Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Chapter 375: Chapter 373 Mountain

On the benches inside the waiting area, tall oxygen tanks were piled up into a small mountain, which drew the curious glances of everyone passing by in the bustling hall. Sitting beside this mini-mountain was a young man wearing a black baseball cap.

Just then, another young man approached the baseball cap-wearing man and nervously asked, “Excuse me, are these oxygen tanks for sale? My grandfather is feeling a bit unwell. Could you give us a discount? Three hundred is really too expensive.”

Bi Fang looked up at the elderly man struggling to breathe on the bench opposite and casually grabbed a few oxygen bottles and shoved them into the young man’s hands, “Take them, no charge.”

“Oh, thank you, thank…” the young man said, his face lighting up with surprise as he took the oxygen tanks and bent down to thank him. But as he lowered his head, his gaze suddenly met those serene eyes and his emotions spiked, “You, you’re Master Fang!”

“Shh!” Bi Fang gestured for silence with one hand while firmly gripping the young man’s wrist with the other, yanking down hard to prevent him from standing up and shouting.

The young man was forced to swallow the second half of his word, but his excitement was impossible to hide; he bit his lip hard while the muscles on both sides of his cheeks trembled slightly.

To say there was a young person in Huaxia who didn’t recognize Master Fang would mean they had no understanding of what dreams, passion, or adventure were!

“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, is it really Master Fang? I saw the poster on the Wolf Fang official website this morning, are you really going to climb Mount Everest?” the young man asked in a low voice, trying to contain his excitement.

Mount Everest, oh, Mount Everest.

His idol, the tallest mountain in the world, was really going to climb Mount Everest?

The next second, the young man’s heart exploded as he saw Bi Fang nod his head!

“I’m just passing through here, won’t stay long, don’t want any trouble, understand?”

The young man nodded vigorously, “Understood, understood!”

“Alright, go look after your grandfather, he’s been waiting a long time.”

“Thank you, thank you, Master Fang.”

The young man’s heart pounded inside his chest. The thrill of unexpectedly meeting his idol up close was simply too exhilarating – that was Master Fang, the idol so many young people yearned for, handing him oxygen tanks in person!

Wolf, Bear, Shark, ancient creatures, even armed poachers – one after another, these fearsome beings fell before Master Fang’s advancing path. This was a living legend, an idol in life!

A man should damn well be doing this! This is what a real man should be doing!

Watching the young man return to his family with the oxygen tanks, jumping and bubbling with excitement, more and more people who felt unwell but couldn’t afford the oxygen tanks turned their hopeful eyes to Bi Fang. But before any of them could get close…

A clattering noise broke out as the towering mountain of oxygen tanks toppled over. A fat man and a skinny man, one tall and one short, suddenly climbed out from the pile, tossed out an empty tank each, and started breathing from the new ones unanimously, dissipating the focused gazes around them once more.

Inside the great quantity of oxygen tanks could be seen a sparse number of humans.

“Inhale, exhale! Inhale, exhale!”

The fat man and the skinny man, tall and short, inhaled and exhaled rhythmically, their lungs working like broken bellows. Bi Fang watched them with great speechlessness, “Maybe you guys should just go to the hospital. There’s really no need to wait here. Once the plane arrives, I can just let you know, right?”

“No way, there’s still three hours left. I can hold on! Just have to get on the plane, and besides, I’ve got the money! If only I knew to choose a different route, couldn’t I have flown here from some other place? Why did I have to come to such a high-altitude area? Isn’t this torture?” Yao Jun glared at Bi Fang, “Also, how could you be so generous with someone else’s money! Those were the canisters I bought!”

“You said you’re wealthy, huh? Plus, the Lhasa to Kathmandu flight is one I specially chose; you definitely wouldn’t want to miss it.”

Yao Jun scratched his head, somewhat puzzled. What’s so special about a flight route that it shouldn’t be missed?

“Is there a surprise?”

“You’ll find out when the time comes.” Bi Fang said mysteriously, winking before quickly changing the subject. “By the way, did you guys fall asleep on the plane just now?”

“Hmm? Didn’t you sleep?”

Bi Fang suddenly realized, no wonder these two guys had a reaction as soon as they got off the plane; it was because of this.

Besides reacting immediately after getting off the plane, in fact, many people who had just arrived in Lhasa wouldn’t feel anything at first, even thinking, “I don’t have a headache or shortness of breath; I don’t have altitude sickness at all!”

That’s because the oxygen content in the blood right after getting off the plane is still sufficient and doesn’t decrease with the rising altitude.

