She was the only one who could get here to meet me at top speed. It would only take the eagle demon half an hour to fly at full speed from Fucheng to here.
Shao Qing, the eagle demon, picked up the phone. I asked her if she remembered this mountain. She said she did.
"Isn't there a cliff? I can't wait for you here. I'm afraid they'll track me. I'll go down along the cliff, then take the path we came on. When you're nearby, call me."
"...Boss, can you get down by yourself?" The eagle demon doubted my ability.
"Whether I can or not, I have to try. It's better than being trapped to death here. Hurry up!" I said.
"Okay, I'm leaving right now—Brother Wuji, I'll turn into an eagle later and tie my phone to my leg."
"You can do that?" Sha Wuji was clearly unfamiliar with such high-end operations from our squad.
The call ended. The weather was very cold. After turning on the phone and making a call, my battery level was only 14%. I was afraid it wouldn't last until the eagle demon arrived, so I turned it off again.
Walking down a short distance, I soon reached the cliff. Even though I had descended once before, looking down again today still made me a bit dizzy.
I couldn't climb down directly; it was too high, with no room for error. One slip would mean being shattered to pieces. I tried to find vines or something for protection in the forest, but unfortunately, I found nothing. This forest was mostly pine. The branches were useless, and the bark was even more so, leaving my hands full of debris.
There were very few vine plants in the northeast. Wait a minute... vine plants, I thought I saw some just now!
That's right, that vineyard was full of vines! httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
With this thought, I quickly returned to the mountaintop. Xiang Qi, the three of them hadn't moved, and no reinforcements had arrived. I quickly descended the mountain and returned to the vineyard. I had been in such a hurry before that I hadn't observed carefully. It turned out that besides grapevines, there was also wire used to build the trellises. The grapevines grew along the trellises. This thing was much more useful than grapevines!
The wire was No. 10 gauge, quite soft. I didn't have pliers, but by twisting it with my hands a few times, the local area of the wire would heat up, and I could twist it off. As a man, I had this much strength. I soon collected more than a dozen pieces of wire. They were quite heavy; if I took any more, I wouldn't be able to carry them.
I also picked two bunches of grapes that had been left on the trellis in late autumn to replenish my energy. When I was eating with Long Yue earlier, I was too busy pouring her wine and didn't eat much food.
Carrying the tangled wires, I climbed the mountain again. The weight made me quite exhausted. By the time I reached the summit, I was covered in sweat. The cold wind blew through my clothes, chilling me to the bone. I didn't dare to linger and returned to the cliff. I connected the wires one by one, twisting them together, and finally used the crevices in the rocks, acting as clamps, to secure them firmly.
In the end, I had a wire "rope" more than twenty meters long. I tied one end of the wire to a large branch as a marker and lowered it down the cliff. It wasn't long enough, but judging by the position of the branch, it was only about five or six meters from the bottom of the cliff. At this height, even falling wouldn't be fatal, so there was no need to make another trip to steal more wire.
My hands were sore and tired from the strenuous effort, and my stamina had been considerably depleted. I sat on a rock and took out the shriveled grapes from my pocket. I ate a dozen or so. Perhaps due to dehydration, they were exceptionally sweet. The fruit sugars were absorbed by my body, quickly converting into energy. I felt more invigorated than after drinking two cans of Red Bull.
After replenishing my energy, I tied one end of the wire to a protruding rock at the top of the cliff and the other end to my belt buckle. Then, I carefully began to climb down.
The wire was flexible and didn't lie flat like a rope. At first, because the wire was bent quite severely, I felt very awkward and was constantly pressured by the wire. However, as I descended, the wire gradually straightened, and the resistance lessened. During the descent, my hands slipped twice, but because I had the wire, I felt more confident and quickly regained my balance. It wasn't until I was about ten meters from the bottom of the cliff that I encountered a significant obstacle.
Within five meters on either side of my body, there were no handholds or footholds. I looked down. The next "step" I could reach was below three meters and very narrow, only about a dozen centimeters. There was also a protruding section of the mountain in the middle. If I jumped directly, I might be bounced off by the mountain and fail to land on the "step." Moreover, with such a strong downward force, I worried that it might pull apart one of the wire joints. Falling from this height, especially with my back facing down, was still very dangerous.
This path was blocked...