Evan Yang was with Young Master Wood and the others inside the Wood Immortal Hall. Evan noticed a mirror in one corner, and saw that this mirror projected the entire scene of Wood Imperial City inside its surface.
"What is this?" Evan asked curiously, glancing at the mirror. He saw the Guardian Beast he’d seen before appear in the sky, growing enormous and sweeping aside those outside the Wood Estate. On the Guardian Beast’s back were two people: one was the clan patriarch, and the other was the old man Evan had seen before, cultivating with green light dots—the one who tried to seal Evan’s divine sense but failed.
Young Master Wood and Melody Wood were still fighting. After witnessing the shock of the mirror’s projection, Evan naturally thought about how to act, but if he made a move, not only would he be implicated, Melody would be as well. He had nothing to lose, but couldn’t let Melody betray her family. Right now, the only thing he could do was keep pretending to be timid.
While the two were fighting, they quickly noticed something strange about the mirror. Young Master Wood knew continuing like this wouldn’t work, and said directly, "Stop."
"Unless you don’t touch him," Melody said.
"Fine, I won’t," Young Master Wood replied.
So both stopped at the same time. Young Master Wood snorted coldly at Evan, "Consider yourself lucky." Then he walked over to the mirror and saw the scenes within it.
"What kind of mirror is that?" Evan asked curiously.
"It’s not really a mirror. It’s actually a mirror-image formation—it relays the scenes of Wood Imperial City right here," Melody answered.
Hearing this, Evan was impressed by the Wood Immortal Hall. It was like an impregnable fortress, and you could even see what was happening outside from within.
"You should go," Melody suddenly sound-transmitted to Evan as he was still curious about the surroundings.
"No way. If I leave, you’ll be in danger," Evan replied.
"I’ll be fine, just go," Melody said.
Evan didn’t want a repeat of last time, so he answered, "I’m not leaving. Either we go together, or neither of us goes."
Melody looked around, glanced at the corpses on the ground, and finally took a deep breath. "Then let’s go together."
Evan hadn’t expected her to want to leave together, but thinking about it, it made sense. With a family like this, so harsh to her, why stay? Now was the perfect chance, so Evan understood and said, "Alright."
The two suddenly dashed out the door. Young Master Wood, who’d been focused on the mirror, noticed their movements and shouted, "Damn it, don’t run!"
He rushed outside, but as soon as he arrived, the two had already vanished, and chaos reigned all around. "Damn it, damn it!"
He immediately called his trusted guards to search for Melody and Evan’s whereabouts.
At that moment, Evan and Melody were underground. Evan used Lynn Lin’s shovel artifact to open a path straight toward his own garden, carefully measuring the distance before surfacing in Lynn’s room via the tunnel she’d dug earlier.
Melody was amazed at how Evan possessed such a miraculous artifact, but she already knew Evan’s identity was anything but ordinary—otherwise, she wouldn’t have sensed his divine sense listening to her so often without stopping him.
Just as Lynn Lin was anxiously worrying about Evan’s sudden departure amid the chaos outside, two people suddenly emerged from underground.
"You guys—" Lynn was stunned, unable to react, and Evan quickly said, "Hurry, while the Guardian Beast is away, we need to leave now!"
Before Lynn could process what was happening, Evan pulled her away from the surface, aiming straight for the outskirts of Wood Imperial City. Even underground, they could hear the sounds of battle above.
"What’s going on?" Lynn asked as she followed them.
"No time to explain. We have to leave quickly, or we’ll lose our chance," Evan said.
Lynn had no choice but to keep following. Evan’s speed was still too slow, so he let Melody take control of the shovel, leading the other two out—after all, Melody was currently the strongest among them.
Melody had no objections, immediately took control of the shovel, and led them swiftly toward the city outskirts. About a quarter hour later, they were already far outside the city, and Evan made sure to fill in the tunnel behind them.
Once they were outside the city, atop a mountain ridge, the three looked back at Wood Imperial City. It now resembled a sea of fire, the sky glowing red, and a giant beast was sweeping away powerful enemies in the sky.
"What is that thing?" Lynn asked in shock, seeing the giant beast.
"That’s the underground Guardian Beast. Once it reaches the surface, it grows huge," Evan explained.
Lynn was shocked after hearing Evan’s explanation.
"Let’s go find a safe place first, or we’ll be in trouble if they catch up," Evan said. He returned the shovel to Lynn and asked Melody, "Any idea where’s safe?"
"Let’s go to the neighboring Moon Dynasty," Melody suggested after thinking for a moment.
Evan didn’t care which dynasty it was, as long as they could hide for now. He had Melody lead the way. Melody produced a flying sword, and the three of them mounted it and sped away.
By dawn, they’d reached another border region—the so-called Moon Dynasty.
