Evan Yang smiled after hearing the old man's words. "Thank you, senior." With that, Evan left to search for the so-called Lone Saint Star.
"Interesting. If he finds out I was the one who told him, I wonder if he'll come looking for trouble?" The old man chuckled and continued drinking his tea.
Evan sped along, and after more than half a month, finally tracked down the planet through various channels. The planet was huge, shrouded in a faint red glow that enveloped its entire surface.
"Here I am. How do I get across?" Evan stared at the Emperor's Barrier Domain, unsure how to proceed. Formations and barriers were his specialty, but even he felt a headache now—every attempt he made was blocked by the strange barrier.
After a long while, Evan muttered, "If I can't get in, I'll at least harass the people inside. Maybe someone will come out and meet me."
He flashed to the edge of the barrier and launched a wild attack. After attacking, Evan was speechless—his power was restricted here and couldn't have any real effect.
"My power's restricted, so I'll have to use formations." Evan thought for a moment and began setting up an array.
Inside the planet's barrier, there were two people—an old woman and a young woman, both female. The elder's face was full of wrinkles, while the girl was youthful and beautiful. The two were worlds apart, yet they stayed together.
"Master, it looks like someone is attacking the barrier outside," the young woman opened her eyes and said curiously.
The elder laughed. "Another fool who doesn't know his limits. With his power restricted, he still wants to barge in. Ignore him and keep cultivating."
"Understood, Master." The young woman closed her eyes again.
The two of them thought it was just a passerby crashing into the barrier, so they ignored it. But less than half an hour later, a loud bang made their location tremble.
The old woman opened her eyes and cursed, "Who is it? So bold!"
"Master, it should be that man from earlier," the young woman said with a frown.
"Go out and teach him a good lesson! Annoying!" the old woman said angrily. The young woman nodded, "Yes, Master. I'll go right away."
With that, the young woman flashed outside the barrier. Just as Evan was preparing for his second formation attack, he saw a beautiful woman appear and asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"
"You brazen madman! How dare you cause trouble here? Watch how I teach you a lesson!" With that, she stretched out her hand and a surge of raging flames instantly swallowed Evan.
With his strength reduced by a third, Evan really couldn't match her in offense, but his defense was unaffected. So when the flames swept over, he simply absorbed them.
The woman didn't know this and thought Evan had been burned to ash. But when the flames receded, she saw him still standing there, unmoved. "Miss, I know I'm disturbing you, but I want to meet the master of this realm. Can you help me?"
"Dream on! My master doesn't meet with anyone!" the young woman snapped.
"Really? It's impossible?" Evan asked skeptically.
"Of course not. And now, I'll send you on your way!" The young woman snorted coldly and attacked Evan again, but he was still unharmed. Standing there, Evan said helplessly, "Miss, just help me out."
"You—you—you're driving me crazy! I'll go get my master to deal with you!" Realizing she couldn't do anything to Evan, the young woman said angrily, then flashed back inside the barrier.
Watching her disappear, Evan muttered, "Hopefully I'll get to meet her master."
Inside the barrier, the old woman asked her disciple, "How did it go?"
"Master, that guy is strange. No matter how I attack, nothing happens to him," the young woman said with a frown.
Hearing this, her master asked skeptically, "How could that be?"
"It's true. Go out and see for yourself—he's still out there," the young woman said. Her master replied, "Alright, I'll go take a look and see who dares to be so arrogant."
A short while later, the old woman appeared, looked at Evan and said, "Are you the one causing trouble here?"
"Senior, I've come to seek learning," Evan said.
"Seek learning? You? Let me tell you, that's impossible. Besides, I don't take male disciples. Leave." The woman said. Evan, hearing he was rejected so quickly, hurriedly replied, "Senior, you haven't even tested me—how do you know I'm not good enough? And cultivation doesn't care about gender. Did you get hurt by some man before?"
