Chapter 113: Departure From Mist Mountain
The morning of the day of parting.
Xilutiya stood in front of the main gate, bidding farewell to Scholar Heide and the others behind her. Madam Fran, Viscountess Xue Feng, Lei, Winnie, Talil, and others were also present.
“Tiya, after this parting, I’m afraid it will be our last meeting.” Scholar Heide spoke words of farewell in a calm tone with a smile.
He was advanced in age, with little life left, and now he was exceptionally open-minded, probably with no regrets.
“Teacher Heide…” Xilutiya looked at the old man, not knowing what comforting words to say.
“Hehehe, no need to worry about me. I’ve long since come to terms with it.” His tone was relaxed, with no heart knots.
“The Star Lords have arrived, and no one can stop them.”
“My life too will one day come to an end.”
“Childhood, the past, and even many things will slowly turn into clouds and mist and dissipate, leaving only the empty sky.”
“Tiya, you will slowly understand.” He gazed into the sky, his long robe and white hair slightly fluttering in the wind.
“But your lives are just beginning, and you will encounter many things in the future, some possibly extremely painful, or facing huge setbacks.”
“No matter when, you must be strong, never belittle yourself, never bow to your enemies, even running away is better than giving up in despair.”
“Life is like a winding road, full of various surprises and turns.”
“Go, Tiya, go find your life and future, like a flying bird, climb that mountain.” After speaking his final words, he let go of everything, waved to his student from his later years, as if also bidding farewell to those faces from the past.
At this, Xilutiya was filled with emotion. She looked at the others who came to see her off: Madam Fran who had cared for her, big sister Winnie, Talil, Lei, Mike, and gave a slight nod. Then she brushed aside the hair by her ear disheveled by the wind, turned, and boarded the horse carriage.
The wheels crushed over the gravel, slowly starting, heading down the mountain path outside Jiaoshi City.
Inside the horse carriage, Xilutiya wore a black-based dress with white edges, sitting on her own suitcase, eyes closed, recalling everything she had experienced in the past half year.
The wind passed through the carriage window, lifting the white veil curtains to billow, dancing together with her long silver hair, stretching out in the carriage like a nostalgic photo frozen in a moment.
……
The horse carriage proceeded onward, leaving Jiaoshi City several kilometers behind, then crossed the mountain ridge, arriving at the top of a tall hill, that triangular cliff sloping toward the sky.
At the top of the cliff blooming with small white flowers, the horse carriage slowly stopped, and the driving knight jumped down, lightly knocking on the carriage door.
“We’re here, Tiya.”
“Okay, Mister Knight Morik.” Xilutiya opened the carriage door and stepped down, carrying her heavy suitcase in both hands.
This knight clad in silver-gray full plate armor easily took the suitcase from her hands and led Tiya slowly toward the platform at the mountaintop.
At the end of the grassland here, there was a wide stone slab, the inscriptions on it eroded and blurred by rainwater, and directly in front of the stone slab, an ancient stone sword was thrust into the ground, weathered by wind and frost.
“This is the place where King Regard and a group of knights made their oaths in the past. There are more than thirty such places within Regas Kingdom.” The knight walked ahead, set down the suitcase, and introduced it to Xilutiya.
“He enfeoffed those knights as guardians of various regions, which are the origins of the many noble families in Regas Kingdom today.”
“The knights who obtained land also swore to protect this land and the people on it, shielding them from the invasion of night demons, from being hunted by wild beasts, maintaining the lighthouse from the chaotic mist, becoming the sturdy city walls on this continent, upholding the boundary of civilization.”
Knight Morik walked slowly to the stone slab, half-kneeling, gently touching the wind-eroded inscriptions with one hand. Invisible ripples spread, as if some beacon was ignited, illuminating this vast world.
“We are on the continent above the sea of clouds. This world still risks falling into the abyss. Every established nation must cast city walls and tall towers in various places to block the chaotic mist of the Twilight Sea from eroding.”
“This is a struggle spanning three epochs, ever since the fall of the Seven Dragons.”
“The place you are going is the shadow below this continent, the world reflected in the Twilight Sea.”
“Many organizations and schools gather there, recruiting and absorbing excellent young people from everywhere, delving into the bottomless abyss to seek life and resources.”
“There will be many dangers, but also much to gain.”
“Today, I will see you off here, Tiya.” The knight stood up.
He slowly walked down the mountain slope, and the silver-haired maiden also waved goodbye to him in the wind.
“Thank you, Mister Knight Morik.”
The closed helmet of the other nodded to Tiya, then he led the horse carriage slowly toward the foot of the mountain slope, leaving the maiden and her suitcase alone standing in the sea of grass and the wind.
After probably several minutes, an extremely distant sound came from the far side of the mountains.
Xilutiya lightly shaded her eyes from the sun with her hand, but her gaze could see no figures.
In a certain instant, it was as if an invisible water membrane slowly tore, and a colossal figure hundreds of meters tall slowly emerged from one side of the mountains and sky, surrounded by mist not yet dispersed, spreading thousands of meters.
The six long legs of the colossal figure, each about a hundred meters tall, stepped between the canyon and the stream at the foot of the mountain, roughly fifty stories high. On the back of this camel-like giant figure was an even more towering layered building, its eaves and window frames reaching into the sky, casting a massive shadow, as if the sky instantly darkened, everything dimming.
This giant beast-like camel walked among the mountains, as if it were one of the mountains, immensely tall, and the places it stepped through were also filled with mist, making its entire body straddle between illusion and reality, profoundly mysterious.
This mountain-sized camel carried a distant bell sound, slowly passing through the mountains, gradually approaching the place where Xilutiya stood.
Merely its movement stirred invisible air currents and water mist. Xilutiya standing in place was now like being in a sea of clouds, with a long river of mist constantly rushing past her side. Her tiny figure was submerged in this vast sea of mist and clouds, like a small dot.
Finally, the giant camel slowly came before Xilutiya, and at this moment the maiden also saw clearly the tower on the camel’s back.
That was a twenty-seven-story tall building, layer upon layer, in a style different from all the buildings she had seen in Regas Kingdom. Each floor was hung with colorful long ropes, and on the ropes were bells of various sizes.
Among the bells, some were old and worn like rusted bronze, others brand new as if just hung. When the camel moved forward, these bells swayed, emitting sounds like the ocean.
The camel’s six tall legs stepped in the canyon below the cliff, its back level with the cliff. When it came to a stop, the originally clamorous bell sounds also ceased.
Everything suddenly quieted down, and Xilutiya noticed the Forest Badge pinned to her chest was now emitting a faint glow, shining on the mist-shrouded grassland.
Afterward, a clear bell sound came from the layered tall building, breaking the silence.
Xilutiya pressed down her fluttering hair, looked up at the top of the tall building. One closed door opened, and then invisible gravity lifted Xilutiya, along with her suitcase placed to the side, slowly rising toward the tall building on the camel’s back.
Watching herself getting farther and farther from the ground, Xilutiya instinctively stretched out her arms, grasping the suitcase by her side.
Shortly after, she slowly landed inside the opened door. When her toes touched the ground and she landed along with the suitcase, the door behind her closed again.
Then the camel rose once more, took its footwork, and headed toward the distant mountains, its figure slowly dissipating into the clouds and mist.
