Evan Yang had never seen anyone's strength raised so rapidly—especially a mortal who had never cultivated qi, yet was suddenly at the Nascent Soul Realm. While the Nascent Soul Realm was nothing in front of Spirit‑Wandering masters, out in the world, back in the day, Evan himself caused plenty of trouble at Nascent Soul.
But what came next made Evan even more convinced that the qi here was extraordinary.
"Here, you can casually raise someone to a higher realm. I was only worried she couldn't handle it all at once, so I just brought her up to Nascent Soul first," Mad Wolf said.
Evan knew anything gained quickly came with a price. The reason Minnie Dale's cultivation jumped straight to Nascent Soul was because of this place.
So Evan and Lana Situ closed their eyes to sense the special qi here, while Mad Wolf sat nearby, eyes shut, recovering his spiritual power.
All four of them closed their eyes tightly.
One month, two months, three months—here, you couldn't feel time passing at all. Only after two years did Mad Wolf wake up, finding that everyone but Evan was already awake.
Minnie, newly empowered, was playing around out of curiosity. Lana's realm hadn't changed, but her temperament had—she seemed to have a deeper sense of her future path.
As for Evan, he was trapped in a dream. For two years, he lived inside it, as if reliving his life from the beginning: his mother's sudden departure, joining the Rising Sun Sect, meeting the woman sealed in ice, receiving the Heaven‑Cold Seed, and forging ahead step by step.
It felt like his whole life was playing out right before his eyes.
"Why cultivate immortality?" That question kept flashing through Evan's mind. Every time he killed someone in the dream, he felt another life weighing on his hands.
Evan couldn't even remember how many he'd killed—or how many had died trying to kill him.
A brief twenty years felt as long as centuries. In the end, Evan reached a dream he'd never had before: in it, he was killed by those aloof Spirit‑Wandering masters.
Faced with this ending, Evan refused to accept it. With a long roar, he jolted awake—everyone around him stared in shock.
"Hoo..." Evan took a deep breath, feeling as if he'd just lived through a long, drawn‑out dream. The moment of his murder lingered in his mind, impossible to shake.
"Are you alright?" Lana Situ asked, worried, seeing Evan drenched in sweat.
Evan shook his head. "I'm fine."
Mad Wolf, however, congratulated him. "Congratulations."
"Congratulations?" Evan didn't understand why Mad Wolf was congratulating him.
Lana, hearing Mad Wolf's words, instinctively looked closely—she realized she couldn't see through Evan's cultivation anymore. That meant he'd broken through.
Because Evan had still been trapped in the dream, it was only after waking that he realized his cultivation had truly advanced—and not just by a little. He'd actually reached late‑stage Soul‑Forming.
Old Clam was shocked too—he hadn't expected Evan to leap two minor stages and catch up with him.
"What the..." Evan was baffled—he'd spent two years in a dream, gained sudden enlightenment, and somehow jumped two minor realms.
"I can't believe you managed enlightenment here—in just two years! If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't believe it," Mad Wolf admitted, impressed by Evan's comprehension.
Evan himself had no idea how it happened. Mostly, it was because of the dream—he'd spent two years reviewing his past, and at the end, that fierce unwillingness pushed him forward in one leap. Plus, the residual energy from the poison core he'd absorbed in Shadowhand Guild, still lingering on his Heaven‑Cold Seed, also kicked in, letting him smoothly break through to late‑stage Soul‑Forming.
"This place really is something else." Evan stood up, smiling with a joy he couldn't quite describe. Beside him, Minnie Dale, now a bit taller, giggled, "Big brother, I can use spells now too!"
"Yeah, you're awesome," Evan laughed.
Minnie was delighted by Evan's praise, bouncing around happily nearby.
Mad Wolf and the others were infected by Minnie's cheerful mood and couldn't help but smile too.
Finally, Evan smiled and asked, "Senior, is your true body trapped in the Death Crystal Field?"
Mad Wolf, who had been all smiles, suddenly grew serious. "How did you know?"
"I heard it from a snow beast, so I wanted to ask you personally," Evan replied, curious.
"Yeah, that's right. My true body really is there," Mad Wolf nodded.
"Still cultivating?" Evan was surprised to confirm that Mad Wolf's true body was inside.
"Of course—cultivating and seeking enlightenment. But it's been over a thousand years, and I still haven't made much progress," Mad Wolf said helplessly.
"Can you really reach a higher realm there?" Evan asked curiously.
"No idea. But every Spirit‑Wandering master wants to go there at least once. Back then, I wanted to get stronger, so I sent my true body in. But once I went, I couldn't come back. Even now, I still can't get out," Mad Wolf said with an awkward smile.
"Can't come back?" Evan asked, surprised.
