Evan Yang was the first of the eight participants to enter the Ninth Layer.
The Ninth Layer was desolate, with endless desert stretching as far as the eye could see. Divine sense was heavily restricted. Evan composed himself, determined to reach the highest layer possible—he wanted to find out what awaited on the Twentieth Layer.
With the help of Phantom Spirit Birds, Evan crossed the desert. Just as he thought he was close to the end, a sudden sandstorm erupted—strong enough to tear apart even a peak Emperor.
Facing this, Evan didn’t hesitate—he immediately dove deep beneath the desert.
The desert was deep. Evan kept burrowing downward as far as he could, only stopping when he felt he’d gone deep enough. Even then, he could still sense the tremors above.
Those tremors were terrifying—one could imagine how dreadful it must feel to be caught above.
Only after the tremors finally faded did Evan slowly come up from underground. Once he emerged, he found the surroundings in chaos: what had once been sand and stone was now reduced to scattered fragments of shattered rock.
“Is everything underground just stone? All broken?” Evan realized these fragments had been swept up from below.
At first, Evan wasn’t interested in the rocks. But when he saw that some had words carved into them, he frowned.
He gathered all the inscribed stones from the area and pieced them together, finding a broken message. The gist was clear: someone had been trapped somewhere on the Ninth Layer, unable to escape, so they carved words onto the stone walls.
But most importantly, the words carved on the stone wall were from ages ago—no one knew if the trapped person ever escaped.
Originally, this wasn’t enough to interest Evan, but a few words caught his eye: 'Earth‑Rock Aegis, said to be the strongest armor, formed from earth‑attribute power. At peak mastery, it can withstand a strike from an Immortal Sovereign.'
This instantly made Evan eager to find any cultivation method related to the Earth‑Rock Aegis.
'The Ninth Layer isn’t that big—if I spend a few years, I should be able to search it all,' Evan muttered to himself. He composed himself and began searching underground, determined to investigate every possible location.
If there were stone walls, there must be tunnels; if there were tunnels, there might be an underground palace. To find it, Evan would have to comb through the entire Ninth Layer.
So Evan acted at once. He lacked a defensive cultivation method, and if the Earth‑Rock Aegis was truly as powerful as described, even decades of searching would be worthwhile.
And so, Evan spent many years searching the Ninth Layer.
One day, three figures appeared in the desert—they were the three Earth Temple youths.
One of them asked, 'Is what the Palace Lord said really true?'
'You mean the Earth‑Rock Aegis cultivation art?' another replied.
The third remained silent while the other two argued. Finally, he said, 'Shawn, Jun, stop debating. Since our master mentioned it, it must be true.'
'Let’s just listen to Wayne,' Shawn replied.
Wayne Lan, their leader, spoke: 'Earth‑Rock Aegis was originally the Earth Temple’s palace‑suppressing treasure, but it was taken away by a powerful expert and left somewhere in the Twenty Layers. No one knows if the legend is true, but since we’re here, let’s search thoroughly—every layer could hold clues.'
'Alright,' Shawn nodded.
The three composed themselves and began searching the desert for clues.
'Look over there!' Jun pointed at a pile of stones left by a predecessor.
The other two went over and found many stone piles. They walked closer and saw some stones had words carved on them, though the inscriptions were fragmentary.
Most importantly, the words 'Earth‑Rock Aegis' appeared among the inscriptions.
Seeing those words, all three immediately thought of what the Palace Lord had said. After exchanging glances, they resolved to search the entire Ninth Layer.
Meanwhile, Evan spent several more years and finally discovered a tunnel. Formations covered its entrance—easy to enter, but hard to leave.
Evan wasn’t in a hurry to leave now. He was searching inside the tunnel and eventually found a pile of sand, likely from a collapse. Nearby, some stones had been swept away—similar to the ones Evan had picked up before.
After clearing the sand, Evan saw that the formation covering the broken opening had vanished, as if it had been forcibly destroyed.
'It was probably swept away by the sandstorm,' Evan muttered, then continued examining the remaining stone walls, hoping for clues.
He found more inscriptions on the stone walls: someone had been trapped here, and had come seeking the Earth‑Rock Aegis cultivation art. The record stated that a powerful expert had taken the art and was heading to the Fifteenth Layer in search of something else.
The gist was that the trapped person came here to pursue that expert and learn Earth‑Rock Aegis, but lacked strength and became imprisoned. The news about the Fifteenth Layer was overheard by chance from the expert’s conversation with others.
'Spent years, only to get this kind of news,' Evan muttered. Still, he calmed himself—though he hadn’t gained much, it seemed the Earth‑Rock Aegis might be on the Fifteenth Layer, or perhaps the expert had already left.
Thinking of this, Evan sighed, 'Looks like my fate with it hasn’t arrived yet.'
Not having found the Earth‑Rock Aegis, Evan composed himself and prepared to move on, keeping the matter firmly in mind.
As for Shawn, Wayne, and Jun, they were traveling and happened to see Evan walking ahead. Evan noticed them as well.
'Didn’t expect you three to come here as well,' Evan said. He knew this wasn’t the way to the layer’s entrance, so their presence meant they were searching for something too.