"I didn't expect to clear it so easily—this is honestly a bit surprising. Looks like what's inside these stone gates isn't all that dangerous after all," Evan Chu said at this moment.
"Big Brother, you'd better stay cautious. If you hadn't smashed those eight stones so quickly just now, I don't think you would've cleared this trial at all. The stone gate is open now—you can go out," Tom Chu said.
Evan Chu immediately walked out of the first stone gate, then let Tom Chu return to his storage ring. After arriving at the second stone gate, he infused it with light element, and the gate opened straight away, allowing him to enter.
Inside, the situation was exactly what the Second Elder of Martial Spirit Dominion had faced before—a formation, but this one trapped Evan Chu for quite some time. He called out Jade Chu and Tom Chu, combining the strength of all three to break the array.
"Big Brother, this is the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array! Aren't you super familiar with the Big Dipper? Your Star Marks line up with the Big Dipper itself. I believe you can totally break this array—you just need to find the star that corresponds to your Star Mark," Jade Chu said.
Evan Chu suddenly had an epiphany. He also felt this formation was strangely familiar—if he wanted to find the array eye of the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array, he needed to pinpoint the positions of each of the seven Big Dipper stars. As long as he found one, the other six would be easy to break.
Evan Chu slowly calmed his mind and started observing the changes in his internal Star Marks. Gradually, he slipped into a selfless state, seemingly ignoring the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array altogether. What he didn't know was that if he stayed in the array too long without breaking it, the formation would launch an attack—and its power was terrifying, maybe even deadly.
Evan Chu felt as if he were standing on the brightest star of the Big Dipper, with the positions of the other six stars laid out clearly around him. As time passed, he grew more and more familiar with the pattern.
Little did he know, the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array had already activated its attack. Jade Chu and Tom Chu were throwing everything into protecting him—the array could fire seven beams of light at once, each one packing a massive punch. Jade and Tom were struggling to hold their ground.
"When is Big Brother going to wake up? If this keeps up, we're done for—the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array really isn't just some ordinary attack," Jade Chu complained, clearly frustrated.
"Let's give him a bit longer. I believe Big Brother will definitely find a way through—he just needs time," Tom Chu said. The fact that he could say this showed how much he'd matured.
Right then, Evan Chu opened his eyes—he'd heard Tom Chu's words loud and clear. He immediately stood up, glanced at the starlight shooting toward him, and laughed, "Jade, Tom, you two have worked hard. Watch how your big brother breaks the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array."
As soon as he finished speaking, Evan Chu's fingertip unleashed a burst of sword-qi, scattering the beam of starlight aimed at him. Then he fired off several more sword-qi strikes to ease the pressure on Jade Chu and Tom Chu.
At that moment, the positions of the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array's array eyes appeared in his mind—or rather, the locations of all seven array eyes. With a thought, he drew the Frostbane Divine Sword and unleashed Heaven-Cleave, destroying the array eye tied to the brightest star.
Once that array eye was gone, the power of the Big-Dipper Seven-Star Array dropped sharply. Evan Chu quickly shattered the remaining six array eyes, and the formation vanished completely, restoring the space to its original state.
A fiery-red token floated in the air, and the word "Pass" echoed clearly in his ears.
Evan Chu reached out and caught the token. He glanced at the ancient script carved on its surface, but couldn't recognize it. Jade Chu walked over, saw the writing, and read aloud:
"Heavenfire Token! An attack-type artifact that can unleash Heavenfire. Just infuse enough Immortal Spirit Force and you can use it—this Heavenfire Token still has three uses left."
"Yeah, it's a decent item, but it's not much use to me. I can give it to Yvonne or Serena," Evan Chu said.
"Big Brother, this is a great treasure! You know exactly how powerful Heavenfire is—with this artifact by their side, your wives can help take a load off you," Jade Chu said.
"Let's go check out the other stone gates. There are six gates in total, and we've only cleared two so far—we need to keep pushing," Evan Chu said.
After entering the third stone gate, Evan Chu encountered the same illusion that had trapped Lara Luo (Fairy Luoxia). With Jade Chu and Tom Chu at his side, the illusion posed no threat at all. As for the flames, Evan wasn't the least bit afraid—he could simply walk right through.
This trial was a breeze. Evan Chu received a fiery-red Immortal Sword, and when he held it, he could sense that the blade actually housed an artifact spirit.
An Immortal Sword with an artifact spirit is extremely rare in the Immortal Realm—this sword was at least supreme-grade. Evan Chu stowed it in his storage ring before leaving the third stone gate.
He ran into trouble at the fourth stone gate. This time, instead of an illusion like Yvonne Xuan's, it was a formation—a powerful one called the Dragon-Trapping Array. Evan Chu knew nothing about this formation, and as soon as he entered, he felt an invisible pressure binding him tight.
Suddenly, four stone pillars dozens of meters tall appeared on the open ground, each carved with lifelike dragon patterns. The pressure wasn't overwhelming, but Evan Chu still felt completely bound—he couldn't move at all.
This situation left Evan Chu pretty frustrated. He could still circulate his Chaos Immortal Force and use all nine elements, but his body just wouldn't budge.
He tried using Fireshift to burn the space with Heavenfire, but it was useless. The elemental molecules inside the space crackled and popped, but the bindings on his body didn't ease up at all.
Evan Chu called out Jade Chu, who could move freely. Tom Chu was the same. Evan realized this formation was targeting him specifically—the key lay in those four massive stone pillars.
"Jade, try destroying those pillars!" Evan Chu said.
Jade Chu walked up to a pillar, but before he could attack, a powerful force blasted him away. He wasn't hurt, but it gave him a real shock.
"Big Brother, the rebound from these pillars is way too strong—I can't destroy them at all. You'd better call Old Goldwing and the others to take a look!" Jade Chu said.