Chapter 98: Outside Shanhai Pass

"Akatsuki Jin and Du Gu Yun will definitely form teams too; this mission is not just an evaluation, but a competition between teams."

In the end, Jiang Xia’s team was finalized: Jiang Xia (team leader), Ye Lingxi, Wang Teng, Ling Zhantian, Wang Shichen, plus Shi Man, the Wu Alliance prodigy skilled in earth-based defensive arrays (Rank 25 on the Prodigy List), and Su Xiaorou of the Su family, who possessed healing and purification abilities (Rank 38 on the Prodigy List).

The seven-member team had balanced composition.

Three days later, the towering gate of Shanhai Pass slowly opened a narrow slit, like an ancient beast stirring.

In an instant, a completely different aura rushed toward them.

It was not merely spiritual energy five times denser than inside the pass, but also infused with a wild, violent, chaotic will.

Inside the pass, though always on alert, order was maintained and the spiritual energy remained mild.

Outside the pass, even the spiritual energy in the mist carried a piercing sharpness; inhaling it made the lungs ache faintly.

"Stay alert!" Jiang Xia barked, stepping forward through the gate first.

Before them stretched an endless, unknown fog.

The immense psychological disparity caused everyone to instinctively tense their bodies.

"Damn, this feeling... is totally different."

Wang Teng pulled his neck in, gripping his Soul Devouring Scythe tighter, "I feel a chill crawling all over me, Boss Fat."

Ling Zhantian felt the omnipresent pressure in the air and grinned, "Now this is more like it! Too long in the greenhouse—my bones are rusting!"

The team advanced along their predetermined route toward Shadow Canyon.

The initial stretch was calm, encountering only scattered low-tier aberrant beasts, easily dispatched.

But soon, they understood what "no order suppression" truly meant.

"Watch your left!" Wang Shichen suddenly warned.

A beast the size of an elephant, shaped like a leopard but entirely covered in bony armor, lunged from the dense forest—its speed far exceeding that of a bone-armored leopard of the same tier inside the pass!

"Bone-armored Wang Jie leopard? This speed is wrong!" Shi Man growled, slamming his palms into the ground, "Rock Wall!"

A thick wall of earth instantly rose.

"Crash!"

The bone-armored leopard smashed through the wall, its momentum slightly reduced, claws slicing through air toward Ling Zhantian at the front.

"Come on!" Ling Zhantian didn’t flinch—he grinned, unleashing his Battle God ability, his bloodline blazing like a rainbow, meeting the attack head-on with a punch!

"Clang!"

Fist met claw, producing a metallic ring. Ling Zhantian staggered back half a step; the bone-armored leopard was blasted backward, shook its head, and its eyes grew even more ferocious.

"Strength, speed, defense—all at least thirty percent higher than recorded inside the pass!" Wang Shichen rapidly reported data.

Jiang Xia’s gaze sharpened; his Rinnegan activated instantly, detecting abnormal surges of energy within the beast.

"It’s not just base stats rising—their energy cores are more violent, their aggression stronger."

"End this quickly!" Jiang Xia ordered, "Lingxi, restrain its movement!"

Ye Lingxi raised her hand: "Xuan Ming—Ice Vines!"

Several icy vines erupted from the ground, wrapping around the leopard’s limbs.

The bone-armored leopard roared, blasting searing heat from its body, instantly melting half the vines!

"What the hell! It spits fire?!" Wang Teng yelled, swinging his Soul Devouring Scythe, "Slice!"

The gray-black blade aura struck the beast’s back armor, leaving a deep white scratch—but failed to pierce it!

"Defense’s also gotten this much stronger!" Wang Teng gasped.

"Weak point: the joint between neck armor plates!" Jiang Xia’s Sharingan instantly saw through it—he moved, condensed Thousand Birds in his palm, darted behind the beast, and drove a precise knife-hand strike into the neck seam!

"Squelch!"

Lightning exploded—the bone-armored leopard shrieked and collapsed.

The battle ended, but the team’s mood grew heavy; a common Wang Jie aberrant beast had required nearly the entire team’s main force to dispatch swiftly.

"This is just the beginning..." Su Xiaorou murmured, applying healing magic to Ling Zhantian’s wrist, injured by the recoil.

Jiang Xia crouched, examining the leopard’s corpse, brow furrowed.

"Data from inside the pass is now nearly useless. From now on, treat every aberrant beast as one tier higher."

The rest of the journey confirmed Jiang Xia’s judgment.

The aberrant beasts they encountered—whether common wind wolves, iron-spined wild boars, or rare poison-mist spiders and thunder-sound birds—all far surpassed inside-the-pass knowledge.

Even normally docile herbivores had become fiercely aggressive, their eyes glowing with unnatural red light.

"Something’s wrong. Very wrong."

Wang Shichen spoke again, pointing to a twisted stretch of forest ahead.

"The spatial fluctuations there are abnormal—and... have Itachi noticed? The closer we get to Shadow Canyon, the more frenzied these beasts become?"

Jiang Xia followed his gaze; through his Rinnegan’s perception, the laws of heaven and earth in that region seemed chaotic.

"It seems Shadow Canyon’s anomaly has a wide radius. Stay alert—we may already be within its radiation zone."

After advancing another dozens of li, crossing a swamp shrouded in pale purple toxic mist, the entrance to Shadow Canyon—like a wound carved into the earth—finally appeared before them.

It was a vast, gaping chasm, its steep cliffs a sinister dark red.

Thick, unyielding black mist filled the canyon; even from afar, the palpable, heart-stopping energy waves radiated from within.

Near the canyon’s entrance, on a relatively flat elevated plateau, Akatsuki Jin’s Fire Heaven Sect team had just arrived and were clearing a pack of mutated two-headed demon wolves.

Akatsuki Jin’s body burned with golden flames; each gesture obliterated charging demons into ash, effortlessly.

He spotted Jiang Xia’s team, snorted, and accelerated his attacks—clearly eager to enter the canyon first.

"It’s Akatsuki Jin’s crew!" Wang Teng shouted, "We can’t let them get the jump!"

"No rush," Jiang Xia observed calmly, "Let them scout first."

"Shi Man, Su Xiaorou—set up temporary defensive fortifications. We secure this plateau as our forward base."

"Understood!" Shi Man immediately manipulated earth and stone, constructing simple walls and cover.

Su Xiaorou scattered herbal powder to repel venomous insects and low-tier aberrants.

As Jiang Xia’s team worked to establish their outpost, a sudden transformation erupted at the canyon entrance!

"Roar—!!!"

A deafening roar echoed from the canyon’s depths, its sonic wave solid enough to churn their blood.

The ground heaved violently; the canyon’s cliff walls began collapsing!

Akatsuki Jin’s team, caught first, turned pale and retreated hastily.

From the dust, a colossal creature burst forth, smashing through countless boulders.