"Yeah, most people exchange or use their points before competing again, unless they're really confident and want to accumulate more. Then they'll hold onto them." Reed Kong laughed.
Evan Yang nodded in understanding and smiled. "I didn't expect my first batch of points to come this way. There are plenty more duels to go."
"Exactly. I didn't expect it either. That move you pulled was really risky, but luckily you handled it." Reed Kong laughed.
"I was just trying it out. Didn't think I'd actually manage to win it." Evan Yang said with a smile.
Just as Reed Kong was about to say something, Gavin Qiao showed up again, like a persistent ghost, and beside him was the man who'd appeared with him yesterday.
"What's your deal now?" Reed Kong said, annoyed.
Gavin Qiao sneered, "What, you think you can just leave after winning points? It's not that easy."
"So what do you want?" Evan Yang smiled. He knew they wouldn't dare attack him here, so he had nothing to fear—he'd never been afraid of Gavin in the first place.
"Kid, you've got plenty of tricks. Someone can't stand it and wants to challenge you." Gavin Qiao said, pointing to the person beside him.
"I am Guo Tianci. I'd like to learn from you." the man said.
"Another duel?" Evan Yang smiled.
"What, scared?" Gavin Qiao sneered.
Reed Kong sent a voice transmission, "He's probably the one hiding his true strength. You'd better not accept."
Evan Yang was surprised at first, then turned to the two and smiled, "It's not that I'm scared. I just want to see how these points work. Once I figure it out, I'll come find you."
"You!" Gavin Qiao was annoyed that Evan wanted to use up his points first. Guo Tianci frowned, then smiled, "What, are you so sure you'll lose to me? Going to spend all your points first?"
"Lose to you? Don't think hiding your strength makes you special. Let me tell you, I'm really not afraid of you, but I don't feel like agreeing just yet." Evan Yang smiled.
Gavin Qiao was furious, but Guo Tianci laughed, "If that's how it is, I might as well spend my points too."
"Oh? You're going to spend them too?" Evan Yang didn't expect Guo Tianci to play dirty like this.
"If you can do it, why can't I? So you either agree to duel me, or I'll exchange my more than two hundred points right now. What do you think?" Guo Tianci smiled, deliberately mentioning his points to tempt Evan.
Hearing about two hundred points, Evan was definitely tempted. Reed Kong saw this and quickly sent a voice transmission, "Don't be reckless!"
Evan Yang glanced at Reed Kong, while Gavin Qiao kept mocking him, even sneering, "If you don't have the guts, just admit it. Should I let everyone know you're afraid of a challenge?"
That really riled Evan up. He smiled, "Fine, then you'd better keep your two hundred points safe."
Guo Tianci laughed, "You should worry about your thirty points instead."
Seeing Evan agree, Gavin Qiao laughed, "Good, let's go. We'll start now."
Reed Kong grew anxious and quickly stopped Evan, "You can't."
"Don't worry." Evan Yang smiled.
A simple "Don't worry" couldn't reassure Reed Kong, of course, since the opponent was likely a hidden Azure Fifth-Tier genius.
Gavin Qiao secretly laughed at Evan.
Azure Fifth-Tier—Evan could match it, but he wouldn't reveal it now. He'd wait until he'd beaten his opponent and let everyone see for themselves.
Then the group headed to the Duel Arena, but the referee said, "Each person can only duel once per day. You've already fought today. Come back tomorrow."
"What? When did they make that rule?" Gavin Qiao was shocked—he'd never run into this rule before.
"Just a few days ago. Didn't you see the notice?" The referee looked at the two responsible parties and questioned them.
Reed Kong had been rushing to find Evan Yang and bring him here, so he hadn't settled down to check the rules. As for Gavin Qiao, who knows, but now he turned to Evan and said, "If you've got guts, stay on Genius Star until tomorrow for the duel."
"Sure." Evan Yang smiled.
Since Evan hadn't immediately succeeded in dueling, Reed Kong led him away, while Gavin Qiao left with Guo Tianci, grinning widely.
"Leave before the duel is official." Reed Kong urged Evan Yang.
"Senior, I know you're worried, but I want to see my own strength. And with those two hundred points being handed to me, how could I not take them?" Evan Yang smiled.
"You!" Reed Kong was nearly exasperated by Evan.
In the end, Evan found plenty of excuses to shake off Reed's advice. Seeing Evan ignore his warnings, Reed could only stay and wait for tomorrow's duel.
Just as they'd walked a few steps, Reed Kong received a message. Seeing it, he muttered, "Why are they holding a meeting at a time like this?"
"A meeting?" Evan Yang asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, usually it's just regular gatherings, or if something happens they'll urgently summon the regional leaders." Reed Kong replied.
"That must be lively then?" Evan said, surprised.
