Five Frozen Centuries

Wei Huo went straight toward the mountain. Not long after, a crowd of halted humans greeted his eyes.

Countless people were queuing up at an expansive plaza, waiting to enter the mountain. The staff at the ticket gate was sweating buckets, and security guards were scanning their surroundings vigilantly.

However, all of the people were at a standstill. It was just like a painting or a 3-D picture.

A sudden fear hit Wei Huo. If God had not neglected him, would he be watched by some other living creatures like what he was doing now? If mankind’s time was halted forever, would these people in line now not become sculptures?

Just like the Moai Statues on Easter Island or the Terracotta Army in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, after years past and when new intelligent creatures are born, would they make the place into a tourist attraction? Would they pay to visit here?

Wei Huo passed through the ticket gate which had long broken down. He climbed inside, and right at that moment when he entered, he laid his eyes onto a giant red rock. The giant rock was engulfed in vegetation. Despite that, Wei Huo could still make out the words on the rock ‘Emei Mount’.

Staring at the words, his mind went blank. ‘Emei Mount, what was that? Was it the name of that mountain? Is that mountain well-known? I never heard such a weird name before!’

It took a while for Wei Huo to realized, that was motherf*cking Mount Emei!

Mount Emei, it was an ideal place for people to seek divine advice from Buddha. It was an auspicious location for keeping ancient Qi Cultivator’s scrolls.

Wei Huo was instantly spirited. He started hiking up the mountain. All along the way, he could see tourists. Some of them were halted in a position where they were ready to photograph the beautiful scenery. However, nowadays this kind of scenery could be found everywhere. Besides tourists taking pictures, there were couples, senior citizens, and tour groups. There were also quite a number of lone tourists who were taking pictures with their mobile phones and cameras. Barely anybody was taking in the scenery with their eyes.

No matter which method they chose to remember the mountain’s beauty, they were now part of the landscape.

After walking a couple of steps, Wei Huo suddenly heard logging sounds. It was the sound of someone chopping woods using an axe. Wei Huo was astonished.

‘Had God neglected someone else other than me?’

With complicated feelings, Wei Huo bolted towards the direction of that sound.

He hoped for that person to be a human. It would be better if that person was an attractive woman.

A thought struck his mind halfway through his run. He fished out his hunting knife to trim his beard. He ignored the ‘Danger Deep Water’ sign, raced to the streamlet, and washed his face. After calming down, he walked towards the direction of that sound again.

After walking for a long distance, he passed through a jungle. It was then that the logging sounds became more distinct. He was confused and surprised at the same time.

Did he run into a group of human contingent?

The sound of leaves rustling against his body echoed through his surroundings as he moved through the woods. The logging sounds suddenly stopped and a troop of monkeys holding stone axes in their hands turned their head towards Wei Huo.

Wei Huo was speechless. “…”

Those monkeys were very unusual. They were dressed in coarse straw hats and woven rush raincoats with a little calabash tied around their waist.

He asked, “Tell me, are you guys humans pretending to be monkeys?”

The troop of monkeys eyed Wei Huo strangely, and they lifted their axes…

Wei Huo quickly said. “I’m sorry to interrupt you!”

Ending his sentence, he turned around and fled. The monkeys came chasing from behind him whilst lifting their axes.

Wei Huo shouted as he ran, “F*ck! Time was halted for humans and now you monkeys think you’re the king!”

The monkeys chased him up a plank walkway. The walkway was crammed with halted humans, and that was why the time halt did not affect the walkway at all. Otherwise, the dilapidated walkway would collapse when Wei Huo stepped on it.

Wei Huo ran without stopping and dashed into a huge temple. The temple was filled with tourists. It seemed like photographing was not allowed in this temple as the tourists were just looking around. Multiple oldsters were kneeling on the praying mat, kowtowing to the Buddha statue in front of them.

The monkeys stopped chasing after Wei Huo when he entered that area. They looked afraid. Wei Huo let out a sigh of relief and started scrutinizing the Buddha Statue. His gaze then stopped at the praying mats.

‘In the novel Demi-Gods And Semi-Devils¹, Duan Yu found a rare scroll in the praying mats…’

An idea came to Wei Huo’s mind, but of course, he would not be knocking his head until the praying mats cracked. He had a knife with him!

“Now it’s time to solve the puzzle!”

Wei Huo nodded in affirmation. The world was currently a game hence, one should put themselves in a gamer’s shoes when encountering such situations. These places were usually used as checkpoints to solve puzzles. He might be able to find the rare scrolls there.

Wei Huo might not be able to touch the occupied mats, but there were other vacant ones. He took out his hunting knife and immediately started slicing the praying mats apart.

Much to his disappointment, he found nothing in the ruined praying mats. Those praying mats were just normal praying mats after all.

He started checking underneath the Buddha statue. Secret trap doors were usually located in such areas. These were common scenes one would find in Wuxia novels. When the main characters had no way out, they would hide behind these trap doors. The author would have then brought an injured girl into the story and everything would be perfect.

However, there were no secret trap doors there either.

Wei Huo stroked his chin. ‘Don’t f*cking tell me God had not created the checkpoint and puzzle system?’

Only then had Wei Huo realized that the game world appeared to be still under development.

Wei Huo shook his head and exited the temple. He trailed along a stony path, passed through a crowd of people, and continued hiking up the mountain. A golden dome was located at the peak of Mount Emei. Although Wei Huo knew that he might not find any rare scrolls there, he still wanted to take a look. Moreover, he could enjoy the landscape of the golden dome for free.

All of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks.

His mind went blank from astonishment as he stared attentively at a woman in front of him.

‘Why is she here?’

He walked up and scrutinized that woman. After a few moments, his heart ached not because of a man who seemed close to her standing next to the woman but because Wei Huo saw his own appearance through her sparkling eyes.

Time had halted for 13 years and Wei Huo was already 32 years old.

Could these halted humans saw those who were alive and kicking? Of course, they could, after all the humans’ retina was just like a concave lens. However, what difference would it make when the brain could not receive any signal?

A deep sorrow pierced his heart. Everybody around him was still young, but he could only age with time. Who would still remember a guy named Wei Huo when time recovered?