Captain Lee and his group still had no idea what Evan Yang was planning, so they quickly followed him. Evan continued leading everyone toward the nest, and soon, the chaotic stones floating in the void outside the nest gave off a strange feeling at first glance.
The group immediately stopped, while Evan was already laughing from within the pile of stones, "What? Not chasing anymore?"
"This place..." Captain Lee looked around, instantly realizing this area was unusual, especially the floating stones.
"What is it?" Evan asked with a smile.
"Why did you deliberately lead us here?" Captain Lee sensed something was off and exclaimed in surprise.
"What do you mean, I led you here? You came on your own." Evan replied with a laugh.
Captain Lee was annoyed by Evan, but couldn't find words to retort, because the surrounding stones began to move. Then, from behind the stones, bugs crawled out—these were the so-called creatures.
"So these stones even have a parasitic function," Evan muttered to himself.
As for Captain Lee and the others, their only goal now was to capture Evan. But they all knew how strong Evan was; acting alone was impossible, so they had to join forces and swarm him together.
So the group rushed toward Evan in a frenzy, but Evan simply turned and headed straight for the nest, disappearing in a flash.
Ahead lay an abandoned planet, and on it was a massive central nest, surrounded by all sorts of strange bugs.
"A nest?" Captain Lee exclaimed in shock, and the others were equally startled.
"That's right, it's a nest. So? Do you still dare to come?" Evan hovered above the planet, smiling.
"Don't get cocky, kid! They're just bugs, they can't do anything to us." Captain Lee snorted coldly, so the group began to attack Evan together. Of course, Evan dodged in a flash, and their attacks destroyed many of the bugs below, enraging the rest.
The bugs let out all sorts of sounds, and soon, even more crawled out of the surrounding void—each one more advanced and terrifying than the last.
"I didn't expect there to be so many," Evan muttered to himself. Captain Lee was shocked, but he believed that with their combined strength, these bugs were nothing to worry about. So the group attacked the bugs wildly, and the bugs, seeing humans, attacked in return. Evan was also within their attack range.
But the bugs' attacks couldn't affect Evan at all—their power was simply too weak. Soon, piles of bug corpses littered the area, which quickly drew the attention of hidden, powerful creatures nearby. In no time, more than a dozen powerful beings gathered, each at least Immortal Sovereign level, or at minimum, void stage.
However, none of them were quite the type of powerful creature Evan was seeking. Still, for Captain Lee and his group, these beings were already a heavy burden. They had only a little over a dozen people—even facing these creatures one-on-one, they had no confidence of winning outright.
"Hateful humans!" snarled a bizarre creature with crimson skin, a long tail, three eyes, and two ears.
"You creatures are just as hateful," Captain Lee shot back.
"You won't escape today. You're staying here to feed our children," the creature snarled. With a single command, the surrounding bugs and the newly arrived powerful creatures all attacked. In no time, everyone was entangled by enemies. As for Evan, he did it on purpose—fighting while toying with them. The bugs were so furious they wanted to devour him, but he kept dodging their attacks with ease.
The others weren't so lucky—some were already injured to varying degrees.
Seeing the situation, Captain Lee realized that if this kept up, they'd all be finished here. He quickly shouted to everyone, "Retreat!"
The group immediately retreated, with Captain Lee following close behind. The bugs seemed afraid to leave the area and stopped chasing once the humans got outside, but by then, many people were already seriously injured.
Everyone else left, but Evan remained there, showing not the slightest hint of fear.
Soon, the creatures surrounded him. Captain Lee, watching from the edge as he left, hoped they'd both suffer losses, so he immediately said, "Stop."
The others were confused—why stop now? Captain Lee explained, "Look, that guy is being surrounded. I want to see how he handles it."
Everyone watched Evan with curiosity. He stood tall in the air as the dozen or so creatures closed in. The crimson-skinned creature spoke, "Damn you, staying behind was your bad luck. Today, we'll use you to mourn our dead kin."
"I advise you all not to act. If you hurt or kill me, I won't be responsible for what happens next," Evan said with a smile.
"Arrogant!" the crimson creature roared, charging alone to take Evan down. But Evan grabbed its right arm and, with a snap, broke it. The creature howled in pain and quickly retreated in shock.
"So, how does it feel?" Evan asked with a smile.
With just one exchange, the crimson creature ended up like that—Evan's power was terrifying. Captain Lee and the others were shocked, but they still believed that no matter how strong Evan was, he couldn't handle a dozen creatures alone.
