Xingtie, started with a guitar, and made a living by singing

"Can you tell me why?"

"Why... There's no special reason, I just feel that way."

She pushed her glasses up on her nose, her tone regretful.

"There were obviously many idiots like you in the past, but I don't know when it started that everyone stopped wanting to explore the outside world."

"..."

Wendy remained silent, gazing at the Wall of Heroes supporting the Eternal Frozen Monument. Pella's gaze rested on a name among them.

The surname of that name is exactly the same as hers, a thing of the past that has been worn down by time but still remains firmly.

After a moment of brewing some emotion, Pyrrha spoke in a voice that only Wendy could hear.

"Do you know that before the Great Guardian, Lady Cocolia, took office, the city builders never gave up exploring beyond the walls—"

The tone of her voice seemed particularly cold.

"What is there in the world outside the wall? Besides the snow and the rift, are there other surviving civilizations and compatriots?

With these doubts in mind, a group of curious scholars and explorers formed an expedition team.

They volunteer to explore the world beyond Beloberg and try to find another home for people."

This is a somewhat ambitious idea.

"However, every step of investigating beyond the wall is dangerous. Not only is there the threat posed by the Rift's erosion, but also the unpredictable weather on the snowy plains and the setbacks encountered along the way. These combined dangers have claimed the lives of many who attempted to explore beyond."

Pera's narration is like that of an eyewitness, and the relevant images can't help but emerge in people's minds.

"But even so, people are still unwilling to give up moving forward. My mother, the great explorer Petunia, is one of them, and she is the one who has gone the furthest among them."

Her eyes became a little proud at this moment, as if she had returned to her childhood when she was always looking forward to her mother coming back and telling her stories about the outside world.

"She always said that if we could get out of this snowy plain, we would definitely be able to reach a new continent.

There are four seasons a year, vegetation does not need to be grown in greenhouses, and even the language people speak is different from ours.

And I would always ask my mother if she had found such a place when she came back, and she would always answer me that she was one step closer than last time.

At this point, Pera's expression became more complicated.

"I never doubted that this was a lie my mother had woven. Because in my young age, I thought my mother, who could travel to such a distant place, was simply the most amazing person in the world. She was sure to find a new, livable home for everyone.

So, at that time, I often told my neighboring friends about my mother's views on the outside world.

Although everyone didn't understand and often laughed at me, I never paid much attention to it. I even thought they were envious of me for having such a great mother and were deliberately trying to exclude me. It was also at that time that I fell in love with reading.

Stories are always more logical. Simply by arranging words, one magnificent adventure after another can be developed. As long as you work hard to learn to read and have a little patience, you can gain a lot of knowledge and spiritual comfort from them.

After learning about this, my mother supported my choice and gave me her adventure diary to keep, hoping that I would be able to write my own life stories one day.

With this in mind, I've dedicated more time to my studies, hoping to join an expedition someday and explore the New World with my mother. I've even decided on a title for my future biography.

However, unlike me who had blind confidence in the expedition team, my mother's visits were getting longer and longer, and even when she did come home, she rarely mentioned things about the outside world.

At that time, expeditions outside the wall were always frustrated for various reasons. The best attempt was to find a frozen lake, but the ice there was probably more than ten meters thick.

The scientific expedition team tried their best to survey, but they could only get evidence that it was impossible for life to survive underground, which made everyone very disappointed.

After such disappointments again and again, people gradually lost hope in whether the expedition team could produce any results, and even felt that it was a waste of resources. Public opinion also gradually became negative.

But to me at the time, these were just gossips that could be swept away by my mother's successful big adventure.

Until that time, my mother did not appear in the returning team..."

She paused, her eyes scanning Wendy's gloomy expression, as if she had witnessed her past self, before continuing to recall.

"She was nowhere to be found until a mournful old woman stopped the caravan and asked why her child was not with the group. The leader pointed to a place covered with white cloth at the very back.

He said: "I'm very sorry, ma'am. Mr. Alexi met with an accident while scouting the correct route for the expedition. His sacrifice will always be remembered..."

