CHAPTER 67: MY BOSS IS A RUTHLESS PERSON

The other side of the portal was unlike anything Han Xuhan had ever seen. Comparing it to the atmosphere of the Crimson Snow Sect would be foolish.

The moment he passed through the portal, he found himself falling face-first into hard, rocky mountain soil, covered in a layer of soot like an old chimney. He tried to slap the soot off while standing up, but discovered that every inch of visible soil around him was covered by it.

The place he had landed on was at the rim of a canyon. The invisible portal leading them here was dangerously close to the nearest edge, just a couple of meters from where he was standing.

Han Xuhan cautiously took a peek down the cliff and sighed in relief. The wall going down wasn’t exactly vertical or smooth. Even if he slipped and fell, he wouldn’t roll all the way down easily.

Standing at the rim of the cliff, surveying the vast expanse of lifeless emptiness in all directions was enough to crush Han Xuhan’s spirit. The deathly aura of this place was too overbearing!

Even though it was night outside the portal, this place was lit up as bright as any gloomy day. Between the two worlds, there was a time zone difference of at least 10 hours, judging by the sun shining in the middle of the sky.

Were they still on the same continent? Where had this portal taken them to? How far? It couldn’t be a teleportation device as well, could it?

The questions hounded Han Xuhan ceaselessly as he observed the sky.

Around the sun, the sky was coloured stark blue. The rest of the sky was blocked from their sight due to a thick grey mass of fog.

The fog itself was an oddity. It was heavily concentrated in the direction opposite to the canyon expanse, covering what seemed to be a flattened, rocky wasteland, perhaps a mesa or a plateau. Was the source of the fog hiding there?

It looked very substantial, almost like floating powder. There was a persistent light breeze blowing in his direction, making the fog close in on the canyon inch by inch like a living creature.

Han Xuhan also noticed the floating balls of light Mu Ran had described, vaguely glowing within the depths of the fog. With a casual glance, he realized that these balls of light could be categorized into a few grades.

The smallest ones looked very bright, appearing to be quite close to the outer region of the foggy zone, in other words, closest to his position. All of these orbs were emitting a bright red glow like miniature suns.

Further within the fog, there were dimmer, but larger orbs, glowing with an emerald light that was still rather prominent from the edge of the canyon. Their number was not as high as the red orbs.

The largest, and rarest balls of light were floating very far away, deep within the fog, emitting an intense violet glare. Calling them orbs in comparison to the previous two categories was an understatement.

As he was done with his primary observation, Mu Ran leaped in through the airborne portal and gracefully landed right next to him. The two of them began to discuss their observations cautiously.

"Actually, there is something you’ve missed, underling," Mu Ran said smugly at the end.

"This is the most significant detail here as well. You’ve used your eyes, but not your ears! Haven’t you noticed the noise?"

"...What noise?" Han Xuhan asked in confusion. A look of sudden realization dawned on Mu Ran’s face.

"Oh, I forgot that you don’t cultivate your body. Come with me."

Saying that, he dragged Han Xuhan to the very edge of the foggy region, where it was almost impossible to see more than three meters ahead.

"Now listen closely," he said, pointing towards the fog’s depths.

Han Xuhan finally could hear vague sounds of human voices shouting, and even sense some lively disturbances far away.

All of the voices sounded hurried. And the disturbances within the fog made it churn restlessly like the rolling waves on a sea. However, these phenomena only seemed to grow more and more vague with each passing minute.

Han Xuhan actually found this situation familiar after a quick analysis.

Was this a mysterious world where some sort of ancient treasure was hidden by a powerhouse eons ago as a test or a legacy?

His experience with cultivation novels said, if there was anything all ancient cultivators had in common, it was constructing all sorts of fucked up tests with high mortality rate, all in order to choose somebody who could inherit their legacy.

Going by this assumption, it finally made sense to him why Mu Ran was so desperate to investigate this place!

While such a legacy was tempting, was it really worth risking his life for?

Right now, he had his hands full with the cultivation techniques he had been practicing. Risking his life to find a super cool technique or a treasure invented by an old man thousands of years ago with unknown purposes... Han Xuhan couldn’t find the appeal here.

Not to mention, such techniques always came with added conditions and requirements most people couldn’t meet. Han Xuhan himself was always running low on luck. He wasn’t willing to bet his life on this.

"Boss, you said something is wrong with the fog, right?"

Mu Ran nodded in affirmation. "That’s right, and we’re going to test that right now."

"How?" Han Xuhan got curious.

"With this guy, of course!" Mu Ran said, pointing behind him. Han Xuhan quickly turned around, but found nobody there.

"Who-"

"Look down, underling."

Han Xuhan discovered a familiar wet squirrel stiffly standing near his feet. The sight rendered him speechless.

Mu Ran made a grabbing motion with his hands, just like how he had captured old man Di Qian’s fish. The squirrel’s body seemed to fall under his telepathic control, rolling towards the fog like a ball.

"Is it even alive?" Han Xuhan asked, finding the scene quite pitiful.

"We’ll see. If the fog is dangerous to breathe in, it will probably show us some reactions before something fatal happens."

"...." Han Xuhan felt a sliver of fear towards his cross-dressing boss.

The protagonist is really ruthless! The emotionless, merciless manner in which he was using this little guy made Han Xuhan foresee some dark endings in his own future!