Chapter Twenty-Five

  The night gradually darkened, and the sky poured down heavy rain again. The cold wind whistled through. Their teeth chattered with cold, but their footsteps didn't slow down at all.

  From crossing the lake to now, I haven't dried up yet, and my skin has already wrinkled like an 80-year-old woman. Clearly a yellow-skinned person, but now looks just like a white person.

  In front of us was the edge of a cliff, with layered peaks and thousands of rocks, strange rocks towering. There were no climbing tools. Our bodies were exhausted to the extreme.

  But the mountain cliff in front of us must be crossed, and this is also a necessary place for the competition.

  "It's so high, I think it's over 50 meters, how can we get up there, without any tools?" Jin Feng said worriedly.

  Yuan Shuai hugged his hands and frowned tightly.

  "I'll try first." Li Nan volunteered again.

  "Be careful, don't force yourself, if you can't make it then come down." Yang Zhongliang instructed him like an elder brother.

  "I know," he said, retreating a few steps and slowly catching his breath (he was also exhausted). Then he quickly ran towards the cliff. His feet quickly stepped on the slightly protruding rocks, running for nearly ten meters. He stood firm on a strange rock that grew horizontally. After resting for a while, he was about to continue climbing up when Yuan Shuai shouted from below:

  "Li Nan, wait a minute, don't climb up yet, hold on." He said as he threw the rope to him.

  "Tie it to the rock, we'll pull the rope up." After Yuan Shuai climbed onto this strange rock, Li Nan continued upwards. Yuan Shuai threw the rope to Wang Yuanshan. After Wang Yuanshan came up, Yuan Shuai again threw the rope to Li Nan. After Li Nan tied the rope to the rock, he continued upwards... ...and so on, repeatedly pulling everyone up from below.

  Even with ropes, they still climbed so hard, after all, their bodies were too tired.

  Of course, Li Nan was the most tired. He climbed nearly 40 meters continuously and had no strength left in his body. However, in order to climb up as soon as possible, he still used his last bit of energy to climb upwards.

  His hands grasping the stone did not stop trembling. The speed was much slower than before, and the movements became more heavy. Nosebleed "plop" flowed out, this is a severe exhaustion caused by nosebleed. He just tilted his head, and gently wiped the nosebleed on the shoulder of his combat uniform, but it flowed out again as soon as he finished wiping. Until his entire shoulder and half back were stained with crimson blood, he still couldn't stop the blood from gushing out of his nostrils. He didn't care, just let it flow. When he stretched out to grab the stone about half a meter away from him, he grabbed empty air.

  He looked up at the top of the cliff, he was so close to the top of the cliff that he could almost tie the rope to a big tree on the top of the cliff and then sit on the ground, yes! Sit on the ground! And watch his comrades pull him up with the tied rope. What a comfortable thing it is. The key is that he can rest for a while, at that moment he doesn't have to worry about foreign special forces catching up, just sitting there resting. That's what he thought.

  Now he was farther and farther away from the top of the cliff. He closed his eyes weakly, feeling like a falling maple leaf.

  A loud "slap" sound. He felt himself suddenly suspended in mid-air. Then a voice came over.

  "Li Nan, wake up..."

  He slowly opened his eyes to find himself still suspended in mid-air. He looked up to see Yuan Shuai gritting his teeth and grabbing onto his backpack. The stitches on his right hand had just been completed, but the fishing line had snapped due to excessive force, and blood was continuously dripping down. His left hand was tightly grasping a rock, and due to excessive force, all of his fingernails were bent upwards, leaving bloody marks on the rock.

  "Li Nan, hold on, you are - China's - best, and also the world's best. You - you can't - give up like this." Yuan Shuai's voice was very muffled. Because he said it with his teeth clenched tightly, but Li Nan heard it clearly. He knew that Yuan Shuai would not let go, so he also held Yuan Shuai's hand tightly. Blood flowed out of Yuan Shuai's mouth, which was the gum blood caused by his tightly clenched teeth.

