Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 8 Here I come

A very tall tree.

The tree looked somewhat familiar. To be precise, it should be a cedar, and only cedars have a semi-closed umbrella-like structure. Beneath the tree, there was an endless forest. However, Yun Ce only had eyes for this tree, because if the laws of physics on Earth still applied, he would soon crash into this tree.

Anyone who frequently throws stones knows that stones thrown out of the ground usually fly very fast and straight, but after flying a certain distance, they gradually slow down and droop.

Dragons, the stones they throw will also conform to this law. Unfortunately, dragons are dragons after all. Their power is far beyond that of humans and cannot be compared. So, Yun Ce's body crashed straight into the huge tree trunk instead of landing on the fluffy feathery branches.

Having endured the torment of space travel, Yun Ce could accept being tossed around like mud on a tree trunk by a dragon. If his nose and chest weren't in so much pain, it would be a good thing for him to land on something familiar.

The tree trunk has scales like dragon scales, and a glance at the feathery branches makes it clear that these are the marks left after the branches fell off. Yun Ce did not move because he was already embedded in the tree.

One moment he was suffering in space, the next he was in a place with trees. Yun Ce had a faint feeling of happiness. It was so comfortable to breathe here...

Yun Ce, who had just realized that breathing was comfortable, immediately stopped on the tree.

Take two careful, short breaths, then quickly close your eyes and feel the changes in your body. If you can't hold your breath any longer after half an hour, then start breathing again, or breathe deeply.

At this point, worrying about the air quality on the new planet is somewhat unnecessary.

Since leaving the dragon, Yun Ce has noticed that he has become lighter, his body has shrunk, and even his hands and feet have shrunk. Fortunately, these things have been shrunk proportionally, so he looks normal.

Therefore, Yun Ce believes that he is younger now than he was before.

Yun Ce had heard of the theory that time would rewind if the speed of light was exceeded. He didn't understand it before, but thought it made a lot of sense. Now, after experiencing it firsthand, he realized that things might not be like that.

He vaguely felt that his body had not become younger, but rather more refined. At the same time, he saw a series of afterimages of bodies in the universe, which were likely parts of the body that had been peeled off.

There's no way to assess exactly which part of my body I've lost, but thankfully, by simply feeling around, it seems that my reproductive organs haven't been affected.

This is important. As a narrow-minded Earthling, if his reproductive function were removed, Yun Ce would think that his remaining life would be worthless, like a fruit tree that cannot bear fruit, no longer having any value in existence.

Not everyone can be like Sima Qian, who could ignore his physical disability for a great goal.

For Yun Ce, whether or not he had a mate in the new world was not important. However, he absolutely needed to have that thing. Having it or not was an extremely important matter for him, and there was a world of difference between them.

My body has shrunk, but my strength has increased. This is a great change. I just don't know if what it would be like to be twelve years younger can be translated into the distance I traveled in space.

The dragon's understanding of power had reached a very high level. When he threw Yun Ce, his control of power was also very precise. He seemed to know where Yun Ce's physical limits were, embedding him in the tree without injuring him.

Yun Ce felt that he couldn't ask for more.

Yun Ce struggled to pull himself off the tree trunk. He wanted to see the treetop. After climbing persistently for more than two hours, Yun Ce finally reached the treetop.

The wind is a bit strong here, but fortunately the air is clear and the view is excellent; you can see for fifty miles around.

The dragons had long since vanished, and now, apart from the dense canopy of trees, nothing could be seen. Perhaps a group of dragons had just passed by, for not a single bird could be seen in the sky.

There was a burning fireball in the sky, much like on Earth. However, even during the day, the faint shadows of three satellites could be seen in the sky: a full moon to the left of the sun, a half-moon, and a crescent moon opposite the sun to the right. As for whether there were a fourth, fifth, or sixth satellite, he didn't see them and declined to comment.

Yun Ce sat on the treetop, pondered for a long time, then placed his hand on his stomach and took out a small knife from the dragon ball given to him by Ao Bing. The knife was a very fancy Swiss Army knife, less than a foot long when opened, with a very sharp blade, which was said to last for ten years without dulling.

The knife landed on the branch, and whether it was because the knife was too sharp or the wood of the tree was too loose, he quickly carved three characters.

"I am coming."

Perhaps because Yun Linchuan's blood flows in his veins, Yun Ce is indifferent to the negative emotion of loneliness, and even feels somewhat excited, as if this new world belongs to him.

At the same time, I didn't have any particular feelings about surviving a near-death experience.

The fact that he didn't die in space means he wasn't ready to die yet. Since he survived, he should have the courage to continue living.

The essence of life lies in perseverance.

