Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Chapter 393: Chapter 391 Occupy a Spot

*Cough cough cough*, I’m a goner.

You can think of it as me procrastinating for a day, and then posting at dawn every day (Dog’s head)

Squatting on the spot, Ling Cheng changed

On the long bench in the airport waiting hall, tall oxygen tanks piled up into a small mountain, and seated beside it was a young man wearing a black baseball cap, as people coming and going in the hall all curiously looked at this small mound.

“Are these oxygen tanks for sale?” asked a young man who suddenly approached the man in the baseball cap, nervously. “My grandpa is feeling unwell. Could you make them a bit cheaper? Three hundred is really too expensive.”

Bi Fang looked up at the old man having trouble breathing on the other side of the bench and casually stuffed a few oxygen bottles into the hands of the young man, “Take them, no charge.”

“Ah, thank you, thank —” The young man accepted the oxygen tanks with a surprised face, bowed to express his gratitude, but as he lowered his head, his gaze suddenly met those calm eyes, and he instantly became excited, “You, it’s you, Fang!”

“Shh!” Bi Fang motioned to silence him with one hand while firmly grabbing the young man’s wrist with the other, sharply pulling down to keep him from standing up and shouting.

The young man was forced to swallow the rest of his words, yet he couldn’t suppress the excitement in his emotions. He bit his lip hard, but the muscles on both sides of his cheeks trembled slightly.

If there is a young person in the country who doesn’t recognize Master Fang, he must not know what ideals are, what passion is, what adventure is!

“Holy crap, holy crap, is it really Master Fang? I have seen the Wolf Fang official website. Are you going to climb Mount Everest?” The young man suppressed his excited heart and asked softly.

Bi Fang nodded with a smile, “I’m here on a transfer, won’t stay for long, don’t want to make a fuss, understand?”

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

“Alright, go to your grandpa. He’s been waiting for a long time.”

“Thank you, thank you, Master Fang.”

The young man’s heartbeat thumped wildly within his chest, this close and unexpected encounter with his idol was truly thrilling. That was Master Fang, the idol many young people admired, who had personally handed him oxygen tanks!

Wolves, bears, sharks, prehistoric creatures, even armed poachers, one after another, beings that sound terrifying just by mention fell before Master Fang’s advancing path; he’s a living legend, an idol in life!

That’s what men should fucking be doing! This is the stuff a real man should be into!

Watching the young man return to his family hopping and jumping with the oxygen tanks, visibly excited, more and more people who felt unwell but couldn’t afford oxygen tanks started looking at Bi Fang with hope. But before they could get closer —

A clattering noise erupted, and the towering mountain of oxygen tanks toppled over. Two men, one fat and one thin, one tall and one short, suddenly climbed out from the pile, casually throwing out an empty tank, and started breathing from a new one in perfect unison — causing the focused attention to scatter once again.

Within the abundance of oxygen tanks, a few humans could be seen.

“Inhale, exhale! Inhale, exhale!”

The fat and thin, tall and short pair breathed in a synchronized rhythm, their lungs like broken bellows, and Bi Fang was thoroughly exasperated, “Why don’t you just go to the hospital? There’s no need to wait here, just wait for the plane to arrive and I’ll tell you.”

“No way, there are three more hours, I can hold on! Just get on the plane, and besides, I have money! Had I known, why choose the Lhasa route? Couldn’t I have just flown from somewhere else, why come to a place with such high altitude? Isn’t this torment?” Yao Jun glared at Bi Fang, then added, “Besides, how can you be so generous with other people’s stuff? Those were my tanks!”

“You said you’ve got the money, and besides, Lhasa to Kathmandu is a flight route I specifically chose for you. You definitely won’t want to miss it.”

Yao Jun scratched his head, somewhat puzzled. What was so special about a flight route that you wouldn’t want to miss it?

“Is there a surprise?”

“You’ll find out when the time comes,” Bi Fang said mysteriously, blinking his eyes, then quickly changed the subject, “By the way, did you guys fall asleep on the plane?”

“Huh? You didn’t sleep?”

Realization dawned on Bi Fang. No wonder these two guys reacted the moment they got off the plane; it was because of this.

Apart from reacting right after deplaning, in fact, many people don’t feel much upon arriving in Lhasa and might even be under the illusion that “I don’t have a headache or shortness of breath, I’m totally not suffering from altitude sickness!”

