This strike, Evan Chu swung with his left hand. Even though it was his left, the attack was no weaker than his right; the wound on the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s neck widened again, and this slash accelerated its death.
Evan knew he couldn’t afford even a moment’s delay right now. His top priority was to quickly obtain the Phantasite inside this Tyrant Earthwyrm and the wooden trial tokens it had swallowed from the Ghost Clan contestants.
But the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s body was so massive that getting the Phantasite was a real challenge—Evan honestly didn’t know where to start.
"Lin Feng, for most monsters, the Phantasite is either in the heart or inside the head. It won’t be anywhere else, so if you want to get it, those are the only places to look," Luna’s sword-spirit voice sounded out.
Hearing this, Evan immediately had an idea. He figured the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s Phantasite was most likely in its head, so after giving the Frostbane Sword a shake, he brought it down in a heavy slash right on the beast’s skull. The sound of metal clashing rang in his ears.
“Damn, that’s tough. This thing’s defense really is insane—even dying, it can still take my sword head-on! Ninth-layer Divine Martial Realm beasts are no joke,” Evan exclaimed in shock.
But with the Frostbane Sword’s edge, no matter how strong the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s defenses were, it didn’t matter. Soon the blade pierced through, and with a forceful twist, Evan split the beast’s gigantic skull open with a long, deep gash.
By now, the Tyrant Earthwyrm had lost all its vitality from blood loss; its huge eyes shut, unwilling to die. Evan kept carving its skull open with the Frostbane Sword, and it took nearly half a stick of incense before he finally split the whole thing in two.
Blood and brain matter were absolutely disgusting, but Evan ignored all that. He had to find the Phantasite—if his guess was wrong, all his effort would’ve been wasted.
But the skull was so huge that even split open, searching inside was tough. After a long time with no results, Evan started doubting his own judgment.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him—why wasn’t he using his spiritual sense to search? He’d gotten so anxious he’d forgotten the obvious. Once that clicked, he immediately scanned with his spiritual sense, and within a few breaths, he found a bowl-sized Phantasite right in the center between the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s eyes—its brow.
Once Evan confirmed the spot, he immediately slashed open the brow. Sure enough, the Phantasite he’d sensed appeared exactly as expected, and he quickly stashed it in his storage belt.
“Now that’s a monster stone—this one’s worth a hundred regular pieces, easy. All that’s left are the trial tokens. Here’s hoping the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s stomach acid didn’t melt the Ghost Clan’s storage rings,” Evan laughed, feeling great after scoring the Phantasite.
He moved to the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s side and kept scanning with his spiritual sense, but he couldn’t see inside the stomach. At least he could pinpoint its location—what really blew his mind was that the beast’s stomach was the size of a house. How much did it have to eat to fill that thing?
Time was tight, so Evan used Earthsplitter to slice the body open. The Tyrant Earthwyrm’s stomach instantly spilled out a flood of foul, stinking acid, which hit the ground and started billowing white smoke. The intense corrosiveness made Evan shudder.
“With stomach acid this disgusting, I doubt there’s much hope of finding any trial tokens. Might as well give up.” Evan said helplessly. The acid was just too much—good thing he hadn’t ended up inside the beast, or the stench alone might’ve killed him before the acid did.
"You really need to leave now. Another beast just as strong as the Tyrant Earthwyrm is heading this way. There are tons of Ghost Clan contestants in the Land of the Undead—why risk your life over a few tokens? Besides, it’s only been one day. You’ve got half a month to collect a hundred trial tokens," Luna advised.
Evan agreed—Luna was absolutely right. He couldn’t just focus on what was right in front of him. Sure, leaving those tokens behind stung a little, but survival came first, especially with all the energy he’d burned killing the Tyrant Earthwyrm, and his right arm was still numb and weak.
After one last look at the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s corpse, Evan’s figure blurred and instantly shot into the sky. He’d barely flown for two minutes when another figure appeared overhead—a middle-aged man with a face so twisted it was terrifying, looking almost like a Ghost Clan member, missing pieces here and there.
He stood before the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s body for a long moment, then muttered, “Who could possibly have the strength to kill this thing? The Phantasite’s gone too. This isn’t good… Judging by the timing, the Tyrant Earthwyrm died just a few minutes ago, but the killer’s already vanished. Who was it—some random guy? But that can’t be, he doesn’t even use a sword.”
