Chapter Seventy-One: Determining the Direction

There are no eternal friends or eternal enemies in this world.

Last night, after listening to Xiao Ding’s words of comfort, Sun Dasheng pondered for most of the night and finally came to his senses. He decided never again to harm others as a mountain bandit.

From his own cave, Xiao Ding brought out water and dry rations, sharing them with Luo Dafeng and Yue Yurou. He also fed Sun Dasheng some water and food. After a few bites, Sun Dasheng refused further help, saying he would eat more once his acupoints were unsealed.

As they ate, they shared their stories.

It turned out Luo Dafeng had been with Bai Zheteng’s group. That day, while she left the group alone for a moment, the team was suddenly ambushed and utterly destroyed. She survived only because she wasn’t present at the time, but soon lost her way and, by sheer chance, encountered Shi Jianduan’s party.

Since Sun Dasheng had met Luo Dafeng’s husband once before, he asked Shi Jianduan to take Luo Dafeng in and travel together.

Shi Jianduan and his men had originally been following the people from Jade Purity Sect into the mountains, but after a while, they lost track of them. While Shi Jianduan was quietly brooding, Luo Dafeng arrived.

She was once called "The Flower of Shu", though that was in her youth. Now, older and long since married, she could not compare to her younger beauty. Even so, she was a handsome woman in middle age.

Upon hearing Sun Dasheng mention his acquaintance with Luo Dafeng’s husband, Shi Jianduan glanced at her. Though she was no longer young, she still retained her charm. Taking advantage of the situation, he agreed to let her join.

Her husband had gone north on business years before, and since then had vanished without a trace, his fate unknown.

With Bai Zheteng's group wiped out, Luo Dafeng found herself alone and agreed to join Shi Jianduan’s party.

But last night, while she was chatting with Shi Jianduan, he suddenly struck, sealing her acupoints while she was off guard, threw her over his shoulder, and fled into the woods. In a daze, she found herself by the cliff, where she lost her virtue to him...

Yet Luo Dafeng did not dwell much on the loss—she was an experienced woman, a widow long untouched by affection. What truly pained her was how Shi Jianduan left her in suspense, arousing her and leaving her unsatisfied, then, when danger arose, abandoned her to flee alone. Worse still, many saw her exposed—how could she face anyone now? How could she hold her head up in the future?

Sun Dasheng had heard Luo Dafeng’s cries and saw Shi Jianduan carrying her into the forest. Knowing well what his chief had in mind, he told his men to wait, then followed, hoping to stop him.

But he was less skilled than Shi Jianduan, and started late—nighttime made it harder to see. By the time he arrived, Shi Jianduan had already escaped.

Seeing that, besides Luo Dafeng, another woman was captured by the Twin Fiends of the Northern Desert, Sun Dasheng tried to rescue them both, only to nearly lose his own life to the fiends.

Yue Yurou had been with her sectmates, just ahead of Shi Jianduan’s group. He simply failed to notice them. Around midnight, she left the group to relieve herself, only to be ambushed by the Twin Fiends, her acupoints sealed and brought here.

After hearing everyone’s stories, Xiao Ding suddenly recalled he had forgotten to ask the Twin Fiends whether they’d seen Mei Ruoshuang.

He secretly hoped they hadn’t, for if they had, Mei Ruoshuang would hardly have escaped their deadly hands.

At this moment, it was impossible to say whether Mei Ruoshuang was alive or dead. Finding her would be harder than climbing to the heavens.

Just then, the two children woke.

After a night’s rest, the Ou siblings had regained some energy.

Xiao Ding checked Ou Mulin’s injured leg. The wound had scabbed over—nothing serious. With a few days’ rest, he would recover.

After introducing everyone, he let the children eat. Then Xiao Ding got up and walked along the foot of the cliff, looking up to see that there seemed to be no trees atop the cliff.

He wondered if, by climbing to the summit, he could determine their location.

Only by knowing exactly where they were could they plan a proper route forward. Otherwise, in these endless mountains and forests, they would be like headless flies—blundering about aimlessly.

Since Sun Dasheng’s acupoints were still sealed, and Luo Dafeng and Yue Yurou knew little about such things, it was better to scale the cliff himself than wait idly.

He explained his plan, instructing the others to hide in the cave and block the entrance with large stones.

Having just escaped danger, the two women were like startled birds and dared not wander alone. Hearing Xiao Ding’s suggestion, they nodded in agreement, warning him to be careful.

After blocking the cave entrance, Xiao Ding handed them the pair of judge’s pens and short halberds left behind by the Twin Fiends for self-defense. He himself, still carrying his chipped and battered knife, chose a gentler slope and began climbing.

The cliff was thirty to fifty zhang high—a perilously steep ascent. In truth, climbing such a cliff was extremely dangerous. Only because Xiao Ding was agile and his inner energy abundant did he dare attempt it.

Even so, it took him nearly an hour—a good two hours by modern reckoning—to reach the top.

Finally, he emerged onto the summit, where the view opened up. All around, lush forests and vegetation surged like rolling green waves. Here and there, rocks or cliffs jutted from the sea of green, like stars scattered across the night sky, or ships adrift on the ocean.

To the west of the cliff, a towering peak soared into the clouds, majestic and upright, dominating its companions like a phoenix among birds, or the moon among stars.

That was the main peak of Sunset Mountain—Sunset Peak itself.

The cliff where Xiao Ding stood was but one of the dozens of peaks clustered around Sunset Peak. Though not tall in itself, the terrain here was elevated, with all surrounding peaks rising from high ground. Thus, compared to the base of Sunset Mountain, these peaks might seem hundreds of zhang high, but from their own feet, each was only a few dozen zhang tall.

Xiao Ding carefully studied Sunset Peak. In fact, by skirting this cliff and heading west through the valley, he could reach the foot of Sunset Peak.

Even from this high vantage, Sunset Peak likely rose over three hundred zhang—over a thousand meters by modern measures.

Looking up, he saw the summit shrouded in clouds and mist, with traces of snow faintly visible.

From the top of the cliff, Xiao Ding took in his surroundings and, judging from the sun, determined his general direction. He then began to consider how to climb down.

It seemed his past days’ judgments had been mostly correct. Though he had wandered for days, Sunset Peak was large enough that, even if he had strayed, the time was short and he had not left its main range.

He surmised that all the parties climbing from Sunset Village up Sunset Mountain would still be on the eastern side of the main peak. Even if some had lost their way, none could circle around the giant main peak. For anyone reaching this place, one look at the towering mountain would make it clear they had found the principal summit.