Evan Yang understood what the shadowy figure meant, but he still felt a bit displeased—being used like this was never pleasant. Right now, he had no choice but to accept it, since he hadn’t even seen Lora Luo’s silhouette, let alone rescued her.
So Evan said to the shadowy figure, "You’d better remember what you promised. Tell me the location."
"Alright." The shadowy figure finished speaking and gave Evan the directions. Once Evan understood, he took his leave.
Watching Evan leave, the shadowy figure chuckled, "I wonder if he’ll still be immune to the poison once he goes deeper inside."
Truthfully, the shadowy figure wasn’t sure either—Evan was immune to poison here, but would he still be fine deeper in? There was some lingering worry in his heart.
Meanwhile, Evan was already heading further in. The black mist grew thicker and denser, and soon Evan started feeling dizzy. He knew it was because the poison here was too concentrated, so he did his best to activate the Heaven-Cold qi within his body.
Once he roused it, the dizziness faded away and he felt much more alert.
“Phew, thank goodness Heaven-Cold qi can neutralize any poison. Otherwise, I’d have collapsed here too,” Evan muttered to himself.
He continued walking deeper inside.
After a while, he reached a pool. Going further meant passing the pool, but what lay beyond it, Evan didn’t know—and neither did the shadowy figure, since he’d never been here himself.
Evan was puzzled—how did the shadowy figure know there were Black-Mist Lotuses here?
Driven by curiosity, Evan crossed the pool. After a while, he entered another pool—one after another, pools kept appearing, which seemed strange.
Eventually, he reached a pool and saw three glowing lights. Curious, Evan looked closer—there were three lotus-like flowers, but they were black, and the surrounding area was shrouded in the same black mist.
Evan was overjoyed when he found them. He quickly flew over, wanting to pick all three and leave.
But before his hand could touch the lotus, the water suddenly stirred—a jet of water erupted upward.
Evan was shocked and quickly retreated. When he saw what emerged from the water, he was stunned. "Damn human, you dare try to take my Black-Mist Lotus!" The voice belonged to a demon—a water serpent demon. Its beast body was over ten meters long, coiled in the water, guarding the Black-Mist Lotuses.
"Senior Serpent, I didn’t know these belonged to you, but I urgently need one to save someone. Please grant me a single lotus." Evan realized the demon was strong, so he calmed himself and only asked for one instead of all three.
Unexpectedly, the serpent demon laughed loudly, "Pathetic human, I was just about to eat you, and you’re bargaining with me? How amusing."
Evan understood its intent and quickly braced himself. The serpent seemed to treat it like a game—its tail swept over, sending Evan flying far away.
Evan was alarmed—at this rate, he couldn’t even get close to the Black-Mist Lotuses.
"Now you see how strong I am? But right now, even if you want to leave, you can't. Today, I'll swallow you whole," the serpent demon laughed.
"Looks like I have no choice but to use that move," Evan said helplessly. He took out ten daggers, which instantly fused into one.
The serpent demon had been treating this as a game, letting Evan mess around. But when it saw the ten daggers fuse into one, it realized something was wrong.
Evan poured all his strength into the blade, then shouted, "Slash!"
The serpent demon felt its whole body locked in place, unable to escape. It could only use its hard head to block the attack.
Evan’s blade struck, slicing it cleanly in half. Even its demon core fell out, and its soul was shredded by the blade.
The serpent demon never expected that, after years of cultivation, it would be defeated by a weak human. If it had known Evan possessed such a weapon, it wouldn’t have given him time to gather his strength.
Evan only dared to do this here because he was desperate and had only one chance. If he failed, he’d die. Now that he succeeded, it was pure luck.
In the end, Evan fell into the water, exhausted. The blade split back into ten daggers and returned to his body.
Damn, even gathering all my strength, I could only defeat one. Good thing there was just one serpent. Evan sighed, knowing the serpent demon he’d just killed was no ordinary opponent.
Evan gripped the demon core in his hands and examined it. After a while, as his Immortal Essence slowly recovered, he got up and carefully picked the three lotuses.
The Black-Mist Lotus was a top-tier medicinal herb in the Demon-Beast Realm, found only there. Evan still wondered how the shadowy figure knew about its existence here.
Evan planned to give one lotus to the shadowy figure and keep the other two for himself. As for the demon core, he tossed it into his ring, thinking maybe Luna (Jade Rabbit) or Brocade could use it.
