind. The garments were not modern jackets or shirts, but long cloth robes with wide sleeves whose designs were identical to traditional Chinese clothing from thousands of years ago.
In the middle of the group, there was a much larger object. It was a wooden boat carved with dragons that floated in the air. The boat had no sails or propellers. The sides of the boat emitted a bluish-green glow that kept the vessel floating. Several people in more luxurious-looking robes sat on the deck of the boat.
"God," Li Wei whispered with his lips trembling violently. "Are those aliens? Are they aliens disguised in costumes for a period drama film?"
"They are flying using swords and a boat," Han Dong murmured, his eyes unable to blink at the physical impossibility before him. "What kind of aerodynamic laws allow a flat piece of iron to lift the weight of a human body?"
Zhao Lin gripped Han Dong's arm very tightly. "This is a hallucination. That fish must have been poisonous. We are having a mass hallucination."
Chu Xinghe stared sharply at the group flying in the night sky. Their clothes, the flying swords, the floating boat. His grandfather's ancient texts exploded in his head once more. Historical records considered to be myths. Humans who absorbed matter from the universe. Ascetics who left mortal life behind.
"They are not a hallucination," Xinghe whispered. His hand gripped the tree root until the bark peeled. "They are humans who walk upon the laws of the Dao. People who might be thousands of years old."
"You mean... gods?" Xin Yan asked with a choked voice.
The group flew with a route that veered slightly, following the river path below them. They appeared to be searching for something; the gazes of several people on the flying swords continued to sweep the forest below. The light from the swords illuminated the silver trees where the eight teenagers were hiding. Suddenly, one of the men standing on the leading flying sword stopped his progress. He wore a pure white robe with blue cloud patterns at the ends of his sleeves.
His long hair was tied neatly back with a jade hairpin. The man turned his gaze sharply downward. His gaze was directed straight at the location of the rock crevice behind the silver tree roots. He saw the sparks of light from the campfire still burning inside the cave. The white-robed man tilted his head slightly. His eyes met Chu Xinghe's eyes peeking from the root gap. They were hundreds of meters apart, yet Xinghe felt as if the man were standing right in front of his face.
It was not just a gaze. As the man looked at them, an invisible air pressure immediately fell from the sky upon their bodies. It felt as if a large boulder had suddenly been tied to their spines. The pressure inside the rock crevice felt multiplied in a fraction of a second. Li Wei immediately collapsed to the ground with a suppressed moan. His face hit the dirt and he had no strength at all to lift his neck.
Zhao Lin fell to his knees, both hands clutching his chest which suddenly felt tight, as if the air in his lungs was being forcibly sucked out. Lin Mei and Fang Hua fell huddled, their bodies shaking uncontrollably as if they were facing an apex predator from the deadliest food chain. Even Han Dong, who had the strongest physique, fell resting on both hands. Cold sweat the size of corn kernels poured from his forehead.
His arm muscles bulged trying to withstand the weight of the pressure, but his joints creaked in protest. Xin Yan closed her eyes tightly, tears dripping from the corners of her eyes due to the fear that paralyzed her sanity. Yun Hai lay sideways, unable to utter any sound. Only Chu Xinghe forced himself to remain in a half-kneeling position. He gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw ached.
This pressure was insane. This was not magic. This was the pure projection of power from someone who had condensed the essence of life to a level that defied the mortal realm. The blood inside Chu Xinghe's body felt like it was boiling, trying to resist the oppressive pressure from outside. His eyes were bloodshot, staring back at the man in the sky without blinking. The white-robed man seemed to raise an eyebrow slightly, as if surprised to see one ant down there that could still lift its head under his gaze.
He raised his right hand and gave a gentle signal to the wooden boat behind him. The aerial group stopped moving forward. The man turned his flying sword around and began to descend. The dragon-carved wooden boat and several other sword riders followed behind him. They descended with very smooth movements, gliding through the night air toward the open area on the riverbank, only a dozen meters from the tree root crevice where Xinghe's group was hidden.
The pressure in the cave eased slightly as the group landed, giving the eight teenagers a chance to draw ragged breaths. Li Wei turned his body over, crying silently while clutching his chest. Zhao Lin panted like a fish thrown onto dry land. Chu Xinghe wiped the blood coming from his nose due to ruptured capillaries from resisting the pressure earlier. He turned to Han Dong. "They are coming down. No one make any sudden movements or loud noises."
Outside the root crevice, the ancient group had landed. The white-robed man stepped down from his sword. As soon as his feet touched the river rocks, the silver-glowing sword shrunk in size very quickly and flew into his sleeve. That magical act was done very casually as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Several other men and women descended from the wooden boat. Their clothing showed a clear strata.
Some carried swords on their backs, some carried bamboo scrolls, and a few people in simpler clothing stood behind as guards. The white-robed man led the small group toward the tree root cliff crevice. His footsteps did not make the slightest sound of grinding gravel. "Come out," the man's voice echoed in the air. The language was spoken with an ancient accent, very clear and sounding directly piercing into one's being.
