The man looked at Evan Yang suspiciously. He knew that if things went on like this, he was doomed, but seeing Evan completely unharmed, he assumed Evan had a way to resolve the spiritual energy and was overjoyed. He quickly calmed himself and endured the intense pain.
Evan Yang saw that the man had stabilized, then sent a stream of spiritual power into him. As soon as Evan's spiritual power entered his body, it attached itself to the chaotic spiritual energy, continuously channeling it into Evan's own body at an extremely fast pace. While working, Evan said, "Keep your dantian open, and seal off all other places."
Hearing this, the man quickly sealed off all areas except his dantian. At that moment, Evan's hand was transmitting spiritual power into his dantian, absorbing the remaining chaotic spiritual energy in his body one by one, while preventing any new disruptive energy from entering other places.
"What is he doing?" someone asked suspiciously, noticing Evan Yang place his hand on another person's dantian. Then, seeing Evan's body completely unaffected, they were shocked. "How is he totally fine?"
At first, they thought it was a problem with the formation, but seeing the others covered in blood and barely holding on, while Evan Yang was completely unharmed—and even the person Evan touched gradually returning to a bloodless state—they realized something else was going on.
"Who is he really? How can he be totally fine in this situation, and even save others?" The Masked Man grew even more suspicious of Evan Yang's identity, and found Evan's methods simply unbelievable.
As for the person being healed, he quickly followed Evan Yang's instructions, sealing off all spiritual energy entry points. His body soon returned to normal, and as long as he didn't use spiritual power, there would be no abnormal symptoms.
After saving one person, Evan Yang moved on to help the others. The Masked Man was utterly stunned, even glaring at Evan in shock and anger as he healed them one by one.
Once everyone had been healed, they looked at Evan Yang with excitement, now treating him as their savior. Without Evan, they had no idea what would have happened next.
"Who... who are you, really?" The Masked Man finally couldn't hold back and shouted angrily.
"Compared to my identity, everyone probably wants to know yours more." Evan Yang looked at him with a smile.
The Masked Man hadn’t expected that not only would his plan be ruined by Evan Yang, but even his attempt to wipe out the others would be stopped by the very person he hated most and wanted dead.
"Damn it! I refuse to believe you can withstand what’s coming next!" The Masked Man’s face changed dramatically, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to reveal his identity. For the sake of his revenge and dignity, he snorted coldly.
Then everyone noticed that the formation began to fill with red gas.
Would these gases still work, even though everyone had sealed their spiritual energy? That’s what everyone wondered, and Evan also looked at the gas suspiciously.
None of them were absorbing the gas anymore. To them, it was just something placed in front of them, harmless.
But what happened next shocked Evan: the red gas was actually part of an illusion array within the trapping formation. Evan could clearly see the structure of the formation, so the illusion array posed no threat to him. However, the others acted as if they’d entered an illusion, attacking wildly.
As soon as they attacked, the result was predictable. Those who inhaled the red gas, thinking it was just an illusion, immediately fainted and fell unconscious.
Soon, several bodies lay around Evan, while he alone remained standing.
"Why are you still fine?" The Masked Man wanted Evan to collapse, but strangely, only the others fell while Evan remained unaffected.
Evan checked each one and found they were all poisoned. The toxins had invaded their primordial spirits, causing them to fall into a deep sleep.
Some had already been poisoned too deeply and were dead. To kill a cultivator at Soul-Forming Great Perfection with poison like this required incredible potency.
Even the Masked Man was convinced Evan would eventually collapse, but instead Evan was fine, just as before. He even revived some of the unconscious, and upon awakening, Evan sealed them so they wouldn’t attack again.
A few of the revived cultivators lay confused on the ground, unable to move, as if they had no idea what they were doing.
Some who were rescued too late had already died. Only five were saved.
Evan sighed helplessly, "This poison really is strong."
"Kid, answer me—how are you still fine?" The Masked Man roared.
"You really want to see me get hurt, huh?" Evan replied with a cold smirk.
"Damn it, damn it! Don’t think you’re special just because you’re arrogant. Next up, you’re definitely going to die!" The Masked Man was furious at Evan’s attitude, completely unafraid of the internal arrays.
