The suction force was immense—Evan Chu felt it was far stronger than his own Star-Siphon Method, as if his entire being was about to be sucked into that black gourd. But the truly terrifying part was that even his soul seemed ready to be ripped from his body.
Only now did Evan realize that this so-called Immortal artifact was really just a weapon attack—except this weapon was special, controllable by Divine Sense, just like how he could control a flying sword.
Thinking of flying swords, Evan immediately released the Frostbane Sword from his hand and sent it soaring into the air with a thought. He focused all his strength on resisting the black gourd’s suction, while the Frostbane Sword swept behind the gourd, ready to attack.
When Terry Jiang saw Evan’s Frostbane Sword flying through the air, a look of surprise flashed across his face. He hadn’t expected this kid to have an Immortal artifact too, and judging by its grade, it wasn’t weak at all. If he could kill Evan, the flying sword and his storage ring would both become his. With that thought, Terry sped up his hand seals even more.
At this moment, Evan felt his body involuntarily drifting closer to the black gourd. The gourd’s mouth was small, but he was certain it could easily suck him inside. It was pure instinct—this thing was extremely dangerous.
“Tom, can you block this? That black gourd is way too bizarre.” Evan immediately called out to Tom Chu inside his storage ring.
“No problem, big bro—watch me!” Tom Chu replied. Instantly, a yellow bead appeared in Evan’s hand, and it shot into the air on its own. The bead radiated yellow light, instantly enveloping the black gourd. In the next moment, a strange phenomenon occurred: the black gourd vanished, and Evan’s Frostbane Sword disappeared along with it.
Evan hadn’t expected Tom Chu to simply drag the black gourd into his illusion space—he was instantly overjoyed. With the suction gone, he locked his cold gaze on Terry Jiang and said, “So your Immortal artifact is just so-so. If you’ve got any other tricks, bring them out!”
At this point, Evan had no more reservations about Terry Jiang. He hadn’t expected the Immortal Realm to be so tricky—weaklings could wield Immortal artifacts and instantly boost their strength by a whole realm. If he didn’t have Tom Chu, dealing with this guy would actually be tough. Too bad his Divine-Soul Slash was still incomplete; all he had was a few scattered fragments of how to use it in his mind, which was honestly frustrating.
“What kind of Immortal artifact is that? How could it make mine disappear?” Terry Jiang blurted out like an idiot—still obsessed with Evan’s artifact even now.
“You want to know? Just wait till you're dead—then I’ll be happy to tell you.” Evan didn’t hesitate any longer; he unleashed the Demon-Breaking Fist Manual. The punch now had stone-splitting, sky-shocking power, and its speed was like a bolt of lightning, instantly crashing down on Terry Jiang.
Terry never expected Evan to attack so suddenly, so he hurriedly countered with a palm strike. He’d braced himself, so the power wasn’t small. “Boom!” With a deafening crash, both were blasted apart by the rebound force. Evan was sent flying dozens of meters before steadying himself, his arm tingling slightly.
But Terry, whose arm bone had already been shattered by Evan earlier, only had one arm left to use. Evan’s punch sent him flying over a hundred meters before he could stabilize, his chest heaving, blood spurting from his mouth, his face deathly pale.
Evan wasn’t about to give his opponent a chance to breathe. With a trailing afterimage, he unleashed another Demon-Breaking Fist and appeared before Terry. That punch shattered Terry’s remaining arm bone, leaving him with no way to fight back—he could only watch helplessly as Evan’s fist slammed into him.
Terror and despair filled Terry’s eyes. He realized he couldn’t dodge this blow—no matter what direction he tried, he was trapped. The immense force of Evan’s fist enveloped his whole body, and the blazing fist-light punched straight through his chest, leaving a bowl-sized hole and even shattering his Immortal Infant.
Terry didn’t even have time to scream—he died instantly from Evan’s blow. The speed was just too fast. His eyes stared at Evan in unwillingness, but his body lost all sensation and collapsed, full of regret for the future he’d never see.
“So the Earth Immortal Realm is nothing special. Looks like your big brother isn’t much stronger either. I was going to spare you, but you just had to try and steal my storage ring—guess you really didn’t know when to quit.” Evan looked down at Terry’s corpse and said coldly.
With a thought, Evan conjured a ball of flame in his palm and waved his hand, instantly covering Terry’s corpse in fire. But as he burned the body, Evan made sure to strip off Terry’s storage ring first. The guy was probably broke, but maybe he had some basic Immortal Realm supplies.
Evan probed Terry’s storage ring with Divine Sense and found nothing but two low-grade Immortal Stones and a bunch of junk. But one piece of jade caught his eye—it was faintly glowing, clearly not ordinary.
Pulling out the jade tablet, Evan injected his Divine Sense and instantly broke into a delighted grin. The tablet was actually an overview of the Immortal Realm’s power structure. This kind of jade tablet could record all sorts of things—just input your Divine Sense to read it, way more convenient than any book.
After studying it for a while, Evan generally understood what was written. The tablet only covered the Martial Spirit Dominion’s power distribution, but even that was mind-blowing. If you thought the Godfall Battleground was big, compared to the Martial Spirit Dominion it was like a single drop of water versus a vast river—totally incomparable.
An Earth Immortal flying nonstop would need a whole year just to cross the Martial Spirit Dominion. The region had tens of thousands of cities—the smallest was as big as the entire Azure Tide Ruins, and Coldriver City was one of the tiniest. Even so, its territory still spanned tens of thousands of li. It was absolutely terrifying.
From the tablet, Evan learned that Coldriver City’s Lord was a Da Luo Golden Immortal with hundreds of Heavenly Immortal and Golden Immortal subordinates—basically a local emperor. Coldriver City had an Immortal Stone vein that produced low- and mid-grade Immortal Stones, and occasionally a few high-grade ones. It was considered a pretty decent mine.
Mining Immortal Stones was extremely difficult—the mineral was so hard that even an Earth Immortal attacking at full strength could only break off a chunk half a meter wide. If you struck too hard, you’d shatter the Immortal Stones inside. So mining could only be done slowly, by hand, and only by ordinary Immortal cultivators…