The old woman was almost emotionally broken, but still asked whether her son had made any contribution to the future of mankind?

But the leader remained silent and led the rest of the people away. The old woman was crying inconsolably and I didn't dare to continue listening.

Of course, it is more likely that among the donors whose faces were covered with white cloth, there was a human figure similar in size to my mother that frightened me, and I, being timid, finally chose to flee back home.

That night, the mother did not return home, and the father did not return until dawn, looking dazed and confused, accompanied by a silent Silver Mane Iron Guard.

I didn't sleep all night at that time. I just asked him where his mother had gone. My father told me that she had gone to her dream new home, but because of a giant ice storm that had not been seen in a century, she could not come back for the time being.

He also gave me the glasses that my mother was wearing, and told me that this was a gift for our farewell meeting..."

At this point, Pera ended her recollection and looked at the name on the tombstone with a melancholy look.

"Since then, I no longer paid attention to the expedition, and my father never mentioned it.

It wasn't until the year I was admitted to the Beloberg Officer School that I met a retired member of the expedition team. She was a teacher at our technical college and was a good friend of my mother.

She recognized me then and told me that the incident had always been a regret for everyone on the expedition, and it was a pity that it could never be made up for in this lifetime...

After all, the scientific expedition team was disbanded by the Great Guardian after the accident that year in which more than half of the members were killed. My mother, as a victim of that period, had her name engraved here.

But what I felt first was not sadness, but a sense of loss.

Of all that my mother left behind, it seemed that only this name was left.

Whether it was the adventurous spirit of outward expansion or the dreams that were so far away that they could not be realized, they all disappeared the moment the scientific expedition team was disbanded.

Only words, and some people who cannot forget the past, still remember this past that has disappeared with the wind and snow."

Chapter 54: The End of Convergence

Compared with the past, it seems particularly dull, even making it difficult to continue the topic.

Because she had read many books and could empathize with the stories in them, Pera never told anyone about the past that weighed on her heart.

Whether it was causing unnecessary troubles to others or providing meaningless comfort, these were not what Pera wanted.

This secret hidden in the heart actually contains the guilt and regret for past ignorance.

If it weren't for my overly enthusiastic expectations, would my mother's pressure not be so great?

If she could wake up in time from her mother's tired and lost expressions, she would realize that every adventure is not as magnificent as her mother described, but is more of a boring journey.

Sleeping in the open air and enduring hunger were just the norm. From the start, the supplies the scientific expedition team carried had already determined where they could reach.

Even after optimizing the route again and again, breaking through and reaching the limits of human beings.

Wouldn't the still unchanged snowy scenery really give rise to an even darker sense of despair?

These were things that Pera had never considered in the past, but every time she read similar plots in "Snow Country Adventure Tales", she would always reflect on them.

And now, why do I want to tell Wendy...

Perhaps it was because she was so willful that she longed to find some "answers" from this special person.

Even though the answer to her question had already appeared in her heart and had supported her for so long, she still wanted to pursue different scenery.

This is probably a kind of guilty feeling that the explorer's daughter felt because she failed to inherit her mother's will and instead replaced it with another tricky method.

"...After listening to your story, I can probably understand what kind of person Ms. Petunia is."

Wendy looked at the Cecilia flower on the girl's hat with a hint of longing in her eyes.

"If you don't mind, let me tell you a story from my hometown. Don't worry, it's not long, it's even a little brief, but I think there are some similarities between it and Lady Petunia's story."

"...Wendy's hometown, huh? I'm kind of looking forward to what kind of country it is."

Pera's eyes were filled with anticipation, but the boy was immersed in the recollection of unraveling the past and reconstructing it.

"In the past, in my hometown of Mondstadt, there were many adventurers who aspired to cross mountains, ford rivers, and reach the ends of the world."

This sounds not much different from past scientific expeditions, except that one has an important mission, while the other is more casual and free.

"Among them was a man named Leonard. Before he was forty, his adventurous footsteps had already explored all the secret places of the time. He could climb cliffs with just a rope and sail across the sea in a wooden boat.