Chu Xinghe swallowed hard. He slowly rose to his feet. His hand signaled his friends to stay calm. Xinghe stepped out first, pushing aside the thick silver tree roots and walking out of the protection of their emergency cave. Han Dong followed behind him with stiff steps, followed by Xin Yan and the others. The eight of them stood in a row by the river, facing a dozen people in ancient clothing who radiated an extraordinary aura.
The difference between the two groups was striking. Xinghe's group wore modern clothing consisting of jackets, shirts, and torn jeans, covered in bloodstains, mountain mud, and earthen dust. Their faces were dirty and they looked pitiful. On the other hand, the flying group wore silk clothing without the slightest blemish. Their skin radiated perfect health, their hair was neatly arranged, and the aura around them made the night air feel warm and fragrant.
The white-robed man looked at the eight of them from head to toe. His gaze stopped at the strange clothes the group of teenagers wore. He furrowed his brow.
"Mortals," the man murmured in a very cold and flat tone. "A group of strange mortals. How can trash without cultivation essence like you be inside the Forest of a Thousand Purple Leaves?"
The man turned to one of the women in his group who held an ancient jade compass. "Is there a crack in the protective array around these mountains? It is impossible for mortals to enter this far without being torn apart by savage spirit beasts in the outer layers of the forest."
The woman holding the jade compass stepped forward. She wore a light blue robe with silver thread embroidery in the shape of a lotus on her shoulders. She observed the compass needle that kept spinning restlessly, then looked at the eight teenagers in front of her with a scrutinizing gaze.
"There are no cracks in the outer protective array, Senior Brother Lu," the woman replied. Her voice sounded like the chiming of a jade bell. "However, the aura around them is very chaotic. There are remnants of ancient energy clinging to their clothes. Very dense, but not originating from this place."
The man called Senior Lu looked back at Chu Xinghe. The air pressure around them increased slightly again, forcing Li Wei and Zhao Lin to bow their bodies lower.
"You," the man spoke again, louder this time. "Where do you come from? Your clothes do not resemble the citizens from the cities at the foot of the mountain, nor any Empire I recognize. Who sent you here?"
Chu Xinghe took a deep breath. He tried to calm his pounding heart. Chu Xinghe pointed toward the mountain peak with his slightly trembling hand. "We... we come from a distant place, Sir. As far as we remember, we passed through a giant hole surrounded by a dark sea, and then we fell suddenly from the sky above that mountain."
"Fell from the sky?" Senior Lu repeated those words in a tone that contained no emotion at all. His eyes glanced toward the mountain peak still shrouded in the remains of the blizzard. "You mentioned a giant hole and a dark sea. You do not come from the Eastern Heavenly Realm?"
"Eastern Heavenly Realm?" Chu Xinghe repeated the term in his head. "We do not know what the Eastern Heavenly Realm is. We came from a planet. Our city in Guangzhou drowned because a giant object fell from the sky. That object was shaped like—"
Chu Xinghe suddenly stopped; his instinct told him that if he said his arrival with his colleagues to this place was because of a strange furnace and nine corpses, they would die instantly or be enslaved to search for that furnace in the abyss. Chu Xinghe swallowed, he exhaled a trembling breath for a moment before continuing.
"We came using a broken flying boat," Xinghe cut in quickly. He did not look Senior Lu in the eye directly, but instead looked down at the man's clean shoes. "That boat was destroyed when it hit the mountain peak and we were thrown onto the slope. We know nothing about this place. We are just a group of merchants who got lost when a great storm hit our shipping route."
The lie just came out. Han Dong beside him stiffened for a moment, but he was smart enough to remain silent and bow his head as deep as possible. Li Wei even began to sob quietly to add to the pitiful impression. Senior Lu did not believe it immediately. He stepped forward one more step, leaving only two meters between himself and Xinghe. The cold air from the man's body swept over Xinghe's face.
"Merchants?" Senior Lu raised his right hand. With a very fast finger movement, a glow of yellow light appeared at the tip of his index finger. He aimed that light toward Xinghe's chest. "Are you too stupid or have you truly chosen mortality? You have reached an age where you should have achieved the Heavenly Origin, yet you became merchants. And, what kind of merchant passes through a dark hole to get here?"
Senior Lu withdrew his finger; he looked Chu Xinghe in the eyes. "This is the Eastern Heavenly Realm, one of the ten heavenly realms. If you do not know, then you are not from here. However, if you come from the outside, perhaps you come from the Three Thousand Worlds? Your clothing suggests you might come from the Three Thousand Worlds."
"Three Thousand Worlds?" Chu Xinghe repeated the term with a stiff tongue. His face was pale. He truly had no frame of reference for the term. In his head, the world was only one: Earth. The Milky Way galaxy might be vast, but the Eastern Heavenly Realm and the Three Thousand Worlds sounded like nonsensical regional divisions in any astronomical map he had ever studied at school.
Han Dong beside him swallowed hard repeatedly. He glanced at Xinghe with a gaze that seemed to ask, "What should we say?" But Xinghe himself was struggling to keep his knees from shaking. The pressure from this man named Lu felt like standing in front of a running jet engine.