"Hey, big bro, hurry up and get in there!" The Jade Rabbit was practically bouncing with excitement to see what was inside, and Evan Yang felt the same way. He hopped in, dragging the Jade Rabbit along with him.
Once inside, Evan Yang realized the secret chamber below was extremely small—maybe only a tenth the size of the room above, big enough for six or seven people at most.
"Big bro, check it out!" The Jade Rabbit's clever eyes instantly locked onto the main feature of the space: words carved into the wall right in front of Evan Yang.
"'Heaven-Form Aspect Art.'" Evan Yang stared at the wall, muttering as he read, and curiously reached out to touch it.
Unexpectedly, a flash of light erupted, and Evan Yang and the Jade Rabbit vanished from their original spot, entering a pitch-black space.
"Big bro, this place is creepy..." The sudden change made the Jade Rabbit shiver with fear. Evan Yang was even more stunned, his eyes wide as he looked around in disbelief. He quickly raised his hand and conjured a flame, but saw no boundaries, nothing at all—just endless pitch-black darkness.
At that moment, Evan Yang was like a flickering flame in a dark void. The Jade Rabbit in his arms scanned the darkness nervously, then blurted, "Big bro, where the heck are we?"
"No idea." Evan Yang shook his head helplessly.
"Big bro, you didn't mess with some weird trap, did you?" The Jade Rabbit grumbled, sounding a bit put out.
Thinking back, Evan Yang had just touched the wall and a flash of light followed. When he opened his eyes again, he was already in this strange situation.
Could the wall be the mechanism? Recalling what just happened, Evan Yang muttered to himself.
Just as Evan Yang and the Jade Rabbit were unsure what to do, a figure appeared before Evan Yang—actually, it was an old man.
"How did you get in here?" The old man floated like a wandering ghost, startling Evan Yang into stepping back warily. "Senior, I accidentally touched a wall, and ended up like this. I can't find the exit."
"A wall? Was it carved with 'Heaven-Form Aspect Art'?" The old man stroked his snowy white beard and asked with a smile.
"That's right, Senior. Could you let me out?" Evan Yang thought he'd stumbled into someone else's cultivation space. Although the old man looked ghostly, he was still full of vitality.
"Do you know what this place is?" The old man didn't answer Evan Yang's question right away, but instead asked directly.
"No idea." Evan Yang shook his head.
"This is a space I created to choose a successor. Who would've thought, after millions of years, I'd finally run into a kid like you." The old man laughed heartily.
"Senior, are you joking? Millions of years? Can anyone live that long?" Evan Yang glared, not amused.
"You've got quite the attitude, huh? Heh, don't believe me? What about those formation diagrams outside?" The old man, seeing Evan Yang's disbelief, brought up the things drawn on the outer wall.
"The formation diagrams outside? Uh, Senior, you might not know—they've already been destroyed." Evan Yang remembered how the perfectly good formations had been ruined, and wondered why he'd ended up in such a bizarre space.
"Oh? They've already been destroyed? Well, at least someone managed to get in. In that case, I'll just compress all the formation knowledge into a memory and place it in your mind. As your strength grows, you'll be able to use the arrays accordingly." The old man was a bit surprised the diagrams were gone, but didn't seem too worried, and explained his plan to Evan Yang.
"Senior, you're joking, right? Compressing everything into my mind—will I even survive?" Just thinking about it scared Evan Yang.
"Kid, my 'Heaven-Form Aspect Art' is the result of years of work. Plenty of immortals have begged for it, but I never gave it to them. And you, without even a proper spiritual root, dare to look down on my art." The old man was annoyed by Evan Yang's reaction, as if his technique was being dismissed.
"Immortal? Are you an immortal?" Evan Yang was startled by the old man's words.
"Well, more or less." The old man smiled.
"What do you mean, 'more or less'? Are you or aren't you?" Evan Yang had always doubted whether immortals really existed. If the old man was telling the truth, then immortals definitely existed.
"Kid, what's with the attitude? What's so great about immortals anyway? Seriously." The old man glared.
"What?" Evan Yang was so irritated by the old man that he could hardly stand it.
"Alright, enough nonsense. The spiritual energy here is weak—if I keep talking, even this projection will collapse." With that, the old man ignored Evan Yang's reaction, sent a tiny cluster of flashing light flying toward Evan, who couldn't block it. Suddenly, his head felt unbearably heavy, as if stuffed with countless things, all blurry. He screamed and rolled on the floor.
"Let's leave it at that. Your cultivation is too weak—work hard and don't disgrace my Dao of formations." The old man sighed at Evan Yang rolling on the floor, then laughed and disappeared.
Evan Yang and the Jade Rabbit returned to reality, lying on the floor in front of the strange wall.
Evan Yang climbed up and cursed, "Rotten old man—who passes down techniques like that?"
"Big brother, what happened? Who was that old man?" The Jade Rabbit asked, still frightened.
"That old man was a powerful figure—maybe a real immortal. He just implanted his self-created 'Heaven-Form Aspect Art' into my mind. But my cultivation is too low, so I can only use basic Heaven's Eye Sight and some simple array knowledge for now." Evan Yang muttered.
"Heaven's Eye Sight? Big brother, what's that?" The Jade Rabbit had no idea what Evan Yang was muttering about.