Evan wasn’t afraid of the weaker arrays inside the formation. He could clearly see the structure of the illusion array, so it posed no threat to him at all.
"Bring it on, then!" Evan said calmly.
The Masked Man was completely enraged. The red gas around Evan vanished, replaced by green gas.
The green gas acted like an explosive. Wherever spiritual energy flowed around Evan, it detonated instantly, causing sharp pain—even Evan’s tough skin showed faint marks, but they healed quickly.
The Masked Man never expected Evan’s body to be so tough, able to withstand even true artifacts.
All you could hear was crackling sounds on Evan’s body, but there was no real damage.
"What kind of monster are you?!" The Masked Man blurted out, realizing even gas that could destroy Soul-Forming experts’ bodies was useless against Evan.
Evan ignored him. Seeing the others unharmed, he guessed it was because the gas was absorbed into his own body. The Heaven-Cold Seed only circulated within his yuan, not outside, so only Evan’s powerful physique let him survive this ordeal.
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Seeing Evan ignore him and look around, the Masked Man’s face darkened. "Today, I’ll make sure you die!"
"You’ve said that several times already," Evan replied, then continued searching for the formation’s core.
The Masked Man had no idea what Evan was doing—he thought Evan was just looking around, ignoring him, then waved his hand.
The formation changed again. The red and green gases disappeared, replaced by yellow gas.
This time, inhaling the yellow gas had no effect, but changes happened around Evan.
The temperature started rising.
The rise was rapid, soon exceeding ordinary volcanic temperatures. The cultivators lying on the ground were terrified but couldn’t move, so Evan hurried over to unseal them.
Once they could move, they realized how strange the gas was and tried to dodge it, but there was nowhere to go. The temperature kept rising.
"I refuse to believe you won’t die!" The Masked Man snorted coldly.
Inside, everyone except Evan was sweating profusely, their bodies turning red as if they were about to be roasted alive.
"Brother Mu, do you have any way out? We really can’t take it anymore—it’s too hot," someone pleaded, since they saw Evan as almost godlike.
The other four also begged desperately as they struggled against the heat.
Evan fell into deep thought, and unlike the others, he wasn’t panicking or showing signs of burns. The Masked Man started to doubt, muttering in disbelief, "He can’t possibly be fine even now!"
Then Evan took out a small bottle. Everyone felt a wave of cold air radiate from his hand, giving them a bit of relief amid the intense heat.
Even the Masked Man outside sensed the chill from the bottle. "What is that?"
Evan said to the group, "Hold a drop in your hand—this should help." He gave each person a drop.
As each person held the drop, a chill spread through their bodies, making them shiver and momentarily forget they were surrounded by superheated gas.
The five all gratefully said, "Thank you, Brother Mu, for sharing such precious yin-cold liquid with us."
Even the five knew what they were holding was rare, but Evan didn’t care much—he’d acquired several bottles from the icy depths beneath Flame Rift, and now he was just giving them a few drops.
All six inside were fine, and the five whose bodies had been red-hot now cooled down.
The Masked Man looked at Evan in disbelief. He was beyond angry now, utterly helpless. "What was that liquid you just used?"
"Don’t tell me you don’t know about yin-cold qi?" someone mocked.
The Masked Man really had no clue. His power was forcibly boosted, so he knew even less about the outside world than Evan—at least Evan had Old Clam to help him.
"Hmph, who cares if it’s yin-cold qi—you’re all going to die anyway." The Masked Man snorted after being mocked.
The five seemed used to these threats and just laughed. After so many changes inside the formation, they trusted Evan completely, even treating him like a deity. The Masked Man no longer posed much of a threat to them.
This irritated the Masked Man so much that he clenched his fists, glaring at everyone. "Now you’ll see the ultimate power of the formation!"
The ultimate power of the formation? Wasn’t everything so far already terrifying?
The five pondered, and Evan also looked at the Masked Man, curious what else the formation could do.
Suddenly, tornadoes appeared inside the formation—underground tornadoes, forming out of nowhere and extremely powerful. Everyone felt the pressure of several tornadoes nearby, as if they could be swept away at any moment.
The tornadoes moved fast, instantly sweeping away five people. Then they vanished. Evan dodged the remaining tornadoes, while the Masked Man finally saw Evan struggling and felt a surge of satisfaction.