The trek up the mountain turned out to be a much more arduous task than what either of them had expected.
Even if they weren't peak existences, they still had a great deal of strength, and their resistance was something they prided themselves on. This went especially for Ruyue, who had a natural resistance to any and all yin-natured elements.
However, the mountain seemed to ignore any sort of resistance as it pummeled them with its natural forces. Biting cold seeped into their bones and forced them to revolve their mana in order to resist it, fierce blizzards wrapped around the entire mountain seemingly without end, not giving them a moment of respite.
Until this point, they had yet to run into any beasts, but their fight against the environment was fiercer than any true battle they could have been fighting.
"How far up the mountain have we come?" Ruyue yelled. It was difficult to hear each other's voices even when they were standing so close.
"We haven't even made it a fourth of the way up the visible area! We have a ways to go before we can be considered to have made good progress!" Damien yelled back.
If they turned around, they'd clearly be able to see the base of the mountain from which they came, even with the tumultuous weather around them, which heavily lowered their visibility.
Suddenly, Damien grabbed Ruyue's arm and yanked her back towards him. "Watch your step!"
There were no obvious signs that indicated towards Damien's sudden movements, but it didn't take long for that doubt to be cleared. Damien picked up a small rock on the ground next to him and lightly threw it in the area to their front.
And from the light impact of that rock alone, the snow began to rumble. Slowly but surely, cracks began to spread on the ground, splintering and spreading until a massive web over 10 kilometers long was formed. And soon enough, that web began to shatter.
The snow slowly crumbled and fell, creating a mini avalanche. But instead of charging down the mountainside, it fell directly downward. The snow was already many feet deep, and with the large radius that had become unhinged, it looked like the sky was falling into the abyss below.
It took an entire 10 minutes for the phenomenon to end, and at its end, there were no signs of the snow remaining. Only a deep darkness whose depth was unknown.
"What the…" Ruyue muttered. What kind of environment was this? There was no way for the snow to stay suspended over such a massive chasm without land to support it, but from the way it collapsed she was sure this was the truth.
"A danger zone is indeed a danger zone. These kinds of places can't be explained with normal logic." Damien commented under his breath. He had only been able to sense a discrepancy in the ground ahead, which he thought might be some sort of natural trap or hidden monster.
Even he didn't expect such a scene to take place in front of them.
"Hold on to me, let's teleport across." Damien swiftly took hold of Ruyue's arm once again and entered the spatial layers, vanishing from his spot.
"Strange…" he muttered. He was being extremely careful. Instead of using the easy method of simply connecting the spatial layers and jumping across, he slowly waded through them.
There was no way of knowing when another situation like this would pop up, especially when Damien barely sensed the first one. However, that wasn't what he found strange.
As he navigated the spatial layers, he glanced at the abyss down below and realized that there were faint traces of life aura within the darkness. But the feeling was similar to that of the massive tree, a life aura so massive that it was transmitted even at a large distance.
Damien sped up his movements at the realization. Just being above such a thing wasn't something he wanted. In an instant, he arrived at the other end of the chasm with Ruyue.
And at that moment, a deep groan was heard echoing through the chasm. The walls of the chasm and even the ground of the mountain rumbled violently as this ancient growl sounded out.
In the distance, a chorus of similar groans resounded, as if multiple of these creatures decided to howl in tandem.
Countless areas in the mountain witnessed rapidly dislodging areas of snow, which soon caused an even larger avalanche than the one the duo saw previously.
"Shit!"
The cascading snow tumbled down the mountain and superimposed on itself, snowballing into a tide that eclipsed the sun.
Realizing that there was no way to move forward, Damien gritted his teeth and once again entered the spatial layers. He spread his awareness as far as he could and connected the spatial layers, creating a tunnel that connected hundreds of kilometers away, out of the avalanche's reach.
Or at least, that's what should have happened.
When Damien and Ruyue reappeared, they were only 10 kilometers to the left of their original position.
"My teleportation is being suppressed." Damien realized, his face becoming grave.
Time slowed for no man, and the avalanche would reach their position in only a few seconds.
Damien continued teleporting, moving 10 kilometers at a time as he tried to take them as far away from the center of the wave as he could, but in the end, he couldn't do much.
No matter how many tens of kilometers he moved, there was still a massive tide rolling down the mountainside.
"What kind of insane beast can cause this kind of natural disaster with a mere groan?!"
Damien was aghast, his back drenched in a cold sweat that was even more pronounced in this chilly atmosphere. 'Am I really going to have to fight against a damn avalanche?'
The only exit he saw was to carve a path forward with raw strength. Escape at this point seemed like an impossible dream.
Suddenly, Ruyue struggled out of his grip. With a similarly grave expression, she stared at the oncoming tide "Let me try something."
Ruyue closed her eyes and raised her arm towards the avalanche, mana blasting out of her figure. The air around them chilled even further, becoming something Damien wasn't able to ignore.
"Split!"
Her eyes shot open ferociously and mana gushed towards the avalanche. A path of icy wind crashed forward and created a wave. Although it was unable to contend with the sheer size of the avalanche, its presence was still mighty.
Seeing her unreservedly pour out her mana reserves, Damien felt that he couldn't stay passive. Just like her, he gathered his mana and raised his arm, his sword soon appearing in his grasp.
'A sword without a blade.' This was the essence of the first sword skill he created. To superimpose upon space and banish anything within it into the void.
The majority of his mana reserves gushed into his blade as he swiftly brought it down. And without suspense, a massive gash was torn in the mountain in front of him.
The wave of snow was impacted heavily, dying down in the area ahead of them, and when Ruyue's attack landed as well, the wave split in two.
Damien wasn't going to miss this opportunity. Once again grabbing Ruyue, he sped forward until he was within range and teleported through the split in the wave, appearing on the other side.
No matter how he wanted to do so earlier, it was impossible without knowing the depths of the wave. If he teleported carelessly, they might've ended up trapped within the massive walls of snow.
But luckily, they had made it out. Turning around, he could see the wave crashing back down onto the mountain, once again causing it to rumble. And when he spread his awareness, he realized that the chasm they had previously opened was once again covered in snow.
When Damien turned back around, the first thing he saw was Ruyue with a stiff expression on her face.
He didn't want to acknowledge it, but as his head slowly and robotically turned to face the same direction as her, he saw tens of snow-white leopards charging towards them with their killing intent billowing.