As an adventurer, he should have already come ahead of everyone else, and his adventurous career only needs one last place to reach a happy ending."

The poet's voice had a hint of vicissitudes, and he spoke with a serious expression.

"That place is called Sharp Hat Peak. It's covered in snow and wind year-round. The mountain's shape is as sharp as a witch's hat stretched straight. It's a place where no one has ever reached the summit, a place where dreams are shattered.

Leonard considered it the end of his journey. Unfortunately, Pointed Hat Peak ended Leonard's adventurous career and also ended many things that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

His past adventures did not bring him success, but instead deeper frustration.

Until he was old, Leonard had stood at the foot of the mountain many times, buried by the vast white snow, gazing at this insurmountable peak in vain.

I whispered this in my heart - it is a ferocious beast without any weaknesses.

It is a manifestation of the world's ruthlessness that frightens me. And once an adventurer loses his courage, he can no longer reach the heights."

As a listener, Pera always felt that Wendy's voice was very suitable for storytelling. Her slightly rhythmic and unique narrative style always allowed her to quickly enter a state of empathy.

It was as if she, like Leonard, was kneeling at the foot of Pointed Hat Peak, gazing at the nightmare that stood before all adventurers who aspired to conquer the mountains.

The story continues:

"Since then, Leonard has stopped climbing and started dreaming bigger and farther. Humans invent tools to conquer nature, and because they are conquered by nature, they invent better tools.

If legs can't reach the destination, use tools instead. If tools can't reach the destination, wings can be used. He left behind the unfinished design of wings, allowing people to unite in the face of the unknown. He was so sure of this—

As long as one lives, one will eventually reach all visible places.

Although time is running out for him, and his own gust of wind has not yet arrived, among his successors—or perhaps among our children, students, and friends—there will surely be one who can arrive.”

This is an inspiring story, different from the depressing past that Pera had previously recounted.

However, Pera still stared at Wendy. In the past, she would have thought that this story was over, but at this moment, she could feel it clearly.

It's not over yet, the meaning of this story has not yet been fully revealed...

"I think you must be very curious whether anyone has actually reached the summit later—"

Wendy narrated softly with a slight smile.

"Throughout the millennia of change, people have indeed climbed the Jianmaotou Peak, but it is no longer a mountain, but a small piece of land in the sea.

Just get on a boat, and the mountaintops that were once inaccessible to everyone are now accessible to everyone."

There seemed to be some deep meaning in his eyes, but they were as pure as emerald and without any other thoughts.

"Can everyone reach the top of the mountain..."

Pella held the book in her arms, her eyes subconsciously looking towards the gray city walls rising in the distance and the isolated outside world of wind and snow.

For some reason, she suddenly felt a strong urge.

I want to go back home and finish reading my mother's unfinished notes.

Almost as soon as the thought came to her mind, she moved her legs and ran again as she had done in the past to welcome the returning expedition team.

The breeze blowing across her face lifted the girl's hair and made the petals of the Cecilia flower sway gently.

The round-frame glasses on her cheek almost slipped off because of running, but she steady them again the next moment. The girl's eyes were so determined.

It was not until she returned home that she found the small box that had been covered in dust for a long time.

She blew away the dust and clicked the safety on.

The diary inherited from my mother lay quietly inside.

……

She opened her diary and wrote carefully and meticulously in the tent, which was isolated from the wind and snow, with the dim light of the precious remaining marrow lamp.

"Perhaps, when we face the desperate situation in life now, we can't help but lament our own powerlessness, but—"

The explorer, wearing round-frame glasses and with a handsome face, paused, as if hesitating about how to complete the next sentence.

This difficult period of thinking seemed to stretch out time, making everything obscure.

However, when a corner of the tent was opened and the snowflakes drifted in along with the refracted light, she seemed to have an epiphany.

Facing her companion's slightly excited greeting of departure, she responded to the other party's invitation while adding the last paragraph in a bit of haste.