Chapter 462: Chapter 327: A New Stage, The Wind Rises_2
Sure, here is the translation:
```html
After all, he had just spent quite a bit of time in that cave. Although there was plenty of time, Xu Xin still felt a bit of urgency.
Who knows what might be encountered above.
There was also a mutated bald eagle that escaped and didn’t die; it might come back to attack, best to be cautious.
Those bald eagles seemed to appear silently, and just now, when he was attacked, even with augmented hearing, he only caught the sound of something breaking through the air nearby.
Fortunately, this area has many recessed rock pits, plenty of footholds, so there’s no need to worry too much.
This area, with all these rocks exuding a cold aura, it’s a relief that as long as he doesn’t enter the inner cave of the mountain, the external temperature is still above minus fifty degrees, though his hands feel a bit icy.
He continues climbing upward.
The scene he imagined about the escaped bald eagle attacking him did not materialize.
The surrounding pits are slowly decreasing, and he can feel the temperature of the rock wall he’s gripping slowly rising as he climbs upward. Gradually, he no longer feels cold.
The rock’s temperature has risen above minus fifty degrees, and the surrounding temperature isn’t the kind that a snow fox scarf can barely fend off anymore.
As time passes, the rising sun on the horizon slowly ascends, and the bright sunlight shines on Xu Xin, making him feel a hint of warmth.
The surrounding fog also begins to thin out, seeming as if it will soon dissipate.
Soon after, Xu Xin grabs the edge of a rock pit, uses his strength, and easily flips himself into it, sitting down.
He looks down below.
Hmm, this should be five or six hundred meters high, right?
This path is so smooth.
Because the explosive bolt he fired earlier triggered an avalanche, most of the snow has slid down, leaving only a small amount remaining, making climbing much easier than before.
He pokes his head up again to look upward.
He’s already very close to the cloud layer.
This layer, which appears somewhat thick, should be the cloud from the recent nightly snowfall.
The bottom of the cloud is only about eight or nine hundred meters from the ground, very close. He just needs to climb up another three hundred meters to enter this cloud layer.
And above the cloud layer is the peak of the huge mountain.
This cloud layer, based on previous observations and his climbing distance, is only three or four hundred meters thick, not very thick.
After all, some cumulonimbus clouds can be several thousand or even tens of thousands of meters thick; compared to those, the small cloud above Xu Xin seems weak and very white and pure, looking as if it poses no danger.
Based on the thickness of the cloud layer and the proportion of the giant peak protruding from it, he can roughly estimate that the height of this massive peak is between 1,500 and 1,800 meters.
In other words, he should have climbed about one-third of the way.
And time, not even two hours have passed yet, with more than half spent exploring the cave and dealing with the bald eagle incident.
There’s plenty of time.
After replenishing his strength and state, Xu Xin begins climbing upward again.
After climbing up another hundred meters or so, the surrounding environment changed significantly.
All those restable pits have disappeared, and continuing upward, the rock wall is uneven, but there are no more pits to rest in, so he can only climb up in one continuous effort.
It seems he’s entered the next stage.
Currently, the altitude is about seven hundred meters.
That means he has passed the 300-700 meter ultra-low temperature stage and entered the next stage of climbing this snow peak.
And those few bald eagles earlier were just a small episode, perhaps not something that should have appeared in the previous stage at all.
They should have been remnants in the underground city. If he hadn’t taken out the energy core fragments earlier, those few mutated bald eagles might not have been attracted out.
He didn’t rush to continue climbing upward but instead started observing this section of the journey.
The distance to the bottom of the cloud layer is only about two hundred meters.
Finally, wind begins to blow around, and the fog starts to flow along with the wind.
Fortunately, this wind isn’t strong, just a breeze, which doesn’t affect his climbing safety.
"Huh?" Xu Xin squints, looking about a hundred meters up.
There, the mountain wall unexpectedly juts out in a circle.
At his field of vision’s limit, at that height, the giant peak has an entire circle of rock wall protruding out.
Protruding about a meter, like a balcony extending from a high building.
The neat circle gave him a sense of abruptness.
Could it be a platform up there?
Is there something up there?
A treasure?
Xu Xin’s eyes lit up.
The height there is about eight hundred meters. Based on his earlier calculations, it might be the middle part of the stone pillar-like giant peak! Maybe there’s really something good up there!
Xu Xin immediately felt motivated, taking a deep breath and applying force to his arms, he suddenly climbed three meters up.
It’s been a while since he last obtained a reward for his activities, and thinking there’s just a hundred meters left to a potential reward, he felt a little excited.
As his body ascends continuously, the wind speed around also gradually increases, but Xu Xin isn’t much affected, on the contrary, he feels more relaxed because the wind along the cliff edge, affected by the terrain, forms an upward current.
This upward current helps lift him, making his arms much less burdened.
Yes, there’s even wind assistance.
Continuing to climb up, when he got about forty or fifty meters from the protruding platform, his brow suddenly furrowed slightly.
Not because the wind became stronger, but because...
He seemed to hear something, coming from the platform above!
Raising his head to look upward, Xu Xin listened carefully.
Due to the surrounding wind noise, he couldn’t hear clearly what the sound above was.
After climbing another ten meters or so, the sound gradually became clearer, and Xu Xin’s expression grew increasingly solemn, his climbing movements completely halted.
Indeed, there’s movement above!
There are strange noises!
It sounds like something is scraping, and also the sound of something clawing at the stone wall.
It’s a living creature!
Moreover, there are many, because from various positions on the protruding circular rock wall, such sounds were coming!
Xu Xin doesn’t think that the creatures appearing high in the sky would be friendly!
Could it be...
Just as Xu Xin guessed nervously, suddenly, a chaotic commotion sounded from above.
Then, the scene in front of him made his eyes widen instantly!
Just see, from that protruding platform, a large bird suddenly leaped out, spreading its wings!
This large bird, with its black-grey feathers covering its entire body, a wingspan of more than four meters, even blocking out the sunlight for a moment!
Cloud-covering and sun-shading!
This bird is huge!