"It's a technique that lets my eyes see through formations. The old man just passed it to me—right now I can only observe, but if there's an array in front of me, I can see it clearly." Evan Yang thought this technique was pretty amazing.
The Jade Rabbit was even more shocked. "That's incredible!"
"Heh, I don't know what the Heaven-Form Aspect Art will be like later, but even just having Heaven's Eye Sight is enough for me. At least I won't get lost in illusion arrays anymore." Evan Yang patted the Jade Rabbit smugly.
"Big brother, does that mean you found a treasure?" The Jade Rabbit asked curiously.
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"You could say so. Who would've thought there'd be a space like this here? Luckily that person never found it—if he had, the whole continent would've been turned upside down." Evan Yang felt a sense of relief.
"Big brother, let's leave now. It's uncomfortable here." The Jade Rabbit suggested after Evan Yang had accomplished his goal.
"Yeah, but before we go, it'd be best to tidy up first." Evan Yang glanced at the wall, planning to deal with it, but the characters on it were already slowly fading.
The magical wall erased all the writing. Evan Yang stepped forward, wanting to see what was going on.
"Big brother, you're not going in again, are you?" The Jade Rabbit said, a bit worried.
Evan Yang hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Don't worry—since we were able to get out, if we go in again, I'm sure we can get out too." Curious, he touched the wall.
Strangely, the wall acted just like any ordinary wall. No matter how Evan Yang knocked or pressed, it stayed the same. The characters were gone, and the wall couldn't be entered anymore.
"Big brother, that's incredible!" The Jade Rabbit exclaimed, amazed by Evan Yang's actions.
"Maybe we really did meet an immortal." Evan Yang put his hand away and answered.
"That old man just now?" The Jade Rabbit asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, looks like immortals really do exist—it's just that no one on the continent has the strength yet." Evan Yang sighed in awe.
"Big brother, do you think immortals are really powerful?" The Jade Rabbit asked curiously.
"Yeah, that's why I have to work hard and become the top immortal on the continent!" Evan Yang, now sure immortals exist, thought of his father's sudden disappearance and the 'immortal' character left behind, feeling even more determined to pursue the path of cultivation.
"Then I'll be the top immortal rabbit!" The Jade Rabbit replied, infected by Evan Yang's excitement.
"Heh, definitely! But first, we need to deal with what's in front of us." Evan Yang put away his smile and spoke to the Jade Rabbit.
The Jade Rabbit looked at Evan Yang, her head drooping, and asked curiously, "Big brother, what else is there?"
"Jade Rabbit, you need to forget everything that happened here. If the lord outside asks, just say the cave was destroyed. If he doesn't believe you, let him come in and see for himself." Evan Yang thought it was best to keep the Heaven-Form Aspect Art a secret.
The Jade Rabbit always listened to Evan Yang—whatever he told her to do, she did. So she obediently nodded.
Seeing that the Heaven-Form Aspect Art's secret would stay hidden for now, Evan Yang grabbed the Jade Rabbit and leapt back up into the upper cave. By the pond, he said, "Whew, time to swim out again."
He gathered his spiritual energy shield, leaped, and plunged into the pond, retracing his steps.
"How is this pond made? It keeps the spirit beasts outside from coming close, and it's so cold." Evan Yang's blood was naturally warm, but even he felt chilled and uncomfortable in the water.
The Jade Rabbit nestled in Evan Yang's arms, watching the darkness outside the spiritual shield.
"Forget it, let's just swim up." Evan Yang didn't dare stay in the pond too long—if his spiritual power ran out, he'd drown in the depths.
Swimming up was much harder than going down. By the time Evan Yang climbed out at the pond's edge, he was nearly exhausted. "Whew, good thing the pressure wasn't as bad up here, or I'd have died down below."
The lord, who had been standing not far from the pond, was thrilled when Evan Yang emerged. "Kid, you came out so quickly!"
Evan Yang struggled to his feet and replied bitterly, "Senior, there's a cave under the pond."
"And? Was there anything in there to break the formation?" The lord asked excitedly as Evan Yang approached.
"Well, the last guy destroyed everything in the cave—there's nothing left." Evan Yang lied without batting an eye.
The lord thought Evan Yang was joking. "Kid, you're not kidding, are you?"
"Seriously, he wiped out everything on the wall. If I'm guessing right, those were formation records." Evan Yang remembered what the old man had said about the wall's drawings and arrays, so he made something up on the spot.
"What? Damn humans!" Seeing his hopes dashed, the lord was furious. He lost control of his aura and sent Evan Yang flying.
"Damn it." Evan Yang slammed into the wall. His bones felt like they were about to snap, and after swimming out of the freezing pond and draining his spiritual power, he barely had any strength left.
The lord, unwilling to give up, withdrew his aura and walked over to Evan Yang. "Really, nothing's left?"
"Really. If you don't believe me, Senior, you can go down and check yourself." Evan Yang pointed to the pond.
"If I could get in, I'd have gone long ago. Why would it be your turn, kid?" The lord snorted coldly.
"Talk about changing attitude—this lord is disgusting." Evan Yang secretly grumbled about the lord's temper. When he needed Evan, he was polite, but as soon as Evan was no longer useful, he turned nasty.