Inside the Timewheel Bracelet, Evan Chu found himself stuck at a bottleneck. He had just twenty years left to train, but his mastery of Divine Cleave wasn’t enough, and he couldn’t find any breakthrough in the spatial domain. Borrowing the power of heaven and earth was off the table since he couldn’t go outside. All he could do was sigh in frustration.
Staring at the thick Immortal Essence swirling inside the Timewheel Bracelet, Evan let out a long, heavy breath. "Looks like I’ll have to create another Golden Body. For now, I should focus on pushing Watershift to the second layer first!"
After pacing around the Timewheel Bracelet, Evan found a quiet spot to sit down. He pulled out the Waterglass Crystal he’d snatched at the auction from his storage ring and began absorbing its power. With his experience advancing Fireshift and Earthshift, leveling up Watershift felt almost effortless.
Water element surged into his body, slowly transforming his old water molecules into a higher grade. This time, breaking through to the second layer of Watershift took way less time than before.
Now, Evan could instantly conjure solid Mystic Ice in his palm. With a casual strike, he could freeze everything within hundreds of meters—way stronger than Ice Empress Serena Frost’s ice-sealing technique. And this was just the second layer!
If he could absorb the insane energy packed inside the Ice-Spirit Fruit and break through the final layer, perfecting Watershift... Evan couldn’t even imagine how terrifying that power would be.
Opening his eyes, Evan returned to where the Immortal Crystal was. Jade Chu was still cultivating, but what really bugged Evan was that he couldn’t see through this girl’s cultivation level at all. It made no sense!
But just as Evan walked up to Jade Chu, she woke up, glanced at him, and grinned. "Big bro, there’s not much time left. We should head out soon, before anything unexpected happens."
"That’s exactly what I was thinking. Once we get the Ice-Fire Spirit Fruit Pair, we’ll come back in here to train." Evan nodded, then gave a quick word to the Immortal Crystal’s spirit before leaving the Timewheel Bracelet with Jade Chu.
"Big bro, you’re finally out! The Fire-Spirit Fruit’s fully ripe now. If you’d waited another ten days, you would’ve missed it. I’ve been seriously worried about you guys, but I couldn’t get into the Timewheel Bracelet to tell you—almost drove me crazy!" Tom Chu blurted out, sounding totally relieved.
"Thanks for all your help, Tom. Big bro’s going to grab that Fire-Spirit Fruit now—let’s hope I can pull this off without a hitch." Evan said, sounding both hopeful and determined.
Now that he’d broken through to the early Ninth-Heaven Arch-Immortal Realm, Evan was shocked to find he could withstand the heat of the earthfire without even using Earthshift or Fireshift. The difference from his last realm was insane!
What Evan didn’t realize was, with his physique, breaking into Ninth-Heaven Arch-Immortal was almost like other people reaching Immortal Lord level. An Immortal Lord could handle this heat easily, but even so, the Heavenfire around the Fire-Spirit Fruit was a whole different beast—something even Immortal Emperors would fear.
"Be careful, big bro. Tom and I can’t help you here. The Heavenfire on that Fire-Spirit Fruit is way out of our league—this is all on you." Jade Chu said, her voice tense but supportive.
Evan grinned, "Just wait here for me—I know I can do this."
He immediately activated Earthshift and Fireshift, then pulled out the Frostblade. No way was he going to grab that Fire-Spirit Fruit bare-handed—the Heavenfire was brutal, and getting burned here would be a nightmare.
The closer he got to the Fire-Spirit Fruit, the hotter it became. Evan could feel his earth-element defense silently crumbling away. By the time he was five meters out, Earthshift was useless—the stone around him had already melted into magma. That’s how insane the heat was.
Sweat barely formed before it evaporated instantly. Evan felt like his whole body was on fire, every inch burning, but he still managed to hold out. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself another two meters forward before stopping again.
Right now, it felt like every breath he took was pure flame. His whole body was screaming, his organs felt like they were roasting alive. And this was with Fireshift activated—without it, he’d be dead for sure.
Just two more meters—if he could push forward, the Fire-Spirit Fruit would be his. But every step was torture, the burning pain cut right to the bone. Evan had survived all kinds of agony before, but even he was starting to reach his limit.
With the Fire-Spirit Fruit right in front of him, Evan refused to give up. Memories of Luna Xuan suffering in Solarion Palace and the humiliation from Skyshade Hall stabbed at his heart. Suddenly, he roared, "My fate is mine, not Heaven’s!"
Chaos Immortal Force surged to the max inside him, and a thunderous dragon’s roar burst from Evan’s mouth. He forced himself forward two more meters—now the flaming tree was right in front of him, three blazing red fruits shining with blinding white light.
The heat was enough to burn Evan to ashes at any moment, but he gritted his teeth and endured. With the Frostblade, he slashed at the Fire-Spirit Fruit, then unleashed his Star-Absorption Technique and sucked hard—the whole thing was over in a blink.
His sword strike knocked down two Fire-Spirit Fruits. As they landed beside him, Evan could feel his life force draining fast. Instantly, he stashed them in his storage ring, then blasted himself backward to escape.
After just a few breaths, Evan staggered back to Jade Chu and Tom Chu, managed a weak smile, and passed out cold. Honestly, he looked less like a person and more like a lump of charcoal.
If he’d stuck around for a few breaths longer, the Heavenfire would’ve turned him to dust. Even with his Fivefold Element-Shift undying technique, if he was burned to ashes, there’d be no coming back. He’d really been gambling with his life—almost lost it, too.
Evan’s critical state scared Jade Chu and Tom Chu out of their minds. It was rare for him to get hurt this badly—his muscles were completely scorched, and the air reeked of burnt flesh.
"Sis Jade, is big bro gonna be okay? He’s never been this messed up before—scared me half to death!" Tom Chu cried.
"He’ll be fine, look—his body’s healing super fast! Go check on the Ice-Spirit Fruit. If it’s ripe, it’ll drop, and if it hits the ground, it’ll vanish. If that happens, big bro won’t get it!" Jade Chu urged.
Tom Chu dashed off. Evan felt like he’d just walked through hell—his whole body was screaming in pain, but his mind was clear, even if he couldn’t open his eyes. He could sense Wood element frantically repairing his wrecked body.