Selena Yale suddenly opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by pitch darkness, as if she’d been buried alive—earth pressed in on all sides. Unable to help herself, she asked, "Evan, where are we? Why is there dirt everywhere?"
Being able to talk while buried in the earth—well, that was just another sign of Evan Chu’s power after his recent breakthrough with Earthshift. He’d gotten used to these things by now, so he just laughed and said:
"Of course we’re inside the earth. The secret chamber is beneath the pond, but I couldn’t find the entrance, so I had to come in through the dirt. How does it feel?"
"How can you even get into the earth like this? I’ve never heard of such a thing. How did you do it? Are you some kind of burrowing mouse?" Selena Yale laughed.
Evan Chu gave Selena a playful pinch and said, "Your man can do anything—getting into the earth is nothing. I could even take you through fire without a scratch. Did you forget what we did at the bottom of the river?"
Selena blushed instantly at his words. Luckily, it was so dark that Evan couldn’t see her expression. Still, his abilities made her realize once again just how extraordinary he was—to be able to merge his body into water, fire, and earth, maybe he really was the first in the history of the Azure Tide Ruins.
Evan Chu held Selena close and slowly moved through the earth. Everything was pitch black, so he could only rely on his divine sense. After the brutal training in the spatial black hole, Evan’s divine sense had grown so powerful he could now sense everything within dozens of meters around him, even underground.
Soon, he noticed some unusual stones not far ahead. These stones had to be the walls of the secret chamber—if he could get through them, they’d be inside.
But when he reached the stones, he realized they were incredibly hard—almost like the ones inside the spatial black hole. It was strange; moving these stones would be insanely difficult. To haul such rock out of a spatial black hole would take unimaginable strength.
Maybe only Lord Frostbane himself could pull that off—he was the only one who could break open a spatial black hole at will. Evan was stumped; with his current strength, there was no way he could break through these stones to get into the secret chamber. He’d have to look for another way in.
"Evan, why’d you stop? Can’t you just smash through those stones?" Selena Yale asked.
"Smash through? Why don’t you give it a try? Underground, our power is really limited, and these stones are even tougher than metal. Even on open ground, it’d take a ton of effort to break them," Evan Chu replied.
"What kind of stones are these, anyway? Why are they so hard? And how do you know all this?" Selena Yale was genuinely curious about Evan’s knowledge.
"These stones come from inside a spatial black hole. When I got sucked in, I suffered a lot because of them—had to use Earthsplitter who knows how many times just to break open space. Thinking back on it still gives me chills," Evan said.
Selena suggested, "Then let’s check somewhere else—maybe there’s a spot we can break through, like near the pond."
Evan thought Selena made a lot of sense, so he slowly moved toward the pond. Sure enough, the stone there was different—just ordinary marble. With his current Earthshift, he could get through easily.
So, holding Selena close, he skillfully slipped through the stone. Soon, they came to a wide passage—actually a staircase, stretching out so far you couldn’t see the end.
Evan looked around the entrance and noticed that every ten meters or so, a luminous pearl the size of an egg was embedded in the ceiling. The light wasn’t super bright, but it was enough to illuminate the whole passage.
"Let’s go. With a passage this big, there’s gotta be something good in the secret chamber," Evan said, taking Selena’s hand with a grin.
For the first time, Selena felt a real sense of safety with this man who was nearly ten years younger than her. The things he did were just too shocking—no one could judge him by normal standards.
Evan Chu and Selena walked slowly—not because they were worried about traps, but because Evan noticed that the stone steps kept changing. Every hundred steps or so, murals appeared on the walls. Time had blurred the images, but you could still make out the general shapes.
"Evan, these look like martial arts forms—pretty deep stuff!" Selena Yale remarked.
"Yeah, they’re probably high-level martial techniques. Not that I need them—see how the murals were carved by different people? Some strokes are deep, some are shallow. I bet they’re the handiwork of different Frostbane Sect Masters, maybe recording their insights. But why leave them here? Maybe it’s just their personal notes," Evan mused.
"Let’s just keep going. Even if we know what they are, the murals are too faded to learn anything. Even if you wanted to, you probably couldn’t pick it up," Selena said.
Evan didn’t quite agree. He had a knack for reconstructing incomplete martial techniques, but these just didn’t interest him—his own skills were ten, a hundred times stronger than anything here.
The two kept walking down the passage, and before long, they reached the end—a stone door with four bold characters: Frostbane Secret Chamber.
Below it, some smaller characters had faded with age. Evan stepped up and tried to push the stone door, but it didn’t budge. He knew his own strength—if this were an ordinary ten-thousand-pound boulder, he could move it easily. To get inside, he’d have to find a hidden switch.
Just then, Selena lightly tapped a raised stone beside the door. With a rumbling sound, the door swung open automatically.
Evan didn’t say a word—he just walked right in. What he saw stunned him: this wasn’t a secret chamber, it was a vast underground plaza, easily tens of thousands of square meters. The floor was paved with that ultra-hard stone from the spatial black hole, polished smooth.
Selena was just as amazed. This had to be a relic of the ancient Frostbane Sect—you could imagine how glorious it was back then. If today’s Freewind Palace is considered the top sect, it still couldn’t compare to this underground chamber.
Evan looked up and saw dozens of luminous pearls lighting the huge space. Suddenly, his body flickered—he teleported instantly, because he’d spotted some faint writing on one of the stone walls…