"Let’s prepare to land and enter the city," Evan said when he saw another large city ahead.
The other two nodded. Lynn was eager to know what had happened, so on the way Evan explained things to her. When she heard that Evan and Melody risked their lives to come back for her, she was stunned. Both women pressed him about the origin of the insects, but Evan and Melody just pretended not to know.
Back in Wood Imperial City, the fighting had stopped. Thanks to the underground Guardian Beast, the invaders were finally repelled. The Guardian Beast had returned underground, and the patriarch, along with the old elder and his two sons, returned to the Wood Immortal Hall.
When they saw the Wood Immortal Hall completely empty, the patriarch asked suspiciously, "What’s going on here?"
"I’ll go check," Young Master Wood’s uncle said, then flashed outside. After a while, Young Master Wood also returned, looking dusty and disheveled.
"What’s going on?" The patriarch, exhausted from the battle, was annoyed to see everyone gone and couldn’t help but ask angrily.
"Patriarch, Melody took Evan and escaped. I’ve had people searching all night, but there’s no sign of them," Young Master Wood said.
"What?" The patriarch was shocked, and Young Master Wood’s uncle and third uncle were also stunned. What on earth was happening?
Young Master Wood explained everything that happened last night. After hearing it, everyone was not only curious but also angry.
"Find them. You must find them for me!" the patriarch shouted angrily.
Everyone nodded and rushed out to search, leaving only the patriarch and the old elder behind.
"There’s been a change underground," the old elder suddenly said.
"What?" The patriarch, already at his limit, asked.
"Someone appeared underground. There’s a messy tunnel network," the old elder said.
"Someone slipped in and out last time, but we couldn’t find out who. Now it’s happened again?" the patriarch frowned.
"That’s right, and this time the tunnel extends outside the Wood Immortal Hall," the old elder suddenly said, shocking the patriarch.
The patriarch asked suspiciously, "Outside the Wood Immortal Hall? A new tunnel? Looks like we’ve found the underground intruder—it must be Evan Yang."
"Seems so," the old elder replied.
"Damn it, I’m going underground to check," the patriarch said, then went down and found a tunnel stretching straight from the Wood Immortal Hall.
The two spent half a day studying the tunnel before finally figuring out what had happened.
Back in the Wood Immortal Hall, Wood Xingtian cursed, "Damn it, who sent that guy? Was it the Nagle Dynasty?"
"I don’t know, but I do know that Melody went with him," the old elder said.
"And then?" Wood Xingtian asked.
"Don’t forget what the God ordered before leaving," the old elder said, looking at Wood Xingtian.
Wood Xingtian suddenly remembered something he’d completely ignored before. Hearing it now, he was shocked. "Damn it, how could I have forgotten this?"
"Hurry and find her, or if the God returns and discovers Melody is missing, the consequences will be severe," the old elder said.
Wood Xingtian nodded. "Yeah, of course I know. I’ll send people to search right away."
"That debt from yesterday needs to be settled sometime," the old elder muttered.
"If I don’t settle that debt, I’m not fit to be patriarch," Wood Xingtian snorted.
"What’s a patriarch worth? You should worry whether that girl can be found," the old elder said.
Just thinking about it made Wood Xingtian nervous. He immediately sent everyone to search for Melody.
Young Master Wood discovered Lynn was missing too and became furious. It was clear now: Evan, Lynn, and Melody were working together. Enraged, he went to find Lynn’s master.
Lynn’s master had no idea what had happened and asked suspiciously, "What’s wrong?"
"What’s wrong? Do you know your disciple is gone, and so is that damned Evan Yang? They’re missing and can’t be found," Young Master Wood said angrily.
Lynn’s master was shocked. "Impossible! How could they be missing? They were poisoned by me—without my antidote, they can’t leave!"
"Who knows? Now they’re top targets for the Wood Estate," Young Master Wood said angrily.
Lynn’s master was stunned—her perfect scheme had just vanished. She frowned and asked, "Are you sure they escaped?"
"Is there any doubt? I’m telling you, our patriarch is furious," Young Master Wood said.
"The patriarch?" Lynn’s master was shocked—how did even the patriarch know about this?
"That’s right. Evan Yang is a suspicious figure. We suspect he’s connected to the Nagle Dynasty’s invasion of Wood Imperial City, and Lynn is with him. Think about what that means," Young Master Wood said, unable to vent his anger except at Lynn’s master.
Lynn’s master was secretly shocked—she hadn’t expected Evan to have such an identity. But wasn’t Evan just a random outsider? The more she thought about it, the more nervous she became.
"I have a way to find Lynn," Lynn’s master suddenly said.
"Really?" Young Master Wood hadn’t expected such a breakthrough and was delighted.