At first, no one understood what Evan Yang's terrain map was supposed to represent. Frustrated, Evan finally decided to visit places that specialized in planetary maps or charts to ask around—maybe someone would have information.
Once inside, Evan immediately found the shopkeeper, who was lying on a rocking chair with his eyes closed, quietly resting with an apologetic air.
It wasn't until Evan approached him that the shopkeeper opened his eyes and said, "What are you here to buy?"
"Shopkeeper, could you help me identify where on this planet this terrain is?" Evan took out the map and asked.
The shopkeeper laughed, "Kid, my shop only sells maps. If you want one, just buy it. As for answering questions—heh, I don't do that for free."
Hearing it would cost money, Evan recalled he'd made quite a bit from selling wine, so he smiled, "Alright, how much do you want?"
"One question, ten thousand high-grade Fiend Star Sources," the shopkeeper replied with a smile.
"If you can tell me the exact location, forget ten thousand—I'll give you a hundred thousand Fiend Star Sources," Evan said with a smile.
The shopkeeper had intended to mess with Evan, but was surprised to find he actually had money. He laughed, "Alright, let me take a look."
The shopkeeper took the drawing, flipped it back and forth, and soon began to frown.
Evan thought the shopkeeper didn't know, so he asked helplessly, "You really have no idea?"
"It's not that I don't know," the shopkeeper said with a hint of suspicion, "I do know, but very few people ever go there."
"Why's that?" Evan asked curiously.
"Kid, where did you get this map?" the shopkeeper asked, looking at him strangely.
"A friend of mine went there and ran into some trouble, but I don't know what the place is called," Evan replied.
"I see. Looks like your friend's in some serious trouble," the shopkeeper muttered, clicking his tongue.
"Shopkeeper, what do you mean?" Evan didn't understand, feeling something was off.
The shopkeeper answered, "It's simple. That place is extremely dangerous—it's even called a forbidden zone. Anyone without enough strength who enters is as good as dead."
Evan grew anxious when he heard this and quickly said, "Shopkeeper, just tell me the route there and I'll give you ten thousand Fiend Star Sources."
"If you ask me, you'd best not go. It's not worth risking your life," the shopkeeper replied, clearly reluctant to say more.
But Evan couldn't just leave them behind, so he raised the price. Seeing Evan so desperate, the shopkeeper shook his head helplessly and said, "Alright, I'll draw you the route map."
With that, the shopkeeper started sketching on a piece of paper. After about a moment, a map was ready—a shrunken version, but the route was long. Evan saw the map and placed ten thousand Fiend Star Sources down, then left the shop.
"Looks like another tragic bunch," the shopkeeper sighed, then lay back down and closed his eyes to continue resting.
Once Evan realized how dangerous the place was, he didn't dare linger even for a moment. He rushed toward the location shown on the map. After about half a day, he arrived at the spot. The terrain matched the map exactly. He tried to contact Diray, but got no response.
"That's odd. Why isn't anyone answering? Did something happen?" Evan frowned.
This made Evan even more worried, so he began searching, constantly spreading out his divine sense.
Finally, he found something unusual in front of a cave by a lakeside.
Evan used Flash Step to arrive there. He saw signs of battle and even traces of blood. Seeing this, he flashed into the cave, activated his night vision, and took in the scene inside.
What shocked Evan was that the whole way inside showed signs of fighting—it looked like they had been battling deeper and deeper.
"They should be inside." After seeing the situation, Evan continued forward until he found a corpse. He turned it over and confirmed it wasn't one of his people, which eased his mind a bit, and he pressed on.
This cave was deep. Even at Evan Yang’s speed, it took nearly a quarter of an hour to see more corpses.
He carefully checked each corpse, making sure none were his companions before relaxing. Ahead appeared a spiraling passage, its walls glowing faintly.
Beside it, a warning was carved: "Entry forbidden. Death to violators."
With no sign of Derek or the others, Evan could only assume they’d entered here. Facing the situation, he took a deep breath—if danger appeared, he’d just hide in the Tower.
So he charged in boldly, not caring what lay ahead.
Once inside, Evan was stunned. It was another space entirely, and right at the entrance were multiple overlapping formations—some illusion arrays, some trapping arrays, and some attack arrays.
Seeing this, Evan activated his Heavenly Eye. At this moment, fake immortal arrays were nothing to him, so he could easily see everything his divine sense could perceive.
"There really are people here." Evan noticed some strange figures wandering in the illusion arrays, while others raged in the trapping arrays, searching for an exit. In the attack arrays, corpses lay everywhere.
Evan identified each person. Since there were too many corpses in the attack arrays, he decided to check them for his companions.
He certainly didn’t want to see his own people there. After confirming none were his, he finally relaxed.
At that moment, he saw Nightfall and You Shuang. Nightfall was struggling to fend off two Mist-Forming experts’ attacks.
Nightfall’s face was marked with even more scars, making Evan deeply worried. He flashed forward, and with a thunderous blow, killed both Mist-Forming experts instantly—he didn’t give them any chance to survive.
Seeing Evan appear, Nightfall and You Shuang were overjoyed. The person holding You Shuang saw Evan dispatch two Mist-Forming experts so easily and warned, "Don’t come any closer, or she dies immediately."
"If you dare touch her, the next moment will be when your soul is annihilated." Evan said coldly.
"Don’t threaten me!" The person was terrified, never expecting to encounter such a terrifying powerhouse.
Evan moved closer, making the man unsure what to do. He stammered, "If you come any closer, she dies for sure."
"Try me." Evan stared him down.
The man panicked, about to strike You Shuang, but Evan flashed to her side, grabbed his hand, and rescued her.
This was Flash Step—the man was so terrified he begged, "Senior, spare me! Spare my life!"
"Spare your life? Didn’t you just try to kill her?" Evan said coldly.
He continued searching, ignoring the trouble caused by those still alive—his priority was finding Derek and the others. After all, this place was full of danger, and those people were extremely threatening.
Evan moved quickly through the formations, all while recalling the words outside: "Could there really be some expert here?"
This made Evan anxious. If Derek and the others really encountered danger, there might not even be corpses left.
With this in mind, Evan sped up, flashing through the maze.
About half an hour later, Evan finally saw two figures—it was Lan Jia and the woman with him.
They were currently fending off an attack array. Fortunately, their earth arts made their defense strong. After thousands of years in Evan’s Tower, their earth skills had reached the fifth and sixth layers.
Even so, they were clearly struggling—the deeper they went, the stronger the formations became. This was Evan’s initial estimate.
Just as their spirit power was nearly exhausted, Evan flashed in, grabbed one of their hands, and pulled them out of the array.
Before the two could react, Evan asked, "Are you both alright?"
Lan Jia and the woman nodded, so Evan sent them into the Tower for safety.
After sending them into the Tower, Evan continued searching.
After a while, Evan finally found more people—it was Derek and his friend.
Evan flashed to Derek’s side. Derek and his friend had been lost in a fog array, not knowing where they’d ended up. Just then, Evan appeared before them, startling them—they thought he was one of those enemies.
"Master!" Derek exclaimed, excited to see Evan.
"Alright, it’s fine now." Evan comforted them.
"Master, you finally came." Derek said, full of relief.
"I know everything that happened. You head into the Tower first, I’ll find the others." Evan told Derek.
Derek nodded, and Evan sent both of them into the Tower.
"Only Nightfall and You Shuang are left," Evan thought, worried for their safety. He hadn’t seen any trace of them yet.
Just as he feared Nightfall and You Shuang might be seriously wounded or even dead, he spotted a scene ahead that made him furious.