Normally, it would have taken them only a few hours to get to the top.

But... there was one person who seemed to not know how to climb these steps.

That person was none other than Huang Shuying.

"Uaaaaah!"

Ah.

As Xuan glanced down, he spotted Huang Shuying tumbling down the steps, striking Hanbi and Hua Lian as though she was playing bowling and taking them down the side of the mountain for the fifth time in four hours.

"..."

"Yuelan, please get her."

"No."

"Yuelan..."

Xuan let out a sigh.

"We’ve made it halfway, and that klutz keeps making us fall."

Hearing that, Yuelan grumbled and leaned back slightly.

"Hanbiiiii! Guard downstairs for us, would you!? The three of us will go up!"

"Noooooo!"

Hanbi didn’t sound very eager.

But with Huang Shuying tying her down, she didn’t have much of a choice. And so, as those three continued to hurtle down, Xuan, Yuelan, and Sierra continued going up.

And less than an hour later, they finally arrived at the entrance of a cave. This wasn’t the top of the mountain yet, but if he wasn’t wrong, there was a path leading upward.

Still...

"There’s a few booby traps here," Sierra said. "Arrow traps mostly. Some Qi-infused traps too. You should probably let me take the lead this time."

"Of course," Xuan replied. Then, he leaned over and shook Yuelan off his shoulders, causing her to land in a pit of moss and pout at him.

"You could’ve set me down more gently."

Xuan flat out ignored her and stood behind Sierra.

"Feel free to lead us. I’ll take care of defending you. Once Yuelan wipes her ass, she’ll help out too."

"Got it."

She began walking forward, and Xuan traced her every step. On the other hand, once Yuelan realized they were both ignoring her, she stood up and followed as well, cussing under her breath slightly.

As it so happens, this cave was filled with a bunch of murals, most of which detailed people with three eyes. There was even an angel-like figure who had one eye on his forehead, and then one eye per wing. With two wings, he had three eyes in total.

Xuan found it pretty cool. He was also sure that Hanbi would’ve enjoyed seeing something like this.

"This cave’s pretty spooky. Though, I can’t help but feel like these traps are newly placed," Yuelan said, then pointed at the ground.

"I mean, look at that moss. There’s a literal footprint there."

Xuan was about to dismiss her words, but upon looking down, he realized that she was actually right. The footprints were fresh, and beyond that, there was stuff like unfinished traps, snapped branches...

"Pardon me."

Before Sierra could even turn around, Xuan suddenly grabbed her and picked her up in a princess carry. Then, he dashed through the cave, triggering every active trap and causing dozens of arrows to fly his way.

Yet none of the arrows actually hit him, since Xuan was just moving that fast. Yuelan, on the other hand, followed closely behind them with a pout, dodging all the incoming projectiles, until finally, they reached the end of the cave and were met with a cliff.

But without batting an eye, Xuan went ahead and jumped off the cliff, then rotated his body, glancing back up at the top of the mountain. With another thought, he began spamming Void Step. He was a little careful so as not to open a spatial crack.

He might be fine, but Sierra might not be.

Nonetheless, after just a few seconds of Void Stepping, Xuan reached the very top of the mountain and put Sierra down. Sadly, when she hit the ground, the first thing she did was vomit.

And as lady luck might have it, when Yuelan got to the top too, she unknowingly landed in the puddle of vomit left by Sierra.

...But clearly, it didn’t take long for her to realize.

"You two... I swear I’m going to topple this mountain onto the city."

"Blegh..." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Sierra continued pouring out vomit like a fountain, and while Yuelan dodged the vomit, Xuan decided to step away from the two of them and look around.

Unlike the bottom, the top of the mountain was like a paradise, heaven, rather.

The ground was pure white marble, and there wasn’t a single tree or boulder in sight.

Instead, there was a small temple in the very center of the mountain peak, and judging from the powerful Qi pressure coming from inside, Xuan guessed that was where the Three-Eyed Angel, or rather, his apostle, was.

"You two clean yourselves up. I’ll go ahead first," Xuan said.

"Humph. I’ll be there in just a minute," Yuelan replied.

"Ugh... I’ll be there in a bit too," Sierra said as well.

With that, Xuan walked up the modest steps of the temple and eventually arrived at the very top. In front of him, there was a single golden throne, on which a golden-haired man sat.

His hair was long, and his golden eyes looked particularly feminine. But despite all that, his angel-like white wings stood out the most. If anything, it was Xuan’s first time seeing an actual angel.

Power-wise? He seemed to be on the upper end of the Spirit Lord realm, which made him the most powerful being Xuan had seen so far.

Though, beyond that...

"Sup. What’s up with that shabby attempt at trying to slow us down? Do we threaten you?"

The angel just stared at him for a few moments, then let out a sigh.

"Had you killed any of my followers, I would’ve not hesitated to slay you myself. Since you’ve come this far, what is it that you seek?"

Xuan raised a brow and sat down on the ground. Crossing his legs, he said:

"You didn’t really answer my question, you know?"

"Must I answer such a clearly provocative question?"

"I would answer it. After all, the only reason we came here in the first place is to either get some treasure or kill you."

Xuan smiled.

"So what’ll it be, impostor?"