"Yeah. The Death Crystal Field is a strange place—especially the inner region. Once you're in, it's easy to get lost. I've been stuck there for over a thousand years, and I'm still there now," Mad Wolf sighed.
"Maybe it's a bewildering array—or more likely, an Immortal‑grade array. If it can trap Spirit‑Wandering masters, no ordinary formation could do that. Only an Immortal array would have that kind of power," Evan thought.
"That's right. Everyone says the Death Crystal Field is full of Immortal arrays, and the one I stumbled into must have been one of them," Mad Wolf replied, nodding.
"When did these Immortal arrays first appear?" Evan was curious—the Shadowhand Guild's Immortal array had been found by chance, but how did the ones in the Death Crystal Field come about?
Everyone said immortals were elusive, but why were Immortal arrays so widely recognized—and why did everyone call them Immortal arrays?
"No idea. Maybe they've been here since ancient times," Mad Wolf admitted, not knowing much about the Death Crystal Field.
"Looks like it's a mystery," Evan muttered.
"You're not alone—most Spirit‑Wandering masters don't know what that place really is. All they know is, cultivation there is much faster than anywhere else," Mad Wolf agreed.
Evan nodded, then remembered something else. He asked curiously, "Senior, is there an ice coffin in a cave under this lake?"
"Ice coffin?" Mad Wolf muttered, then suddenly seemed to recall something and exclaimed, "How do you know about that?"
"Before I came here, Tusktiger led me inside," Evan explained.
"So that's why," Mad Wolf said in surprise.
"What's that place?" Evan was curious about the identity of the woman inside.
"That's the Snow Wraith—a woman whose strength is about the same as mine, late‑stage Spirit‑Wandering. Her cave can extend lifespan, and she's terrified of aging, so she sealed herself in an ice coffin, hoping one day to break through to a higher realm and live longer," Mad Wolf explained.
"Snow Wraith?" Evan found the name odd.
"As for Tusktiger, he's naturally obsessed with stealing others' power. He uses his cultivation art to absorb people's strength, so he's always pestering us. But he never entered the Snow Wraith's cave—we figure he's afraid of whoever's inside," Mad Wolf said.
"Then why did he lead me in there?" Evan still didn't understand Tusktiger's motives.
"Let me think..." Mad Wolf pondered for a while, then said uncertainly, "Maybe he used you to break the barrier inside?"
"Break the barrier inside?" Evan didn't get it.
"Come on, let's check it out." Sensing trouble, Mad Wolf quickly led Evan and the others away, heading for the first cave.
When they arrived, they found the cave partially collapsed, but there was still an opening to go down.
"Looks like he really did use you," Mad Wolf exclaimed.
"What's wrong?"
"There was a restriction here that only affected us beasts. Tusktiger and I are both snow beasts, so we couldn't enter. But you're human—and so is the Snow Wraith—so you could go in. She didn't attack you, and the restriction was broken," Mad Wolf explained.
"Seriously?" Evan looked at the half‑destroyed cave, feeling a surge of resentment—he'd clearly been used.
They hurried after Mad Wolf and rushed below, arriving outside the space with the ice coffin—just in time to see a phantom figure standing before it, locked in a struggle.
"Who?!" Tusktiger hadn't expected anyone to show up and cried out in alarm.
"Tusktiger, you despicable coward!" Mad Wolf shouted, seeing Tusktiger contending with the ice coffin's owner.
"Mad Wolf, you'd better stay out of my business!" Tusktiger hadn't expected his rival to appear. He'd finally gotten in and was about to absorb the woman's spiritual power, which would greatly boost his own cultivation.
"The four of us agreed long ago not to attack each other. You tried to take me out two years ago, and now you're after the Snow Wraith. And you still want me to stay out of it?" Mad Wolf said angrily.
"You—!" Tusktiger knew he was in the wrong. If he kept arguing with Mad Wolf, he'd lose, so he looked around, planning to escape when he got the chance.
The woman in the ice coffin wouldn't come out—not just Tusktiger, but even Mad Wolf knew that. The Snow Wraith's power was limited to this place. If Tusktiger got outside, he could fight Mad Wolf one‑on‑one. But here, he'd have to face two masters at once.
So Mad Wolf didn't want Tusktiger to escape—he blocked the exit, even forcing Tusktiger back inside.
"Damn it!" Tusktiger hadn't expected Mad Wolf to block the entrance, and Evan, Lana, and the others were right behind him.
Forced back, Tusktiger now faced being surrounded by two Spirit‑Wandering masters.
"You can't kill me!" This was just a spirit projection of Tusktiger, not his true body, so he couldn't be killed.
"Can't kill you? But we can still seriously injure you!" Mad Wolf knew well enough—at the Spirit‑Wandering level, a group of masters could at most injure someone of equal realm.
After all, the Spirit‑Wandering Realm wasn't like other realms—you couldn't just wipe someone out at will.