The woman sneered after hearing Evan's words. "You sure talk a good game. Then I'll see if you're as strong as you claim."
With that, she unleashed a powerful flame that wrapped around Evan, quickly engulfing him.
But Evan wasn't afraid at all; he smiled and said, "Senior, this flame has no effect on me."
"Is that possible? My flame frightens even Heavenly Dao experts with five hundred intent. How could you not fear it?" the old woman snorted.
"Can't help it. I'm just born immune to flames. If you had something else, maybe I'd consider it," Evan said with a smile.
"You're immune to flames?" The old woman looked skeptical. Evan replied, "That's right."
The old woman withdrew her flames and studied Evan doubtfully. "Why aren't you afraid of fire?"
"It's because of my body," Evan said, not mentioning that his Sacred Flame could absorb external fire.
Hearing this, the woman looked Evan up and down for a while, then asked, "Who told you I was here?"
"It was an old man," Evan replied.
"Old man? What old man? What does he look like?" the woman asked. Evan described the old man's appearance.
The woman said, "I knew it was that guy. Damn him, telling others where I am. Next time I'll make him pay for it."
Evan felt awkward. "Hopefully I didn't get the senior in trouble," he thought.
The woman looked Evan over and said, "Alright, I won't attack you for now, but I still don't think you can be my disciple. You must pass my test."
"Master, didn't you only accept female disciples?" the young woman exclaimed.
"Ling'er, some things can change. Besides, he has such good talent—don't you think he's perfect for cultivating our sect's technique?" The old woman sent a voice transmission to the young woman, who was surprised. "Master, you're right."
Evan didn't know what they were saying, but from the girl's expression, he could tell they were discussing something that shocked her.
"Senior, what kind of test do I need to take?" Evan asked curiously after their private talk.
"Come, follow me into the barrier. You say you're immune to flames? Then I'll see if that's true." The old woman smiled, then opened a gap in the barrier for Evan to enter.
Evan followed them into the barrier and was led to a cave entrance. The old woman said, "There’s a box in the deepest part. If you can retrieve it within an hour, you’ll pass my test."
Evan replied, "Understood." With that, he flashed into the cave. The young woman asked, "Master, can he really do it?"
"That depends on his skills. If he’s only immune to flames but lacks wisdom and ability, it won’t work," the old woman said.
The young woman nodded. "Got it."
After entering, Evan first encountered some mechanical puppets. They didn’t seem very powerful, but Evan’s attack power was limited, making it hard to break them.
"I need to find a way—time’s limited, I can’t get stuck here." Evan looked around for a path forward. After a while, he realized the way was upward, so he’d have to get past the puppets and fly up, but they were tricky to deal with.
Thinking it over, Evan split off several clones—about a dozen, each handling a puppet—while he hurried upward. He reached the cave mouth, but halfway up, something seemed to fall from above. Evan quickly retreated, saw a huge stone crash down and shatter, then vanish.
"Huh." Evan looked up—whenever he entered the cave, strange stones would fall on him.
To get up, he had to deal with the stones. Evan sent in more clones; when the stones appeared, he used earth energy to break them apart in midair. It worked, so he continued upward, eliminating about a dozen stones along the way.
After clearing the stones, Evan reached the top of the cave. He looked around and found himself in another place, surrounded by flames. Evan walked through without a problem—the flames had no effect on him.
Evan moved through the fiery area and reached the so-called depths. It was quiet, seemingly empty, but he entered cautiously.
Once inside, strange gases filled the area. They made Evan weak, but his Tianhan energy quickly neutralized the danger, allowing him to move freely.
"Looks like I’m lucky—none of these trials affected me." Evan smiled, went to the center, found a box, took it, and left with a grin. But as soon as he took the box, the exit was sealed and the gas thickened.
"No way—the cave’s sealed?" Evan saw the entrance blocked by a huge stone and muttered. But it didn’t bother him; he broke the stone apart and left. Every exit he passed was sealed, but these were no real test for Evan.