Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared

"What in the world does that mean? Why can’t people just explain things clearly instead of making everything so complicated? Is it to show off their superior knowledge?" complained Lu Yi, giving voice to everyone else’s thoughts.

Gu Fan stroked his chin in thought. There was no visible path up the mountain, just these cryptic lines of text to go by. He speculated, "Maybe there’s no specific route up the mountain at all, folks. Possibly we just keep going upwards and eventually reach a sea of clouds at the end of the mountain."

"Is that how it is?" Ning Qi looked around, noticing several peaks shrouded in clouds and voiced her confusion, "In that case, which peak should we choose?"

Gu Fan pondered, "Let’s head for the nearest peak. Once we get there, we can figure out our next move."

Xu Haowen immediately piped in, "Gu Fan, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but if you choose the wrong peak, the time and energy we waste is unlikely to be compensable."

Everyone agreed with Xu Haowen’s perspective. It was reckless to climb a mountain without clear direction.

Gu Fan understood the risk in his suggestion but proposed an alternative explanation, "We may not necessarily need a path. Perhaps there’s a hidden palace within Yuxueyun Mountain. The palace entrances could be dispersed among the various peaks."

His theory made some sense, but the group had their reservations. Skepticism arose about finding the palace entrance once they reached the top, and confusion around Gu Fan’s last line - does the phrase ’even higher mountain’ hint at the highest peak?

Old man Tian was at a loss. The highest peaks of Yuxueyun Mountain were perpetually shrouded in clouds, making it impossible to discern which held the topmost position.