"Ironbro, are you crazy?" Earwood was chasing after White Moon—how could he possibly want to kill her? Darren Ling wouldn’t either. Seeing this, Dustin Iron flew into a rage. "Trash!"
Then, without hesitation, he charged at the formation. Earwood and Darren Ling hadn’t expected Dustin Iron to act so recklessly. Just then, Evan Yang appeared, grabbed Dustin, struck him several times, sealed his power, and tossed him aside.
Earwood and Darren Ling saw this and teamed up to try to deal with Evan Yang. But Evan just told them, "Don’t you realize you’re both being used?"
"Used?" Earwood and Darren Ling exchanged glances.
"That’s right. This Dustin Iron isn’t here for White Moon at all—he’s here for me, and it’s connected to Hell Palace," Evan Yang said.
Earwood and Darren Ling knew that colluding with Hell Palace was a serious crime, but Earwood asked curiously, "How do you know? Don’t try to fool us."
"Don’t believe me? Watch closely." With that, Evan Yang loosened Dustin Iron’s seal a bit and smiled, "Go on, tell us—who sent you?"
"I’m not telling," Dustin Iron said.
"Stubborn fool. If you don’t speak up, you’ll never get another chance. You’ll stay like this forever, maybe even be left here for good," Evan Yang said.
Dustin Iron’s face changed dramatically. "You—"
"What about it? Think it over yourself," Evan Yang said with a smile.
Dustin Iron frowned, then finally spoke: "Fine, I’ll talk. All I know is that someone from Hell Palace wants you dead, and the order was passed to me by someone inside Heavenly Dao Academy. But I don’t know who that person is."
Evan Yang raised his eyebrows. He’d already expected someone from Hell Palace, but hearing there was a collaborator inside Heavenly Dao Academy was a first. Even Dustin Iron didn’t know who it was, so there was no way to pursue it for now. Still, Evan had his own methods, and released Dustin from the seal.
Once freed, Dustin Iron found he couldn’t gather any strength. He frowned. "What’s going on?"
"You’ll recover in a few hours. It’s your punishment. You’d better behave, and you know—collaborating with Hell Palace never ends well," Evan Yang said. Then he looked at Earwood and Darren Ling; both quickly stepped back, clearly wanting nothing to do with this.
Evan Yang broke the formation and took White Moon away. The two left everyone’s sight. White Moon asked in confusion, "Why did you let that guy colluding with Hell Palace go?"
"To fish for bigger prey," Evan Yang replied.
"Fish for bigger prey? You mean you want him to draw out the person in Heavenly Dao Academy targeting you?" White Moon asked doubtfully.
"That’s right," Evan Yang said.
"But this place is so dangerous, and now that we know he’s colluding with Hell Palace, will he really go back to Heavenly Dao Academy?" White Moon asked, puzzled.
"I’m not sure either, but if we don’t let him go, we’ll lose all leads," Evan Yang said. He was just taking a chance. After hearing Evan’s explanation, White Moon could only hope for luck as well.
Meanwhile, Earwood and Darren Ling gave Dustin Iron a strange look.
Dustin Iron looked at them. "Why do you care who I am? If you’d just killed him earlier, there wouldn’t be any trouble."
"Are you really from Hell Palace?" Darren Ling asked.
Dustin Iron laughed. "Not exactly. Hell Palace pays well, so I just do jobs for them. Besides, weren’t you two also trying to deal with him? Since we share an enemy, why didn’t you act?"
Darren Ling and Earwood exchanged glances. They knew that just the two of them alone couldn’t stop White Moon and go after Evan Yang at the same time, so Darren Ling asked, "Any more helpers?"
"Don’t worry. There are plenty of Hell Palace people here, all after his life. When the time comes, we just need to work together," Dustin Iron said with a smile.
Darren Ling and Earwood nodded. Dustin Iron secretly laughed to himself—if they could get rid of Evan Yang, no one would know his true identity. Now that these two were working with him, he could threaten them into staying on his side.
So the three of them set off together again. But Evan Yang and White Moon were already far away, so they could only keep searching.
At that moment, Evan Yang and White Moon were wandering in the realm. For Evan, besides searching for Heavenly Dao artifacts like everyone else, he mainly wanted to know why this place could produce Heavenly Dao treasures—that was his real reason for coming.
On the second day of their search, Evan Yang and White Moon heard screams ahead. Evan thought someone was in danger, but when they approached, they saw several people staring up at the sky.
Evan Yang looked up as well and saw a lotus-shaped cushion floating above. White Moon said, "A Heavenly Dao artifact—no one’s used it yet."
"Oh? Is that so? Looks like these people are about to start fighting for it," Evan Yang said.
"Yeah." White Moon nodded. Sure enough, as soon as Evan finished speaking, the people below began fighting fiercely. Evan and White Moon stayed hidden, watching from the shadows.
