The three women all watched Evan leave, feeling frustrated. After worrying about him for so long, he just brushed them off with a few words—how cold! "We’d better get back to cultivating, or he’ll call us lazy again. If he really manages to use his weapon like a proper treasure, that’d be pretty amazing," Roxanne Lin said.
Each of the three found a spot to absorb Immortal Essence, but Serena Frost couldn’t help being curious about Evan Chu’s new idea. Still, she knew she couldn’t go spying on him—if he found out, he’d definitely be annoyed, maybe even mock her for being a Ninth-Heaven Arch-Immortal snooping on a Da Luo Golden Immortal’s training.
Evan Chu landed atop the mountain again. He drew the Frostbane Sword from his storage ring, then locked onto it with Heart-Sword, letting his mind fully sync with the blade. As his will moved at ease, he began gathering elemental particles from the world, ready to unleash another Elemental Flying Sword strike.
Elemental Flying Sword—that was Evan’s own name for this move. Right now, controlling all five elements at once was beyond his power; he could only get fire and earth to resonate instantly and gather quickly, since those two were the ones he’d mastered best so far.
This time, Evan chose fire as his focus. Fire was all about offense, while earth was mostly defense and its attack power was weak. There was no way he’d settle for just defending—getting beaten up passively was totally not his style.
In a blink, the Frostbane Sword was coated in dense fire element. If he used his Stonebreaking Slash, he could pull it off easily, but getting the Frostbane Sword to unleash the power of Earthsplitter or Heaven-Cleave was still out of reach—he just didn’t have enough energy yet.
Evan tried fusing massive fire element into Heart-Sword and tested its power. He locked onto a nearby mountain and, with a thought, sent the Frostbane Sword blazing toward it. A fiery sword-qi, dozens of meters long, exploded out. The deafening boom shook the earth, and when the dust settled, the mountain was gone—just a bottomless pit remained.
For dozens of miles around, the land was flattened. The air was thick with dust, swirling everywhere—truly terrifying. Evan flashed away from the mountaintop, landing in a clean spot.
“I didn’t expect casually gathering fire element and combining it with Heart-Sword would hit this hard. The attack is at least as strong as Earthsplitter, maybe even Heaven-Cleave. But even this isn’t enough to kill real Immortal Realm experts. I’ll have to borrow the power of heaven and earth to go further,” Evan muttered to himself.
He slowly sank into deep thought, replaying the power and changes of that last slash in his mind. Who knows how long passed before he opened his eyes and shook his head with a sigh. “It still doesn’t work. How am I supposed to borrow heaven-and-earth power? What a headache. Heaven-and-earth power is strong, but it’s formless. Most of the time it’s just the combined force of the five elements, and that doesn’t really boost Heart-Sword much.”
To really pull it off, Evan had to borrow a force on par with the Chaos Immortal Force inside him. But where could he actually tap into that kind of power? Man, this was such a headache.
Evan slowly pulled his thoughts back, sinking into helplessness again. Last time he meditated, it felt like he’d almost grasped something, but now the insight had vanished, leaving him anxious. Inspiration always comes in a flash, but grabbing hold of it for real is insanely tough.
After calming himself, Evan focused all his energy once more on how to borrow heaven-and-earth power. Inside the Timewheel Bracelet, there was no moon, no stars, and the temperature stayed springlike all year round. But there were clouds, streams, and sunlight that never faded.
That so-called sunlight wasn’t from a real sun—it was just a natural daytime effect in this pocket world. Only at dawn and dusk did the sky darken, which was the best way to tell time here.
Suddenly, Evan felt like he’d caught onto something, though it was still fuzzy. His heart raced with excitement. Who knew how much time passed before he leapt up from the ground, grinning from ear to ear: "I know how to borrow heaven-and-earth power! I know how to do it!"
It took a long time for him to calm down again. Heaven-and-earth power boiled down to elemental force and Stellar Power. Back when he was at his weakest, he broke through by absorbing Stellar Power—he’d only stalled because the sword spirit was stuck in his body.
But the Stellar Power pouring down from the stars was the real deal—and it was ridiculously strong. Stars themselves were massive beyond imagining, and the power they showered down covered an insane area. If he could actually borrow the full force of a single star, he might even wipe out the whole Immortal Realm!
Of course, borrowing an entire star’s power was out of the question, but tapping into a sliver should be doable—as long as he could resonate with the Stellar Power. It was a terrifying idea, but also the most practical. Stellar Power existed day and night, but it was strongest at night, and true resonance would only happen in darkness.
But inside the Timewheel Bracelet, there was no Stellar Power to work with. If Evan wanted to test his theory, he’d have to leave the Bracelet. Still, he wasn’t planning on that just yet—he knew even outside, resonance wouldn’t come easy. He’d need to fully understand Stellar Power and sense the energy from the stars before he could pull it off. This road was long, but if he reached the end, the power would be insane.
With his mind made up, Evan decided to stay in the Timewheel Bracelet and consolidate his current realm. If he could break through to Ninth-Heaven Arch-Immortal, that’d be perfect; if not, he’d at least shave a ton of time off his next breakthrough.
When Evan returned to where his companions were cultivating, he saw Roxanne Lin and Macy Mei fully absorbed in drawing Immortal Essence. Only Serena Frost wasn’t—she sat quietly by the river, lost in thought. Her body was still hazy, but she radiated a mysterious beauty that tugged at the heart.