"Then why are you still following me?" Evan Yang said with a smile.
"Who's following you!" Benson Blue flared up, angered by Evan Yang.
"If that's not following, what do you call it?"
"Fine, I won't follow you. You'd better remember what you said—once we're out, you go straight to the Blue Clan. Otherwise, your reputation in my eyes will take a hit." Benson Blue snorted coldly and stopped walking.
Evan Yang also slowed from running to walking, never looking back, but secretly laughed to himself: "Reputation? What do I care about my reputation in your eyes? Besides, your Blue Clan—I'll deal with all of you once I'm out."
Benson Blue had no idea what Evan Yang was thinking. Now that he'd calmed down, he reaffirmed his true purpose for coming here and started walking in a different direction, while Evan continued ahead.
The two of them split up again. Evan Yang knew Benson Blue wouldn't share any secrets, so he could only explore on his own, searching for what was so special about this mysterious cave system.
As he walked, a powerful aura suddenly appeared ahead. Evan Yang stopped at once, stunned by what he saw—a giant black insect, as big as a person, was staring right at him.
"It's huge!" It was Evan Yang's first time seeing such a massive bug; his throat nearly caught as he gulped.
"How did you get in here?" The giant insect actually spoke human language to Evan Yang.
"You can speak human language?" Evan Yang asked suspiciously.
"What, you think I'm speaking bug language? Would you even understand it?" the giant insect snapped.
"Hey, don't be so aggressive. I'm just here to check things out," Evan Yang said with a smile.
"Check things out? Hmph, you humans want to trap us—no way! Once my master wakes up, every single one of you is finished!" the giant insect barked.
The giant black insect was basically an enlarged version of the bugs from earlier. The only difference was its aura—much stronger, rivaling a late-stage Spirit-Wandering expert. Plus, it was surrounded by a swarm of smaller black insects.
"Your master? Who's that?" Evan Yang's curiosity peaked at the mention of a master.
"What, scared now? Heh, I can see you're strong—wiping out so many of my children and grandchildren. Why not join me? When we see my master, I'll make sure you get promoted." The giant black insect boasted, seeing Evan's expression.
Evan Yang nearly spat out water laughing. "Scared? You seriously underestimate me."
"Kid, don't say that. I'm just telling it like it is!" the giant black insect laughed, seeing Evan refuse to back down.
"Telling it like it is? Well, I'm about to take you down and ask you who your master really is—and what they're up to!" Evan Yang, facing a worthy opponent, was ready for a fight.
The giant black insect hadn't expected Evan Yang to pull this move. It snorted coldly, "Overestimating yourself!" Then all the small black bugs around it swarmed furiously at Evan.
Evan Yang snorted back. With a burst of flames, the bugs dropped instantly, enraging the giant black insect. "Hmph, die!" it roared.
The battle between them began in earnest.
The fight was intense—spatial cracks started appearing all around. Evan Yang, with hundreds of strands of divine sense, could quickly dodge anything but the biggest cracks. The giant black insect had its own special sense—whenever it was about to hit a crack, its wings would spread and it would leap clear in a single bound.
"Bugs really are different—they've got wings," Evan Yang joked.
"You!" The giant black insect was furious at Evan Yang's mockery.
It ramped up its attacks. During the fight, the giant insect grew puzzled—Evan Yang's cultivation was only mid-stage Spirit-Wandering, yet his attacks easily tore open the space here, almost matching a late-stage Spirit-Wandering expert.
Evan Yang could recover his spiritual power incredibly fast, while the giant black insect couldn't keep up. Gradually, it started to lose strength, while Evan fought harder and faster, pushing his speed to the limit.
Finally, the giant insect saw eight images of Evan Yang, thinking it was seeing things. At that moment, Evan landed a heavy blow.
The whole insect was sent flying, blood gushing everywhere. But unlike human blood, it was green.
"Done." Evan Yang checked his overall strength and smiled.
"You—you can't be! You're only mid-stage Spirit-Wandering!" The giant black insect was shocked. In Spirit-Wandering, every stage was a huge leap, not just a small difference.
"You're right, I'm mid-stage Spirit-Wandering. So what?" Evan Yang replied with a smile.
"You—you monster." The giant black insect grew nervous, even terrified, staring at Evan Yang.
"Go on, tell me—who's your master?" Evan Yang asked with a smile.
"No, I can't say." The giant black insect answered.
"Won't talk?" Evan Yang dropped his smile and stared at the insect.
"No way, I absolutely won't say!" The giant black insect was stubborn to the end.
"Hmph, we'll see about that." Evan Yang moved to seal it, but before he could touch it, the insect self-destructed, leaving one last message: "Don't think killing me will make things easier for you. Our master won't let you off—he already knows what happened here."