Evan kept his eyes on the Heavenly Dao artifact. White Moon asked, "Aren’t you going to make a move?"
"Wait a bit longer," Evan Yang replied. The fight below was already at its peak—casualties piled up, and out of more than ten people, only a few were left struggling. When only two remained, Evan suddenly decomposed his body, startling White Moon.
When Evan reappeared, he was already on the lotus. At that moment, he realized just how sneaky his Decomposition Art could be in situations like this.
Evan absorbed the artifact and stored it in his Strange Spiral Shell. The fighters below quickly realized something was wrong and attacked Evan in the air with their own treasures.
Evan vanished again, then reappeared beside White Moon and hurriedly dragged her away, disappearing from the others’ sight.
Once they were alone, Evan took out the lotus and asked, "What kind of Heavenly Dao artifact is this?"
"No idea. We’ll study it later—better not let anyone see it, or we’ll get chased again," White Moon said. Evan Yang nodded and put it away. But after just a few steps, they saw the ground ahead was covered in strange concave depressions.
"What’s this now?" Evan Yang wondered aloud.
White Moon raised her eyebrows. "No idea, it’s the first time I’ve seen this."
Curious, Evan Yang and White Moon walked over. On those depressions were lots of tiny footprints—and those footprints were moving. "Invisible?"
"Creepy," White Moon exclaimed.
So Evan Yang curiously tried to touch the footprints. Suddenly, a burst of flame appeared, knocking Evan and White Moon back.
Soon, more footprints appeared all around, and more bursts of fire erupted. Evan Yang frowned. "Get inside my artifact. I’ll decompose. Let’s see how they attack me now."
Guessing these might be some strange creatures, Evan Yang decided to investigate. White Moon entered the artifact, and Evan decomposed and vanished. The owners of the footprints frowned, searching for a while but failing to find him, so they gave up. Evan found some mud nearby, diluted it with water, and flung it onto the footprints—instantly revealing dozens of creatures, visible only because the mud stuck to them.
Evan Yang laughed. "So there really are creatures here."
The creatures were furious, especially at being covered in so much dirt. They roared and spit bursts of fire, but Evan Yang stayed calm—he summoned his ice-fire, freezing the area so the creatures couldn’t move, and their flames were cut off instantly.
Evan Yang counted—there were more than thirty strange creatures here, each only about knee-high. He asked curiously, "Can you understand me?"
"Of course, you hateful human," one creature snapped.
"Was that you talking?" Evan Yang searched for the speaker and found one, smiling.
"That’s right, it’s me." The little creature looked just like an elf. Evan Yang asked, "What are you? Why are you here?"
"We’re the great Elf Race!" the little short creature declared. Evan Yang smiled, "Elves? There are really elves?"
"Of course there are. You humans act like you’ve never seen anything," the creature retorted.
"Alright, let’s say you’re elves. What’s your name?" Evan Yang asked curiously.
"I’m Kala. Can you let us go so we can talk?" Kala sounded a bit annoyed. Evan Yang replied, "You’re all invisible—if I let you go, you’ll just disappear."
"Idiot, look over there—see that tree? Eat one of its leaves and you’ll be able to see us." Kala pointed to a tree behind Evan Yang, its leaves oddly elongated and ethereal.
Curious, Evan Yang tried it—after eating the leaf, he released Kala and wiped the mud off him. Now that Kala was visible, Evan Yang smiled, "Not bad."
"Now can you let my companions go?" Seeing Evan Yang wasn’t a bad person, Kala asked. Evan nodded and released all the creatures.
The creatures eyed Evan Yang suspiciously. Seeing so many little beings, Evan Yang smiled, "Do you really live here?"
"Of course," Kala replied.
"Do you know anything about Heavenly Dao artifacts?" Evan Yang asked curiously.
"Heavenly Dao artifacts?" Kala didn’t understand at all. Evan Yang thought for a moment and took out the lotus. When Kala saw it, he exclaimed, "You stole our sacred relic!"
"Sacred relic?" Evan Yang asked suspiciously.
"Yes, it’s a sacred relic prayed for by our Elf Race," Kala said.
"Prayed for? You can pray for this kind of relic?" Evan Yang was speechless. Kala explained, "Of course. When the mountains shake and the earth cracks here, we pray to the great Craftsman God, who makes these sacred relics for us. Then things become peaceful, but humans keep coming to steal them, so we have to pray again every so often."
Evan Yang was stunned. The Heavenly Dao artifacts everyone sought were actually creatures prayed for by the Elf Race. But he still didn’t understand—who was this Craftsman God, able to make Heavenly Dao artifacts? That must be incredible. Evan Yang asked, "So who is the Craftsman God?"
"The great Craftsman God, of course. Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand," Kala said.
"Can you take me to see this Craftsman God?" Evan Yang asked, thinking that finding the creator of these artifacts would be more meaningful than simply searching for them.