Joe Di, who had originally planned to flee, stopped once again. He no longer cared about the Rift Dao Token—after all, he already possessed one. But this token absolutely could not fall into Quinn Yan's hands. If Quinn Yan obtained it, he could leave at any moment.
While Joe Di might not be famous, anyone in the Five Elements Universe would recognize his name if asked. The key point was that he had a base to defend.
An enemy's enemy isn't necessarily a friend, but Joe Di decided to intervene and help Benjamin Edge this time.
It didn't matter how many people were attacking, or how many trap and killing arrays they set up—even if Quinn Yan alone was present, Benjamin Edge would still be hard pressed to escape unscathed today.
Benjamin Edge understood well that breaking out of this place and fleeing into the void was impossible. Retreating—plunging deeper into the Chaotic Continent—offered a slim chance, but even that was nearly impossible.
Even knowing his chance was infinitesimal, Benjamin Edge still turned and charged back, making a desperate bid for survival.
For newcomers like Joe Di and Sawyer Walker, the Chaotic Continent was a place where evading Quinn Yan was exceedingly difficult—once inside, hiding from him was nearly impossible.
But for Benjamin Edge, he had plenty of ways to avoid Quinn Yan. His time living here was at least as long as Quinn Yan's. The real issue wasn't evasion—it was that he was now trapped, unable to advance or retreat.
Now, Benjamin Edge was trapped within a deadly array, unable to escape.
Joe Di sensed Benjamin Edge turning to tear open the deadly array, and breathed a sigh of relief. If Benjamin Edge had insisted on charging straight out, Joe Di truly couldn't have helped him—and even if he could, he wouldn't. If he helped Quinn Yan tear open the array and escape this part of the continent into the vast void, Joe Di would be doomed.
Because at that moment, he would have no way to evade Quinn Yan.
Now that Benjamin Edge was trying to charge back into the Chaotic Continent, Joe Di had a way. As Benjamin Edge reached the edge of the trap array and raised his hand to tear through, Joe Di wrapped himself around a key rule within the deadly array. He cultivated the Dao of Rules, and his mastery of arrays was no less than Quinn Yan's. Years of encountering various arrays had made his array skills even stronger than Quinn Yan's.
Benjamin Edge easily ripped open a gap. He froze—was this deadly array a fake? Then he realized, real or fake, now that the array was torn open, his first priority was to escape.
As for the trigger array behind the deadly array, he couldn't be bothered to care.
Without hesitation, Joe Di followed Benjamin Edge out. After sprinting a hundred miles, Joe Di dropped to the ground and transformed into a small stone using his Earthshade Mirage technique. At this moment, if he used his Lawstride concealment, he could vanish instantly, and even Quinn Yan wouldn't be able to catch him.
But Joe Di dared not take that risk. Sawyer Walker had warned him that Quinn Yan could once catch the Dao traces of their escape. Quinn Yan was terrifying—no matter how fast Joe Di fled, Quinn Yan could sense spatial changes. Any hint of movement, and Quinn Yan would know Joe Di had entered, and even helped Benjamin Edge.
Benjamin Edge could escape freely here, but Joe Di could not. He was unfamiliar with this place, and any spot could expose him.
If Sawyer Walker knew that instead of running, Joe Di transformed into a stone, she would surely call him crazy. In her eyes, Earthshade Mirage was riddled with flaws. This stone looked ordinary enough, but to a true expert, it stood out like a beacon.
But Joe Di was different. Earthshade Mirage, in Sawyer Walker's hands, was indeed full of weaknesses. In Joe Di's hands, the technique had already been perfected. Now, his stone was indistinguishable from the others—not only in appearance, but also in the rules of heaven and earth. This method of transformation was far safer than fleeing outright.
As Benjamin Edge raised his hand to tear open the deadly array, Quinn Yan sneered inwardly. He knew Benjamin Edge's array skills well—breaking through Quinn Yan's deadly array was a pipe dream. At least for the next ten breaths, Benjamin Edge had no hope. In ten breaths, Quinn Yan could trap him twenty more times, or kill him five times over.
