Standing before them was a towering mountain peak, its summit piercing the clouds.

Mist swirled around it.

The entire mountain resembled a volcano, like a flat cylinder, thickly covered by dense green vegetation.

Kane and the others stood at the foot of the mountain, gazing up at the peak in front of them.

At the mountain’s base, their surroundings were teeming with spirits, making it feel like they had stumbled upon a human settlement.

However, Kane’s brief exploration revealed that the entire mountain had no traces of humanity.

There had never been any signs of humans living here; this was truly an uninhabited place.

Yet, even at the foot, in the area where they had not yet had the chance to climb, there were already so many spirits.

Even around a human settlement, the number of spirits was not this large.

"Your goal is at the top of this mountain?"

Kane asked Umberto, who was beside him.

Umberto’s expression showed some surprise as well; he stood at the mountain’s base observing the surroundings, looking at the summit of this mountain.

Upon hearing Kane’s question, he nodded emphatically.

"My intuition indeed leads me to the summit; this mountain should be Hachimei Mountain."

From the look on his face, he seemed to recognize this mountain.

"Do you know it, or have you been here before?"

In response to Kane’s question, Umberto shook his head.

Looking at the mountain peak, he said, "I know this peak is very famous in our circle, especially after the world shattered.

But I have never been to this mountain. You know, we lack a sense of direction unless there is something here we need or that needs us; otherwise, we cannot reach here."

Then he began narrating some things he knew from his memory.

"Hachimei Mountain should be the most famous area around here, especially after the world shattered, in the remaining regions.

In the records, Hachimei Mountain is also known as the Nest of Spirits, where nearly all spirits can be seen; even those that are very rare and hard to find outside can be seen here."

As he spoke, he pointed to one beside him, a spirit floating around that looked like a ring.

"It’s the first time I’ve seen this kind of spirit; before, I only saw it in books."

"So even now, with the world shattered and nearly all spirits gathered around human settlements, spirits still gather here."

At this point, Umberto turned to stare at the group.

"This also means this place might be quite dangerous."

Then he stared at the group, noting their expressions, and turned his head back helplessly.

"Well, no matter how dangerous, it can’t be more dangerous than you all."

After saying this, he directly proceeded to ascend toward the summit.

Kane and the others shrugged and followed him.

"I have to admit spirits are indeed abundant here."

Kreya remarked while observing the surroundings; they had just started walking from the mountain’s base toward the midsection.

The surrounding spirits had already begun to increase, nearly covering the entire trees with various small, glowing creatures drifting through the air.

Kane and the group had passed several settlements and never seen any area with such a density of spirits.

Yet, even at the mountain’s base, it had such a density.

They continued to climb up.

Perhaps the spirit density had reached a certain limit; even as they reached the midsection, the number of spirits didn’t increase, but there were more larger spirits.

Previously, most spirits were only thumb-sized, at the largest, index-finger-sized.

But now, various fist-sized spirits appeared sporadically around them.

According to Umberto, a spirit’s strength correlates with its size.

The surrounding spirits were quite powerful.

As they proceeded upward from the midsection, the path steepened.

To maintain their pace, Kane waved his hand and artificially created gradual slopes on the steep paths.

Thus, the climb became more like a slope ascent exercise.

Nearby, the spirits’ sizes had completely reached fist-size, and occasionally those the size of heads could be seen.

The higher the spirits’ strength, the stronger they became; it seemed the closer they were to the top, the better their existence.

They could sense that these spirits seemed to possess a certain wisdom, no longer acting purely on instinct.

While Kane and his group passed by, they could feel these spirits watching them as if they had eyes.

Of course, they were merely watching and didn’t take any aggressive actions.

"It’s my first time here; I didn’t expect such a scene."

Umberto couldn’t help but comment as he observed the surroundings.

Due to the Spirit Doctor’s uniqueness, even though the place was famous and desirable, he had never visited.

These powerful spirits tempted him to stop and study them, but their quantity was simply overwhelming.

Moreover, he felt that these spirits wouldn’t sit quietly for his research, so he opted out.

Thinking this, Umberto suddenly crouched down, opened a wooden box he carried, and retrieved an old-looking book from its bottom layer.

He took out a homemade carbon pencil and began drawing and writing on it.

He walked and observed the spirits around him, flipping through the book, adding to it here and sketching there.

Seeing this, Kane walked over from behind.

