Mortal: Supreme Being of the Ghost Path

After waiting for about half an hour, a bright red and blue light suddenly shone from the direction of the giant mountain. The dazzling light dyed the entire sky half red and half ice blue, which was truly eerie.

Immediately afterwards, the mountain walls near the canyon entrance began to tremble violently.

With a deafening roar that shook the earth, two narrow passages slowly split open in the mountain wall, deep and winding, their destinations unknown.

The inner walls of the passage were as smooth as a mirror, as if they had been cleaved open by some enormous force, leading straight into the depths of the canyon.

At the same time, outside the entrances to the two passages, a stone tablet about three or four feet tall appeared, completely black, with a faint spiritual light flowing across its surface.

On the left stone tablet were three ancient characters: “Xuanjing Dao”, with extremely sharp strokes.

The stone tablet on the right bears the words "Lava Road," the characters distorted, yet containing extremely sharp spiritual energy fluctuations.

At this moment, the cultivators who had been resting with their eyes closed all stood up, their gazes shifting uncertainly between the two passages.

Some looked hesitant, while others were determined, each with their own thoughts, as if weighing which path to take.

Qin Han, who had been sitting in the corner, also opened his eyes. His pale red eyes swept across the two passageways, and he quickly made a decision.

"Take the Xuanjing Path," he thought to himself.

The lava road was filled with yang energy and was unbearably hot. For a ghost like him, whose foundation was yin energy, it was like playing with fire.

If one were to force their way in, not only would their mana consumption increase exponentially, but their combat strength would also be greatly reduced. No matter how you look at it, it would be a losing proposition.

In contrast, the Xuanjing Path, though chilling to the bone, is rich in yin energy, which is quite compatible with his soul attributes. At least he won't be as restricted as on the Lava Path.

With this in mind, Qin Han no longer hesitated and strode towards the entrance of the Xuanjing Path.

The moment I stepped into the passage, a biting cold wind hit me.

The wind was icy cold, stinging his face like needles. Despite the chill, Qin Han remained calm and made to walk forward.

But then he suddenly realized a serious problem: he now had a physical body!

If he were still a spirit, this cold air would naturally not harm him. Spirits are inherently yin and evil beings; in such a cold environment, they thrive, and can even use the cold to temper their souls and enhance their cultivation.

But now that he has possessed the body of this black-robed cultivator, this flesh and blood body is far less tolerant of the cold than the Yin spirit.

If the cold air invades the meridians and is not resisted, it is very likely to damage the physical body, or even completely destroy this body that was just acquired.

"I almost forgot about that..."

Qin Han cursed inwardly, not daring to be negligent, and quickly raised his hand to cast a layer of eerie black protective shield on his body.

This physical body still has great use to him.

After all, having a physical body allows one to use many spells and supernatural abilities that are unusable in the spirit form, and makes movement much easier.

The black protective shield solidified in an instant, keeping the cold air out.

Having taken these protective measures, Qin Han continued forward while secretly pondering.

Ordinary cultivators who walk this path need to constantly use their protective spiritual light to resist the cold, which consumes a great deal of magical power.

Although his spirit body is not afraid of the cold, the physical body he possessed is his biggest weakness. Therefore, he has to allocate some of his magic power and mind to protect this physical body, and cannot absorb the cold for his own use as he does in his pure spirit state.

However, compared to other cultivators, he still has a considerable advantage.

Those cultivators need to use spiritual power to resist the cold from scratch, while he can at least use the affinity of his soul body to the cold energy to guide some of the cold energy into his soul body, thereby reducing the burden on his physical body.

Although he cannot completely avoid exhaustion, his stamina is much stronger than others.

As Qin Han ventured deeper into the Mystic Crystal Path, he could clearly feel the temperature of the surrounding air dropping at an extremely rapid pace.

At first it was just a chilly cold, but it gradually became icy cold. After walking a few dozen steps further, the icy cold air blowing in our faces was clearly visible to the naked eye.

The breath exhaled condensed into fine white frost in the air, falling slowly like snowflakes.

On the rock walls on both sides of the passage, a thin layer of ice crystals began to appear. At first, there were only a few scattered crystals, but the deeper you went, the denser the ice crystals became, eventually forming a whole and turning the entire passage into a crystal-clear ice cave.

A faint spiritual light flowed across the ice wall, emitting a faint blue glow that illuminated the entire passage as if it were daytime.

As Qin Han walked, he adjusted the distribution of his magical power from time to time.

Before long, a dazzling red light suddenly appeared ahead.

As a slight dizziness followed, an even more ferocious cold wave swept over him, causing the black protective shield that had been gathered on his body to flicker and sway uncontrollably, on the verge of collapse.

Noticing this anomaly, Qin Han frowned slightly, raised his hand, and his ghostly energy surged, his magic power surging out to stabilize the protective barrier once again.

Only then did he take a closer look at his surroundings.

All that could be seen was a world covered in silver, an endless expanse of ice and snow, with towering, menacing snow-capped mountains faintly visible in the distance. Even the sky itself seemed to have a deep, dark hue, giving off an eerie, deathly atmosphere.

Furthermore, the temperature here seemed to be a few degrees lower than in the previous passage, and even with his current peak Core Formation cultivation, he couldn't help but feel a bit chilly.

Qin Han took a deep breath, his expression seemingly somewhat gloomy.

According to the original text, in this second trial, the Ice and Fire Path, all cultivators who attempt to pass through the trial are unable to fly and can only rely on their own two feet to slowly move forward step by step.

If you're lucky, you'll be teleported a little closer, which will save you a lot of effort. If you're unlucky, you'll be teleported a little further away, and you'll have to walk for days and nights without sleep before you can reach your destination.

In addition, if he remembered correctly, those two old guys from the Star Palace also interfered, secretly using the Iron Fire Ant and Silver Light Rat restrictions, causing many rising stars of both the righteous and demonic paths to perish in this Ice and Fire Path!

Thinking of this, Qin Han snorted coldly in his heart, clearly not taking the matter to heart.

After all, he cultivated the Ghost Path, which is despised by everyone in the cultivation world. Since he has become a rat crossing the street, what moral bottom line is he still going to uphold?

If he were to encounter other cultivators in this Xuanjing Path who possessed treasures for keeping warm and preventing fire, he wouldn't hesitate to kill them and steal their treasures!

Thinking this, Qin Han looked up at the sky, barely able to make out the direction of the end of the canyon, and then set off without further hesitation.

……

Qin Han walked slowly along a relatively flat path.

All around were towering icicles, each one crystal clear, some thick, some thin, some straight, some slanted, densely covering the entire passage.

The icicles were as smooth as mirrors, and under the glow of the deep blue light, they could clearly reflect a person's face, even down to the smallest detail of their eyebrows and expressions.

Qin Han glanced at his reflection in the ice pillar; the cold, indifferent young man's face looked somewhat unfamiliar on the ice.

He looked away and continued walking.

The path beneath our feet is strewn with countless sharp ice spikes, each with a different shape and uneven texture.

At first glance, it looks like the remnants left behind after someone cast an "ice spike" spell here...