So he put the demon core with them, hoping that when they woke up someday, it might be useful.
As for the serpent demon’s body, Evan decided to store it. At the very least, its tough hide could be used for armor—an excellent choice.
After tidying up, Evan got up and started heading back the way he came.
But something frustrating happened—he couldn’t find the original path back. Evan was shocked; he was sure he’d retraced his steps exactly.
Damn it, could there be a confusion array here too? Evan was troubled, so he activated his Heaven’s Eye Sight and discovered there was indeed an array nearby—and not a low-level one. He couldn’t break it for now, so he searched for the array eye, hoping to manipulate it.
But after a long time, he still couldn’t find the array eye—it felt like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"What the hell is this place?" Evan said angrily.
But Evan wasn’t willing to give up. He kept searching for days, circling around the pools again and again.
Soon, Evan noticed something odd—he’d tried almost everywhere, except the pools themselves. Without hesitation, he dove into the first pool; nothing happened, so he moved to the next. When he reached the pool with the Black-Mist Lotuses, he discovered a tunnel below.
No wonder the serpent demon could stay here—there was a hidden world below. Evan was amazed and dove deeper.
After a few breaths, Evan reached the bottom and found a strange membrane separating the water. He entered and saw many traces—scales shed by the serpent demon, scattered all around.
Besides that, there were marks left by the serpent demon’s movements. Evan noticed one area where the marks were especially fresh, so he walked over. This hidden world was an underwater realm, yet it stayed dry—a perfect place for cultivation, undisturbed.
After a while, something caught Evan’s eye—a platform with a stone on it.
The stone was radiating a dense aura.
No wonder the serpent demon liked staying here—it relied on this for cultivation. Evan was amazed.
Evan also found the aura suited him, so he tried to take the stone. But it seemed fixed in place—no matter how much force he used, even with a dagger, it wouldn’t budge. He even tried breaking the ground, but that didn’t work either.
Faced with this, Evan had no choice but to try absorbing it directly. His Heaven-Cold Seed was extremely effective at absorbing pure natural substances, so Evan used Heaven-Cold qi again.
A stream of Heaven-Cold qi wrapped around the stone, and Evan felt a surge of power flooding into his body.
With this surge, Evan felt full of strength, and the membrane of his eighth Heavenly-Immortal stage began to loosen—he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
So Evan sat down and began to comprehend, making use of this opportunity. If anyone saw him, they’d find his actions strange—one hand on the stone, sitting rigidly with eyes closed.
Evan didn’t know how long had passed, until he heard a clank from his hand and opened his eyes. The stone could now be moved, and he had accidentally dropped it onto the platform.
Evan picked it up curiously and found its aura had diminished greatly—he’d absorbed most of it. He was now at the ninth Heavenly-Immortal stage and even felt he might soon break through to the Profound-Immortal realm.
Looking at the mysterious stone, Evan wondered aloud, "What kind of stone is this? If there were more, would I break through even faster?"
But Evan thought that breaking through too quickly might not be a good thing. So, reluctantly, he stored the stone, planning to ask someone about it later. For now, it wasn’t very useful—if anyone asked, he’d just say he found it.
After settling his mood, Evan kept searching until he found a tunnel deep inside. Curious, he entered and, after several hours, finally emerged.
When he came outside, he realized he’d exited the strange illusion circle.
"Interesting, very nice." Evan said with delight.
He’d managed to walk out without realizing it, which made Evan ecstatic. He hurried back the way he came.
After a while, he returned to the place where he’d spoken with the shadowy figure.
When the shadowy figure saw Evan return, he was overjoyed. "How did it go?"
"I want to see the person," Evan said.
"You have to show me first—how do I know you’re not tricking me?" the shadowy figure replied.
Evan took out a Black-Mist Lotus and said, "See?"
"Good. Excellent! You really didn’t trick me." The figure was thrilled. With a leap, he disappeared, then reappeared holding the unconscious Lora Luo.
"Here you go." The figure tossed Lora Luo down.
Evan hurried to catch her, but the figure snatched the lotus from his hand, then stood nearby, smiling. "Not bad, it really is a Black-Mist Lotus."
After Evan checked that Lora Luo was fine, he asked, "I’m curious—if you’ve never been inside, how did you know there were Black-Mist Lotuses?"