Evan Chu kept teleporting nonstop along the way. Even when he saw groups of Ghost Clan members, he didn’t stop—partly because he was worried Faye Knox might show up, and partly because he had so little Chaos Dragon Force left that he might not even be able to kill a Sixth-Layer Saint Martial Realm cultivator.
Even though he kept teleporting, Evan was still very clear about his route. He memorized all the major landmarks—otherwise, finding his way back would be a huge headache. And if Faye really was waiting for him at the original spot but he popped up somewhere else, no amount of smooth talking could explain that away.
Evan had no idea how far he’d flown—by his estimate, at least tens of thousands of li. Eventually he arrived at a valley filled with birdsong and flowers, but everything was a single shade of red. Not a single plant was green, because there was no sunlight here.
He scanned the area with his spiritual sense and found a natural stone cave on a cliffside, filled with stalactites and dripping water. The whole cave felt damp.
There were no monsters inside, so he decided to recover his Chaos Dragon Force here. In a flash, he appeared at the cave entrance, and once inside, found everything exactly as his spiritual sense had shown. The stalactites were all bizarrely shaped, making the place look spectacular.
The cave was huge and deep, stretching at least dozens of meters. There were also other passageways inside, twisting and intersecting like a maze. Evan picked a spot where no water dripped and sat down to absorb Stellar Power.
Time flew by. By the time Evan had fully restored his Chaos Dragon Force, two days had passed. This time he only used high-grade Starstones to recover—since every Starstone in the Netherworld is one less for later. Supreme-grade Starstones and Starstone Crystals he would only use at the most critical moments.
After stretching his limbs, Evan felt completely refreshed. Now that he’d gotten the Netherghost Violet Orchid, he couldn’t deny it was a good day. Just as he was about to step out and see if there were any monsters or Ghost Clan people around, Luna—the sword spirit—suddenly spoke up.
"Linfeng, what do you think of this cave?" The out-of-the-blue question left Evan confused.
"Nothing much—just a lot of weird stalactites, that’s all," Evan replied offhandedly. But then something clicked and he quickly added, "Luna, is there some kind of treasure here? You wouldn’t ask otherwise."
"I knew you'd catch on, kid. It's not exactly a treasure, but it’ll be a huge help for your future cultivation. For now, though, it’s basically useless," Luna said.
"So what is it, exactly? Something with heaven-and-earth spiritual energy that only works later?" Evan wasn’t clueless—after all this time with Luna, he’d learned a thing or two about otherworldly treasures.
"That’s right. The stalactites here can produce Thousand-Year Stone Milk—but the stuff here hasn’t actually reached ten thousand years yet. Even so, the spiritual energy inside is pretty substantial, about equal to a low-grade Immortal Stone. There isn’t much of it, though. Even if you gather every drop, it’s only about the spiritual energy of a hundred low-grade Immortal Stones," Luna explained.
Evan pursed his lips and said, "Just a hundred low-grade Immortal Stones? What’s so special about that? If I really made it back to your world, with your status, Immortal Stones would be everywhere!"
"You’re way too naive. In the Immortal Realm, Immortal Stones are way more precious than Starstones. Even a single low-grade Immortal Stone can make people fight to the death. One stone can cover a regular person’s living expenses for a whole month—how’s that for valuable?" Luna replied, speechless.
"Is that so? I thought they were just like low-grade Starstones—easy to burn through by the tens of thousands. But I bet your Solarion Palace has tons of supreme-grade Immortal Stones, right?" Evan grinned.
"Supreme-grade Immortal Stones? You think this is some random place? Even Solarion Palace has less than a hundred supreme-grade Immortal Stones. You have no idea what the Immortal Realm is like—most stones are low- or mid-grade, and high-grade ones are rare. You’ll see for yourself later. Now go collect that stone milk, and make sure you use a clean storage ring so the spiritual energy doesn’t dissipate," Luna instructed.
Evan stopped talking and started searching the cave. Soon he found some milky-white droplets, sticky to the touch—no doubt the stone milk Luna had mentioned. He could sense a faint mysterious aura from them.
He carefully put the stone milk into his storage ring. After searching for ages, he only managed to get a little over eighty drops—quite a bit less than Luna’s estimate of a hundred. He didn’t bother looking further; collecting the stone milk had already eaten up plenty of time, and he didn’t want to linger any longer.
Leaving the cave, Evan flew into the air and scanned the valley. He didn’t spot any monsters or Ghost Clan trial participants, so he had no choice but to look elsewhere.
As luck would have it, after flying for more than an hour, Evan finally spotted a small squad of Ghost Clan members. Each one looked savage and ugly, and the strongest among them seemed to have reached the Fifth-Layer Saint Martial Realm.
Seeing this group, Evan was thrilled—he could take them out with just Earthsplitter. Cloaking himself in ghost aura, he dropped down from the sky right into their midst.
Evan’s sudden appearance startled the whole group. Up until now, no one had been able to fly in the air—everyone knew exactly what that meant.
A youth with a big, ghostly head stared at Evan and asked, "Who are you, and what are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re here to steal our wooden tokens?"
It was a pretty dumb question—maybe Evan’s sudden arrival had them rattled. "Who I am isn’t your concern. But you got one thing right: I’m here for your wooden tokens. If you’re smart, hand them over and save yourselves the pain. If you think I’m bluffing, go ahead and try me," Evan said coldly.
That youth was clearly the strongest of the bunch, probably at the Fifth-Layer Saint Martial Realm. The rest were mostly at the Divine Martial Realm. Hearing Evan’s words, they all looked like they were facing a deadly enemy.
"You think you alone can make us hand over our tokens? Aren’t you overestimating yourself? Looks like you’ve already snatched quite a few. We’ve been looking for someone to fight, and now you just walk right up—guess our luck’s finally turned!" the youth sneered.
"Is that so? Then let me show you what I can do!" Evan’s figure flickered—a single Earthsplitter slash shot out... (End of chapter; two updates posted tonight.)