"What exactly do you want?" Evan Yang said helplessly.
"Nothing much, just observing you." The woman was eager to see Evan Yang's true power unleashed, because she knew he was hiding his strength—he simply hadn't used it against her yet.
"I can't be bothered with you." Evan Yang said with resignation, then flashed away from Fiend Palace, heading for the Void Garden where the Void Grubs were located.
The woman smiled as she watched Evan Yang leave, then followed behind him, keeping some distance.
Afraid of losing him, she didn't stray too far—just a few breaths and she could catch up to Evan Yang.
Evan Yang naturally noticed this. Seeing the woman always following him, he originally planned to shake her off, but her speed was far beyond his expectations.
"Being strong really is something else. What a boring person," Evan Yang muttered to himself.
After following like this for several hours, Evan Yang stopped paying attention to her and continued with his mission, searching for Void Grubs.
The Void Garden was the place where Void Grubs might appear. These Void Grubs were pitch black, with a faint blue glow on their bodies—if you looked closely, you could spot them.
"This should be the Void Garden." Evan Yang looked at the scene before him—desolate, yet strangely, it was covered in grass. These grasses grew right in the void.
It was as if grass had sprouted out of thin air, floating in space—an extremely strange sight.
"Void Grubs are really hard to find—it all depends on luck," Evan Yang muttered.
He crouched down to study the grass, since the mission description said Void Grubs liked to cling to these plants. But no one knew why they had become so rare, making them valuable and dangerous—much harder than ordinary tasks. Even staying here for hundreds of years, you might not see a single one.
Evan Yang plucked a stalk and examined it, discovering that it contained a lot of baleful qi.
"Is it because of the baleful qi that Void Grubs like to stay in these grasses?" Evan Yang wondered aloud. As an alchemist, he understood herbs well and knew their properties.
At this moment, to Evan Yang, these grasses had nothing special about them—just an abundance of baleful qi.
To confirm his suspicion, Evan Yang walked a few more steps and examined several more stalks. The result was the same: all of them shared the same trait, filled with baleful qi.
"What kind of grass is this, anyway?" Evan Yang muttered.
Seeing Evan Yang in such a place, surrounded by grass, the curious woman walked over and asked, "What are you looking for?"
"None of your business," Evan Yang replied, then continued searching through the grass.
But everywhere he looked, it was the same kind of grass.
"How do Void Grubs even come out?" Evan Yang released his divine sense to check if there were any burrows—otherwise, how could they just appear in the Void Garden out of nowhere?
Seeing Evan Yang spacing out, the woman said, "Stop searching. This Void Garden isn't what it used to be—it's nearly impossible to find anything now."
"Do you know why?" Evan Yang asked.
"No idea," the woman replied.
"If you don't know, why are you talking so much nonsense?" Evan Yang said, exasperated.
"You brat, how dare you talk to me like that!" the woman said angrily.
"This isn't Fiend Palace. I don't care who you are in Fiend Palace, but right now, you don't get to boss me around." Evan Yang glared at her. He knew she wouldn't kill him—otherwise, she would've acted already based on their earlier conversation.
Evan Yang had guessed right—the woman didn't intend to attack him, so she quickly held back and said, "You brat."
"You can't be so bored as to watch me look at grass, right?" Evan Yang muttered.
"If you can look, why can't I?" the woman retorted, unimpressed.
"Then you look at yours, I'll look at mine. Just don't bother me," Evan Yang said, then flashed to the side to study other grasses.
For now, since Evan Yang wasn't doing anything suspicious, the woman just stood there watching him, curious about what he'd do next.
Evan Yang ignored her and continued with his own business.
"Why aren't there any burrows?" Evan Yang complained, frustrated.
Void Grubs should have their own nests, right? But here, aside from grass, there wasn't a single burrow to be found.
Unconvinced, Evan Yang spent more time searching. After nearly half a day, he finished combing through the whole garden, then swept his gaze over it again, muttering, "Could they really be extinct?"
"So clever, huh? I want to see what kind of bug you can find," the woman muttered.
"That's none of your business. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and find one," Evan Yang replied.
"Sure, and if you do, I'll eat it," the woman said, not believing him.
"Eat? If you want to eat it, I wouldn't let you." Evan Yang glared at her.
"You..." the woman said, frustrated. She'd never been so openly rebuked—if she wasn't interested in Evan Yang, she would've sealed his mouth long ago.
