Evan Lin conducted one last round of searching in the forest.
But he found nothing at all.
Standing atop the mountain, gazing at the forest before him, Evan’s thoughts were oddly unsettled.
There were fewer and fewer chances to communicate with Lily Zhao inside the Soul-Sacrifice Beauty Scroll.
During this period, Evan had tried to get some answers out of Lily Zhao.
But Lily Zhao seemed well prepared for him.
Just like she said.
She is Lily Zhao, but she’s not Evan’s master, Lily Zhao.
Between the two Lily Zhaos, what separates them is an unimaginably long stretch of years.
The Lily Zhao Evan wants to find—right now, he still has no clue where she is.
With the search coming up empty and the map no longer showing any guiding light, Evan could only head back for now.
Still, Evan couldn’t help but care even more about the Mysterious Ruins.
Ever since the last Mysterious Ruins incident, nothing new had come from Moonshade’s side.
He left the forest.
Evan originally thought about making a trip back to Seahaven Island, but in the end he decided not to.
Now, the Rowe clan had already regained their footing among the Ancient Martial Clans.
Evan didn’t bother paying them much attention anymore.
As for what the other Ancient Martial Clans thought, Evan naturally didn’t care either.
Evan made a trip to Jinnan.
He visited the Southriver Sword Sect.
The Southriver Sword Sect’s master was quite surprised by Evan’s arrival, showing full ceremony and courtesy.
Now, the entire Southriver Sword Sect had grown much stronger.
Although they couldn’t match the Ancient Martial Clans, with Evan’s occasional guidance, the Southriver Sword Sect’s strength was nothing to sneeze at.
Besides ordering some Southriver Sword Sect members to go help Lily Zhong, Evan also left them an original sword art this time.
This fired up the entire sect.
Now, the name 'Master Lin from Seacrest' had already spread across all of Jinnan.
Not to mention, Su Yuantian had declared more than once that the Su family would always follow Master Lin from Seacrest as their leader—words like that were everywhere now.
Southriver Sword Sect.
Sect grounds.
Inside a dim stone chamber.
Evan looked at the woman statue sealed here.
Faceless.
The calm, peaceful stone statue seemed like it had existed forever.
To this day, Evan still remembered the old Southriver Sword Sect master who had lived for ages, coming out of the stone chamber and calling his name—Lin Jiuxuan.
“Are you really Lyria?”
Evan’s voice was soft and calm as he asked.
But the faceless woman statue in the stone chamber didn’t respond at all.
Up to now.
Evan had found four or five of these woman statues already.
Originally, Evan thought these statues were Lyria, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
But exactly what was off, he couldn’t say.
“Looks like I’ll have to wait until the New Year, go to Oceanport’s grand tomb with Bella Xiao, and check out the immortal bride.”
Evan didn’t linger here any longer.
Too many mysteries.
But he still had to keep moving forward.
By the time Evan got back to school, it was already the fifth day.
His roommates—Eric Wang and the others—were still living their usual lives. Tyler Tan was happily dating, Ming Zhao was grinding hard in the library.
When Evan returned, Autumn Zheng even personally cooked him a meal.
At the dinner table, Autumn Zheng asked him all sorts of questions, but never once mentioned the Vermilion Bird she’d encountered in Oceanport.
Azure Dragon was probably really busy lately.
By the time Evan returned to Harborview, even the Vermilion Bird had already left. Hidden in the shadows was a Pointing-to-Mystery expert, secretly protecting Autumn Zheng.
After dinner, Evan walked Autumn Zheng home, then strolled alone around the campus track. The carefree college students coming and going helped his tense nerves finally relax after these stressful days.
Evan took out his phone and called Yvette Ye.
“What made you think to call me?”
On the other end, Yvette’s voice sounded a little tired.
“Just wanted to ask about the Mysterious Ruins.”
Evan got straight to the point: “How many of these Mysterious Ruins are there?”
“Do you know the locations of any other ruins?”
Hearing Evan’s questions, Yvette paused for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh: “You’re asking too late.”
“Too late?”
“Yeah, lately the Hidden Dragon people have been investigating the Mysterious Ruins. There used to be about eight in total, but since we left the last one, the others have disappeared one after another.”
Yvette took a deep breath: “There must be secrets hidden inside the Mysterious Ruins, and their existence definitely means something important.”
“But now, the ruins are completely gone. Azure Dragon is running himself ragged trying to find them, but he’s got nothing. Otherwise, do you think you’d still have so much free time?”
Talking about this, Yvette sounded pretty helpless.
“Alright, thanks.”
Hearing that the ruins had vanished, Evan was ready to hang up.
No point in saying more.
Each Mysterious Ruins master was at least an Immortal Lord.
If they wanted to seal their small world,
almost nobody else would notice.
But the strange feeling behind all this was only growing stronger.
“Hey, wait.” Yvette quickly called out.
“What is it?”
“You did pretty well lately! You really stole the show at the Ancient Martial Clans gathering. From the looks of it, did you actually break into the Celestial Phenomena realm?”
Yvette sounded doubtful: “And you helped the Rowe clan’s patriarch break through to Celestial Phenomena with a single gesture? Is that for real?”
“When Jasmine Jiang told me about it, I couldn’t believe it at all!”
Yvette’s amazement was clear as day when she talked about it.
“It’s true.”
Evan didn’t plan to hide anything: “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
“Wait, I’m not done yet. There’s something I need to tell you.”
Yvette hurried to speak up.
“What is it?”
“Evan, you’d better keep a low profile.” Yvette lowered her voice.
“Low profile?” Evan was a bit taken aback. “I don’t think I’ve been that flashy.”
“That’s not flashy?”
Yvette sighed. “To be honest, you beat Lin Beixun from the Superior Lin family before, and now you’ve reached Celestial Phenomena at your age. I’m worried the Superior Lin family will start watching you.”
“Really, if I didn’t know you were from Seacrest, I’d think you were a Superior Lin yourself.”
“These days, even the guys with Superior Lin blood aren’t as strong as you. Are you a monster or what?”
“Superior Lin family?” Evan narrowed his eyes, a playful tone in his voice. “If they want to find me, I wouldn’t mind making some time to meet them.”