Evan sped forward without pause, arriving at the target planet. He carefully chose a spot, split off a clone, and concealed his true body with invisibility.
Evan's clone moved toward the destination, while his real body stayed hidden, following in the shadows. Shortly after, they reached the appointed place.
"Where are you?" Evan's clone asked, pulling out his Transmission Stone, his voice tense.
A moment later, laughter echoed behind Evan. A middle-aged man appeared, his demeanor ghostly—almost like a demon-beast. Evan immediately guessed: this man was probably descended from demons or beasts.
"What just happened? How did that kid do it?" Seeing Evan and the two women disappear, the man was still in shock. It was a humiliating defeat, and it convinced him that Evan's techniques and treasures must be extraordinary.
This only made him more desperate to capture Evan.
By now, Evan had already vanished underground. Inside the tower within his Spiral Shell, he removed the restraints from Hannah Nangong and Sharla.
"You're finally back!" Hannah said, her voice trembling with excitement and relief.
Sharla was excited too. "Thank you," she said, her gratitude evident.
"Luckily I got back in time—otherwise who knows what that guy would have done," Evan said, his relief obvious.
"It's all my fault," Sharla said gloomily, feeling guilty and downcast.
"This isn't your fault, don't blame yourself," Evan said gently, reassuring her.
"If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have found me—and if he couldn't find me, Miss Hannah wouldn't have suffered with me," Sharla said, voice heavy with remorse.
Hannah shook her head. "You're overthinking it—this isn't your fault," she said softly.
Evan agreed, but was curious. "Let me check your body—I want to see what that guy did to you, and how he was able to track you," he said, concern in his eyes.
Sharla wasn't sure. "I don't know—maybe since we were young, he never trusted us and installed something on us," she replied, uncertain.
"Do you have any artifact or item he gave you?" Evan asked after thinking for a moment.
Sharla thought for a moment, then took off her earring. "He gave me this—each of us got a small item when we were young. Mine is this," she explained.
Evan took the earring, wanting to confirm his suspicion. "You two stay in the tower for now—I'll test something," he said cautiously.
They didn't know what Evan was about to do, but trusted that he had his reasons.