The book’s pages were filled with illustrations of different spirits, drawn clearly enough for easy recognition. Mostly, these spirits were fairly simple, like random combinations of simple lines.

It looked somewhat perfunctory.

Below the illustrations were various descriptions.

A self-made spirit encyclopedia?

And now Umberto was taking advantage of this rare opportunity to supplement the illustrations in his guide.

After glancing a few times, Kane shifted his gaze away disinterestedly.

It’s not that he wasn’t interested, it’s just that he now possessed a more sophisticated electronic picture book.

Because Yoyo beneath his feet was continuously scanning the surroundings.

Technology changes lives.

Boom!

As they were about to reach the summit, a slender white ribbon shot from the side, striking the soil in front of them.

The stone ground before them exploded into a large crater, dirt and sand splashing around.

Faced with such a scenario, they halted in their tracks.

"It seems something doesn’t want us to continue our ascent," Kane said with a laugh, looking at the pit not far away.

"It must be the guardian of this mountain peak. I’ve heard from others that you couldn’t even pass halfway up in the past," Umberto said beside him.

At this moment, Longbei scratched the beard on his chin and directly moved to the front of the group, walking forward.

Seeing this, Kane and the others just laughed and followed behind.

Umberto opened his mouth as if to say something but eventually closed it, following along.

Swish!

The white ribbon shot over once more, extremely fast, but still did not aim at Longbei directly, striking just a meter or two in front of him.

The ground was once more hit into a stone pit, and the surroundings of the pit were covered in a thin layer of frost.

This brought a cold breath to their side, somewhat like a winter chill.

Longbei looked at the final warning ahead and then, without hesitation, continued forward.

As Longbei took another step forward, the white ribbon did not hold back this time, directly crashing toward Kane’s body.

A sound of something cutting through the air came.

Along with a crisp noise.

It was like a cloth hitting steel, having no effect whatsoever.

Longbei’s body didn’t even budge, and even the frost generated by the attack didn’t manifest any effect on him.

This attack was meaningless.

Longbei continued his stride undeterred.

The white satin began multiplying from one to several, then even into a dozen, shooting from all sides and hitting Longbei.

It seemed as if it wanted to win by quantity.

However, Longbei acted like he felt nothing, continuing his advance.

Occasionally, he even reached out to scratch at where he got hit.

"A bit itchy."

At this moment, Kane waved his hand, enveloping them in a transparent dome that blocked out all the white satin.

To be honest, letting them constantly attack Longbei affected their view a little.

Seeing this situation, the white satin ceased its attack.

Soon, in front of them, a Spiritual Body began to coalesce.

A Spiritual Body about 1.5 meters tall, shaped like a human, started to form.

As the transformation progressed, facial features emerged until it completely took on human form.

It turned into a young girl around sixteen or seventeen, wearing clothes reminiscent of some religious attire, her black hair cascading down to her waist.

A delicate face devoid of expression, with vacant eyes.

Staring at them with a numb and hollow look.

"Stop, stop, stop..."

The voice was hollow without any inflection, repeatedly ordering them to stop.

Kane looked at the situation and turned to stare at Umberto, asking, "Are there such spirits? Ones that can become like humans?"

Umberto shook his head, "There are so many spirits in the world. I can’t know them all. I might be more familiar with those related to humans or have an impact on people."

"Then it seems we can only force our way through," Kane shrugged helplessly.

Hearing this, Longbei didn’t dawdle any longer, heading directly toward the peak, completely ignoring the girl before him.

Watching these people ignore her words, the girl closed her mouth, then turned into a cluster of light that dispersed.

The entire mountain began to tremble.

"Why do these spirits always like to cause things like earthquakes," Kane said somewhat helplessly, then stomped his foot, and the mountain immediately stopped shaking.

Thus, they smoothly reached the summit.

On the way, there were no more incidents trying to block their path.

It seemed these spirits had given up trying to stop their advance.

When they arrived at the mountain top.

The entire summit was bowl-shaped, concaving toward the center, the central part resembling a volcanic crater.

But what came up from below was a massive amount of Magic Power, though it’s relative to Umberto and the others.

"Should be down there," Umberto pointed at the depression.

"I thought so too."

At this moment, a dense group of spirits appeared around them, these spirits converging together.

A 10-meter tall giant-like entity appeared before them.

The whole shape seemed to be gathered from clusters of light.