  "In this world, there are only the timid, no weaklings." Yang Zhongliang watched as they struggled to pull and hang in mid-air, unable to lend a hand. He could only cheer them on from the side.

  Jinfeng and others were also cheering them on from the side. Because at this time they had no better way.

  Yuan Shuai struggled to move Li Nan towards the edge of the cliff, so that he could find a place to rest his feet. This way, he could alleviate some of the burden. After all, hanging like this was consuming too much physical strength, and he didn't know how long he could hold on. When Li Nan approached the cliff, he found a slightly protruding rock. He slowly stretched out his foot. At this time, he dared not use too much force, lest Yuan Shuai would not be able to hold on even for a moment.

  His feet finally touched the rock, then slowly approached, his hands could touch the cliff wall. Then slowly grasped it. Gently let go of Yuan Shuai's hand.

  Yuan Shuai felt that Li Nan had already grasped it, and quickly threw the rope to him. Loudly saying: "Hook the hook on your waistband".

  Li Nan hooked the hook onto his waistband, and Yuan Shuai pulled him with all his might. Under his pull, Li Nan slowly climbed up to the rock where Yuan Shuai was standing. The two men hugged each other excitedly, having passed another test of life and death.

  At that moment, he felt that life was so fragile and helpless. When you don't cherish it, it's always around you. When you want to cherish it, it has already gone far away from you and will never come back.

  After a brief rest, they threw the rope down to Wang Yuanjian below and pulled him up.

  They were just a few meters away from the summit, but they no longer had the strength. Looking at the distance of several meters, they were helpless.

  Yuan Shuai furrowed his brow, thought for a moment, and then calmly said, "I've got it. I'll crouch down, you (he pointed to Li Nan) stand on my shoulders, Wang Yuan is the smallest, climb onto Li Nan's body, and I'll send you guys up."

  "No way, you've consumed too much physical strength, I'll take you up from down here," said Wang Yuan, seeing the opposition.

  "Damn it, you're so small, can you carry both of us?" Yuan Shuai never used to swear. He was in a hurry this time.

  Yuan Shuai crouched down, looked at Li Nan and meant to tell him to get on. At this time, he also tried to save his energy when speaking. Li Nan stood on Yuan Shuai's shoulders with both hands leaning against the cliff. Wang Yuan wiped away his tears and slowly climbed onto Li Nan's shoulders.

  "Ah..."

  Yuan Shuai and Li Nan both shouted loudly as they stood up at the same time. This was their last roar, if they didn't stand up now, they wouldn't be able to stand up anymore. Wang Yuan saw that he had grabbed onto a rock on top of the cliff and used all his strength to climb up. Then he pulled Li Nan up, and Yuan Shuai sat back down on the ground with a thud, stretching out one finger with his right hand, taking a deep breath before saying, "One minute, rest for one minute."

  One minute later, Yuan Shuai threw the rope down to Yang Zhongliang who had one end tied to a rock. He no longer had the strength to pull him up.

  It took them half an hour to complete this subject. After they all climbed to the top, foreign special forces also arrived at the foot of the cliff, and with specialized climbing tools, it still took them nearly an hour to complete this subject.

  In the command hall, the Estonian Minister of Defense clearly saw the highlights of the Chinese team members flashing one by one. He turned around and asked the instructor:

  "What kind of climbing tools are they using? How can they possibly reach the top so quickly with a load of 40 kilograms?"

  "Minister, as far as I know they don't have any climbing gear. If anything, it's just a rope," said the instructor with a wave of his hand.

  "The defense minister said disbelievingly, 'This is impossible, absolutely impossible. A 50-meter-high cliff with a weight of 40 kilograms, and it's completed in half an hour with just one rope? This is fundamentally impossible.'"

  "But that's how it is, Your Excellency."

  Our special forces members continue their journey with mutual support. Nearly a thousand imaginary enemies are waiting for them ahead.

  Keep fighting, our heroes! The whole nation is waiting for news of your victory.