"Very lively. Every Third-Class Star has a leader, and so do the Fourth- and Fifth-Class Stars. So altogether, there are thousands." Reed Kong nodded.
"Go ahead then. I'll wander around on my own." Evan Yang saw Reed Kong had business, so he didn't ask him to stay.
Reed Kong was a bit uneasy, "Be careful, especially watch out for Gavin Qiao. Even though this is Genius Star, I'm still worried he might try something, since you beat his people today."
"Relax. I only beat his people, didn't kill them. He wouldn't dare touch me on Genius Star—otherwise, I wouldn't stay here." Evan Yang smiled.
Seeing Evan so confident, Reed Kong finally left.
So Evan was left alone again. Bored, he wandered around Genius Star, which was huge—he had no idea how long he'd have to fly to cross it.
He flew for a long time, occasionally spotting groups of people flying overhead toward headquarters.
"Should be no problem getting back tonight." Evan Yang muttered after thinking it over.
(Irrelevant system message about continuing to the next page—skip this line.)
So Evan Yang flew even farther, until a flower valley appeared ahead. Even from a distance, he could smell the fragrance.
After landing, Evan approached the valley, where a stone tablet stood with "Flower Valley" carved into it.
"How come Senior Reed never mentioned a Flower Valley on Genius Star?" Evan muttered, curiosity piqued, and walked over. At the boundary near the tablet, he seemed to hit something, and was knocked back.
"Ah." Evan felt a sharp pain in his chest, but after checking himself and finding no major injuries, he sighed, "So there's a formation here. I just charged in—luckily, it's not too powerful!"
Angry at being bounced by the formation, Evan activated his Sky Eye. "Still blurry... Looks like it's not a simple array. Is it a spirit array, a pseudo-immortal array, or a true immortal array?"
Evan found that even Sky Eye couldn't see through it. So he decided to try a special method to break through.
That special method, of course, was entering the Sky-Piercing Tower and controlling it to move inward. Sure enough, the formation didn't resist the tower, and Evan entered smoothly.
After entering, Evan stepped out of the Sky-Piercing Tower and laughed, "Heh, I still managed to get in. Damn formation."
After laughing, Evan Yang put away the Sky-Piercing Tower, then opened his divine sense to see what this Flower Valley, protected by such a powerful formation, really was.
Inside, everything was quiet. The floral fragrance was so concentrated it calmed the mind. Around him, he could hear some birds and insects, and the sound of a stream. Aside from that, there were many different rocks and trees.
But there was no sign of people anywhere. "Could this be some expert’s private cultivation ground?" Evan muttered.
He started moving slowly deeper inside. The valley was dominated by flowers, all sorts and shapes.
Flower Valley wasn’t large—Evan’s divine sense could cover the whole place. Yet he couldn’t find a trace of life. It was just flowers everywhere, with some trees mixed in, a stream running through the center, and stones placed around.
Those stones looked deliberately arranged, so Evan walked over in curiosity.
He reached the rocks, touched them, but found nothing special. Then he crouched to look at the water, only to realize there was no reflection—this startled him.
"How can there be no reflection? In broad daylight—don’t scare me," Evan muttered, then curiously reached out to touch the water.
The first touch felt icy cold. Just as he was about to examine the water further, he sensed something moving inside his ring.
Evan opened the ring out of curiosity and saw it was the Spirit-Will Cauldron.
The Spirit-Will Cauldron shot out of the ring, plunged into the water with a splash, and Evan immediately jumped in after it.
No matter what, this was a precious treasure. Back in the sea, it had acted on its own to save the Phantom Firebird, and that firebird had saved Evan’s life many times.
Now the Spirit-Will Cauldron was suddenly behaving like this, making Evan anxious and worried. Once in the water, his divine sense was restricted, so he could only rely on his eyes. He saw the cauldron sinking rapidly.
Evan didn’t dare linger, afraid he’d lose track of the Spirit-Will Cauldron if he delayed.
He quickly sped up underwater, chasing the cauldron as it kept sinking. The deeper he swam, the darker and colder it got, as if he were entering a world of ice and snow.
"If this keeps up, I’ll freeze to death." The further down Evan went, the more his body shivered uncontrollably. He had to create a protective barrier around himself, then activate the Sacred Flame in his dantian to balance his body temperature.
With both the barrier and Sacred Flame, Evan finally stabilized, but the surrounding pressure increased. The source of this pressure was the water itself.
To be precise, he wasn’t even sure if this was water. It was extremely cold, and compared to normal water of the same volume, it felt much heavier.
So, in this strange water, Evan gradually felt an invisible pressure from above and all around, as if it wanted to compress him into a single point.
At this moment, Evan was relying entirely on his own strength to maintain the protective barrier, but this consumed energy rapidly. The deeper he went, the faster his energy was drained, and naturally his spiritual power was depleted quickly.