As the ten immortal arrays operated together, a tremendous force erupted, making the barrier tremble as if it had been struck.
The trembling lasted until Evan Yang's arrays lost their power, and then it gradually subsided.
Evan spotted a small tunnel, large enough for two people, where the formation had been. Delighted, he quickly called to Richard and Lora, "It's open!"
Richard and Lora were thrilled. The three of them hurried to the opening and saw it was wide enough to enter. Both looked at Evan with admiration. Meanwhile, Evan had learned something new—breaking formations with formations.
Without hesitation, Evan urged the other two inside, knowing the formation was slowly closing. This was only a temporary breach—once some time passed, the barrier would return to normal.
"Alright, we're in Snow-Ghost Valley now. This is just the beginning—the dangers ahead will be far worse. Stay alert," Evan warned.
Having followed Evan for a while, Richard and Lora understood the seriousness of his words. They moved with extra caution.
The three of them slowly walked through the gorge. It was enormous, and the deeper they went, the darker it became—a strange, indescribable darkness, as if the air itself was black rather than the sky.
"Be careful," Evan reminded them.
Richard and Lora nodded. After they walked a bit more, a sudden burst of intense light appeared ahead—unmistakably bright against the darkness.
The light was so intense that none of them could open their eyes. Like Evan, Richard and Lora shut their eyes, but Evan’s Thousand-Mile Echo let him sense distant sounds. The sudden flash reminded him of Harlan’s warning: when flashes appear in Snow-Ghost Valley, be extra careful.
On their way in, Evan hadn’t encountered such a strong light before, but this time it appeared, and in such abundance that all three had to keep their eyes shut.
Just as they closed their eyes, Evan heard a strange buzzing sound. He grabbed one companion and said, "Flash."
He immediately burrowed underground, grateful that the soil allowed him to hide—though only about ten meters deep before hitting something hard.
Once the intense light faded, Richard and Lora opened their eyes, curious about Evan’s sudden action. Evan explained, “Something dangerous surged at us while our eyes were closed. I didn’t see it clearly—had to react by instinct and sound.”
“Is that possible? We didn’t notice anything,” Richard said, surprised.
Lora agreed, puzzled by Richard’s lack of awareness. She wondered how Evan could sense something they missed, but Evan didn’t explain—it was all thanks to his sound-based technique.
“Let me check what’s out there,” Evan thought, summoning illusory earth-spirit mice—phantoms similar to his spirit birds, but suited for the soil. He sent them out to scout.
After a while, the earth-spirit mice returned, their sensory images flooding Evan’s mind. He was shocked by what he saw outside.
Richard and Lora were curious about Evan’s reaction, so he shared the outside scene with them.
When the two saw the black, swarming creatures, they were stunned. Not only were their backs smooth and reflective, but their combined light was blinding.
More importantly, outside was a whole swarm—each creature only palm-sized, but together they formed a giant mirror, frantically digging through the snow as if searching for Evan and his friends.
“What do we do? Should we rush out and destroy them?” Richard asked.
“Their light is strange—we can’t handle the whole swarm, especially since we don’t know their true strength,” Evan replied.
“But they’re moving fast—if they keep digging, they’ll reach us in fifteen minutes,” Lora said, watching the image Evan had sent.
Evan realized the creatures were digging by instinct, not with techniques or attacks. Their sheer numbers and unknown power worried him.
He told Richard and Lora, “Go inside my tower for safety.”
“No way, that’s too risky. Let’s fight together—we might be able to take some down,” Richard objected, worried for Evan.
“Time is short—don’t hesitate, just go inside,” Evan urged. He wanted them safe and knew he’d fight better alone.
Lora wanted to protest, but seeing Evan’s determination, she reluctantly said to Richard, “Let’s go inside.”
Seeing Lora agree, Richard had no choice but to comply. Before entering the tower, both gave Evan encouraging looks.
