After Evan Chu returned to the mine tunnel, Goldwing and Shadow immediately came up to greet him. Shadow grinned and said, "Boss, how'd the quota hand-in go? Were they shocked you actually managed to dig up Immortal Stones?"
"That's right, they were pretty shocked. But this time, we've got three whole months to dig, so I can push for a breakthrough to late Heavenly Immortal Realm as soon as possible. Here, these are the tools they gave me—should last us a while." Evan finished speaking and dumped out all the mining tools from the storage ring the middle-aged man gave him.
Seeing the pile of tools on the ground, Shadow and Goldwing both chuckled, "Boss, you keep those tools for yourself. We don't want 'em—we're way faster and more efficient with our claws. You just focus on your cultivation; Goldwing and I are off to break through to the next realm."
The two of them immediately shifted into their true beast forms and started digging again, while Evan Chu returned to the resting area to absorb the Immortal Essence from high-grade Immortal Stones. Tom Chu also began absorbing Immortal Essence, but only from the ambient energy in the space—he had to guard the tunnel and couldn't risk drawing directly from the stones themselves.
Evan Chu slowly absorbed the energy from the high-grade Immortal Stones. Right now, his dantian felt like a bottomless pit—no matter how much Immortal Essence he took in, it never reached saturation. He ended up absorbing several hundred high-grade stones, and the consumption was truly terrifying. He could clearly feel that the amount of Immortal Essence he needed for a breakthrough was way more than anyone else.
He immediately split his focus, grabbing supreme-grade Immortal Stones in both hands to absorb. There were still several hundred supreme-grade stones left in Shangguan Luoyang's storage ring—enough to last him a while. As the supreme-grade Immortal Essence poured into his body, it was much stronger than the high-grade stones, and he could clearly feel his internal energy surging.
Once he'd absorbed enough Immortal Essence, he had to fuse it with his Chaos Immortal Force, then circulate it through his body for several cycles. This repeated absorption and refinement took Evan Chu a full month before he finally advanced to late Heavenly Immortal Realm. To break through to the Golden Immortal Realm, he felt he might have to absorb every last supreme-grade stone he had.
He slowly stood up, his face showing a complicated mix of frustration and helplessness. "I haven't even reached the Golden Immortal Realm and I already need this many Immortal Stones. If I want to reach Immortal Emperor, won't I need a whole mountain of stones? What am I supposed to do?" Evan Chu muttered to himself.
Right now, he wished more than anything that Luna could be by his side—at a moment like this, maybe she could help him or at least comfort him.
Just then, Evan Chu's expression changed drastically. He shouted, "Crap, how could I forget Roxanne's instructions? Please let nothing have gone wrong!"
He hurriedly sent his Divine Sense into the storage ring to check, and found that Roxanne Lin had already reverted to human form—but she was still unconscious. Evan Chu broke out in a cold sweat, quickly pulled her out of the ring, and laid her on the ground.
"Roxanne, wake up! Roxanne, wake up!" Evan Chu shouted, completely panicked and at a total loss.
But Roxanne didn't respond at all, still deep in unconsciousness. Evan Chu forced himself to steady his nerves and muttered, "Gotta stay calm, gotta stay calm! She's still breathing, so there shouldn't be any immediate danger. I have to figure out a way to wake her up."
He quickly helped Roxanne sit upright, pressed both palms to her back, and channeled Wood element energy into her body, all while using his Divine Sense to check her condition. Even though he kept telling himself to stay calm, his heart was anything but.
Evan Chu only stopped when he felt his Wood element was nearly exhausted. After breaking through to late Heavenly Immortal Realm, his Wood-Shift power had increased a ton, and he had plenty of Wood element to spare—but now he'd burned through almost all of it, showing just how much this healing consumed.
But effort paid off—Evan Chu saw a hint of color return to Roxanne's previously pale face. The luckiest part was that she'd turned back into human form; if she were still a Scarlet Phoenix, he honestly wouldn't know where to start.
He quickly adjusted his internal Wood element and began to recover. But because he was so worried about Roxanne, he only restored half his strength before pouring it into her again. He repeated this three times, but she still didn't wake up. At this point, Evan Chu was at a loss—Wood element was his best healing method, but it wasn't working, and he was getting really anxious.
Evan Chu realized he might be using the wrong approach—maybe Wood element alone couldn't wake her. Suddenly, a thought struck him: "Could it be because this is the Immortal Realm, and Roxanne's cultivation isn't high enough to adapt? She doesn't have any Immortal Essence in her body at all?"
Suddenly understanding, Evan Chu switched from channeling Wood element to pouring Immortal Essence into her instead—his own Chaos Immortal Force, which even contained draconic power. Evan's energy was easily among the highest-grade forces in existence.
As Evan Chu poured Chaos Immortal Force into Roxanne, his Divine Sense felt her aura growing stronger with each input—a great sign. He sped up the infusion, but kept in mind that Roxanne's dantian had its limits; too much energy could make her body explode.
Just as Evan Chu was about to let go, Roxanne Lin suddenly opened her eyes. "I'm good now, Lin Feng. Go ahead and recover your strength."
That voice was pure heaven to Evan Chu. He hugged Roxanne tightly, overwhelmed—his carelessness had nearly killed her. If anything had happened to Roxanne, he'd never have forgiven himself.
Roxanne gently pushed Evan Chu away. "Let me finish absorbing all the Wood element and Immortal Essence you pumped into me, okay? If this was before, I'd have exploded from so much energy—but luckily, I succeeded in my Phoenix Nirvana Rebirth. Don't worry, I'm fine."
Hearing Roxanne say that, Evan Chu finally relaxed and started to recover his Immortal Essence. It only took him half a day to get back to full strength, but Roxanne spent a whole week completely absorbing all the energy inside her.
When Roxanne finally stood up, her face was radiant. "Lin Feng, I broke through! I finally broke through! Now I'm a full-fledged Immortal—I can truly live with you in the Immortal Realm!"
"You broke through? That fast? How is that even possible?" Evan Chu was stunned by Roxanne's words, staring at her in disbelief.