Evan Yang took advantage of her mindset, repeatedly countering her with words.
Seeing the woman glare at him, Evan Yang found a spot and squatted down again, muttering, "If there's none, then I'll create an environment and see if any appear."
Evan Yang took out the Nine-Dragon Balefire Sword, his strongest baleful-qi artifact.
When Evan Yang drew the Nine-Dragon Balefire Sword, the woman watched him curiously, wondering what he was up to.
Evan Yang knew he couldn't shake off the woman, so he simply took out the sword. If she tried to snatch it, he'd just retreat into the tower, making it impossible for her to catch him.
"Kid, what is that thing?" the woman asked, curious.
"See for yourself," Evan Yang said, then injected spiritual power. A surge of baleful qi erupted from the sword tip, drawing in the surrounding baleful qi. Though not as dense as in Grimshade Valley, it was still formidable when gathered together.
Seeing Evan Yang's sword emit baleful qi, the woman looked at him in shock. "This..."
Evan Yang pointed the sword tip at the surrounding grass, wanting to see the effect.
The grass, after absorbing baleful qi, grew even more vigorous. As the grass near Evan Yang slowly flourished, the woman stared at him with a strange expression.
"Baleful qi definitely affects them. I wonder if the Void Grubs will appear," Evan Yang muttered.
Seeing Evan Yang's actions, the woman waited expectantly, wondering if the thriving grass would attract the nearly extinct Void Grubs.
"Why is there still nothing?" An hour later, Evan Yang muttered. The woman, also curious, teased him, "I thought Void Grubs would appear, but there's still nothing. A false alarm."
Evan Yang ignored her and continued his research, releasing three thousand strands of divine sense—the highest level of his ever-changing technique.
Three thousand eyes swept across the garden, so every change in each corner was recorded in Evan Yang's mind. The woman, not knowing what he was doing, thought he was just spacing out.
While scanning, Evan Yang noticed something odd—the soil beneath the flourishing grass seemed to have tiny holes swelling.
Evan Yang squatted down, and the woman, suspecting he had made a new discovery, watched him curiously.
Evan Yang gently pulled aside a blade of grass and found its root connected to the void. He couldn't figure out why it had just swelled.
"Could there be something wrong with the grass roots?" Evan Yang wondered. He put away the Nine-Dragon Balefire Sword, took out a dagger, and started digging.
But this was the void, not soil—he couldn't dig up anything, it felt as solid as stone.
"Kid, are you crazy? This is the void, not a grassy field!" Seeing Evan Yang's foolish digging, the woman couldn't help but comment.
"None of your business," Evan Yang glared, then continued inspecting the spot where the grass root had swelled.
He muttered to himself, "Why did the grass root swell? Could there be a secret?"
He took out the Nine-Dragon Balefire Sword again and injected spiritual power into the grass root.
The grass root continued to swell, and when the woman noticed the change, she exclaimed, "What's happening to these roots?"
Evan Yang ignored her and focused on his task until the grass root grew stronger, almost bursting out of the void.
Just as Evan Yang was about to exert more force, the grass root suddenly shot out of the void with a pop, leaving a tiny hole where it had been.
"This hole?" Evan Yang thought it looked deep, but it was so large he couldn't see what was inside, wondering if the Void Garden was always like this.
The woman, curious, came over and said, "Strange, I've never seen anything like this before."
After successfully creating one, Evan Yang tried to make more, flooding a whole area with baleful qi.
As time passed, the grass roots flew out one by one. It took Evan Yang ten days to create a person-sized black hole made up of countless tiny holes.
"Kid, you're a genius. Who would've thought this would work?" the woman exclaimed.
"You've watched for days—time to help out," Evan Yang said, knowing the woman was powerful and leaving the final step to her.
The woman understood, smiled, and said, "No problem. Thanks for your hard work these ten days. Who knew the Void Garden would be so interesting?"
Evan Yang said nothing, focusing on the woman's actions to see what she would do.
The woman took out a hammer, small as a fist.
"So small, will it work?" Evan Yang asked, doubtful.
"Don't think you're the only one with treasures. Watch mine—it's not worse than yours," the woman said, then gripped the hammer and smashed down with force.
The aura was intense—Evan Yang felt the terrifying energy from the woman and the hammer, so he quickly retreated. He watched as she struck the area with the hammer.
Boom! A loud sound rang out, and the woman picked up the hammer, smiling, "Done."
Evan Yang walked over and saw that there was a tunnel below.