The middle-aged man waved his hand, sending out a red flame that struck the Tyrant Earthwyrm’s corpse. Instantly, the massive body was engulfed in fire, and in no time, it burned to ashes—proof of just how fierce this man’s flames were.
Evan had no idea what the middle-aged man was doing at that moment. If he’d known, it would’ve scared him silly—the man was actually a real human.
Evan kept flying and only slowed down after he’d escaped thousands of miles away, finally stopping atop a mountain peak. The air was chilly here, and snowflakes drifted down from the sky now and then.
After picking a hidden spot, Evan took out a Starstone and started absorbing its energy. Restoring Chaos Dragon Force was his top priority—without power, even a hundred trial tokens would be worthless.
A day later, Evan had restored his Chaos Dragon Force, and the aftereffects from using Unicorn Arm had mostly faded. He glanced at the distant sky, then stood up straight.
This chapter isn’t over yet~.~ Click next page to keep reading!
"There shouldn’t be any monsters around here, right? The Land of the Undead really is huge—I didn’t run into a single Ghost Clan contestant while flying all this way. Guess I’ll have to search slowly if I want to get a hundred trial tokens," Evan muttered to himself.
"How do you know there aren’t any monsters here? There’s a cave just a few hundred meters away, and it’s crawling with monsters. Most are low-level Ice Wraiths—a type of Shade Clan creature. You’ll probably get a good haul of Phantasite this time. Your luck’s not bad at all," Luna said.
"Shade Clan? Ice Wraiths? Luna, I really don’t know the first thing about the monsters here. Didn’t you say all five major races live in this place? If a human shows up, does that mean they’re a monster too—and if I kill them, will they drop Phantasite? What’s really going on here?" Evan asked, voicing his doubts.
"Actually, even if you hadn’t asked, I was going to explain. The Land of the Undead is a cursed place. It used to be home to normal members of all five major races, but a long time ago, an ancient curse changed everything. Every resident here was cursed by an invisible force."
The cursed residents turned into different monsters based on their strength. When they die, some drop Phantasite, and they need Phantasite to get stronger too. So Phantasite is the energy they crave most.
It’s just like how you need Starstones for cultivation—the stronger the monster, the higher-grade the Phantasite inside. But leveling up is that much harder too,” Luna explained.
Even with Luna’s explanation, Evan still didn’t get it—why had the curse appeared, who could wield such power, and most of all, why did the Ghost Clan set this trial here? How could people be teleported out after a set time, and why couldn’t the monsters leave?
Despite his doubts, hearing Luna say there were plenty of Ice Wraiths nearby—and lots of Phantasite to be had—made Evan eager. He spread out his spiritual sense, and sure enough, soon found a cave halfway up the mountain.
Sneaking up to the cave entrance, Evan peeked inside—and was left speechless. The cavern was huge, many times bigger than the Frostbane Sect’s underground chamber; it looked like the Ice Wraiths’ nest, with hundreds of humanoid giants quietly standing inside.
Their bodies were completely transparent, and each one held a single-bladed axe. Evan could tell at a glance that both the axes and the giants themselves were made of Mystic Ice.
“No way, are these Mystic Ice Giants? Ice monsters? That’s wild—the so-called Shade Clan looks like this? Their whole bodies are transparent, so where do they keep their Phantasite?” Evan muttered to himself.
Maybe Evan’s voice was too loud, because a few Mystic Ice Giants suddenly rushed out, floating in midair and staring at him without attacking. Clearly, they were just as curious about Evan as he was about them—maybe they even saw him as a monster too.
Suddenly, one of the Mystic Ice Giants opened its mouth and let out a sound Evan couldn’t understand. Instantly, the whole cave erupted as the giants swarmed out like a hive of bees.
They started whispering among themselves, barely paying Evan any mind. Just then, a giant twice the size of the others suddenly raised its ice axe and charged at Evan, its speed so fast it was on him in an instant.
"Seriously? I didn’t attack you, but you’re coming at me like I’m easy prey!" Evan grumbled, swinging his Frostblade Sword and unleashing Earthsplitter with all his might…