By that night and the following day, as the blood oxygen content decreases, symptoms of altitude sickness such as headache, nausea, shortness of breath, lethargy, and fever will come on fiercely.

“But if you sleep, the blood circulation slows down, and since you’re sitting, the oxygen can’t be delivered in time. When the plane lands and you wake up in a low oxygen environment, it’s easy to feel uncomfortable. It looks like you both slept soundly, probably entering deep sleep directly; otherwise, bearing it for a few hours should’ve been fine.”

Yao Jun and Wang Yongbo had been listening with interest until the last sentence, when they suddenly became furious, “It’s all your fault, rushing us like that. Last night, I was still busy handling things for you, of course, I was tired during the day! You, on the other hand, have nothing to do, just move your lips, do you even realize our legs could break from all this running around!”

Bi Fang shrugged his shoulders, dismissing the matter. This time, they needed to get to the south slope of Mount Everest, which required reaching Nepal, but the Magic Capital had no direct flights to Nepal. Only flights from Guang, Kun, Cheng, Lhasa, and Hong Kong were available. Considering distance and acclimatization reasons, the group took the Magic Capital-Lhasa-Nepal route.

Lhasa’s altitude is 3650 meters. For people from the plains, traveling to Lhasa would usually involve some form of altitude sickness, but the situation is much better in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, which is only a little over a thousand meters above sea level, and generally poses no problem for the average person.

At noon, Bi Fang took the two of them for lunch while they breathed oxygen, waiting until three in the afternoon for the plane to finally land. The three of them packed their luggage and set off from Lhasa directly to the capital of Nepal—Kathmandu.

Kathmandu, commonly referred to as Kathmandu, is Nepal’s largest city, located in the Kathmandu Valley at the confluence of the Bagmati River and Bhingmati River.

Surrounded by mountains, Kathmandu was founded in 723 AD and is an ancient city with over 1200 years of history. Many first learned about this beautiful ancient city through the Doctor Strange movie.

Exquisite architectural art and ancient wood and stone carvings symbolize Nepal’s ancient culture. Successive dynasties have built a vast number of palaces, temples, pagodas, and gardens here. In an area of less than seven square kilometers, there are more than two hundred stupas and temples and nearly three thousand shrines!

And because Kathmandu is located on the southern slope of the Himalayas, natural barriers shield the city from the cold winds of the north. With the warm currents from the Indian Ocean to the south, the city’s unique geographical environment is created. The average monthly high temperature never exceeds twenty-nine, and the low never drops below two degrees Celsius. With sunshine prevailing all year round and green trees surrounding it, it is an ideal tourist destination.

One of the objectives for Bi Fang and his companions after landing was to meet with Jerret’s photography team here and find a guide company before heading to the campsite.

On the plane, Wang Yongbo comfortably settled into his seat, having recovered most of his strength back on the plane, showing none of the previous weariness.

Wang Yongbo, marveling at Bi Fang who also spent half a day in Lhasa but seemed unaffected, asked curiously, “If you’re so capable, why do you still need a guide?”

Bi Fang pulled back the window curtain and replied, “Surviving in snow mountains and trekking through the wilderness are both life-threatening situations, but I’m not just about surviving. If it were just about living in the mountains, of course, I wouldn’t need a guide. But I want to summit, and that’s a different concept. Moreover, the opponent is Mount Everest. I must know the routes up the mountain in advance to make favorable judgments. These are trails blazed by countless climbers with their corpses.”

The word “corpses” sent shivers down Wang Yongbo and Yao Jun’s spines, as if they could already see the climbing routes paved with white bones beneath the ice and snow.

Ignoring the beauty of Mount Everest, that’s not just the highest peak—it’s clearly a towering tombstone!

“`

As the two were chatting away awkwardly, Bi Fang knocked on the plane’s window with his knuckles, “Pay attention, this might be your only chance. I specifically chose a window seat.”

Yao Jun and Wang Yongbo curiously poked their heads out. The plane was still steadily climbing when suddenly, the clouds below began to thin, the misty fog slowly dispersing and everyone’s pupils dilating swiftly.

That was a mountain!

A huge mountain!

The setting sun’s Himalayas stretched across the west part of the earth, like a natural barrier separating Huaxia from Nepal, with pale golden edges etched along the division between the mountain range and the sky, dazzlingly bright.

But the sunset couldn’t suppress the light of the stars; seven cyan stars rose in the golden sky, their brightness as piercing as freshly sharpened iron swords.

