Lauren Shell considered Evan Yang a friend, so she answered without hesitation. "Of course."
"Let’s move," Evan said, itching to go. He couldn’t wait to see the ninth dagger.
Lauren didn’t bother asking why Evan was so eager to meet the guy—she just took the lead and started guiding them.
The trip was long and uneventful—it took five days and nights. Along the way, they passed through all sorts of places and ran into some powerful sea beasts, but in front of Evan, they didn’t even count as trouble.
The dull journey took five days and nights. Along the way, they passed through many places and occasionally encountered powerful sea beasts, but in front of Evan, they were nothing to fear.
"Back when we came treasure hunting, just spotting those sea beasts made us run for cover. We’d only dare move on once they left." Lauren laughed, watching Evan handle the beasts they’d once feared so easily.
"How did you even know the way?" Evan was curious how they’d found such a remote stretch of sea.
So Lauren told him an old legend.
Long ago, it was said there was a place where the strongest sea beasts lived. There, countless treasures and artifacts were gathered, but the most symbolic item was the Sea-Beast Whip.
It’s called the Sea-Beast Whip because someone once used it to subdue those sea beasts. In the surrounding seas, people said whoever held the Sea-Beast Whip was the symbol of the Sea Goddess.
"You killed him?" Evan was genuinely surprised to hear Lauren had taken out her companion.
"Yeah. He betrayed me. We’d promised not to tell anyone, but halfway back I realized he was secretly working with Godslayer Hall. So when he dropped his guard, I took him out." Lauren’s voice softened, lost in memory.
"I didn’t know there was such a legend. You really got lucky, finding an artifact like that," Evan laughed.
"Sorry, that’s a bit embarrassing." Lauren gave an awkward laugh.
Evan then pressed her for more details about what happened back then.
"I don’t know. Maybe he just stumbled in by accident," Lauren said, confused.
"So besides you, no one else survived? No one else saw him?" Evan pressed, focusing on the gap between Nigel’s and Lauren’s stories.
"There was one other person. He made it there with me, but died on the way back," Lauren replied.
"She’s alive—and you two have a son," Evan said gently.
"Yeah, he was. And I was the one who killed him," Lauren finally admitted.
"You killed him?" Evan was surprised to hear Lauren had killed her companion.
"Yeah. He betrayed me. We’d agreed not to tell anyone about it, but on the way back I found out he was in contact with Godslayer Hall. So when he wasn’t paying attention, I took care of him." Lauren recalled the events in her mind.
Evan finally understood. "No wonder Godslayer Hall kept chasing you, and why Nigel Nangong knew you’d met that man!"
"Sorry about that." Lauren laughed awkwardly.
Evan then asked about what happened back then.
When they arrived at a small island, Lauren stopped and said, "There’s a space beneath this island. That man is cultivating somewhere inside."
"Let’s go down and take a look," Evan said, and followed Lauren as they swam below.
Sure enough, there was a space below that kept out the water. As soon as Evan and Lauren stepped inside, they found themselves in a vast chamber. According to Lauren’s map, this place was called the Domain of the Strongest Sea Beasts.
But after the Sea-Beast Whip subdued them, there were no powerful sea beasts left here—only treasures remained, just as the map described.
Back when Lauren first entered, she searched frantically but found nothing valuable. In the end, she left disappointed—only to run into a man cultivating with a Godslayer Dagger.
"There’s movement over there!" As soon as Evan entered the chamber, he released his divine sense to search for the person. Before Lauren could react, he’d already pinpointed their location.
Lauren was impressed. She hadn’t been here in years, and even now she needed a moment to recall the exact direction.
Evan dashed ahead, Lauren close behind. Soon, they arrived at the place Lauren had mentioned.
When they got there, Evan frowned—he realized the man wasn’t cultivating at all, but trapped.
But he wasn’t completely confined. His powerful aura still radiated outward.
Sensing someone’s arrival, the man’s aura pressed directly toward Evan and Lauren. He was about to ask who they were, but then spotted Lauren. "You’re back again?"
"Senior," Lauren said awkwardly.
The man was quite handsome. When Evan looked closely at his face, he was shocked and found it hard to believe.