That’s because right after disembarking the aircraft, the blood’s oxygen content is still at a sufficient level and hasn’t decreased with the increase in altitude.

By the night of the same day and the following day, as the oxygen content in the blood reduces, symptoms of altitude sickness such as headache, nausea, breathlessness, fatigue, and fever will ferociously come rushing in.

“But if you’re sleeping, the blood circulation slows down, and because you’re sitting, oxygen isn’t delivered in time. When the plane lands and you wake up to a low oxygen environment, it’s very easy to feel uncomfortable. It seems you both had a good sleep, probably went into deep sleep right away, otherwise enduring a few hours should be no problem.”

Yao Jun and Wang Yongbo were listening with interest, but at the last sentence, they burst out in anger, “It’s all your fault! You hurried us so much. Last night, I was still busy running errands for you, of course, I’d be sleepy during the day! And you, you do nothing, just need to move your lips, do you have any idea our legs would fall off from running around!”

Bi Fang just shrugged his shoulders and ignored them. This time, they needed to reach the southern slope of Mount Everest and had to get to Nepal to do so, but the Magic Capital didn’t have direct flights to Nepal. Only from Guang, Kun, Cheng, Lhasa, and places like Hong Kong were direct, and considering both distance and acclimatization, they took the route from Magic Capital to Lhasa to Nepal.

Lhasa is situated at an altitude of 3650 meters. If people from the plains travel to Lhasa, they typically experience some degree of altitude sickness. However, Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, is much better in this respect. Its elevation is only a bit over a thousand meters, and most people have no problem with it.

At noon, Bi Fang took the two of them to eat while inhaling oxygen until three in the afternoon when the plane finally landed. The three of them packed their luggage, departed from Lhasa, and flew straight to Nepal’s capital—Kathmandu.

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

Surrounded by mountains, KTM was established in the year 723 and is an ancient city with a history of over 1200 years. For many people, their first acquaintance with this beautiful ancient city may have been through the movie Doctor Strange.

The exquisite architectural art and ancient wood and stone carvings are the symbols of Nepal’s old culture. Many palaces, temples, pagodas, and gardens were built here by dynasties over the ages. The city covers an area of less than seven square kilometers, yet it’s rich with over two hundred stupas and temples, and nearly three thousand big and small monasteries!

Moreover, because KTM is located on the southern slope of the Himalayas, natural barriers protect the city from the cold northern winds. The city faces the warm currents from the Indian Ocean to the south, creating a unique geographical environment. The average monthly maximum temperature is only twenty-nine degrees Celsius, and the minimum is two degrees. With year-round sunshine and green trees surrounding it, it is an excellent destination for tourism.

One of the reasons Bi Fang and his companions got off the plane was to meet with Jerret’s photography team here and find a guide company before heading to the campsite.

On the plane, Wang Yongbo settled comfortably into his seat. Back on the plane, he had mostly recovered, devoid of his previous lethargy.

Seeing Bi Fang, who had also spent half a day in Lhasa yet was unaffected, Wang Yongbo marveled and curiously asked, “You’re so tough; why do we still need a guide?”

Bi Fang pulled back the curtain, replying, “Surviving in snowy mountains and wild traverses are both about living in extreme environments, but I’m not just about survival. If it was just about existing in the mountain range, I surely wouldn’t need a guide, but that’s not the case. I aim to reach the summit, which is a different concept. Besides, we’re dealing with Mount Everest, and I must know the route up the mountain in advance to make favorable judgments. This is a path that countless climbers have explored with their corpses.”

The word “corpses” gave Wang Yongbo and Yao Jun a shudder, as if they could already see the mountain path paved with bones under the snowy sky.

Ignoring the beauty of Mount Everest, it wasn’t just the tallest peak—it was clearly a towering tombstone!Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Just as the two were chatting, Bi Fang tapped the window with his knuckle, “Pay attention, this may be your only chance. I specially purchased a window seat for this reason.”

Yao Jun and Wang Yongbo curiously stuck out their heads. The plane was still steadily climbing when suddenly, the cloud cover below became sparse. The hazy fog slowly dissipated, and people’s pupils dilated quickly in response.

Those were mountains!

Huge mountains!

The Himalayas, bathed in the glow of sunset, stretched across the western horizon like a natural barrier between Huaxia and Nepal. A pale golden fringe outlined the division between the mountain range and the sky, bright enough to dazzle the eyes.