As long as you're alive, you should keep living until you can no longer live.

Even if there's no way to survive, one should die with something they hate—that's the ultimate teaching of that family in the Gobi Desert. Otherwise, it's disrespectful to one's own life. Similarly, to continue living, one cannot do without struggle, which Yun Ce calls a struggle. For Yun Ce, who has already changed to a military identity, he prefers to call this struggle a Long March.

Throughout history, the Chinese people have undertaken many Long Marches.

Some Long Marches routed distant enemies, some became symbolic events of national humiliation and defeat, and others transformed into propaganda campaigns that ultimately led to great achievements under the red flag.

Of course, some long marches vanished before they even began.

Yun Ce didn't want to follow in the footsteps of those disastrous Long Marches, so he posted a statement on the tree trunk and opened a new work log on his phone, claiming that he had completed the first step of the Long March, had a good start, and now had a direction for the road ahead.

Yun Ce used to do his job this way.

Don't listen to those boastful people who make the government's work seem so well-planned, as if everything can proceed according to plan. In reality, that's pure nonsense. The country's major policies can be formulated like this: once they are implemented at the grassroots level, everyone tries to take a step, whether it's good or bad. If a second step can be taken and the cost is not too high, then take the second step, and then continue to look for a place to take the third step.

This is the basis and origin of the saying that "a haphazard approach can lead to promotion, and a reckless approach can lead to advancement beyond the province."

Some tasks, once you take the first step, make the path for the next hundred or so steps very clear, like embarking on a broad and smooth road. This is the best outcome. Of course, people who can accomplish such great things are not ordinary; there are very few in the world.

The vast majority fail before they can even take the first step.

As for Yun Ce, after taking the first step today, he discovered that there were countless points behind his first step where he could take the second step.

Because there are so many things that need to be done immediately.

If he had people under his command, just like on Earth, he would have enough capital to make mistakes. Now, his only capital is his own life, which he simply cannot afford to lose.

Four hours had passed and the sun overhead seemed to have remained stationary, making it difficult for Yun Ce to determine when sunset would occur. In other words, a day here, or the time it takes for the planet to complete one rotation, was far longer than on Earth.

If we disregard the issue of rotation speed, does that mean this planet is much larger than Earth?

These are all great questions, and Yun Ce is not yet qualified to think about them. Listening to the terrifying animal howls coming from the forest, he doesn't think those howls are welcoming him.

When Ao Bing's mother threw him out like a ball, it meant that she had already fulfilled her promise. What she did next was her business and had nothing to do with the Dragon Clan.

Just like what Ao Bing told him not long ago, the dragon race is a big tree, and humans are just a blade of grass. The big tree doesn't care about the life or death of the blade of grass, even if the blade of grass carries an important mission given to it by the other blades of grass.

Looking up at the blazing sun again, Yun Ce decided to dig a hole in the tree trunk where he could take refuge.

Since he couldn't dig a hole at the top of the tree, he climbed down for more than an hour and stopped two-thirds of the way down the tree. There was a thick, flat horizontal branch there, which was a perfect spot to build a treehouse.

The Swiss Army knife pierced the tree trunk, instantly stripping away the entire blade. With a twist of the wrist, the knife sliced ​​a slit the size of a bowl into the trunk. A few more diagonal cuts later, a hole the size of a bowl appeared.

Looking at the wood shavings he had dug out, Yun Ce rubbed them between his fingers, and the relatively intact wood shavings turned into powder.

He had been wondering how a tree with loose wood could grow so tall, but now he understood: it wasn't the loose wood of the tree, but rather his own strength that had increased.

"Relativity really is everywhere in life."

Yun Ce diligently cut the tree trunk with a small knife. Since he had already made a cut, the remaining cutting speed was much faster. After cutting continuously for two hours, he had dug a hole in the tree trunk that was more than a person tall and more than three feet deep.

He paused for a moment out of habit, not because he was tired, but because it was a habit.

I felt neither hungry nor thirsty, so there was absolutely no need to stop.

The sun moved slightly across the sky, or perhaps it didn't move at all, as it was imperceptible to the naked eye. Yun Ce sighed softly and continued digging the hole.

After getting used to his great strength, he dug the hole even faster. Wood chips fell from the tree trunk and were pushed out of the hole by him. They fell in the air for a while before landing on the ground. This was the first trace that Yun Ce left on this land.

By the time Yun Ce felt tired, he had already dug out a beautiful house in the tree trunk, and even took the time to tie a door with branches and bark.

As he swung his legs and sat on his front door, examining the world before him, he was struck by the striking similarities between this world and Earth.

Of course, this similarity refers to birds flying in the sky.

(End of this chapter)