"A corpse?" When the figure burst out of the water, Evan Yang sensed its deathly aura.
Fortunately, this corpse wasn't very strong. Evan fought it on the water's surface for several rounds and destroyed its Divine Spirit.
"Damn, did that Corpse-Refiner come to the Human World?" Evan muttered, not knowing the Nether Patriarch had been refined, and assumed the Corpse-Refiner had arrived.
But then Evan remembered the Corpse-Refiner couldn't leave his mountain, which left him puzzled about what was really happening.
Just then, another corpse appeared. Like the previous one, its Divine Spirit was destroyed by Evan.
As Evan wondered if there would be more corpses, a stronger one suddenly burst out of the water.
"Damn, this one's at least mid-stage Divine Spirit Realm." Evan said in surprise.
The two exchanged several blows. Their strength was evenly matched, but Evan was faster, allowing him to easily dodge the corpse's attacks.
The corpse, however, had no such advantage and kept getting hit by Evan. But the blows couldn't do real damage. At this moment, Evan could fully unleash fiftyfold stacking power with his gauntlets, and occasionally burst to a hundredfold. However, he couldn't always trigger the two-hundredfold stacking power, so even his heavy punches weren't lethal.
Especially since the corpse didn't fear death or pain. No matter how many times Evan struck, it acted as if nothing happened. Finally, after many attempts, Evan got lucky—he unleashed a full two-hundredfold stacking punch, hitting the corpse square in the chest.
Evan had no idea that the Nether Patriarch was already planning to use Human World cultivators to refine living corpses against him. At this moment, though, the patriarch wasn’t sure if the three destroyed corpses were connected to Evan. After all, normal corpses had no awareness and only followed orders, but living corpse thralls were different—they could transmit everything they saw back to the Nether Patriarch, who in turn relayed it to the Corpse-Refiner.
These were the Corpse-Refiner’s living corpse thralls—terrifying beyond belief.
As for Evan, after killing three corpses and waiting a while without seeing any more, he finally left and continued in the direction he’d planned.
On the way, Evan thought about the Corpse-Refiner, curious about how he had ended up in the Human World.
With questions swirling in his mind, Evan kept flying at full speed. After about a day, he still hadn’t found a path. “Did I take the wrong direction?”
Evan had only been unconscious for a day before recovering, and now, after flying for another day without finding a way out, he started to feel something was wrong.
He considered turning back, but thought there might be a path ahead, so he kept flying.
He ended up flying for another half a month. Cursing under his breath as he skimmed the water’s surface, Evan muttered, “Damn, it’s already been a month in Hundred-Change Valley. I wonder if the mist has come back.”
After a month, Evan kept wondering what would happen if he stayed trapped in Hundred-Change Valley. But after several days with no trouble, he relaxed and continued searching for a way out.
From everyone else’s perspective, Evan was as good as dead—whether he died in the lake or not, his fate was sealed. The Nether Patriarch, half-believing, also withdrew from Hundred-Change Valley, but left a living corpse thrall searching the endless lake.
Evan couldn’t believe the lake had no edge. He kept flying—half a month, then a month. Time passed quickly, and in this endless expanse of water, with no boundaries, Evan grew frustrated.
Just as he was about to enter the Sky-Piercing Tower for secluded cultivation, planning to grow stronger before coming out, an island appeared before his eyes.
The island was enormous.
“An island?” Evan was overjoyed. He hadn’t seen anything for days—not people, not fish, not shrimp, not any living creature.
Stepping onto the island, Evan finally found a place to rest. He began exploring, hoping to discover something.
After walking for half a day, Evan had circled all but the island’s center and found nothing.
“The island’s center is a mountain. Strange—it looks like a fake mountain, hazy and hard to see through!” Evan stared at the mountain, which seemed to flicker in and out of sight, appearing almost ethereal.
After thinking it over for a while, Evan decided to go in and take a look.
He made his way forward. The base of the mountain was covered in forest, so Evan flew over the trees and arrived at the foot of the mountain.
But another problem appeared—he couldn’t fly over it. It was even worse than the lake, where at least he could skim along the surface.
Helpless, he stretched out his hands and began climbing. Mountain climbing was his specialty—when he was a child at the Shaoyang Sect, he’d spent most of his time climbing mountains to gather herbs. So he started climbing from the mountain’s base.
To his surprise, after climbing for half a day and looking down, he’d only ascended a few stories’ height.
“Weird—I could’ve sworn I climbed much farther.” Evan muttered suspiciously.