But reality always differs from expectations. Soon, the crimson creature ordered all the others to attack Evan together.
Evan started with the weaker ones, and in a flurry of blows, took down several. After dozens of exchanges, the rest were defeated too. By the end, the dozen creatures were scattered across the planet, each suffering various degrees of injury.
Captain Lee and his group were stunned—they could hardly believe Evan's strength, and were secretly glad they hadn't tried to surround him themselves, or they'd be in the same state as the creatures.
Evan glanced at the battered creatures, then smiled at the nearest crimson one, "Go call your strongest leader. I have business with him. If you don't, I'll go find him myself."
"You..." the crimson creature growled, furious.
"Are you going or not?" Evan pressed.
The crimson creature struggled for a moment, then said, "Fine, I'll go." With its wounds, it turned and left.
It soon arrived deep within the planet, where a crocodile-bodied creature was coiled, its exterior like rotting mud, and a foul stench filled the air.
"Boss, something's happened!" The crimson creature rushed in, terrified.
(Irrelevant system message skipped.)
The strange creature, who had been sleeping, opened its fiery red eyes and stared at the crimson one. "What's wrong? Why so nervous?"
"There's a human outside who injured more than ten of our brothers," the crimson creature said urgently.
"A human? Is there really such a strong human? Impossible," the crocodile creature frowned in disbelief.
"It's true. At first, a whole group came, but the rest ran away. Only one stayed. I thought he was weak, so I challenged him, but he broke my arm. Then we all attacked, but he beat us all back," the crimson creature explained.
Hearing this, the crocodile creature transformed into a half-human form with a long tail and sharp snout, angrily saying, "Who dares to cause trouble here?"
With a turn, it exhaled, and a spatial crack appeared in front of it—a rift in space. It stepped through the spatial crack.
Evan was waiting when, suddenly, space rippled and a crack appeared. A creature emerged from inside, followed by the crimson one.
Evan assessed the crocodile creature's aura—it was indeed solid-stage Immortal Sovereign level, meeting his requirements. Its presence shocked Captain Lee and the others.
"This one's at least solid-stage. What is he trying to do?" Captain Lee exclaimed in shock.
"He wants to become a Top Hunter." At that moment, Iris Ying appeared, smiling. Star Lord Chen also arrived.
"Top Hunter?" The crowd finally understood, but Captain Lee, ever petty, snorted, "Him? Let's see if he even survives today."
"Then let's wait and see." Iris smiled, and everyone turned their attention to Evan and the creature.
"So it's you? Here to cause trouble?" The crocodile creature laughed.
"I wouldn't call it trouble—I'm here to arrest you," Evan replied.
"Arrest me? Ridiculous. You think you can arrest me?" The crocodile creature scoffed, as if hearing a joke.
Evan ignored him and smiled, "Let's begin."
"Begin? Looks like you're eager to die. In that case, I'll show no mercy." The crocodile creature sneered, then opened its mouth and vanished.
Evan frowned, scanning his surroundings, unable to sense the creature's aura. Outside, Iris and Star Lord Chen exchanged puzzled glances—where had the creature gone?
Evan knew this creature could devour space and was likely hiding in a rift. Sure enough, as he considered this, the crocodile creature suddenly appeared behind him, both hands striking at Evan's back. But Evan spun around, moved swiftly, and countered with both palms.
Boom! Both were knocked backward.
"You reacted in time—not bad. Your reflexes are impressive, but this is just the beginning. Let's see how long you can last in the void." The crocodile creature sneered.
He charged forward, battling Evan. Soon, he unleashed his fire attribute, while Evan countered with ice. The temperature dropped, and all nearby creatures and humans could feel it.
"He's water-type," Captain Lee muttered as he watched Evan.
The crocodile creature was shocked to find his fire restrained, so he lashed his tail, tearing open spatial cracks wherever it swept. Evan was quickly swallowed into a spatial rift. "Hmph, once you're inside, let's see how you find the exit," the crocodile creature said confidently.
Evan remained calm. He took out the Realm-Shuttle Pen and soon returned from the rift to face the crocodile creature.
The crocodile creature was astonished, "I can't believe Evan can move freely within the spatial cracks I created."
Outside, Captain Lee and the others were equally shocked. They hadn't expected Evan to so easily neutralize the attack of such a powerful creature.
"Impressive," Iris praised with a smile.
"Yeah, terrifying. He survived two attacks already," Star Lord Chen commented, smiling.
The crocodile creature, shocked, roared angrily, "Hmph, so what if you dodged? Next time, you'll die all the same."