Leaving the chilly cave, the moment the sunlight shone on her body again, Durandal couldn't help but shiver in the warmth.
"It really isn't cold anymore after leaving the cave!" After stretching her limbs, which had become a little stiff from sitting on the boat, Durandal let out a long breath and looked at the mountain path steps ahead, eager to try.
Unlike Durandal's full spirits, Li Sushang felt that one could only truly know how high a mountain was when they were at its foot.
Such a long road, such a steep slope, she had lived her life treading on thin ice, could she really make it to the top?
But there was no other way. After all, she was the one who wanted to come along. She couldn't go back now, so she could only grit her teeth and climb this mountain with Durandal and Rita.
The time was now 2:00 PM, when the sun was at its hottest.
However, the trees on both sides of the road formed a continuous green canopy for this long mountain path, preventing the sun from shining in.
There weren't many signs of development here. At a glance, even the path up the mountain was winding, like a sheep's intestine, twisting and turning as it extended up the mountain.
"These are all tea trees," Rita continued her tour guide duties. "They have been here for a long time as well. Unlike those standardized tea plantations, these tea trees are basically all wild.
"The monks here rely on the tea leaves produced by these trees to maintain their daily lives in the temple. Out of respect for the tea forest, they don't carry out large-scale picking, so life in the temple has always been frugal."
"Rita, you know so much!" Durandal and Li Sushang stared at Rita in amazement. Rita's eloquent manner was almost as if she had lived here since childhood!
"This is all from the brochure. I'm just reading it to you," Rita said with a slight bow, not rejecting their surprise.
"Really?!" Li Sushang and Durandal exclaimed in surprise. They fumbled for the brochure and began to flip through it. Sure enough, they soon found the passage Rita had mentioned.
Rita, on the other hand, squinted her eyes at the somewhat bare tea trees.
Except for some large, mature leaves at the top of the tea trees, there were no traces of tea leaves anywhere within reach.
Not even the buds of the tea leaves could be seen.
It was late spring now, and the hot summer was just around the corner. This period should be full of life... and these tea trees were wild, so even if no one took care of them, there shouldn't be any problems...
Rita's eyes lit up slightly. She remembered something.
Tea leaves are edible.
"Lady Durandal, Miss Sushang, it seems we have to pick up the pace," Rita said, turning back to the two after realizing something.
"Rita, did you find something?" Durandal looked up. Seeing Rita's serious expression, she also became serious.
"The tea leaves here have been picked. Based on the time the tea trees sprout, someone was here not long ago," Rita said, stating her conjecture. "This entire large area of tea trees is no exception. It seems there are quite a few survivors."
The relaxed expression on Durandal's face instantly faded, replaced by extreme seriousness.
She looked at the path up the mountain, then looked down at the little short-legged girl beside her.
"Sushang, we have to hurry." With that, Durandal bent down, scooped up Li Sushang, and charged up the mountain in large strides.
Seeing Durandal's somewhat anxious look, Rita just shrugged helplessly and followed at a leisurely pace.
"Lady Durandal, we should go this way. That's the way down the mountain."
"Huh? But we haven't even gone up the mountain yet?"
The thing about mountain roads is that the more you rush, the longer they seem. Durandal carried... hugged Li Sushang and charged ahead for a distance. When she looked up, the ancient tea trees around her gave her the feeling that she had been running in place.
And the words that drifted over from Rita almost made her lose her breath.
"Then which way is up the mountain?" Durandal, who wanted to immediately start moving, fell silent as she looked at the four-way intersection of the mountain path.
Rita raised her hand and pointed the way.
Durandal nodded, locked onto the direction Rita was pointing, and then reached out with her other hand, grabbing Rita's hand that was pointing the way.
A small question mark appeared next to Rita's still-smiling face. The next moment, Durandal was already pulling one in each hand and charging forward in large strides again.
Rita had no chance to speak and was pulled along by Durandal.
The three of them ran wildly along the mountain path at Durandal's speed. After running for a distance, it seemed that Durandal still felt it was a little slow, so Li Sushang and Rita witnessed the travel technique Durandal had just comprehended.
The mountain path they were supposed to take was winding, but Durandal wanted to go in a straight line, so...
Durandal, pulling Rita with one hand and carrying... hugging Li Sushang with the other, leaped onto the railing built next to the mountain path, and then used the railing to leap up again.
The three of them instantly crossed several meters, landing steadily on the railing of the mountain path ahead.
In terms of straight-line distance, they had advanced several meters. In terms of walking distance, they had saved about twenty meters of winding road.
And in terms of altitude... Durandal's leap had brought the three of them up by one meter.
And the altitude of Xieyang Mountain was over two thousand meters. They needed to climb over a thousand meters to reach Xieyang Temple. Durandal only needed to do this a thousand more times to reach her destination...
Yes, "only"...
Durandal didn't know how the other two's "ride" was, but she had really found a "small" trick to travel faster.
So she really did just jump and leap up with the two of them, and her movements became more and more familiar, from one jump per meter to two meters per jump.
She even improved the two's terrible riding experience.
So the final situation was...
"Ahhh, Sister Durandal, slow down, I'm going to fall!!!"
"..."
"Don't worry! I'm holding on tight!!"
"You're pulling on my collar, I can't breathe—!!"
"..."
"What?! What can't be stopped?"
"She can't breathe, Lady Durandal."
This time she understood. Durandal turned her head sharply, screeched to a halt on the mountain path, and hurriedly put Li Sushang down.
Li Sushang patted her neck with lingering fear. There were no marks left from being choked. The suffocation just now was probably psychological...
"Phew... it's good to be alive..." Li Sushang let out a long sigh, her eyes revealing a vicissitude that didn't belong to her age.
"Lady Durandal, let's just travel normally..." Rita gracefully patted her clothes, then decisively took half a step back as Durandal turned around.
"Uh..." Durandal scratched her head in embarrassment, pointed behind her, and said, "But we're almost there..."