The clouds reveled in the extensive and majestic Trans-Himalayan and Himalayan mountain ranges and the winding rivers glimmering with light, affording an unparalleled divine perspective.

In Bi Fang’s brown pupils was reflected the image of the Roof of the World, and he softly said, “Chengdu to Kathmandu, with a stopover in Lhasa, this is the only flight route in the world that goes over Mount Everest, and it’s also hailed as one of the most beautiful flight routes in the world.”

This is the part of the flight from Lhasa to Nepal that’s worth every penny of the ticket price!

“Damn, no wonder you insisted on flying from Lhasa. So this was the reason. I stayed up all night for the tickets, totally worth it!” Yao Jun exclaimed admirably, his eyes not blinking for fear any flicker would turn into a lifelong regret.

Everyone greedily took in everything they could see, even though their eyes were already dry and acidic from not blinking.

The last warmth of sunlight fell between the mountains, eagles darted swiftly through the sky, and between the valleys, an unknown variety of small yellow flowers created knee-deep flower beds that extended beyond the line of sight where the mountain met the sky. With the wind, the flowers undulated, creating waves upon waves, and the frozen ground in this rare thawing season slowly breathed in the fresh air.

“A rainbow, a rainbow!” someone suddenly shouted out.

All eyes moved skyward, and even the flight attendants, who were used to such sights, couldn’t help but cover their mouths in amazement.

A pure, half-arc of rainbow light shot straight from that corner of golden light to the distant horizon.

Such pristine colors, floating dream-like in mid-air, were more breathtaking than any rainbow seen in a lifetime.

“How can there be a rainbow without rain?” someone asked, puzzled.

“It’s an ice rainbow!” Bi Fang’s pupils nearly dilated to the extreme, his heart pounding, “Rainbows don’t always come after rain; they can appear when there’s a sufficient number of small droplets in the air and sunlight. But we’re at an elevation of ten thousand meters, where the air is filled with ice crystals. Only when sunlight passes at just the right angle through the high-altitude clouds can you see such a rare phenomenon. This isn’t just a rainbow, it’s a sun halo as well!”

“How rare is it?” Yao Jun asked out of curiosity.

“You may only see it once in your lifetime!”

“This is how things are here, simple and straightforward. A patch of green grass, as far as the eyes can see is green; when the sky is clear, looking up is all blue; a rainbow, and half the sky takes on its color. It’s not like the east, where everywhere you look, it’s filled with people,” said an excited Tibetan with flushed cheeks.

“There’s a mountain! There’s a mountain!” another person shouted excitedly.

Mountain?

Where wasn’t there a mountain?

In their bewilderment, everyone began to space out.

It was indeed a mountain.

A real mountain!

In disbelief at their own eyes, as the last rays of the sun lit the earth, a mountain enveloped in clouds, rising to meet the sky, appeared before them.

Sunlight shone on the mountaintop, glowing brilliantly as the clouds drifted near the peak.

Many on the plane had never imagined that they would brush past this majestic and solemn mountain; witnessing it now was as astounding as a miracle.

“Many landscapes, we only realize what they truly look like when we see them with our own eyes, otherwise they’ll forever remain how we imagine them in our minds.”

“It’s Goddess Peak.” Bi Fang’s wildly beating heart suddenly calmed down. Not that he wasn’t excited, but he was numbed by the shock of the massive beauty; a warm current flowed from his scalp to his toes and finally sweat poured out of every pore with their expansion.

This was what he had most anticipated, most longed for, most wanted to hold onto, it was his faith!

“That is what I am pursuing,” Bi Fang whispered in a barely audible voice, yet it was still captured by Yao Jun standing behind him. Yao Jun watched Bi Fang’s devout expression in silence, his heart filled with solemnity.

What was it that had drawn him to Bi Fang’s live broadcast?

He too loved the sport and knew many professionals who had made achievements in their field, but none had ever given him the shock that Bi Fang did.

What was the difference between these people and Bi Fang?

At this moment, Yao Jun finally understood deeply.

Not having missed any of his live-streaming adventures, how wonderful.

Is this what Master Fang was pursuing?

Wang Yongbo in the front row leaned back in his seat, his body too exhausted to exert an ounce of strength. Watching Bi Fang’s live broadcasts in the past, he could feel the tension, the fear, the boiling in his blood.

But he had never, like today, personally experienced the “beauty.”

Is this adventure?

Is this Nature?

Is this what he himself was lacking?

“It’s so beautiful!”

“`