"Who’s this?" The man asked, curious at Evan’s strange expression.
"He’s my friend," Lauren quickly stepped forward to explain when the man asked.
The man sized Evan up, and Evan did the same to him—finally focusing on the dagger. "It really is the ninth one," Evan said.
"Who are you?" The man asked, wary after noticing Evan’s strange gaze.
"I’m Evan Yang," Evan introduced himself.
"Evan Yang?" The man had been isolated for years and had no idea who Evan was. He just repeated the name and let it drop.
"Do you know Madam Flora?" Evan asked curiously.
The man had been sizing Evan up, but when he heard those three words, he froze. His eyes lit up. "Her? How do you know her? She’s still alive?"
It really was him. Evan finally understood who the father of the child born from man and beast was. When Evan looked closely at the man, he felt a sense of familiarity—comparing him to people from the past, he realized the child looked just like him. So Evan asked tentatively, and the truth came out.
"She’s alive—and you two have a son," Evan said.
"What? She’s alive? And we have a son? You’re not lying to me?" The man was overwhelmed.
"I’m not lying. Look, this dagger was a gift from her." Evan took out a dagger identical to the man’s.
Seeing the dagger, the man was finally convinced. He looked at Evan with excitement and asked him to explain everything.
Evan felt the man meant no harm—he was an old friend of someone Evan respected. So Evan told him the whole story. When he explained how saving the child had earned him the dagger, the man no longer felt distant; he regarded Evan as family, and thanked him sincerely. "Thank you!"
"No need for thanks." Evan couldn’t handle the heavy atmosphere. Lauren, meanwhile, was completely drawn in by the story; she even felt as if she were right there, her eyes growing moist.
"Back then, I had two daggers. Because of them, people targeted me. In the end, I gave one to her, telling her to keep it safe as a token for our next meeting. But right after that, she got into trouble, and I was hunted too. I searched everywhere and finally ended up here," the man sighed, though the old passion in his heart was rekindled.
"So why are you trapped here?" Evan realized the man wasn’t cultivating, but stuck. Lauren had only seen the surface and thought he was training with the Godslayer Dagger, when in fact he was trying to break the invisible formation around him.
Seeing Evan had noticed, the man explained helplessly, "When I fled here, those people chased me. I tried to hide, but there was a formation here. As soon as I entered, it activated and trapped me. The others tried everything but couldn’t get me out, so they left, hoping the formation would kill me."
Evan could only say the man had terrible luck—he’d stumbled into a deadly formation, one set up in advance to trap whoever triggered it.
What’s more, Evan realized the formation was no ordinary one—it was at least above ninth grade. Otherwise, a Spirit-Wandering cultivator like this man would have broken free long ago.
"I thought Senior was cultivating," Lauren said with an awkward smile.
The man shook his head. All these years, he’d desperately wanted to break the formation, but he couldn’t get any closer—he just couldn’t destroy it.
Evan studied the formation carefully. "I’ll attack from outside, you attack from inside. Let’s try together—maybe we can break it," he said.
"I doubt it’ll work. Back then, they tried breaking it from outside to catch me, but couldn’t," the man replied, not very hopeful.
"Just because they couldn’t doesn’t mean I can’t. Do as I say," Evan insisted. He planned to force the formation open—maybe attacking from outside alone would be tough, but if the man helped from inside, their chances were much better.
Seeing Evan was determined, the man nodded. Evan then sized up the formation and told Lauren, "Step back."
Lauren quickly stepped back, stopping at a safe distance behind Evan. Evan turned to the man. "That spot—when I say so, we attack together."
The man looked at the upper right corner Evan indicated, nodded, and readied his dagger to attack.
Evan brought out three life-bound treasures. The man was shocked—he’d thought there were only two daggers in the world, but now Evan had three, and with the man’s own, there were four.
Not only was the man stunned, Lauren was shocked by Evan’s move as well.
"Stop staring—let’s begin," Evan said. He controlled the three daggers, ready to launch a combined attack. With life-bound treasures, the power was at least tripled.
Inside, the man’s attack was at least on par with a Spirit-Wandering expert. Together, they targeted the weakest spot in the formation. Evan shouted, "Break!"