Even with Goldwing's speed, it still took several days to reach Dead Lake. When they passed over the Golden-Winged Roc clan, they didn’t stop either; Evan asked Goldwing’s opinion first, since Goldwing was now the king of the Golden-Winged Rocs.
Maybe after spending so much time with Evan, Goldwing didn’t care about being king anymore. He just wanted to be a hands-off boss, totally uninterested in managing clan affairs—freedom and leisure were what he enjoyed most.
When they arrived at Dead Lake, Evan and Jade dismounted from Goldwing’s back. Staring at the black water, Evan said, “Jade, the Netherworld entrance should be right below. Do we need to use a powerful attack to break through later?”
“Probably not. Let’s go down and see first, then adapt as needed,” Jade replied.
Evan activated Watershift and slipped into Dead Lake, while Jade wrapped herself in an energy barrier and followed him underwater. The water level had dropped a lot since their battle with the Dark Abyssal Kraken.
Evan spread his divine sense and instantly found the location of his golden body clone. “Jade, let’s go!”
He flashed forward and quickly reached the hidden undercurrent, then dove straight in. Soon he arrived where his golden body was standing. After reclaiming it, Evan glanced at the stone wall ahead and said:
“This stone wall should be the Netherworld entrance. The Darkfruit grew here last time, so I’m pretty sure this is the spot.”
Jade studied the stone wall closely and said, “This really is the Netherworld entrance. I can clearly sense Nether qi leaking through. But once this entrance is opened, it can’t be closed again—at any time, Netherworld experts could come through into the Immortal Realm.
That’s extremely dangerous, especially if you’re not at Frostbane Imperial Palace. If a top-tier expert shows up, it could be catastrophic for the palace.”
Evan frowned slightly. “So what can we do? Aren’t you a master at setting up barriers? Just lay down a stronger one later to block Netherworld experts from coming through. I doubt most Netherworld powerhouses even know this is an entrance—we’re probably just overthinking it.”
He sent a burst of sword-qi from his fingertip straight at the stone wall. With Evan’s current attack power, he could shatter metal or rock, but this time nothing happened at all, leaving him speechless.
“This stone wall is ridiculously tough. Looks like breaking into the Netherworld entrance won’t be easy,” Evan muttered.
“Young Master, of course the entrance is protected by a barrier—an invisible one, in fact. You have to break the barrier first before you can open the gate. It’s not as simple as you think. Why do you think the Dark Abyssal Kraken guarded this place for tens of thousands of years?” Jade said.
Evan realized Jade was right, so he drew the Frostbane Divine Sword and unleashed Star-Cleave. The massive sword-qi slammed into the stone wall, but this time he clearly felt a powerful rebound force that knocked him back several steps before he could steady himself.
He knew exactly how strong Star-Cleave was, and his face darkened. “Am I really going to need Divine Cleave to break this barrier? If I do, won’t I just wreck the entrance and let Netherworld invaders pour through? What the hell am I supposed to do?” Evan grumbled.
“Brute force won’t work. First, check what elements make up the barrier. Nobody matches your mastery of elements—if you analyze it properly, breaking it should be easy. You’re just rushing things,” Jade said.
Evan felt embarrassed—how could he miss something so basic? He extended his divine sense and started analyzing the barrier’s elemental composition.
After a moment, Evan said, “So the barrier’s made of dark element and water element. I know how to break it now.”
He immediately summoned light element and sent it into the barrier. Light and darkness counter each other—once the dark element was cleared away, he could use Heavenfire to burn through the water element and finish the job.
Time passed slowly as Evan burned through a lot of light-element power. The barrier started to change: the dark element visibly faded away, and seeing that, he unleashed Heavenfire. The air was instantly filled with crackling sounds.
He broke open a barrier entrance over a meter wide, revealing the true face of the stone wall inside—and a surge of Nether qi rushed out to greet them.
Evan wielded the Frostbane Divine Sword and used Star-Cleave again, this time smashing the stone wall to pieces and leaving a massive tunnel before him.
“Jade, it’s open! Let’s go in!” Evan said with a happy grin.
Without hesitation, the two of them entered the tunnel. A huge pulling force swept through the cave, and after just a few breaths, they found themselves in another world.
Evan checked out the exit and said to Jade, “Jade, it’s your show now. I’m clueless about setting up barriers.”
“Don’t worry, Young Master. My barriers are top-notch—even Immortal Emperors would struggle to break through, and that’s if they even find the entrance in the first place,” Jade replied.
Evan waited quietly while Jade took out several top-grade Immortal Stones from her storage ring, burying them at different spots. She also buried a few weapons in the soil.
Evan realized Jade was setting up not a barrier, but a formation—an invisible array that nobody could detect. With it, there’d be no need to worry about anyone finding the entrance, and breaking through would be extremely difficult.
After nearly two hours, Jade finally finished, drenched in sweat.
She looked at Evan and smiled. “Young Master, it’s done. What I set up is an array called the Hidden-Oblivion Array. Even if you walk right into it, you won’t find the entrance, because inside it’s a completely different environment. But once you’re inside, you can exit easily.
If someone does sense the array and tries to break it, they’ll trigger a deadly attack. Even late-stage Immortal Emperors would have a nine-in-ten chance of dying, but the array can only strike once.
If the first intruder dies and someone else enters later, the array loses its offensive power and the entrance becomes exposed. So, it has its pros and cons.”
“Enough with the hypotheticals! With a formation this clever, even Netherworld experts probably won’t figure it out. We’ve officially entered the Netherworld now—maybe this is the start of another epic journey,” Evan laughed.
Jade glanced at the dark-red sky and said, “After all these years, the Netherworld must have countless experts. Young Master, you need to stay cautious—there’s always someone stronger out there, so don’t get careless.”
“Got it. Let’s go!” Evan said. The two of them soared into the sky, heading toward an unknown Netherworld city…