84: Begin climbing the world's highest peak!

"The round trip will probably take me about ten days."

Jiang Yuan looked at her and instructed with some concern:

"For these ten days, you'll be all alone. It will be very boring."

"I can handle it."

Lamu smiled brightly, the light in her eyes undimmed:

"Back home, I often went into solitary retreat to chant scriptures. Staying indoors for a month is no problem."

For Tibetan people, solitude is often a companion to cultivation, and she was not afraid.

"Alright, I'll set off first thing tomorrow morning."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan took out a highly futuristic metal sphere from the storage compartment.

He pressed it lightly with his finger.

A beam of light projected out, condensing into a clear three-dimensional image in the air.

It was a real-time view from inside the vehicle, with realistic colors, and the perspective could even be zoomed in and out freely.

"I'll be taking this communicator. You can see me anytime through the holographic screen in the car, and I can also see the situation inside the car anytime."

This was the car's black technology communicator, capable of ignoring any signal jamming.

Looking at the seemingly tangible image before her, Lamu did not show any amazement toward the technology.

Instead, she seemed to have thought of something, and two patches of red inexplicably appeared on her cheeks.

Anytime... seeing each other?

Doesn't that mean... Jiang Yuan looked at her sudden shyness, feeling utterly confused.

Why is this girl blushing like a bubble teapot?

Night fell.

The night at the foot of Mount Everest was bitterly cold, but the car interior remained temperate like spring.

Jiang Yuan gentlemanly gave the master bedroom's large bed to Lamu, while he slept on the sofa bed in the living room.

Although it was a sofa, with the addition of black technology materials, the sleeping experience was in no way inferior to the large bed.

The next morning.

After a simple breakfast, Jiang Yuan was fully prepared to depart.

Restricted by that "perverted" System Mission, his entire outfit was extremely simple: a windbreaker, work pants, hiking boots, and bare-handed climbing.

Inside the large hiking backpack, apart from some food, the nikon z9 camera, and a backup power supply, there was virtually no extra weight.

The energy drinks were in the System Space, which was good because he didn't have to carry them.

There were no oxygen tanks, no one-piece down suits, and no Sherpa guides.

Before leaving, Jiang Yuan nagged her one more time, like an old mother.

"The water circulation system in the car filters automatically. Just find some ice or snow outside and throw it in, and you can drink it."

"The food is all in the refrigerator, enough for you to eat for a month."

"Most importantly, there are wild beasts around here. Snow Leopards and wolf packs are possible. No matter what happens, absolutely do not get out of the car!"

"The car is absolutely safe; not even a nuclear bomb could breach it. Did you remember that?"

Lamu wore her black and white Tibetan Robe, her long braid hanging down her back.

She stood next to the massive wheel, listening to Jiang Yuan's instructions, and nodded obediently.

Watching Jiang Yuan's retreating back, she waved vigorously.

That scene looked exactly like a wife sending her husband off to war and waiting alone for his return.

Jiang Yuan glanced back, then shook his head, throwing off that strange emotion in his mind.

Adjusting his breathing, his gaze locked onto the world's highest peak, towering into the clouds.

Since he was here, he would conquer it.

Jiang Yuan took large strides, not panting or moving cautiously like ordinary climbers.

His steps were large and powerful, each one making a dull thud on the gravel ground.

Soon, his figure disappeared at the end of the boulder field, formally stepping into the glacier region.

This was an extension of the Rongbuk Glacier, where massive Serac Forests stood tall, and the ground was hard, bright ice.

When ordinary people reached this point, even wearing the sharpest crampons, they would have to nervously establish footholds.

But Jiang Yuan didn't even look down.

The terrifying core strength and sense of balance brought by his Eightfold Physique made his feet seem rooted to the ground.

Encountering a steep ice wall, he did not detour.

He formed his right hand into a claw and exerted force violently.

"Pfft!"

His five fingers, like steel hooks, actually plunged straight into the hard, millennia-old cold ice!

Splinters of ice scattered.

Without any tools, he was the strongest humanoid weapon.

The grip was as steady as iron tongs; the instant his fingertips hooked into the ice layer, he leveraged the force to launch himself into the air.

On this vertical, intensely cold ice surface, he moved without the usual caution of a normal person, instead being as agile as a white ape returning to the mountains, swiftly traversing the complex Serac Forest.

If this counter-intuitive speed of movement were seen by the commercial climbing teams currently huddled in Base Camp, relying on oxygen to acclimatize to the altitude, they would probably be so shocked they'd rip off their oxygen masks.

Was this even climbing a human restricted zone?

It was clearly an exciting parkour session in a backyard garden.

Initially, Jiang Yuan stayed wandering within that wild glacier area untouched by man.

This was a true restricted zone of life; beneath the seemingly flat snow layer, bottomless crevasses often lay hidden.

Like the open maw of a demon, ready at any moment to swallow any careless intruder.

But relying on the intuition provided by his All-Round Mastery and his terrifying core strength, Jiang Yuan forcibly twisted his body back from the brink of losing balance several times, narrowly skimming past those death traps.

As the altitude continuously increased, the surrounding Serac Forests gradually thinned out.

After flipping over a steep ice ridge, the view suddenly opened up.

Not far below, the established route trodden by countless climbers finally appeared before him.

Looking along the route, a cluster of colorful tents was scattered across the grayish-white scree slope.

Advanced Base Camp.

Altitude 6,500 meters.

This was a height absolutely unreachable by ordinary tourists, and the true starting point for climbing Mount Everest.

From the start until now, Jiang Yuan had only used just over four hours.

If this news got out, it would be enough to make the professional mountaineers who took two or three days to crawl here question their lives.

The continuous high-intensity exertion caused even his iron body to feel a hint of fatigue at this moment.

Jiang Yuan stopped, casually pulled an unlabeled blue drink can from the side pocket of his backpack.

He tilted his head back and guzzled it down.

The cold liquid went down his throat, instantly transforming into a torrent of warmth rushing through his limbs and body.

That negligible sense of fatigue vanished in an instant, and his physical condition returned to its peak.

Since it was a System creation, the empty can was directly recycled by the System, saving Jiang Yuan the trouble of carrying it in his backpack.

He adjusted the collar of his windbreaker and stepped downhill toward the camp tents not far away.

Inside the Advanced Base Camp at this time, the atmosphere felt somewhat heavy and oppressive.

More than a dozen climbers from all over the world were currently slumped ungracefully in folding chairs.

To resist the extreme cold, they were wrapped up tightly like zongzi dumplings.

The heavy one-piece down suits, clumsy double-layer mountaineering boots, and oxygen masks covering half their faces made anyone watching feel breathless.

Urged by their guides, these people were struggling to bend over and put on their crampons, preparing to face the next stage of painful acclimatization training.

Just then, Jiang Yuan unexpectedly entered everyone's view.

He wore a black windbreaker that was somewhat excessively thin, and carried a deflated backpack.

The most outrageous thing was that on his feet, he was only wearing a pair of ordinary hiking boots without any metal spikes.

His relaxed and casual appearance made it seem nothing like the desperate environment at the top of the world.

It looked more like he was strolling past a rock garden in a park downstairs from his home.

He walked straight up behind a Sherpa guide who was checking the route ropes and lightly cleared his throat.

"Hello, I need directions."

The guide was startled and abruptly turned around.

Jiang Yuan, with a friendly expression, pulled a cigarette from his pocket and handed it over.