Before them stretched a range of rolling mountains. From their vantage point, the full extent of the mountain chain was impossible to take in, but even the outermost peaks soared high enough to pierce the clouds.
"Have your Eight Spider Laces recovered?" Tang Hao asked lightly.
Tang San nodded. "They have."
Tang Hao glanced back at him. "Use them and keep up with me." With those six simple words, he launched himself forward, scaling the sheer cliff face directly ahead.
The rock wall before them was extraordinarily steep, nearly ninety degrees, yet under Tang Hao's feet it might as well have been flat ground. Each time his toes tapped the stone, his body rose another ten meters or more as he ascended toward the summit with startling speed.
Tang San drew a deep breath and gathered his Soul Power. Behind him, the Eight Spider Laces burst through his outer garment and unfurled in an instant.
After half a month of recovery, the Eight Spider Laces had regrown completely. They looked no different from before—if anything, they appeared even harder and sharper than before.
He leaned forward, the Eight Spider Laces bending beneath him until his body hovered just above the ground like a great spider crouched low. Then the Laces struck with explosive force, catapulting him upward in a bolt of motion. He shot nearly twenty meters into the air.
Shlshlshlshlshl— The Eight Spider Laces plunged into the cliff face as easily as if piercing tofu, and Tang San's body clung to the rock wall.
As an external spirit bone, the Eight Spider Laces were extraordinarily versatile. Apart from granting the ability to fly, they could overcome virtually any terrain.
Once latched onto the wall, Tang San urged the Laces into a rapid, undulating rhythm. Propelled by their coordinated movement, his body climbed toward the summit just like an enormous spider scaling a tree.
Though Tang Hao moved at tremendous speed, Tang San—aided by the Eight Spider Laces—was by no means slow. With legs that spanned four meters, he actually moved faster than he could on flat ground.
As the Laces pulsed rhythmically, Tang San felt the blood in his body gradually warming, spreading a sensation of comfort throughout every part of him. He understood that this was the process of complete integration between the Eight Spider Laces and his body following their rebirth.
Tang Hao pressed onward like an inexhaustible machine, carrying Tang San across peak after peak. After nearly half a day of travel, they had ventured deep into the heart of the mountain range.
Using the Eight Spider Laces consumed Soul Power as well, and after half a day of continuous movement, Tang San was beginning to feel lightheaded.
It was then that a faint, rumbling roar reached his ears, and the air around him grew noticeably more humid.
What was that?
Tang San looked up at Tang Hao, who was ahead of him, and realized his father appeared to be heading directly toward the source of the sound.
As they drew closer, the rumbling grew steadily louder until it became a deafening roar. The air grew ever more humid, and the temperature here was even lower than outside.
At last, Tang Hao came to a stop. They had arrived at a valley—or more precisely, at a pool of water.
The pool was crystal clear, so transparent that the bottom was visible, its surface still and deep, like a colossal blue sapphire.
Along one side of the valley, a waterfall roughly twenty meters wide cascaded down a nearly two-hundred-meter cliff face like a jade ribbon. The thunderous roar was produced by its relentless plunge into the pool below.
As the waterfall crashed into the water, it sent up countless droplets that caught the sunlight, forming a seven-arching rainbow that spanned the pool—an indescribably dazzling spectacle.
The moment Tang San arrived, a cool, refreshing mist of water greeted his face. The damp air was invigorating and immensely pleasant.
Mountains embraced them on all sides, verdant with life. Before him lay the rippling blue sapphire of the pool and the magnificent waterfall joining sky to earth in a grand curtain of white. The sheer beauty of it all left Tang San momentarily spellbound.
Tang Hao stood there in silence, his gaze fixed upon the waterfall that poured down like the Milky Way descending to the earth. For some reason, his typically cold and stern expression had softened. On that weathered face, a tenderness shone through that he could not conceal.
Father and son stood by the pool for a long while, neither moving. It was Tang San who broke free of the enchantment first, turning instinctively to look at his father.
Perhaps sensing his gaze, Tang Hao's expression shifted, and he slowly turned to face Tang San.