Othershore Mountain.
At this mountain range that had been peaceful for an unknown period of time, a huge group of visitors had arrived. A group of seven had arrived at the foot of a mountain and were looking at the view of the depths of this Othershore Mountain. There were six males and one female in the group, and each of them was so powerful that their strength caused one's hair to stand. A group capable of exploring a place like this was evidently not an ordinary squad.
What entered their sight was a normal-looking mountain range. Despite how visually attractive this scenery looked, for people like them who had explored countless ruins, they had long ago grown accustomed to such a scene.
Hu—
A cold breeze swept past. Their sense of vigilance flared, but nothing seemed to happen. For them, this appeared like just some ordinary breeze.
One of them shrugged. "This is the Othershore Mountain? This legendary forbidden area doesn't seem so magical at all."
A different person laughed and said, "The most dangerous thing here should be the hillsea beasts. As a place where a group of class beasts resides, it is natural for this place to be classified as a forbidden area. Captain, do you think everyone else is as powerful as us?"
The other person smiled. "That's true." Indeed, an adult hillsea beast would be an class beast. As a place where those beasts resided, it was natural for this place to be a forbidden area for humans. Unfortunately, this only applied to regular humans. For class experts like them… this was instead a hunting ground.
"Seems like the count of my hunted class beasts will increase again," the captain stated calmly.
"It's still better to be careful. It is said that the hillsea beasts are extremely unusual," one of them reminded him.
The captain nodded. "I know." He was indeed an arrogant person. However, he would never underestimate an enemy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have lived until today.
"Let's go." He stood up, and his companions followed.
However, he noted that the familiar sounds seemed somewhat different now. He frowned slightly as a result. Although he was arrogant, he was also the one with the highest sense of vigilance among their group. During that instant earlier, the footsteps of his companions behind him had seemed somewhat off. Initially, there had been five footsteps behind but now, it had become four. Had someone defected?
The captain's eyes gleamed coldly. He had experienced too many betrayals and ambushes. As such, he came to himself immediately and prepared to counterattack. However, when he turned around, he blanked. There, roughly two meters from him, the last member of their group, who had been standing behind everyone, was transforming into countless light particles.
The captain's eyes widened abruptly. "This is…"
"What's up?"
The rest turned around instinctively and were greatly shocked. What were they seeing? Their team member who would normally protect their rear was currently dissipating, starting from his upper body and going down to his lower body. Half his body had actually transformed into particles, and those light particles were evaporating unceasingly. As for his body, it was slowly collapsing, vanishing unendingly.
He stretched his hand out in fear. "Save me!" However, at the moment when his hand was stretched out, everything was already over. Everyone could see a half-illusory body dissipating in the air. Up there, countless particles wafted through the air before landing onto the ground, enriching the soil of this Othershore Mountain.
Hum—
Once again, that place recovered its previous tranquility. Instantly, their relaxed mood evaporated completely. Dead. A powerful class warrior was dead just like that.
Instead of dying in battle, he had been killed at this unfathomable Othershore Mountain. Furthermore, they couldn't even figure out how he had died. This place…
"Was it an enemy attack?" the captain asked solemnly.
"No." Evidently, there was an expert scout in their group who was able to figure out the real reason soon enough. "He was killed by some fatal particles. However, their origin is still unknown…Perhaps…"
Just as he was analyzing, suddenly, he felt somewhat cold. Distantly, a cold breeze seemed to have swept past.
Wind? Instinctively, he took a look at the wind, and immediately after, his expression changed greatly. "Be careful. Something is wrong with this wind."
Shua!
The expressions of the others changed greatly. Almost instantly, they all erected their defenses. Unfortunately, they were a tad bit too slow. As the cold breeze brushed past, another person wilted away. Everyone else was shocked to their core.
"Wind. The wind here is problematic. No matter what, defensive barriers must be maintained at all times," the scout reminded everyone.
The rest had serious expressions. At this moment, none of them dared to move forward. Carefully, they waited there. Only when an additional cold breeze arrived and was blocked outside their barriers did they feel relieved.
"This wind doesn't seem too powerful. It's only at the level of peak B class. It is something we can defend against. Prepare your energy reserves properly. We will be able to ignore this wind," the captain ordered.
"Yes."
They felt somewhat relieved now. However, when they once again raised their heads to look at this mountain range before them, none of them dared to be neglectful anymore. Not even five meters into this place and two class team members were already dead—how would they still dare to look down on this place?
Othershore Mountain…
They exchanged glances with solemn expressions.
"Complete the mission and leave immediately."
"Yes."
Hu—
The cold breeze drifted past, seemingly accompanying the cries of death. They stepped forward amid the breeze, stepping toward the depths of Othershore Mountain.
The first thing one would encounter when stepping into this place was this mysterious cold breeze. If one couldn't notice it in time, one would directly perish there, becoming one with Othershore Mountain. On the ground… not even their corpse would remain. This was the most deceptive nature of this place.
Chen Feng had once been to a lot of places. Those places that were filled with danger would usually have a huge amount of human remains to serve as a warning. Here there was nothing. Fortunately, the present him was capable of responding to this danger in a flawless manner.
"Hopefully things will be easier moving forward," Chen Feng stated to himself. The cold breeze would sweep past occasionally. However, Chen Feng noted that he did not even need to resist this breeze with brute force. When the breeze reached him, he could simply hide behind some solid objects nearby and that would do. The cold breeze might be fatal, but it was also rather weak.
Chen Feng pondered. "In conclusion, with stones, the breeze can be blocked?" It was too much of a waste to use his Energy Equipment just to defend against this breeze. If these stones were able to do that…
Soon after, Chen Feng could be seen carrying a stone shield around.
Earlier, he had forcefully thinned down a chunk of rock, transforming it into a crude shield. Afterward, when a new breeze brushed past, this shield was sufficient to block it.
"The cold breeze is still here. However, the fatal particles have gone missing after touching the stone," Spirit responded.
"So that's the case," Chen Feng knowingly answered. It seemed like not only the wind here was unique—even these stones had mysterious powers. However, he had yet to figure out the origin of all this. With the shield in hand, Chen Feng traveled forth without stop. With this thing here, Chen Feng's journey became incredibly easy.
However, when he was about to reach the depths of the Othershore Mountain, his heart jolted. Abruptly, he leaped and hid himself nearby, and his breathing weakened greatly. Distantly, within the depths of Othershore Mountain, the voices of other humans could be heard.
Chen Feng was astonished. "There's actually someone else coming here?" Carefully, he sent Xiao Ying out to scout them. The images transmitted back to him surprised him greatly. Not far away, an old acquaintance could be seen. Mhm… that was a person who he had wanted to kill even in his dreams, Old Mei![1][1]
Shua!
Abruptly, Chen Feng's gaze became sharp.
[1] 1. As a recap, Old Mei was the chrysanthemum old man who had "blessed" Wang Yue and tried assassinating Chen Feng before the rookie competition very early on when this novel first started.