So when Benjamin Edge tore open the deadly array, Quinn Yan didn't strike immediately. Instead, he focused his divine sense, preparing to eliminate Benjamin Edge in one blow. What he didn't expect was that as soon as his divine sense surged forth, Benjamin Edge ripped open the array and escaped—it was simply...
Quinn Yan was nearly driven mad. He didn't hesitate to rush out through the breach Benjamin Edge had torn in the array, determined that Benjamin Edge could not escape right under his nose—he refused to let him slip away.
"Damn!" What infuriated Quinn Yan even more was that he was actually blocked by his own trap array. The gap Benjamin Edge had torn open had vanished into thin air. It was as if Benjamin Edge had never broken through the array at all, simply slipping away into the void.
How could this be? Quinn Yan, furious, punched the array, shattering it into pieces. By the time he broke through, Benjamin Edge had already vanished without a trace.
Though only a few breaths had passed, it was more than enough time for Benjamin Edge to disappear completely.
Quinn Yan didn't pursue Benjamin Edge. Instead, he turned to the dozen or so Harmonization Realm experts and commanded, "Seal off this area immediately. Someone definitely helped Benjamin Edge—otherwise, he couldn't have torn open my array."
Quinn Yan knew exactly how skilled Benjamin Edge was with arrays. If he said Benjamin Edge couldn't tear open his deadly array, then Benjamin Edge simply couldn't do it.
"Dao Master, even if someone helped Benjamin Edge, maybe they escaped together," a cautious white-haired cultivator suggested.
Quinn Yan waved his hand. "Impossible. I've already locked down this space. Aside from the spatial ripples caused by Benjamin Edge's escape, there hasn't been a second disturbance. If there were, I would have noticed immediately."
Quinn Yan was proud, and he had every reason to be. He was certain that only Benjamin Edge had escaped. Although the spatial rules behind Benjamin Edge shifted greatly as he fled, it was only within a small area. As for the fluctuations in the array's rules, that was normal—Benjamin Edge tore open the array, so of course its rules would ripple. What Quinn Yan didn't know was that within those ripples, one abnormal rule had slipped by unnoticed.
A hundred-mile radius was sealed off by Quinn Yan, who unleashed a top-tier flame to scour the area. The space echoed with crackling sounds as all sorts of arrays and even the cosmic rules themselves were burned, leaving scars in their wake.
At that moment, Joe Di was secretly alarmed. He realized he had made a mistake—he should have followed Benjamin Edge and only stopped after passing beyond the hundred-mile boundary. Now, he was almost at the edge of Quinn Yan's sealed space. If Quinn Yan extended the seal a bit further, Joe Di would be caught within it.
Quinn Yan's flames were truly terrifying, but Joe Di wasn't worried. At worst, he would let these flames burn him. As long as he could blend his own efforts with the cosmic rules around him, Quinn Yan wouldn't discover him. But Sawyer Walker was another story—Joe Di couldn't guarantee that Sawyer Walker wouldn't leave traces if she tried to escape.
Who knew, Sawyer Walker might even think Joe Di was trying to refine his Dao trace, causing such a commotion. If Sawyer Walker became suspicious and acted out of turn, Quinn Yan would surely discover them. Even if Sawyer Walker managed to stay hidden, being caught in the flames was still perilous—any slight fluctuation in rules would expose them to Quinn Yan.
After more than half a stick of incense's time, Quinn Yan withdrew the flames, his face as dark as ink. He was now certain—there was no one left in this space. This proved that when Benjamin Edge escaped, he had no help; he must have been hiding his true strength all along.
"Dao Master, it seems Benjamin Edge must have concealed his strength and revealed it only now," said the shadowy woman beside Quinn Yan.
Quinn Yan nodded. "I underestimated him. Fortunately, we kept him here and didn't let him escape. He's far too cunning—if he got out, he'd be a great disaster in the future. Xuan Qiao, activate the continent's defensive array immediately, and don't open the formation until we've captured Benjamin Edge. Qi Chen, go explain the activation to the others."
(End of today's update. Good night, friends!)