But the sunset could not suppress the luster of the stars—the seven steel-blue stars rose into the golden sky, their light as sharp as freshly forged swords.

From above the clouds, one could admire the majestic and expansive ranges, the Transhimalayas and the Himalayas, with the meandering rivers shimmering in blue light, securing an unparalleled God’s-eye view.

In Bi Fang’s brown pupils reflected the likeness of the Roof of the World, he spoke softly, “From Chengdu to Kathmandu, stopping over in Lhasa, this is the only flight route in the world that flies over Mount Everest and is also hailed as one of the world’s most beautiful routes.”

This is the part of the flight from Lhasa to Nepal that makes the ticket price worth it!

“Damn, no wonder you insisted on flying from Lhasa. So, this was the reason. I burned the midnight oil to snag these tickets, totally worth it!” Yao Jun praised loudly, his eyes unblinking, as every blink now would become a life’s regret.

Everyone greedily took in the view beneath them, even though their eyes were already dry to the point of burning.

The last rays of warmth touched the interstices of the mountain range. Falcons darted swiftly through the sky, and in the valleys, an unknown variety of small yellow flowers piled up to knee height forming a sea of blooms that extended beyond the sightline to where the mountain met the sky. Riding the wind’s sway, the flowers surged in waves, as the frozen ground gently breathed in the precious thawing air.

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

All eyes shifted toward the sky, even the seasoned flight attendants couldn’t help but cover their mouths in awe.

Indeed, it was a semi-circular arc of light that spanned from one edge of golden light to the distant horizon.

Such pure colors, magically suspended in mid-air, made all the rainbows one had seen in life seem less astonishing.

“How can there be a rainbow without rain?” someone wondered aloud in surprise.

“It’s an ice rainbow!” Bi Fang’s pupils expanded to their limits, his heart racing, “Rainbows don’t only appear after rain. As long as the air is filled with enough tiny droplets and sunlight, a rainbow can occur. But up here at 10,000 meters, the air is filled with ice crystals. You can only see this rare phenomenon when the light from the sun passes perfectly through the high cirrus clouds. This is not just a rainbow, but a sundog!”

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

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

“That’s how it is here, everything is simple. A patch of green grass, all you see is green. When the sky is clear, all you see is blue. A rainbow colors half the sky, unlike in the east, where everywhere you look is filled with people,” an excited Tibetan with flushed cheeks explained.

“There are mountains! Mountains!” another person exclaimed.

Mountains?

What wasn’t mountain here?

As the crowd pondered in confusion, they suddenly began to space out.

It was a mountain.

A real mountain!

It was almost unbelievable to the eyes that when the last sunlight spread over the earth, a great mountain draped in clouds and reaching towards the sky appeared before them.

The sunlight glowed golden at the mountain’s summit, and the clouds wandered near the top.

Many on the plane had never imagined that the aircraft they were on would brush past this grand and solemn mountain. Suddenly witnessing it felt like a miracle that filled them with admiration.

“Many landscapes must be seen with our own eyes to truly understand what they look like; otherwise, they will always remain as imagined in your mind,” someone mused.

“It’s the Goddess Peak,” Bi Fang’s wildly beating heart suddenly calmed down. It was not for lack of excitement, but because he was so overwhelmed by the immense beauty that it numbed him. A warm current flowed from his scalp to his toes and eventually, with each pore’s expansion, turned into a cold sweat that left his body.

This was what he had been most looking forward to, most desired, and what he had always wanted to hold onto—his faith!

“That’s what I’ve been pursuing,” Bi Fang’s voice was almost imperceptible, but Yao Jun behind him caught it. Yao Jun watched Bi Fang’s devout expression and a solemn feeling filled his heart.

What had drawn him to Bi Fang’s live broadcasts?

He too loved the sport, knew many professionals who had made their mark in his field, but none had ever given him the same sense of shock that Bi Fang had.

Where, exactly, did these people fall short compared to Bi Fang?

At that moment, Yao Jun finally deeply understood.

Not having missed any of his live-streamed adventures, what a fortunate thing it was.

Was this what Master Fang sought?

Wang Yongbo, in the front row, leaned on his seat, completely drained of strength. Watching Bi Fang’s live streams had always made him feel the tension, fear, and boiling of his blood.

But he had never experienced “beauty” as profoundly as he did today.

Is this what adventure is?

Is this what Nature is?

Is this the thing I’ve been missing?

“It’s so beautiful!”