Chapter 109: Nanshan Pass

Hu Zixuan glanced around at Chen Xiao before nodding and saying, “It doesn’t seem likely either. The news reported it—even satellites can’t detect what’s there. If you had such great abilities, you wouldn’t be sitting here chatting with me.”
Chen Xiao curled his lips but didn’t reply.
“But Xiaozi, do you know? After you left yesterday afternoon, something strange happened at Nanshan.”
Suddenly, Hu Zixuan spoke in a mysterious tone.
“A strange thing? What kind of strange thing?” Seeing Hu Zixuan’s expression, Chen Xiao couldn’t help but feel curious.
“There were ghosts in that small graveyard by Nanshan Pass,” Hu Zixuan said after looking around.
“Ghosts?” Chen Xiao immediately thought of those ghosts in the world of supernatural abilities who often dealt with those with powers, haggling loudly. “Actually, ghosts are quite adorable creatures.”
Chen Xiao smiled slightly, but then he froze.
“Ghosts? How is that possible? The human world is full of positive energy. Ordinary ghosts can’t withstand it once they arrive here and will just disintegrate.”
Chen Xiao smiled and said, “Are you sure it’s ghosts? Could it be the villagers there being paranoid?”
Hu Zixuan shook his head. “I originally planned to take you with me to check it out yesterday afternoon, but you ran off to the sea to make a fuss. So I went alone. I didn’t see any ghosts, but the area was covered in dark clouds and felt extremely cold—very eerie.”
With guidance and Chen Xiao’s help in expanding his mental sea, Hu Zixuan had already reached a certain level and become a first-tier supernatural being—bold because of his skill. So when he heard that there were ghosts at Nanshan Pass, he went there in person.
“Covered in dark clouds?” Chen Xiao was stunned. “Could it be some supernatural being’s doing?”
“Should we go check it out again? I was too scared to enter as soon as I got there yesterday. You’re stronger than me. How about we go together now?” Hu Zixuan’s little eyes sparkled. Since he had been too timid to go yesterday, with Chen Xiao around, he had no reason not to.
“If Nanshan Pass is covered in dark clouds, aren’t there any supernatural beings who want to check it out?” Chen Xiao shook his head. “Let’s go. If there’s any danger, we’ll run away immediately.”
“Need you to say that? My life is precious,” Hu Zixuan said with a playful grin.
The village around Chen Xiao’s village was considered relatively poor in Liancheng, with very little contact with the outside world. So no supernatural beings wanted to go to such a small place.
Thus, even though Nanshan Pass was covered in dark clouds, it didn’t draw the attention of supernatural beings elsewhere. The people in the mountains were mostly superstitious. Seeing such strange phenomena, they tended to attribute them to ghosts and gods, so they just stayed away and spread the news only within the village, preventing it from spreading further.
When Chen Xiao and Hu Zixuan arrived, Chen Xiao was immediately stunned. If he hadn’t known this was just a mountain pass around the village, he would have thought they had entered the world of supernatural abilities.

The mountain pass ahead is a small cemetery, not very large, but it has been abandoned for a long time—no new graves have been added in who knows how long. In the stories passed down among the villagers living nearby, South Mountain Pass is considered an unlucky place.

Now, an area of five miles around this mountain pass is shrouded in thick fog, and the trees and grasses ahead seem to have turned a deathly gray.

Chen Xiao sent his mental energy slightly inward and immediately felt an extremely cold aura surging into his mental realm. However, after experiencing a lesson in the Thousand Souls Realm the previous day, the power of his Supreme God within him protected his mental energy at all times, so he wasn’t harmed this time.

“Amazing,” Chen Xiao frowned slightly before saying, “Zi Xuan, it’s probably impossible to enter here. Once you go in, you’ll definitely freeze solid.”

“Mm, I think so too,” Hu Zi Xuan nodded. “Yesterday at noon, when I got close to that place, I almost froze to death. If it weren’t for my spiritual energy protecting me, you probably wouldn’t have seen me alive.”

After a pause, Hu Zi Xuan continued, “Xiao Zi, you’re so powerful—can’t you even get in?”

Chen Xiao shook his head. “I can go in, but I can’t bring you along. If anything goes wrong, it will be you who suffers.”

“Then I’d better go back. My life is more important. Xiao Zi, do you have any plans?” Hu Zi Xuan asked cautiously.

“I want to go in and take a look,” Chen Xiao said, staring straight at the gray area. He had noticed that this gray region was slowly expanding. If left unchecked, it might spread to the villages below the mountains.

Hu Zi Xuan’s face twitched violently before he said, “I won’t get involved. But be careful.”

Although Hu Zi Xuan wasn’t very skilled nor had great ambitions, he knew his limits and understood what he could and couldn’t handle. Such people usually lived longer.

“Mm, but don’t reveal anything about this place, especially not to my grandfather. I’m afraid he’ll worry,” Chen Xiao said. Even though Hu Zi Xuan didn’t know Chen Jianzhou’s identity, nothing should go wrong.

Although Chen Jianzhou’s body had recovered, his strength had diminished significantly, and it wouldn’t be easy for him to recover. If he came here and got hurt, Chen Xiao would regret it deeply.

“Don’t worry about that. I guarantee no one else will know about this,” Hu Zi Xuan nodded.

“Okay, then I’ll go in first. You can wait here or go back to the village,” Chen Xiao said.

“I’d better go back. It’s not that I’m unloyal—it’s just too cold here,” Hu Zi Xuan shivered before smiling.

“Alright, I was worried if you stayed outside,” Chen Xiao said as he headed toward the gray area.

In fact, Chen Xiao possessed the power of the Supreme God and had the ability to take Hu Zi Xuan in as well, but he could not guarantee Hu Zi Xuan’s safety at all. Chen Xiao had already sensed a faint spiritual energy fluctuation in this gray area.
This region was vastly different from the World of Superpowers, where everything was just gray except for that, with all other conditions being extremely similar to those on Earth. But here, it seemed to be filled with some inexplicable force that was extremely cold; ordinary people would likely freeze to death just by approaching it.
Within this area, aside from some low mounds of graves, there were the corpses of various creatures, all frozen solid.
Suddenly, Chen Xiao’s mind stirred, and the Water of Death appeared, surrounding his body. The cold force around him was instantly absorbed the moment it touched the Water of Death.
……