The giant black insect died. "Suicide?" Evan Yang wondered why it chose such a way to die—why not just tell him outright?
With the trail gone cold, Evan Yang could only sigh and keep moving forward.
The path grew more dangerous—strange bugs would suddenly charge at him, just as powerful as the last ones. It made Evan wonder just what was so special about this cave system, and why it was crawling with so many bizarre insects.
So Evan Yang kept fighting and kept asking questions, but every time he tried to interrogate a bug, it would choose suicide, leaving him with no real answers.
Evan Yang had no idea how many he'd killed. If you really counted, this place was practically a kingdom of bugs. If these insects ever made it to the continent, they'd be enough to wipe out countless clans and sects.
After so much killing, Evan Yang started to feel as if he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Ten days of slaughter deepened Evan Yang's understanding of life and death, and honed his combat skills. He felt close to advancing to late-stage Spirit-Wandering.
But on the eleventh day, he stopped fighting—because he saw a familiar figure.
"Evan Yang, I didn't expect you to survive," the figure said with a smile.
"I wondered who it would be—turns out it's you again? Looks like all these bugs are connected to you, huh?" Evan Yang replied with a smile.
"You're right. These bugs are indeed linked to me, and many of them are my master's prized possessions. But you've killed so many, the master is furious and sent me to capture you." The figure was none other than Wang Hong.
"Prized possessions? Yeah right. Why is it every time I ask them something important, they just off themselves? Clearly, your master’s the real problem." Evan Yang figured the bugs’ suicides had everything to do with that shady master—and somehow, even after ten days, the guy could lock onto his exact location.
"Despicable? That’s their so-called honor—they hate being threatened! Get it?" Warren Wong snorted.
"Honor? Never knew bugs could be so noble." Evan Yang grinned.
"You wouldn’t get it. Today’s the day I finally take you down and settle my old score." Warren Wong snorted.
He didn’t waste any time—launched his strongest attack straight at Evan Yang.
Evan Yang quickly backed off and blocked the attack, only to realize Warren Wong was now late-stage Spirit-Wandering.
"Seriously, what did your master feed you to get you to late-stage Spirit-Wandering?" Evan Yang asked, genuinely curious.
"Doesn’t matter how—I just need to beat you." Warren Wong shot back, totally unfazed.
"Beat me? Let’s see who comes out on top." Evan Yang sneered.
Warren Wong snorted, swung his fist, and aimed straight for Evan Yang’s chest.
Evan Yang dodged back, unleashed his strongest right-hand strike. Their first clash cracked the air between them—then both sidestepped and kept the duel going.
Sparks flew as their fists kept smashing together, neither backing down.
"Evan Yang, today’s your funeral!" Warren Wong barked mid-fight.
"Dream on!" Evan Yang could tell Warren Wong was on a whole different level from the bugs—his moves, speed, and reactions were top-notch.
At first, Evan Yang struggled to keep up, but soon he pushed his footwork to the max and started trading blows fast.
Fifteen minutes in, Evan Yang’s strength blew Warren Wong’s mind. Warren stared, dumbfounded. "Damn, you’re freakishly strong."
"You’re not too shabby yourself," Evan Yang shot back.
"How did my dad die, anyway?" Warren Wong had found his dad’s corpse years ago, like getting punched in the gut.
Evan Yang remembered, "Your dad tried to blow up his core to drag me down with him, so I bailed quick—he only blew himself up."
"Blew up his core?" Hearing the truth for the first time, Warren Wong’s eyes went blood-red, and his attacks sped up.
"You nuts?" Evan Yang was startled by Warren’s sudden burst of speed and pushed himself to go all out.
"I want you dead!" Warren Wong roared, eyes blazing.
"You’re nuts—totally lost it." Evan Yang could tell Warren’s punches were all over the place, wild and messy.
"You’re the crazy one! I’m killing you today!" Warren Wong kept swinging like a madman.
Evan Yang had to step it up, moving even faster and locking onto every detail with six hundred strands of divine sense.
"Divine sense can do this?" As Evan Yang tracked Warren’s every move, he realized he could predict the next punch just by following the trajectory.
The discovery thrilled Evan Yang. He started dragging out the fight—every time Warren swung, Evan could see the direction and counter right away.
Once was cool, but after a few times, Evan Yang kept landing hits. Warren, who’d been crazed, calmed down and stared, muttering, "Is this guy psychic or something?"
But Evan Yang wasn’t psychic. He just used his ever-changing moves and tracked trajectories to predict Warren’s attacks. He didn’t get it right every time, but he could guess over eighty percent of Warren’s punches.
Warren Wong couldn’t believe Evan had this skill. He attacked like crazy again, but the result was the same. Finally, Warren stopped, stepped back, and stared at Evan Yang.