This made Evan feel something was off. If what he saw was fake, then it must be an illusion. The source was the mountain itself, so Evan activated his Heavenly Eye to check for any formations nearby.
If there was a formation, whether high or low grade, he’d be able to see it—at least he’d know if he was inside one.
Sure enough, with Heavenly Eye, he saw the mountain’s surface was shrouded in a layer of white mist, making it impossible to tell what sort of formation it was.
“Can’t see through it!” Evan knew it was a formation but couldn’t make out the details, which left him frustrated. He glanced at his position—only a few stories up—and decided to keep climbing. Sooner or later, he’d reach the top.
Evan started climbing furiously. When he ran out of spiritual power, he used the Spirit-Draining Box to replenish it. Like that, he spent an entire month climbing.
Only then did Evan finally reach the summit.
“Good thing it was climbable.” Looking down at the scenery, Evan remarked. The month had been grueling, but he never stopped.
Compared to flying all over the lake, at least there was an island—and a mountain. He didn’t know why the mountain had a formation, but since it did, there had to be people.
That was Evan’s guess and conviction. That’s why he was determined to climb the mountain—no matter how tough it was, he had to find a trace of human presence.
Surrounded by nothing but lake, Evan’s mood was hard to calm. It felt like he’d arrived at a lonely island in the middle of the water.
Suddenly, a faint sound reached Evan’s ears, snapping him back to attention. “Someone’s here?”
Behind Evan was a cave. He followed it inside, and when he emerged, he saw a strange sight—a pool open to the sky.
Mist covered the pool, making it impossible to see what was inside, but laughter could be heard.
“Could it be women bathing?” Evan remembered the last time he accidentally barged into Nina Yates’s pool and muttered to himself.
But then he realized something was off. This was the lake in Hundred-Change Valley, and if people really lived on this island, who were they?
Evan faced two possibilities: either the strangers wouldn’t pursue him and would tell him about the island and lake, or the less optimistic outcome—they’d kill him.
He didn’t know if they actually had the power to kill him, but after thinking it over, Evan muttered to himself, “Worst case, I’ll just hide in the Sky-Piercing Tower and not come out!”
So Evan called out, “Is anyone there?”
His voice startled whoever was inside, and the laughter instantly stopped. Silence fell over the area.
“Gone?” Evan muttered suspiciously when he heard nothing further.
Just then, two women in flowing white robes suddenly flew out in front of Evan.
Evan quickly retreated, readying himself for a fight.
The two women exchanged glances, their faces full of surprise.
“Who are you? Why are you here?” one of the women asked.
“My name is Evan Yang. I accidentally ended up in this lake and then found this island. I heard voices, so I wanted to ask you seniors how I can leave.” Evan could sense that these two women were extraordinary—if they wanted, they could probably kill him with a thought. He asked respectfully.
Evan’s appearance clearly shocked the two women. In their eyes, no one should have been able to show up here—at least not someone so insignificant.
“Evan Yang? Lake? Do you know where you are?” the other woman asked.
“I don’t know. I hope you seniors can enlighten me.” Evan asked again.
One woman was about to answer, but the first woman stopped her. “Xiao Yi.”
The woman who was about to speak immediately closed her mouth. “Yes, Miss.”
Judging by their tone, Evan sensed that one was the young miss and the other a servant. But even the servant felt terrifying to him. Evan regretted asking these two—if they got angry, he’d really have to hide in the Sky-Piercing Tower.
The woman addressed as Miss looked Evan up and down, her surprise even greater than before.
The servant didn’t notice anything, just stood by awaiting instructions.
“I never thought, after all these years, I’d see this again.” The Miss’s surprise turned to a smile.
“Miss, what are you talking about?” the servant asked, confused.
“Nothing. I’ll tell you later.”
She turned to Evan. “You want to leave this lake?”
Evan nodded. “If possible, I’d like to leave.”
The Miss smiled. “Leaving isn’t impossible, but you’ll have to pay a price.”
Evan’s heart tightened. “What price?”
The Miss didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she said, “Come with me.”
Evan hesitated, but seeing the Miss’s calm demeanor, he followed her.
The servant followed behind, silent.
They walked deeper into the mountain. Soon, a stone gate appeared before them, covered in strange runes.
The Miss pressed her hand to the gate, and the runes lit up. The stone gate slowly opened, revealing a hidden passage.
“Go in,” the Miss said.
Evan took a deep breath and stepped inside, uncertain what awaited him within.