Evan smiled and stored them inside the tower. His nerves tightened as he faced the unknown creatures outside.
He could only move quickly to other spots, and when he reached the limit, he burst out from underground.
As Evan appeared, even more strange creatures flew toward him, unleashing sheets of blinding light. He had to shut his eyes and rely solely on sound to move. He tried to use divine sense, but found it restricted—he could only rely on his senses, but couldn’t open his eyes. It was a disaster.
He had no choice but to retreat quickly to a quieter area.
He didn’t know what the quiet area was—he just knew he had to flee as fast as possible.
The sound behind him faded, and when he could no longer hear the swarm, Evan slowly opened his eyes—only to be stunned by what he saw.
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Around Evan were piles of chaotic rocks, covered with thick snow.
More importantly, there were huge pits around the rocks—like footprints, but so enormous that Evan wondered what kind of monster could have left them.
But what happened next shocked him—those weren’t monsters, but rocks suddenly began to move.
The moving rocks startled Evan.
When the rocks stopped, a twenty-meter-tall stone colossus appeared before Evan.
Strictly speaking, it was a stone giant. Evan was startled and dodged quickly as the giant ripped up a tree and swung it at him.
Seeing Evan dodge, the giant continued its attack.
“What kind of monster is this?” Evan exclaimed. He kept attacking, but his strikes barely scratched the giant’s hard stone body.
“Damn it, what is this thing?” After dozens of attacks, Evan realized that aside from his speed, he had no way to fight the strange stone giant.
The massive stone giant let out a strange roar—clearly angered by Evan’s actions. In its eyes, Evan was prey.
Suddenly, the giant whipped up a storm of dust around itself. Evan didn’t know what it was doing, but when he tried to dodge, he found himself completely immobilized.
“No way—what’s happening?” Evan exclaimed, stunned by the bizarre attack that left him unable to move.
Seeing Evan immobilized, the stone giant was delighted. It swung the thick tree at him, and Evan panicked: "Oh god, I’m dead for sure. Damn, I can’t even use my tower!"
Evan tried everything, but couldn’t escape the tree’s swing—he could only watch helplessly, frustrated and cursing.
Just as Evan was about to be struck, the stone giant suddenly stopped, threw the tree aside, and moved away, leaving Evan frozen in place.
The stone giant occasionally looked back, as if checking whether Evan had escaped.
“Damn, what’s going on?” Evan exclaimed. After calming down, he recalled the earlier wind and checked his body, discovering tiny particles clinging to him.
Those particles were made of the surrounding soil—the dust had been swept in by the wind.
Evan frowned and decided to use his earth spirit power to control the soil. After a moment, he gathered the dust into one spot and expelled it from his body.
When the last of the dust was expelled, Evan could finally move again. "Damn, finally! That was awful—what kind of monster is this?"
The stone giant broadened Evan’s horizons, and he dared not underestimate his surroundings—if more creatures like this appeared, he’d be in trouble.
But Evan found that apart from the road ahead, there was no other way forward—and that path was exactly where the stone giant had gone.
"Whew, guess I have to go for it. Now that I know how to counter its attack, I have a chance." Evan thought. If he wanted to find the Nine-Heaven Ice Lotus, he’d have to go deeper, so he sighed and pressed on.
Evan quickly followed behind. If his divine sense worked, things would be much easier.
Following the giant’s footsteps, Evan noticed movement ahead, relying entirely on Thousand-Mile Echo to judge the situation, afraid to get too close and be discovered.
Evan stopped at one spot—before him lay a massive cliff, and below it, a huge stone cavern.
"Is this a snowfield or a stone cavern?" Since entering the formation, Evan felt that Snow-Ghost Valley had nothing to do with snow anymore—he saw far more stone than snow.
As Evan muttered, he saw something move in the distance. Looking closely, he realized it was the same stone giant—its coloring nearly matched the rocks, making it hard to spot.